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Real Estate
W
hether you have
thoughts of selling
your home in the
spring or you just want to
preserve your home’s value there
are specific remodeling projects
that will give you the best return
on your home improvement
dollars.
When you give the real
estate market a close look,
the conservative “Midwest
mentality” has served us well
during the national housing
crisis.
Fortunately, our market didn’t
party with the mortgage lenders
in places like Florida or California
that created the housing bubble
that eventually burst, sending
foreclosure and short sales rates
into record-breaking numbers.
History shows that the Peoria
area has been borderline boring
with regards to the increases or
decreases in the number of homes
that sell here each year and the
price for which they sell. That’s
not a slam. In fact, it’s what saved
our behinds as we continue to
watch other parts of the country
try to recover from the bursting
bubble of 2007-2008.
Was the Peoria area totally
immune from the housing bust?
No, but we joined the party late
and our rebound has been a lot
shorter than most.
So that’s an up side to our
conservative background. But
there is a possible down side,
too, and it deals with home
improvements and selling your
home.
Most of us grew up with the
“if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”
philosophy. Better yet, we believe
that if we purchased a kitchen
faucet 20 years ago it should still
be fashionable and in working
order today. That’s fine if you
plan on staying in your home
forever and you don’t care what
the neighbors think, but if you
have thoughts of moving to a
larger home or even downsizing,
you probably have some work to
do on the past in order to move
on to the future.
If you are a potential seller,
get it in your head now that
you must “stage” your home
before you put it on the market.
Staging is presenting your home
in a way that will appeal to the
majority of homebuyers. That
means not everyone will love
your collection of owls or the
multitude of framed photos of
your 30-something kids as babies.
Real estate experts — local,
state or national — all have
general rules and suggestions
about staging. Most are simply
common sense, but that doesn’t
mean everybody thinks of them
when preparing to sell their
home.
The first rule of thumb is to
grab them from the curb. If
your home’s exterior doesn’t
make a good first impression,
don’t count on potential buyers
walking through the door.
Curb appeal can be as simple as
putting out a few potted plants,
power-washing the walkways,
adding dark brown mulch to
the landscaping and mowing
the lawn. Get rid of those cheap,
rusted coach lights on the front
of the house and install new,
larger exterior lighting that better
reflects the scale of the home. The
new lights may cost a little more
than anticipated, but it’s a small
price to pay for getting attention.
One real estate expert said
another good idea is to take a
52
thePeorian.com
Staging Your
Home to
Sell
As spring nears, sellers should
put their best house forward
By Cathi Hawkinson