Posts tagged "Home Seller"

Simple Steps That Lower Your Moving Costs

You just bought a new house and want to make sure you get the most professional efficient cost effective relocation.  You can follow these simple steps to ensure this happens. 

First, educate yourself on what kind of move you have and how you are being charged for the process.  Different types of moves have different types of charges.

• Local Move:  You are moving within a local area less than 60 miles.  These estimates are based on an hourly rate, depending on how many workers are needed and how much time it will take to pack, load and deliver your possessions.  This is called a time and material estimate. 
• Out of State Move:  Your move is out of the state, estimates will be based on the distance of the move and the weight of your goods.  To provide you with an accurate estimate, your sales consultant will need about an hour of your time to walk through your home. He or she is viewing  and quantifying everything that will be relocated on your move. 

Other factors can influence the price of your move, including what optional services you select for your relocation.

• Packing:  Are you going to pack all the loose items in boxes for transport? Or is this a service you would like the professionals to handle?
• Specialty Items:  Do you have unique, heavy or delicate pieces, such as automobiles, pianos, large exercise equipment, or large appliances that may need special servicing and attention?

On a local move time is of the essence.  The faster the move gets done, the more money you will save.  The key is to have everything as ready as possible when your moving crew arrives.  Have all boxes taped, labeled and ready to go.  You don’t want to end up paying $100 or more an hour for movers to tape boxes.  You want your professional crew doing the things that make them the professionals; prepping and wrapping the important items, and handling your precious items with care. 

Labeling boxes is also very important.  I recommend labeling the boxes with a room location and a brief description of what is in the box.  This will save time at destination when items are going into the new home.  This avoids the headaches of opening the boxes to see the contents then deciding where it goes.  You will be too busy showing the movers where you would like the bigger pieces set and placed. 

Additionally, if you have everything prepped and ready there are a couple other time saving tips that can save you time and money.  You can disassemble tables, beds and anything else that needs to be disassembled to get out of the house.  You can also make items more easily assessable by eliminating stair carries and long walks.  Bringing some items from basement to main floor or garage will knock tons of time off your final bill.  If manual labor isn’t your thing and you don’t want to take the risk of getting injured you always have the option to just sit back and point and let the experts take care of everything, as they are on your clock and would be happy to assist you with anything.

Finally, if you are moving over 60 miles within the state or out of state your estimate will be based on distance and weight.  You really can’t control the distance of your relocation but you can control the final weight of your shipment.  Moving provides a great opportunity to sort and eliminate items and household goods no longer needed.  You can focus on eliminating heavy items in order to save costs on your move.  For example excess books, weight equipment, tools, and large appliances can sneak up on you very quickly towards the final weight of your move.  I am not saying to get rid of items you use on a daily basis and are necessities, but a good example would be if you have 20 boxes of old college texts books at 50 pounds a box totaling 1,000 pounds. This is 1,000 pounds of weight you may not want to pay to have moved.  Make sure you get things as organized as much as possible before the estimator arrives.  This will allow the consultant to quote the move as close as possible to the actual final shipping weight. 

It is my hope these small tips will help you understand what is needed to have your most cost effective relocation.  If you have any additional question, or would like a free in home estimate, please e-mail me at csabolik@morsemoving.com or call me at (734) 740-2072 to schedule an appointment.  I look forward to the opportunity to add you or your client to our growing list of satisfied customers. 

Chris Sabolik

Regional Manager

Morse Moving/agent for ALLIED van lines

Visit our website at www.morsemoving.com

Curb Appeal

You only get one chance to make a first impression

Creating good curb appeal has never been more important than in the current real estate market.  Buyers have many choices since there are many homes on the market and sellers are competing with bargain foreclosures and bank owned properties.  Here are a few tips to help you spruce up the curb appeal of your house and make it stand out from the competition.

View from the Street – Make sure the grass is cut and bushes are trimmed and all of the kid’s toys are put away and not laying around the yard.  It would also be a good idea to put some of the lawn gnomes in storage.  It is best to have a crisp look and minimal lawn ornaments

Sidewalks & Driveway – Make sure that the sidewalks and driveway are clean and there are no weeds growing in the cracks.  A container of Roundup can help with this, simply spray the grass or weeds that are growing in the cracks and it will be dead and gone in just a few days.  The nice thing about using Roundup in the crack is that it will help prevent more weeds from growing.  Usually two applications will address the issue for the entire summer.

Lawn – The grass should be kept cut and if there are weeds popping up you can always spot spray them with weed killer.  The grass around the walks and drive should be neatly edged, so it isn’t growing over the cement.

Porch – A couple of chairs on the porch and maybe a small table so there is a place to set your iced tea.  Just make sure there is enough room to move around on the porch.

Front Door – the door should be clean and if the paint is faded or chipped it would be well worth the effort to give the door (and trim) a fresh coat of paint.  As potential buyers are standing in front of the door waiting for their agent to unlock it they will look around and if they see evidence of a lack of maintenance they will automatically assume that the rest of the house is not properly cared for either.

Windows – The windows should be clean, again to show that the home is well cared for and it will also allow plenty of light in.

Gutters & Roof – If there is debris (sticks, leaves, weeds) visible in the gutters or on the roof when you are standing in the yard be sure to clean them out.  Take a look out any second floor windows and if you can see in any gutters or on the roof you will want to make sure that these areas are kept clean.

Bonus Tips – Exterior Photos

Since the initial impression buyers have often comes from the main exterior photo on the listing in the MLS there are some dos and don’ts for the photo.

I hope these tip help you when preparing to sell your house.  These tips come from observations of thousands of homes that I have shown and seen in the MLS.  Most of these tips will cost nothing to implement and could make a huge impact in the number of showings your house draws.  As I’m sure you already know the more showings the more potential for offers.  I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor to sell your house.  If you are in the Metro Detroit area I would be more than happy to help you get your house sold for the highest price the market will bear.

Check out our other posts on preparing a home for sale and selling; Kitchen Staging, Good Smelling Equals MORE Selling, and 3 Ways Sellers Unwittingly Kill Deals

Gordon Johnson

Realtor, ABR, SRES

Coldwell Banker Preferred, Realtors

44644 Ann Arbor Road

Plymouth, MI 48170

(734) 658-3662

Gordon@SellMyMichiganHouse.com

www.SellMyMichiganHouse.com

Good Smelling Equals MORE Selling

Reminiscing about how much I loved coming home from school to the scent of Mom’s baking, I wanted to give my kids the same experience.  I timed it so the chocolate chip cookies would be warm and ready to eat when they walked in the door.  While smelling the cookies as they baked, I was reminded of when my husband and I were in the market to buy a home five years ago.  Some homes had no scent at all, some smelled nice, and some had very unpleasant scents.  The funny thing is it’s the homes with the very nice or very bad scents that we remember most.  One homeowner was at home cooking while we were viewing her house.  She probably loved the scent of her dish, but it was hard for us to take.  While it shortened our visit there, I still remember that house very well years later.  Everything about it was nice, except the smell.

            Looking back, I realize that scents have a powerful effect on our experiences and on the decisions we make.  Even if the home had great curb appeal and was nice on the inside, we walked away because it had unpleasant smells.  Sometimes we don’t realize that the unpleasant scents exist because we’re so used to them.  These scents could be from various things like cooking herbs and seasonings, pets, garbage cans, musty pipes, even diaper genies which aren’t perfect.  I remember getting a call from the realtor who wanted to bring a potential buyer over within twenty minutes to view the home.  I scrambled to get my infant triplets’ diapers changed and get out of the house in time for their arrival.  I was so worried that the scent of dirty diapers would linger in their bedroom while the guests were viewing it.  If only I had known about Scentsy wickless warmers then.  I would have had one in my kitchen and one in the nursery.  I would have left the house stress-free and felt confident that the potential buyers would stay longer, want to come back, and maybe even make an offer. 

You certainly shouldn’t light a scented candle and leave your home.  Thankfully, there’s a safer alternative.  Scentsy makes a ceramic warmer that melts scented wax by the heat of a small light bulb.  There’s no wick, so they are safe unattended even if left on for hours and forgotten.  They come in many different styles and are attractive to look at.  Scentsy has basic scents that are generally pleasing to everyone like sugar cookie and clean, laundry scents.  Everyone oohs and ahhhs over the sugar cookie scent and asks where the bakery is when I’m at a craft show.  I’ve learned to set out a small plate of sugar cookies near the warmer since their mouths are watering from the scent.  If you turn it on about 30 – 60 minutes before an open house or scheduled appointment, it would be in full effect.  Your guests will remember the house – positively!

            To see the warmers and smell the over 80 sample scents, please email me at safeindoorscents@rockdoggy.com or call me at 734-956-0747 to schedule an appointment.  My website is http://www.safeindoorscents.scentsy.us where you can view the many warmers – plug-in, medium, and full-sized.  Orders can be placed online. 

Kristine Barnes

Certified Scentsy Consultant

May 2011