A vacant family room

I listed another vacant house a few days ago and decided to get some virtual staging in some of these big vacant rooms!   As you know most homes show better with a little bit of furniture in them so you can get a feel for the room size and help envision how you are going to utilize the room.

A "staged" family room - digitally staged that is!

Check this out!  The difference in these photo’s is “night and day”  See, the house is completely vacant, but we’ve “virtually” staged the home in the photo’s used on the Internet. 

Sure, when the customer shows up at the house they are going to find

A vacant dining room

the home vacant, but there must be something drawing them to look at homes at this price or in this area, right? 

Check out the dining room on the left and then the dining room below.  It might be difficult to know what the room would be used for seeing it vacant, but it’s more than obvious once you put a formal dining table in the room!

This is all new to me so I’ve been having fun staging homes virtually!

A digitally enhanced dining room!

The "before" photo of the vacant formal dining room

There are professionals who will come to your house and make recommendations and even rent furnishings to help a property show better and generally results in faster sales.

A new service has been introduced to real estate professional recently.  It is called virtual home staging.  Basically, we provide photographs of vacant rooms to the service and they add “digital furniture” to the empty rooms.

According to statistics compiled by National Association of Realtors, over 90% of the time, home buyers have viewed the home they ultimately purchased online before they physically veiwed the property.  This means that a buyers eye may stay on the photograph longer and increase the home’s visual appeal, hopefully resulting in the buyer asking to view the property.

Virtual furniture enhances a vacant room greatly!

Of course when the buyer shows up at the property, the rooms will be vacant.  There has been some discussion about whether or not this is a disclosure item, but most feel it’s not any different than when we take photo’s of the home prior to the seller moving out of the house.

Personally, I think it is very attractive!  What do you think?

The biggest impact and least expensive home update thing anyone can do is to paint the home.  New paint will clean it up, brighten the home and give it that “new home-new paint” smell!

Most modern homes come with very basic white walls.  When in doubt, you can’t go wrong with white walls, but look at the difference an accent wall of a different color can make! 

The clean look-white on white

It is best to stay nuetral in color, expecially if you are planning to sell

White trim with a colored wall

your home, but you can tastfully change the color to a different shade and warm up the entire room.

Many people like to use a semi-gloss paint on the walls.  Semi-gloss paint is easily washable if you want to remove hand prints or other smudges. 

Ceilings seem to look better with flat paint on them.  The flat helps hide smudges and irregularities in texture or sheet-rock lines.

Basic Brass Ceiling Light

In a previous blog post, I wrote how you can easily change your old brass door knobs and hinges out for newer stylish models yourself for a big visual punch!

Many times builders use the least expensive light fixtures they can get away with.  I’ve seen new construction homes with a light fixture allowance of only $1200 dollars in a $400,000 home.

Lights are something you can replace yourself inexpensively. 

If you have a friend to lend a hand holding the light up, it would be a welcome hand.  Don’t forget to trip the breaker or shut the power off to the circuit before you remove the light! 

You can change most lights in about 20 minutes.  Look at my example where I removed basic brass lights and replaced them with more stylish oil rubbed bronze lights.

Modern Oil Rubbed Bronze Ceiling Fixture

You are well on your way to having a stylish home, for cheap!

Homes get dated over time don’t they?  There are little things you can do yourself to spruce your house or condominium so it looks sharp and shows better.  If you are like me, you’ll gain a whole new appreciation of your home once you do a few simple things to cosmetically update your home.

Old-style brass door hardware

You’ll save a bunch of money if you can do it yourself or solicit the help of a handy friend or two! 

In the next blog post or two (or three), I’m going to give you some simple examples of “do it yourself” cosmetic updates that will spruce up any home – and inexpensively!

In homes prior to the mid-80′s, brass door knobs, cabinet pulls and hinges were the norm.  After the 1990′s more products have come on the market.  Finishes on plumbing fixtures such as nickel, satin, stainless steel and oil rubbed bronze are a welcome change!

A person with a Phillips screwdriver, (that’s the screwdriver with the “+” point on them), or even better a mechanical screwdriver, can easily remove a brass hinge and replace it with a modern color, say oil rubbed bronze.

Door knobs are the same thing.  It takes about 20 minutes per door once you get the hang of it; the change out is as easy as removing the old knob , inserting the new knob and tighting the screws!

Modern lever-style door handle in oil rubbed bronze finish

You’re on your way to updating your home inexpensively!

In real estate sales, most sales have a property inspection. Many times inspections reveal aspects of the property that the owners have lived with, and may have not known about or didn’t consider them to be a problem. 

Can zoning or code issues be grandfathered in?

Sometimes it is a survey ordered as part of the purchase agreement that discovers a problem.

When the buyers inspector comes around citing a code issue and calling for the repair, sellers often cry foul and the question of grandfather rights can come up.

First, what are “grandfather rights?”   The common interpretation of the terms means that “something that was once permitted in the law can continue to be, although the law or rule has changed.“  Generally, new construction must be built with the new code.  Depending on the situation, a grandfather right mean the condition can remain unless the property is sold or over 50% damaged, in which case it would have to be repaired to the new code.

In the case of a property, or property addition,  built without a building permit, our municipal authorities will handle it on a case by case basis.  If the addition or structure was built after zoning was in place, but a permit was not issued, they can require the structure to comply with the code, even if it means removing part of the structure to return to code compliance.  The cost of code compliance is rarely a consideration to the Zoning Enforcement officials. 

If the building or addition was built before zoning was in place, it may fall under grandfather rights since the built before there was a code in place.  However, if the property suffered a fire or other disaster, it would have to be re-built in accordance with the current code.  The Municipality of Anchorage has an interesting web page that speaks to the issue of “non-conforming” or grandfather rights.

There are many cases of code changes inside the home.  If the code is considered “health or safety”there are no “grandfather clauses” I am aware of.  Occasionally the code itself will call for properties after a certain date meet a particular requirement.  Most code infractions are found at the time of sale during the inspection process. 

Many sellers desire to sell “as-is” and not have to make code changes to their property.  One of the difficult aspects to this situation is that most lenders won’t allow a loan to close with life and safely violations.  This means the buyers loan can’t close without the repair being done.  If the seller insists they won’t make the code change, they may lose the buyer.  On later sales they now would have to disclose the code condition to new buyers, possibly deferring the same negotiation to the next transaction.

Examples of code changes that aren’t grandfathered and may be required to meet code for life and safety can include instillation of smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, bedroom egress window size and height and sometimes even the lack of sheet rock behind old paneling or under the stairs in the case of older split level stairs. Another common example might be GFCI breakers in the kitchen, bathrooms, garage and exterior electrical outlets. 

Codes are often developed as the result of fires, earthquakes and other disasters.  In the case of window heights and the size of the window opening, the code changed several times in the last decade.  It took a fire a the death of it’s occupants before local zoning determined that the code must be adhered to.  There would be no “grandfather clause” for the owners of the property.

Here are 10 ideas to help you sell.

1. Work on curb appeal.  If the yard is a mess, people are going to be less likely to buy the house, let alone look at the interior.  Some simple things that can be done are keeping the lawn mowed and edged and your house exterior painted and “squared away”.  Sealing an asphalt driveway with the “Black Jack” tar can improve your curb appeal. 

2. Remove all clutter.  Clutter makes the house seem smaller and less inviting to prospective buyers.  Discard or donate items to charities that you have out grown or no longer need, but are still usable.

3. Neutralize any smells.  Sorry to say, but a home with cigarette smoke can be a huge turn-off to people who don’t smoke.  If you have pets, the smell of pets will turn off a buyer.  Cat boxes, dog mess in the back yard, stale fish tanks and ferret cages are good examples of smells that will get a buyer out of your home quickly. 

4. Clean your interior!  Hire a cleaning service if you hate this sort of work, but

Make your home "stand out" by making it clean & stage it like a model home!

 nothing if more important.  Shampoo carpets, vacuum floors, wash any dirty walls from pets, kids and wash windows inside and out.  Also consider removing some of your personal things, such as photo’s of your kids in every grade as they matured.  It makes it easier for prospective buyers to see themselves living in your home.

5. Inspect the house.  Sometimes something as minor as a creaky floorboard, a broken light switch or a toilet that runs can cast an impression to the buyer you don’t want.  Get someone not emotionally involved with your house to walk through and help you evaluate your home with another set of eyes.

6. Fix any neglected things.  If something obviously needs fixing, especially if it is something anybody can do, it sends a conflicting message to the prospective buyer.  Subconsciously, they will start to wonder what the next surprise will be.  A lot of first time home-buyers barely have enough money to buy the house and are not ready to have to begin repairs right away.

7. Invest in renovations, if necessary.  Is the carpet worn?  Are there wear paths down the hall or stairs in the carpeting?  Are there marks on your walls from a child’s marker pen?  Do you have loud primary paint colors on your walls?  Was your kitchen in-vogue in 1975 and pretty much looks the same?  Don’t count on finding a buyer who wants to find a home they can work on.  Far more buyers are looking for a home they DON’T have to work on.

8. Get the opinions of others.  Sometimes a different perspective can go a long way to broadening your houses’s appeal.  Others see and notice things you tend to ignore.  Sometimes you’ve lived with something in your own home so long you don’t even see it anymore.  A good realtor can be invaluable here, as they may be able to see home weaknesses that you are unaware of.

9. Consider getting a home inspection.  Sure, it’s normal for a buyer to get an inspection when they buy, but what if you could get a jump on the process and show a recent inspection report and show you’ve already made the recommended repairs or have them underway? 

Here is a good video from Susan Botticelli, a real estate and home staging expert in San Diego.  If you can see past the obvious geographic and construction differences between San Diego homes and Anchorage homes, you’ll pick up some great points.