How To Get More Money For Your House

If you are thinking about selling your house, you should take a serious look at your home through objective eyes. You're probably used to all the little quirky things that need a bit of fixing up and don't look quite right, but to a prospective buyer, these things can be a real turn off.

The most important areas to look at are the kitchen, bathrooms and the outside entrance to your home. You want all these rooms to look updated and homey. You want to welcome the prospective buyer into the home and make them feel like the want to live there. And, most importantly, repair anything that obviously needs to be fixed. No one wants to buy a house that needs repair right off the bat!

The first area your prospective buyer will see is the outside entrance so you must make sure your house has curb appeal. The buyers first impression as he walks up to the house should be warm and inviting. You want them to feel like you take good care of the house so no bare spots of dirt or dead plants! Some color is great and you can buy flowers pretty inexpensively. Don't forget to trim any overgrown bushes and remove anything that is dead. Keep the lawn well manicured. Don't feel bad about spending money on the landscaping as this could very well result in a higher price for your home!

The kitchen is also a key area. Worn counter tops or linoleum will be a big turn off so invest is some new flooring or counters if you can. Also, it is important to have updated appliances. Those 70's look avocado and gold pieces will be a huge turn off to the buyer. Investing in some newer appliances will go a long way towards selling your house for top dollar, but if you simply cannot afford it, try changing the color with some appliance spray paint.

Cabinets are another area that can detract from the kitchen, but can also be expensive to replace. If you have those ugly dark wood cabinets that were popular 30 years ago, try sprucing them up with some light colored paint, new knobs and hinges.

Use the same rules in the bathroom. Fix any leaky faucets and make sure the fixtures, toilet and tub are squeaky clean. If your bathroom is wallpapered in an outdated paper, rip it down and paint in a neutral color.

Your entire home should be clean and in good repair. Remove any clutter and worn items. Take a good look at how the furniture is arranged - does it make the room look too small? If so you might want to remove some pieces. Just changing the position of some pieces can make the room look more inviting.

Doing a little bit of work and investing in some new things for your house can not only help the sale to happen faster, but it can also put more money in your pocket. Just don't fix it up too nice or you might not want to move out!

Lee Dobbins writes for Moving and More .com where you can find out more about moving and selling your house

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.