By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR(R) Magazine
Winner of NKBA’s 2013 Best Kitchen design competition: Wendy F. Johnson, Designs for Living, Manchester, Vt. The kitchen featured a “curved LED-lit glass bar overlooking art glass on panels in the cooking and entertaining centers.”
Shades of gray, quartz finishes, and energy efficiency are all growing in popularity in kitchens and baths this year, according to a National Kitchen & Bath Association survey of 2013 design trends.
NKBA reports that home owners this year are spending, on average, $47,308 on making over their kitchens, and $18,538 in bathrooms.
Here are the top 10 trends emerging from this year’s report for kitchens and bathrooms:
Calling all real estate and staging professionals: I’m looking for your best photos showing how you staged a front porch or deck of a home! Some of your photos may be used in an upcoming issue of REALTOR(R) Magazine or online (credited to you of course!). Please e-mail your outdoor staging photos to Melissa Tracey at mtracey@realtors.org. Please include your name, company, and what you did to spruce up the front porch or deck to turn it into a selling point to potential buyers.
By Patti Stern, PJ & Co. Home Styling
Fifteen seconds. That’s how long a home for sale has to make a good first impression. And, that’s if you can get today’s sophisticated buyers off their mobile device and to the front door. More than 90 percent of home buyers search for a home online, making it more important than ever for a home’s listing photos alone to capture buyer interest.
Home owners who have finally made a decision to sell their home may not be thinking about updating and remodeling. But staging — coupled with remodeling — are important considerations in a home selling strategy and an investment in getting top dollar for a home.
Even modest updates preserve the equity a family has built in their home. Ultimately, the cost to update something in their home before it goes on the market will be less than the price reduction buyers will expect as compensation for out-of-date rooms.
Older homes, in particular, may require improvements in key rooms such as kitchens or baths to meet today’s buyer demand for a move-in ready home.
We transformed this bathroom … Continue reading »
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR(R) Magazine
Who doesn’t love a deal? I loved this article at Realty Times, which recently revealed the best time of year to buy certain household items in order to score the biggest bargains, based on research from AARP and LifeHacker.
By Ryan West, First Texan Realty
Smartphones have become a standard tool for a majority of people. When presenting a home to a potential customer, we must now consider an extra home presentation factor: signal strength.
Lead Paint
According to the EPA, “most homes built before 1960 contain heavily leaded paint”. While lead paint was banned in 1977, home owners are encouraged to not remove any lead paint that is in good condition. Lead paint is known to cause electromagnetic interference that will affect signal strength. Walk through different rooms and see if you experience any dramatic loss of signal. If you suspect lead paint may be causing an issue, I suggest hiring a professional to remove it.
Construction Materials
If you notice a decrease in cellular signal strength when you enter a home, the materials used in the construction of the home may be the culprits. Continue reading »
By Ross Donald, LightingSale.com
If you are getting ready to stage your home for selling you’re probably already thinking of ways to maximize the value of your home and make it as appealing as possible to your potential buyers. Making effective use of light fixtures and lighting schemes will help you reach that goal.
By Charlene Storozuk, Dezigner Digz
Spring is in the air in some parts of Canada and the U.S., although it hasn’t quite reached my little corner of the world yet. This is the time of year when thoughts turn to spring cleaning; whether or not you’re selling your home. Of course, if you are listing anytime soon, you’ll want to be even more meticulous.
The busy spring market will be upon us before you know it, so here are some tips for getting the exterior of your home shipshape: Continue reading »
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