3 WAYS TO BOOST CURB APPEAL FOR LAS VEGAS HOME BUYERS
Home buyers’ first impressions are visual, and a flawed exterior will turn them away faster than a two-hour wait time at a family restaurant. Las Vegas curb appeal is the same as it is anywhere: when ‘curb appeal’ becomes ‘curb repel,’ the outcome to expect is at best offer numbers lower than they should be. Since major exterior remodels can carry prohibitive price tags, keeping the asking price competitive involves finding ways to brighten up the outside of a home without breaking the bank. It’s doable (and affordably) when you tackle the issue keeping the bottom line in mind. Some ideas: 1. Go for the Deep Clean Cleaning up is the first order of business—but creating true curb appeal may mean being prepared to go beyond the surface. Remove any weeds attacking walkways, then rent a power washer to clean both them and the home exterior (being careful that the power setting isn’t so strong it damages fragile areas). If the gutters look moldy or mildewed, use it on them, too—perhaps with a little mildew-killing solution to finish the job. Important: wash the windows (once your local prospects get past the curb appeal hurdle, sparkling windows are guaranteed to brighten their impression of the inside). 2. Pick Pots A mistake many homeowners made to spend a bundle on landscaping at the last minute. If you’ve devoted years to fostering a well laid-out and cared-for garden, it’s a big plus—but just too expensive to try to create in a few weeks. A pretty yard can certainly help with curb appeal, but it’s also true that not every local buyer will be looking for a gardening experience that involves much upkeep. The budget-minded alternative that can be quite effective? Add the color and curb appeal of flowering plants—but put them in pots. This has the added value of providing local home buyers with green thumbs the general idea of what the yard could look like with their loving care, but without the permanence of established plants. If your home offers a pristine canvas, prospects are more likely to draw their home ideal on it. 3. Numeral-ology You’d be surprised at how difficult some people make it to just to find their home. You need only provide an address that’s clearly visible from the street, to obey the Curb Appeal First Commandment: Thou shalt not irritate thy buyers! Adding big, attractive house numbers in a font that matches the style of the property is a finishing touch whose value far outstrips the cost and effort involved. Curb appeal predictably affects both the speed and bottom line of any sale. When you boost it with just a little bit of time and money, you expand the opportunity to show off the gracious interior of your Las Vegas home. Give me a call anytime—we’ll put our heads together to come up with more ideas to tweak your Las Vegas property in ways that are effective and cost-effective!
YOUR LAS VEGAS EMPTY NEST IS A VOID UNTIL YOU FILL IT
You’ve watched as your little ones grew from stumbling toddlers into young adulthood… and now out into the world on their own. It’s been a slow transition—but it’s also sped past in the blink of an eye! The bumpy economy may yet prompt some extended Las Vegas home stays in the future, but for now, the empty nest is suddenly a reality. So now what? For most parents, the onset of your own Las Vegas empty nest comes at a time when emotions are decidedly mixed. There is the satisfaction of the child-rearing project well done—perhaps a measure of astonishment at the personal time that has now amazingly been liberated—but also undeniable tinges of loss and anxiety. The anxiety part is familiar (what parent hasn’t lost sleep as their offspring gradually ventured further and further from the not-yet-empty nest)? The sense of loss is new, however. Letting go without getting down in the dumps is not easy for everyone. We’ve heard it called the “empty nest syndrome,” which may not be a clinical diagnosis, but it’s a condition with easily relatable symptoms. Las Vegas homeowners with newly vacant rooms and a suddenly quieter environment may find that it takes a while to get past feelings of emptiness. Psychologists recommend allowing time to adapt to the sudden change of role; some say it can take as long as 18 months to adjust fully. There’s no huge rush—they say, “be gentle on yourself.” Moms seem especially prone to the negatives of going from motherhood as the primary role to …??? To the extent that an empty nest creates a loss of role, recognizing the array of newly opened positive possibilities is an antidote. Sooner or later, it’s going to be time to reclaim your space! Just pick your plan of action, for instance— Create a gym: Use the space for something positive that will benefit the whole family. Has there ever been a better time to lose those extra pounds and get into shape? Turn your hand to meditation: Create a relaxing space to unwind, meditate or practice yoga. When you take active steps to find your pathway to a positive frame of mind, the journey itself can be hugely restorative Turn fallow space into a creative den: Do you have a book in you that is just itching to get out? Did you once abandon the promise of an artistic pursuit because there just wasn’t enough time or the right space? Well, hold on! Here it is! Rent out the spare room: Think about turning your Las Vegas empty nest area into a rentable space—or, if you’ve ever enjoyed the hospitality of a stay in a home-based bed and breakfast (and hankered to do some homespun inn-keeping yourself), consider the possibilities for transforming the whole place into a welcoming B&B. Vacation rental website AirBnB.com has gained worldwide popularity as the new ‘go-to’ booking vehicle for renting out a furnished room (or house) on a short-term basis. Plan for that big road trip: Empty out the room, pin up the map and start planning that road trip, Alaskan cruise or trek across South America. Why wait any longer? An empty nest may create a vacuum—that is, until you let life rush in to fill it! If filling your own Las Vegasnest opens up some promising real estate prospects, I’m standing by to see how I can help you make them happen!
LAS VEGAS HOMEOWNERS SEE US HOME SALES PEAK FOR 2014
In TV commercials, the idea is to get the point across as economically as possible. That’s why, when the theme is a thriving business, they show a graph with lines that move up (often at an angle that would worry a mountain goat). It makes for an easily grasped, direct message. Alas, graphs showing Las Vegas home sales never seem to show such neat, orderly trajectory—and that’s for any number of reasons. For instance, if some closings happen to be delayed by a day or two for clerical reasons, they may show as having fallen out of one month, only to show up the next. The real world is like that. Keeping track of national home sales numbers is subject to the interventions of that same stubbornly real world, of course; so when home sales registered a slight drop in August, few seasoned analysts saw it as an emerging trend…or so it seemed. That reading was confirmed when it turned out existing U.S. home sales notched the fastest pace of the year in September. Commentators who had been noting the August falloff picked up on the shift quickly. A few gleanings: “…existing home sales increased 2.4 percent to an annual rate of 5.17 million units, the strongest reading since September of last,” –Reuters “…single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.17 million in September from 5.05 million in August. Sales are now at their highest pace of 2014”–the Realtor® “…Sales in September were up 17% from a year earlier…in the U.S. rose…to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 467,000…”–The Wall St. Journal Area homeowners have been hoping that the continued level of low mortgage interest rates would spur home sales in Las Vegas, especially now that regulators are working on relaxing tough regulations that have discouraged lenders from issuing loans to any but the most prime credit risks. Young people and others with less than stellar credit have sometimes found themselves eyeing those low rates, but frustratingly unable to take advantage of the situation. It has been a real weak point in the housing rebound, so opening up the mortgage spigots would allow many first times Las Vegas home buyers a chance to enter the market. In case you have a rooting interest in the Las Vegas home sales picture either as potential buyer or seller, don’t hesitate to give me a call to discuss the outlook for this fall and winter.
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