Virtual Staging questions answered

Virtual home tours and showings are increasingly popular in real estate. They allow prospective home buyers to view the property on their own time, reducing unnecessary contact and helping them to avoid homes that they aren’t really interested in. A greater focus on virtual viewings can be a double-edged sword, however; still photos and walkthrough videos don’t always capture the heart of a property the way that being there in person can.

Proper staging can go a long way toward fixing this problem. The rules of staging are a bit different when planning for virtual visitors than they would be if you were prepping for an open house or other in-person tour, though. Here are a few things to keep in mind when staging your home for a virtual tour to help ensure that online home shoppers are suitably wowed by your property.

Start at the Door

When a potential buyer comes to your property for a tour or an open house, the first thing they’ll see is the door and front of the home. Start your virtual tour the same way. Touch up the paint on your door, make sure that any flowers or other decorations are well cared for, and clean up any messes that might be in the front yard. Starting at the front provides a bit of familiarity and gives viewers the same first impression that they and their visitors will see if they do decide to buy the house.

Accent With Art

For the most part, you want to remove as many personal effects as possible when staging a home so that potential home buyers can see the potential of the space as something they can make over. With virtual tours and online showings, though, this just comes across as bare walls. You should still remove family photos and personal effects so that viewers don’t feel like they’re peeking in on someone else’s life. Replace them with pieces of art or other items that break up the monotony of bare walls or empty floors. A wall-mounted TV, modular fireplace or other accents can also work well for this purpose.

Cut the Clutter

Decluttering is important when showing a house. When viewing in person, potential buyers tend to overlook if your home is still being lived in. But because things come across differently in still photos and video tours, clutter usually makes a home look less appealing online. Even if you have to rearrange things between photos and move certain items off camera, do everything you can to provide a clean, clutter-free view of your home.

Use Positioning to Your Advantage

Angles are important when taking photos or making videos for online showings. Showcase the space available in your home by placing tables or other large pieces of furniture in one corner of the shot, letting the photo show off how open the dining room is or how much area there really is in the living room. You can also show off your favorite views from within the house by taking pictures from the same angle you’d be sitting at, letting viewers see the home in the same ways that you enjoy.

Let Viewers in on the Secret

Do you have any hidden, obscure or otherwise “secret” areas in your home? If so, be sure to include them in your virtual staging plans. You might provide just a peek at a hidden closet or a special play-space in your flower garden, or you could choose to elaborate on the secret and give viewers a great view of everything it has to offer. Regardless of how you do it, showing off the secrets in your home will help to give it more personality and get potential buyers that much more interested.

Ask for Help

Staging a home can be a big job. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it. HomeKeepr can connect you with seasoned pros who can help you in staging your home perfectly for both online and in-person showings. Sign up for a free account today to get a jump start on your staging.

Why selling in an 'up market' is a great idea!

Why The Best Time to Downsize Is in An ‘Up’ Market

Let’s face it, we are in unprecedented times right now. The global pandemic is all that is in the news and will be for the foreseeable future. It has affected every single industry and person in the world, mostly for the worse, but some industries are thriving, such as medical device manufacturers, grocers, personal protection equipment manufacturers, toilet paper manufacturers, and hand sanitizer manufacturers, to name a few.

Before the world seemed to go sideways, the residential real estate market was on fire. We have been seeing the best market in history with historically low interest rates, inventory, unemployment, and historically high home prices, and the economy. Things were good, really good.

But, now, that has all changed. Unemployment is the highest in decades; businesses are closed (some for good); people are scared; interest rates, while still low are more volatile than at any other time in history recording their biggest jump in the shortest amount of time a couple of weeks ago of 2.5% in 36-hours! This is supposed to be an extremely busy spring market.

While real estate activity has absolutely waned, it is far from nonexistent. In fact, according to MIBOR, on April 9, 2020 (that’s right, only one day!), there were 147 new listings that hit the market, 100 sellers accepted an offer and went pending, 56 homes sold and closed, and homes sold in an average of only 7 days for 100% of asking price! So, it isn’t all bad news!

We still have an extremely low inventory of homes right now. In fact, our inventory level is at an all-time low of only 1.4 months. Compare that with a balanced supply of homes of 6-months and you can see just how tight our inventory really is.

If you are considering selling your house, especially if it will be a ‘downsize’ move, this may very well be the perfect time for you to catch the pinnacle of the market and cash out of your house. You see, in a sellers’ market like this one, otherwise known as an ‘up market’, people who are downsizing are perfectly positioned to take advantage of the market working in their favor. Let me explain.

Let’s say, you could sell your house today for $300,000 and we know this is near to at the top of the market. Furthermore, let’s say that you are downsizing to a smaller house that is more in line with your current needs that is $200,000. While you are at the top of the market for both transactions, the more expensive transaction is the most important from a monetary perspective in an up market. It will net you the most money in the end. Buyers are clamoring for more homes to hit the market and you can help to satisfy that appetite and cash in.

In order to maximize your sales price, I strongly recommend having a pre-listing inspection completed by a reputable inspection company and that you make any needed repairs and then advertise that to buyers. Secondly, provide a 1-year home warranty to buyers at closing for additional peace of mind. Have a licensed Stager walk through your house and give you suggestions on any updates or upgrades you should make that will provide you with the biggest bang for your buck. Ask your agent for help with both of these.

Start looking for your next home before you put your current house on the market as that may take a bit of time due to the low inventory levels. That way you don’t have to make an interim move. If you can buy your next home before you put your current house on the market, that would be the best scenario (and safest given the current health issues right now).

While there are a lot of negatives right now, there are certainly some positives. Take advantage of them and consult with your real estate agent who should be able to guide, lead and protect you through the complex and difficult real estate process. We would be happy to discuss your specific situation with you, if you wish in a no-obligation, confidential consultation.

Things will get better and we will be here and ready to help when you are! Stay healthy!

Steve Rupp
The Zulu Group, P.C.
Keller Williams Indy Metro North Realty
www.Welcome2Indy.com
Steve@Welcome2Indy.com
317-573-1880-Office

Kitchen islands...

When it comes to home improvements, there are few things that are requested more often than kitchen islands. Having a kitchen island can totally change the way that you work in your kitchen, and in some cases they can even add new functionality that you might not have had before. Because they’re such a hot commodity in a lot of homes, having a kitchen island in place can even increase the value of your home if you decide to put it on the market!

So what makes for a good kitchen island? Long gone are the days when a kitchen island was just an additional surface to set things on while working in the kitchen. If you’re thinking about installing a kitchen island of your own, here are a few things you could consider adding to it to make it a modern, functional island.

Cooking Surfaces

Many modern kitchen islands contain burners, full stove tops or other cooking surfaces. Some even contain griddles or electric grills, giving you cooking options that your standard cook top might not offer. This both allows you to cook in different ways and gives you more surfaces and heat sources to work with when you’re fixing a large meal. Depending on the design of the kitchen island and the specific cooking surfaces added, you can either give the island an electric connection or hook it up to an existing gas line.

Island Appliances

Cooking surfaces aren’t the only things that people include in kitchen islands. You might also see appliances such as ovens, mini refrigerators or dishwashers included in the island as well. In some homes you might see less common appliances included as well such as a steamer, warming bin or wine cooler. If there are electrical outlets built into the island, you might also include countertop appliances such as a stand mixer, toaster or can opener.

Kitchen Prep Areas

One common reason for installing a kitchen island is to add a prep station to the kitchen that is separate from other kitchen surfaces. This can involve adding additional features, such as a small refrigerator to keep prepped items cold until you’re ready to cook. Some must-haves for a prep area on your kitchen island include a sink and some form of cutting surface. Ideally the sink should be deep enough to wash vegetables and other food items and should have both hot and cold running water. The cutting surface can take a variety of forms, though butcher block is a popular option. Having a rack or storage for cutting boards and possibly a built-in knife block are also popular options.

Additional Storage

If there’s one thing that almost every kitchen needs, it’s more storage. Your kitchen island can help with this, giving you a place to add additional drawers, shelves or cabinets. Spice racks or other ingredient storage is also a popular option to add. If you want to make the most use of your kitchen island space, you can also add a hanging rack above your kitchen island for pots, pans and other cooking items.

Stow-Under Seating

Some people want to be able to use their kitchen island as a place to enjoy a quick meal, especially at breakfast or lunch. Stools or other small seating options that store under a lip on the kitchen island can make this happen, providing easy access seating that stores out of the way when not in use. A seating space can be added on top of other features, typically by letting the side of the island that faces away from the main kitchen be used for seating while the interior-facing side is more functional.

Ready to Build Your Island?

If you want to find a pro to build your kitchen island or hook up your various fixtures, trust in HomeKeepr. Sign up for a free account today and start connecting with the professionals who can make your dream kitchen island a reality.

Top things to do to prepare your house for sale

When you put your home on the market, you obviously want to get as much as you can for the property. A lot of things can affect your home’s value, including many items that are largely out of your control. That’s not saying that you can’t do anything to bring the value up before listing your home, however. In fact, there are some things that you absolutely need to do before you even think about sticking that “For Sale” sign in the yard.

Depending on what city, county and state your home is in, there may be code requirements you need to address before you’re allowed to list or sell your property. On top of that, however, here are five fixes that you can make to help get the most from your home when you sell.

Water Stains

If you’ve got water stains on the ceiling or walls, they tell potential buyers that there are leaks somewhere. It’s possible that you already took care of the leak, but a buyer isn’t going to know that, and will likely assume that there’s still a nasty surprise waiting for them somewhere. You obviously need to track down the leak and repair it, but after that’s done you should do something about the water stain as well. Don’t just slap a thin coat of paint on them and call it a day, either; take the time to do it right so that the stains don’t reappear.

Slow Drains

If you have slow drains in your home, this can be a big red flag for some home buyers. They might ask about the plumbing, or even want to run more water to see what the water pressure and drains are like everywhere else. To head off potential problems it’s important to do your best to take care of the issue. In many cases it’s a relatively easy fix, though there are some causes of slow drains that will take a plumber to straighten out. Still, the effort you put into it now can result in a higher selling price once someone buys the house.

Switches and Outlets

People don’t want to buy houses that have electrical problems. If your switches or outlets look discolored or beaten up, this can lead people to assume that there are problems even if there aren’t. Take the time to replace any damaged, discolored or malfunctioning switches and outlets, along with any non-working fixtures or “mystery switches” that you might have around the house. Even if it’s not a very big job, it can have a major impact on how potential buyers view your home.

Trip Hazards

Are there any loose bits of carpet or wood on your floor that you’ve learned to just step around? Fix them before you have people in to look at the house. You might have gotten used to them, but a potential buyer won’t be. They’ll see potential tripping hazards as something they’ll need to fix, and they’ll negotiate the price down as a result.

Walls and Ceilings

Are your walls drab, dull and damaged? Take the time to fix any holes or dings before you list the house. A little bit of drywall repair can go a long way, and this can be a perfect time to update the look of your rooms with a fresh coat of paint as well. Don’t neglect the ceiling either, since those little issues that you’ve learned to overlook will stick out like a sore thumb to potential buyers.

Need Help?

If you have some repairs to make before listing but don’t know where to start, HomeKeepr can help you find the pro you need to get your home in tip-top shape. Sign up for a free account today to find pros in your area that come recommended by people you know and trust. They’ll get your home ready to sell and won’t cost you an arm and a leg to do it.

Staging Your House to Sell

If you’re planning to sell your house, proper staging can make a huge difference. It’s important to keep in mind that tastes change over time, though, and the staging techniques that were popular when you bought the home might not impress buyers today. If you really want to get the most value out of your home when you sell, it helps to employ staging that will appeal to buyers in the current housing market. Fortunately, there are many ways you can stage your home so that it draws in modern buyers. The goal is to help them see your home as a place they could inhabit and fill with their own style, and these suggestions will help you to achieve this even if tastes have changed since you last decorated your home.

Maximize Your Lighting

A lot of modern buyers are looking for function as well as form when they’re looking at houses. One example of this comes in the form of good lighting. Make sure that the windows are clean and that your window dressings allow natural light to come through. Check that you have sufficiently bright bulbs in your fixtures, and double check that none are burned out. You might also consider adding spotlights or other accent lights in places like the kitchen and bathroom where the potential buyers might want additional light. If you really want to wow people, you could even install smart bulbs that can be controlled from a smartphone or smart speaker.

Keep It Earthy

Color trends change over time. At the moment, warm colors are hot. When staging your home, work with accent colors such as chocolate, olive green, beige and wine to tie your various decorations together. This will add splashes of warm, earthy color that’s neither too bright nor too dark. As an added benefit, these shades go well with a wide range of wall and floor options, so you can add some nice earthy accents without having to completely redesign your home beforehand.

Touch Up the Walls

If your walls are too mild or too wild, consider adding a fresh coat of paint before you get ready to sell your home. There are several colors that are popular right now, including a number of shades of blue, gray and green. You can usually get away with some light pink and gold shades too, as well as the occasional off-white. You don’t want anything too bold in most rooms, just something that will give a bit of color to the room. But feel free to skew a little darker if you’re painting a bathroom or bedroom.

De-Personalize the Place

You may have heard that it’s a good idea to make your home look lived in, since that can help potential buyers see it as an actual living space instead of just a showcase. This isn’t bad advice; having some unique decorative items and other accents can really help buyers to picture their own stuff in the house. Just make sure that you take out anything that’s overly personal, like family photos, items with your family name and other keepsakes. Leave your decorations a little sparse, too. The goal is to inspire potential buyers and help them picture where they would put their belongings and their own pictures, and it’s hard to do that if there are pictures of your family everywhere or decorations filling every available space.

Finding the Right Look

If you’re not exactly sure how to stage your home, don’t be afraid to bring in a bit of professional help. HomeKeepr is here to help you with that, too. Sign up for a free account now and you’ll be on your way to finding the decorator or professional stager to assist you in getting just the look you need to really make your buyers want to sign.

Legislation affecting homeowners

Owning a home can be expensive, though the benefits of home ownership typically outweigh the cost. Occasionally, changes to the law at either the state or national level can affect how these benefits and costs affect you. This is especially true if you’re still considering whether or not to buy a house, since knowing how the law stands can have a big impact on your final decision.

Some legislation affecting homeowners is enacted at the federal level, while other bits of legislation come from the state. Because of the significant differences in the reach of these different types of legislation, it can be hard to cover all of the changes in law that affect homeowners from year to year. To help keep you informed, though, here are some fairly recent legislation trends that may be worth looking into.

Tax Break Changes

One big change that’s hitting a lot of homeowners hard is the elimination of some tax breaks that were formerly offered for home ownership. While this doesn’t directly affect the cost of owning a home, it can have a significant impact on your tax return if you were expecting to qualify for one of these expired breaks. Tax law is complex and can change from one year to the next, so it’s possible that these breaks (or others like them) will see a return in future years. However, it’s important to check each year before filing your taxes to make sure that you haven’t gotten mixed up by tax break changes or missed a break that you could have qualified for.

Roof Replacement Costs

In some areas, the law allowed homeowners to replace their roof without all of the costs normally associated with such a big job. This was due to contractors being allowed to waive a portion of their fees equal to the deductible on the customer’s homeowner’s insurance. Unfortunately, changes in the law are starting to shut this down. States like Texas are changing the law so that contractors caught waiving the deductible could face fines or even jail time. Homeowners obviously aren’t big fans of such changes, since they result in more out-of-pocket expenses when having to use their homeowner’s insurance.

Solar and Alt Energy Incentives

There were a number of solar and alternative energy incentives available to homeowners at both the state and federal level, but some of these have been altered, were negated or simply expired without renewal in the last year or two. In some cases, federal programs have been replaced by state programs that provide similar incentives. In other cases, the incentives have been revamped and renewed later. Not all tax breaks and other incentives have been renewed, though, so it’s important for homeowners to confirm that specific programs still exist before depending upon them to add alternative energy solutions to their homes.

Home Loan Changes

It seems like there are significant changes to home loans every few years – and recent years have been no exception. Fortunately for those wanting to buy a new home or refinance an existing loan, some recent bits of legislation have expanded on borrowing limits for certain types of loans without adding new restrictions. Unfortunately, many of these laws affect lending through state-level programs instead of making adjustments to loans at the federal level. Some also only affect certain types of homes or houses that are built for specific uses. If you’re waiting for changes to federal loan programs, you may have to wait a bit longer before those programs see major updates.

Consult the Experts

It’s hard to stay on top of the changes in laws from one year to the next. Having a lawyer or real estate expert to help you sort through all of it can be a great way to keep from being caught unprepared by these new laws. Fortunately, HomeKeepr can match you with just the pros that you need. Sign up today for free to get started.

Ways to Improve Your Home's Marketability TODAY!

Selling your home isn’t always easy. While there’s always a buyer out there somewhere, connecting with that buyer and agreeing on a price sometimes takes a little effort. There are a lot of little things that you can do to make this a lot easier, though. Many of these solutions are fairly easy on the budget and can also be added on short notice – and some of them may only take an hour or two to implement!

Add a Coat of Paint

Touching up the paint in your home can do wonders for the marketability of the place when you’re looking to sell. Fresh paint can cover up colors that weren’t a great choice in retrospect and will also make whites seem whiter. You may also hear suggestions about painting large floor tiles or bathroom fixtures, but that’s a job you should only take on if you know what you’re doing.

Change the Doorknobs

Dull doorknobs can give buyers the doldrums, so swap them out with new hardware for an instant front-door facelift. You can also change out cabinet and drawer handles if you want to add some extra flair to the various rooms of your home.

Update Your Light Fixtures

Other changes you can make to your home’s existing hardware include things like light fixtures, replacing old fixtures with something a bit nicer looking. While you’re at it you can also update your light switches and even electrical outlets to replace anything that seems worn or out of place.

Hang Some Mirrors

Few things can open up a room as quickly as adding a mirror. A few mirrors around the house will create the illusion of more open space and will also help to fill blank spaces on your walls if you’ve taken down family photos or other personal items. (Here’s a tip: Take down family photos and other personal items.) Just make sure that you don’t position the mirrors where they’ll be hit by direct sunlight during the day, since nobody wants to be blinded by their wall furnishings.

Tame That Lawn

Now is the time to put extra care into your lawn maintenance, taking the time to weed, seed and feed that lawn into emerald perfection. Trimming the shrubberies, adding some tasteful decorative bushes and finally doing something about that tree stump from three years ago might be a good idea as well.

Add Accent Lighting

While you’re working on the outside of your home, consider adding some path lighting, home accent bulbs or other outdoor lights. This will not only add to the beauty of the home but it will also give you a chance to show off some of the home’s best features in the evening and at night. As an added bonus, additional lighting around the home can be a good selling point from a security standpoint.

Replace the Toilet Seat

Spruce up the bathroom before you put your home on the market. While you’re in there, consider replacing the toilet seat. Not only will this get rid of one of the things in your home that’s most likely to be dirty, but it will also give potential buyers the thrill of possibly going where no one has gone before.

Get Smart

If you really want to impress, consider swapping out some of the light bulbs with LED smart lights. Be sure to choose Wi-Fi-enabled bulbs that can easily sync with Alexa or Google Home for maximum compatibility – and keep a copy of the syncing instructions for the eventual buyer. If you really want to go the extra mile, pick bulbs that can provide multiple colors of lighting… then have a smart speaker set up so you can show off how they respond to voice commands to your buyer.

Need More Ideas?

Consult a professional interior decorator for easy ways to improve the marketability of your home without breaking the bank. Sign up for HomeKeepr for free to find the pro who can help you move from selling to sold!