Give your Home a Selling Advantage
by Joshua Suess
Homeowners are hungry for an advantage - something that can give their home an edge over the competition. These advantages fall into one of two categories: price and condition. But for a great deal of homeowners, prices are already low enough... and that leaves option two.

Compare it to buying a car. If you're looking at two cars and they both cost $20,000 and one has all the bells and whistles, which one would you buy?

Translation: Before you put your home on the market, make a few simple upgrades. Paint the walls. Plant some petunias. Clear some counter space.

In real estate circles, such changes are called staging. In the same way you might consider detailing your car before you slap a for-sale sign on it, staging your home can generate the additional eye appeal that can lead to results.

Potential home sellers can attempt to stage their own homes or use a professional. Either way, the investment is well worth it. The key is not to get too cute. Home shoppers are looking for potential, not perfection as you define it. Those merlot-colored walls? Cover them with something neutral. The family photos? Save them for your next house.

You need to cut clutter. If a buyer is looking at 10 homes and doesn't remember your floor plan because they remember the family photos, that's bad.

Eliminate any indigenous scents; just because you love the smell of fried garlic in your home doesn't mean potential buyers will agree. Staging is all about presenting your home in the best light. After all, you're not living in your home. You're selling it.
Joshua Suess is with the Suess Home Selling Team at Re/Max 702-4640 www.suesssellshomes.com

Finally, Encouraging Real Estate Numbers
by Diane Morfino
Encouraging numbers on the real estate front, including new housing construction and sales of existing homes, continue to point toward a sustained recovery in the months ahead. With low interest rates, changing guidelines and a tax credit of up to $8,000 for qualified first-time home buyers purchasing a principal residence before December 1, 2009 people are coming "off the fence" to purchase homes.

Inventory is low here in the Santa Clarita Valley and currently it is not unusual to see multiple offers on homes that a few months ago had very little activity. With this in mind, buyers ready to purchase should be
pre-approved by their lender before looking at homes, so when they do find their dream home they are ready. Time is of the essence when in a multiple offer situation.
Diane Morfino is a Realtor® with Regal Realty of California 609-9757
www.regalrealtyca.com.