HOW TO GET THE MOST MONEY WHEN YOU’RE SELLING YOUR HOME

For over 20 years I have been in the design and home improvement industry. I have had the pleasure of working with many realtors, brokers and investment firms as well as public. I decided to pass on my knowledge and what I have learned about how to hire a realtor and negotiate a better rate, but also if you should fix up your home before you sell it.

• The first thing you need to decide is how to sale your home.
•  one way is to market and sell it yourself.
•  But for the best result, hire a reputable realtor in your area who knows your market place and knows how to advertise effectively to sale your property.

If you decide to hire a realtor here are some tips how to save money.

• When interviewing a realtor asked them upfront how much commission they and their broker charge, also if they are the broker who represents you and the buyer are they willing to cut their commission rates?
•  A motivated realtor and broker whom want your listing will cut their rate to get your business.
• Find out who pays the closing cost, for most part both buyer and seller share the closing cost. Negotiate so the broker pays your share of the closing cost once the house is sold. These two steps alone can save you thousands of dollars.
• Find out how they will be marketing your home.
• When picking an agent find out how many homes they have listed in your area and sold in the past six month. This will give you a gauge of how capable they are and how motivated they are to sell your home fast.
• Ask who will pay for you inspection and appraisal fees and if the answer is you, then try to negotiate for broker to pay for it.
• Truth of the matter is the only thing you have in common with a realtor is the fact you both want to sell your home. It’s up to you to be assertive in trying to save and get as much money as you can.

Now that you have negotiate with the realtor it’s time to decide if you should fix up the house.

• Look at your financial situation and think about why you are selling your home.
• Do you have any equity?
• One of the deciding factors is to look at the comparable home that has sold in your neighborhood.
• If you are asking top dollar for your home you need to make sure your house has the same appeal as other home that has sold in your neighborhood.
• If your home needs improvements you may sell it as is and hope for the best. The down part is your home may sit on the market for a long time.
• You might also decide on giving credit or reducing the price to sell the home as is.
• Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. Would you buy this home when there are so many homes to choose from with better condition?
• You have to look at your home as a product and you need to make this product as attractive as you can to a buyer.

 How much should I spend?

• The answer to this question is the least amount possible.

What areas of my home should I improve upon?

• I am sure you have heard this term before, and there is a program on HG TV, called curb appeal.
• First impression is the most important.
• Make sure your lawn is trimmed and groomed and the trees and bushes are not out of control. You also want to make sure your tree and bushes are not hiding any architectural attribute, and they are not blocking natural light when looking from the inside out.
• Your screen door and front door need to be in good condition and if need be, paint the door.
• Make sure your kid’s toys and bicycle and skate boards are not all over the lawn.
• The kitchen and the bathroom are the most important part of any home for a buyer.
• If your kitchen and bathrooms are old and tired you don’t need to remodel, all you do is paint or re stain the cabinets or change the doors on the cabinet and put new knobs and hinges. If you can afford it install new counter top and change the faucets to give your kitchen and bathroom a brand new look at a fraction of the cost of a new kitchen and bath.
• The paint on the walls are very important, you need to make sure the walls are clean and don’t have your kids hand print or stain. If need be you should paint the walls and make sure it’s a warm neutral color that is easy to decorate around for the new buyer.
• Flooring is as important. If your carpet has stains or if your cat and dog have had an accident in the house don’t waste your time trying to clean it. Depending on how old the carpet is you won’t be able to get all the stain and smell out. Change the carpet in a warm natural color, if you can afford wood floor that will be great or for lesser cost you can install laminate floors. Hard surface always adds to the value of your home and it also makes it look bigger and buyers love it.

As always I hope this information is helpful, for more information about how to get your home ready to sell you can email us at info@urbanhomedesignllc.com or call our office 949 588-9300 for a free in home consultation.

In my next blog I will talk about how to stage your home. You can also look for other blogs on different product and services on our website. Urbanhomedesignllc.com.

Best Wishes,

Urban Home Design llc.

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HOW TO CHOOSE A FLOORING CONTRACTOR AND SAVE MONEY.

Q: How do I find the right flooring contractor, and what’s the cost to install hardwood floors?

A: with today’s technology most people will turn to Google, yahoo or Bing to find a flooring contractor. Just type flooring contractor in your area and within seconds you will get result up to 10 per page.

You will also find companies who will just sale the material; all you have to do is find an installer to install your hardwood floor or any other flooring you might need. That’s a great start, but to find the right flooring contractor here are some tips to save money time and aggravation.

WHAT NOT TO DO

• Stay away from unlicensed contractor. This may surprise you but a lot of people will hire unlicensed contractor to save a few dollars.If anything goes wrong with the installation, or the unlicensed contractor starts your job and not show up you have no recourse.

Let’s say everything goes well and the job is done, and six month later you have some issues and you are not able to make them return or worse yet you can’t get them to call you back.Now you have to find a new contractor and hopefully this time you have hired a licensed contractor to fix any and all problems.This means you have to pay additional funds to correct the problem and that’s not good.

• Stay away from any flooring contractor who does not have a showroom or an office were you can physically visits if anything goes wrong.

• Don’t buy your product online unless it’s a reputable company and they have a great return policy at no cost to you and make sure you get in writing their warranty on product after installation.

• Don’t hire a handy man, for most part they are unlicensed and they don’t specialize in flooring but they are jack of all traits.

HOW TO CHOOSE FLOORING CONTRACTOR

• When contacting local flooring contractor asked them about design ideas and their expertise in design and floor planning. This will help you weed out flooring contractor who know nothing about design and floor planning.

• Once you have found several licensed contractor with a showroom in your local area make time to visit their facility and look at all the flooring samples.

• Get three quotes to compare.

• Make sure they bring all samples to your home so you can see the samples next to your furniture and lighting before deciding on color & style.

• Make sure you get a total square foot measurement so you can compare with other flooring contractors, some flooring contractor will add 5% and some 10%. Be sure to ask about the waist factor and how they came up with that number. This will help you not waist product therefore you save money.

• Do your research online for pricing, this way you can better negotiate pricing with flooring contractors.

• Make sure in their proposal all molding and transition pieces as well as demolition and disposal fees plus furniture moving are included.

• Make sure you get a firm date on installation in writing, get a start date and completion date.

HOW TO CHOOSE HARDWOOD FLOORS.

• Hardwood floors come in 4 basic constructions:
• Solid Hardwood Flooring – are  hardwood  floors cut into wood planks  from a solid piece of wood that  generally  come in 3/4″ thick. (use over raised foundation, not recommended for concrete slabs.) unless you first install additional plywood over concrete  & then nail down the solid wood floor over the ply wood substrate..
• Engineered Hardwood Flooring – are several layers of wood that are glued and pressed together to create a wood plank.The  Range of thickness vary from 1/4″ to just over 9/16″. (this product can be installed almost anywhere in your home, including over dry concrete slabs.) using glue down as well as stapled or floating application.
• Long strip Hardwood Flooring – are created exactly like engineered hard wood floors but  the main difference is with a longer and wider plank. this product can be glued-down, stapled or floated over many sub-floors and used almost anywhere in your home, including dry basements.
• Exotic Hardwood Flooring – is a way to describe hardwood species from around the World. you wont find these hardwoods in North America and they come from Australia, Africa, Brazil and the Far East. with Exotic hardwoods you can get a unique wood graining and colorations. Most exotic floors are available in engineered wood construction but some are only available in solid hardwood planks

• Research the species of the wood floor you are interested in. Different species have different tolerance janka for wear and tear.

• Check for wear layer thickness, (this is very important). The thicker the wear layer the longer the floor will last and the more sanding you can get out of it.

• If you are purchasing hand scraped or hand distressed product even though you will never sand it. It is important to have a good wear layer for performance.

• Ask about the finish on the hardwood floor and the type of protection it has for long term wear and tear and let’s not forget about the warranty.

• Dark hardwood floor will give a formal look to your house so make sure you match your color & stain with the design of your home and furnishing. This why it is so important to work with a flooring contractor who understands design and floor planning as well as product and installation.

I hope this will help you in your search for flooring and flooring contractor. Here is couple of links for a square foot calculator and

virtual decorator to help you design and estimate how much flooring you may need.

If you have any comments or questions you can contact us by emailing to info@urbanhomedesignllc.com

Best wishes, Urban Home Design llc,

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HOW TO SAVE MONEY AND CHOOSE THE RIGHT KITCHEN REMODELING CONTRACTOR

Q: Kitchen Design Remodel can be very stressful and costly,  how do I begin and what should I know?

A: With all the information available on the internet and your willingness to invest a little time in research you can save a lot of money on your next kitchen remodel, here are some steps and what to consider.

Before you start preparing for your kitchen remodel you must consider the value of your home. This is important so you don’t overspend or under spend, this is a big consideration when you want to sale your home in the future to get the most out of your investment.

• Decide what you hate about your kitchen and the kind of changes you like to make and additions.
• What type of design and style are you going for so the contractor can give you what you want.
• Come up with a budget you can live with, don’t forget to include your appliances and fixtures within your budget.
• you need to take a rough measurement so you have an idea how many linear feet of cabinets you will need for top and bottom as well as island, this can help you better negotiate with your contractor.( cabinets are priced per linear feet and they can range from $80.00 to $300.00 per linear feet depending on (custom or prefabricated) and the type of material being used.
• For counter top decide what type of stone you would like and the edge detail as well as the kind of back splash to go with it.
• Are you keeping your old appliance or you want to order new ones, remember to allocate funds for re installation of your old appliances or if you are getting new appliances negotiate a good rate with the supplier.
• How many sinks & faucet are necessary and the type of look you are going for.
• The type of flooring you would  like to use, and make sure it will blend with the rest of the house.
• The type and style of lighting and plugs.
• Finally break down your kitchen in all the categories you need, this way your contractor will have to give you an individual price on all different part of your job so you can make sure you are not overpaying and you have a better control of your project.

Here are the categories for your kitchen remodel

• demolition
• painting and dry wall
• electrical
• plumbing, sinks, fixtures, appliances
• cabinet
• counter top and back splash
• flooring

If you do your research in advance there is less chance for mistakes and delays as well as unexpected cost. Make sure to get line item pricing for all the categories and the time for each part to be completed. A good contractor will break down your project in categories and prices as well as a schedule for each step. This is also a good sign when you are interviewing contractors to see if they give this service without asking for it.

you can visit our website urbanhomedesignllc.com for helpful tools like flooring square foot calculator or virtual decorator as well as links to appliance and fixture.

I hope you find this information helpful,

Best Wishes,

Urban Home Design llc
Now for a shameless plug for our company. For your next kitchen & bath remodel give us an opportunity to impress you with our knowledge and design ideas, all at the same time delivering you a dream kitchen at affordable prices.

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