Making your home more eco-friendly
September 24, 2009 by Fred Romano · Leave a Comment
Learn ways to make your home more “Green”, conserve energy, and help save our planet. You can also save more green by cutting the commission and listing with our flat fee service!
Going Green with Rocco
Reprinted from REALTOR® Magazine Online 2009 with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
4 Challenges staging your home
September 23, 2009 by Fred Romano · Leave a Comment
Kala Callahan of Addressed to Sell in Wilmette, Ill., and Lori Matzke of Center Stage Home in Minneapolis share their biggest staging headaches and tell you how to make them go away.
How to Overcome 4 Common Staging Challenges
Challenge 1: Owners don’t want to change their decor. “You can’t force them to do it. You have to show them the value,” Matzke says. To make sellers more open to staging, present it as a service you do for every client. That is, you’re not singling them out. “I use myself as an example,” Matzke says. “I tell them I’d also have to remove art from my house to sell it so that the listing would appeal to the masses.” Adds Callahan: “Let sellers know you need to protect grandma’s antique bureau by putting it in storage so that nothing happens to it.”
Challenge 2: The listing has languished on the market for months before the owner or salesperson calls a stager. “Stage the house right before it’s listed,” Matzke says. Otherwise, it may lose its selling momentum.
Staging Your Home to Sell
June 10, 2009 by Fred Romano · Leave a Comment
One of the first things to do before putting your house on the market is prepare your house for sale. You’ll want to show your house off in its best light to maximize your earning potential. Tour your house with the eye of a buyer – what works, what doesn’t work.
Curb Appeal
Does your house have curb appeal? Can you give it a little more pizazz to draw the buyer in? Would a bit of touch-up paint add dollars to the sale? What about the garden? Is the lawn in order and neatly edged? Are trees and bushes neatly pruned? Are flowers in bloom? If not, it may be time for a garden upgrade. Adding colorful annuals to the front garden will make a big difference. Remember, creating curb appeal will add dollars to your house’s final selling price.
Flowers for instant curb appeal
When selling, it’s the appearance from the street that will very often determine whether potential buyers come in to see the inside, or never get out of their cars. Flowers are one of the easiest and least expensive ways to make the front of your house look inviting and instantly increase the curb appeal of your home. Without any real landscaping at all, flowers can transform a rather drab and dreary looking front yard into one that looks colorful and lush. Especially during spring and summer, you should take advantage of the season by planting pots and flower boxes. You should choose colorful flowers that will be in bloom during the time you’re selling your home. Planting the flowers in planter boxes and pots is easier than planting them in the ground and lets you more easily place them where they can have the most visual impact. You don’t need to have a green thumb, or spend a lot of money to get great results either. You can put together several very nice planter boxes and pots of flowers for well under $100. And it’s easy! One of the nice things about using flowers in this way is that you’ll see the results immediately. And so will buyers visiting your home!