Set your house apart in a tight market! (Part 2)

While marketing your home for sale, one of the most effective ways to set it apart from the “competition” is careful staging. Staging is the use of furnishings, decor, and landscaping to present your home in a picturesque display for each showing. In doing this carefully, you allow each potential buyer to picture themselves in the home and develop an emotional connection. Curb appeal is often the first impression, and the most memorable image of the home, so landscaping is crucial to your staging plans. Excessive clutter and personal items can be a significant damper on a buyer’s impression of a home, so have a yard sale or rent a storage unit to reduce the mess. Limit photographs, but don’t stash all of them, as the pictures do give a sense of “home” to your house. Keep pet influences to a minimum when selling your home, and be sure to get an objective opinion about the existence of pet odors you might not notice as a long time pet owner. Your goal should be to “wow” each potential buyer from the second they pull up, all the way through their showing, and hopefully into a contract to purchase!

Make your home stand out in a tight market! (part 1)

With today’s economic environment, selling your home takes more than a sign and a smart price! While curb appeal, color ads, and open houses all factor into the equation, there are a few factors you can use to set your house apart from the crowd without biting into your bottom line.

The first option I’m going to discuss is the home warranty. While certainly not unheard of, home warranties have for a long time been offered primarily on new construction homes and high-end properties. With home warranty costs as low as $400.00 for a 13 month plan, it is very reasonable to negotiate with your listing agency to have the cost of the warranty covered. Some agencies are offering just such a plan with all of their listings above a certain price.

For more information about listing your home with a free home warranty offered to increase interest, feel free to comment this article or visit me at www.buyandsellhuntsville.com for more information!

Thanks,
Vince

Get Past The Hype and Sell Your Home Fast!

There are many different niches and techniques used to market homes for sale, but the successful listing agents all subscribe to one common theme; exposure is everything! Under the right terms, there will be a buyer for every piece of property in existence. The challenge is to make sure your property is seen both by the most people, and by the right people. Traditional marketing using the internet and various free magazines is certainly important, but it is crucial to think outside the box, and look for opportunities to catch buyers that aren’t actively checking the web and magazines. This includes buyers that rely on their agent to find homes for them, buyers that use restrictive search criteria that prevent them from finding homes they would actually like, and buyers that aren’t proactively in the market to buy, but might be charmed enough by your property to consider a move. Rocket Realty utilizes a retail oriented marketing system that presents listings to thousands of potential buyers every day! For more information about how I can help sell your home fast, call me, Vince, at 256-783-6922 or write me at Vince@BuyandSellHuntsville.com

Southeast Huntsville is Hot Spot for Value Minded Buyers!

In the previous 6 months, 159 homes have sold in Southeast Huntsville between 80k and 250k. This is an area that includes great schools, many miles of recreation paths, convenient shopping, and easy access to Redstone Arsenal. Commutes are easy with Bailey Cove Road and Whitesburg Drive offering a smooth alternative to the often congested Memorial Parkway. With homes ranging from mid five-figures to upper six-figures, this area shares a common thread of being known for low crime, peaceful, pretty (at the foot of Green Mountain), and offering something for every lifestyle. Homes sell quickly in this area, with investors seeking easily rentable properties, and starter homes being in high demand.

Forbes Names Huntsville/Madison County No. 1 place to weather the economic downturn.

Forbes Article

In November 2008, several factors led Forbes to choose Huntsville/Madison County as the number one area to weather the economic downturn. Employment, cost of living, property taxes, and average income were all factored into the choice. Madison County enjoys major employers in the aerospace, biotech, and medical industries, in addition to being the home of Redstone Arsenal and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Base Realignment and Closure is bringing several thousand new high-end government jobs to the area, and the new NASA ARES-1 project is a boon to Boeing’s substantial operations in the area. For more information about Huntsville, visit the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce.

Huntsville Real Estate Market is Healthy! By Vince Kreul

With declining real estate values and forclosures creating a panic in real estate markets around the United States, it’s difficult to imagine any place where real estate is still a safe bet. That’s where Huntsville, AL enters the scene. With it’s massive research park (2nd largest in the U.S.), diverse technology industries, highly educated work force, and low cost of living, Huntsville continues to enjoy stability and growth. Aside from an anomalous month in December, 2008 continued the steady growth in real estate prices traced at least back to 1990 by the Huntsville Area Association of Realtors. Home Sales 1990-Present. January 2009’s numbers demonstrate continued confidence in the Huntsville market! Forbes recently declared Huntsville the best city to weather the recession, and it consistenly makes top city lists ranging from best cost of living index, to green friendliness, to safest driving cities. If you’re in Huntsville, now’s a great time to become a property owner. If you’re looking for a place to move, you can’t go wrong with Huntsville’s reasonable costs, great schools, and diverse job field. For more information on the Huntsville area feel free to visit the Huntsville Area Page at BuyandSellHuntsville.com.

Rocket Realty Grand Opening! Huntsville, AL

Hello Huntsville, I’m Vince Kreul, and I just wanted to take a few minutes to introduce our new Real Estate company, Rocket Realty, here in Huntsville on Memorial Parkway. Our goal is to bring a refreshing new style to the real estate business and overcome some of the most common frustrations buyers and sellers have. To that end, I have started this blog to get feedback and make connections with the community. Whether you’re looking to buy, sell, or just like to keep tabs on the trends in the North Alabama area, take a moment to save this page and check back occasionally for new information, articles, news, and discussion.

Thanks and welcome!

Vince Kreul

Vince@buyandsellhuntsville.com

www.buyandsellhuntsville.com