There is one truth in real estate, whether you’re selling a home in Coquina Bay or a condo at the Mustang Island Beach Club: your home is going to sell for more money if it’s properly staged. It’ll probably sell faster, too, which is a double-bonus.
So let’s talk about home staging.

What is Home Staging?

You wouldn’t walk into a job interview in sweatpants and a grungy T-shirt, right? Or even a pair of nice jeans and a button-down, right?
Think of staging your home as dressing it for success.
You want it to look its best so it makes a good impression on buyers, because when it makes a good impression on buyers, they reward you with an offer to purchase it.

How Do You Stage a Home?

You can’t stage your home until you’ve completed all the necessary repairs to prepare it for sale. Once those are done, it’s time to dress your house for success.
Many people choose to hire professional home stagers before they sell, but if you have an eye for good balance and know what you’re doing, you could stage your home for sale yourself.
Start by removing any non-essential furniture. Take the leaves out of your dining table, put away the chair that nobody sits in (preferably in a storage unit you’ve rented for this purpose), and rearrange everything so that the home has a more open look.
Take out everything that you haven’t used in the past six months, too, and pack it for your next home (or donate, sell, or toss it).
From there, rearrange the furniture in a way that promotes the look of an open floor plan and gives each room a distinct purpose; that could mean arranging a sofa and love seat in a vignette around a rug, moving the desk out of the spare bedroom and replacing it with a bed, and a number of other strategic moves.

Are You Selling Your Home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island?

If you’re selling your home, we’d love to help you do so quickly and at the right price. We’ll be happy to give you a free comparative market analysis so you know exactly how much your home is worth. While you’re here, you can also download our free home-selling eBook and read our useful tips for selling your home faster.
When you’re ready, call us at 361-563-7788 or contact us online to find out how we can help you sell your home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island.
 

Filed under: Blog, Selling by Julie Woodward
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The task of selling a home after someone passes away often falls to the deceased person’s children or other loved ones—and it’s not easy. But although it’s an unfortunate situation, there are a few things you can do to make it easier on yourself and everyone else involved.

How to Sell a House After a Loved One Dies

First things first: You’re probably going to want to change the locks on the home. You don’t have any way of knowing who has access to the house; whether your loved one had a caregiver, a pet-sitter, or even gave keys to other family members, you can give yourself peace-of-mind by changing the locks.

Forward Mail

Forward your loved one’s mail to your home or work. That way, you’ll be able to keep up with bills and other important correspondence, such as subscription information, and if necessary, let others know what happened.

Find Important Documents

It’s tough to go through your loved one’s belongings, but there are some documents you’ll need. You’ll want to search for:

• Homeowner’s insurance policy
• A will
• Insurance policies
• Bank statements
• Bill receipts and outstanding bills

Pay the Mortgage and Utilities

The lender is still going to need a mortgage payment; that doesn’t stop when someone passes away. You’ll be responsible for making the payments and keeping the utilities on until you’ve sold the home.

Prepare the House for Sale

In order to prepare the home for sale, you’ll likely need to make minor repairs and upgrades. You’ll also need to consider whether the items in the home are dated or worn out; if that’s the case, you need to remove them before you put the house on the market because they can make the house tougher to sell.
Watch for:

• Furniture
• Floor coverings
• Window coverings
• Walls and ceilings
• Pet-related items

You’ll also need to clean the home thoroughly to ensure it’s ready to appeal to the widest possible range of buyers.

Are You Selling Your Home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island?

If you’re selling your home, we’d love to help you do so quickly and at the right price. We’ll be happy to give you a free comparative market analysis so you know exactly how much your home is worth. While you’re here, you can also download our free home-selling eBook and read our useful tips for selling your home faster.
When you’re ready, call us at 361-563-7788 or contact us online to find out how we can help you sell your home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island.
 

Filed under: Blog, Selling by Julie Woodward
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Selling a home with pets, whether it’s a condo in Bay Tree or a home at The Meridian Port Aransas, can present some specific challenges that non-pet-owners don’t have to face.
So what can you do to make selling your house easier when you have four-legged (or feathered, or finned) family members?

Selling a House With Pets: Why it’s Tougher Than Selling One When You Don’t Have Pets

Some buyers just aren’t comfortable around animals, whether they’re dogs, cats, or anything else. Seeing a pet in a home can put them off, whether they’re afraid, nervous, or just inexperienced. Some pets are an acquired taste, too; buyers may not want to see a big python curled in a terrarium or a ferret hopping around in its three-story cage.

Do You Have to Send Away Your Pets When You Sell Your Home?

You don’t have to send your pets to stay with your parents or board them at a kennel, although it may be easier to sell your house if you do.
Instead, make sure that no matter what you do, keep all their accessories—from puppy pads to litterboxes—out of sight and spotlessly clean. Nobody wants to open a door and have the smell of a litterbox smack them in the face.
You do have to take your pets out of the house when people are coming to see it, though (well, leave the fish and the bird… but probably not the python). You can’t just put them in another room or the garage and close the door—buyers are there to look at your home, and they’re not going to buy it if they haven’t had a chance to see some parts of it.
You’ll also have to remove the signs that you have a pet, because some buyers just aren’t “animal people.” Put away all the pet toys, food and water bowls, and scratching posts. Pack up your cages and carriers, too.

Are You Selling Your Home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island?

If you’re selling your home, we’d love to help you do so quickly and at the right price. We’ll be happy to give you a free comparative market analysis so you know exactly how much your home is worth. While you’re here, you can also download our free home-selling eBook and read our useful tips for selling your home faster.
When you’re ready, call us at 361-563-7788 or contact us online to find out how we can help you sell your home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island.
 

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Before you sell your home, whether it’s a luxury home on North Padre Island or a condo at Beachgate, you’ll probably need to make a few minor repairs. Home maintenance doesn’t count; you’re supposed to do that over the course of the time you own the home. However, some fixes are necessary before you even put your home on the market.

What Repairs Should You Make Before You Sell Your Home in Port A or North Padre Island?

Fix #1: Flooring

If there are gouges in the hardwood, holes in the carpet, or cracks in the tile, fix them before you put your home up for sale.

Fix #2: Ceilings and Walls

Paint the ceilings and the walls, paying special attention to problem spots, such as those with cracks or nail pops. If you have wallpaper, talk to your Realtor® about whether you should remove it and start with a fresh coat of paint.

Fix #3: Leaky Faucets or Cruddy Caulk

Check out your sinks, bathtubs, and showers. If anything’s leaking, tighten it up; if the caulk or grout is grungy, bleach or replace it.

Fix #4: Cracks in the Sidewalks or Driveway

If you have cracks in your concrete, patch them up. You might also want to resurface your asphalt driveway.

Fix #5: Windows and Doors

Re-caulk windows and doors that need it, and check on the weather stripping around main doors. Replace the doorknobs and locks if they’re old and showing signs of wear, too.

Are You Selling Your Home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island?

If you’re selling your home, we’d love to help you do so quickly and at the right price. We’ll be happy to give you a free comparative market analysis so you know exactly how much your home is worth. While you’re here, you can also download our free home-selling eBook and read our useful tips for selling your home faster.
When you’re ready, call us at 361-563-7788 or contact us online to find out how we can help you sell your home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island.
 

Filed under: Blog, Selling by Julie Woodward
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Whether you’re selling a luxury home on North Padre Island or you’re putting a Port Aransas condo on the market, you need to prep your house for sale.
So where do you start?

How to Prepare Your Home for Sale

It’s time to start looking at your real estate transaction for what it is: a business transaction. In order to get it ready for buyers, you need to separate the emotional value you’ve built into your home from the actual monetary value. That way, you can look at each room (and the whole house) objectively so you know what needs to be done to prepare it for sale.

Step 1: Declutter

Decluttering your home means removing everything that you haven’t used in the past several months. You don’t have to throw it out, sell it, or donate it, but it can’t stay. You may want to look into renting a storage unit until you purchase and move into your next home.

Step 2: Take Down Personal Effects

Family photos and heirlooms shouldn’t be up when you’re selling; it may stop buyers from envisioning themselves living in your space. Leave up neutral décor, but anything that could drive away buyers has to come down.

Step 3: Rearrange Rooms With a Purpose

Make sure the purpose of each room is clear when you walk in. Is that a guest room, a workout room, or a home office? (In reality, it’s probably all three—but buyers only want to see each room with one purpose, so pick one and stick to it!)

Step 4: Clean Up Your Cabinets and Closets

Buyers will open doors, pull out drawers, and peek behind every corner. Make sure what they’re looking at is organized, neat, and clean to give them an overall good impression.

Step 5: Make Minor Repairs

If there’s a leaky faucet, fix it. If there’s a burned-out bulb, replace it with an energy-saving LED. Patch up holes in the walls, replace cracked tiles, and think about painting if you can.

Step 6: Clean, Clean, and Clean Some More

Your house should look like a showplace when it’s on the market. It should look like you have a live-in housekeeper, in fact, so you’ll have to vacuum every day (and consider having the carpets professionally cleaned), mop more often than usual, and dust each day, too.

Are You Selling Your Home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island?

If you’re selling your home, we’d love to help you do so quickly and at the right price. We’ll be happy to give you a free comparative market analysis so you know exactly how much your home is worth. While you’re here, you can also download our free home-selling eBook and read our useful tips for selling your home faster.
When you’re ready, call us at 361-563-7788 or contact us online to find out how we can help you sell your home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island.
 

Filed under: Blog, Selling by Julie Woodward
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Whether you’re selling a condo at La Mirage or you’ve just listed your canal-front home on North Padre Island, you need to know a bit about seller etiquette.
Your Port Aransas Realtor® will walk you through the basics, but the bottom line is this: Leave the house when someone is showing it.

Why Should You Leave Your House When Someone’s Showing It?

Provided that you’re selling your house while you’re still living in it, it’s always—always—a good idea to let buyers and their agents tour your home without your input.
Why?
Buyers can’t explore comfortably when you’re there. They feel like you’re looking over their shoulders, even when you’re in another room, and they feel like they’re spying on your personal space. Buyers also can’t talk freely with their agent (or each other) when you’re within earshot. They can’t get comfortable enough to look at the home objectively, and that’s going to cost you the sale.
You may feel like you’re helping, or that you’re pointing out important features that the buyers wouldn’t otherwise discover—but remember, what’s important to you isn’t necessarily important to others. The last thing you want is for buyers to rush through and hurry to leave, but that’s what they most often will do when the seller is present.
Let the buyers explore your house, envision themselves living in it, and discuss it privately with their agent and each other so they can make the right choice. The only way to do that is to leave the home while buyers are looking—including during open houses.

Are You Selling Your Home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island?

If you’re selling your home, we’d love to help you do so quickly and at the right price. We’ll be happy to give you a free comparative market analysis so you know exactly how much your home is worth. While you’re here, you can also download our free home-selling eBook and read our useful tips for selling your home faster.
When you’re ready, call us at 361-563-7788 or contact us online to find out how we can help you sell your home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island.
 

Filed under: Blog, Selling by Julie Woodward
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When you’re selling your home, whether it’s a condo at Aransas Harbors or a luxury home on North Padre Island, the most important thing you can do is to price it correctly.
So where do you start?

How to Price Your Home Correctly… The First Time

Your Realtor® will give you a free comparative market analysis, or CMA. This analysis compares your home to other, similar homes in the area—those that have similar features, similar locations, and similar sizes, ages, and numbers of rooms—so that you can figure out the best selling price.
Your Realtor will look at:

• Homes that have sold and closed over the past 6 months
• Active listings
• Pending sales
• Expired listings (homes that didn’t sell during the listing period)

When your agent compares all these properties, she’s determining the sales prices, figuring out whether the prices were lowered, and how long the homes sat on the market before selling.
All of this information comes together to give you a good price range for selling your home.

What Happens if You Price Your Home too High?

Many sellers make the mistake of thinking it’s okay to overprice a home and lower it later, but unfortunately, it’s not. If you price your home too high, buyers won’t bite—and then you’ll have to lower the price. By that time, interest starts to wane, and buyers may begin to wonder what’s wrong with the home.

Are You Selling Your Home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island?

If you’re selling your home, we’d love to help you do so quickly and at the right price. We’ll be happy to give you a free comparative market analysis so you know exactly how much your home is worth. While you’re here, you can also download our free home-selling eBook and read our useful tips for selling your home faster.
When you’re ready, call us at 361-563-7788 or contact us online to find out how we can help you sell your home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island.
 

Filed under: Blog, Selling by Julie Woodward
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For most sellers, whether they’ve put a condo at the Grand Caribbean on the market or they’re selling a canal-front home on North Padre Island, it’s a big question: Is it easier to sell a home while you’re still living in it, or should it be vacant before you put it on the market?
Not everyone has a choice; in fact, most people sell their homes while they’re still living in them because they need to sell the home in order to purchase another.
But is it easier to sell your home while you’re living in it?

Should You Sell Your House While You Still Live in It?

There are a few aspects of selling that are tougher while you still live in your home, such as having to keep the house spotless and ready for a showing at any time or having to leave the house (and drop what you’re doing) every time someone comes to see it.
However, if you’re still living in the house when you sell it, you have some distinct advantages on your side.
First, it’s already halfway staged; second, a vacant house feels empty to buyers—and it may not give them warm-fuzzy feelings about buying it, either.
Homes show better when they’re occupied. Buyers don’t have to guess at whether their bed will fit in the bedroom or if they’ll need to buy a bigger dining room table. They can also identify each room’s purpose—provided that you’ve staged it properly.
The bottom line: Even if it’s tougher (and it is, sometimes) to sell your home while you’re still living in it, it’s probably a good idea because it’ll sell faster—and maybe even at a better price—than it would if you left it vacant.

Are You Selling Your Home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island?

If you’re selling your home, we’d love to help you do so quickly and at the right price. We’ll be happy to give you a free comparative market analysis so you know exactly how much your home is worth. While you’re here, you can also download our free home-selling eBook and read our useful tips for selling your home faster.
When you’re ready, call us at 361-563-7788 or contact us online to find out how we can help you sell your home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island.
 
 
 

Filed under: Blog, Selling by Julie Woodward
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For most people, whether they’re selling a condo at the Mayan Princess or a luxury home on North Padre Island, it doesn’t make sense to hire an appraiser—but the question often comes up.
The bottom line is that your buyer’s lender is most likely going to require an appraisal, and an appraiser will probably not be able to tell you the information you need to price your home correctly. That means, in a nutshell, that you should save your money and talk to your Realtor® about pricing. Your Realtor will determine what your home is likely to sell for based on a comparative market analysis, or CMA.

Why Won’t an Appraisal Help You?

An appraisal is designed to show the lender whether it’s making a good investment. The appraiser will evaluate your home, but he or she is giving an estimate; this estimate helps the lender figure out whether your house will be worth enough to recoup their losses if you stop paying your monthly mortgage.

Why You Need a Comparative Market Analysis

Your Realtor will evaluate your home’s features and compare it to other, similar properties in the area. She’ll look at properties that have:

• Sold and closed over the past 6 months
• Active listings
• Pending sales
• Expired listings (homes that didn’t sell during the listing period)

Your CMA will give you a snapshot of the entire area so you can settle on the right asking price for your home.
The bottom line: Save your money and don’t hire an appraiser unless your house is truly so unique that there’s nothing nearby to compare it to.

Are You Selling Your Home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island?

If you’re selling your home, we’d love to help you do so quickly and at the right price. We’ll be happy to give you a free comparative market analysis so you know exactly how much your home is worth. While you’re here, you can also download our free home-selling eBook and read our useful tips for selling your home faster.
When you’re ready, call us at 361-563-7788 or contact us online to find out how we can help you sell your home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island.
 

Filed under: Appraisal, Blog, Selling by Julie Woodward
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If you’re selling your home, your Port Aransas Realtor® will walk you through all the steps you need to make to put its best foot forward.
But what else can you do to make buyers fall in love at first sight?

3 Tips for Staging Your Port Aransas Home

You want buyers to walk in and love your house, so you have to be proactive. Each house has its own charms, so you’ll want to highlight them; likewise, each house has its own quirks, and you’ll want to minimize (or eradicate) those.

Home Staging Tip #1: Make Buyers Feel Welcome

Your goal: to make buyers feel right at home. Ideally, your potential buyers can envision themselves living in your space. In order to help them do that, you can:

• Leave the house. Buyers don’t want you hanging over their shoulders during a showing. (You wouldn’t, either.)
• Put out wrapped candy or other takeaways that your potential buyers are welcome to take.
• Make the interior temperature as comfortable as possible. Forget about your utility bills, just this once, to ensure that potential buyers aren’t sweating or freezing.

Home Staging Tip #2: Set the Mood

Turn on water fountains if you have them, and light a fire in the fireplace if it’s cool enough outside to make sense. (Remember that you’re leaving, though, so you’ll have to time it right.) If you can, pipe soft, relaxing music throughout the house.
Open all the shades to let in as much natural light as possible. Turn on all the lights, too. The brighter the home, the more likely buyers will view it more favorably. However, if there’s something unsightly outside, keep the blinds partially closed.

Home Staging Tip #3: Skip Heavily Scented Deodorizers or Air Fresheners

Lots of people are sensitive to synthetic smells, and lots of other people are just plain turned off by certain scents. Don’t burn candles or spray perfume, and skip the air fresheners and deodorizers.
Instead, open the windows if you can. (If there’s a lot of noise outside, though, leave them closed.)
If you’re going to bake cookies, make sure you leave them out for visitors with a nice note that says, “Please help yourself.”

Are You Selling Your Home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island?

If you’re selling your home, we’d love to help you do so quickly and at the right price. We’ll be happy to give you a free comparative market analysis so you know exactly how much your home is worth. While you’re here, you can also download our free home-selling eBook and read our useful tips for selling your home faster.
When you’re ready, call us at 361-563-7788 or contact us online to find out how we can help you sell your home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island.
 

Filed under: Blog, Selling, Staging by Julie Woodward
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