How Do I Fix Up a Home to Sell?

The first thing you need to do is stop thinking of your home as "home" and start thinking about it as a commodity that you want to sell. To be a successful seller you must detach yourself emotionally from your home and be brutally honest about how it should look in order to sell.

Property condition and appearance play a much bigger part in home sales now than they did in the run-away seller's market of the late 1980's, when even rundown fixer-uppers sold at a premium. Today's buyers discount the price if a home needs work, if they buy it at all.

You don't have to spend a fortune preparing your home for sale. In fact, you shouldn't. Concentrate on cost-effective improvements that will give you a good return on your investment.

Paint is the least expensive improvement you can make to a home. And, the transformation can occur quickly. A neutral decor may seem boring, but it is a safe bet from a resale standpoint. The same goes for floor coverings: stick to neutral linoleum and carpet.

It's always a good idea to get advice from your agent, or a decorator who specializes in fix-up for sale, before investing in a cosmetic make-over. Make sure the improvements will enhance the marketability of your home.

Moving-On Tip: A lot of what needs to be done to get a home ready for the market doesn't cost a dime, but takes time. Removing excess personal possessions and furniture is important. Buyers need to be able to see past the owner's belongings. They need to imagine themselves living in the home. In order to de-clutter, some homeowners rent storage space, if their own storage space is limited.

Counter-tops in the kitchen and bathrooms should be clear of almost everything. The easiest way to deal with this is to put kitchen and bathroom essentials, and cleaning supplies, into plastic bins that can be stored in cabinets. That way you can get what you need, when you need it, and stash it away again quickly when you know your home is going to be shown.

The way your house presents itself from the street (called "curb appeal") is very important. First impressions are lasting. A front gate hanging on a hinge, or peeling trim paint, can cause buyers to wonder what else is wrong. You want to convey the impression that your home is well-maintained.

Go through the house and fix defects--many of which you may have lived with for years. An irony of the fix-up-for-sale process is that most people's homes have never looked as good as they do when they are offered for sale.

Cleanliness is next to godliness when it comes to selling homes. The interior of your home should gleam. Wash windows inside and out. Hire help, if necessary. And plan to keep your home this way during the entire marketing period. Hire a cleaning person, or service, to come once a week if you are a busy person who doesn't have help.

Fix-up-for-sale decorators can assist you in adding the finishing touches and staging your home for sale. This often involves bringing in flowers and rearranging furniture to show your home off to better advantage. If the home is vacant, you may want to rent furniture. Vacant properties can be difficult to sell because most buyers have difficulty visualizing themselves living in an empty house.

The Closing: A real estate agent can recommend decorators, painters, gardeners, contractors, handymen, and cleaning crews to help you with fix-up-for-sale chores.

For More Information on Selling your home quickly visithttp://www.webuyhouseshome.com Unlike other so called We Buy Houses websites, Rescue Real Estate gives you every available option for selling your home. Simply complete our short 1 page form, and get anonymous online access to our team of specially trained REALTORS®. Then, in as little as 48 hours, you will begin to receive offers to purchase your home from our nationwide network of real estate investors. Click Here to sell your home quickly and compare agents.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.

In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore lists for $2,875,000.

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.