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!

Lafayette Market Report March 2013 - Pending Sales

I'm loving these results!  A lot of times we see the yearly trend follow the previous years, but in March we had a BIG JUMP in pending sales!  I can hardly wait to see what the "closed sales" are for April because according to the pending sales, it's predicted to be good!

Lafayette Market Report March 2013 - Sales

This is just exciting!  Last year we did great, but this year is looking even better!!!

Number of closed home sales in March 2012: 213

Number of closed home sales in March 2013: 262

23% better than March 2012

21% better than February 2013

Total home sales from January - March 2012: 516

Total home sales from January - March 2013: 676

31% better than last year

Average days on the market January - March 2012: 110

Average days on the market January - March 2013: 93

17 days less than last year

Lafayette is making "Top" lists again!

I love our city and I'm so glad it gets recognized for it's greatness! 

 I saw an article that said we topped the "Top 10 Small American City of the Future" and it led me to other articles where we topped the list!  

Lafayette tops the list for FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) Strategy.  According to Wikipedia, Foreign Direct Investment is an, "investment into production or business in a country by a company in another country, either by buying a company in the target country or by expanding operations of an existing business in that country.  You can read more about this on KATC's  and The Advertiser's website!

Lafayette placed 7th in the overall catagory.  The ranking was based on several points, but some included economic potential, human resources, cost effectiveness, infrastructure, and business friendliness.  Cities were also judged on a written submission about their current strategies for FDI promotion. 

The Milken Institute put out a list of the best preforming cities of 2012.  Although Lafayette wasn't number 1 or even in the top 10, I think it's important to see how much we improved since 2011.  In 2011, we were ranked 93.  In 2012, we ranked 24!  We moved up 63 spots!  That's amazing!

Lastly, Lafayette ranked number 6 our of 10 in Livability's top Foodie Cities.  This probably doesn't come as a surprise to anyone because we certainly do have some good food here!  

 I love living here and it gives me great joy to find homes for new families moving here because I know they will love it like I do! 

How to tell if "recovery" has happened in your neighborhood!

All over the internet there are articles about how the market is recovering, but how can you tell if it's recovered in your neighborhood.  According the this article on AOL Real Estate, there are a few things to look for!

1.  SIGNS!

• Are there for sale signs popping up everywhere?  If so, that's a sign that your neighbors are getting confident in the market and think they can sell rather quickly.
• Are they going down as quickly as they go up?  If so, GREAT!  That is a great sign that your neighborhood is part of that "recovery."  However, if they sit there for months and months, that means your neighborhood has a ways to go!

2.  Are your Neighbors houses look good!?

• If your neighbor starts sprucing up the yard, painting or renovating that's a sign that they are getting ready to sell and they believe buyers are attracted to the neighborhood.  However, if homes are dingy and for sale for months, that is not a good sign!

3.  Traffic at Open Houses

• If traffic at Open houses is picking up, that's a great sign.  Word of warning though, watch the traffic and look for familiar faces!  If they are unfamiliar, that's good, you want to make sure it's not just the neighbors going to check it out!  

4.  New Neighbors?

• It's a good sign if you are getting new neighbors and not just neighbors that bought a house, even if they are renters that can mean that people are interested in your neighborhood!

5.  Is there high enrollment at the neighborhood school?

• Low enrollment = Bad sign, High Enrollment = GREAT SIGN!

6.  Are you seeing contractors!?

• Apprasiers, termite inspections, moving vans, but most importantly, home inspectors!  A home inspection is a sure sign that a closing is coming.  

7.  Are houses selling for more than your asking price?

• Needless to say, if this happens, you are probably in good shape!

Real Estate Checklists

I'm going on a trip this weekend and I'm making a list of all that I need to do beforehand so that I can sleep at night and not have to think about all the things I need to remember.  When I have it written down, I feel like I don't have to worry about it anymore.

That's why I liked the Nest.com's recent post with Real Estate Checklists.  It has a list for your every need!

Selling home?
Buying a home?
Insurance Inventory?
Moving?
Getting a Home Inspection?
Picking a Mortgage?
Preparing for an Open House?
Go-To Numbers?

I was going to pick a favorite of these lists, but after looking at them all, they are all super helpful and great.  Click on them all and decide which ones are best for your needs and simply print them out!

Friday Favorite

I just love this idea for a back patio!  It's a neat and stylish way to store things like frisbees, balls, dog toys, etc.  It would also be cool for a party!  You could store snacks and drinks in those cool looking bins!  LOVE IT!

*** Picture found on Pinterest

HGTV's April 2013 Color of the Month

As usual, on the first of the month I check out HGTV's color of the month.  Shockingly, on Monday I found out that they chose cardboard beige!

Really?  I was stumped.  I couldn't believe it.  I went to their pinterest page and to see what other pictures they had of rooms with this as the color and the one above was all they had.

Then it dawned on me!

APRIL FOOLS!

I must admit, they got me!

So... onto the real thing!  This months color is RASBERRY!

I must admit, I love this color, but I don't love it for walls.  I like it for accents.  

The picture below is a bit too much rasberry for me!

I love these pictures though...

Home Staging TIps

I found a great article about simple home staging tips here.

Lots of people are tempted to bake cookies or spray some smell goods and some even play music to leave their house feel welcoming to buyers.

Here are 3 general rules to follow if you want to do that:

1.  Keep it simple.

• Choose simple scents.  According to the article, shoppers spend 31.8% more time in home decor stores when the scent was a plain orange instead of a blend of orange, green tea, and basin. The more simple, the less distracting!
• Keep songs slower. Faster tempo songs, leads to faster moving buyers.  You want buyers to move slower through out the house!  

2.  Keep it pleasant.

• If the scent is too strong, buyers will want to rush out of your home so they can get a breath of fresh air.  You want the scent to smell good, but almost unnoticeable so that they buyers can focus on your house, not the smell!
• The louder the song, the more the buyer will focus on the music instead of your house.  

3.  Keep it consistent.

• Have the scent fit the surroundings or season.   If you have a stone and wood home, have a pine scent.  If it's winter, use christmas scents.  If it's spring, use florals.