What is my home worth?

When you are starting to think about selling your home, you need a fact-based estimate of what your home is likely to sell for in today’s market. A good real estate agent will dig into the research to help you price your home correctly, which in turn will net you the highest price in the shortest amount of time.

Factors you need to consider:

1. Location, location, location
The old rule still rings true. A home in California has a very different value than the same home in Georgia; a home on one side of town has a different value than the same home on the other side of town.

2. Size and style in comparison to neighborhood
Being the nicest home on the block is great for the ego, but typically not the bottom line. Recent similar sales within the same neighborhood are the best comps.

3. Condition
Most buyers want their home to be in like-new condition. Make easy repairs or replace worn out carpeting BEFORE buyers walk in the home.

4. Value-adding features
Upgraded kitchen, bathroom, quality doors, windows, and several other improvements can add value to the home. Repairs are most important though! Putting granite countertops in a kitchen with a sloping floor and foundation issues is a waste of money.

Factors you should also take into consideration:

1. Zillow’s Zestimate
This is an estimate based on an algorithm, NOT on the actual condition or features of the particular home. It may be very far off from the actual value. However, buyers will look at this amount, so it’s important that the seller know it, too.

2. Distressed properties in the area
If the area has had a few foreclosures and short sales in the past, they most likely will not damage the value of the home. However, if there have been a large percentage of foreclosures or short sales, they will need to be taken into consideration.

Factors that don’t matter:

1. How much the seller needs in order to pay off existing mortgages.
The seller’s finances have no bearing on the value of the home or how much a buyer should pay for it.

2. How much the seller paid for the home.
Home values fluctuate. The price paid 5, 10, or 40 years ago does not dictate what a buyer will pay for the home today.

3. How much the seller paid for personal touches and improvements made to the home.
Some improvements add value, some take away value, and many others are simply considered standard maintenance.

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I’d love to help with your residential real estate needs in the Triangle NC area (Raleigh, Apex, Cary, Wake Forest, Holly Springs, Durham, and surrounding areas.) Beth Peele, REALTOR® Fonville Morisey Realty, A Long and Foster Company, Cary, North Carolina.

Please email bpeele@fmrealty.com or contact me through my website,www.bethpeele.com. Follow me on Facebook, and Twitter, too!

What I Wish I Had Known Before Buying An Old Home

I grew up in a hundred-year-old house and I am always pulled toward wanting to save the gorgeous old homes (and they all look gorgeous to me, even the little ones with wonky roofs!) So far, I haven’t taken the plunge and this article may have pushed it off another ten years, at least. ~ Beth

“All the things I wish someone had told me before we bought our old home, a 1940’s Tudor with lots of character and plenty or quirks!”

via What I Wish I Had I Known Before Buying An Old Home.

Virtual decorating – Two apps for the job

I’m always searching for apps that are both fun and useful for homeowners and real estate agents. My latest hunt is for a great virtual decorator app. One where you can take a photo of an empty room and add in furniture and accessories. I’ve already blogged about painting apps, read more here, but now I want to add furniture, too.

I haven’t found the holy grail app yet, but I’ve been having fun playing. I’ve tested out two FREE apps in particular.

1. Snapshop, Inc. App for iPhone and iPad – www.snapshopinc.com

2. AUTODESK^® HOMESTYLER^® Interior Design App for iPhone/iPad/Android  www.homestyler.com/mobile

Each has its limitations, but they both gave great results considering that they’re free applications.

App 1: Snapshop, Inc. App for iPhone and iPad – www.snapshopinc.com.

Positives: This app was easy to use, had the least bugs, and didn’t freeze up on me.

Negative: The furniture can only be flipped and rotated, but the perspective can’t be altered like it can in the 2nd app I tested. For example, if the couch you choose is a photo of the full couch from the front, you can’t rotate it to fit along a side wall showing a side perspective.

Here are before & after photos of an empty living room and master bedroom that I decorated using the SnapShop Showroom app for iPhone and iPad:

App 2: AUTODESK^® HOMESTYLER^® Interior Design App for iPhone/iPad/Android  www.homestyler.com/mobile

I used this one on my Samsung tablet, so my experience is with the Android version.

Positives: Tons of furniture and accessory options to choose from, AND this app offered the 3d perspective feature that I found lacking in the SnapShop app. I could choose a piece of furniture and spin it to fit along a straight front wall, a side wall, or even turn it completely around to see the back. Awesome!

Negatives: It may be the Android version, but this app froze on me a few times and lost my work in progress. Frustrating, but I’m not giving up on this app just yet. Its features are just that good. 

Here are before & after photos of an empty living room and master bedroom that I decorated using the AUTODESK^® HOMESTYLER^® Interior Design App:

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this review of these useful apps. Have fun!

(Original images courtesy of Triangle MLS)

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Please contact me through my website, www.bethpeele.com, like me on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter. I’d love to help with your residential real estate needs in the Triangle NC area (Raleigh, Apex, Cary, Wake Forest, Holly Springs, Durham, and surrounding areas.)

Beth Peele, REALTOR®
Fonville Morisey Realty, A Long and Foster Company
Cary, North Carolina

Urban/Rural – Having the best of both worlds near Raleigh, North Carolina

The Triangle area of North Carolina is booming. It seems that every day we’re named in another “Top 10” list. That is great for the ego, great for jobs, and great for the real estate industry. But as much as I love that our region is getting positive national attention, I also want to say “Shush!! Don’t tell everybody! They’ll just keep coming!” I worry what effects the increased population will have on our resources, infrastructure, and elbow room!

However, I am an optimist. I have faith that our beautiful region is not going to look like one big strip mall in another 25 years. I believe that the state, county, city and town planners are smarter than that, and know not to ruin the good thing we have going here. One of the reasons why I’m confident is because of the abundance of parks, both the larger state parks, as well as the small parks run by the local municipalities.

One of my nearby favorites is Jordan Lake because I can be there in 15 minutes from my West Cary subdivision. I love having the kids explore in among the trees… the natural ones that grow where the wind blew the seed; manicured rows of nursery-grown trees are nice in our polished subdivisions, but they’re just not the same. I recently took my three children and two of their friends on an impromptu hike at the Seaforth area of Jordan Lake. It was early afternoon on a Sunday and we had all spent WAY too much of the weekend plugged into some sort of electronic time-wasting device. We needed fresh air & a good stomp through the woods. Within 30 minutes, we had gathered up two friends, tossed a couple water bottles and snacks in a backpack, and were winding our way along a lakeside trail.

The picture is one I snapped when they weren’t even aware I was taking pictures. There is something timeless about the joy of throwing rocks into a lake. It just never gets old.

Throwing rocks into a lake never goes out of style.

If you haven’t explored the parks around the Triangle, what are you waiting for? There’s beauty out there just a few minutes from your door!

Link to State Parks in Central North Carolina

For a more urban experience, the downtown areas of Raleigh and Durham are both proving to hold their own as destinations for good food & good fun.

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Please contact me through my website, www.bethpeele.com, like me on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter. I’d love to help with your residential real estate needs in the Triangle NC area (Raleigh, Apex, Cary, Wake Forest, Holly Springs, Durham, and surrounding areas.)

Beth Peele, REALTOR®
Fonville Morisey Realty, A Long and Foster Company
Cary, North Carolina

Is your home a BEAUTY or a BARGAIN? – Home Staging advice

When selling your home, you know it needs to look its best in the listing photos.
Over 90% of homebuyers start their search online. These buyers typically fall into two categories:

(1) Those looking for a beauty

(2) Those looking for a bargain

I’ll start with the second group. BARGAIN: If you want to sell your home “as-is” and know that it’s a fixer-upper, then you’ll attract those buyers looking for a bargain. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you are honest with yourself and accept what the property is worth in its current condition. Give it a good cleaning so that the maximum number of investors can see the potential, stick a lock box on the door, a sign in the yard, and wait.

BEAUTY: However, if you’re selling a good quality home that is in move-in-ready condition (or you can get it up to that condition without breaking your budget), then let’s get to work:

1. Deep clean every crevice. Seriously…EVERY INCH should be cleaned. The potential homebuyer walking through may have two inches of dust on their television, and a pile of dirty dishes in their sink at home, but they’ll still be disgusted by a bit of grime on your shower’s soap ledge or smudges on your stainless steel trash bin.

2. Freshen with paint. It’s one of the cheapest ways to add a big impact. (For tips on choosing paint colors using an app, see my post on the subject.)

3. Declutter, declutter, declutter. If it can fit in a bin or box, put it in one and move it to storage. You can probably live without the juicer, stand mixer, and extra toaster oven while your home’s on the market.

4. Move half your furnishings to storage. Keep the best stuff and don’t be afraid to relocate items. A painting from the kitchen, desk from the kid’s bedroom, and chair from the living room, may look great in an empty bonus room as an office area. Look at your furnishings with a new eye and think outside of the box.

5. Don’t put lipstick on a pig! Although it is tempting, before you go on a shopping spree to HomeGoods or World Market for accessories to add those trendy pops of color, make sure you fix any structural damage (like rotted wood around door frames), and make necessary plumbing, heating or electrical repairs.

As a sidenote, MythBusters did an episode on the phrase, “You Can’t Polish a Turd,” but I digress.

To get more ideas and staging advice, check out this link to Designed to Sell | HGTV.

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Please feel free to contact me through my website, www.bethpeele.com, like me onFacebook, and follow me on Twitter. I’d love to help with your residential real estate needs in the Triangle NC area (Raleigh, Apex, Cary, Wake Forest, Holly Springs, Durham, and surrounding areas.) Thanks! Beth

Choosing paint colors in a virtual world – App recommendation.

I’ve been testing out various virtual painting apps and am still in love with Paint Tester (free or the Pro version for $1.99) from the App Store. I have been taking photos of rooms and within minutes I have tried out different colors. It is absolutely amazing the difference that color makes. It can make a dated room look stylish – we all knew that. But what amazes me even more is how it can have the opposite effect. I took a few photos in a beautiful model home, and when I put poor (virtual) colors on the walls, the rooms went from gorgeous to dowdy in seconds. This photo collage shows one room with several different color options, all done in under 15 minutes! Awesome! I highly recommend this app for all homeowners and real estate agents. Please contact me through my website, www.bethpeele.com, like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter. I’d love to help with your residential real estate needs in the Triangle NC area (Raleigh, Apex, Cary, Wake Forest, Holly Springs, Durham, and surrounding areas.)

Price it right the first time.

This recent article in the Boston Globe articulates why pricing a home at the right price to start with gets better results than overpricing and then reducing down the road.

We all want to get the highest possible return on our investment in our home, and hearing an agent say that they’ll list your home for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars higher than other agents may sound like music to your ears. But wait! There may be a catch…there’s always a catch 🙂

Listing a home for higher than it is likely to sell for compared to recent comparable sales in your area, may actually bring you LESS money at closing. That is, when it finally closes, which will likely be after a price reduction, or two, or three.

By the time your home is priced competitively, the listing is now stale. Buyers and their agents concoct background stories about it and make assumptions as to why it hasn’t sold yet. “Something must be wrong with it.”

Now the seller is stuck trying to sell what is likely a great house. After price reduction, it’s now priced accurately, but buyers suspect problems so the offer (if they even put in an offer) is low. They assume the seller is “motivated” since it’s been on the market so long, and maybe they’re right.

Long story short…after months of frustration, the seller walks away with less than he had anticipated and with a bad taste in his mouth about the whole process.

It doesn’t have to happen. Price the home fairly from the start. Sell it in less time, and for likely MORE money by listing it for LESS at the very start of the process. Smiles all around!

Honesty and fairness always win out in the end.

Please contact me through my website, www.bethpeele.com, like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter. I’d love to help with your residential real estate needs in the Triangle NC area (Raleigh, Apex, Cary, Wake Forest, Holly Springs, Durham, and surrounding areas.)