Bellevue Neighborhoods – Get your home sold the first time around Tip #2

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Condition of your home to sell:

Reason #2 (If you missed the first reason you can find it here) that your home will not sell is that your home is not showing well.  Buyers don’t want to walk in the front door and be overwhelmed with STUFF…whether you collect tea-cups, love antiques, have a plane collection, etc.  Buyers shouldn’t know what your hobbies are and therefore you should remove those items before putting your home on the market.  You also don’t want to have a wall of photos showcasing Bobby’s entire 30 years of life…Now, we don’t believe that every single picture needs to be removed as it should show that a family could or does live there.  When a closet is opened your mouth shouldn’t drop to the floor when all the contents are beginning to fall out on top of you.  The more items you have stuffed away, the more a buyer is going to think that there are storage issues with the home.  Same goes for shelves, counters, etc.  The Kitchen doesn’t need to highlight all of the items you might use over a span of a month from the waffle maker to the toaster, the juicer, etc.  It’s OK to have 2 small units on the counter but that’s a max.  Fido’s dog bed is pretty important to him but when there are showings or open houses you’ll want to remove the smelly dog bed and please, don’t leave your dirty laundry out. Furniture shouldn’t be covering up the fireplace or the large living room windows (all focal points in the room). If there was a honey-do list (we all have them) it’s best to get those items buttoned up prior to putting your home on the market.  If it was obvious to you it’s going to be obvious to a buyer, an inspector and the Realtor representing the buyer.

Just remember, a home should be clean and inviting!  The buyer needs to see themselves being able to move in and live there.  Your home may work for you as it is but if you really want to sell then please remember these basic tips.

Bellevue Neighborhoods – Get your home sold the first time around Tip #1

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You want to sell your  home the first time around…if you don’t follow this step then don’t be disappointed if your home doesn’t sell the first time?  We will outline below the reasons that could be hindering the sale of your property.

Pricing your home right to sell:

There are many things that could be hampering your ability to sell your home.  One main reason could be that your home is not priced accurately. Pricing your home is a strategy that unfortunately, many fall short on. One clear sign is that you haven’t had much, if any, traffic in the first week or two that your home has been listed. If you’ve had small amounts of traffic, what feedback are you receiving on your home?  You may not be aware of the feedback as many agents don’t follow up with the agents who have shown your home.  Did you know there’s a software program that will email you the feedback the same time your agent receives the feedback?

Don’t think, “I’ll just put my home on the market at this higher price to see what happens and then I’ll reduce the price if need be.”  You need to price your home with the current market NOW.  The higher the price the less likely you’ll be to have showings on your home.  Even with a price down, the additional time on market that you have on your home due to overpricing at first generally means you’ll get even less than the current market value as a buyer will wait for the price downs and will think that there’s something wrong with your home due to the time on market.

Remember, one of the main reasons your home will not sell is because of price.

Bellevue Neighborhoods – Mid-Century Modern Homes in Bellevue

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Mid-Century Modern Homes are scattered throughout many Bellevue Neighborhoods. If you are looking for that Mid-Century Modern Home in Bellevue you have come to the right place?  Having happened back into popularity over the last few years, it is not hard to find updated homes for you to call your own. There is a lot of discussion as to what defines the “Mid-Century Modern Home

Great Cause, Seattle Seahawks Ticket Drawing, Us in our Pajamas!!!

Hopefully you’re following along with our 365 Things to do in Seattle WA…but in case you haven’t heard about it yet we wanted to pass along our day 41 to you.  We are involved in a wonderful event raising money for local foster kids and the event is scheduled for this Sunday at Kirkland’s Tech City Bowl.  Our team is:  Striking Realtors and we’ll be dressed in our pajamas.  We would love it if you could make a donation to help these local foster kids and when you do you’ll be entered to win a pair of Seattle Seahawks Tickets 3 rows from the field.  Find out more about the drawing and the event on our 365inSeattle event and see how you can help.

So many great things to do in Seattle!

[Editor’s note: I’m super excited to announce Sarah Payson as RCG’s newest contributor. She runs The Payson Group with her husband John Payson, who together are the first “M Agents” in Seattle. I recently had the chance to spend a day with them and was blown away by how two people could be both super-motivated and super-wonderful!   One of the things that they will undoubtably bring to RCG is an active involvement in the local community… and an excellent example of that is their active Facebook Page: 365 Things To Do In Seattle that’s grown to over 7,700 fans in about a month.  Seeing the success they’re having with this page, I asked Sarah if she’d start her RCG contributions with a post about that project.   -Dustin]

365 things to doAre you new to Seattle WA?  Have you been here a while but are tired of the same old routine?

We want to get you connected with your neighborhoods around Seattle and the Eastside, that’s why we started “365 Things to do in Seattle WA