Exterior Home Improvements That Increase Resale Value

There’s no doubt that ‘curb appeal’ plays a big part in getting a home sold.  I’ve had buyers call me after I set up an appointment that they requested to say that they drove by a home and were no longer interested.  Something can either grab you and pull you in or turn you upside down and make you run away.  Here are a few ideas for making your home look better AND getting a good payback.

Replace Your Front Door.  This can be huge, even if it costs a bit more than $1,000.  If you judge your door to be alright, I’d like you to still take a critical view of it.  Remember that buyers will be standing there for a few moments while their agent deals with getting the keys out of the lockbox.  Clean it, repaint it, replace the tarnished doorknob and lock hardware with new, shiny stuff.  Don’t forget to look at the entire entryway to see if it needs power washing, a touch of paint or some bright flowers.

Landscape Update.  A good landscaping makeover will not only get you a higher sales price, it’ll help sell your house faster, too.  Consider talking with a local landscaping company to see what you can do that fits your budget.  Generally a company will get things done quicker than you can yourself, if your time frame is short.

Exterior Repaint.  This is a great time to inspect your siding, too.  Some composite sidings have had issues with product breakdown, so be sure to check it over, replace sections as needed and be sure the caulking is intact.  A home inspector will find the issues, so it’s better to head it off.  Vinyl siding?  Consider a good power wash to brighten things up.

Read the rest of the suggestions here.

More sellers come onto the market in the summer (60% of all homes sold in 2014 entered the market from May to August). If you're looking to buy - now's the time! Contact me for help with your search.

image courtesy of lawnstarter.com and RISMedia

Freddie Mac Consumer Credit Tutorial

First, for those who are really new to the process of buying a home, here’s a little bit of background.  The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), commonly referred to as ‘Freddie Mac’ is a corporation authorized by Congress to provide a secondary market for residential mortgages.  It is a public government-sponsored enterprise (GSE),   which buys mortgages on the secondary market, pools them, and sells them as a mortgage-backed security (MBS) to investors on the open market. This secondary mortgage market increases the supply of money available for mortgage lending and increases the money available for new home purchases.  You may have heard of Freddie Mac’s sister, Fannie Mae, another GSE.  They’ve both been in the news a lot over the last few years.  Not as much as the Kardashian’s, but still quite a lot.

Freddie Mac has come out with a free 12 part consumer tutorial called CreditSmart®.  The stated goals of this program are to understand the importance of building credit, see how lenders assess your eligibility for a mortgage loan, recognize the warning signs of predatory lending and scams, learn the steps to successful homeownership and safeguard your home and your finances against life’s unexpected challenges.  It also has a module that talks about what to do if you ever have difficulty making your mortgage payments.

It’s recommended that you take the modules in order to get the most out of the program.  Each module can take up to 20 or 30 minutes, but you can do them at your own pace.  If you’re a potential first time buyer, or if you have bruised credit and are thinking about a home purchase, you would be well off to go through this series. You can find it here.