Mardi Gras and the Spring Market

After a winter we all are not used to, Mardi Gras, thank goodness, is here with good weather to boot. As the temps heated up this past week in Baton Rouge, 79 degrees, the buyers are back out looking at houses, offers are coming in - just a sign of things to come. With a strong economy and low unemployment, the Greater Baton Rouge Real Estate market will see another banner year in 2014. We always thought the 'Katrina' years would not be beat, but we proved ourselves wrong on that in 2012 on my team - our best year ever! Last year sales were even stronger. The best evidence of that is the amount of inventory on the market. Baton Rouge has shrunk to a 4 month supply of available houses, and Ascension Parish runs between 2 and 3 months. What has that done to pricing? So far, we haven't seen prices approach the Katrina years but if inventory remains low, prices have to rise. If interest rates remain low, then prices will climb. If interest rates rise, as expected, then prices will stay stable as they always have in our area. So, if you are thinking of selling, give us a call. We will help you decide what you need to do to get your house ready for market. If you are thinking of buying, then set up a buyer counseling interview so we can show you how to go about finding the perfect house and making it yours!! The Pat Wattam Team at RE/MAX First is always here to help!

Get Ready to Sell Your House in the Spring

As winter slowly starts to turn to spring and flowers start blooming, grass turn green, and the weather gets warmer people start thinking about putting their home up for sale. There is a reason we have the majority of real estate closings in the summer - it's when children are out of school and moving is easier! For you sellers to get ready to capitalize on this, there are 3 main things you need to do to get your house ready for the spring market. 1. Have the home professionally inspected. You want someone to look at your home objectively. All of us live with little quirky things in our house, but the next buyer doesn't want to giggle the knob to make something turn on! It's better to find out the issues before you negotiate a price with a buyer and then they have a home Inspection and you now have to spend thousands of dollars on things that should have been taken care of earlier! I have seen this more often than not! Once you have completed the inspection and any repairs then move on to the next step! 2. De-clutter and de-personalize the house. Remember, you don't need to have all your personal collections out to show them off to the buyer. You want the buyer to be able to visualize themselves and their collectibles in their new home. Be brutal. Get rid of all that stuff! In staging we call anything smaller than a bowling ball 'house dandruff'!!!! I have a LOT of dandruff in my home and I'll bet you do too!!! So that special group of collections you have - whether it's snow village or all those family photos - all of that needs to be put away. Counter tops need to be cleared off, 90% of the stuff in the bookshelves needs to be boxed up and put away. And those closets! If yours looks like mine, then box it up, move it to climate controlled storage until it's time to bring it to the new house. Once you have de-cluttered and cleaned take a photo of each room with your cell phone. Take a hard look. This is how your house will look on the internet. Does it still look cluttered? Do you need to remove some furniture, take more things off the wall? If not, move on to the next, really fun step! 3. Now it's time to stage the house from outside to in. The outside has to be attractive to 'invite' a buyer inside. Fresh mulch and flowers can make the front of the house fresh - as will power washing the drive way and sidewalk as well as the house, or freshening up the paint with current colors (Please, no mauve, pink, blue, etc). Then, with the help of a stager or professional decorator you can make decisions on color. No weird or bight colors and as much as I love red - most people do not! You can't go wrong with warm neutral wall colors. You just have one shot at hooking a buyer so make sure that everything is ready before going on the market. Your house needs to be prettier than the competition. The neutral colors will help the buyer see their own furniture and decorations in the house and generate an offer for you! You want to make the buyer feel compelled to make an offer before they let it slip away! And give yourself a time frame and a budget to get the house ready. The Pat Wattam Team is here to help you make your dreams come true. Let us come take a look at your house with you and give you some tips and suggestions. We can show you what the other homes for sale look like so that you can decide how much of the house needs to be redone in order to sell. Give us a call and take advantage of the spring market!