5 Home Projects to Avoid

Five home improvement projects that won't increase the resale value of your home.

Learn How a Stage Home can help sell your home faster

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March pending home sales hit highest level since 2010!

by Yvette Betancourt

It's here and it's happening..... the seller's market.  According to the LA Times, March was the highest numbers of pending sales since 2010!  That is a 7% increase since last year's number for the same month. 

Due to the limited supply of homes for sale, the increase in sale prices have already shown. This change is affecting first time home buyers to investors. 

With this new information, will the National Association of Realtors' chief economist, Lawrence Yun, predication of median price for existing home sales to rise about 7.5% come true?

Only time will tell the true answer....only money is on a "YES"

Moderation Is Key

It's a seller's market for homes that are priced right and guess what? Not all those properties are updated homes. Yup.... certain updates will help your home re-sell better in your local market.

So before you go all renovation crazy on your property, give me a call to help you determine which upgrades may help your property sell in less time.

Call me today at (818) 384-5928 or (818) 380-5227. 

Temporary Wallpaper for A Quick Updated look for your home

As realtors, we give our clients our professional opinions because we hear buyers everyday and have a good understanding about the wants and needs they search.  Sellers hesitate to do updates because of time and funds.  What if I told you there was a quick fix. Nothing perment but something that could make an outdated room more updated within an hour instead of weeks. 

There is a great product called Tempaper.  Tempaper is self-adhesive, "peel-and-stick", temporary wallpaper that eliminates the need for paste or water.  It is fun and high-impact decorating for those who do not want to make a long-term commitment to a permanent design or renters who can't!  The wallpaper design came in various design pattern and custom pattern.  As a renter, I am going to invest in Tempaper to give my vanilla walls a bit more of my personal style than just wall art. 

Don't believe me how simple this wallpaper can be? Watch the video below:

Selling Tip: DeClutter Rooms

by Yvette Betancourt

Oh buyers... we love them and don't understand them.  At least until we, ourselves, become buyers.  In the end, a buyer won't buy a house if they can't see the square footage, so clear it out and clean it up. Clutter will give the illusion that the space is too small or odd.

When buyer are motivated, buyer imagine our their furniture would fix and use the existing furniture as ball-park measurement.

Why is An Appraisal ordered?

by Yvette Betancourt

An appraisal can be ordered for many reasons. See the top four reasons why an appraisal is ordered on a property. 

Home Sellers: Learn how buyers search for homes in today's market

Homes are Selling Faster than Last Year

Home Sellers, learn how to price ahead of the market curve

Real estate markets change all the time. You want to make sure that you're pricing the house ahead of the curve -- no matter what the market.  Contact us for a free Home Value report. 

Four Most Common Pricing Mistakes

by Yvette Betancourt

Are you getting ready to place your property on the market? As a Potential home sellers, you've looked at your neighborhoods Open House and searched thru the internet to get an idea of the value of your home.  

However, beware of these four common pricing mistakes that most homeowners make while having their property on the market. 

1. PRICING TOO HIGH FROM THE START
Pride in homeownership is a wonderful accomplishment.  Unfortunately, what may be a high selling point does not often reflect in resell value.   

Solution: Statistics show that homes priced correctly when they first hit the market sell closer to the asking price than homes that start too high, then have to adjust downward.  

2.USING AN ODD LIST PRICE, LIKE $864,257

Solution: Always price in round numbers! REALTORS® search for homes using price categories - make sure your pricing makes sense when agents search a window of $250,000 to $350,000, for example. 

3. NOT BASING YOUR PRICE ON SOLD HOMES
I believe this the most common mistake because we all focus on the active listings that is on the market right now.  In reality, actives listings are a prediction of the market, pending/backup offers are a indication while recently sold (within the last three months) are the best indication of the current market. 

Solution:  Searching actual "SOLDS" is the only true pricing guide.  A home can be listed for any amount - that doesn't mean the home will ever sell for that amount. 

4. REFUSING TO NEGOTIATE

Solution: Your asking price should have some built-in flexibility.  Otherwise, you're bound to turn away and turn off some serious buyers. 

For a FREE current Comparable Report on your property, email us.  Our reports include photos, description, and map of comparable based on your property location.  know the value of the home.

My best advice to Home Sellers: Price It RIGHT!

Top Three Features that Determines Your Home's Value

by Yvette Betancourt 

There is an Open House in the area.  A new listing.  Neighbors and home buyers walk thru the property and evaluate home's size, construction (and interior design) quality and price.  Homeowners are evaluating the home's value and home buyers being much more critical about a home value than before!  Why? Because it's the wonderful free websites like Zillow.com that offer property data that include a computer-generated valuation which aggregate sales data from comparable properties to determine an estimated price.  These estimated price is what some buyers and homeowners assume to valued numbers to submit an offer or to determine if it's the right time to put their home on the market.  

These estimated values are a great starting point to determine price except these estimations can be off as much as 10%.  This percentage can hurt you especially when a home buyer is in a multiple-offer price range to buy.  It can hurt the home seller by delaying their plans to sell and gain a good return.  

So if sites like Zillow, or any free real estate site can properly determine the value of the home, who can?  Real estate agents.  The agent's access to the local MLS has information that include number of days on the market and notes about what type of concessions were made on the sale and so on, that determined the final purchase price. 

Here are our tips to do your own comparables based on the top three features that determine your home's value.  

1) Location

Location! Location! Location! Especially when you are comparing SOLD properties.  A professional appraiser will look at homes/properties within a one-mile radius or less and that is a great tip that you should do as well.  

For subdivisons, look at the houses that are all similar and built in the same period.  Don't forget to compare similar houses with similar styles in the same subdivision. 

For homes not in a subdivision, geographic lines such as the opposite of a river, a park, a main highway/street, a school district boundary affect the home values.  

2) Size

Evaluate the square footage.   Appraisers typically look at homes that are within 20% up and down in square footage  as comparables.   In subdivision, you should look at homes that exact to the homes square footage.  

Don't make the mistake of thinking that a house that is 10% bigger will be worth more 10% more.  the extra square footage only equals o a few percentage points in value.  

3) Bedrooms and Bathrooms

The number of bathrooms and bedrooms is more relevant than simply the raw square footage.  In other words, a three bedroom home with 1,200 sq ft  might be worth more than two bedrooms with 1,250 sqft.  Also the location of the bedrooms and bathrooms.

Make sure to look at the quality and number of bedrooms and baths. For example:

House 1: Three bedrooms 1300sqft
House 2: Two bedrooms 1200sqft

Result: House 1.

House A: Four Bedroom 2500 sqft
House B: Five Bedroom 2475 sqft
House C: Three Bedroom 2450 sqft

Result: House C.  The square footage is similar and the value isn't a drastic change as the previous example.

Let's look at bathrooms:


There are three common bathroom styles.  Full baths (shower, bath, toilet, and sink), a three-quarter bath (tub, toilet and sink), and half bath (toilet and sink).

A three-quarter or full bath are roughly the same value.  A five-piece bath doesn't add much value than a regular bathroom with a combination shower and tub.



Remember to look at pending and active homes to give you an idea of where the local market is heading.

To get a detailed home value report on your home, click here for a Free Home Value Evaluation Report.   If you are a home buyer, ask your real estate agent for a CMA or email us for a Free Property CMA.

Preparing Your Home for Sale

There's a lot to do when you're selling a home. We make available to prospective sellers a useful checklist to help you prepare your home for sale. It contains a complete list of all the things you'll need to think about before you placing your home on the market and things to consider when showing your home.


Seller's Guide to Preparing Your Home for Sale