Selling Your Home By the Season

Homes look and feel very different from month to month. The lovely three seasons room might be the perfect sunlit reading nook in August, but a frigid cave in January. These major transitions in weather can have a huge impact on how buyers experience your home during showings and open houses. To increase the likelihood of a successful sale, prepare and stage your home for its best face in every season.

Spring Staging

Spring is a great time to sell your home because it's all about new beginnings and many people are ready to shirk off the old in favor of something different. This means transitioning your home from a winter hideaway to a Spring oasis.

• Brighten everything. Open windows, replace burned out light bulbs and replace any heavy curtains, rugs and bedding with lighter, Spring hues. Think whites, light yellows and pastels.
• Plant flowers and bring fresh flowers into your home to give off the scents and energy of Spring renewal.
• Clear out the winter clutter so create more space and a feeling of openness. Maybe even have a garage sale or take a trip to your local thrift store to drop off unwanted goods.

Summer Staging

In the summer, we're thinking outdoor barbecues, dips in the pool and leisurely naps under a shaded backyard tree. If your home is on the market during the hot, steamy months put your efforts into making it summer savvy.

• Maintain your landscaping so that flowers are fresh and bright (not dried and wilting), long grass and weeds are eliminated to deter nesting bugs and no plants are running totally wild making your lawn more jungle than picnic area.
• Get your deck ready for entertaining with a good power wash, new coat of stain and a thorough cleaning of patio furniture. You might even add more ambiance to this area with tiki torches, an above ground fire pit or other deck decor.
• Turn on the AC or get the fans going full blast so that prospective buyers are cool and comfortable when they walk through your home. No one wants to pay for a hundred thousand dollar sauna to spend their summer sweating away in.
• Make the indoors feel light and summery with brightly colored beach towels in baskets, fresh flowers on table tops and lighter colored drapes, rugs and other decor.

Fall Staging

As summer winds down and Autumn brings our first crisp mornings, many people begin to long for the feelings and images of fall. These might include bonfires, holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, root vegetables and darker hues.

• Use scent to give your home an Autumn touch. Bake a cinnamon apple pie or burn a pumpkin scented candle.
• Give buyers a unique experience by leaving out cups of apple cider or pumpkin flavored cookies for showings or open houses.
• Decorate with oranges, golds and reds to bring the colors of Autumn from the outdoors to the indoors. You might add pumpkins to your front steps or choose hand towels and rugs in dark gold and red colors.
• Make sure the heat is on if the weather has turned cold to ensure that buyers feel warm and cozy while traipsing through.

Winter Staging

When it's cold outside, people long for warmth and creature comforts. You want to decorate and prepare your house to offer prospective buyers a warm sanctuary.

• Turn the heat up, but don't blast it to the point where people get overly hot. Find a nice, warm temperature that feels soothing when they come in from the cold.
• Increase the temp and the ambiance by turning on fireplaces and showcasing a perfect place to warm up in snowy February.
• Clear the sidewalks, driveways and stairways of snow. Sprinkle salt and break up any ice that has formed in areas that buyers might walk.
• Keep areas that get especially messy in the winter like mudrooms and entryways clean of debris, but plentiful with hooks for winter coats and rugs for wiping snowy boots.

If you're thinking of selling your home in the Greater Lansing or East Lansing areas of Michigan and would like more tips of staging or are looking for a qualified Realtor, please contact me at MyRealtorRob. As an East Lansing realtor that is more than familiar with the changing Michigan seasons, I can help you present your home in the most positive light for every season.

Michigan's Positive Real Estate Trends

Anyone who has been living in Michigan during the market fluctuations of the previous several years, can take heart knowing that we appear to be coming out of a pretty hefty slump. Across the state, housing prices are on the rise, buyers are buying and sellers are beginning to recoup some their housing investments. As a realtor in East Lansing, Okemos and the Greater Lansing areas, I have celebrated this upswing as both a real estate professional and simply as a Michigan resident. It's rather frustrating to sell houses when the public opinion keeps veering towards doom and gloom, which is why it's so wonderful to offer news of the positive sort.

On a personal level, I recently received a request from a buyer to view a home for the second time, with the intention of making an offer. However, when I went to schedule the showing the home had already sold! This is the second time that this has happened to me in the last two weeks and few signs are more clear that a market is turning than houses disappearing off the market before an interested buyer can get an offer in.

According to a Michigan University finance and real estate professor, the risk of home loan defaults is at a seven year low (IQRealEstate). This he contributes to several factors, including stabilizing home prices, record low interest rates and an improving economy.

A recent Reuters.com article states that U.S. housing sales jumped in February, an 11 percent increase over the same month last year and prices rose. The article cites both Realtors and builders who are commenting on the notable change in home sales, but is careful to warn that the recovery will be slow and often spotted with minor setbacks such as increased home foreclosures.

If you're a buyer searching for a new home in the East Lansing or Lansing areas or are thinking about selling your home, please contact me at MyRealtorRob. As a seasoned East Lansing realtor, I can offer you a quick market analysis so that you can understand what your home is worth and provide you with detailed neighborhood information and other valuable home buying and selling tools.

The Home Warranty Wars

If you're buying or selling a home, you may be hearing the term home warranty getting tossed about. Home warranties are contracts through a third party company to cover unforeseen repairs after a home's sale. Home warranties are not confined to home sales. Many real estate investors and vacation property owners purchase home warranties for a range of home repairs so that they don't have to be concerned with hiring someone themselves.

If you're a home buyer, a home warranty gives you a bit of peace knowing that a faulty dishwasher or ailing furnace will be taken care of under your home warranty. However, home warranties may apply to an assortment of repairs, but coverage depends on the home warranty purchased. Generally speaking, less expensive home warranties will cover fewer repairs, but some easy online research can inform you of home warranty companies in your area and what services they offer.

If you're a home seller, a home warranty can sweeten the deal for your potential buyer and make them more confidant moving forward with a sale. Home warranties are often purchased by the seller as a small insurance policy on appliances and other mechanical systems in their home. However, buyers also have the option of purchasing a home warranties and in some cases, your Realtor will purchase the home warranty.

For instance, I recently split the cost of a home warranty with another broker to keep the closing process moving smoothly along. For a few hundred dollars, a home warranty can greatly alleviate a buyer's worries moving into a new home. Thus it's to the benefit of the seller, myself as the Realtor and any other parties involved to invest in a home warranty and insure that any unexpected replacements are paid for in advance. At times, the "who pays for the home warranty," dilemma can get a bit heated, but it's genuinely a minor issue that should can be resolved quickly and inexpensively.

If you would like to know more about home warranties, are thinking of buying or selling your home or have other real estate related questions, visit me at MyRealtorRob. As an East Lansing Realtor, I specialiaze in the sale and purchase of property in the East Lansing and Greater Lansing areas of Michigan.