Make sure that the outside is spruced up. Cracks are patched, fresh paint, flowers/shrubs planted and lawn mowed and edged. It doesn’t have to be fancy but neat and clean and in good repair. Make sure the doors and windows and doors are caulked. Also you want to be sure that your doors and locks work well (remember they’re going to immediately know if the front door lock doesn’t work when the Realtor can’t open the door). You want buyers to drive up and see that they can move right in and not have to do a thing. If the house needs a roof then by all means go ahead and get it done, it makes buyers so much more comfortable.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=home

When it comes to bathrooms the national average of recouped cost is more than 100%. New fixtures, lighting and flooring are a good start. If the tub and or sink need resurfacing it is well worth the money to have it done by a professional or if necessary replace them all together. Nothing looks worse than a tub or sink that have been sprayed with a finish that has gotten onto places it shouldn’t have and begins to peel soon after been applied. By all means do it right, it will come back to you when you sell.

http://www.hgtv.com/

http://www.diynetwork.com/

Kitchen Improvements

Kitchens and bathrooms are obviously the most expensive areas to update/remodel. But they also have the best return. Kitchen remodels return nearly 100%.

The high-end kitchens don’t have as good a return as mid-range remodels or just doing a few updates. So keep in mind that going over the top with travertine floors, professional stoves/ovens etc. Not everyone is a gourmet cook nor do they want to be. They want a kitchen that’s clean and well laid out. So if you go too over the top you probably not going to get your money back out of it and you are narrowing your possible market. Mid-range is your best bet.

If your cabinets look dated and scarred then it will be well worth it to either refinish (which will cost must less) or replace the cabinets. It is amazing what fresh paint or finish or maybe even new doors will do for a kitchen. Just add new knobs, handles and hinges to finish it off.

As far as the counter tops go you don’t have to go granite. There are nice laminates and other products that will look extremely nice. Go for new faucets and a new sink. New and clean goes a long way. It helps buyers to see themselves in the kitchen.

When doing home improvement it pays to check to see what improvements will benefit you the most when selling. Especially since the average time in a home is approximately five years.

Hardwood Floors
If your home has hardwood floors, that’s what buyers want, and it would pay to have the carpeting removed and the floors refinished.

Carpeting
If your sub-floor is plywood, then replace the carpeting with light tan. Neutral carpeting is your best bet for resale.

Ceramic
Replace chipped or cracked tiles. Clean or replace the grout. But don’t install ceramic (it’s too expensive) unless it’s for aesthetic reasons in an entry way.

Walls and ceiling:

• Paint: pick a neutral color
• paneling: prime and paint with light color
• wallpaper: lose it, wallpaper is a very personal choice, you may love it but that doesn’t mean everyone else will.
• Popcorn ceilings: scrape and repaint.

Click here for more information on remodeling your home.

Next week I’ll talk about kitchen remodels.

Technology is great. The majority of home buyers start online. Custom searches are something that is nice to know that buyers can use. If you are working with a Realtor to start with your Realtor can set up a custom search for you with all your criteria entered in to it. That helps you the buyer by weeding out the house that don’t meet your needs. It will also notify you of new houses that fit your criteria as they come on the market so that you don’t miss “the one”. With these searches you can put just about anything and everything in. From exteriors, foundations and fireplaces to school districts, number of bedrooms and baths as well as distance from water (lakes, rivers, boat docks) etc. So as you can see a custom search can be of great use to a buyer. You can make them as specific or as general as you like. So take advantage of this and get with your Realtor and start looking!

There is always some confusion as to how Realtors work for their clients. There are different types of representation.

The one you want is of course the “Single Party Broker”. This means that your Realtor is working only for you to get you the very best deal that they possibly can, with the law of course. Some Realtors always work as single party. Normally the only time that that would change is if the Realtor has both the seller and the buyer then the Realtor becomes a Transaction Broker. This means they are working to make the deal come together smoothly. Now of course there are differences in each state so please check with your local Real Estate Commission.

The Realtor working for sellers assists the sellers in marketing their property and selling it for the highest possible price under the best terms. When acting as a Buyer’s Agent with a signed agreement (or, in many cases, verbal agreement, although a broker may not be legally entitled to his commission unless the agreement is in writing), they assist buyers by helping them purchase property for the lowest possible price under the best terms. Without a signed agreement, brokers may assist buyers in the acquisition of property but still represent the seller and the seller’s interests. So it pays when you are a buyer to have a written agreement with your Realtor to assure that you’ll have the commitment and service you want.

First time home buyers may be the ones to bring our our economy back from  the edge. They have some great programs they can use to make the home buying experience the best yet.

Over 90% of all home searches today begin on the Internet. With just a few clicks of the mouse, home buyers can search through hundreds of online listings, view virtual tours, and sort through dozens of photographs and aerial shots of neighborhoods and homes. You’ve probably defined your goals and have a pretty good idea of the type of home and neighborhood you want. By the time you reach your real estate agent’s office, you are halfway to home ownership

The maximum number of houses I will show a client in one day is six. After that they all run together and you start to build a house in your head out of three or four parts of separate houses. So eat a good meal, bring your digital camera and a pen and notepad.

Take a picture of the outside of the house as well as inside photos. By having the front first then you’ll know which photos go with which house. Number the houses as you go and put an outside description to prevent any confusion. Have your list of must haves and wants to see how the houses line up. Rate them. Observe the neighborhood is it near shopping, parks and schools or are there large power poles and run down buildings close by.

You should find the home you’re looking for within a couple of weeks with the help of a qualified Realtor. Make sure that you tell them the things that are most important to you and the things you’d like to have to help make the search shorter.

Good hunting!

There seem to be an abundance of FSBO’s these days. They present their very own challenges for buyers and for sellers. Sounds like a good idea for the sellers, they think they will save the commission and therefore net more money at the closing table. After all, they think”how hard can it be”? Well there’s a reason that Realtors have to be trained and licensed. It’s not as easy as it would seem. With the contract and all the legalities involved these days and quite frankly the fact the people cannot be taken at their word as in days gone by it is well worth the money to use a licensed professional.

But if you are going to do it on your own I would suggest a good Real Estate Attorney to go over your contracts and make sure all the I’s are dotted and the T’s crossed. Considering the litigious society we live in this is very important. For both the buyer and seller involved in a FSBO an attorney is recommended to make sure all bases are covered. It’s great when everyone you are working with is an honest person but how do you know? Not to mention the many legal issues that can come up. This is far to important a purchase or sale to take chances.

Many times in a FSBO situation the seller thinks they are going to save the Realtor fee but the buyer thinks that since the seller isn’t paying a Realtor fee they can go way down on their asking price.  Making negotiation is very difficult. Also, sorry to say but very many people who look at FSBO’s think they can pressure the seller into carrying the note for the property because for whatever reason they are not able to get a loan.

I know this sounds negative but it can be done. If you chose to do it on your own, whether you are buyer or seller please get proper representation and search out all the information you can. So that the transaction goes smoothly and everyone is happy with the outcome.

When it comes to the housing market, it’s a good thing you’re in Jenks, Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Sapulpa, Sand Springs, or Glenpool. In fact, with the housing market, it’s a good thing we’re in Oklahoma. This was an ad campaign put out by Greater Tulsa Association of Realtors. How true it is, it’s just a good thing to be in Oklahoma. The Jenks/Tulsa area is forecast to be the fifth-strongest housing market for residential real estate in the nation through September 2009. Jenks still remains below the national average in unemployment (4.6 as opposed to 6.5 in comparable months) and net job growth is still reported. We may occasionally have some wild weather but we have a pretty stable economy and housing market. It’s not real exciting; not so many highs or lows, but the Jenks housing market just rolls along with small rises and falls.

This past October, Forbes Magazine said that the Tulsa area is one of the best places in the country to survive the recession. Our Jenks area is also ranked by Forbes as the sixth best metropolitan area for jobs among the 100 largest metro areas in the country based on median income, job growth, unemployment, cost of living and income growth. As of March 2009, our real estate values have actually increased. With the housing market, as of January 2009, the average Jenks home prices have actually increased 10.9% over 2008.

Our Jenks job market is expected to stay stable in 2009 while other areas of the country are not so fortunate. Our cost of living is 11.5 percent below national average.

So Jenks is a great place to be in this time of economic stress and unstable housing markets. Of course it’s always a great place to be. I look forward to bringing you more reasons why Jenks is the place to be.