Roxann and Your Home Team News
In A Tough Market, Staging Can Make the Difference
December 2nd, 2010When it comes time to selling your home, the investment of preparing your home for the market may seem wasteful. However, the additional cost of staging your home may be the difference between sitting or selling! Consider these tried-and-true strategies to make your home Center Stage.
- Take’s a Buyer’s Point of View — stand at the doorway of each room and using that as a frame to what you want a buyer to see. Take steps to make sure each room looks clean, neat and spacious as possible. Remove excess furniture and keep floors free of any stacks or clutter
- DeClutter — Every surface, including countertops in kitchens and bathrooms, should be as clear as possible. Stow toiletries under the sink and pack up personal photographs so that buyers are not distracted.
- Get Rid of Ugly — If you have outdated furniture, fixtures and appliance colors, or window treatments, remove them or replace them with low-cost temporary fixes.
- Empty the Garage — If your garage is filled with boxes, tools and other items, it can make it look smaller. Purge the junk and move the rest to a borrowed or rented storage space.
- Clean — Make your home Q-tip clean! Make sure all the nooks and crannies are clear of dust and grim. Surface cleaning alone can leave a home looking dingy. Deep cleaning carpets, upholstery and window treatments is important to both improve appearance and remove lingering odors.
- Look for Curb Appeal — The outside of the home is just as important as the inside. Trim hedges and weed flower beds. Remove dead plants and repair cracks in cement or asphalt. Power wash driveways, sidewalks and siding. Edge your yard and be sure that the grass is trimmed or snow removed.
Most of the items take more effort than money and often make the difference between selling or sitting. If you are looking to market your home in the New Year, please be sure to contact me for additional staging tips. I serve the Scott AFB, IL surrounding area, including O’Fallon, Fairview Heights, Mascoutah, Shiloh, Swansea, Belleville and Troy.
Activities in Surrounding Scott AFB Area
November 25th, 2010His Rest Best and Breakfast in Freeburg IL is hosting another wonderful dinner to get you in the mood for Christmas! “Christmas Memories by Candlelight” dinner is being served on December 2 at 6:30 p.m. Only $30/person for a excellent evening of entertainment. Be sure to make your reservation!
Activities in Surrounding Scott AFB Area
November 18th, 2010There are so many wonderful activities that we can take advantage of in the Scott AFB surrounding area. In the Freeburg area from November 18 through November 27 “Foods of our Forefathers” will be served in period clothing at His Rest Bed & Breakfast. This entertaining dinner is to be served at 6:30. Reservations are required and cost is $35/person. Sounds like a lot of fun!
Pet Odor Can Chase Away Buyers & Roofing: Repair or Replace?
October 26th, 2010-
(New!)Pet Odor Can Chase Away Buyers
Don’t let pet odors derail your home sale. Read
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Roofing: Repair or Replace?
Deciding whether to repair or replace roofing is largely an exercise in timing—you don’t want to reroof too soon and waste money, but you don’t want to wait too long either. Read
Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this.
Copyright 2010 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
10 Reasons to Buy a Home In the Scott AFB Surrounding Area
October 14th, 2010Now is a good time to purchase a home in O’Fallon IL, Belleville IL, Swansea IL, Shiloh IL, Fairview Heights IL!
Now is a great time to buy a home. And, what’s more, tomorrow will be a great time to own a home because the fundamental strength of home ownership hasn’t changed!
Why is now a great time to buy a home? Here are ten reasons:
- You can get a good deal. Prices are down 30% on average. They are at a level that makes sense for people’s income.
- Mortgages are cheap. At 4.3% on average for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, your costs to own are down by a fifth from two years ago.
- You can save on taxes. When you ad up the deductions for mortgage interest and others, the cost of owning can drop below renting for a comparable place.
- It will be yours. The one benefit to owning that never changes is that you can paint your walls orange if you want (generally speaking; there might be more community restrictions). How many landlords will let you do that?
- You can get a better home. In some markets, it is simply the case that the nicest places are for sale homes and condos.
- It offers some inflation protection. Historically, appreciation over time outpaces inflation.
- It’s risk capital. If the economy picks up, you stand to benefit from that, even if your goal is just to have a nice place to live.
- It is forced savings. A part of your payment each month goes to equity.
- There is a lot to choose from. There are some 4 million homes available today, about a year’s supply. Now’s the time to find something you like and get it.
- Sooner or later the market will clear. The U.S. is expected to grow by another 100 million people in 40 years. They have to live somewhere. Demand will eventually outpace supply.
Paint the Town of Belleville, IL
October 11th, 2010On October 16 and 17 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., National Radio host Delilah will be painting the town of Belleville, IL through her ongoing community aid project. She and Home Depot, sponsor for the event, will paint up to 60 buildings along Main Street in downtown Belleville, IL Volunteers are being recruited from the community.
O’Fallon IL Garage Sale
September 24th, 2010I am taking my own advice! After of years in the real estate business and advising sellers to declutter their homes, I am having a garage sale this weekend!
When I recently worked with a couple who have had the pleasure of living in their home in Belleville IL for the past 25 years, they had accumulated a lot of items — as most of us do! Well, I have been in my home for the past ten years in O’Fallon, IL and my home too was cluttered! So I took my own advice and have cleaned out the garage, the basement and the closets! Needless to say, I was completely surprised by the five tents and many other duplicated items I had collected over this time frame.
So if you have nothing better to do this Saturday and are in the Scott AFB IL area and looking for something to do, please come by my garage sale! There are many bargains to be found.
OFallon IL Fall Cleaning
September 20th, 2010As we previously shared, we will be hosting our bi-annual shredding event for all past clients and customers as well as resident of the O’Fallon IL community. This is just a small way for us to give back to our community O’Fallon IL! In our parking lot from 9:00 a.m till 12:00 noon be sure to bring your old records for shredding to our parking lot which is located at 813 W. Hwy. 50 in O’Fallon IL.
We also noted in the O’Fallon Progress that the City of O’Fallon and the O’Fallon-Shiloh Chamber of commerce in conjunction with WITS, will be accepting electronics, computers, appliances from 8:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m. This will be on October 9 as well at the O’Fallon Junior High School — Carriel which is located at 451 N. Seven Hills Road in O’Fallon. WITS is a non-profit organization.
This is all in an effort to save our landfills. So be sure to market your calender for October 9 to attend both events and get your Fall cleaning done early!
O’Fallon IL Shredding Event
September 17th, 2010Your Home Team will be hosting a FREE community shredding event on Saturday, October 9, 2010 from 9:00 a.m. to Noon. This is our way to give back to the community of O’Fallon IL and to our past clients and customers!
So if you are doing your Fall cleaning and have files that you wish to throw out but need to be shredded, mark your calendar.
For your privacy, you must be there — you cannot just drop off your papers and there is a limit of 5 copier boxes per household so that we can accommodate everyone attending.
This event FREE to you also benefits the local food pantry as we ask that you please donate 2 can goods!
See you at our offices — 813 W. Hwy. 50 in O’Fallon, IL — October 9!
Just Listed Homes in Collinsville, Columbia, Fairview Heights, and Swansea IL
September 17th, 2010It has been a busy week in real estate with new homes coming on the market daily! We had the pleasure of putting on the market this week three terrific homes in wonderful locations of Columbia IL, Collinsville IL, Fairview Heights IL and Swansea IL. All four of these homes have met the criteria to qualify as Certified Welcome Home properties. They have meet any required occupancy inspections for the cities of Columbia IL, Collinsville IL, Fairview Heights IL and Swansea IL and ready for your approval!
Check them out and let me know if you would like to schedule an appointment for a private viewing of any of these terrific homes!
