How to buy and sell a house at the same time!

AOL Real Estate posted a great article about how to buy a sell a house at the same time.  It had lots of great information, but my favorite part was about knowing your numbers.  Click on the link to read the whole thing, but here is a recap!

1.  Prepare to be stressed!

• Buying a home is stressful.  Selling a home is stressful.  Prepare yourself to be stressed and that will help in the long run!

2.  Meet with your agent early!

• Even if you are months from selling or buying a home, it's good to meet with your agent early so you know what you should expect to sell your house for.  Lots of times, sellers think their home is worth less (or more) than it's worth and an agent can give you the right market value and can also let you know what improvements need to be made before you list your home.  Also, the value of your home can affect the value of the home you can afford when you buy!

3.  Learn the market where you want to purchase.

• After knowing what your current home is worth, you need to know how much you can afford when you go to buy!  What's on your wish list?  How long will it take to find exactly what you want?  Is the area you want to buy, more competitive than where you live now?  If you are moving to a different area, your listing agent might not be your buying agent so you might need to find a different one in that area.  

4.  Know your numbers.

• Many people can not afford to buy a home before they sell their current one, so it's important to know that upfront.  
• Buying in a competitive market?  Negotiate a contingency that you must sell your home first!
• Selling in a competitive market?  Negotiate rent back or a longer escrow to give you more time to find the right home
• Selling in a slow market and buying in a competitive market?  Need the sales proceeds in order to do the purchase?  Consider the option of selling your home first and then moving into a rental for temporary housing.  This might lesson your stress.  

Louisiana made another list!

Who knew that Louisiana was a great place to retire!  I can't say I'm surprised, but this morning KATC posted a link on facebook from Bankrate.com saying that Louisiana ranks No. 2 in the 10 Best States for Retirement!

Here is the write up:

"Besides jazz and beignets, Louisiana offers retirees an excellent combination of low taxes (the Tax Foundation ranks it as the fourth lowest in the nation) and balmy weather. Louisiana has a 30-year average temperature -- that includes both winter lows and summer highs -- of 66.7 degrees. That's higher than every other state except Hawaii and Florida. It also has better-than-average access to medical care and a relatively low cost of living. One major knock on Louisiana, however, is a crime rate that's among the highest in the nation. The FBI says there are 4,244 property and violent crimes per 100,000 people in Louisiana."

Then I googled, "Lafayette, LA retirement," and I found an article on Forbes.com, and Lafayette, LA was listed as one of the "Best Places for a Working Retirement in 2013!"  Here is their write up:

"The capital of Cajun culture has a lot going for it besides tasty food. This includes a 3.7% unemployment rate, a cost of living 12% below the national average, and a typical home price of $150,000, 19% below the U.S. average of $186,000. The state's tax climate is good and so is the local air quality."

Sneaky Way to Organize Junk!

When you are selling your home and showing it to buyers, you have to keep it clean!  If your like me, you have junk drawers or bins that are unorganized and overflowing.  I clean them out, every once in a while, and find things that I've looked for for months!  The nest.com wrote an article about nifty ways to hide the clutter, but still keep it organized.  Check out the article, but this was one of my favorites!

HGTV's May 2013 Color of the Month

It's the 1st of May, so that means it's time for a new color of the month at HGTV!  I like to know these things to help keep me up to date on the "in" colors and this month surely didn't disappoint.

Here's the article, but I'll give the run down.

They couldn't decide between Whisper Gray or Orange-Red Poppy and suggested both colors look great together as you can see in this picture:

Picture from HGTV (and didn't disappoint! I love the look.)

In the end, they chose whipser gray.  Grays are so hot right now, so I think they made the right choice. It is a great color that goes with any brighter color and can be modern or traditional.   Who knows... maybe Orange-Red Poppy will be next, but for now, here are some examples of whisper gray from HGTV's pinterest boards.

5 Low Cost Curb Appeal Tips!

It's Spring and a popular time to spruce up your yard!  The outside of your home is the first thing people see, so you should try to create a good first impression.

AOL Real Estate had a great article about low cost tips for good curb appeal.  I thought they had some great ideas!

1.  Remove debris everyday.

• If you just take a few minutes everyday to pull a few weeds.  Personally, I love to use Roundup in my flower beds.  If your weeds are bad, you use this and they are gone!  Make sure not to spray your plants though.  I've used this since I moved into my house and now I rarely have any weeds.  
• Also, pick up the pine needles or extra leaves, it makes your home look well taken care of and easy to maintain.  You don't want buyers to be overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done to spruce up your landscaping!

2.  Trim everything back to a "just planted" look.

• You want all the plants to seem slow growing, and again, easy to maintain.  Windows and natural light are big selling features so it's important to not have plants or trees blocking the windows!  

3.  Make a splash with annual color.

• Color makes your landscaping pop and gets those buyers to give your home a second glance!  I, personally, love impatians and vinca, for our area because they are so easy to maintain (no pruning and not much watering), grow full and bright, and last from spring until the beginning of fall!

4.  Top off the flower bed.

• A little bit of mulch can go a long way!  It just makes your bed look refreshed and new!  It also helps control those weeds!

5.  Keep it green.

• The article suggests painting your lawn with turf paint if your yard is brown, but I have never done that, so I'm not sure of the results.  You can always try weed and feed and fertilizer and see how that works!

About how long should it take to sell your home?!

I love to see this chart every month because it can give the seller more of an idea as to what to expect when they list their house at a specific price range.  For example, if you list your home and it's appropriately priced in the $200,000-$219,000 price range you can see that in March 55 houses were sold, 76 are actively listed and houses in that price range took about 4.2 months to sell.

You can also see the middle category ($150,000-$299,999) is the most popular range in our area because 59.3% of all sales occurred in this price range and 55.4% are listed in this price range.  

Festival International Time!!!

It's Festival International time!  It's a festival that so many people look forward to and travel from afar to see.  I think it's one of the many reasons our city is so great!  I tried to embed a video from you tube about the music line up this year, but for some reason was unsuccessful.  So click on this link and you can see it!

Here is the web page.  It will give you all the information you need to attend!