Top 10 Tips For Selling Your Home in Winter

Selling your home is challenging enough without all the added dreariness of winter. If you're living in an area that even resembles Omaha at this time, you know why winter is not the ideal time to put your house on the market. However, there are steps you can take to brighten your home and make the showing pleasant and enjoyable for buyers. I read this great article on About.com with tips to selling your house in winter, their top 10 tips are:

1. Clear a path - Make sure your walkways are constantly clear and clean from snow. Footprints on fresh snow will turn into ice, so make sure to scrape the walk. It's important to have a path from the street to your house as well so visitors don't have to crawl over a snow mound. It it's snowing or raining, make sure to put out a mat by the front door or a vase to hold wet umbrellas.
2. Let in the light - Open the blinds, shutters and drapes in every window (unless there is an undesirable scene outside, such as a close building or dilapidated fence). Use the lighting in your house, especially in darker rooms with few windows. Turn off the TV!
3. Turn on the heat - Pump up the thermostat. It's better to heat the house a degree or two warmer than usual and then set the temperature at normal. This prevents the heat from kicking on when the buyer is present, because some HVAC systems can be loud. If the temperature is comfortable, people will be likely to linger longer, and if you have a fireplace use it! It will add warmth to the house.
4. Create a mood - One of best things about winter is cuddling up inside under a warm blanket with your loved ones, so take advantage of that emotion people will be feeling at this time. Make your living room romantic with two champagne glasses near a champagne bucket on the coffee table. Toss afghans over the sofa or chair arm. Turn your bathroom into a spa. Set up vases with winter flowers, or try dressing your dining room table for a dinner for two.
5. Turn on the music - Something soothing to set the mood for those walking through your house. Jazz or classical are good choices.
6. Ease up on the scents - Many people are irritated or sensitive to certain scents and candles, so avoid perfuming the house up too much. Try baking winter cookies or sweets instead, but make sure you leave some out for your guests! Don't tease them with the smell and disappoint them when there is nothing.
7. Make it visually pleasing - Staging is important no matter what time of the year you're selling so make sure to follow the basic rules. Two important rules are to declutter the house and clean it up! Dust, wash, wax, vacuum, sweep, mop, polish - anything you notice, buyers definitely will.
8. Serve winter foods - Try setting out some hot soup, chili or stew, and make sure you leave a place for the disposal of paper bowls and plastic spoons. Hot apple cider or cocoa make great beverages, too. Whatever you serve, keep it clean and try to make it complex - you want buyers to stay for a while and eat while they notice elements they might have otherwise missed.
9. Provide specific information - Attach a printed card to items and in rooms that provide further information the buyer might miss or might not know. If your stairs are steep, place a card on the railing letting them know. Have an antique chandelier? Set out a card with its age and other important details.
10. User timers and technology to your advantage - Have outdoor lamps on motion sensor for when when a buyer approaches, and put indoor lamps or a crock pot on a timer so they will be ready when the buyer arrives.

** Check out the original article: Selling in Winter - Top 10 Tips to Home Selling in Winter

Cheapest Decorating Tip with Biggest Impact

Paint is the best way to decorate on a budget. Let's continue painting, but move to the walls. But let's go a step beyond just painting the walls. Let's paint wall designs!

My husband and I just completed painting our basement family room. It had a been a dark green flat paint, and it made the basement feel like a dungeon. We chose a lighter eggshell paint and wow! What a difference. But I decided to take it a step further and paint some designs. I will post pictures in an upcoming post. But for now, let's take a look at some of the possibilities.

Tools needed: A level, tape measure, pencil and blue painter's tape... and a calculator if you're not very good with math. The rest is up to your imagination. Take a look at some of these colorful ideas.

Happy Painting!

Staying Warm Outside in the Fall Weather

It's getting cool here in Nebraska with night time lows dipping into the 30's.  It's great weather for doing just about anything....especially lighting your fireplace or sleeping with the windows open while snuggling under a stack of comforters.  That's the best!  But just because the weather is getting cooler doesn't mean you can't spend evenings outside.  You can still be warm and toasty.  

Fire bowls and chimineas are the way to go to stay warm in the brisk fall weather when you're working with a limited budget. There is quite a range of selections and prices for these options.  One could spend fifty dollars to several hundred dollars and stay well within your budget.  The selections are endless.  

Different finishes and designs are available.  You are only limited by your imagination.  You can find various fire bowls on line as well as local hardware stores, garden shops, and department stores.Fire bowls are the way to go to stay warm in the brisk fall weather when you're working with a limited budget. There is quite a range of selections and prices for these options.  One could spend fifty dollars to several hundred dollars and stay well within your budget.  The selections are endless.  Different finishes and designs are available as well.  You are only limited by your imagination.  You can find various fire bowls or chimineas on line as well as local hardware stores, garden shops, and department stores.

Available at 1.AmazingFirePits.com

So get out and enjoy this weather!  Bring out the hot dogs and marshmallows and gather around YOUR fire!  Happy fall, ya'll!

What Does A Red Door Really Mean?

I've always wanted a red door on my house.  In our previous home in Phoenix, the homeowners association didn't allow me to paint my door red.  But now that I am back in Omaha, that no longer applies.

So, exactly what does it mean to have a red door? I decided to research it and here is what I found.

BEFORE

First it is a big feng shui thing, although I don't know much about feng shui. In early America, a red door was a sign of "welcome." When people had to travel by horse and buggy, they had to stop often. If they came upon a house with a red door, that usually meant they would be able to spend the night. There is even rumor that a red front door was used in the underground railroad as a sign for the slaves traveling north that that house was a safe house.

AFTER

In old Catholicism the door of a church was painted red to represent the blood of Christ and other Martyrs and once you passed thru the doors, the ground (church floor) was holy ground. I read that in Scotland when you paid off your mortgage you painted your door red. Unfortunately, that's not true in my case.

Most interesting red door story: Albert Einstein started this tradition because he could not recognize his own home. So he painted his door red. Then his home stood out and he could find his home. Guess he wasn't that smart.

Considering selling your home? If it goes with your colors, consider painting your front door red. Your house will stand out from all the other houses on your street and with your Buyers. "Oh, I really liked the one with the RED door!" See what I mean?

Staging Your Home to Sell in a Competitive Market

The phrase, "Staging Your Home" has become a hot phrase in the real estate market. In this ever increasingly competitive market - whether it be Omaha or anywhere in the nation - staging has almost become a necessary step in getting your home ready to sell.

What do I mean by staging? Staging is a process where someone with an eye for interior design comes into your home, either brings in items to your home to enhance your home or uses items you already have in a different way. Often I will walk into a home and the first thing I will do is to start rearranging the furniture to give that particular room an illusion of warmth and roominess. Taking items from other rooms in the house, they will be brought to the room you're focusing on and be re-purposed in a way perhaps you'd never thought of and yet it will give that room the "pop" it needs to look put together.

Why staging? Often when a buyer is looking for their next home, their real estate agent will show them sometimes ten homes in one day. You want your home to be the one they remember, because trust me, after looking at 10 homes, you start to get them all confused. You want them to think, "I liked that house that......had the amazing living room....or the cozy kitchen with all that counter space...or....you fill in the blank. It works! It really does!

Lastly, the idea is to spend as little money as possible to stage a home. Often, as a real estate agent, I will shop for my sellers at Goodwill....yes, Goodwill... to find items for their home for the purpose of staging. Another GREAT place to shop is Habitat for Humanity's ReStore. It is filled with everything from doors to windows to appliances to lamps to lighting to......use your imagination......and at a fraction of the cost. Example: I just had a seller completely replace their worn out vinyl flooring in the kitchen for beautiful new tile floors purchased at the ReStore. I've also been shopping for a light fixture for the dining room of another home I'll be listing. I found one for $20 at the Restore. All I need to do is to spray paint it brushed nickel and add some small lamp shades and we have a dining room light for a fraction of the cost.

Landmark Group is sponsoring Landmark Group's Race 2 Re:Cycle to benefit Habitat for Humanity. (Check out the website and sign up to be a part of this awesome event at www.omaharace2recycle.com ). Shopping at the ReStore is another way to benefit Habitat for Humanity while fulfilling a need you might have for your own home....whether it is for your own home improvement or for getting your home ready to sell.

Staging is a service we can offer you, as a seller, if you list your home with Landmark Group. We have proven results. So consider staging AND the Landmark Group when you get ready to sell your home.

"You only get one chance to make a good first impression."

Jennifer Murdoch
Realtor
Landmark Group