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

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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

The post Is it better to show your house occupied or vacant? | #RealEstateTalk appeared first on Discover Spring Texas.

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 Spring TX 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. 

More tips on selling your Spring TX home are available on our YouTube channel under #RealEstateTalk

Read:  Top 30 things to do before selling your home

The post 5 Tips for selling your home when you have pets | #RealEstateTalk appeared first on Discover Spring Texas.

Should I take my home off the market during the holidays?  With all of the additional events and activities occurring during the holidays, it’s tempting to want to take your home off the market. Although its harder to have the house in “show ready” condition, here’s 4 good reasons to keep your house on the market during the holidays:

The post Should I take my home off the market during the holidays? | #RealEstateTalk appeared first on Discover Spring Texas.

Should I stop showing my house after its in contract?

I know its a hassle showing your house. You have to keep it cleaned up all the time while dealing with the kids and the dogs. So as soon as you get that contract you don’t want to take any more showings. You just want a break from showings. 

Should you stop showing your house after its in contract?  NO. Why? Are you familiar with the saying “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings”?  It means that one should not presume to know the outcome of an event which is still in progress. This saying is very true in real estate. 

You just got your house into contract but you’re not past the option period. The option period is the time period the buyer has the unrestricted right to terminate the contract. If he terminates, you’re back on the market looking for another buyer. 

If the property doesn’t appraise, the buyer has the right to terminate the contract. Your house goes back active on the market and the search for buyer starts again.

If the buyer can’t secure financing, you’re back on the market looking for another buyer. 

You want to accept as many showings as possible. Because if for some reason something happens with the current buyer then you have another interested buyer to call right away. Take the showing requests even when your house is in contract. I know it’s a hassle to continue to accept showings but it’s not over until the fat lady sings and you have your money in hand. 

Read also:

• Can the buyer make you close if you don’t want to?

The post Should I stop showing my house after its in contract? appeared first on Discover Spring Texas.

What happens if I can’t attend the closing on my house?  Do I have any options?

The post What happens if I can’t attend the closing on my house ? | #RealEstateTalk appeared first on Discover Spring Texas.

Before the For Sale sign hits the front yard, you want to know “How much does it cost to sell my house in Spring TX?”

 
There are fixed costs and variable costs associated with selling your house. The fixed costs are attorney fee, tax certificate fee, escrow fee, and the hoa fee. The variable costs are foundation/cap fee, owners title policy, and the brokerage fee / commission. A couple of other costs to consider when selling your house are repair costs and the cost of a buyer home warranty. 

Fixed costs:

Attorneys fee: Attorney’s fee is typically between $100 – $200. The attorney fees goes for the preparation of the closing documents.

Tax certificate: The fee runs between $80 to $125. The tax certificate fee goes
to the company that’s coordinating with either Harris County or Montgomery County for the pulling of the most recent tax documents. The title company needs the tax documents to accurately prorate the taxes between the parties on closing day.

Escrow fee: The escrow fee is charged by the title company and this is what the title company gets for handling the closing.The escrow fee is between $400 – $500.

HOA fee: A charge from the home owners association that manages your neighborhood. The charge is for your statement of account. The title company needs to know the HOA’s one time transfer fees, annual fees, and if you are up to date on the payment of your HOA fees. The HOA statement of account is between $65 to $250. 

Variable costs: 

Foundation fee: Some master planned communities including The Falls at Imperial Oaks and Harmony charge a foundation fee / capitalization fee on the sale of a home. The fee ranges from 0.25% to 0.5% of the sales price.  The foundation fee / capitalization fee funds community events and the enhancement and improvement of the community. How do you know if your community
charges a foundation fee? You can find out by either talking with an agent who’s very familiar with your community or contacting your HOA management company.

Owners Title Policy: The Owners Title Policy also referred to as the OTP costs approximately 0.7% (7/10th of 1%) The rate is set by the State of Texas so it doesn’t matter which title
company you close at they are all going to have the same rate for the owners title policy. Although it is a negotiated term, the owners title policy is considered to be a sellers expense. The owners title
policy is for the benefit of the buyer. The policy protects the buyer in the event something happened to title before they owned the property.

Brokerage fee / real estate commission: The brokerage fee pays the agents and their brokers that are involved with the sale of the property. The brokerage fee is split and shared between the 4 parties of the listing agent and the listing agent’s broker and the buyer’s agent and the buyer’s agent broker. The listing agent is responsible for the marketing of your house, negotiating the terms of its sale and repairs, and coordinating the sale through the process to closing. 

Other fees / costs to be considered:

Home Warranty: You are not required to provide the buyer with a home warranty. It is a negotiated term. But since 95% of buyers are going to ask you to provide them with a home warranty its good to know upfront what the cost is. A basic home warranty runs about $450. Pool coverage is another $150 – $200. The home warranty is for 1 year. In exchange for a service call of $95, it will provide the buyer with a basic level of repair coverage. 

Repairs: Repairs are negotiated between you and the buyer. Just because the buyer requests a repair to be made doesn’t mean you have to agree to perform the repair. Watch: Who handles repairs?  Watch: What are common problems on a home inspection The cost of hte repairs is dependent upon the age of your house and its components such as the roof, A/C, water heater. The repairs could be very minor or substantial.

Attorney fee, tax certificate fee, escrow fee, HOA fee, foundation/cap fee, owners title policy, brokerage fee, home warranty, and repairs are the costs associated with selling a Spring TX house.

Call / text me at 281.804.8626 for a private consultation on selling your home. I’ll prepare a Comparative Market Analysis and an estimated net proceed sheet for you. 

Read also:

• How to choose a listing agent to sell your home

The post How much does it cost to sell a house? appeared first on Discover Spring Texas.

When selling your home what offers the biggest return on investment? It’s Paint.  But what the popular trending colors and which paint colors are going to sell your home?

Within the first 30 seconds of entering your home, buyers are forming a decision on whether they like your home or not.  And sometimes buyers will decide against a house purely due to its paint colors. Why? because the majority of buyers are visual people and they have no imagination. They are unable to visualize what your walls will look like with a different paint color on them. You want buyers to feel like they can truly move right in and just unpack. Updating your Spring Texas’s home paint color is one of the cheapest and highest return on investment improvement you can make.

The popular and trending colors are the grays, beiges, and greiges. I’m a Sherwin Williams fan. Always have been a fan of Sherwin Williams paint and probably always will be. I like the quality of their paint and their numerous convenient store locations. Sherwin Williams’s also has a huge selection of colors which sometimes makes it difficult and almost nearly impossible to select a paint color.

What are the best paint colors for selling your house? In the beiges, its Accessible Beige and China Doll. I like Accessible Beige because it goes very well with browns and also gray tones. Accessible Beige is actually the color I have in the majority of the rooms in my house. I like China Doll because it blends well with the browns and the tans. If there’s no gray tones in the house, China Doll is a better choice than Accessible Beige. Anew gray is my favorite grayish color. Anew gray is what i have painted on the walls in my study/home office. It has warm under tones and it’s a little bit more on the cool side. Anew Gray is also  the paint color in my primary bedroom. It’s a little bit darker than some of the other gray colors so you have to really take into consideration your natural light situation. I really like Anew Gray because the darker color makes the white baseboards “pop”. My favorite greige is Agreeable Gray. It’s a mix of Gray with some beige mixed in. It also has some warm natural undertones.

When detemining which paint color is the best is the best for your walls, you want to take into consideration the colors in your carpet, tile, wood, and baseboards. You want the paint to compliment the colors of the other materials and not to clash with them.

Sherwin Williams paints are a little more expensive than other companies but I think the quality is there and so is the value.  Here’s a pro tip for you: Buy your paint around the major holidays, such as memorial day, 4^th of July,  and  labor day. During these times of the year, Sherwin Williams runs sales on their paints. You can pick up their quality paint for 30% to 40% off their retail price.

If you’re wondering what finish to choose, I recommend a flat or matte finish. The flat finish will hide imperfections in the walls and it will absorb all of the light as there’s no sheen to it.

The post What are the best paint colors for selling your house? appeared first on Discover Spring Texas.

Tips on showing your home. It’s a bad idea to stay for showings … “Unless he’s inviting us to breakfast, I’ve seen enough”.  A good idea is to leave for all showings even when the showing time is inconvenient for you.

 

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A post shared by Jill Wente | Spring TX Realtor® (@discoverspringtexas)

Yes, it’s very inconvenient when showings occur at breakfast, lunch, and dinner times. But unless you are inviting the buyers to sit down and have a meal with you, don’t stay for the showing. Go out for a meal. If your house is priced right for the market and aggressively marketed, you won’t have to eat out very often.

You want the buyers to get a feeling as to what it would be like living in the home. But the living in the home feeling does not include living with you.

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