Yajnesh Rai

What to Do Before the Movers Show Up | Realtor Magazine

Working with professional movers doesn’t mean the homeowner can escape the entire process. Homeowners will still need to prep the house for the moving company before they arrive to pack them up. Realtor.com® recently highlighted several of the items homeowners should do before the moving company arrives, including:

Protect your floors.

To help avoid damage to the house, remove anything fragile that could be in the path as furniture and boxes get moved. “Lightbulbs, fixtures, pictures, mirrors, wall hangings should be removed from the main areas where furniture will be moved,” Pat Byrne, operations manager of Moving Ahead Moving & Storage, a Long Island–based moving company, told realtor.com®.

Notify the movers about any hardwood flooring. “If you have hardwood floors or tile in any rooms, let your movers know ahead of time so they can prepare the right materials—and make sure your contract includes hardwood floor protection,” Miranda Benson, marketing coordinator at Dolly, a San Francisco–based moving company, told realtor.com®.

10 Ways to Make Moving Easier

A Moving Guide for Your Clients

Make a clear path.

Make the movers’ job easier and think ahead to a variety of potential obstacles on moving day. For example, consider the parking situation outside your home. Where can the movers leave their truck when packing up? “If you live in an apartment building or if there is limited parking in your area, ask the movers if they will handle the logistics or if you need to do so,” suggests Ali Wenzke, author of The Art of Happy Moving. You may even need the local city government to get involved to get appropriate signage and allowances. Also, ensure that the driveway and front access points of the home are clear of any debris, such as kids’ toys, or anything that could pose a slip hazard, Byrne says.

Be available.

Don’t supervise the mover by hovering as they pack you up, but be readily available to answer any questions. Alert the movers to anything special they should know that could impact how they move out your furniture and boxes.

“There are little things about your house that you only learn from living there: The hallway closet door never stays closed, the third step down has a slight bend, a pack of hornets tends to congregate around the back door, so use the front—these are all valuable things that make your movers’ lives easier,” Benson told realtor.com®. “On top of that, being available to answer questions, whether that’s in person or via phone, can make your move much smoother.”

3 Common Landscaping Mistakes | Realtor Magazine

Landscapers say they see homeowners repeatedly making the same mistakes in yard design, whether it’s using the wrong plants or not keeping up with maintenance. Landscapers recently shared with Apartment Therapy some of the most common yard mishaps they see, including:

Going too big. “Don’t be seduced by showy plants you see on the internet or at the nursery,” says Jenny Jones, senior landscape designer at Terremoto Landscape Architecture. “We see a lot of gardens populated with plants that are inappropriate, either because they are invasive, poisonous, or are simply out of context.” Jones cites feather grass, which can be invasive, or firestick cacti, which grow large and can overtake other plants.

Overpruning. “Pruning is an art,” Jones told Apartment Therapy. Homeowners can remove too much and jeopardize the look of their landscapes. “We cringe when we see natives sheared like boxwood, plants that are cut back so they don’t intermingle, and trees that are rudely trimmed,” Jones says. “Take your time and be thoughtful about it.”

Making it too colorful. Homeowners may want to add color to their yard, but it can be overdone. For example, landscape and interior designer Isabelle Dahlin of Dekor says using warm woods with cool stone is a big error. “People don’t think about how the stone will look,” she says. She suggests trying to keep plants to a color palette of three.

‘This Can Kill a Sale No Matter How Beautiful the Home’ | Realtor Magazine

The home may look great, but if you don’t get this one thing right, buyers won’t be buying, real estate pros say. And that all centers around the smell—the sense that too many home sellers neglect to pay attention to.

Some home sellers may be noseblind to their home’s scent, and they need the real estate professional to offer a fresh unbiased opinion.

“One of the easiest ways to evoke pleasant feelings about a space is to enhance the way it smells,” Ben Creamer, a managing broker in Chicago, told realtor.com®. “It’s often the first thing a person will notice upon entering a space—and it’s one of the things that, when done poorly, can kill a sale no matter how beautiful the home.”

To freshen up the smell, scrub all surfaces, wash all rugs, and have the carpets cleaned, suggests Barb Boehler, a real estate professional in Madison, Wis. “Until this is done, you’ll only be masking smells,” she says.

Real estate professionals offer some of the following tips:

• Clean the fridge: Clean out the refrigerator, which could be a culprit of any bad scents. Lisa Jacobs, an organizing professional and founder of Imagine It Done, suggests leaving a fresh box of baking soda on a shelf to help remove any lingering odors.
• Carpet cleaning: Carpets and rugs can be a culprit of smells. Get carpets and rugs shampooed or steam-cleaned regularly, and particularly prior to an open house, suggests Jennifer Snyder, owner of Neat as a Pin Organizing & Cleaning.
• Bake for a smell: Cedric Stewart, a residential sales consultant in Washington, D.C., told realtor.com® that he likes to take out pumpkin or banana bread from the oven prior to an open house. “This provides a great smell and treats seem to stick in the buyers’ mind after they leave,” he says. He says he’ll sometimes brew a fresh pot of coffee to go with it too.
• Use soap: Gather up all those unused bars of fancy soap over the years and place them in a pretty bowl on a bathroom counter, suggests Creamer. “It can fill a room with a remarkably clean, fresh scent for weeks,” he says. “You can even hide a bar or two in a walk-in closet to freshen the space.” Another trick to freshen up confined spaces: Use laundry dryer sheets, suggests Ben Mizes, a real estate professional in St. Louis. Tuck a dryer sheet in closets or other confined spaces to help make them smell like fresh laundry, he says.

Mortgage Rates Stay Flat, But That’s a Good Thing | Realtor Magazine

© REALTOR® MAGAZINE

 

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage barely budged this week, remaining low at a 3.75% average, Freddie Mac reports.

“Mortgage rates have essentially stabilized over the last two months, which reflects the recovery and improvement in the economy from the malaise earlier in the year,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Going forward, the combination of low mortgage rates, tight labor market, and high consumer confidence should set up the housing market for continued improvement in home sales heading into late summer and early fall.”

What the Fed’s Rate Cut Means for Your Buyers

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending Aug. 1, 2019:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.75%, with an average 0.6 point, unchanged from last week’s average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 4.60%.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.20%, with an average 0.5 point, rising from last week’s 3.18% average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 4.08%.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 3.46%, with an average 0.4 point, falling from last week’s 3.47% average. A year ago, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.93%.

Renovations With the Worst ROI | Realtor Magazine

Some of the most popular renovations, such as a kitchen remodel or landscape upgrade, are likely to cost your sellers more than they’ll get back at resale. And a major mistake sellers make when undertaking home improvement is tailoring the project to their own personal tastes without considering potential resale value, Alex Lavrenov, a broker with Warburg Realty in New York, told Forbes.com. Some costly renovations may even hurt your sellers’ chances of attracting offers at all.

When a homeowner remodels, he or she should keep in mind the impact of the work on a potential sale. Forbes.com recently interviewed real estate professionals to highlight remodeling projects that likely won’t add value to a home, including:

So what are the best home renovations for ROI at resale? Check out the National Association of REALTORS®’ Home Remodeling Impact Report, which covers DIY projects and outdoor features.

Removing the bathtub. Large, luxurious standing showers are trendy, but getting rid of a bathtub altogether could prove to be a costly mistake. “Families with small children will most likely want a bathtub,” says Jean Brownhill, CEO and founder of Sweeten, which matches homeowners with contractors. “Older homeowners will more likely want a walk-in shower for accessibility’s sake. Think about your neighborhood demographics and who has been moving in and out. If it’s largely an older demographic, building a walk-in shower is probably a good idea. If it skews younger, keep that bathtub.”

Hobby rooms. “Specialized hobby spaces will only appeal to other hobbyists who share your passions, whether jewelry making, pottery, or woodworking,” says Gerard Splendore, another broker with Warburg Realty. “I don’t know if anyone includes a home darkroom anymore, but if it is in the listing description, it may deter buyers from even coming to see the property.”

Over-customization. Wallpaper, fixtures made from high-priced materials, or painting the walls with designs can be a turnoff to buyers. “These types of features tend to be very personal to the current homeowner and don’t necessarily translate into added value for the next homeowner,” Lavrenov says. “My recommendation would always be for the seller to save their energy and money because these cosmetic renovations probably will not add any resale value.” Beware of adding fixtures, such as shelving, media consoles, and Murphy beds. “You want to steer clear of adding fixtures that the buyer might actually want to do away with as soon as they move in or renovations that they feel actually take away from the living space.”

In addition, real estate referral company HomeLight recently produced the following infographic detailing some of the best and worst renovation projects as they relate to ROI. HomeLight found that simply deep-cleaning your house could have a significant return on investment compared to high-end landscaping.

 

© HomeLight

Contract Signings Point to Reversal in Home Sales Slump | Realtor Magazine

Home sales appear poised to reverse their downward trend, as contract signings in each of the four major U.S. regions rose in June, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ latest Pending Home Sales Index. The West saw the highest increase in contract signings last month, according to NAR’s report.

The index rose 2.8% to a reading of 108.3 in June. Contract signings are now up 1.6% year over year, ending a 17-month streak of annual decreases. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun sees the increase as the likely start of a lasting trend for home sales in the coming months. “Job growth is doing well, the stock market is near an all-time high, and home values are consistently increasing,” Yun says. “When you combine that with the incredibly low mortgage rates, it is not surprising to now see two straight months of increases.”

© National Association of REALTORS®

Yun says that last month’s uptick in contract signings proves that buyers are showing greater interest in the housing market and its potential for wealth gain. He reiterates the need for home builders to increase construction and add inventory to markets starving for housing. “Homes are selling at a breakneck pace—in less than a month, on average, for existing homes and three months for newly constructed homes,” Yun says. “Furthermore, homeowners’ equity in real estate has doubled over the past six years to now nearly $16 trillion. But the number of potential buyers exceeds the number of homes available. We need to see sizable growth in inventory—particularly entry-level homes—to assure wider access to homeownership.”

Do I Need a Permit for That? | Realtor Magazine

When undertaking a remodel or home improvement project, how do you know when you need a building permit from your city government?

Cities require permits to ensure that the changes on a home go on record. The changes also are reviewed by an inspector to ensure they’re up to code. For example, if you decide to rewire your electricity panel , exposed wires could represent a safety issue to you and your home.

When homeowners sell their home, buyers and lenders will want to know if any remodels they did complied with building codes. So the permit could salvage a sale too.

“The general rule of thumb is that structural, electrical, plumbing, or mechanical work will require a permit,” notes Redfin at a recent blog post.

A fence installation or repair, window installations, plumbing and electrical work, replacing the water heater or changes to the ventilation system, as well as gas and wood fireplaces all will likely require a permit for the work. Also, any additions or upgrades made to the home, typically of $5,000 or more, will likely require a permit.

On the flip side, permits likely won’t be needed for painting, installing floors or faucets, or landscaping work.

Permit requirements vary by city. Check with the local building department to be on the safe side.

The Most Common Problems Uncovered in Home Inspections | Realtor Magazine

Very few home inspections ever come back completely clear. Indeed, 86% of buyers who recently had a home inspected said their inspector identified at least one problem, according to a new survey from Porch.com, a home remodeling resource, which surveyed about 1,000 buyers who hired a home inspector during their home purchase.

Some of the most common issues uncovered threatened the essential components of a home too. In a fifth of the cases, the home’s roof was a major culprit. Other issues included cosmetic flaws, but also more serious cracks and leaks were found, according to the survey. Electrical problems also were common, and among the most concerning, since they can pose a fire risk, according to the study. Problems with windows also were prevalent, appearing in more than 18% of reports that had issues detected.

 

© Porch.com

 

7 Home Inspection Myths

5 Ways to Prepare for a Home Inspection, Avoid Costly Repairs

Landscape Inspections Count Too

In nearly half of the cases where home inspections turn up problems, buyers and their agents are able to negotiate a lower final sales price, the survey found. The lower sales price tended to be negotiated based on the cost of the repair or replacement. For example, home buyers who discovered problems with the heater were able to negotiate the sales price down by $1,250, on average. That is about the cost of installing a new heater.

 

© Porch.com

 

Many buyers say their lender required them to get a home inspection as part of their mortgage qualification. For most buyers, the average inspection cost $377, which tended to be a smaller fee than other fees associated with purchasing a home. Many home buyers said they found their inspector through a recommendation from their real estate agent.

 

© Porch.com

The Most-Loved Interior Styles in Every State | Realtor Magazine

Minimalism, traditional, and Victorian interior home styles appear to be losing some appeal in favor of the public’s rising appreciation for the industrial aesthetic. Industrial decor is now the most popular interior design style in the country, according to a new report from Joybird, a furniture company. The industrial look has a factory feel with a modern touch, often featuring open layouts, metal appliances and features, and exposed brick.

Joybird researchers analyzed the most-searched interior design trends in each state, based on Google Trends data from June 2018 to May 2019. The industrial style was the top choice among 12 states nationwide, the highest on the list.

 

© Joybird

 

Design tastes did show some variation across the country. For example, in the South, modern farmhouse and rustic style tended to be the most popular, while vintage was big in the Northeast. Industrial was the most-searched-for style in the Midwest, and tied with modernism in the West, according to the survey.

 

© Joybird

Mortgage Rates Are Back to Near 3-Year Lows | Realtor Magazine

© REALTOR® MAGAZINE

 

After a slight uptick last week, mortgage rates fell back to what’s become a more regular pattern this summer of hovering near three-year lows. Home buyers are responding to the lower rates, and mortgage applications for home purchases have continued to rise steadily the last two months to the highest year-over-year change since the fall of 2017, says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

“While the improvement has yet to impact home sales, there’s a clear firming of purchase demand that should translate into higher home sales in the second half of this year,” Khater says.

Freddie Mac reported the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending July 25:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.75%, with an average 0.5 point, falling from last week’s 3.81% average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 4.54%.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.18%, with an average 0.5 point, falling from last week’s 3.23% average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 4.02%.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 3.47%, with an average 0.4 point, falling from last week’s 3.48% average. A year ago, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.87%.