Real estate prices have hit record levels in the United States during the last five years. In some parts of the country, prices have tripled. For those selling houses in the first half of the decade, business was very good, indeed. Rising interest rates and sticker shock have slowed the market down, however. In some parts of the country that used to be hot, sales have slowed to a crawl. In those markets, people who want to sell houses are now waiting months when homes used to sell in days or weeks. What can a homeowner who wishes to sell as quickly as possible do to accelerate the process?

A relatively new service called home staging may be the answer. Staging a home essentially means setting it up so that it makes its best possible presentation to the market. Professional home stagers will, for a fee, come to your house, examine your property, and make recommendations as to what you might do in order to make the house as sale-friendly as possible. In some cases, they will simply recommend a coat of paint, a bit of landscaping, or some new drapes. In other cases, more dramatic help may be needed.

It is often difficult to sell a home that has been vacant for a while. Buyers have a hard time imagining what their belongings might look like in an empty house. A good staging company will have in their inventory a selection of different types of furniture, lamps, decorative accessories and more so that a vacant home can look like a showcase. A fully and tastefully decorated home is much easier to sell than a vacant one.

The service isn’t necessarily inexpensive. Homeowners might expect to pay several hundred dollars for an initial consultation as well as a fee of several times that amount for the first month of a fully furnished, professionally decorated home. Rates for subsequent months tend to be lower than for the initial month, but many homes that have been professionally staged aren’t on the market much longer than a month. In fact, studies have shown that staged homes often sell in half of the time of other comparable properties.

Having your home professionally decorated in order to sell it isn’t something that everyone needs to do. But in markets with slowing real estate sales, staging a home may be the difference between selling the house this week and selling it three months from now. For many sellers, the investment is more than worthwhile.

©Copyright 2006 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including http://www.HomeEquityHelp.net, a site devoted to information regarding home equity loans, mortgages and lines of credit.

Share This

Home Equity
When you have a mortgage on your home but the value of the property exceeds the amount owed, the difference between the outstanding debt and the property’s value is referred as Home Equity. This remaining property value can be used to guarantee another loan: A Home Equity Loan or Line of Credit.

Home Equity Loans are secured loans with a fixed or variable interest rate, a fixed loan amount and a fixed, though negotiable, repayment program. A home equity loan is just like any other loan, only it is secured with the equity you’ve built on your home and thus carries fewer interests.

A Home Equity Line of Credit on the other hand, comes only with a variable interest rate, there is no fixed loan amount, though there is a credit maximum and the repayment is extremely flexible. The home equity line of credit is also secured on the home equity.

Interest Rate
Since both are secured, the interest rate charged is considerably low. Only home equity loans with a fixed rate can have a slightly higher interest. Home equity loans with a variable rate usually carry a somewhat lower interest rate. Home equity lines of credit, on the other hand, carry only a variable interest rate that is usually similar to the home equity loan fixed interest rate.

Loan amount
Home equity loans come with a fixed loan amount that can equal or be a bit higher than the home equity value. Home equity lines of credit are somewhat different: There is no loan amount, a credit maximum amount is set and you can borrow as much money as you need up to that amount. For example: If a $50.000 limit is set you could borrow $10.000 and a month later borrow $20.000 more. And so on till you reach the credit maximum.

Repayment
Home equity loans come with a fixed repayment schedule which has to be followed strictly with some exceptions. Though, there are in some cases grace periods and waivers you could apply for, if you request a home equity loan you will probably have rigid installments or at least a fixed amount plus a variable amount depending on interest rate variations.

Home Equity Lines of Credit let you repay the amount you owe they way you want to do it. You have an open line of credit where you can borrow and repay as much as you want as long as you don’t exceed the credit limit. Moreover, as opposed to home equity loans, lines of credit do not require to be renewed as you can always borrow more as long as there is credit left. If your home equity grows either by an increase on your property’s value or because of a reduction on your mortgage debt, you can ask for your credit maximum to be recalculated.

Mary Wise, a professional consultant with twenty years in the financial field, helps people in the process of securing personal loans, mortgage, refinance or consolidation loans and preventing consumers from falling into the hands of fraudulent lenders.
You can visit her site and get aid for Home Equity regardless of your credit. If the link doesn’t work, just copy badcreditloanservices.com and paste it in your browser’s address bar.

Share This

Selling a house is a complicated thing to do. It involves a lot of paperwork, a lot of meeting with people and most of all, a lot of time. That being the case, it helps to prepare ahead of time. There are a few things that anyone who wishes to sell a house should do prior to putting the “for sale” sign in the front yard. The sooner these things are done, the easier the job of selling the house will be.

Here are a few suggestions for things that you should do prior to putting your house up for sale:

Do you plan to hire a realtor? If so, you should probably do some research to find one. You want to find someone with whom you are comfortable and who has experience selling homes. You don’t want to be dealing with a realtor who is still “learning the ropes. If you want to sell it yourself, you should probably pick up a book on the topic or do some Internet research. Try looking up “FSBO”, which is short for “For Sale By Owner.”

Get your house ready to sell. Is it in tip-top shape? Does it need paint? Roof repair? Yard maintenance? These are things you want to have ready ahead of time. First impressions make a lot of difference; you want you house to look great when it’s time to sell. That applies to the inside of the house, as well. Before you show it, you need to make sure that it’s clean and tidy.

Get pre-approved for a loan. If you are going to need to buy another house after you sell this one, you should get pre-approved for a loan now. That will make it much easier for you to shop for your new home. An even better idea would be to apply now for a home equity line of credit on your existing property. That will insure that you have an adequate down payment for your next home should you find that one before your current house is sold.

Consider having the house appraised. While realtors have a good idea of how much a home should sell for, you may not if you are selling it yourself. Plus, both mortgage and appraisal fraud are quite common these days. It wouldn’t hurt to have an appraisal that is independent of the realtor or lender.

Selling a home isn’t particularly complicated; millions of them are sold every year. But the more prepared you are to sell yours, the easier it will be.

©Copyright 2006 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a site devoted to debt consolidation, personal bankruptcy, establishing credit and credit counseling and HomeEquityHelp.net, a site devoted to information regarding mortgages and home equity loans.

Share This