First impressions mean a lot to buyers.  Many are strongly influenced by “the feel” of a home.  That is why color is a simple and powerful tool for any seller to prepare a home for sale. Clean, fresh colors give any home an edge, making it seem newer, fresher, and better than before.

Color Theory
People are emotionally and psychologically influenced by color (search “color psychology” on the web).  Sellers can use a bit of color research to create an aura comfort for buyers.  Warm colors are stimulating and energizing, while cool colors are calming and relaxing.  Avoid dark colors, which can cause negative emotions and constrict the space, making it seem small and dim.  Keep in mind how the lighting and flow from one room to another can influence the color story.

Un-Bold
Color lovers fill their homes with rich, vibrant hues that attract attention.  Unfortunately, when it comes time to sell, those wowing walls can attract the wrong type of attention.  Buyers are frequently overwhelmed by bold color choices, and the startling shades a seller loves can distract buyers from the home’s potential.  These buyers may not be able to see past the paint that makes the home yours to a future where it can be theirs.  Tone down colors to neutrals and pastels for a gentler, more inviting space.

White Out
In most cases, white is not the best option.  Bright white walls can seem sterile and harsh, and may do unflattering things in different lighting situations.  Choose pale, discrete neutrals like cream, gray, or taupe for a warmer atmosphere.  Use white in small doses, like fresh white trim, for a crisp, clean effect.

Paint Vogue
Like clothes and hairstyles, colors go in and out of fashion.  Color is a great way to make a dated space feel contemporary and stylish.  Search the web for the latest home color trends, flip through design magazines, or check out a few home makeover shows for inspiration.  A modern, stylish color palate can really draw in buyers, making the space seem more up-to-date and helping buyers see their modern, stylish lifestyles in the space.

Updated wall colors can mean increased traffic, better showings, and more offers. For any home seller’s budget, a few buckets of paint are well worth the investment.

Want to find out if you have what it takes to be a Real Estate Agent or Broker?

About The Author: Geoffrey Thompson is an owner and founding partner of Express Schools, LLC. Since 1996 the companies under this banner have offered online real estate licensing and insurance licensing courses as well as online real estate exam prep and insurance exam prep.

Experts keep saying that decluttering and staging your home for sale can have a huge impact on your chances of selling.  Unfortunately, the term “declutter” can be more than a little vague.  Here are a few tips to decluttering your home.

T.M.I. to Go
Start by removing all personal items like family pictures, framed degrees and achievements, trophies (competition or hunting), books, and evidence of hobbies and occupations.  All of these things define you, and make the buyer feel like an intruder into your life.  Depersonalizing each room helps protect your privacy and lets the buyer imagine their own stuff in the space, easing the transition from your home to their home.

Pile Collector
Take a good look through your home.  Any pile, collection, or assemblage of items can look like clutter to visitors.  This can be your collection of porcelain teacups, your framed baseball cards, your grandmother’s wax fruit, or any populations of decorative items on display. Any item that catches dust is a suspect. Make a clean sweep of it; pack them all safely away. Consider removing all in-sight items as a part of the moving process.

Overstuffed Furniture
Too many pieces of furniture can also clutter a space, making the room seem smaller than it is.  Remove extra items whenever possible, like that spare bed in the office or the oversized lounger in the living room.  Leave the key items that “anchor” the space: the furniture that helps to define the room, while maximizing the floor space to show off every square foot.

Packed to Packed
Buyers will look in your closets and peek in your cabinets. They want to see the storage potential of the home.  Take your decluttering project to the closets, kitchen, and bathroom.  Take small appliances off of kitchen countertops and prepare the flatware drawer for opening, just in case.  Whenever possible, remove extra stuff from the home entirely. However, if a storage rental or family member’s basement is not an option, clean and organize each area neatly.  Try to arrange packed boxes or hanging clothes to allow buyers to see the back and sides of a closet or storage room.  Even a small gap can help buyers understand the size of the space.

Removing clutter removes distractions and helps maximize the size of a space.  Declutter before putting a home on the market so that buyers can see the home itself, and not just the things in it.

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About The Author: Tom Davidson is the acting Director of Sales & Operations for Express Schools, LLC. Since 1996 the companies under this banner have offered online real estate licensing and insurance licensing courses as well as online real estate exam prep and insurance exam prep.

Decades of the “bigger is better” mindset of American prosperity had its effect on the housing market. In the 50s, the average size of a single family home was less than 1000 square feet. Fifty years later, as the housing boom flourished, the average single family home ballooned to more than twice that size. Some of the up-sizing in living came from social ideals of individualized living space (such as a room for each child), expanding and upgrading social areas like kitchens and living rooms, the rise of the game room, craft room, “man-cave,” home theater, and other expansions on personal indulgence (including luxe bathrooms), significant increases in home office space, and the overall increased prosperity that made these things financially possible.

Now that the Boom has busted, families are taking a new look at housing. Despite all of the underfunded “McMansions” and large homes now on the market, recent home sales are trending toward smaller living spaces. The National Association of Home Builders reports that new homes built in the past few years are also smaller than Boom sizes. While still far larger than the 50s average, Americans are rethinking what makes a home ideal, and size is mattering in a whole new way. Instead of marveling at the cathedral ceilings, super-sized rooms, and massive floor plans, homebuyers are considering just how and how much the space will be needed and used, and calculating all the ways that space will cost them well past the purchase price.

Despite the rock-bottom pricing of many large homes, small homes are cheaper still. Homebuyers are less focused on what they can get, and more focused on what they can keep: buyers (and the banks that finance them) aren’t interested in jumping to the top of their price range or risking too big of an investment. Even when the large home is easily affordable, buyers are counting the costs of living in large spaces, from energy costs to the effort and expense of maintenance and upkeep. Extra space is becoming less of a luxury and more of a bother: just more space to heat, cool, and clean without enough of a lifestyle benefit to justify it.

Size for its own sake just isn’t what it used to be. Burnt out on having things just to have them and on wasting money on non-essentials, buyers are now focusing on quality; think, it’s not the size of the kitchen that counts, but how you use it.” Filling large spaces with furniture costs money, but a smaller space can translate into fewer, better furniture pieces. Likewise, reduced living costs allow upgrades in items like appliances and in-home electronics, which themselves are increasingly designed with space and energy saving technology. Americans are discovering ways to live bigger in smaller homes, actually increasing their quality of life by decreasing square footage.

A lingering side-effect of the housing bust is the new preoccupation with resale values. Homebuyers, even those planning on settling down for the long-haul, are very concerned about the home’s future marketability. Though housing recovery is underway and buyers believe in value increases, they also know that housing could fall again someday, and they don’t want to be left holding the debt. Big, expensive houses are the first casualty of a housing decline: no one wants them when affordability hits the skids. The very fact that large houses are so very price-reduced now is giving some buyers all the reason they need to stay away: they don’t ever want to be in the current seller’s shoes. Small houses might not enjoy the large jumps in value that bigger ones might see in a high economy, but they don’t suffer the same extremes in devaluation either, and they’re always easier to sell.

Big, beautiful homes are still the stuff of many American dreams, but current homebuyers are more content to dream those dreams, and buy smaller realities.

Want to find out if you have what it takes to be a Real Estate Agent or Broker?

About The Author: David Goldstein is an owner and founding partner of Express Schools, LLC. Since 1996 the companies under this banner have offered online real estate licensing and insurance licensing courses as well as online real estate exam prep and insurance exam prep.

Spring typically brings out buyers and is a good time to sell a home, but in the buyer’s market with so many homes for sale, sellers have to work harder to get the buyers to come see the property. With so many homes to choose from, what can help your home stand out from similar offerings? Try fixing up the yard. Boosting curb appeal doesn’t require a green thumb; it just takes some elbow grease, or a short-term contract with a yard service. A small investment in the yard and exterior can bring buyers in to look. Think of it as a prettily wrapped package over a brown paper bag; it gets people interested in opening it up. Strong curb appeal can be your edge over the competition. Here are a few easy tips to make your home look its best on the outside.

Clean up
Fallen twigs and leaves, long grass, wild bushes, overgrown trees, and any dead or scraggly plant  can make a home seem messy, ill-cared for, or neglected. Do a big yard clean-up when the home goes on the market, and a quick touch-up before showings to remove and new debris.
Clutter is a big turn-off. It distracts buyers from all the positives, so clean out carports, sheds, and garages and make sure the trash is picked up or well out of sight in the bin. Take a good hard look at the walls, windows, trim, and gutters. A session of power washing and a fresh coat of paint can make an old or drab-looking home shine.

Green up
Nothing appeals to buyers quite like a green lawn. Take advantage of spring showers (or create a few of your own) to get your grass growing. Throw out quick-starting seed (shade to full sun varieties are available) to fill in thin lawns, and apply proper fertilizers and weed killers to boost growth and remove unwanted intruders like dandelions and other fast-spreading lawn-wreckers. Spread a thin layer of topsoil over bare or rocky areas before seeding to give the grass something to hold on to. Regular mowing and edgings keep the lawn looking sharp and help grass build better root systems for stronger growth.

Brighten up
Consider investing in a few new plants. Fill in bare walls or fence lines with hedge or shrub varieties, and add in some bright seasonal flowers. Fill areas around plants with fresh mulch or pine straw for a polished finish. Healthy, attractive plants and neat growing areas make a home look picture-perfect complete, and create a cheerful atmosphere.  Even the addition of a single colorful pot of blooms can make a doorway seem much more inviting.

Buyer’s time is limited, and with so many options, they often decide whether to go inside based on pictures and drive-by viewings. Homes with attractive exteriors get more attention, more traffic, and more offers than similar homes with dull exteriors. This spring, boost your home’s selling power from the outside.  A good first impression is priceless, and it all starts from the curb.

Want to find out if you have what it takes to be a Real Estate Agent or Broker?

About The Author: Geoffrey Thompson is an owner and founding partner of Express Schools, LLC. Since 1996 the companies under this banner have offered online real estate licensing and insurance licensing courses as well as online real estate exam prep and insurance exam prep.