Pricing a home right is an important step in the listing process. A competitively priced home attracts qualified buyers and helps the home to sell faster. Below are some tips to help you price your home to sell. Remember, I’m never too busy for your referrals, so feel free to forward this valuable information on to family and friends who are thinking of selling their homes.
While the anticipation of a new home is exciting, moving everything to a new place is often a daunting experience. Below are several tips to help you streamline your move and take the pain out of the moving process. Forward this information on to friends and family to help them organize their moves as well.
Oh, by the way®… if you know of someone who would appreciate the level of service I provide, please call me with their name and business number. I’ll be happy to follow up and take great care of them.
Staging your home is a proven strategy for speeding up the sales process throughout the Austin area. It can even help boost your home’s value when offers start coming in. By highlighting your home’s strengths and giving prospective buyers a sense of how they would utilize different spaces, you can help these prospects develop emotional attachments to your home.
Here are some quick tips for helping you along with the staging process:
Great lighting is crucial for making your home look warm and welcoming. If you notice that some areas of your home are dark and dreary, increase the wattage of the light bulbs in the fixtures and lamps. A good rule of thumb is to have a total of 100 watts of lighting for every 50 square feet of interior space. Also, you should strive for three different types of lighting per room: accent lighting (on a wall or table), task lighting (such as a reading or under-cabinet light), and ambient lighting (overhead).
Alright, so you might not be willing to spend thousands of dollars on installing new, stainless steel appliances just for staging. However, studies show that new appliances in the kitchen garner high returns for sellers, especially in Austin and the surrounding areas like Lake Travis. This means you increase your chances of getting a better price for your home!
It should go without saying that, when staging a home, tackling clutter is a must. However, Austin sellers often forget about some of the biggest causes of clutter: couches, chairs, and tables. Having too much furniture in your home can make it seem small and cramped.
Before your home goes on the market, take a walk around and remove furniture items that you can live without. You don’t need to get rid of everything (after all, you want the space to look lived-in), but you want to make sure you’re maximizing available space.
Not sure you’re much of a home staging pro? Lori Wakefield can connect you with an interiors expert! Let us know if you’re looking to stage your home for selling, or to redecorate your Austin Texas home, so we can follow up with our top recommendations.
Selling your home in Lake Travis doesn’t just mean hiring a realtor to stick a sign out front. There are a lot of preparations you should make to ensure you get the best offer possible in the shortest time.
Repair. Plain and simple, take care of any deferred maintenance items. If buyers get a sense the house hasn’t been maintained, they wonder what else is wrong with it they can’t see. This includes minor items as well, like wall cracks or chips, loose shingles, burned out light bulbs, etc.
Neutralize. Your home should be in “Move-in Ready” condition. While your home looks lovely and you are comfortable living in it, a buyer’s perspective is much different. You only have one chance to make a first impression. Getting your house ready to sell is the difference between getting yourself ready for a date vs. your wedding day. Getting your house ready to sell is taking it up a notch from “company ready” - not only should your house be clean and free of clutter, but it should also have a like new appearance…. So, yes, you do need to replace your 10 year old carpet and yes, you do need to repaint those tired walls. Fresh and New sells. You want buyers to see themselves in your home. If your home has color painted walls, clutter or lots of decorative items, and/or awkward furniture arrangement, this will be much harder for them to do. Try replacing any bold color choices in your floors and walls with something more neutral—gray, beige, cream, and white. Repainting and reflooring will make everything look fresh and new, and help prospective buyers imagine all the possibilities.
Stage. Once your house is clean and updated, it’s time to play dress up. Home stagers can rearrange furniture and add small details and decorator touches that will bring out the possibilities in the various spaces in your home: lamps, mirrors, throw rugs and pillows, flowers, decorative soaps and towels, patio furniture. Chances are you already have the decor - it's just a matter of a little professional touch to make all the difference in the world.
Think you might need some guidance when it comes time to sell? Lori Wakefield can help. Feel free to get in touch.
Buying a home or selling the place you have is more than just a major lifestyle change; for many people it’s the largest financial transaction they will ever undertake.
This month I have sent some valuable tips that provide sellers with strategies they need to get their home sold quickly and for the best possible price. On page two, buyers will learn how to master the current market and acquire the home of their dreams. Know someone else who would find this information helpful? Share it with family and friends!
If you’re thinking about buying or selling soon, or know someone who is, it’s important to lean into the knowledge of a local agent who can guide you through the process, and you know that I am always here to help.
Please call 512.657.4455 for an estimate of your home’s current value or to discuss your situation, goals and options.
Sincerely,
Lori Wakefield, REALTOR
Oh, by the way … if you know of someone who would appreciate the level of service I provide, please call me with their name and business number. I’ll be happy to follow up and take great care of them.
Anyway, the outing held several surprises. First surprise: early morning fog. The entire trip we drove through a light fog, which gave this photo of a Texas live oak a bit of drama.
Another surprise: zebras! The zebras are one of 80 species on a 137-acre private zoo, Exotic Resort Zoo, about an hour west of Austin. The zoo’s promotional material states that nearly half of the wild animals in the park at one time or another were listed on the endangered animal lists, so I guess they feel they are doing some good….
Third surprise: just how beautiful this park is. The falls themselves are pretty (Great Falls in Virginia is more spectacular but you can walk to the middle of the river here), but it’s the accessibility to spectacular scenery on the river, the swimming holes, and the trails that make this park a gem.
We had our first out-of-town guests last week—John’s sister Mary and her husband Rob. We wanted to give them a taste of Hill Country, so we headed to the LBJ Boyhood Home and Ranch located about an hour west of our house.
influences on a president. Johnson’s father served years as a member of the Texas House of Representatives, and as a young boy Lyndon went with his dad on visits to constituents and eavesdropped on the back porch conversations his father had with neighbors and fellow politicians. He learned how to win friends and influence people from his mother, a speech and debate teacher who taught her children the essence of argument through mock debates waged at the kitchen table. And Johnson’s pursuit of Great Society legislation was surely driven by experiences growing up in a community where many people had no access to education or to conveniences such as electricity or running water; for example, Johnson fought in the late 1930s to bring electricity to the struggling farm communities in Central Texas “where the smoky lantern and the stifling kerosene lamp are still the chief sources of illumination, and elbow grease still the chief motive of power…” 
The bathroom is one of the most popular rooms of the house to renovate. But, you don’t have to overhaul it to make it sparkle like new. Below are five tips to enhance the appearance of your bathroom without undertaking an expensive and intensive remodel. Forward this information on to family and friends who are looking to update their bathrooms.
The bathroom is one of the most popular rooms of the home to remodel, one that also boasts an 84.9% return on investment.*
If you’re thinking of updating the bathrooms in your home, the information I’m sending this month gives you the scoop on popular trends, and offers tips to help you get the most out of your renovation. Page one offers insight into what other homeowners are including in their renovation, from high-efficiency toilets to adding a second sink. Page two outlines seven things to consider before you start your renovation, whether you’re undertaking a minor update or a major remodel.
Pass this information on to your family and friends to help them get the most out of their next bathroom remodel.
Sincerely,
Lori Wakefield, REALTOR
Oh, by the way®… if you know of someone who would appreciate the level of service I provide, please call me at 512.657.4455 with their name and business number. I’ll be happy to follow up and take great care of them.
*Source: REALTOR.com
What are the "Hottest" areas for real estate in Austin Texas? We break it down for you below.
The Hotness Ratio is found by dividing the number of homes under contract (pending) by the number of homes for sale (active). Anything above 50% is considered a Hot Market.
| Data as of Wednesday, Aug 3rd, 2016 "New" is within the last 7 days. | ||||||
Weekly MLS Area Statistics |
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| Area | Active | New | All Pending | New Pending* | Sold | Hotness Ratio |
| 2N | 24 | 12 | 60 | 19 | 19 | 250% |
| 11 | 51 | 7 | 112 | 16 | 14 | 220% |
| MA | 45 | 11 | 90 | 20 | 13 | 200% |
| SE | 17 | 4 | 27 | 2 | 1 | 159% |
| 10N | 50 | 7 | 67 | 14 | 13 | 134% |
| 10S | 72 | 11 | 89 | 26 | 11 | 124% |
| 5E | 13 | 1 | 16 | 6 | 6 | 123% |
| JA | 32 | 5 | 39 | 6 | 0 | 122% |
| EL | 45 | 11 | 48 | 8 | 8 | 107% |
| NE | 78 | 17 | 76 | 19 | 12 | 97% |
| HU | 139 | 21 | 135 | 24 | 24 | 97% |
| SWW | 84 | 21 | 79 | 17 | 16 | 94% |
| 3E | 26 | 6 | 24 | 1 | 7 | 92% |
| RRE | 272 | 58 | 249 | 58 | 51 | 92% |
| GTE | 103 | 26 | 94 | 25 | 15 | 91% |
| HH | 331 | 43 | 299 | 56 | 54 | 90% |
| PF | 301 | 65 | 271 | 49 | 58 | 90% |
| 2 | 84 | 15 | 73 | 15 | 14 | 87% |
| CLS | 210 | 29 | 182 | 36 | 32 | 87% |
| N | 66 | 9 | 57 | 5 | 15 | 86% |
| TCT | 44 | 12 | 38 | 10 | 6 | 86% |
| HS | 54 | 4 | 45 | 5 | 6 | 83% |
| SC | 70 | 11 | 56 | 18 | 13 | 80% |
| 9 | 59 | 8 | 46 | 9 | 4 | 78% |
| 1N | 85 | 17 | 66 | 11 | 19 | 78% |
| RRW | 224 | 42 | 165 | 32 | 32 | 74% |
| GU | 56 | 3 | 41 | 17 | 5 | 73% |
| CLN | 433 | 54 | 310 | 55 | 50 | 72% |
| NW | 143 | 16 | 102 | 25 | 16 | 71% |
| 3 | 109 | 20 | 77 | 10 | 13 | 71% |
| 1A | 80 | 7 | 56 | 13 | 8 | 70% |
| 4 | 97 | 7 | 66 | 25 | 21 | 68% |
| GZ | 6 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 67% |
| BW | 40 | 6 | 26 | 8 | 3 | 65% |
| UT | 45 | 10 | 29 | 4 | 15 | 64% |
| SWE | 180 | 25 | 111 | 27 | 24 | 62% |
| MC | 41 | 5 | 25 | 2 | 3 | 61% |
| 5 | 173 | 27 | 102 | 20 | 14 | 59% |
| WW | 24 | 2 | 14 | 6 | 1 | 58% |
| KL | 105 | 7 | 57 | 12 | 2 | 54% |
| BA | 109 | 16 | 58 | 12 | 8 | 53% |
| CC | 79 | 4 | 40 | 11 | 7 | 51% |
| RN | 167 | 14 | 84 | 18 | 20 | 50% |
| 7 | 61 | 5 | 30 | 3 | 2 | 49% |
| SH | 19 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 47% |
| LH | 105 | 13 | 49 | 15 | 11 | 47% |
| 1B | 157 | 10 | 67 | 15 | 7 | 43% |
| W | 121 | 6 | 51 | 10 | 14 | 42% |
| HD | 236 | 17 | 97 | 12 | 16 | 41% |
| GTW | 430 | 43 | 169 | 39 | 39 | 39% |
| LP | 18 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 39% |
| WE | 11 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 36% |
| BL | 29 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 34% |
| LS | 755 | 47 | 254 | 52 | 34 | 34% |
| GP | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 33% |
| HW | 98 | 8 | 32 | 8 | 9 | 33% |
| 6 | 179 | 17 | 58 | 17 | 15 | 32% |
| CM | 141 | 16 | 45 | 14 | 6 | 32% |
| LN | 229 | 16 | 73 | 17 | 11 | 32% |
| SV | 42 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 31% |
| DT | 94 | 7 | 29 | 2 | 3 | 31% |
| LC | 33 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 27% |
| BU | 206 | 7 | 52 | 11 | 11 | 25% |
| 8E | 140 | 8 | 31 | 7 | 11 | 22% |
| FC | 34 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 21% |
| 8W | 101 | 9 | 20 | 4 | 6 | 20% |
| LL | 174 | 6 | 32 | 9 | 11 | 18% |
| BT | 41 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 17% |
| LW | 97 | 7 | 15 | 4 | 2 | 15% |
| MT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| SS | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% |
|
*Status changed to Pending in the last 7 days |
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