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Keys to Perfect Pricing #4

Don’t Rely Upon a Refinance Appraisal to Set Your Price. The purpose of the appraisal often affects the outcome. Appraisals are typically done for many reasons including fire loss, divorce, insurance reassessment, taxation reassessment, replacement cost, and mortgage refinancing. None of these may relate directly to your need to sell. Your purpose is to establish market value not replacement value. Remember, market value is the value that would appeal to many people and result in a sale in a reasonable amount of time, value represents typically what one person might be willing to pay for a home, or in the case of an appraisal, what one person thinks is the value.

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If you are looking for a Boulder Colorado Home, Boulder Condo, Boulder Colorado Condo, or Downtown Boulder Condo investment property, contact your Downtown Boulder Colorado Real Estate Expert today!

Keys to Perfect Pricing #3

Don’t choose your selling price based upon what you paid for your home. There is no relationship between acquisition cost and current market value. If you received your home in an inheritance at no cost to you, you would certainly hope to sell it for current market value, not the price you paid which was zero. Conversely, if you paid $500,000 and today’s market reflects a price less than that, you still would sell your home for current market value, not what you paid for it.

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If you are looking for a Boulder Colorado Home, Boulder Condo, Boulder Colorado Condo, or Downtown Boulder Condo investment property, contact your Downtown Boulder Colorado Real Estate Expert today!

Keys to Perfect Pricing #2

Don’t attempt to build in bargaining room when you set your list price. There’s a common belief amongst home sellers that all buyers will come in somewhat lower than the asking price. Therefore, they have to price their homes higher as sellers to work towards a negotiated price that is representative of market value. But in reality, bargaining room is often results in fewer showings and lower priced or no offers. This mentality often has the affect of causing a seller to overprice their home. Sellers don’t lose buyers as much in the negotiation phase as they do in the showing phase, because when you overprice your home, the buyers may not even see it, and if they don’t see it they won’t buy it.

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If you are looking for a Boulder Colorado Home, Boulder Condo, Boulder Colorado Condo, or Downtown Boulder Condo investment property, contact your Downtown Boulder Colorado Real Estate Expert today!

Keys to Perfect Pricing #1

Don’t Factor in Selling Costs When Setting Your List Price. Cost of sale has no bearing on market value. If you sold your home without paying real estate fees it adds profits to your net proceeds, just as paying fees would subtract from your net. In either case, what it costs to sell a home doesn’t add or subtract from it true market value, only the profits a seller realizes at closing.

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If you are looking for a Boulder Colorado Home, Boulder Condo, Boulder Colorado Condo, or Downtown Boulder Condo investment property, contact your Downtown Boulder Colorado Real Estate Expert today!

Upcoming Real Estate Season

As the final remnants of winter are replaced by the promise of a new spring, two things seem to be apparent this time of year…for the farmers it is growing season, and for real estate buyers and sellers it is the buying and selling season. Historically speaking, the upcoming months will be the peak of the yearly real estate market as the inventory of available properties grows and the number of prospective buyers increases.

If you are selling your home, here are a few things to consider for the spring/summer real estate market.

• As the inventory level of available properties increases, buyers “naturally” have a wider selection of options to choose from
• New homebuilders are becoming more aggressive in their marketing, offering discounted prices, appliance packages, home entertainment centers, mortgage incentives, landscaping packages, etc. to attract buyers.
• Unless your home is the “deal of the century”, homebuyers are normally taking longer to make decisions. They are “comparison shopping”, looking for the best value for their money. Buyers have a tendency to want to negotiate more.
• Market values are shifting more quickly. It is important to keep abreast of what is happening in the marketplace, not just in your neighborhood or community, but also in the localized region. Buyers are looking in a wider geographic area these days.
• Location, condition, and value are the three considerations buyers are focusing on when making a decision. Value, what the seller is offering the home for sale at, can often offset poor location and/or condition. More simply said, “Price often overcomes all objections.”

If you are buying a home, here are points to consider when purchasing a home during the spring/summer real estate market.

• Mortgage interest rates have trended up slightly over the past months, as the national economy appears to have stabilized. There is no indication rates will be going back down in the immediate future. Thus, this may be a good time to buy.
• There is a variety of alternative financing options available. Interest only loans are popular for two reasons, first, their interest rate is normally less than comparable fixed-rate mortgages, and second, principle reductions can be made at anytime, which immediately reduces the monthly payment.
• As a prospective buyer, do your due diligence when deciding to purchase a home. Inspections, schools, access to shopping and medical facilities, neighborhood functions, and don’t forget about environmental concerns, such as, radon gas, mold, and lead based paint.
• Finally, as noted above, the geographic area for buyers looking at homes has expanded significantly in the past decade throughout the country, which provides prospective buyers many new options.

Advances in technology have resulted in buyers and sellers having more timely access to information regarding real estate. As such, from a seller’s perspective, it is important to price your home competitively. Buyers normally are aware of how long a property has been on the market and whether it is priced competitively.

Therefore, when you plant that Boulder Colorado Real Estate for sale sign in your yard, make sure it still isn’t there later this year when the final remnants of fall give way to the promise of a cold and snowy winter.

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If you are looking for a Boulder Colorado Home, Boulder Condo, Boulder Colorado Condo, or Downtown Boulder Condo investment property, contact your Downtown Boulder Colorado Real Estate Expert today!

Garages: The New Home Frontier

First-floor laundry and mud rooms have become the new front door for many families. But there's another part of the house that's competing for this role: the garage.

Nobody's writing off the garage anymore. After all, it's often the largest space in (or next to) the house. A two-car garage typically measures 20 feet by 20 feet. That's 400 square feet, larger than most living or family rooms. For years homeowners have used the garage not just to house cars, but to store everything from garden tools and sports gear to holiday decorations and grown children's old toys. And Barbara Butensky of GarageTek Inc., in Syosset, N.Y., a garage organization and storage systems company, says the garage is now becoming an extra room to pursue a hobby, particularly for homeowners who don't have basements and attics. “They're making them climate-controlled and an additional living space,” says Butensky.

In fact, the garage is on its way to becoming a feature that can help sell a house, along with a good location, curb appeal and the other rooms' condition.

Taking advantage of the trend, a growing number of closet organization companies recognized a golden opportunity to clean up these spaces and garage-specialist companies soon emerged. PremierGarage in Phoenix, for instance, has seen a 200 percent growth rate over the last few years and has 65 locations, says CEO and founder Mark Loberg.

How much homeowners spend varies, from about $600 to have a professional clean and de-clutter to thousands of dollars for design and installation of custom systems.

Many homeowners like panelized or grid wall systems with hooks to hang rakes, tennis racquets, ladders, bicycles and cabinetry, plus counters, shelves and storage lofts of different sizes and materials to store everything from bicycles to canoes. GarageTek, for example, offers 100 options for shelves, cabinets, hooks and more, says Butensky.

But such components often are only part of the overhaul. Allen R. Frechter's The Great Garage Co. in Needham, Mass., designs lighting to improve illumination in the often dark spaces. Other companies install colorful, patterned floors over the typical gray concrete. Loberg's company uses a hybrid, proprietary polymer coating that is impervious to freezing, stain resistant to fluids and slip resistant. GarageTek uses interlocking plastic tiles. More owners are heating floors to create a year-round hobby space.

Some owners are installing plasma TVs, CD players, potting sinks with running water, and cabinetry that's as good as the kind used in upscale kitchens, says Butensky. Frechter set up a wine cellar for one client.

Homeowner Richard E. Hamlin air-conditioned the garage in his home in Bonita Springs, Fla., to protect his collectible cars, including his 1931 Ford Model A roadster. The large garage also has two windows, a trophy case for his awards from car meets, a TV and treadmill. He loves to show guests the room when he and his wife entertain, he says.

Here are ways to make your garage the best it can be:

• Clean and organize. Throw out stuff you rarely or never use. Dana Korey, co-owner of Away with Clutter in San Diego, recommends going through what you have and organizing items into similar categories. “When you see that you have 30 umbrellas, it's easier to edit. If paint is dried up, get rid of it,” she says. You also need a system to organize what you keep, she says. Separate sports balls for golf, tennis, football since you don't want to throw them into one container because you won't be able to find them. Before you hire a company to do the organizing, ask about hourly charges. Tom Anderson of Clutterboy in northern California charges $100 an hour. He says the average garage takes between six and twelve hours to clean and organize.

• Pick good storage. Most companies suggest high quality wood or steel cabinets that are weather resistant. Units should be installed a few inches off the ground to eliminate water damage or pest infiltration, says Loberg of PremierGarage. While many closet and garage companies offer distinct lines, homeowners can also choose their own at storage companies' retail or online sources such as The Stanley Works. A useful planning tool is ClosetMaid's questionnaire and planner, which helps homeowners determine what they need. For $15, a homeowner gets two design versions for a garage or any room.

• Plan a new garage. If starting from scratch, make it roomy with an extra garage bay or even a half-bay, says Frechter of The Great Garage Co. Also make the ceiling high enough - 10 feet to 14 feet.

• Consider a security system. To protect all that you will keep in the garage, put it on your alarm system or add a surveillance system.
  

By Barbara Ballinger, Content That Works