Can you believe that autumn is already here? Autumn is not only a great time to enjoy some cooler weather, but it is also a perfect time to sell a home. If you want to sell your house this autumn, these home staging tips will have buyers pounding down your door.

Improve Your Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is easily the most important factor when it comes to selling a home, and it is even more important in the autumn. Maintaining great curb appeal can be difficult in autumn because of all the falling leaves.

Raking the leaves and planting some autumn flowers will make your home inviting to buyers. You can even add some pumpkins around the porch, if you desire.

Brighten Up The House

The shorter days of autumn make lighting more important when staging a home, because nobody wants to walk into a dark and depressing house. The best way to brighten up any house is by opening the blinds and turning on every light.

While it may not be great for the electric bill, the extra lighting will help the home sell quicker. You can even place some spotlights on the floor behind furniture to brighten up the darker rooms.

Make It Feel Comfortable

There is something about the cooling weather of autumn that makes people want to stay inside. Showing off how comfortable your home is will definitely pique buyers’ interest. A great way to make your home more cozy during a showing is by playing seasonal music and handing out some fresh baked cookies – it adds a personal touch and a subtle sense of coziness.

Accent The Home With Autumn Colors

While it is impossible to change the color scheme of your home to fit the season, you can add some accent colors throughout the house. If you have a neutral colored couch, then you can easily throw some red or orange pillows on it to make it really stand out. Adding some autumn decorations to each room is also a great way to accent your home with autumn colors.

Autumn is an extremely popular time to buy or sell a house, and for good reason. Taking advantage of autumn’s vibrant colors when you stage your home will give your house an irresistible appeal. For more information about how to sell your home in the autumn, or if you’d like to list your home for sale, contact an experienced real estate professional today.

Filed under: Home Selling Tips 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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If you’re buying a new home in Port Aransas or the surrounding communities, you’ve probably already thought about your décor—but do you have a great conversation piece?
According to etiquette expert Margaret Shepherd, having a great conversation piece (or two) on-hand can make you the best entertainer in the neighborhood.

3 Great Conversation Pieces for Your New Home in Port Aransas

#1: Musical Instruments

Musical instruments make great conversation pieces, says Shepherd, but pianos don’t really count; people see them as if they’re furniture.
Don’t play the instrument unless you’ve been asked twice, though.
“Don’t accept the first invitation to perform, but thank the guest and promise to play later,” Shepherd said. “And then wait to be asked twice! A host’s performance stops the conversation and the party dead, while afterward no one can say anything but compliments.”

#2: Exotic Plants (or Anything Exotic, Really)

“If you have any spectacular object like this that is sure to excite curiosity and comment, be ready with a response that takes advantage of the moment,” says Shepherd.

#3: A Best-Selling Book

Steer clear of controversial or political books if you’re looking for a conversation piece—you don’t want to alienate your guests—but other best-sellers, “coffee table” books, or a novel that’s being made for the big-screen can be ideal.
“Any book that is floating around in popular knowledge is a conversation starter,” Shepherd said. “Even if someone hasn’t read the book on your table, he can then say ‘Oh, I have heard so much about that book. What’s all the hype about?’ That’s your hook. Now, you or one of your guests can build a valuable conversation with that person.”

Are You Buying a Home in Port Aransas or North Padre Island?

Whether you’re looking for a home for sale in Port Aransas or North Padre Island, we’d love to help you find the perfect place to live.
Call us at 361-563-7788 or get in touch with us online to tell us what you want from your next home. We’ll start searching right away.
In the meantime, check out our:

• All-in-one mortgage calculator
• Free homebuyer handbook
• Free eBooks about buying a home (and more)

Filed under: Blog, Buying, Decor, How-To, Luxury by Julie Woodward
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When North Padre Island homeowners get ready to list, advice will often come from all corners of their personal and social network — what within the home to upgrade; what to repair; what to replace.

And, although some advice remains valuable, much of it can be ignored.

The costs of an expensive upgrade are rarely recouped at the time of sale and studies show that smaller, simpler actions can yield a bigger return on your investment of time and money.

Here are four inexpensive, yet highly effective, ways to prepare your home for sale.

Improve the curb appeal
It’s not just the inside of your home which should be inviting to buyers — the outside of your home should be, too. Trim hedges, maintain the lawn, power wash the walls and try to inject some color, where possible. Your yard is your home’s first impression on buyers. Make it a great one.

Lighten up the place
Extra sunlight lends an airy feeling to your home, and interior lights provide cozy glow. Therefore, wash your windows, pullback your drapes, replace burnt-out bulbs, and add outdoor lighting to your landscaping, if possible. Also, keep your home lit in the evenings in the event that potential buyers drive by after-hours. With the lights on, your home will look cheery instead of dark and gloomy.

Store unnecessary furniture and personal objects
Less can be more when it comes to showing your home so put your knick-knacks, your stacks of books and your fridge-covering artwork in storage. Be sure to avoid stashing personal items in closets because buyers expect closets to be clutter-free as well.

Paint a pretty home
A new coat of paint will freshen up any room so paint where needed. However, stick to neutrals such as grays and tans. Also, consider repainting rooms bathed in bright, fun colors — this can divert a buyer’s attention away from the home and toward money-costing “projects” that would come with buying the home.

With the help of your REALTOR® and a little hard work, these tips should help you increase your home’s appeal to a wide variety of buyers without breaking the bank. It may even help you sell your home more quickly.

Filed under: Around The Home by Julie Woodward
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Have you ever walked into your kitchen and instantly felt hungry?

Rarely do people think about the colors that they choose to paint their kitchens. They are often too busy worrying about whether the kitchen will match the rest of the home, or whether the colors will be satisfactory to the rest of the household.

However, when painting and decorating your kitchen, you may want to think about the process in a way many people do not — how the colors you choose will affect the way in which you eat. As behavioral psychologists have documented, the presence of specific colors your the kitchen can change your eating habits and your cravings for food.

Here are some examples :

• The color red increases your appetite. This is why so many restaurants paint their walls red. Although associated with romance and passion, red is also a color which promotes hunger. Furthermore, it has been noted that the color red in your kitchen can influence high blood pressure.
• The color blue is calming, which can slow your eating speed, and prevent you from over-eating. When decorating your kitchen and dining room, therefore, using blue wallpaper or blue paint; and blue placemats, for example, can result in “slower” eating and fewer feelings of fullness.
• The color orange is a “stimulating” color; increasing oxygen supply to the brain and providing a mental boost. An orange-themed kitchen may stimulate your appetite, therefore, and make over-eating more likely.

Then, there is gray. Gray can be an ideal appetite-suppressing color for your kitchen. This is because, psychologically, gray is calming and relaxing, and it neutralizes anxiety. Gray can arrest binge eating and impulsive snacking. It’s also a color which home stagers recommend for its neutrality.

Whether you’re a home buyer in Port Aransas , a home seller, or just getting ready to remodel, consider the influence of colors in your home. They do more than just “match the next room” — they affect your food and drink cravings as well.

Filed under: Around The Home by Julie Woodward
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