Springfield-Homes4Sale.com Blog

Are you serious about selling your home? You must be because, no surprise, it’s a tough market, (and a Buyer’s market). But hard as things may be, homes ARE selling.

Now, more than ever, you need to arm yourself with a REALTOR® you can trust to assist you in pricing and staging your home to sell. In this market, a good strategy is to price aggressively.  It is vital that you "set" the market price, not "chase" it by slowing bleeding down your price. The longer your home is on the market, the less a buyer will pay for it.

Next, you must eliminate clutter and give every room a “single” purpose. Home staging is all about redirecting a buyer’s focus to showcase your home’s ability to meet their needs. Four of the best things you can do that won’t cost you a dime are:

1) PACK! You must adopt a “minimalist” lifestyle that reduces clutter so a buyer can see the square footage they are buying AND see “their” things in your space.

2) CLEAN! Your home must be clean, organized and in good condition to sell in a tough market. Kitchens and bathrooms are spaces that need to be spotless – use baskets to organize everyday items that you can easily hide away when you leave for a showing.

3) STAGE! Each room can have only one purpose. You can turn a bedroom “into” an office, but it shouldn’t be both while your home is on the market. Each room must have a single purpose – a bedroom, a dining room, an office, a closet, etc.

Try and think about the message your home is sending to a potential buyer. Clutter tells a buyer there isn't enough storage in the home and dual-purpose rooms tell a buyer the home does not have enough space to live in.

4) COMPARE! Your REALTOR® will be all too happy to show you the homes you are competing with – it’s the best way to see where you stand in the market. Finally, call me, I’m an Accredited Home Stager (AHS) and I’m happy to help you put your best foot forward!

If you are confused about the recent passing of a second tax credit for first time home buyers, don't worry, you are not alone. Be advised, there are TWO tax credits and both of them are ONLY for first-time home buyers (ie. you are a first-time home buyer if you haven't owned a home in the 3yrs previous to this purchase).

1. If you purchased a principal residence on or after April 9, 2008 and before January 1, 2009 you may qualify for up to $7,500 in a tax credit.

2. If you purchased a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009 you may qualify for up to $8,000 in a new tax credit. Unlike the initial tax credit, above, this one does not have to be repaid!

Click here for details on both of these tax credits. This is an easy to navigate website with loads of information written in non-legal language we can all understand. Another interesting provision of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (covered in The Law's Other Provisions section of this website) that benefits homeowners is the extension of the tax code section 25C for energy-efficient home improvements through the end of 2010. This provision actually increases the credit rate from 10-30%, raises the lifetime cap  from $500 to $1500 and expands the list of eligible improvements!

Building GREEN has finally come to the forefront of home construction and remodeling. Yippie!  Going GREEN has always been a smart idea, it just hasn't been a cost-effective idea from either a builder or buyer's point of view, until recently. Rising energy costs mean GREEN options become more affordable. If you look at energy costs as the carbon footprint of the home, ie. the energy consumption/conservation over the life of the home, then GREEN building options have made sense for a long time. Unfortunately, new construction is sold to a market of buyers who tend to look at a short, 3-5yr, ownership period before they either relocate to a new area or sell and upgrade to a larger/nicer home. From this vantage point, the buyer was comparing the cost of adding the GREEN alternatives to the savings these alternatives would bring over the life of their ownership and saying, "No."

All that is changing. Finally, it's cool to GO GREEN! We welcome a new builder to the area, Mark Bennett and his son, Trevor, who have recently settled here and are bringing their 40+yrs of building and recent experience in GREEN building and remodeling to this area. You can read about and contact them through their website:  http://www.TheICFBuilder.com 

GREEN building isn't just about building a more eco-friendly, energy efficient and healthy home ... it's also about locating this unique home in a conservation subdivision and someday it will be about adding some really fun ideas, like jogging trails that utilize the kinetic energy stored from the footsteps of walkers and joggers. I'd love to hear about innovations that YOU have heard about or experienced in YOUR town or neighborhood!