Here are 8 reasons why you should list your Spring Texas house during the holidays instead of waiting until after the new year.

1. Buyers who are looking during the holidays are SERIOUS buyers. You will receive fewer showings but the showings you do receive are by motivated buyers.

2. There’s fewer homes on the Spring Texas real estate market during the holidays. Fewer homes means less competition. Less competition equals more money.

3. After the holidays the number of homes on the market increases. More competition equals less money.

4.  Not all buyers celebrate the same holidays.

5.  Your house looks festive and shows better during the holidays.  Go ahead and decorate for the holidays but be careful not to overdo it. This is the year to display only 20% of your Santa Claus collection.

6.  Buyers have more vacation days and time to look during the holidays.  Showings increase during the week between Christmas and New Year’s.

7.  Buyers are relocating to Spring Texas all year round including during the holidays. We are currently working with relocating Exxon Mobil employees who have planned house hunting trips during November and December.

8.  Buyers time the purchase of their homes to coincide with the expiration date of their apartment leases. Leases expire in all months not just in non-holiday months.

Should you get your Spring Texas home inspected before putting a For Sale sign in the yard?  Yes or No ? Both answers have advantages and disadvantages.  

Yes – The advantages of getting your home inspected before listing it are:

1. repairs could be made for less money.  Instead of hiring licensed technicians which is whom the buyers would want to perform the repairs, you could hire a handyman or do the repairs yourself and save money.

 2. provide buyers with comfort in the overall condition of the house. You would provide the inspection report to buyers and identify the items that were repaired. Buyers would feel confident in the overall condition of the property.  They may still have another inspector inspect the property.  The buyers inspector may find items that were not identified by your inspector.

No – The advantages of NOT getting your home inspected before listing it are:

1. reduce your cost of sale.  On average a mechanical and structural inspection costs $425. Instead of spending money on the inspection you could spend the money on the buyers requested repairs.

2. money’s spent on the right repairs. All buyers are not alike.  A repair that one buyer may think is an absolute must another buyer may consider to be no big deal.

3. no reports to scare away buyers. In Spring Texas, sellers are required to disclose and to provide to potential buyers any written inspection reports that were prepared by licensed inspectors within the last 4 years.  Sometimes buyers are scared away from a property because they interpret the inspection report incorrectly. Buyers may fail to take into consideration the items that are common for the age of the house or were not code at the time the house was built.

I always recommend sellers do not get their home inspected before I list it for sale.  I want potential home buyers to fall in LOVE with my sellers house first and then we will deal with its condition.

Read also:

•  What are the sellers closing costs when selling a home in Spring Texas ?
• Top 30 things to do before listing your Spring Texas home for sale

Are you getting ready to list your Spring Texas house for sale?  Before you list take the time to see, smell, and experience your house as a potential buyer.

See:  Look at your house through fresh eyes. Enter your house through the front door. Does the door need to be refinished? Does the door frame need a fresh coat of paint?

Look up, look down, look all around your house as this is exactly what buyers will do.  And when buyers do this what will they see.  Will buyers see cobwebs on the light fixtures, dust on the fan blades, and dust on the a/c return vent?  Will they see walls needing a fresh coat of paint and baseboards with a coating of dust.

Buyers are not understanding of your busy schedule. A schedule that’s filled with dentist appointments, band practice, and basketball games. Buyers buy clean and fresh.

Smell:  What do you smell as soon as you enter your house?  Do you smell last night’s dinner?  Do you smell a litter box that is overdue for a clean out?  Do you smell the stench of stale smoke?  Do you smell burning meditation oils?  Unless it’s the smell of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies buyers are turned off by odors.

Experience: Does your house feel as warm and inviting as a model home? Or are buyers going to feel like they are invading your personal space?  Do you a wall filled with personal photos and college diplomas? Buyers fall in LOVE with model homes because the furniture is right sized for the space, the area is free of clutter, and the rooms have been staged. Model homes feel as if someone lives there but no one in particular. Buyers are able to envision themselves living in the space.

Looking for specific list of what to do to prepare your house for sale?  Here’s our list of the TOP 30 things to do before listing your Spring Texas house. 

Read also:  6 things to remove before listing your house

Light and Bright is what buyers want.  In the 13+ years that I have been a Spring Texas Realtor, I have had maybe, maybe 1% of my buyers request a cave. So if buyers want light and bright, then light and bright is what you need to give them.  That is if you want the most money for your house.

Five things you can do to make your house light and bright:

1. Turn on all lights for showings including under cabinet lighting, over head lighting, lamps, and even the light above the stove. A house shows the best with all its lights on.

2. Open all blinds for showings. The blinds don’t need to be pulled all the way up but they should be open.

3. Repaint. Dark paint colors add to the cave like feeling.  Lighten the rooms up with a fresh coat of paint.

4. Install LED bulbs. Maximize lighting in dimly lit rooms by installing LED bulbs in the light fixtures.

5. Remove the solar screens. Now this is a hard request for some sellers to agree to do because they installed the solar screens to keep the house cool. Beside buyers should appreciate and want an energy efficient house. I agree on both points.  But things change when your home goes from being your home to a product that we are selling. Homes with solar screens on show dark and buyers don’t want a cave.  They want a light and bright house.

Read also:

• 6 things to remove before listing your Spring Texas house
• 7 reasons why your house won’t sell 

Having to leave for a 2 hour showing window especially when you have kids and pets that have to be removed is a pain.  It would be really convenient if you could some how be informed when the Realtor and buyers have finished viewing your house.

New technology enhancements have made your wish a reality.

If your Realtor uses a SUPRA box which most Spring Texas Realtors do, you now have to ability to receive an end of showing notification. The end of showing notification identifies the name, phone number, and email of the Realtor that accessed the box, the time the box was accessed, and the time the showing ended.

The majority of Spring Texas Realtors aren’t aware that this technology exists so you may need to request your Realtor to do some research.

End of showing notifications are not available on combo boxes.  If your Realtor uses a combo box, you should consider hiring a different Spring Texas Realtor. The code for a combo box can be given out to anyone. Combo boxes do not provide any protection to you and your property.

Read also:

• What you should do to prepare your house for sale
• Top 6 things to remove before listing your house

When you’re selling your house, you want a neutral paint color that will appeal to just about all buyers and their individual decorating and furniture styles. If you choose too dark of a color, it will make the room feel small.  If you choose too light of a color, it will make the room feel sterile and cold.

In the early 2000s, the go to neutral color used by builders in their inventory homes in Spring Texas was Summertime by Pittsburgh Paints. But that was then and this now and buyers tastes have changed.  The Summertime paint color is now considered to be too light.

My go to color that I recommend to Spring Texas home sellers is Kilim Beige by Sherwin Williams.  The walls of the formal dining room in this photo have been painted Kilim Beige. It’s a great neutral color that makes baseboards, crown moldings, and fireplace surrounds stand out.  Kilim Beige also compliments dark and light counters and earth tone flooring.

If the tile and counter top colors are the gray tones, my go to color is Storm by Benjamin Moore. It’s a cool and light, medium tone of gray.

Read also:

• What you should do to prepare your house for sale
• Top 30 things to do before putting your home on the market

It’s a new day and a return to the green for Gary Greene Realtors. After a successful 12 year affiliation with Prudential Real Estate, Gary Greene Realtors has decided to return to its green roots and team up once again with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate.

In addition to new tools, articles, and video, the affiliation with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate will bring crucial relocation business to Gary Greene. Most importantly relocation business from Cartus Relocation, the preferred relocation company for Exxon Mobil.

Beginning in 2014, Exxon Mobil will be relocating 10,000 employees to their new campus that’s currently under construction in Spring Texas.

Houston is going to turn green as Gary Greene Realtors changes out their 3,000 yard signs from Prudential blue to the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate green.

It’s December and your house is on the Spring Texas real estate market. So the question is do you decorate or not?

Go ahead and decorate but do so within reason. The year that your house is on the market during the holiday season is not the year to recreate a scene from the Griswold’s Christmas vacation. Nor is it the time to display your collections of 50 snow globes and 100 Santa Clauses.

Scale down your decorations to a wreath, Christmas tree, and a nativity scene. You don’t need to be a bah hum bug but you don’t want to over do it and have your holiday decorations eat up valuable square footage. Buyers like spacious rooms and homes. They don’t like small rooms and cramped quarters.

Number 1 on the list of the Top 10 Healthiest Housing Markets for 2013 is …..  drum roll, please ……  Houston Texas.  Based upon a city’s job growth, vacancy rates, and foreclosure rates, Trulia.com determined the healthiest housing markets. Houston and San Francisco came out on top due to their solid fundamentals.

1.  Houston, TX

2.  San Francisco, CA

3.  Bethesda -Rockville – Frederick, MD

4.   San Antonio, TX

5.   Austin, TX

6.   Seattle, WA

7.   Omaha, NE

8.   Peabody, MA

9.   Fort Worth, TX

10. Louisville, KY-IN

The housing prices in other markets have experienced a wild roller coaster ride in price fluctuations but not Houston.  The Houston real estate market continues to outpace other markets because of its job creation. For the majority of people it all starts with a job.  If you have a job, you have an opportunity to buy a house. Granted you need a good credit score and money for a down payment too.

If you want to lock in a historically low interest rate and are ready to buy a house, give us a call at 281.300.3141.  We are licensed Realtors with 10 years experience serving the Northwest Houston area of Tomball, Spring, and the Woodlands.

Start your search for Spring Texas homes for sale

The decision to sell or not to sell is not always an easy decision.  Sometimes it’s only after the you have signed the contract that remorse sets in. Maybe your situation changed or maybe your net proceeds is going to be significantly less than what you thought.  If you have changed your mind and no longer want to sell your Spring Texas house, what do you do?  Can the buyers make you close if you don’t want to?

You and the buyers entered into a legally binding contract in which you agreed to sell the buyers your house at a defined price and by a defined date.  If you decide not to sell your Spring Texas house, you are in DEFAULT of the contract.  In section 15 of the real estate contract: “If Seller fails to comply with this contract, Seller will be in default and Buyer may (a) enforce specific performance, seek such other relief as may be provided by law, or both or (b) terminate this contract and received the earnest money, thereby releasing both parties from this contract.”

Bottom line: No matter what your reason for not wanting to sell your house, you entered into a legally binding contract to sell it. If you don’t fulfill your obligation and close, the buyer may or may not sue you for specific performance.

Read also:

• What are sellers closing costs? 
• Do you Buy or do you Sell first?

Here are 8 reasons why you should list your Spring Texas house during the holidays instead of waiting until after the new year.

1. Buyers who are looking during the holidays are SERIOUS buyers. You will receive fewer showings but the showings you do receive are by motivated buyers.

2. There’s fewer homes on the Spring Texas real estate market during the holidays. Fewer homes means less competition. Less competition equals more money.

3. After the holidays the number of homes on the market increases. More competition equals less money.

4.  Not all buyers celebrate the same holidays.

5.  Your house looks festive and shows better during the holidays.  Go ahead and decorate for the holidays but be careful not to overdo it. This is the year to display only 20% of your Santa Claus collection.

6.  Buyers have more vacation days and time to look during the holidays.  Showings increase during the week between Christmas and New Year’s.

7.  Buyers are relocating to Spring Texas all year round including during the holidays. We are currently working with relocating Exxon Mobil employees who have planned house hunting trips during November and December.

8.  Buyers time the purchase of their homes to coincide with the expiration date of their apartment leases. Leases expire in all months not just in non-holiday months.

Should you get your Spring Texas home inspected before putting a For Sale sign in the yard?  Yes or No ? Both answers have advantages and disadvantages.  

Yes – The advantages of getting your home inspected before listing it are:

1. repairs could be made for less money.  Instead of hiring licensed technicians which is whom the buyers would want to perform the repairs, you could hire a handyman or do the repairs yourself and save money.

 2. provide buyers with comfort in the overall condition of the house. You would provide the inspection report to buyers and identify the items that were repaired. Buyers would feel confident in the overall condition of the property.  They may still have another inspector inspect the property.  The buyers inspector may find items that were not identified by your inspector.

No – The advantages of NOT getting your home inspected before listing it are:

1. reduce your cost of sale.  On average a mechanical and structural inspection costs $425. Instead of spending money on the inspection you could spend the money on the buyers requested repairs.

2. money’s spent on the right repairs. All buyers are not alike.  A repair that one buyer may think is an absolute must another buyer may consider to be no big deal.

3. no reports to scare away buyers. In Spring Texas, sellers are required to disclose and to provide to potential buyers any written inspection reports that were prepared by licensed inspectors within the last 4 years.  Sometimes buyers are scared away from a property because they interpret the inspection report incorrectly. Buyers may fail to take into consideration the items that are common for the age of the house or were not code at the time the house was built.

I always recommend sellers do not get their home inspected before I list it for sale.  I want potential home buyers to fall in LOVE with my sellers house first and then we will deal with its condition.

Read also:

•  What are the sellers closing costs when selling a home in Spring Texas ?
• Top 30 things to do before listing your Spring Texas home for sale

Are you getting ready to list your Spring Texas house for sale?  Before you list take the time to see, smell, and experience your house as a potential buyer.

See:  Look at your house through fresh eyes. Enter your house through the front door. Does the door need to be refinished? Does the door frame need a fresh coat of paint?

Look up, look down, look all around your house as this is exactly what buyers will do.  And when buyers do this what will they see.  Will buyers see cobwebs on the light fixtures, dust on the fan blades, and dust on the a/c return vent?  Will they see walls needing a fresh coat of paint and baseboards with a coating of dust.

Buyers are not understanding of your busy schedule. A schedule that’s filled with dentist appointments, band practice, and basketball games. Buyers buy clean and fresh.

Smell:  What do you smell as soon as you enter your house?  Do you smell last night’s dinner?  Do you smell a litter box that is overdue for a clean out?  Do you smell the stench of stale smoke?  Do you smell burning meditation oils?  Unless it’s the smell of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies buyers are turned off by odors.

Experience: Does your house feel as warm and inviting as a model home? Or are buyers going to feel like they are invading your personal space?  Do you a wall filled with personal photos and college diplomas? Buyers fall in LOVE with model homes because the furniture is right sized for the space, the area is free of clutter, and the rooms have been staged. Model homes feel as if someone lives there but no one in particular. Buyers are able to envision themselves living in the space.

Looking for specific list of what to do to prepare your house for sale?  Here’s our list of the TOP 30 things to do before listing your Spring Texas house. 

Read also:  6 things to remove before listing your house

Light and Bright is what buyers want.  In the 13+ years that I have been a Spring Texas Realtor, I have had maybe, maybe 1% of my buyers request a cave. So if buyers want light and bright, then light and bright is what you need to give them.  That is if you want the most money for your house.

Five things you can do to make your house light and bright:

1. Turn on all lights for showings including under cabinet lighting, over head lighting, lamps, and even the light above the stove. A house shows the best with all its lights on.

2. Open all blinds for showings. The blinds don’t need to be pulled all the way up but they should be open.

3. Repaint. Dark paint colors add to the cave like feeling.  Lighten the rooms up with a fresh coat of paint.

4. Install LED bulbs. Maximize lighting in dimly lit rooms by installing LED bulbs in the light fixtures.

5. Remove the solar screens. Now this is a hard request for some sellers to agree to do because they installed the solar screens to keep the house cool. Beside buyers should appreciate and want an energy efficient house. I agree on both points.  But things change when your home goes from being your home to a product that we are selling. Homes with solar screens on show dark and buyers don’t want a cave.  They want a light and bright house.

Read also:

• 6 things to remove before listing your Spring Texas house
• 7 reasons why your house won’t sell 

Having to leave for a 2 hour showing window especially when you have kids and pets that have to be removed is a pain.  It would be really convenient if you could some how be informed when the Realtor and buyers have finished viewing your house.

New technology enhancements have made your wish a reality.

If your Realtor uses a SUPRA box which most Spring Texas Realtors do, you now have to ability to receive an end of showing notification. The end of showing notification identifies the name, phone number, and email of the Realtor that accessed the box, the time the box was accessed, and the time the showing ended.

The majority of Spring Texas Realtors aren’t aware that this technology exists so you may need to request your Realtor to do some research.

End of showing notifications are not available on combo boxes.  If your Realtor uses a combo box, you should consider hiring a different Spring Texas Realtor. The code for a combo box can be given out to anyone. Combo boxes do not provide any protection to you and your property.

Read also:

• What you should do to prepare your house for sale
• Top 6 things to remove before listing your house

When you’re selling your house, you want a neutral paint color that will appeal to just about all buyers and their individual decorating and furniture styles. If you choose too dark of a color, it will make the room feel small.  If you choose too light of a color, it will make the room feel sterile and cold.

In the early 2000s, the go to neutral color used by builders in their inventory homes in Spring Texas was Summertime by Pittsburgh Paints. But that was then and this now and buyers tastes have changed.  The Summertime paint color is now considered to be too light.

My go to color that I recommend to Spring Texas home sellers is Kilim Beige by Sherwin Williams.  The walls of the formal dining room in this photo have been painted Kilim Beige. It’s a great neutral color that makes baseboards, crown moldings, and fireplace surrounds stand out.  Kilim Beige also compliments dark and light counters and earth tone flooring.

If the tile and counter top colors are the gray tones, my go to color is Storm by Benjamin Moore. It’s a cool and light, medium tone of gray.

Read also:

• What you should do to prepare your house for sale
• Top 30 things to do before putting your home on the market

Should I replace the carpet or offer the buyer a carpet allowance? Which option will net me the highest return?

Your carpet is old and worn and you know your house would show much better if you replaced it. But what style and what color of carpet should you replace it with? Maybe you should just provide the buyer with a carpet allowance and he can choose whichever style and color he wants and he can do it after he closes on the house. Plus giving the buyer a carpet allowance is much easier than replacing the carpet and there’s no upfront cash outlay. 

Which option, carpet allowance or carpet replacement will provide you with the highest return on the sale of your Spring Texas house?  Carpet replacement is the answer.  Yes, it means more hassle on your part as the seller. Yes, it means you have an upfront cash outlay.  

Why will carpet replacement provide you with the highest return? It’s because the buyers first impressions of your home is critical in getting your Spring Texas home sold quickly and for the highest dollar. The impression old and worn out carpet gives a buyer is this house is not in move-in ready condition. Moving is difficult enough without giving buyers more work to do. Buyers want less work and not more work.

Buyers can’t visualize what the house will look like with new carpet and they typically overestimate by 100% the cost of new carpet. Go ahead and replace the carpet. It will bring you more money on closing day. 

Read also:

• Top 30 things to do before listing your Spring Texas home for sale

Is it better to show your house occupied or vacant?

It’s better to show your house occupied than vacant. A decluttered, staged house feels warm and inviting. A vacant house feels cold and dreary. When a house is occupied and depersonalized a buyer can visualize himself living in the house. Buyers can also get a feel for furniture placement in a room when its occupied. This is critical for rooms that are awkward shapes or smaller rooms. 

When a house is vacant there’s no furniture and personal possessions to distract the buyer. When viewing a vacant house buyers see every little ding in the baseboards, nail holes in the walls and nail pops in the ceilings, paint touch-ups where the paint didn’t match, drywall seams, and the uneven wearing of the carpet due to furniture placement. All of these add up to more work and more money for the buyers which they want neither of.  

If due to your circumstances your only choice is to sell your house vacant, then take a close look at its condition after you move-out. Repair all the blemishes that the buyers are going to notice. Do a thorough clean of the home. Bring in some staging items to warm up the house. These steps will help you get your vacant house sold quicker and for more money.  

Read also:

• What you should do to prepare your Spring Texas house for sale

5 Tips for selling your home when you have pets

Selling your home is stressful on the entire family including your pets. Unfortunately, not all buyers are pet lovers and could be turned off by your pets. Doing the following few simple things can help you quickly sell your home when you have pets:

1. Neutralize the odors – Wash the comforter, pillows, and blanks that your pet hangs out on. Febreeze the dog beds. Clean out the cages and the litter boxes frequently. 

2. Clean the backyard – Buyers are going to walk around and view all of your house including the backyard. Buyers are not use to watching their steps to avoid the land mines. Clean the backyard frequently to avoid a buyer tracking a land mine into your house. 

3. Hide the evidence – Highlight the house not the pets. Gather up and store away all of your pets items including toys, leashes, photos, beds, blankets, climbing trees, and bowls. When buyers see your pets items, they immediately start to look for pet damage. Their thoughts changed from “I can see myself living in this house” to “I wonder if pet urine seeped through the carpet?”. 

4. Repair damage – Chewed on stairs, chewed on window ledges, scratched up doors, scratched up windows, scratched up door frames, and soiled carpet are all items that need to be repaired or cleaned before putting your house on the market. Buyers feel they shouldn’t have to pay for the damage caused by your pets. Get the damage repaired so buyers can focus their attention on all the positive features of your home. 

5. Remove for showings – This is a hard action item for most sellers especially if they are working because it’s tough to run home and grab your pets  every time you get a showing request. Another option is to sweet talk your parents or a family member or a close friend into keeping your pets during the time frame your house is on the market. Another option is to put your pets in their kennels for showings. If they continuously cry or bark while in their kennels, then this is not an option. Buyers can’t focus on your house when they are distracted by a dog that is letting them know that he does NOT want to be in his kennel. 

Read:  Top 30 things to do before selling your home

Should I take my home off the market during the holidays?