Tips for Staging, Showing and SELLING a Home at Christmas!

With Thanksgiving's turkey leftovers all but a memory, the holiday season is in full swing. It is the time of year when my clients with their homes on the market, start calling for advice. On or off the market for the holidays? What a great question! My answer is always, if possible, keep it on!

Most home sellers are more inclined to withdraw their home from the market for a few months. This is especially true in Minnesota where a white Christmas is almost a guarantee. Old Jack Frost has been nipping at the nose early this year so sine sellers believe home buyers are too preoccupied with finding a perfect gift instead of being out shopping for their dream home. While there is some truth to this, sellers can be ignoring another more important truth: Buyers looking at houses during the holidays are V-E-R-Y serious buyers.

There are not too many proverbial "tire-kickers" running around with a REALTOR® when there are presents to buy and gifts to wrap. December and January showings are a seller’s opportunity to stand out from the competition. Most homes buyers will visit at this time of the year are vacant. Often a buyer’s choices are down to model homes, empty relocation properties and foreclosures. Just imagine how a buyer perceives a warm home filled with the colorful sights, delightful sounds and wonderful aromas of the season. Staging a home for a sale during the holidays is a unique opportunity giving the traditional home seller the edge!

Tips for Showing & Selling During the Holidays

•     Decorate! Tastefully of course. This might not be the year to pull out all stops with a million light display but a decorated tree, candles and wreaths can add a special touch.

•     Bake and Share Gingerbread Men. Leave out a plate to share with potential buyers. Why should Santa have all of the extra calories?

•    Cozy and Comfortable! Make sure the furnace is set for showing at a comfortable temperature to take off the chill. If you have a fireplace, keep it burning to add to a festive welcoming feel.

•     Play holiday music. Avoid the annoying versions of Gramma Got Run Over by a Reindeer and go for instrumentals or uniquely Minnesota regional artists like The Blenders.

•     Shovel and salt the sidewalk and driveway. No one wants to spend the holidays in the emergency room with a broken wrist or worse.

•     Leave the front light on! Don’t forget it is dark during those early evening showings. Make certain REALTORS® are able to see their way to your front door and open the lockbox.

Need more tips on how to get your home SOLD? If you are buying, selling or relocating to Minnesota and need help from a professional REALTOR®, give me, Teri Eckholm of Boardman Realty, a call or visit my website for a FREE Home Buyer Success Guide or FREE Home Value Report. I specialize in acreage and lakeshore properties in the north and east Twin Cities metro area including Ham Lake, Lino Lakes and all communities in the Forest Lake School District! Serving Anoka, Chisago, Ramsey and Washington Counties in Minnesota.

Copyright 2014 www.terieckholm.com

Pump Up the Curb Appeal when Selling Your Home in the Summer!

 
Selling a home in the summer isn't rocket science but with a bit of thought a home can sell quickly and for top dollar. With the nice weather many more buyers are searching for their dream home and not just on the internet. They will drive by homes in the warmer months to check out the neighborhood and what the exterior looks like in person. During the winter about all you can do is hope for a fresh blanket of snow and shovel the sidewalk to jazz up the exterior of a Minnesota home. But in the summer, there is ample opportunity make a statement with curb appeal.

1. CUT GRASS If you home is on the market you have to make sure the lawn is manicured to perfection at all times. In fact, it is a very good idea to make sure all trees and shrubs are trimmed to show of the home too.

2. PAINT the FRONT DOOR There are no excuses for having a dirty, scuffed up front entry with peeling paint. If you want to sell to an FHA buyer, you need to address the peeling paint issue anyway so why not make a great first impression with a freshly painted front door and entry?

3. ADD POPS of COLOR Even if you don't have a green thumb, invest in some bright colorful hanging baskets full of annuals for your front porch. Or put some planters with assorted plants on your front stoop. However, if you think you will be too busy to water the plants, it might be best to get a colorful flag or entry wreath instead. Dead plants in the doorway will be noticed too.

4. SEAL COAT the ASPHALT If the driveway is looking more gray than black, a fresh coat of sealant can make a world of difference.



Copyright 2014 www.terieckholm.com

Buying a Home in October in the Halloween Capital of the World!

It is almost time for one of my favorite holidays, Halloween, and it is not just because I live in Anoka County, Minnesota either.  Anoka, Minnesota is the  "Halloween Capital of the World" which puts tricks and treats on the minds of many young people (and those young at heart) in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". 

Minnesotans are often referred to as "Minnesota Nice" and when a home closing is closed to a holiday it does put the buyers and sellers in festive moods. Halloween is no exception. As an Anoka County REALTOR®, I have witnessed many a late October closing with "interesting" and topical questions asked by the new buyer of the home seller to a new home buyer. 

In Minnesota it is traditional for all parties to sit down in the same room for the closing transaction. After all the signing is done, the title company representatives  leave the room to make copies of the documents and to prepare the checks from the final settlement. During this time,  home sellers take a few minutes to share some idiosyncrasies of the home and pass over the keys, Often these are expected concerns like how to change the code for the electronic garage door opener, has the sprinkling system been blown out for the season or where the water shut off is located.

In late October the questions are often a bit more "festive". New homeowners buying into  neighborhoods big and small often want to know how many kids are in the neighborhood  which quickly translates to how many bags of candy will be needed.

A few years ago I attended a closing for a home in Anoka, County. The seller lived on a dead end street with only a handful of neighbors as is quite normal in this area filled with acreage homes. The seller made share the wants of young neighbor girl who had recently lost a front tooth (or two). She had stopped over with a request for "Reethe's Pee-thes" as her preferred Halloween Candy. 

Have a festive, fun and safe HALLOWEEN!

Copyright 2013 www.terieckholm.com

Embrace Viking Purple, But Don’t Put THAT Color on Your Front Door!

Not if you want to sell your house that is. Home buyers gravitate toward certain colors. And unfortunately, purple is one of the top five turn offs as a front door color.

In an article by Angie’s List “What are the best front door colors to sell your home?”  color choices were put to the test. Home buyer surveys nixed purple as a favorite.

Believe it or not, I have seen Viking purple used on front doors of Minnesota homes. In our family we have an old family saying that “it looked better on the paint chip” when we see any unusual color choice on a house.  But purple isn’t the worst choice for a front door hue. Pink takes that spot with gray, orange and yellow also scoring low. Yellow is a bit of a surprise to me to be a low scorer because it IS appealing for siding, just not the front door.

Top colors are red and white. But white can be hard to keep clean. If you are going to put you home on the market and have a white front door, keep it sparkling. A dirty white door will be a huge turn off too!

Another caution if you choose to paint the front door red to attract buyers to your home; be careful with the shades. If the shade tends to look on the orangey side in the evening under a porch light, this could be a turn off to a home buyer viewing in the evening hours. 


 

Copyright 2013 www.terieckholm.com

On or Off the Market this Holiday Season? What Should a Home Seller Do?

Thanksgiving is only a week away...the relatives are planning for a visit...the turkey is in the freezer and grandma's secret stuffing recipe has been pulled from the vault. Yes, the holiday season is almost here but the house hasn’t sold.

What should a home seller do?
A first inclination for most home sellers would be to withdraw their home from the market for a few months. This is especially true in Minnesota where a white Christmas is pretty common. There is a belief that the home buyers will be preoccupied with the holiday season and only a handful of people in the market. While there is some truth to this belief, sellers can be ignoring another more important truth: Buyers looking at houses during the holidays are V-E-R-Y serious buyers. 

There are not many tire-kickers running around with a REALTOR® when there are presents to buy and gifts to wrap. November, December and January showings are a seller’s opportunity as most homes that buyers will visit at this time of the year are vacant. A buyer’s choices are down to model homes, empty relocation properties and foreclosures. Just imagine how a buyer perceives a warm home filled with the colorful sights, delightful sounds and wonderful aromas of the season. Staging a home for a sale during the holidays is a unique opportunity giving the traditional home seller the edge!

Tips for Showing & Selling During the Holidays

1. Decorate! Tastefully of course. This might not be the year that you do the Griswold display of lights as in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, but a decorated tree, candles and wreaths can add a special touch.
2. Bake and leave out a plate of Christmas Cookies. Why should Santa have all of the extra calories?
3. Keep the home fires burning! Make sure the fireplace is burning bright, warm and welcoming!
4. Play holiday music. Leave out the barking version of Jingle Bells and go for instrumentals or uniquely Minnesota regional artists like The Blenders.
5. Shovel and salt the sidewalk and driveway if necessary. No one wants to spend the holidays in the emergency room with a twisted ankle.
6. Leave the front light on! Don’t forget it is dark during those early evening showings. Make certain buyers and their agents are able to see their way to your front door and lockbox. 
   
   

  Copyright 2012 www.terieckholm.com

Going Above and Beyond—What Good Service Really Is

In my book, extraordinary service is doing what needs to be done to help resolve a situation, even when it is a long shot or falls into the “not-my-job” category. As a REALTOR® in the Minneapolis/St Paul metro area, I always try to provide extraordinary service to my home buyer and sellers but last week a New York garbage man has me beat in the exceptional service department hands down. Gary Gaddist, a parks department worker in Manhattan, dug through trash to find the wedding ring of a park patron when he found her handwritten plea left on his truck. I would guess that trying to find a ring in a truck full of New York City trash is like the smelly version of looking for a needle in a haystack. Gary didn’t have to do anything. No one would have known if he tossed the note…but he didn’t. He was able to be a hero to someone he didn’t even know by providing a bit of kindness and exceptional service.

Working in real estate, I don’t have to dig through trash to provide good service. I try to do what is right to get the job done. Last week, at a closing for my first time buyer’s new home, the sellers never arrived at the Maplewood title company office. While my buyer was wrapping up his final signatures, my closer received a call from the seller’s closing agent asking why we weren’t at the Fridley office. Our closer works in Fridley but since the house, buyer and sellers were closer to Maplewood, the closing had been arranged for the most central office, Maplewood from the get go. Unfortunately, this mistake meant the seller’s proceeds check was in one place and my buyer’s new house keys were in another. Even though the sellers were directed to go to the wrong place by their closer, their agent demanded we immediately drive to the other office or there would be no sale because her clients weren’t moving.  It was a ridiculous stand-off but I didn’t want either my buyer or the sellers to be further inconvenienced so we completed the final HUD signatures via email. I drove the sellers’ check across town and picked up the keys and dropped them at my buyer’s house. I don’t know if it is exceptional service, but it needed to be done.

 

This was the second time last week I had to run around with checks to keep everything working smoothly. Earlier this month a closing date was moved up a week to a time when my selling clients were scheduled to be on vacation. They pre-signed their documents and I delivered their proceeds check to them as soon as they arrived home. Easy-peasey!

Many situations come up in buying a home. Some can be planned for and others just happen. When you purchase or sell your next home, find a REALTOR® that will work hard to find the solution to even the most unexpected problem. Extraordinary service isn’t difficult it just takes a little “extra”!

Copyright 2012 www.terieckholm.com

Why Should A Seller Pay a Home Buyer's Closing Costs?

Why Should A Seller Pay a Home Buyer's Closing Costs? The short answer is....To SELL the HOUSE! But how does this work and why is it so important in the sale of a home? Let me explain...

When I list a home for sale,  sellers are given a net sheet with estimates of closing costs associated with the sale home. One of the items on the list is “Seller contribution to the Buyer’s Closing Costs.” If the home is one that would be attractive to a first time buyer, I will put in an amount that is roughly 3% of the list price. Every now and again, I hear a seller scoff when they see this. "Why would I want to pay a BUYER'S Closing Costs?”
 
The answer is very simple: So they can BUY the house!
 
Today almost all buyers are required to put down a minimum of 3% of the purchase price of the home as a down payment. The closing costs for a buyer include title insurance, home owner’s insurance, appraisals, loan origination fees, name search fees, filing fees and more. As a REALTOR® for communities of Anoka, Chisago and Washington Counties and throughout the north metro Minneapolis/St. Paul area, I see closing costs that range from $3000-$7000 for a first time buyer. Couple this amount with a required down payment and only a handful of buyers have all the funds required to purchase a home.

So buyers have the option of waiting and saving the required closing costs or asking for seller assistance. In many cases a financial institution will allow a seller to assist a buyer by paying either points to reduce the interest rates and/or closing costs.

How does this work? Let’s say that a home is on the market for $200,000. The buyer writes their offer for $195,000 and their financial institution allows up to 3% seller’s assistance with fees and closing costs. They decide to ask the seller in their purchase agreement document for $5000, thus the net offer to the seller for the home is $190,000. However the since the home was sold at $195,000, it must appraise at this higher amount.

If a seller does not want to pay the closing costs, the buyer in many cases will not be able to purchase the home. It the offer is accepted, the seller’s proceeds at closing would then be reduced by the $5000. Sellers do not have to come up with the funds in cash if there is sufficient equity in the home to cover both the buyer's and the seller's costs.

When a purchase agreement is received on a home listed for sale, it can be confusing to a seller as to what the sale price versus net number is. In the case above, the $195,000 would be the sale’s price on the purchase agreement but by paying the $5000 in closing costs, the seller’s net number is really $190,000 (less the seller's own closing costs including all fees and commission).

If as a seller you decide to counter on the original offer, you can counter on the sales price of the home and/or the amount of closing costs paid. When counter offers are involved, a seller needs to make certain that they understand what the net proceeds will be in each offer and counter offer.

This is where the assistance of a good, professional REALTOR® comes into play. As a real estate agent, I provide my clients with a seller's net sheet that outlines all costs and fees that has been updated after receiving the offer. When counter offers start going back and forth, I reiterate at each step what my seller's net number to help eliminate the confusion.

Assisting a buyer with closing costs can be the ticket to getting your home SOLD in any real estate market. Understanding the process is simple with the assistance of a knowledgable real estate agent!

Copyright 2012 www.terieckholm.com

Essential Spring Repairs Optimize Minnesota Home Values

Spring Repairs to Maintain Home Values in Minnesota

A few weeks ago, annual property tax notices reach the mailboxes of many Anoka County and Washington County homeowners. Assessors processed this information based on last year's sales and assessments so while the real estate market is picking up, many home assessed values continued to decrease. The county assessor will often review a home from the exterior and make a value determination. 

So as spring has sprung, it's time for Minnesota homeowners start thinking it's time for the "honey-do" list of spring projects. 

Keeping your home in tiptop shape is essential in optimizing your property’s assessed and market value. Even if you don’t intend to sell your home this summer, there are a few essential things to check, repair and or replace after ever Minnesota winter. As REALTOR® in the north and east Twin Cities metro, I see many properties that have not been properly cared for. Throughout Anoka County, Chisago County and northern Washington County, the areas where I work extensively, I have seen houses with interior ceiling damage from leaking roofs, potholed, cracked driveways and decks that are downright scary to walk on.
 
Surprisingly, these are not all foreclosure homes. It is frustrating to have to make repairs just prior to selling your home. Some traditional sellers who chose to sell in recovering real estate market and are frustrated as they often will have to make thousands of dollars in repairs in order to sell due to lack of maintenance--or make a drastic price concession to a buyer. Not making the repairs means pricing your home to compete directly with foreclosure homes. Offers on under-maintained homes come in at thousands less than expected--If they get offers at all. Neither choice is appealing to sellers when values are depressed.

I have often heard a seller wish they had chosen to keep the home in better condition over the last decade so they could have enjoyed the benefit of a well maintained home. It is much more beneficial and cost effective to assess your property on an annual basis and make repairs as necessary.

Here are 6 spring maintenance tips that will not only beautify your home, but also aid in retaining your home’s value for years to come:

1. Roof—Walk around the exterior of your home with binoculars and check for any missing or curling shingles. Shingles on roofs can be blown off in severe winter weather. If any are missing or you see other concerns such as curling or partial shingles, bring in a contractor to assess the damage and make repairs before you have water damage on the interior of your home.
2. Siding—Power wash debris buildup from vinyl or aluminum siding. Buildup can stain siding overtime. 
3. Deck Settling—Check for any settling or worn boards on your deck especially if it is several feet off of the ground. If the supports of your deck appear to be pulling away from the home or if the boards are weather-worn, have it reviewed by a professional before that first summer barbeque. 
4. Paint  & Stain—Did the harsh winter sleet, snow and ice cause the paint or stain on your siding, trim or deck to start to peel? Now is the time to assess the damage.
5.  Gutters—Gutters filled with leaves? Take the time to clean out to prevent water backups. Keeping water away from the foundation is the best way to keep water out of your basement. If your gutters are clogged, they cannot do the job and the rains will pour right over the clogged-gutter’s edge near the walls of your home. Consider adding screens or guards to prevent leave buildup in the future. 
6. Driveway—The winter’s freeze and thaw cycle can do damage to an asphalt driveway. Cracks need to be filled or they will get worse. It is recommended that blacktop driveways also be seal-coated every 2 years. If the driveway has long term exposure to extreme sunlight, seal coating might be recommended on an annual basis to extend the life of your driveway.

Copyright 2012 Teri Eckholm