Category Archives: Home Tips

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5 Tips To Prepare Your Home To Be Sold

Don't sell your house before doing these 5 things first!

If you’re thinking about selling your home in the Spring or Summer now is the time to start getting the home ready.  If you want to sell your home quickly and for top dollar do these 5 things as you prepare your home.

Create a great first impression.

Winter may not be the best time to prepare landscaping however one key area you can work on any time of the year is the front entry way to your home.  Look at the door does it need to be painted?  How is the trim work?  Make sure this are is clean and free of any cobwebs or dirt.  Remember that the buyer will often be waiting outside for a few minutes before entering the home.

Declutter

This is a simple one but not easy.  Picture your home as a model home.  You want to make the rooms look open and inviting.  Sell or pack excess furniture.  Pack knickknacks or decor that is excessive.

Clear The Kitchen Countertops

Kitchen spaces can seem small when they are covered with appliances, utensils and pots and pans.  Remove everything off the countertops to make your kitchen and counter space appear bigger.

Make sure the home is odor free

Smells can make or break a house.  Odors can easily be picked up on as soon as you enter a house.  Make sure your home is odor free.  Keep it clean.  If you’re a smoker, smoke outside.  Air out the house if you need to or seek professional help if you have a severe odor.

Fix things that are broken

If you know things need to be done take care of them.  Fix little things like burned out light bulbs, leaky faucets, or electrical switches that don’t work.  If you really want to be proactive you can do a pre-home inspection and find out exactly what issues would come up on an inspection report.  This gives you time to fix or evaluate the issues before putting the house on the market.  We have home inspectors we can recommend if you need help with this.

If you’d like more ideas on getting your home ready contact and request our free Room By Room Review booklet.  We can email you a copy of this booklet or come out and personally give you our recommendations on what to do and what not to do.

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Don’t Do These 3 Things If You Want To Sell Your Egg Harbor Township, NJ House

Here are 3 critical mistakes you want to avoid to sell your Egg Harbor Township, NJ House.

Read this first before making one of these 3 critical mistakes seller’s make when selling their Egg Harbor Township, NJ home.

  • Over price the home!  This may seem like a no brainer but many home sellers will over price their home thinking they will net more money.  In fact overpricing your home can actually lead to netting less than if you priced it right from the beginning.  Most home sellers will overprice their homes for the following reasons:
    • Bad information.  They may have inaccurate information on what their home is worth.
    • Room for negotiations.  Sellers may price the home high expecting to get a lower offer.  However if the home is priced too high you won’t get any offers
    • Net proceeds.  Some sellers will price the home based on what they need to net rather than what the home is worth.
  • Prepare the home to be sold.  Home staging works to help the house show like a model home.  If the house is messy or cluttered or dirty it will not show well and may turn off buyers completely.  Preparing your home to be sold helps your Egg Harbor Township home sell faster and for more money.  We offer our clients a Room By Room Home Staging Checklist to help them prepare the home to be sold.  We also work with professional home stagers that can provide services to home owners and even furnish and decorate vacant homes.
  • Bad photography.  It’s amazing how many homes I see for sale online with horrible photos.  There are blurry pictures, dark pictures, pictures with the home owner in them etc.  Most home buyers start their search on the internet and pictures are the first impression.  You only get one chance to make a great first impression.  Make sure you have great photos and use a professional photographer.

I hope this list helps you as you prepare to sell your Egg Harbor Township, NJ home.  Contact us for a free consultation so we can help you net more money and have a faster sale.  Best wishes, Matt

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5 Tips To Sell A Unique Property In Egg Harbor Township, NJ

Not every house is the same and sometimes there are no comparable homes to go by.

Recently I met with a few seller clients that wanted advice on selling their unique homes.  In Egg Harbor Township there are many developments where the houses are very similar and it’s very easy to determine market value.  There are also many unique homes and properties that may be difficult to find any homes to compare with them.  In the township there are waterfront homes, farm properties, historic homes and interesting mixed use properties.  So how do you sell a unique property that’s not your typical cookie cutter home?

  1.  First I like to take a look at what the highest and best use for the property would be.  Is it on a large piece of land?  Could it be subdivided?
  2. Then I like to look at who the potential buyer would be.  Are their attributes of the home or property that would appeal to certain buyers?  Is it in a waterfront location or close to parks and recreation.  Determining the likely buyer can also help determine how they may position the value of the home.
  3. Look for similar properties.  Do the best to find similar homes even if they are in another city nearby.
  4. I also like to help my clients evaluate if there are upgrades or improvements to the property that could be done to significantly improve the value of the property.
  5. Another option is to have an appraisal done on the property.  This will help give you an idea of how the appraiser would determine value and then price the property close to the appraised value.

If you or someone you know has a unique property and you need help determining the value.  Contact me for a free consultation.  Best wishes, Matt

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Why You Should Buy Or Sell A House In Atlantic County Right Now.

There are many reasons to buy and sell a home right now in Atlantic County, NJ.  Let’s take a look at this from the perspective of home buyers and sellers.

Home Buyers In Atlantic County, NJ.

  1.  Interest rates are still low.  You still have great buying power.
  2. Atlantic County, NJ home prices are on the rise in many of our communities as inventory is shrinking.  Purchase now before prices go up.
  3. Right now there are less buyers looking for homes in the winter.  Less buyers means less competition and you are less likely to get in bidding wars with other buyers.  You can often negotiate a great price and terms this time of year.

Home Sellers In Atlantic County, NJ

  1. Right now inventory is lower in Atlantic County.  If your neighborhood has no other homes for sale or just a few for sale this could be a great time to sell before more homes come on the market in the Spring.
  2. If you are moving up to a larger home this is the perfect market to move up to something bigger.  Demand for lower price homes in the $200,000 range and below is high.  Demand for higher priced home is not as great.  That means you can get top dollar for your home and get a great deal when you purchase your next home.
  3. Rates remain low.  Higher interest rates mean less buying power for home buyer.  If rates go up home prices will go down.  Sell now before any likely interest rate hikes occur.

Figuring out when to buy and sell a home ultimately depends on your circumstances and situation.  Contact me for a free consultation.  I can ask a few simple questions to help you determine if this is the right time to buy or sell for you.

Best wishes,

Matt

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What’s The Best Real Estate App?

We review the pros and cons of real estate apps and look at the new KW app.

What's The Best Real Estate App

My KW.com app.

Everyone has an App these days.  Banking, social media and even your favorite restaurants all have apps.  They are convenient ways to stay connected and offer many conveniences.  So when it comes to real estate Apps which one is best?

There are many large real estate websites that all have apps.  And most of them work very well.  Apps like Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia etc.  provide similar home search functions and capabilities.  They are connected to GPS so when you are driving around or walking around you simple open your app and you’ll see all the homes for sale around you.  You’ll also see photos, prices and details.

Here is the biggest problem with these apps… they are not connected to a local agent.  These apps are not connected to a local real estate expert who is looking out for your needs and best interest.  So if you have a question or want more details on a property you may be connected to the listing agent but most of the time you’ll be sent to an agent who has paid to advertise on the app that may know nothing about the property at all.

My app also has a map function where you can draw the area you are interested in and it will pull up all available homes.

So what’s the best real estate app?  Mine of course!  My KW app allows my clients and friends and family to have all the features and benefits of the big name real estate apps with a connection to a local agent who is looking out for your best interest.  My app works nationwide.  And if you’re looking at home outside of my area of coverage I can connect you with a local agent anywhere in the country through our network of over 150,000 highly trained agents.

For 2019 our app will be totally redesigned with direct connection to every Multiple Listing Service in the country we will have the most accurate data for our customers.  If you would like a great real estate app connected with a great real estate agent download my free app now.  When the new version of the app is released your app will automatically be uploaded to the new version.  Click here to download now or Text
KW2JXSUJJ to 87778.

Best wishes, Matt
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Add-On Front Patios

A New Home Trend Front Patios

Front porches and back patios have joined forces. The result is the emergence of the “front yard patio.”

A front yard patio is inviting, which might herald a reversal of a 70 year trend towards hiding out in our houses and entertaining only in our backyards. This condition was a direct result of the age of the automobile, when garages gradually crept to the front of the house at the expense of our porches.

For those of us with garage-dominated or porch-less facades, the front yard patio is a welcome feature—a decorative, as well as functional entertaining space that says, “Hello.”

Front patios can look like almost anything, and be constructed of any material that can be made weed-free and level, including brick, stone, gravel, or wood. They can be attached to the home, wrapped around the front door, or set off on their own. And they can be enhanced by such things as:

  •   A fire pit or heat lamps.
  •   A small side fountain.
  •   Low shrubs or low walls.
  •   Tea lights or lanterns.Front patios are more than simple functional changes in our space and lifestyle. They’re also a smart move for home sellers as they gain traction with buyers who see them as inviting and desirable features that add value to the house.

For more great tips and interesting articles download Matt’s Home News February edition here:  February Newsletter – Matt

Best wishes,

Matt

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7 Quick, Easy Ways to Winterize

Winter is coming soon. Are you ready?

November is a great time to winterize your home in preparation for colder weather. Here

are a few quick, inexpensive tips for cutting your heating bills.

1. Use a draft snake. This device was adopted during the Great Depression, and is one of

the easiest ways to cut the cold. It’s a long sack filled with sand or kitty litter that you

can push into the crack under doors to stop drafts. You can buy a pre-made draft

snake, or make your own.

2. Change the direction of your ceiling fans. Heat rises, so pulling the heat down from the

ceiling will warm your room up fast.

3. If you used a window AC unit in the summer, remove it for winter. Warm air escapes

through the vents and the areas around the unit.

4. Service your heating unit and replace filters. An efficient heating unit will work better

and cost less to run.

5. Consider using window insulation film. This thin layer of film sticks right onto your

windows and adds up to 70% more heat retention.

6. Use a candle to detect subtle air leaks. Light a candle, then move it all around the edge

of your windows. If the flame wiggles in the breeze, then caulk that spot on the window.

7. If you have a fireplace, keep the flue closed when not in use to prevent heat from

escaping and cold air from working its way down into the house.

For more tips and articles view and download my November Newsletter:  november-newsletter-matt