Articles Tagged "Home Maintenance"
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5 Tips to Ensure Your Home's Showing Is a Success
The purpose of showing your home is to hook a buyer. You want the buyers to come through your house and be impressed - so impressed in fact, that they're ready to make an offer! You'll have one chance to make a great first impression on the potential buyers, so make sure to follow these five helpful tips to really make it count!
- Focus on the outside. Make sure that you don't neglect the outside of your home. Curb appeal can make or break the odds of someone even bothering to get out of the car to come in. If they pull up and see a home with a lawn that obviously needs edging and has an unkempt flower bed, they're going to wonder what else hasn't been cared for properly. You want the outside of your home to be spotless. Clean the siding, the windows, and the doors. Make sure there are no dirt smudges, no cobwebs and that anything that needs painting has been spiffed up.
- Take yourself out of the house. That means that you want to take out all the personal stuff. Remove the family photos from the wall or tables. You want the home to look neutral so that the potential buyers can look at your house and picture it as themselves living there. Everything should be as neutral as possible in terms of personal items.
- Remove all the extra clutter you see at first glance. If you look around, it'll amaze you at how much stuff you've accumulated over the years. Some of it might very well be important, but that doesn't mean that your potential buyers should see it. When you have a lot of clutter, it shrinks the living space of the house. It makes it look and feel cramped and smaller. Many homeowners get something called house blindness. They've lived in the home for so long with the same clutter that they don't even really see it anymore. But a stranger will always notice. So clean out your house and make the space as big as possible.
- If you have a pet, no one that walks through your house should be able to notice it exists. That means no cat litter box, no dog to jump on anyone, no food sitting around in a dish. Your home should not have any pet odors. Having a clean house that's odor free is a big selling point. You don't want to lose a possible deal just because they can smell your pet's presence or your pet makes a bad impression.
- Stage your home! You can hire a professional or you can do it yourself. Stage your living areas in a way that shows off your home. You can rent furniture to make your home furnishings look good if you don't use a stager. Someone who knows how to stage a house knows how to play up the best features of your home and knows what to bring in or get rid of to make the entire house appeal to a buyer.
First impressions are HUGE when showing you home to potential buyers, but by following the simple tips above you will be well on your way to making a great impression and, hopefully, receiving multiple offers! (And if you are at all anxious about this important step, just reach out to a trusted real estate agent in your area who can help guide you through this process!)
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Have You Tried These Outdoor Cleaning Hacks?
If you feel like your outdoor spaces constantly look messy, it's time to revamp your cleaning routine. A clean exterior helps your home look its best while making it more appealing to potential homebuyers. Our real estate agents encourage you to follow these hacks for cleaning your outdoor areas.
- Invest in a Pressure Washer
A pressure washer is a smart addition to your arsenal of home cleaning products. Instead of relying on expensive, potentially dangerous chemicals, a pressure washer uses a powerful stream of water to clean your home's exterior areas.
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Kitchen Tips: Better Organize Your Pantry
For many families, the kitchen is the most important room in the house. That's why it's imperative to prioritize the kitchen when purchasing a home and choose one that suits your family's needs and lifestyle. Inform our real estate agents what you're looking for in a kitchen and which features are non-negotiable, so they can find you houses that are up to your standards.
One of the key features you should consider is storage and workspace; there's no such thing as too much kitchen storage space. Even when you have enough space, your kitchen pantry can quickly become overrun with all the canned goods, cereal boxes, and miscellaneous cooking ingredients that tend to pile up.
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Sellers: Tips for a Lush Lawn This Summer
A lush lawn can be a real booster when it comes to your home's selling price, as our real estate agents will tell you. That's good news, but attaining a beautiful lawn requires some work and commitment. Here are some tips that will guide you toward creating the lawn of your dreams.
- Improve the soil
Lawns need good soil to look healthy. Be sure that your soil's pH (the measure of the acidity or basicity of the soil) is right for the kind of grass you want to grow. Soil test kits can yield the pH, and you can use amendments to fix it. You may need to till the soil if it is exceptionally hard, and perhaps adding some good quality soil.
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Spring Makeover for Your Front Yard
Is it time for a spring makeover for your front yard? It is the "face" of your home, and to passersby, it is an indication of what the inside of your home looks like. An unkempt yard gives the impression of a home that is just as messy and disordered, while a well-maintained one builds the expectation of an orderly, tidy home.
Along with spring cleaning your home, consider doing a spring makeover for your front yard. The weather is perfect for it, and so are the bright, uplifting plants and flowers that come with the season. The following guide will take you through how to do your makeover:
- Take stock of what you need
When you get started, you want to keep going without stopping to get supplies. You can do that by taking stock of what you need and getting everything before starting. Start from one corner of your yard and work toward the other, working from the top down. Start with the exterior walls of the front of your house and decide what you would like to do here: Would you like to plant climbing plants or vines, and would you like them to be flowered or not? Perhaps the exterior walls could do with a fresh coat of paint.
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Put These Items on Your Spring Cleaning Supply List
With spring right around the corner, now is the perfect time to prepare for spring cleaning. Spring is a fantastic time to tend to all those projects you've been meaning to do, and our real estate agents know a sparkling house is more appealing to potential buyers.
Nothing is worse than settling in for a few hours of cleaning, only to discover you don't have everything you need for the job. Here are some items to add to your cleaning supply list to ensure you're prepared for any mess you encounter.
- A Vacuum with an Extension Wand and Attachments
A vacuum cleaner is a must-have for any cleaning job. Before you start wiping things down, use your vacuum cleaner to remove dirt, dust, and grime. Remember, when dirt gets wet, it makes mud, which can make it even more cumbersome to clean your home. Vacuum as much of it away to expedite your cleaning. If possible, select a vacuum cleaner with an extension wand and a few attachments. A round horsehair attachment is a versatile option that works well on multiple surfaces: upholstered furniture, baseboards, and hard floors. A roller-head attachment is a great addition if you have pets that shed a lot; it will help remove hair from your furniture, bedding, and rugs.
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When's the Last Time You Had Your AC Serviced?
As temperatures get hotter, the demands on your home's air conditioner are greater. To keep your air conditioning unit functioning well for as long as possible, it pays to have it regularly maintained and serviced as soon as possible when you notice any issues.
Our real estate agents suggest keeping an eye out for the following issues that indicate your air conditioner needs to be serviced:
- Your air isn't cool enough
When your air conditioner isn't blowing cool air or it isn't cool enough, that's a definite sign of a problem. It could be caused by several issues, such as a compressor that isn't cooling the air correctly, a shortage of freon, or a duct problem that pulls air from the outside or the attic rather than from the compressor.
