January 2018

Getting Your Kitchen Ready To Sell

Getting your house ready to sell can be a daunting task. You may know that you need to do some things to get your house ready to put on the market and have a huge list of things to do. If your house is older you know that you have to perform some updates to compete with other properties in your neighborhood that are for sale. So where is the best place to put your money? Kitchens and bathrooms. In this short article we will cover the first – kitchens.

Spruce Up Your Kitchen To Help Sell Your House Fast

The kitchen in your house is usually the most used room in the house (unless you eat out for every meal). For many families it’s where they unwind and talk about their day. Having a functional kitchen is a great way to spark interest in buyers looking for a new home.

So how can you spruce up, or bring new life into your kitchen? Bank Rate gives some great suggestions:

1. Make your kitchen really cook. The kitchen is still considered the heart of the home. Potential home buyers make a beeline for this room when they first view a home for sale, so make sure your kitchen looks clean and reasonably updated.

For a few hundred dollars, you can replace the kitchen faucet set, add new cabinet door handles and update old lighting fixtures with brighter, more energy-efficient ones.

If you’ve got a slightly larger budget, you can give the cabinets themselves a makeover. “Rather than spring for a whole new cabinet system, which can be expensive, look into hiring a refacing company,” says serial remodeler Gwen Moran, co-author of “Build Your Own Home on a Shoestring.”

“Many companies can remove cabinet doors and drawers, refinish the cabinet boxes, then add brand-new doors and drawers. With a fresh coat of paint over the whole set, your cabinets will look like new.”

If you’re handy, you can order your own replacement cabinet doors and door fronts from retailers like Lowe’s Home Improvement or The Home Depot and install them yourself.

Read The Full Article “10 cheap fixes to boost the value of your home” Here

Great tips, and ones that we actually follow. Many times when we renovate a property we keep the cabinet boxes and replace the doors and drawer faces. With that we also replace handles, lighting fixtures as well as the faucet. Something we also do is replace formica counter tops with granite, but this isn’t for everyone because this can really run up the cost of updating your kitchen. After you do all of these updates you may stand back and look at it, like it and think twice about selling your property 🙂

updating kitchen for a fast home sale

Kitchen Colors

This is something that you must consider carefully. The one thing that we always look at first is the size of the kitchen as well as it’s natural lighting. If the kitchen is small and doesn’t have much natural light the last thing you want to do is have dark cabinets and dark walls. It will make the kitchen more gloomy and feel smaller. Instead if it’s small and not much natural light consider painting the cabinets white and stick to lighter earth tones on the walls.

On the other hand, if you have a large and well lit kitchen you can have darker cabinets and walls.

We found an interesting article from Zillow about kitchen colors that really surprised us:

2. Blue kitchens and blue bathrooms

Beyond America’s obsession with lawns and all-around “curb appeal,” what’s inside your house counts a lot, too — especially the colors you’ve painted the rooms (particularly the kitchen).

According to Zillow’s 2017 Paint Color Analysis, which examined more than 32,000 photos from sold homes around the country, homes with blue kitchens sold for a $1,809 premium, compared to similar homes with white kitchens.

Blue is also a popular bathroom shade. The same analysis found that homes with light pale blue to soft periwinkle blue bathrooms sold for a whopping $5,440 more.

Walls painted in cool neutrals like blue or gray can be signals that the home is well cared for or has other desirable features.

Read The Full Article “4 Surprising Things That May Increase How Much Your Home Is Worth” Here

We never would have thought that about using blue. However we’re not that brave to jump on that band wagon just yet. We have seen trending for some time now the use of light gray throughout the home.

Summing It Up

The condition and look of your kitchen will most certainly affect how fast you bring in a buyer for your house. The biggest thing we can recommend is pay attention to the size and natural light in the kitchen before you make any decisions about the colors that you choose.

Remember, if you don’t want the hassles of cleaning or updating your kitchen, bathrooms or any part of your property, we buy houses in any condition and buy them as is. You can contact us for an offer on your property at (770) 756-8680.

Getting Bathrooms Ready To Sell Your House

If you are getting ready to put your property on the market one of the best things you can do to help increase your properties selling value is some maintenance or upgrades to your bathrooms. In this short article we will cover a few things that you can do on a budget as well as things you have to take into consideration when making updates.

Simple Touch Ups and Maintenance To Increase Value

Almost everyone knows that kitchens and bathrooms are what really set off one property from another. A bathroom can be a relaxing oasis for many housewives and mothers to escape a hectic day. For this reason you need to pay specific attention to the bathrooms before you put your property up for sale.

Surprisingly enough there are some things that you can do to help breath new life into your existing bathroom to help sell your house faster. Most people think that they have to do a complete gut and remodel. However, if you bathroom has “good bones” you will be able to save yourself a few bucks.

A few of those things were covered in an article by This Old House:

Brokers, one and all, say spiffing up the kitchen and bath is a sure bet for adding value to your home. Surveyed brokers say these kinds of improvements can get expensive. It may not be economical to do a major renovation if you are trying to spend as little as possible before putting a house up for sale. But some upgrades are cheap, easy, and fast…especially in the bathroom.

Replace frosted glass for clear glass, clean the grout, remove rust stains, apply fresh caulk, update doorknobs and cabinet pulls, replace faucets, and install a low-flush toilet. Even buying a new toilet seat can make a difference. Bailey says, “You can spend $500 on a bathroom, and it’s totally tuned up.”

Read The Full Article “Brokers Tell All: 10 Ways to Boost House Value” Here

Great tips, especially for being able to spend $500 or less to breath new life in to a bathroom in a house that you are getting ready to sell. However, if you do plan on replacing the toilet make sure that it is something that you feel comfortable with, or higher a professional. If a toilet is not installed correctly – well it can be a real mess and end up costing you much more!

Things To Take Into Consideration For Major Remodels

Your bathroom might just be to outdated to just “put some lipstick” on to make it appealing to a potential buyer.  Your bathroom may have green or pink tile from the 60’s or 70’s and you need to perform a major renovation before putting the property on the market.

It can be a real hassle, and the last thing you want is to get it all done and not end up with a product that is NOT functional. Some things that you have to think about before starting your project was covered by Zillow in a short article:

Mistake 1: Ignoring proper spacing and layout

Bathrooms may seem straightforward, but a lack of spatial awareness in the renovation planning stages can lead to problems down the road.

Remember: Just because you can fit something into the bathroom design doesn’t mean it can function within that space. Always keep function in the forefront of your mind and in your design.

For example, if you choose a shower with a door, your bathroom layout should leave plenty of room for it to fully open. No potential home buyer will want to squeeze out of a partially opened shower door every morning. Other considerations include providing enough space to comfortably get on and off the toilet, open cabinet doors, etc.

Spatial considerations also include making sure elements of the room are close enough together to function. For example, the toilet paper holder should be within a child’s arm’s reach of the toilet, and outlets should be easily accessible from the counter.

Mistake 2: Choosing the wrong materials

Because of the sink, toilet and shower, bathrooms deal with more moisture than any other room in the house. Homeowners also use many of the strongest cleaning products on bathroom surfaces. Both of these factors, if not taken into consideration, can lead to significant damage if you don’t select the right materials for the job.

Go with materials that can stand up to harsh cleaners and are not highly susceptible to mold, warping or distortion. Avoid porous materials that will retain moisture and allow hidden mold to grow.

Read The Full Article “What NOT to Do When Remodeling Bathrooms” Here

Great tips. The last thing you want is to finish your bathroom after spending thousands of dollars on it only to find that it’s hard for more than one person to use it at a time. Also choosing the wrong materials can really make things bad. Have you ever seen a bathroom that had carpet in it around the toilet and bath tub? We have and we can tell you from experience that it is GROSS! Also, your house may have hardwoods throughout, but real hardwoods won’t be able to hold up against the added moisture from a tub. Now days you can find actual tile that looks like hardwood if that is the route you want to go.

Summing It Up

If your bathroom isn’t to far gone, or if your house is newer, say 15 years old or so – you can just do a little maintenance and have your bathroom looking new again. If however you have an ugly bathroom you will have to do a little more to get it ready to go on the market. Just remember to do some prior planning and use the right materials.

If all of this is too much for you, remember, here at Mandich Property Group we buy houses in any condition. We don’t care how old or rough looking your bathroom is, we will buy it as is.

How To Sell Your House Yourself Fast

How To Sell Your House Yourself Fast Without An Agent

You may be in a situation where you need to sell your property quickly to raise capital, and don’t want to lower how much money you will walk away with from the deal by listing the property. You know that it can be as much as 6% of your selling price that is paid out by selling with realtors. So you may be thinking of trying to sell your house yourself without an agent and need to sell it quickly. Good news – it can be done.

How To Get Your House To Sell Quickly

Whatever the reason that you need to sell your property quickly, there are a few things that you have to do first to make sure that it does just that. You can’t just wake up one day and decide that you are going to put a for sale sign in the front yard and hope that a buyer comes in (unless you plan on selling to investors who buy houses in as is condition).

The first and most obvious thing that you need to do is to put things away and clean the house. Nobody is going to buy a house that is cluttered and dirty. Then you need to look around the house and see the things that are obvious and that need to be repaired, like leaking faucets and even burned out light bulbs.

Here is more along those lines about making repairs prior to marketing your property from Wiki:

3 – Have your home inspected. Many standard real estate contracts are going to give the home buyer the right to inspect the property, so be prepared. Have your home inspected before you advertise. Under a general inspection you might be obligated to make major repairs to appliances, plumbing, septic, electrical and heating systems, etc. You can expect your home’s roof and foundations to be inspected, as well. Follow the recommendations and make necessary repairs. Additional inspections requested by the buyer are customarily at their expense.

4 – As much as possible, get your home in move-in condition before you put it on the market. Buyers of homes are inherently lazy. If they feel like they’ll need to do extra landscaping, plumbing, appliance and electrical work before they can enjoy the house, they’ll balk when it comes to buy, even if the rest of your house is an absolute steal. So make it easy for them. Hire a handyman or general contractor to get the home as ready to move into as possible.

Read The Full Article “How to Sell Your Own House” Here

That’s really good info, especially about buyers being kind of lazy. The reality of it is that if it’s a family moving into the property with small children, they really aren’t going to have the time to make repairs.  Soccer games, band practice, swimming, you name it – they are just to busy being involved in their kids lives to spend a lot of time making little repairs. However, if you don’t have the money to make the repairs you can always advertise the property as “Handyman Special” which will then hopefully attract the right buyer and they know from the get go that they need to work on the property.

Start Marketing Your Property

Now you have the property presentable. It’s time to put that for sale by owner sign in the front yard! It can be an anxious time, but try to relax. Here are a few more things to help you to get people to call or come by to check out your property:

3. Market Your Property
In addition to listing the home on the MLS, advertise by putting up “for sale” signs, creating brochures, putting ads on Craigslist, and building a web site to market the property. FSBO.com offers home-selling packages for homeowners that begin at $69.95. The marketing packages include items like brochures and yard signs. There will be some costs involved in advertising the sale of your home, but they will be a fraction of an agent’s commission. The real cost is the amount of time and energy you will need to put into selling your home.

4. Hold an Open House
You can also hold an open house to advertise the sale of your home. Advertise for the open house by posting signs in your neighborhood. Have some light refreshments available and set out brochures about the home that visitors can take with them as they leave.

5. Know Your Property’s Selling Points
When writing your ad copy for websites or brochures, make sure to include basic information about the house, including the price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, lot size, location, and of course the specific details that make the house special to potential buyers.

Take a look at other listings on Craigslist, Realtors’ websites, and Yahoo! Real Estate to get a sense of what sort of details sellers and agents are including in their listings. You’ll quickly find out that features like granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, and oversized windows entice buyers. Determine what’s special about your home and highlight those features in your marketing efforts.

Continue Reading “How to Sell Your House by Owner – Without a Realtor” Here

Great tips and we especially like the thought of having brochures for your property that potential buyers can take with them when they leave. Also listing your property on the numerous online website listing services is a great idea. Don’t forget about using social media as well like Facebook and Twitter.  You may not know it and one of your friends maybe looking for a house. The more eyes that see your property online, the faster you will bring in a buyer.

In Conclusion

You can sell on your own. It will take some doing though. No matter how you choose to sell, either with or without an agent, you will have to clean and make repairs to the property. Once everything is in order, market your property as many ways as you possibly can and afford.

If you want to sell your property without all the headaches, and you are in the Metro Atlanta area, you can always contact us for a free, no obligation offer on your property at (770) 756-8680.

How Do I Sell My House For Cash?

You may or may not have heard of selling your house for cash. You may be wondering just how to go about it and what the possible advantages could be. While it is true that when you sell your house your existing mortgage will be paid off. So what is all the hoopla about selling for cash. If you are one of the people wondering about it – keep reading because that’s what we are about to cover.

Why Selling Your Home for Cash Might Make Sense For You

First, why would you need to sell your house for cash? Typically people that want to sell their property for cash need a fast closing. When a buyer is paying cash there are no buyer mortgage contingencies to be concerned about. When a cash buyer puts your property under contract, which is usually a real estate investor, your house is as good as sold.

This was covered in an article by Steve McLinden:

Tops in the “pro” column are speed of sale and convenience. Once you accept a cash offer, you can often get your money in days. For folks facing a relocation, foreclosure or bankruptcy, this can be a life saver.

Fewer sales fall through

A cash sale also removes the all-too-familiar drill of accepting an offer only to lose the buyers at the last minute when they can’t qualify for a loan. Once the cash is passed along, there’s no backing out or last-second cold feet. Such cash sales typically close in 1 to 3 weeks compared to about 4 to 7 weeks on a conventional sale. Also, cash sales are typically “as is,” so there’s usually no major repainting and repairs needed.
Cash is king in a real estate deal … You’ll probably get a little less money out of the house, but you can avoid costly repairs and other complications.

Read The Full Article “There are plenty of good reasons to sell your home for cash” Here

Steven also goes on to advise that you should get professional advice for pricing your home. With all of the tools on the internet it’s a whole lot easier these days. You can go online and check many house buying and selling sites like Zillow, Redfin and Trulia and find what comparables are selling for in your neighborhood. The important thing here is to make sure you are comparing apples to apples.

So why would someone need to close fast? Job relocation, trying to avoid a foreclosure on their credit, divorce and many other reasons. A cash buyer will help you achieve a fast sell with little chance of the sale falling through at the last minute.

How To Go About Selling Your House For Cash

The great thing about selling your property to investors is that they will buy the property in “as-is” condition. No need to make any repairs, and many times, you don’t even need to clean up the property like you would if you were selling to a retail buyer.

However you may just be looking for any cash buyer, and they are out there. There are parents out there that buy houses for their children. In this case you will have to do some clean up and make the house look presentable.

Some other things you might want to do were covered in this article:

Step 1

Gather up all of the pertinent information about your house. Make sure you have flattering pictures (taken in the spring or in the summer) plus the statistical information before you try to sell your homes online. Be sure that you have the square footage, the year the roof was replaced, the foundation type and everything else that might be in a listing. The more information the better. Unless it’s a dump. Then you might want to be creative.

Step 2

List your home on ebay. There should be a clickable link on this page. give your listing a precise title, not a cutesy title. No-one will be searching for a cute title, they search for things like “House for sale in Cambridge” or “Quick Sale in Moorpark.”

Read The Full Article “How to Sell Your House for Cash” Here

In addition to listing your property on Ebay you can also list it on the other sites that we mentioned above to get it in front of more potential buyers. You may want to put in your listing that you are looking for “cash buyers only” to help keep down on the amount of buyers that are looking to purchase a property through a bank or mortgage company.

Summing It Up

The biggest advantage to selling your property for cash is that you don’t usually have to worry about the sale falling through at the last minute. You can also do it yourself without hiring an agent, just be sure and do your homework prior to advertising to make sure you price it right. Also, when you sell for cash the closing can usually happen in days compared to months that it sometimes takes when selling to a regular buyer that gets a mortgage.

Lastly, you can perform a search online like “cash buyer for my home” and a lot of investors should show up in your search. Contact them and if you like their offer – your done. You should have your property sold in just a few weeks.

Who Will Buy My House For Cash

You may have a house that you need to sell quickly and don’t know where to turn. You may be in a situation where you are in dire need of some funds and have a property that you can liquidate to raise those funds, but don’t have months to wait on a buyer to close on your property. So where do you turn? Who will buy your house? That’s what we are about to cover, so read on.

Typically people that will buy your house with cash are real estate investors. These investors have cash to pay for houses which means they are able to close quickly. They don’t have to wait weeks to see if they can qualify or even jump through all of the hoops for applying for a mortgage loan.

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat first. No matter how you choose to sell your house, when you leave the closing table you will walk away with cash, it’s just the way it works. If you currently have a mortgage on your property and you sell to a regular buyer, at closing your mortgage is paid off by the new buyer. If you have any equity in the house, then you receive those proceeds.

Advantages In Selling Your Home To A Cash Buyer

So what are some of the advantages of selling your property to a cash buyer who doesn’t have to wait on loan approvals? This was covered well by Maximum Exposure Real Estate:

1. It’s easy.

Selling a home that needs work can be challenging if you want to get the best possible price. With a house flipping company, you avoid the difficulty of trying to sell for a good price. Instead, you sell to a company that will buy your house for the lowest price it can get away with. In exchange for taking a low price, you can quickly free yourself of the burden of owning the home. If you are in desperation mode this is often times your best bet. Selling to a real estate investor can get you out from under a problem very quickly.

2. You only have to make one decision.

Your only decision when selling to a house flipping company is to sell, or not to sell. You won’t have to decide what repairs to make or who you want to sell to. You will get an offer and make a single decision. After that, you are free of the home. Most often a house flipping company will be paying cash and there can be a quick closing if this is what you are after.

3. You don’t have to find a real estate agent.

Finding a good real estate agent can take a little bit of effort. You may have to interview several to find someone you are really comfortable with. You also don’t have to worry about disagreeing with your real estate agent once you hire one, which can happen. You are going solo.

Read The Full Article “Pros and Cons of We Buy Houses Flipping Companies” Here

Everything they stated there is true. However there are some cons in choosing a house flipping company, it’s not for everybody. For instance, if you are in no hurry to sell your house and have all the time in the world, they are not going to be your best bet. Additionally you may have a new house and may have only lived in it for a year or two. In this case if  you have a 30 year mortgage you haven’t even started to chip away at the principal balance. Here no matter how you sell it will be difficult to come out without loosing any money, unless you are in an area that is in high demand and home values are quickly rising.

Disadvantages Of Selling To A Cash Buyer

As we started stating above, selling your house to an investor isn’t for everyone and there are some disadvantages of selling your property this way. Forbes had this to say about it:

  • Investors Do Not Need a License to Buy – This means as the seller, you know nothing about the person/entity offering to buy your home. Some investors are corporations, but some are individuals who just happen to also be real estate agents. This is cause for concern for many sellers because they question the motive behind the purchase; do they want to buy my home to resell it for more?

 

  • There are Plenty of Scam Artists Posing as Investors – There’s a risk of fraud in any financial transaction, but it’s especially critical to avoid scams when dealing with your largest asset. To avoid any issues, get the name of the investor and do research online to see who they are, ask for references, look them up with the Better Business Bureau, and ask your listing agent to do some research on your behalf.

 

  • Homeowners Will Likely Sell Below Market Value – Investors have their own costs to contend with and you can be assured that those costs will be factored into their offered price. Investors are also aware of the power behind their cash offer and the fact that they are taking a risk by purchasing “as is.” They may be relying on your motivation to get out quickly. Whatever the reason, it is unlikely that an investor will pay market value for a home in its peak condition.
  • Read The Full Article “Pros And Cons Of Selling Your Home To A Real Estate Investor” Here

As for their first statement “are they wanting to buy my house and sell it for more?”, this is always the case. The investors intend on purchasing your property in the condition it is currently in and then make the repairs to the property and sell it for a higher price to another retail buyer.

As for fraud –  that can be kind of difficult in Georgia. Georgia is a judicial state which means when you sell your property it has to go through a closing attorney. Attorneys are not likely to risk their license for one deal.

Lastly – home owners will sell below market value. Again, yes. Investors are taking a great deal of risks when purchasing your property. Any hidden issues can cost them greatly and they also have holding cost to deal with while they perform the repairs to your property.

Summing It Up

Who will buy your house for cash? Real Estate Investors. Keep in mind this option is not for everyone. Generally it is for sellers who are in a bind and need to sell quickly to free up cash. Do your homework and make sure you are dealing with a reputable company.

If you want to sell your house to a cash buyer, be sure and visit our website or call us at (770) 756-8680 and we will be more than happy to make you an offer on your property which you can either accept or deny. We genuinely care about your situation and will make you the best offer that we possibly can.

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