When buyers become scarce, sellers have to step up and make their offering stand out to attract attention.  Without spending a fortune, sellers can easily highlight several of their home’s features.

First, beat buyers to the punch with a pre-listing home inspection.  By discovering and fixing problems before buyers ever see the home, you can impress them with a worry-free, move-in-now opportunity. Leave your repair receipts out during showings, so that buyers can see all the improvements you’ve made just for them!

Once the mechanical and structural features of your home have been addressed, move on to the aesthetic details.  First impressions count, so make sure your home is inviting from the curb.  Spiff up landscaping, paint, entries, and windows.

Inside, pay attention to bath and kitchen details, because those rooms are often most important when buyers are making a decision.  Aside from deep cleaning, consider updating bath and kitchen features with new and contemporary drawer pulls, faucets, and even sinks.

Finally, get a jump on your moving by organizing your closets and ditching or packing all you possibly can.  A good guideline is to reduce your closets to half-full, so that the buyers can easily picture the space for their own storage needs.

A few “preemptive strikes” should be all you need to attract buyers and offers, so ask your agent for tips today!

If you are in need of real estate guidance, please feel free to contact me.  I will be happy to share my knowledge with you at no cost or obligation.  If you prefer, you can email me at donkingsley@kingsleyrealestate.com.

There is a special mindset associated with “staging” your home to sell in a soft market.  Staging refers simply to the act of improving your home’s appearance in order to appeal to the widest segment of potential buyers.  The approach you must adopt is to see your home with an objective eye.

Stop looking at your home as your “home,” and start visualizing it as the “product” it becomes when it enters the market.  Both a REALTOR® from Don Kingsley Real Estate and a professional home stager can help to market your product successfully by highlighting positive features and downplaying less attractive aspects.

Since you may have a strong emotional attachment to your home, you may not fully appreciate hearing about a better way to show your offering, but try to recognize that the way you decorate to SELL may be quite different from the way you decorate to dwell.  The appearance of a space often trumps its functionality when impressing buyers. 

Your goal is to sell quickly at a fair price.  A survey by a large national real estate brokerage showed that staged homes sell in half the time, and another survey of REALTORS® showed that a $500 “staging” investment recouped 343% ($1,775) of that cost.  So be prepared to swallow a little pride, move some furniture, and field better offers on the road to your successful sale.

If you are in need of real estate guidance, please feel free to contact me.  I will be happy to share my knowledge with you at no cost or obligation.  If you prefer, you can email me at donkingsley@kingsleyrealestate.com.

The recent stimulus plan that President Obama signed into law gives tax breaks to first-time homebuyers.  However, you need to pay close attention to the details so you know exactly which provisions can benefit you, and how.

One of the biggest breaks being trumpeted is a new tax credit for first-time homebuyers of up to $8,000.  This credit is available for qualifying home purchases made this year through December 1, 2009.  This is a true credit, that is, if you don’t plan on moving within three years.  This credit does not have to be paid back.  A tax credit is much more valuable than a deduction.  A credit reduces dollar for dollar the amount of tax you owe.  This credit, combined with super low interest rates, makes now the time to buy your home! 

If you are a first-time buyer and you purchased your home last year, don’t despair!  You can take advantage of the interest-free tax loan up to $7,500, which does have to be paid back, but over a 15-year period.  This is still an excellent opportunity and should not be overlooked. 

Each of these breaks have guidelines to follow so if you are still not sure which first-time homebuyer “credit” you qualify for, contact Don Kingsley Real Estate, your accountant or the IRS directly.

If you are in need of real estate guidance, please feel free to contact me.  I would be happy to share my knowledge with you at no cost or obligation.  If you prefer, email me at donkingsley@kingsleyrealestate.com.