Posts Tagged ‘Sell’

Play Sets Can Sell Your Home

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

Homebuyers who have young children are often on the lookout for a complete family setting – a great house that comes with a spacious back yard and plenty of fun things to keep their kids busy. Homes that offer not only space for children to play, but a ready-made playground will likely increase the chances of an offer being made to purchase.

Who doesn’t remember the hours we spent as a child flying high on swings, hanging from monkey bars, zooming down a slide or digging through a sandbox. For families with young children, having a play set in the back yard will not only keep the kids within sight, but will be the perfect meeting place for their friends.

With so many options on the market for designing and building a playground area, parents must be diligent about looking for hazards. In recent years, the media was filled with stories about toys and play sets made in China that had lead paint finishes. Thankfully, those products were pulled from the store shelves. So what is the best way to keep kids occupied, other than painting windows on a cardboard box (which is good for several hours of temporary distraction)?

Play sets will vary depending on the size of the yards, but whether it is a single swing, a deluxe fort or a zip line from tall trees, there is something for everyone.

Ready-made kits:

There are numerous kits available through every department store or home improvement retailer in the country. Online purchases also offer a wide variety of units with add-on features to please any pint-sized outdoor adventurer. These are primarily do-it-yourself projects to assemble, but with all of the additional features available, the sky’s the limit when it comes to having the best back yard on the block.

Modern options include:

Fort modules: two-storey structures can have a built-in sandbox below the upper fort area. Slides, ladders and stairs make easy entry and exits.

Rock walls: rock climbing centers have been a huge hit with kids of all ages for years. From vertical ladders to handholds that can be attached to walls, the options are endless.

Crawl tubes: these connectors allow children to crawl from one deck to another with multiple structures built to add more fun.

Tarps: multi-colored weather covers can be added to fort structures to keep the sun or rain off children as they play.

Safety:

It is up to parents to construct a play area that is safe for their children and other young ones joining the fun. Here are some tips to make sure everyone has a good time:

1. Make the landing soft. Building a play area on sand, asphalt or other hard surfaces will make the result of falls off equipment unpleasant. Try wood mulch or even the new granules made from recycled tires.

2. Install vertical slats for railings close together so little heads will not get stuck.

3. Use caution during hot weather. Plastic sections of playground equipment can get extremely hot and may cause burns to skin.

Indoor playgrounds:

When the weather turns, children can still have a great adventure park in their own basement, space permitting, of course. Just as the outdoor play sets offer, these indoor versions have various modules that can be used alone or combined to make a play center that will provide hours of fun for children.

Mike Ciucci PhotoAbout Author
Work with a qualified, dedicated agent for your Edisto Island real estate purchase. Find the ideal Charleston S.C. home at BuyingCharlestonRealEstate.com.

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Sell House Quickly

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Are you getting ready to sell your house? It may be a daunting task but if you keep some important facts in your mind you might just be able to sell your house quickly. You might not know the buyer but giving them a warm welcome inside your home might just make them develop a liking for you and they might just want to buy your home. Keep some chilled bottled water before they come and make lemonade. They will feel more comfortable and might eventually consider your place.

Many sellers make a mistake is that they sell their houses in winters. People are usually engaged with social events, winter vacations and holidays and as a result even if your house is up for sale, it may not sell as quickly as you might want it to sell out.

If your house is not selling then there might be problems with your house. Get a friend who has fresh eyes and can openly criticize the house. If you have dark painted walls then you might have to repaint them to a neutral colour. You would not want a buyer to remember your bedroom as the ‘pink room’. Paint the walls in a cream coloured paint or some other dull looking colour. It will give the house a more serene and a sophisticated look and help you sell your house quickly.

You might be interested in a lot of art and you might have lots of painting on your walls. You need to take them off. The buyer might not be a great fan of art and the buyer might want something different to be on that wall and the empty wall will give them a much clearer picture of what to do on the wall. Or you might have a picture of you shaking hands with the president and you might feel proud of that picture, but the buyer might not think about you like that. The buyer will start thinking that they are intruding your private space and this will get in the way of selling your house quickly.

Before the buyers come to see your house, open up the curtains, switch on the lights and play around with flowers. When the buyer comes to your house, they will be delighted with the effects that the sunlight or the lights give out.

If your house is small and you know it, remove your own furniture. Rent a storage unit and store the furniture there. As a result your place will look bigger and easier to walk around for the buyer. It gives way to selling your house quickly.

Before the buyer comes over, clean up the house, do the dusting and pick up the extra clutter lying around in the way. The buyer will eventually come to think of you as the good care taker of the house and they might be interested in buying your property.

About Author
Conor Mckeown

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Inexpensive Updates to Sell Your Kitchen

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

It’s no secret that kitchens sell homes, so if you’re looking to put your home on the market take a look at your kitchen and see what kind of updates you can do to make it more appealing to prospective buyers.

Painting is the easiest way to give your kitchen a clean new look. Make sure that you use a good degreaser on the walls in the kitchen before painting as years of cooking can leave your walls sticky with old oil. It’s also not a bad idea to prime the walls before painting to leave the best possible finish for the paint to grip to. Paint the kitchen with a good washable paint; consider bright or off-white with a colored accent wall or strip.

When you’re done with the painting, you may want to add a back splash to your kitchen; back splashes protect the paint above the counter tops from cooking residue and getting banged up from appliances getting moved around on the counters. Backsplashes can be made from the same material as your counters or different types of tiles like ceramic, stone, marble, or metal. Try to stick with materials and colors that are fairly neutral; many prospective buyers don’t want to buy anything too outrageously decorated and a nice neutral palette allows them to customise it to their liking.

If your kitchen is large enough, consider adding a stand-alone workstation; a workstation that isn’t built in gives a prospective buyer the option of using that space however they like, while showing them that a kitchen island is a viable addition to the room. To give yourself an extra special workstation, get a workstation with a butcher block top for cutting on.

Another great way to perk up a kitchen is to add updated lighting; many kitchens have inadequate lighting for working. All the work areas in your kitchen should be lit: sink, food prep areas, and stove. There are a variety of products that work well for under-cabinet lighting which can really brighten up your counter top work space. Adequate lighting by the sink is essential; even if your sink is by a window it’s important to have an artificial light source for washing up when it’s dark outside. Pot lights that are set into the ceiling are nice and bright and are less obvious than other styles of light fixtures.

For those homeowners willing to put more time and money into increasing their kitchen’s appeal, there is also the option of cleaning up or changing the cabinetry. The most simple options for the cabinets: include giving them a good thorough cleaning with a degreaser, paint or refinish them, replace the hardware or cabinet doors, or even just take off the doors and painting the shelves for an open shelf style. If you want to spend a little more you can install new cabinets or custom open shelves in your kitchen.

The limits to what you can do to perk up and update your kitchen are almost endless and mostly depend on how much time and money you want to invest in prepping your home to sell; if you have any questions about which of the available options might give you the most return for your effort, try consulting with a kitchen designer or a realtor for advice.

Mike Ciucci PhotoAbout Author
Work with a qualified, dedicated agent for your Isle of Palms real estate purchase. Find the ideal Charleston S.C. home at BuyingCharlestonRealEstate.com.

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Repainting to Sell Your Home

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

When you’ve lived in a house for a while you tend to truly make that space your own. You have likely decorated your home in such a way that it works with your furnishing and reflects your personal taste. Unfortunately, as fabulous as those tastes are, prospective buyers are likely to not share them.

It is easy, on a weekly basis, to search the internet for new “home for sale” postings that show just how dissimilar some peoples’ taste in decorating can be to your own. Ever consider living in a home decorated exclusively in red and orange velour? Well, someone has and I’ve seen the photo evidence. Most people would balk at that kind of decorating, even in the era that particular home was decorated in; someone at the time thought it was a fabulous idea though.

In general, if you have sponge painting, faux finishes, wall paper, murals, or colored paint on your walls, you will need to remove it or paint over it. There are of course some exceptions to this but not many. I’ve seen bathrooms done in a very subtle parchment finish on the walls that looked beautiful and very unobtrusive; even more importantly, the finish on the walls worked with the fixtures in the room which wouldn’t likely be changed because it was in a bathroom.

Wallpaper is one of the worst offenders of bad decorating left for potential buyers.

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Choosing the Right Color Schemes to Sell

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

If you are painting your home with an eye to selling it, you will want to keep to simple themes that you can use to show your rooms to advantage. Color has a powerful effect on our consciousness. The right colors can make a room seem restful and soothing or warm and vibrant. Here are some good tips for color in rooms:

Shades of White, Grey and Black: These can be dramatic in the right setting, since they amplify other hues and provide the eye with some rest from the emotional demands of color. White imparts a feeling of cleanliness and purity – great for bathrooms and kitchens. Grey is a more restful color, which can set off other tones without demanding too much of the viewer’s attention – good for bedrooms when paired with warm colors or bathrooms when paired with cool. Black is always a show-stopper in the right place, but if you want to appeal to the broadest demographic, save black for accents rather than walls.

Shades of Brown: Brown is a great neutral color with a hint of warmth that grey lacks. The lighter browns make for good backdrops for just about any room, but work really well for larger bedrooms and living rooms, making them seem a little cozier without darkening the room overall. Brown is also a great color to set off various shades of white. The darker browns can work for larger rooms as well, but care must be taken that they do not make the potential buyer think that they have just stepped into a chocolate eclair.

Shades of Yellow:

Yellow is a bright, vibrant color that can make a room brighter without the sterile purity of white. It is a terrific choice for kitchens and bedrooms. Smaller living rooms, especially those that don’t get a lot of natural light, may benefit from the sunniness of a yellow-tinted paint.

Shades of Orange:

Orange is an energetic color, suitable for children’s rooms, recreational spaces and kitchens. However, many shades of orange may be too intense to impart a muted sense of liveliness, so stick to the more conservative shades of the spectrum.

Shades of Red:

Red is one of those colors where a little goes a long, long way. Most shades are too intense for true neutrality, so this color is best used as an accent. The lighter end of red – rose and pink, is less show-stopping and can be used in bedrooms and kitchens, but at the risk of typecasting the room as “girly” if care is not taken to choose neutral accessories and accents.

Shades of Purple:

Purple is another dramatic color which can be overwhelming at its full glory. It is a color that straddles the warm and cool sides of the color spectrum. The lighter shades of lilac can be used to good effect in bathrooms, bedrooms and living rooms. As with the pink and rose, the seller should insure that neutral decoration should fill the space.

Shades of Blue:

Blue is a delightfully cool color that imparts a feeling of relaxation and refreshment in its lighter tones. Perfect for bathrooms and bedrooms, a pale blue can add color without making the room seem cramped. Alternating dark and light shades of this color with white can round out a room to advantage.

Shades of Green:

Green evokes the image of nature and is great for entryways into the home. Lighter greens do very well for bathrooms. Darker, mossy greens can be excellent bedroom shades that can bring a larger room together without making it appear too dark. Green works well with white and brown, making it a good choice for contrasting against wood flooring or paneling.

About Author
Everything you need to know about Santa Cruz real estate is right here at MySantaCruzRealEstate.com. Lauren Spencer, Coldwell Banker Realtor will be glad to answer your questions about homes in East Santa Cruz CA.

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