Realtors' Realm

Preparing a house is important for every seller.  To sell the home quickly and to fetch best price for the property the seller needs to give the house a facelift. There are plenty of homes for sale in Lake of the Woods VA that need careful planning and knowing to brush up your home to impress buyers at the very first look. Let us offer below a helpful guide as how to prepare a house and turn it into a marketable property for interested buyers.

Clean thoroughly and pay attention to smells

The deposit of dust on top of the fireplace mantle must be cleaned and you need to polish your appliances and faucets. You have to offer a thorough cleaning to your windows and doors. Maybe you can miss a few interior details for a proper clean and in that case a professional cleaning service can come to your aid. Besides cleanliness consider the smell too. Make sure there is no unpleasant odor in your home. Avoid any strong culinary smell like the bacon or dry sea fish to engulf your rooms, especially the day when the buyers visit your house. After all, nobody wants a house to smell like fast food joints. If possible, place scented flowers in the interior and bed of flowers around the open premises. Here below some must do steps to make your home sparkle.

•  Wash the windows and doors inside out.

•  Wash sidewalks and exterior thoroughly.

•  Clean to sparkle your bathtubs, showers and sinks.

•  Give polish to chrome faucets and mirrors.

•  Clean the furniture, light fixtures, fans and appliances.

•  Make sure the interior smells like fresh lavender.

Disassociate de-personalize

Buyers always wish to make themselves comfortable as in their own home. Your personal belongings and things signifying your attachment to it can prove to be a block before them. So remove anything purely personal from the house. Things like family photographs in the hallway or wall painting by your brother on the living room wall or anything of personal significance should be removed well in advance.

Arranging bedroom closets and kitchen cabinets

Buyers when making a thorough assessment of the house may like to look in every little corner and can even open closet and cabinet doors. If just opening a closet door things fall out, it may prevent them from opening any door further. It is recommended to arrange everything in proper order and remove things that you do not want them to lay their hands.

•  Arrange spice jars in alphabetic order.

•  Neatly arranged utensils and dishes.

•  Arrange garments, hang shirts together and make sure the closet smells good.

•  Arrange the shoes in the rack properly.

Interior Decor

Decoration and color is an important aspect of preparation for making your house lucrative for the buyers. Remember, always soft neutral colors in the walls suit the varying tastes and these colors are less likely to create a negative impression. Secondly, try to keep the home décor simple. Remove any offbeat art or decorative grandeur that may turn off the mood of people with varying tastes. Remember, you never know the taste of buyer and so cannot take bigger risks. Another important thing is to give buyers a sense of usefulness in every room. Making them clearly see what individual room can let them do, that is a good way of making a strong statement. No room should be arranged devoid of any purpose. Sometimes just little tweaks can do wonder in changing the ambience and feel of the room. If you feel updating a few fixtures and re-arranging a few things here and there can make the rooms actually sparkle, just do it.

Make small repairs

A creaky door or a broken window sill or cracked tiles or a hole in the wall, these can worsen your overall impression to the buyer. Do not risk taking chances with jammed kitchen drawers, broken faucets, jammed gutters or cracked tiles when your buyers arrive. Sometimes making small changes, repairs and additions make big changes in the look and feel of the room. An eye for the details like changing the broken legs of furniture, repairing the gutter system, replacing the burned-out light bulbs and such small repairs can rejuvenate a house completely.

Everyone dreams of paradise, but never got an opportunity to live life that way. Lake of the Woods in VA makes everyone’s dream come true by putting homes for sale. Locality and neighborhood is what makes living experience worthwhile. Lake of the Woods Association is a residential community that conducts various activities and has clubs that are open to both residents and tourists. You do not have to be a permanent member of these clubs or association to be part of their tremendous activities.

Camping, fishing, tracking are some of the attractions the Lake of the Woods offers. Exploring homes for sale in Lake of the Woods, VA is a very tedious task, certain pointers need to be considered while looking house for sale:

•  List down all your personal finance options and look for only those properties that comes under your budget radar only. Investing in a home is like investing in a secured future.

•  Look for best offers nearby your desired location and then finalize any deal.

•  Acting too quickly or too slowly while planning to buy a home can be a tricky job. Real estate nearby shore or coastline are on little expensive end. Finding a great deal is only possible if you have any professional help, a realtor with knowledge and experience to help.

•  Every buyer should think about the house’s resale value before finalizing any deal. Average time any first time home buyer would spend is around 3-4 years and eventually plans to relocate or shift. Always buy a house that is in good condition, not only based on location wise but the basic structure wise. The land nearby lake is usually soft, make sure to go through all the specifications and do proper research before buying a home.

•  Anyone who is interested in buying a home for sale (http://homebuying.about.com/od/sellingahouse/f/Home-Selling-on-a-Budget.htm) nearby the Lake of the Woods should have a fair understanding and knowledge about the real estate market. Land prices vary depending upon the surroundings.

Fishing lovers considers The Land of the Woods as their dream destination as it is home for a variety of fishes including walleye, bass, trout, pan fish, perch, etc. The location is a central point for all adventurers and have a fishing equipment store at every junction. Departmental stores, country clubs, and community houses everything is at nearby distance. Mortgage and rental options may sound more appealing when you consider buying a dream home, but it all comes down to customer satisfaction that comes only when you own a home not rent it.

Renting a house, be it a big city or a small one, is a big deal as there are many details and complications that come attached to it. If you are moving into a new city or moving into a new house or plan to rent a house in Miami or New York or elsewhere for the first time, you need to know a lot of things about renting houses. Because as said above, they are not as easy as packing and unpacking a suitcase full of clothes. Here’s a comprehensive list of 10 essential tips that will help you get started, rent and move into your new house.

1. The first and foremost thing you need to worry about is the location of the house. Before contacting the landlord and proceeding with renting procedures, make sure the house is located according to your preferences and helps your daily life in all ways possible. Also, ensure that the house is nearby to a hospital, local store, school, bus stop etc.

2. If you are pleased with the location of the house, contact the landlord to talk about the formalities such as rent, deposit and other legal procedures involved with renting. Get to know the landlord, their full names, occupation and other basic information. Judge if you would be comfortable with the person over the renting period and don’t proceed if you feel something is fishy about the landlord’s behavior.

3. If you are pleased with both the location and the landlord, proceed to make a quick survey of the condition of the house. Do not, at any case enter into the tenancy agreement without seeing the condition of the house. Make a list of all the inventory present in the house in the presence of the landlord and check if all the white goods provided (washing machine, microwave, cooker, fridge, dishwasher) are in proper working condition.

4. Apart from the white goods, also ensure that the electric connections, switch boards and plumbing of the house is in the working condition. Also notify the landlord if there has to any repainting and vacuuming to be done before entering into the tenancy agreement and paying the advance amount.

5. Now that you have thoroughly checked the condition and location of the house, don’t think your job ends here, as there are many other things that you need to get a clarification about. Few landlords have a very strict no-pet, no-guests, no-loud music and other weird policies that are often not mentioned in the tenancy agreement. To avoid any misunderstandings in the future, ensure to ask if pets and guests are allowed.

6. Also, few owners are very uptight about the appearance of their house and are completely against any modification, paintjob, wall art or any other form of decoration. Before signing the tenancy agreement, ensure to ask if any modification of the house is allowed and if there is any fine or reduction in the deposit while vacating the house.

7. If you are renting a flat in an apartment, make sure to familiarize with the rules of the apartment concerning parking, garbage disposal, water connectivity etc. Here you are not only coming to terms with the landlord, but also with other tenants living in the building. Sign the agreement only if you can live in such an environment, bearing a few constraints.

8. Upon completion of all the above safety checks, sit down with the landlord and negotiate on the rent to be paid and deposit amount to be paid before renting. Also discuss the tenure of the tenancy i.e. the starting and ending period, notice period and so on. Insist that all of these details be mentioned in the tenancy agreement in writing.

9. Before signing the agreement with the landlord or realtor, ensure to ask about the rise in the rent and how often will this rise be made. Also, the time of the month during which the rent has to be paid. Insist on including these aspects of the rent in the tenancy agreement. Also, clarify all the details regarding the release clause i.e. formalities to be followed while vacating the house.

10. Lastly, before signing the tenancy agreement ensure that your deposit money is saved in a deposit protection scheme and inform the landlord that he/she is required to protect your deposits so that the repayment can be done without any hassles or delay while you vacate the house.

Not everyone can afford to have their own houses, especially youngsters who are still new to the adult life and have a long way to go before owning a house. Hence, there are a lot of people who live in rented houses and go about their daily life. Moreover, with changing economy and skyrocketing inflation all around, many people prefer to live in rented houses rather than spending all of their savings on big investments like owning a house. This articles explores the 8 easiest ways one can find homes for rent.

1. Real Estate Agents

We certainly live in a busy world today and surround ourselves with so many things to do on a daily basis that we hardly find time for anything else. If you are a busy person and can’t afford to waste your time and energy looking for houses for rent in South Florida or desired location in the U.S., you could contact the local real estate agent and assign the job to him/her. You can get hold of a good real estate agent on real estate sites, listings or just Google search for all the nearby real estate agents.

2. Drive Around

This is the best way to rent a home if you don’t want to take anybody’s help or don’t want to depend on anybody. A lot of homeowners put ‘For Rent’ boards in front of their unoccupied homes and if you are looking to reside in a small town or city, it won’t be hard to drive around the blocks and find the homes for rent by yourself. In fact many owners appreciate the direct interaction and avoid a third party’s intervention.

3. Word of Mouth Advertising

Continuing the above point, if you are looking for a home in a particular area or part of the city, you could ask someone you remotely know who resides in that area to inform you about any vacancies. This works better than you think, as word of mouth advertising is one of the best and most powerful means of communication that gives results within days. People talk to people and within no time, you’ll get many leads on the available homes for rent in that neighborhood.

4. Friends and Family

If you are too shy to inform your distant relatives or colleagues to inform you about any available vacancies, you could always rely on your family and close friends to help you out in finding a home. Your friends and family could inform their family or friends and within no time, the word gets out that you are looking for a house to rent.

5. Fliers, Banners and Posters

If you don’t want to trouble your family or friends or don’t have any in the area you are planning to reside, you could always rely on ‘For Rent’ fliers and posters found in subway stations, bus stops, hotels and other public places. Some owners really go the extra mile to advertise their homes available for rent.

6. Craigslist and Classified Ads

Few home owners who don’t want to advertise their homes for rent on streets go for more sophisticated ways by advertising on craigslist and classified ads found in newspapers. Just pick up the latest local newspaper and make a list of all the homes available for rent, call up the owners and set up a meeting.

7. Real Estate Websites

With technological revolution, a million sites have popped up on the internet and with services like GPS it is easier than ever to locate landmarks and roads. If you are even remotely tech savvy, you can find the homes for rent on websites or apps that act as online listings of houses for rent (http://www.ehow.com/how_2288436_house-rent.html). These listings are regularly updated and well furnished with the contact details of the owners as well.

8. Neighborhood Associations

Least preferred of all the ways mentioned above, every neighborhood has an association which maintains a regularly updated record of the all the residents living in that neighborhood, houses that are occupied, houses that are vacant etc. Although it is difficult and time consuming to gather all the necessary details from such civic associations, you can give it a try if none of the above mentioned methods work out for you.