Real Estate Blog
Sell a Home in a Buyers Market
Two words can bring a home seller to his knees: “Buyer’ s Market.” This means that there is an abundance of homes on the market, where prices are...
10 Real Estate Words You Need to Know
Do you speak “real estate”? When you sell a home, you need to be familiar with the language. Some common words already in your vocabulary have a...
February 2011 Real Estate Statistics for Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County, MD Feb-2011 Feb-2010 % Change Avg Sold Price $390,022 $398,680 -2.17% Median Sold Price $300,000 $324,500 -7.55% Units Sold 525...
Affordable Ideas to Stage your Bathrooms well for a Home Sale – Part 1
Affordable ideas to stage your bathrooms – Part 1This is the first post in a four post series. For details on inexpensive staging ideas for your bathroom, keep following this blog.
How many times have you cringed to take a peek and check if the bathroom was clean? Entering an unkempt bathroom can be quite a stomach churner and can put people off very easily. The size of a bathroom can be important for some, but what has more value is how clean it seems. The level of bathroom maintenance can serve as a good parameter to gauge how well-kept or ill-kept a house is.
If you’re looking for some inexpensive ideas to stage and present your bathroom more effectively, you’ve come to the right place. For more inexpensive ideas on preparing your house for a sale, visit our other blogs.
A spotless clean bathroom done up elegantly with soft lighting.
Getting Ready for Staging:
Even before you begin putting things in place, you need to ensure that your bathroom space looks sparkly and squeaky clean.
Bleaching: That’s right! Start with bleaching and scrubbing all the scruffy areas. If you do not like bleaching agents, you could look for organic substitutes. Let the bleaching and cleaning agents do their job by letting them soak in all the grime and dirt. Scrub the entire space from top to bottom, till you’re satisfied with the end result.
Mold and Mildew: The steam from a hot bath could initiate the growth of mold and mildew in your bathroom. This is an overgrowth of fungus, and is not just unappealing to look at, but could also cause allergies for some people. Make sure that you look for them in crevices and corners, in and around the tiling area. Sometimes, mold also seems to accumulate on painted areas. Also ensure that you keep your bathroom dry as often as possible.
If you are looking for professional help to sell your home, don’t hesitate to contact us. That’s what Express Homebuyers is here for. In the past five years, we’ve sold over 800 homes within the DC metro area, and we’re not done yet! If we can’t sell your house in 60 days, we guarantee to buy it from you, no matter what the condition.
Just call us at [dynamic_phone] or visit our website to chat with a representative.
Need more tips on how to sell your home fast? Check out our list of 22 tips.
For more ideas on staging your bathroom for a home sale, keep watching out for this space.
If you have any tips or suggestions that you’d like to share, please feel free to comment on this blog post.
7 Mistakes People Make When Trying to Sell their House – Part 3
This is the third post in a three blog series. For a heads-up on mistakes to avoid while selling a house, visit: Part 1 and Part 2.
Perceptions about your property can be a huge contributor in making or breaking a sale. But those are not the only mistakes people make.
Here are a couple more popular errors that many homeowners commit. You need to pay attention to them too…
5. Making the House Inaccessible
Buying a house is an expensive purchase, and a potential buyer is less likely to buy a home they haven’t seen. You need to have a home that is well exposed and visible in the market. You need to make decisions on whether you want to keep an open house or not.
If you work closely with a reliable real-estate company like our sister-concern Express Realty Services who will ensure that people visiting your house have gone through pre-approval and will see your house without disturbing your schedule.
6. Making your own marketing decisions
While preparing your house for a sale is very important, one of the things that can get you to a closing is often neglected – How you market your home for a sale. Do you have a marketing plan in place to reach out to potential buyers?
It is indeed crucial that the marketing decisions are left to the experts. At Express Homebuyers, we believe in quality service, so we spend close to a million dollars per year in putting our marketing strategy and execution in place. Right from listing to closing, we create brochures and supporting marketing materials to promote your home. In the past five years we’ve sold over 800 homes within the DC metro area. We can help you list your house for sale. If we can’t sell your house in 60 days, we guarantee to buy it from you, no matter what the condition.
Just call us at [dynamic_phone] or visit our website to chat with a representative.
This series will be continued. For more insight on what mistakes to avoid while selling your house, continue to read our blogs.
If you have any tips or suggestions that you’d like to share, please feel free to comment on this blog post.
7 Mistakes People Make When Trying to Sell their House – Part 2
7 Mistakes People Make When Trying to Sell their House – Part 2
This is the second post in a three blog series. For a heads-up on mistakes to avoid while selling a house, visit: Part 1
While underestimating competition and overestimating the value of your house can be detrimental to selling your house, they are not the only road blocks.
Other common mistakes people make include:
3. Depending Solely on Location
Is your property located in the heart of city, or close to a metro station? Are you in the middle of a well-known school district? Having these perks can work to your advantage, but you cannot rely on location alone!
Buying a home is a huge investment for many people, and sometimes interested buyers are not willing to sign on the dotted line till they are convinced that the house is exactly what they are looking for. If the house looks shoddy, you’ve failed to make a good impression. What’s worse, you might have lost your buyer to another home down your street.
Work on putting your house together cohesively. Presentation is key! It’s important that you take time out to get your house ready for a sale.
4. Over-personalizing and over-spending
You might like to collect artifacts from African tribes, but your potential buyer might not like to wake up to a war-marked mask every morning! Leaving signatures of your taste can discourage the buyer from looking at more important things like your floor-plan or storage facility. A helpful hint: people looking at your house want to picture their lives inside this home. De-clutter and de-personalize wherever possible.
Plan to upgrade before selling? Spending a lot of money in redecorating your house may help you sell it fast, but will not necessarily let you sell it for a higher price. Know where to put your money. Dramatic custom upgrades like a theme-based room, or a personal interest related upgrade may end up costing you more. More often than not, buyers will take into account the amount it’s going to cost them to re-do the room, and will deduct that amount from their offer.
Are you looking for professional help to sell your house fast? Express Homebuyers can help. In the past five years we’ve sold over 800 homes within the DC metro area. We can help you list your house for sale. If we can’t sell your house in 60 days, we guarantee to buy it from you, no matter what the condition.
Just call us at [dynamic_phone] or visit our website to chat with a representative.
This series will be continued. For more insight on what mistakes to avoid while selling your house, continue to read our blogs.
If you have any tips or suggestions that you’d like to share, please feel free to comment on this blog post.
7 Mistakes People Make When Trying to Sell their House – Part 1
This is the first post in a three blog series.
Selling a house can be an easy task. It’s the one-size-fits-all approach that could mislead you from doing what’s right for your property. Your property is unique and though you want to gauge your market, your area and your neighborhood, it isn’t always wise to ape what every other seller on your street is doing.
Here are some questions that you need to answer to check if you’re doing the right things for your house:
1. Underestimating the Competition
Your property may be unique, but if a buyer has come to see your house, chances are that they will also check out the other available houses on your street. It’s not a bad idea to go out and investigate all the comparable prices of houses in your area and neighborhood. It’s time well-invested. Better still; hire an appraiser who would have done your homework for you. They will be able to point out problem areas or asset depreciators that will stop you from making a good sale. Sometimes, just fixing or upgrading a few things in your house could raise its value by a huge amount.
2. Overestimating the Value
Know what home buyers are looking for. Do your own research. Often sellers look at other houses on their street, and set the home price structural similarities. A three-bedroom-two-bath home with a hot tub Jacuzzi in the master bathroom and a fully upgraded kitchen is bound to sell for a higher price than a regular three-bedroom-two-bath.
Some critical features that buyers have been looking for include: location, neighborhood and community, structural design and size, number of bedrooms/bathrooms, special amenities, availability of schools, privacy and other facilities. Some things are not in your control, but there are areas that can we worked upon. If you decide to sell your house as is, you want to take some of these factors into consideration.
1 million American Households may Lose their Homes to Foreclosure in 2010!
1 million American Households may Lose their Homes to Foreclosure in 2010!
Worried about your home? Think you might be on the brink of foreclosure?
You’re not alone. This holds true for a huge number of households in the United States. In fact, more than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure in 2010 – a number that has been estimated by lenders who have been working on getting through the backlog of people who have missed, fallen behind, or stopped making payments towards their home loans.
We’ve entered the second half of the year already, and the foreclosure problems are hardly behind us. According to RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing service, 2009 saw a total of about 900,000 homes being foreclosed upon. If you winced at that number, you’re in for a bigger surprise! The first half on 2010 alone has recorded a whooping 528,000 homes that were taken over by lenders – which is eight percent more than it was last year. With another five months for the year end, these numbers only seem to escalate further.
Overall, foreclosure-related notices were sent to about 1.7 million homeowners in the first half of 2010, which equated to one in every 78 homes in the United States!
Having said that, many financial institutions are using active measures to regulate the current situation. New delinquent payers are not facing foreclosure just yet. Banks have started letting people stay at their homes for an extended period of time to avoid the surge in the number of foreclosures that hit the market. On the other hand, lenders have been working hard to reach out and clear all the backlog of bank-owned properties on the list.
22 Tips to Sell your House Fast! Part 4
22 Tips to Sell your House Fast! Part 4
Mirrors: Another trick to give the illusion of space is to add mirrors.
Counter-tops: Use a good de-greaser while cleaning the kitchen. Don’t forget to look at debris under the stove.
Kitchen: Upgrading your kitchen can bring great return on investment.
Bathroom: Keep it extremely clean. Check the bathtub and shower panels for grime and leaks. Include fresh towels, a clean shower curtain, nice warm bathroom rugs, and an air freshener.
Fragrance: A home with a pleasant fragrance is always more inviting.
Presentation: Leave a basket of baked cookies, some snacks and a beverage. These complimenting tips come a long way in making the home-buying experience extremely memorable. Even if people who come to your house don’t end up buying it, your hospitality and presentation can generate a lot of word of mouth!
In addition, it’s important to know that buyers like to explore houses on their own. If you reach a certain level of comfort with who’s checking your house, leave the house for some time so that the potential buyers can explore the house to their satisfaction.
There now, that’s the whole list of 22 tips and tricks. Don’t look at this whole process as one big chore. Be creative and you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to make your home look nice and shiny.
Still unsure if you can sell your place? Need an expert’s opinion? Talk to us. Express Homebuyers has sold over 800 homes within the DC metro area, in the past five years alone! We are ready to assist you. If we can’t sell your house in 60 days, we guarantee to buy it from you, no matter what the condition.
Just call us at [dynamic_phone] or visit our website to chat with a representative.
If you have any tips or suggestions that you’d like to share, please feel free to comment on this blog post.
22 Tips to Sell your House Fast! Part 3
22 Tips to Sell your House Fast! Part 3
Imagine visiting a house with a very beautiful colonial exterior. You step in and it looks more like a fraternity home on campus! How would you react?
You’ve put on your charm and worked hard in making your home exterior look picture perfect! It’s time to take the interiors to the next step.
Packing: Put away everything that you don’t use regularly. To that list add personal mementos, collector’s items, souvenirs. Anything that distinctly spells your personality should put away in the storage.
Interiors: Some people recommend leaving the house empty so that people can imagine their own lives in those open spaces. Don’t spend too much money here, and make it as minimalistic as possible.
Flooring: Whether carpet or wood, make sure you observe the condition of your floors. Evenness in color tone and texture is what you should look for.
Painting: Chipped, faded walls could devalue your home. A couple coats of fresh paint could do wonders to a living space! Avoid dark shades; they tend to make the room look smaller. If you want to add color, look at using neutral shades with one accented wall. Also, pay special attention to the ceilings. A nice white ceiling can make your space look a lot bigger.
Cleaning Areas: You don’t want anyone thinking ‘you missed a spot.’ People often forget to clean underneath furniture, behind household appliances, ceiling fan blades, light fixtures, and the skirting around walls.
Lights & Windows: Just like the treatment done outside, take a second glance at fixtures, bulbs and window dressings. Uniformity is key! Look for bright bulbs, and replace all with the same kind. If a room has more than one window, it’s nicer to have the same window treatments everywhere. If people come in during the day, keep windows open to bring in natural light and make the room feel more airy. If it’s later in the day, you must put all the lights on to brighten up your space.