Tag: homeowner tips

Pros and Cons of Renting Out Your Lake Home

Posted on Glenn S. Phillips

Buying a lake home can be an incredible investment. There’s nothing like having a second home that you can use for vacation – especially one that’s on the lake. What better place to take the family on summer vacation than a home right on the lake? You’ll be feet away from being able to go for a swim. You could even invest in a boat that you can take out onto the water whenever you want. However, if you are buying a lake home for use as a vacation home, you may want to consider renting it out during the offseason or the months that you won’t be using it. 

Before you jump at the idea, however, you might want to consider all the pros and cons associated with renting out your lake home. The following are some of the more important pros and cons to consider:

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Easy and Inexpensive DIY Options to Refresh and Rejuvenate a Room

Posted on Glenn S. Phillips

Nothing will boost your spirits or improve the look of your home quite like a new decorating project will. Many people have the notion that decorating has to be an extensive project in order to make a difference. The truth is that there are plenty of easy, do-it-yourself techniques you can use to liven up any room of your home.

Here are five inexpensive DIY options to use the next time you need a pick-me-up for a room but don’t want to spend a great deal of time or money on home improvements:

1. Paint your home

Nothing will brighten up a room and make it appear fresh and clean quite like a new coat of paint. By adding new paint, you can make architectural features stand out, create a focal point, or completely change the color scheme of your room.

Paint is also inexpensive. An average room can be finished in one or two days, even if more than one coat is needed.

Painting doesn’t have to be limited to only your walls. Your furniture and floors can all benefit from a fresh coat. Consider painting and stenciling some tired old furniture to make it look like new again. Or, add a distinct pattern to your floor to help change things up a bit.

2. Install new light fixtures and switches

One of the things that can really date a room is old, worn-out fixtures. To brighten up your room, consider replacing your old ceiling fan with a newer model or updating other light fixtures. Replace any blinds that are torn, cracked or faded with new ones (or hang curtains instead).

Even items you may not pay attention to much such as baseboard heaters or wall radiators can be updated easily by purchasing an attractive cover to slip over the top of them. Replace outlets and light switch covers, and upgrade interior doors with more modern ones to complete the look.

3. Change your home’s accessories

It’s amazing how changing around a few accessories can make such a tremendous difference in the way your room looks and feels. If you’ve had the same wall hangings up for ages, now is the time to consider replacing them with some different pieces. If you find you just can’t part with them, try switching up the arrangement instead.

When upgrading a very small room, consider adding a mirror along one wall to help expand the space. Add a couple of new lamps and some strategically-placed throw rugs. Your room can instantly take on a brand new look with only a minimum amount of time and effort.

4. Clean and de-clutter

There’s a reason why real estate agents tell homeowners to stage their rooms before a showing, and that is because it invokes a sense of calmness and peace among those who visit. As such, one of the best ways to revamp a room that does not require any special set of skills is to clean and de-clutter it.

Begin at the top, dusting and removing cobwebs from the ceiling and door ledges. Then, work your way down each wall to your baseboards. Dust every piece of furniture completely, and remove smudges and grease marks from your doors. Follow this by thoroughly shampooing your carpets so that every inch of your room is spic and span.

While you’re at it, get rid of anything you don’t use on a regular basis. Throw away anything that’s broken or damaged. This includes furniture as well as knick-knacks and accessories.

Find a few attractive containers to hold the things you can’t seem to part with, and make sure everything is neatly labeled so you can find your belongings whenever you need to. Once you have everything organized, make an extra effort to keep it that way.

5. Focus on your windows and coverings

Your windows play an important part in showcasing a room’s best features. If they are covered with heavy drapes, it could make your room seem dark and uninviting.

Lighten them up with some curtains made from natural materials such as cotton or gauze, and allow them to flow freely to soften the look a bit.

If you want a more formal look, use a valance or cornice over top of your windows instead. Don’t forget to wash your windows so they are sparkling clean. Dirty ones will only make your room appear unattractive rather than adding to its character.

These five techniques are things anyone can do to make a room look fresher and brighter in virtually no time at all. Try one, or a combination of them, to help you enhance the look of your home, and you will be rewarded with a new outlook on life as well as a sense of accomplishment.

Top 10 Turn-Offs for Potential Home Buyers

Posted on Glenn S. Phillips

If deciding to sell your home, there are a number of things that you need to do before listing it to potential home buyers.

You need to make your home as attractive as possible to potential buyers. Part of this is making sure that there’s nothing about your home that will turn off potential buyers.

The following are ten of the top turn-offs for home buyers you should avoid when putting your home up for sale:

  1. Unpleasant odors – A house filled with unpleasant odors will turn the buyer off immediately. This can be anything from the smell of cigarette smoke to the smell of your pets. If there are unpleasant smells present in your home, you need to get rid of them before you begin showing your home. Open up the windows to get some air-flow and have a professional cleaner come to your house to help get rid of the smell. An unpleasant smell will rush the buyer. His or her mind will be fixed on leaving as soon as possible instead of looking at the rest of your home.
  2. A converted garage – If you’ve converted your garage to a home office, an extra bedroom, a personal gym, or anything else, then convert it back to a garage. Do this before you begin showing your house. There’s a good chance most buyers will want the garage to be a garage. Especially if street parking is at a premium.
  3. Pools – Don’t be mistaken into thinking that your outdoor pool is a feature that will attract all buyers. Most buyers will consider a pool to be a major eyesore. This is especially true for above-ground pools which tend to leave dead spots in the grass. Even an in-ground pool is a huge turn-off due to the high maintenance required to care for a pool. Not to mention the liability involved with owning a pool. Having a pool can even increase the homeowner’s insurance premiums that the next homeowner will have to pay.
  4. Outrageous color design – You may have a unique taste in interior design which you may have celebrated by choosing some bold colors or patterns for your home. Though, this doesn’t mean that everyone else will share your tastes. Re-paint those lime green walls using a neutral color scheme instead.
  5. Wallpaper – Wallpaper almost always looks tacky. Especially if it’s been up there for the better part of the decade or if you have specially designed “fun” wallpaper in your child’s bedroom. Not only is wallpaper extremely personalized, it’s also quite hard to remove. This adds to the “things to do” list that a homebuyer will have if he or she decides to purchase your home.
  6. Personal décor –You may think that the family portraits in the living room or the kids’ drawings tacked up on the fridge help to add a homely and inviting feeling to the atmosphere of your house. Though, all they’re doing is making buyers feel like they are walking in someone else’s home. You need to decorate the home so that buyers can pretend like it is theirs. This will give them a better sense of what it would be like to live there. Having pictures of someone else’s kids all over the place won’t help to achieve this.
  7. Meddlesome sellers – There’s nothing more annoying than having a seller lurking around during a showing.  Many sellers that do this will try to walk around the house with potential buyers in order to provide their thoughts and feelings about the house. Most buyers want to be able to privately tour the home without the added pressure from the seller. Having the seller around makes it difficult for potential buyers to talk privately. Let the realtor do his or her job and stay away from your home showings.
  8. Dirty homes – Nobody wants to walk into a home that has clutter everywhere, or even worse, that’s dirty. Make your home presentable by getting rid of clutter and doing a whole-house cleaning. Place special emphasis on the bathrooms and the kitchen. Hire a cleaning service if you have to.
  9. Misrepresented homes – Nothing angers buyers more than showing up to a home that was misrepresented in ads.  Whether because the house is located in the middle of a trailer park, or because that third bedroom is a glorified closet space. You’re not doing yourself any favors by tricking buyers to try and get them to come to your showings.
  10. Pets – If you’re planning a showing, remove your pets from your home. Buyers don’t want to have to deal with dogs or cats chasing them around. Too, some buyers could potentially be afraid of animals or have allergies.

Staging Your Lake Home Property for Sale

Posted on Glenn S. Phillips

Selling a lake home can present certain challenges and opportunities that you may not find with a house away from the water. Staging can help tremendously to secure the highest price for your home and also help to sell it more quickly.

Staging your lake home provides a unique opportunity to tie in elements of your home with the lake or, at a minimum, put the lake on the forefront of a potential buyer’s mind relative to other properties in the area.

Outdoor Staging

The exterior or a home should showcase the fact that along with the house, the buyer will be purchasing the chance to take full advantage of the lake nearby. One of the best ways you can do this is to put some kind of boat either by your dock, or on your beach, depending on how you gain access to the lake.

While any kind of boat will do, from a kayak to a pleasure boat, it is important to take into account what the rest of the neighborhood is like. If everyone else has nice looking boats moored to their docks, you probably want something similar, even if you don’t own one, you may want to think about renting one for the period of time that the house will be shown.

Family/Living Room

here is a good chance that one of the main living areas in your home will have a very nice view of the water. Position your furniture to make that view the focal point of the room.

If you have more than one room with large windows and an excellent view, you don’t necessarily need to do the same thing with each of them. Potential buyers know that they need to be able to put a TV somewhere, and they’ll also want some level of privacy at night as well.

While it may be tempting to go with a nautical theme in a lake house, you might consider alternative design motifs that are less overstated. There is certainly nothing wrong with a few nautical-themed pieces throughout the house, unless you know for certain that your potential buyers are very water sports-minded, sticking with a theme that showcases the lake is a safer strategy.

Kitchen

If your kitchen has windows that face the lake, be sure to completely open up the curtains or blinds, letting buyers know that they have a great view waiting for them every time they use the kitchen.

For a kitchen that opens up into a dining or living area, display a few fresh fruit items or a small bouquet of flowers on the table. You won’t need anything elaborate, just a small bowl of fruit or a small bouquet of freshly picked flowers is all you need.

The important thing is to help convey the feeling of freshness to someone looking at the home, you want to try and convey the feeling that the home is vibrant and welcoming.

Bedrooms

Staging a bedroom in a lake house is a lot like staging one in any other house – you really want to maximize the appearance of space. This means a bed, a couple of pieces of furniture, and not much else on the floor.

People want to know that they are going to have plenty of space in their bedroom and what you are giving them is the maximum amount of space possible.

When the buyer moves in, they know that their items are going to take up more space than what you have in the bedroom, which is its so important to convey the appearance of space within the home, even in small areas.

Bathrooms

As opposed to the rest of the house, a bathroom may be a great place to put up a few nautical motifs. Toothbrush holders, hand towels, soap dishes, boat pictures or anything that can provide a pop of color and give a bathroom a little bit of character.

When someone walks through a house, the last thing they want to see is a bathroom that lacks cleanliness or character. If it’s messy or uninteresting, that thought could start to creep into their mind about the rest of the house. That’s not the lasting impression that you want to leave a potential buyer.