How to Make a Buyer WANT Your House! Staging your house, before it’s too late and you lose the sale

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If you’ve shopped for a home, chances are you’ve come across one that you really wish you hadn’t visited in the first place. True, houses for sale ought to have a certain “lived in” quality to them, because they are to be lived in after all, but the art of tactfully balancing just the right amount of homeliness with neutrality is not so simple. You need to know what you’re doing when you prepare to set up your house and show it to potential buyers. We’ve put together some great tips for home-sellers so you can get the same results you’d get by hiring a professional staging company.

Fix Up the Place

One of the biggest mistakes homeowners make before putting their house up for sale is to neglect areas in the house that need attention. Folks, don’t leave that faulty step unrepaired, only for a potential buyer to step on, slide off of or worse, get injured on – FIX IT! You might think potential buyers won’t notice but they are walking around on your premises like hawks, noticing each little detail. The good news is that they are noticing the first-rate stuff too, so as long as you have the home’s amenities in order and other major areas in tip-top condition, you should be in good shape. Here’s how:

Get Rid of the Clutter

If you want to successfully sell your house, you need to get those potential buyers to imagine they already live there. Too much clutter, hobby-oriented items or personal possessions that most people may not be able to identify with, can easily get in the way of that vision. Organize things in stylish storage bins or better yet, have a garage sale before the open house and get rid of unwanted stuff. You have to move soon anyway, why not kill two birds with one stone? A clean and organized home will seem like a clean slate to buyers, who can then see themselves moving in without much hassle and settle in effortlessly.

Stay Neutral

Skip the tie and dye sofa cushions, shaggy 70s rug and don’t light incense on the day of your open house. While you’re at it, don’t fill the space with gender-specific things either. Buyers should walk into a neutral ground – literally. Light to medium colors, preferably in beige tones, are the simplest way to pull buyers’ attention away from other personal aspects of your home that they may not be able to identify with. Beige goes with almost anything so if someone considering purchasing your home can imagine their things in the space, then you’ve just crossed one of the most major hurdles in home-selling – making a buyer identify with the home.

Make It a Modern, Inviting Environment

If you don’t already have them, invest in a few modern decorative accessories to improve the look of your space while lending an air of style and taste and making it more enticing. It doesn’t have to take much but depending on how you set it up, you can enhance a given space with a few simple additions and deletions. Take your over-crowded study and rearrange the bookshelf to display only a few strategic but essential books, like a leather-bound set of encyclopedia or some literature classics. In the same way, leave a few children’s toys in a child’s room but be sure to display them tastefully.

Put a Few Finishing Touches in Place

The idea is that you want your house to be sold – and you probably want it sold fast. If you are careful to respect the people who are visiting your space to decide whether it’s the right one for them, then you are doing something that a lot of homeowners neglect to consider. Taking down a piece of controversial artwork that may make a potential purchaser uncomfortable could be the one bargaining chip that could make or break the sale. Arranging for all those who currently live in the home to be away during the open house and while showing the house being dressed in a way to present a good impression are also great ways to tip the scales in the right direction.

It’s very simple. You need to make the potential buyer feel right at home from the get-go. If from the moment they walk in and smell cinnamon cookies baking makes them wish this was already home – then you’re already two steps ahead and can call the open house a success! Of course, a signature on the dotted line is where the real success lies and as long as the buyer feels at home, chances are that if everything else lines up – the sale is a winner!

Wealth Building Strategies

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How Does a Wealth Building Real Estate Investment Strategy Work?

Any equity/wealth building real estate investment strategy has to aim for securing your financial future through sound investments. Below you will find 3 different basic techniques and strategies to real estate wealth building over time. One of the most unique features with today’s lending and investing is the technique of OPM or (Other Peoples Money). Now, as an investor if you have a home with equity you have OPM to use with out taking money out of your pocket. I have used this plan and a local bank with a great financing product to help investors purchase for flip and rental properties while helping them keep cash free for future purchases.

I am excited about this topic as I currently own several rentals my self and enjoy helping others with their investment seeking. Please note that at present a current 15yr mortgage is sitting at 3%, allowing your tenant to pay down the mortgage faster, thus enjoying “free cash” at a quicker pace. Remember these all work well; it’s a matter of matching a strategy to your style and personality.

I hope you enjoy these strategies as much as I enjoyed putting them together for you.

Happy Reading!!!!


1. The Lease Option Strategy 

A real estate lease option is also known as “Rent to Own” or “Lease with Option.” The option gives you the right to control a propertywithout the obligation to buy it. With this right, you can purchase the property during a specific period of time (agreed on by both parties when an option agreement is made). However – and this is key - you’re not required to make the purchase. Therefore, if you don’t exercise this option, it expires, and you have no further obligation to the seller. In most cases, as a buyer, you have to pay an option fee (which may or not be applied to the purchase price of the property). Within this strategy, you have several methods to achieve cash flow--Lease Option In, Lease Option Out, or both. 

a. Lease Option In

This occurs when you negotiate a lease on a property (usually 2-5 years) and include an option to buy at the end of the period at a pre-negotiated price. Once you gain the right to lease the property, you can then lease it at a higher payment to a lease-to-own buyer. The difference between the lease payment and the occupant rent constitutes your cash flow.

b. Lease Option Out

This happens when you rent a property you own to a tenant with the option to buy at the end of the lease period. With this strategy, you gain increased cash flow during the lease period and equity as well. It’s also low cost since you need only a small percentage of cash to gain control. Then, there’s the fact that you limit your risk while saving capital for other investments (leverage). Another advantage is the potential for a substantial return on your investment through property appreciation. A final advantage is that you don’t have to be a full-time investor in order to get started in the real estate market. You can use this method as a stepping stone to a full-time career as an investor. Due diligence on your part can prevent many of the disadvantages of the lease option strategy.

What are those disadvantages? Well, the seller may be experiencing financial problems. This can result in liens on a property or delinquent property taxes, and it can get very expensive and time-consuming to get all these legal issues sorted out. Another possible disadvantage occurs in a situation when the property doesn’t appreciate. If it doesn’t do that before the option expires, then the lease-option holder won’t be able to buy unless he or she is able to bring in the cash for the difference between the appraised value and option price.

2. The Buy and Hold Strategy

With this strategy, you buy a property and lease it out. Unlike the Lease Option strategy, you’re now the actual owner and have all the responsibilities that go along with ownership. Buy and hold has several advantages. One is low risk, since, generally speaking, holding on to properties long-term brings in appreciation and income that’s hard to beat. Buy and Hold also provides you more flexibility than with the lease option strategies listed earlier. By that, I mean that you have the option of selling at any time or holding onto the property for the cash flow and equity buildup as long as you care to! This strategy is also a good way to build up investment capital.

As with any investment strategy, there are disadvantages. One is low liquidity. In other words, you can’t simply sell most properties overnight if you need cash Another disadvantage is the potential for unforeseen problems; e.g. building code violations, rezoning, etc. Such troubles can lower the value of the property. A third possible disadvantage is dealing with difficult tenants in properties and also the usual problems that come with such properties (leaky faucets, electrical malfunctions, etc.). 


3. The Buy, Improve and Hold Strategy

This is the strategy many investors feel is the best one for building cash flow and equity. You buy a property, improve it, and then hold onto until it reaches your target level of appreciation. Overall, it’s a fact that properties tend to appreciate over time (despite fluctuations in market prices), so you gain value with a “hold’ strategy. And, of course, when you make improvements, you gain the potential for higher rents (more cash flow) and greater equity buildup.

And, in regard to those improvements, some of them are classified as capital improvements by the IRS, so you have the potential for the reduction of your taxes paid on the cash flow earned from the property. Finally, you have the potential for re-zoning. If you can get a property approved for a different use, you can then create more income and profit. The disadvantages are the same as the Buy and Hold Method.

Want to learn more about Buy, Improve and Hold strategies?Contact me today and I’ll provide you with answers or direct you to someone who can! Look forward to talking with you!