Chitownproperty

10 New Year’s Resolutions for Home Sellers
Homescape’s Duane Hopper offers up a real estate version of the perennial list of resolutions, this time for home sellers in a tough market. All ten are good ideas, but our two favorites are:

Create the “wow” factor - Staging, staging, staging. You may think you have impeccable [...]

Wacko world of willfully weak market — chicagotribune.com
Are homeowners still in denial about falling home values, or have they learned to be realistic? It depends who you ask, naturally. Mary Umberger tells us that Zillow.com thinks homeowners are in denial, not surprising for a company whose business model is based on the presumption [...]

Even in this climate, there’s no rule like an old rule — — chicagotribune.com
This week’s Tribune has a useful article about how longstanding “rules” of real estate still apply, even in today’s changing market. Buyers and sellers can count on certain maxims to get the best deal, regardless of the financial environment, including:

You [...]

Best Home Staging Tips - Homescape
Making your home look its best for potential buyers is somewhat of an art form, subject to personal tastes and the home’s characteristics. But there are a few common sense tricks for sprucing up a lived in space that apply across the board. The Homescape blog offers 10 [...]

Sale ain’t over till it’s closed — chicagotribune.com
You already knew that technically, your house wasn’t sold until you left the closing table and handed over the keys. But if you did sell your home in the past few years, you probably closed the deal mentally as soon as the buyer signed the contract.
Not so [...]

It’s still buyer vs. seller — chicagotribune.com
The Trib’s feature real estate story this week points out something that’s painfully obvious to those of you trying to sell your homes right now: the buyers are in control, and not just by having a large selection. Buyers know that some sellers are desperate to move, and [...]

Getting your home in top shape to sell doesn’t necessarily have to involve expensive renovation projects. As this article in the Tribune shows you, inexpensive fix-ups and staging can make a major difference in your home’s appearance. For example, a fresh coat of paint throughout (done by yourself, to save money, of course) [...]

The slowing market means many sellers are getting nervous, but an article in the Tribune points out that you can’t let that anxiety impact yours and your agent’s ability to sell the home. Try to keep perspective about the process; don’t pressure the sales agent, don’t count on open houses or blanket marketing to [...]

From the Chicago Tribune:

“… the disadvantages of for sale by owner (known as FSBO) efforts are potentially just as large as the savings. That’s especially true in a buyer’s housing market, where drumming up interested sellers is much more difficult than a few years ago.
Cutting out the real estate agent could end up being [...]

Sometimes the trickiest part of buying a new home is timing the sale of your existing one. As this syndicated article from the Tribune points out, a good rule of thumb these days is to start marketing your home at least 90 days before you need to move, or more. That time may [...]

The classic rule of thumb about pricing your home is that you should look at what your neighbors sold their homes for in the recent past. But that only applies, of course, if all things are equal, and your home is more or less the same as those recent sales. That isn’t the [...]

The importance of first impressions applies to real estate as well. It may seem trivial, but the appearance of your home’s entryway can make a big difference in potential buyers’ decision-making. Many agents contend that buyers know within the first few minutes whether they like a place or not, and an unkempt front [...]

The New York Times ran a great piece this weekend about the thought process that goes into setting a market price. The number are huge because they’re talking about New York, but whatever the market, an asking price isn’t so much a flat statement of how much the seller would like to get for [...]

You may take pride in decking your own halls for the holidays, but take care to tone it down if you’re trying to sell your home this holiday season. As with any time you’re staging your place to look its best for potential buyers, you want to reduce clutter and depersonalize your decor as [...]

Life doesn’t stop when you sell your home, so you have to be able to continue to manage your day-to-day routine while tackling the big issues of getting your house ready. This article in the Tribune breaks down a number of to-do’s for busy families preparing for a sale. None of it is [...]