When it comes to the housing market, 2015 may be the year first-time home buyers make a comeback.
With rents rising faster than incomes, many Millennials are expected to start looking to buy homes of their own. What they will find are much more favorable conditions than they have seen in years, including lower down payment mortgages, looser lending standards and a bigger selection of homes to choose from.Here are four housing market trends economists and other industry experts expect to see in the year ahead. Read more.
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When selling your home, every detail matters to get the best deal possible. If you are currently preparing for a sale, you have probably added finding a good stager to your long checklist of tasks. In truth, you don’t really need to factor in this additional expense, since you already have to spend a few dollars to increase the appeal of your home to potential buyers.
A few staging tricks can go a long way to increase the value of your property and are easy enough to be performed by anyone. Your bathroom, for example, is a great place to start transforming your house into an inviting dream-home without resorting to professional help.
Step 1: Squeaky clean surfaces
Would you like to take a relaxing bath after a long, hard day at work in a moldy tub with a few spider webs looming over your head and a faded shower curtain that smells like a sewer? Not particularly. Neither does your potential buyer.
A sparkling-clean bathroom is perhaps the most important quality that will grab the attention of buyers during an open house. Devote a weekend to scrubbing the floor and tiles, the toilet bowl, the tub, the sink, and throwing out everything that looks old and moldy.
In addition, get an effective air-freshener to rid the space of residual odors. Use a caulk gun to fill in any cracks and gaps in the tiling. Wipe all mirrors, so there are no fingerprints and smudges.
Step 2: No personal items...
Some solid fundamentals on buying or selling real estate from the folks at Realtor.com:
When it comes to buying a home there are many different steps to consider. It can be a very confusing time for the first time home buyer. Putting your home up for sale can be equally demanding. Realtor® Billy Malone of San Marino, California recently compiled his list of ten things that those shopping for a home or putting one on the market need to keep in mind:
Buying and selling a home can be the most stressful process you may ever experience. Even if the process is not overly stressful, it can often be a personal and emotional transaction and will be one of the most significant. Owning a home is the American dream, it is where we build our lives and families, and it should not evolve into the American nightmare. So how do you make sure that you get to live the dream and live it well? One method is to refer to one of those Real Estate checklists you come across online. Read more.
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