New Tips for Staging Your Boston Home to Sell!

As your Boston real estate agent, it’s my duty to help you with the home-selling process in Boston, MA. One part of that is staging your home to sell.

Now, many staging tips you’ve probably already heard. Declutter your home. Get rid of anything personal, like family photos and kid’s drawings on the refrigerator. Repaint the walls. Power wash the exterior. Display potted flowers on your front porch. Rearrange the furniture. Clean!

These are typical staging tips that are very important if you want potential homebuyers to imagine living in your home. You want your home to come off as a model home that is move-in ready, not a home that is being lived in by another family. Everything should look as perfect as it can.

However, today I’m going to share a few out-of-the-box ideas to help you stand out from other Boston home sellers. The key to staging is also to help potential homebuyers remember your home above the rest! Here are some new ideas:

• Add color pops to your neutral décor. Neutral décor is important, but you don’t want it to be so neutral that it looks blah. Add some hints of color, such as couch pillow shams, a throw rug, curtains and flower vases. Try to stick to one color scheme. You could also create a focal point with paint, such as painting one wall a bright color. More tips are available in this Realtor Magazine blog. 

• Use the right type of lighting in each room. Certain lighting can show off the features of certain rooms better than other lighting. House Logic recommends that you use halogen lighting to show off art, for task lighting or for mood creation. Use LED lighting on stairs, under cabinets and for landscaping. Fluorescent lighting is best for garages, closets and laundry rooms. 

• Make homemade air fresheners. You want your home to smell good for showings and open houses, but you don’t want homebuyers gagging on artificial chemicals! Huffington Post shared some great homemade options. One option is to cut an orange in half, cut out the pulp and fill the skin with salt. Or, dab a few drops of vanilla extract on a cool light bulb, then turn it on. 

• Create focal points. Define the best feature of each room, then decorate the room so that your other furnishings fit around it. Is it a fireplace in the living room? A built-in entertainment center in the family room? A table in the dining room? Use the lighting and color bursts we already discussed to enhance each focal point to make it memorable. 

Hopefully these tips will help you create a setting in your home that Boston homebuyers will remember and want to make their own! Have questions? Need help? Contact me, your Boston real estate agent! 

Patti Fine
Phone: 617-642-7585
Email: pf@pattifine.com
Patti Fine Real Estate
Greater Boston Area Homes
Search Greater Boston Area Homes

Summer Curb Appeal Tips for Your Boston Home!

Getting ready to sell your Boston home this summer? Home prices edged up in April, making it the second year-over-year increase for 2012! Inventory is down, meaning it's a great time for sellers. With home affordability so high for Boston homebuyers, now is when you should complete home projects, clean, declutter and get your home into the Boston Real Estate market!

As your Boston Real Estate agent, I’d like to bring up a major driving force as a home seller in the Boston Real Estate market: curb appeal. Potential homebuyers do judge your house by its “cover” and will drive right by if they don’t like what they see. Curb appeal is what will cause them to ask for more information, visit an open house and remember your home in the mass of options!

So, how do you win over homebuyers with your curb appeal? Lucky for you, in the summer, your options are nearly endless. Here are some ideas:

• Focus on your front door. This is the main focal point of homebuyers and house guests. Give the door a new coat of paint, hang a welcome sign or summer wreath, or get a whole new door if necessary. A bright colored door is a sure way of grabbing a buyer’s attention!

• Emphasize the front entryway. Aside from the door, you want the front entry to look as inviting as possible. Invest in a new welcome mat, hang a flag from a flag pole, flank the walkway with pots of flowers, clean the front stoop, repaint railings or posts and clean the light fixture. 

• Clean your exterior siding. This might just mean a good power wash, or it might mean a new coat of paint. If you have moldy wood or loose bricks, it might mean a more complex job to get the exterior back into top-notch shape.

• Keep the lawn immaculate. This means you should keep it mowed and trimmed along the edges, and watered when it begins to turn brown. Remove all toys and garden tools after use so nothing is crowding the lawn. Pull weeds and trim bushes and trees. Plant gardens in the yard or add a simple bench for added appeal.

• Polish your address numbers. Whether they just need a scrub or a solid polishing job, make sure they are bright and easy to spot from the street. If they have rusted over or are too dull to see, replace them. You don’t want homebuyers getting lost!

• Clean the windows! Seeing water spots or dirt on the windows is a major turnoff when walking up to the front door. Clean windows just make the whole house sparkle more from the outside. Inside, you’ll receive more natural light! It’s a win-win for everyone.

• Don’t forget the mailbox! Often overlooked, the mailbox also catches the eye of buyers because it’s right by the street. It’s hard for them to ignore, even though you’ve come to do that. Repaint it, make sure it’s standing up straight and replace with a modern one if necessary.

Now that you’ve worked hard to get your house in good shape, take a step back from your Boston home and look at your work. Stand out by the curb, or do a slow drive by. Try to look at the house as if you were a homebuyer. Ask a neighbor or friend to do so with you, because they might spot more than you will. 

If you need more tips or a neutral opinion, or you’re just ready to get on with the home-selling process, contact me, your Boston RealEstate agent! I am always ready to help sell your Boston home in the bustling, summer Boston Real Estate market. 

Patti Fine

Phone: 617-642-7585

Email: pf@pattifine.com

Patti Fine Real Estate

Greater Boston Area Homes

Search Greater Boston Area Home

Fall Decorating Tips for Your Boston Home!

As we transition from summer to fall here in Boston, I look forward to seeing the colors of the leaves change to burnt orange and bright red, and I look forward to fall décor. Seasonal changes are the perfect excuse for revamping your Boston home’s decorations! As your Boston Real Estate agent, I’m here to tell you that not only will fall décor make your home warmer and homier for you and your family, but it will also impress potential buyers who are in the spirit of autumn!

Here are some fall decorating tips to get you started on revamping your décor. Once you do, contact me, your Boston Real Estate agent, for the latest news and happenings in the Boston Real Estate market. Once the leaves change and begin falling around our yards, it’s a beautiful time to buy and sell in Boston.

• Bring the outside colors in! If you’re starting with a neutral paint palette, accessorizing with the colors of fall is simple. Add a splash of red, orange or yellow to a room with throw rugs, pillow covers, tablecloths, placemats, wall art, a basket of squash and gourds or any other clever accessory you can come up with. These colors coincide beautifully with neutral greens and beiges.

• Add a warm, cozy element. When we think fall, we think about the colder temperatures on their way. Start prepping now with extra blankets, pillows and rugs near your fireplace or in your main sitting room, autumn-scented candles, a fall tray with fresh cookies on it and a spiced tea or hot chocolate set. Edible décor will especially be popular amongst your guests!

• Incorporate rustic touches. After the leaves turn, they fall, leaving bare branches. Bring that woodsy look into the home by filling vases or creating a piece of art out of twigs and branches from your yard. Add texture and color to this with pinecones, red berries, dried leaves and anything else you can find out in nature.

• Highlight your front entryway. When adding seasonal décor, you never want to leave your front entryway out, since that is where most guests will come in. Hang a wreath on the door made with twigs and/or fall leaves, lay a festive fall placemat by your door, fill a wicker basket with gourds or flank your walkway with large pumpkins.

Although the end of summer is a sad time for many who love the warmth and sun, these festive, fall decorating tips will get you in the mood for autumn in no time! Next thing you know, you’ll be hanging Halloween decorations and buying bags of candy.

Just like with seasons, there is a never a dull moment in the Boston Real Estate market. Before the hoopla of holiday season arrives, take the time now to sell your Boston home or to buy a new home. I am here to help, your Boston Real Estate agent, with any questions or concerns you may have. Boston, MA is a beautiful place to be this time of year. Use it to your advantage by dipping into the Boston Real Estate market today!

Patti Fine
Phone: 617-642-7585
Email: pf@pattifine.com
Patti Fine Real Estate
Greater Boston Area Homes
Search Greater Boston Area Homes

Advice before Attending a Boston Open House

June has officially arrived in Boston, which means the Boston Real Estate market’s busiest months have arrived! As a Boston homebuyer, you could fill every weekend with open houses in the area. However, why spend all that time doing something you’re not fully prepared for? As your Boston Real Estate agent, I am here to give you all the advice you need to nail each open house you attend!

First off, bring a notebook and pen with you to each open house.

Before you arrive at an open house, scope out the neighborhood. What do you like about it? What do you dislike? Get a feel for how many people are outside, the visual appeal of the homes, how many parks visible, how busy the streets are and other concerns you may have. Also take note of other houses for sale in the neighborhood. How do they compare to the house you’re visiting? How does the price compare?

Once you arrive at the open house, write down your first feelings when seeing the house. What do you like about the exterior? Does anything look like it needs work? Head inside and keep mental notes while you look, or bring a notebook with you to write down notes. After visiting numerous open houses in one weekend, they might all start to blend together in your memory.

Look past the obvious features of the home. Hopefully, the Boston home seller cleaned up the home and made it as presentable as possible. That doesn’t mean you can’t see what’s hiding behind doors. Open up closets and cabinets. Touch surfaces. Really get to know the house you could end up living in.

After jotting down notes and getting a feel for the house, consider asking some of these questions, which will leave you feeling as informed as possible about this particular house.

Why are you selling? This is a great question to open with. If the seller wants to downsize or upsize, you know that they can probably take their time and wait for a good offer. If they are transferring for a job, they probably need to move sooner than later. If it has something to do with not liking the neighborhood or location, ask more questions. You want to know what you’re getting into before buying.

Have you had any offers yet? Though it’s a buyer’s market, that doesn’t mean you can mosey around forever. Other buyers are busy searching for new homes in the Boston area too, especially during the summer months, so this question will let you know what your competition is like. Also, if they have gotten offers, find out if they rejected any and why.

How long has this house been on the market? This question will help you decide what type of offer to put in. If it has been on the market awhile, there’s a good chance that you could lower the asking price for the sake of desperate sellers. Then again, it could be that the sellers are stubborn about lowering their price and that’s why it hasn’t sold. Ask if the price has been reduced at all and when that happened.

Do you plan on including any repairs or upgrades in the sale? This is a good question to ask if you notice something in need of a repair or upgrade. Even if you don’t notice anything, this will allow you to find out what needs work or if the homeowner recently made any upgrades.

Have you had an inspection done on the house? If the answer is yes, you could ask for copies of the inspection results, which will tell you what shape the house is really in and whether you’ll need to plan on additional inspections.

These questions will get you well on your way to becoming an open house pro. After visiting a few open houses, you’ll get the hang of asking the right questions. As always, your Boston Real Estate agent is here to answer your questions and to offer you additional assistance on your home-buying adventure! The Boston Real Estate market is in full swing, so don’t wait to dive in and find the Boston home of your dreams!

Patti Fine
Phone: 617-642-7585
Email: pf@pattifine.com
Patti Fine Real Estate
Greater Boston Area Homes
Search Greater Boston Area Homes