What If You Have Deferred Maintenance But You Have To Sell Your Home?

If your home has serious deferred maintenance issues but you must sell you have a serious dilemma on your hands. Don’t kid yourself for a minute, the maintenance issues will cost you with buyers. Funds to create the changes needed might not be there or be hard to come by. This post will give you some ideas to help you get the most money for your home when you have to sell.

Common Maintenance issues:

Wood rot on eaves beams and decks - sand, stain or paint use wood repair filler if feasible.
Maintenance on the HVAC system – sometimes a good cleaning – filter change and service (usually under $100) will go a long way toward having the heat and cooling system pass inspection.
Water damaged cabinets (baths and kitchens) - replace floor of cabinets and/or re-stain or paint. This is not expensive and makes a very bad looking problem go away. Stains may be from household products and not water but replace them anyway. Water stains on front of cabinets from drips may possibly be polished away.
Remove items that cannot be repaired. Out of sight items cannot become an issue. If the pool heater is broken and you are not going to replace it, remove it. If the decorative fencing is rotten, get rid of it. Are most of your screens trashed? Get rid of all of them.

Worse Case Scenarios:

Don’t cover up or attempt to hide anything. This could get you sued after the sale.
If you can’t fix something obtain bids so that the repair cost number can be real – buyers will have the tendency to over inflate repair estimates. Having bids keeps the conversation on a level playing field.
Insurance – this is not a first choice for anyone but if your house has serious damage check with your insurance carrier to see about placing a claim for repairs.

Free Resources:

>Check with local vocational schools or community jobs organizations that may donate or offer low cost labor. They may do the work for a lower cost or no cost if they can use the property as a teaching project.
>Check with the city or town you live in there may be small grants or programs to help you beautify your property – any discounted or free products or supplies will really help you keep costs in check.
>Look for neighborhood organizations, they may have a yard cleanup day or even neighbors willing to donate labor/talent on a once year one time basis. For example Spring Clean ups.
>Many cities have a bi yearly or quarterly program to pick up large items, extra yard waste electronic waste etc. Use these to clean your property out to the best of your ability. Just being clean and neat can help your home look better cared for.

Home Warranty plan for Sellers: Check with your listing agent. In some areas of the country home warranty products are common place and buyers expect to receive this coverage when they purchase the home. What you may not know is that the plans have seller coverage as well. Usually on a per-diem basis while your home is on the market and in escrow. The rates for these plans are typically very reasonable ($50 a month) and can cover unexpected systems failures and problems while the home is being sold. Best of all they typically are paid out of closing funds and do not require up-front payment.

Don't lose thousands to save a little effort and a few hundred dollars. There are ways you can make any property look better and stand out to prospective buyers.

Solar Homes Save Big Money

In this article the rapidly declining cost of solar installations VS. the potential savings is highlighted with colorful graphs. There are state by state breakdowns for each category including pay back time andaverage 20 year savings. Interestingly enough the saving vary widely state by state (due to different energy rates) with Hawaii coming in on top with a predicted $60,000 plus savings in 20 years time.

According to the charts, in California, you can cover the cost of Solar install in just 9 years and the average savings for 20 years tops $34,000.

It might be easy to assume that California is at the top of the pack in Solar energy power but sever states are ahead of us as this chart including the surprise of New Jersey from Zachary Shahan shows:



Looking for a solar home that ensures you have no utility bill - Look at this great 4 Bed 3.5 Bath newer construction pool home:

Having It All Above It All

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Overview Maps Photos Features Description Neighborhood Market Stats

$499,999 Single Family Home Main Features 4 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms 1 Partial Bathroom Interior: 2,721 sqft Lot: 12,197 sqft Location 12412 Spruce Street Desert Hot Springs, CA 92240 USA

Our recent listings Golf Course Lot In South Palm Springs Luxury Palm Springs Pool Villa Remodeled Starter Home Having It All Above It All Palm Desert Bungalow   Subscribe to our listing feed

See more Desert Hot Springs, CA real estate for sale

Top 10 Ways To Prepare your Home To Be Listed For Sale

How would you like to lose $10,000 or $15,000 on the sales price of your home before the first person ever sees it?  Yeah, probably not the way you wanted to start the sales process at all.

It happens every day in cities across the country. Someone puts their house on the market in a woefully inadequate state.  Oh sure they cleared off a counter top, or finally threw away the mountain of clothes in the laundry room that no one wears or claims to be theirs anymore but that was it. Well, okay you did vacuum the living room.  Not enough! Not even close!

Don’t think for one minute that NOT preparing does not matter and “buyers will look past it” or “You’ll get to it next weekend”.  Nope, the reality is that you just threw away 10K perhaps more.  In fact I would suggest that the most expensive cleaning service in town is a bargain compared to losing that much money just because you don’t want to clean.

Your local agent should be able to walk through the house with you and tell you frankly what needs to be done.  We offer all our sellers a 26 point Maximum Value Audit free of charge.  A written report that will detail exactly what needs to be done to maximize the value in your home. Sometimes it is not cleaning it is small repair and replacement items.

Examples of the items I have helped sellers with over the years include: tarnished, dull and worn out

looking door knobs – a small item but one of the first things buyers saw on an impressive set of double doors.  A secondary bedroom with a bad carpet stain, that we were able to find a remnant for at $139 this gave the room a new and fresh appearance. Another time we simply stained the boring gray concrete around a pool to match the existing wall on the property-  it really popped and we sold it to the first buyer. Don’t get carried away with unnecessary new weekend projects just stay focused on existing issues with the home as is.

1)      A deep clean. Corners, windows, tops of ceiling fan blades, grout and all ledges.     

2)      You are moving  so throw away things you aren’t going to move – do it now

3)      Box up items that you won’t use for the next three months (seasonal for example)

4)      Clean the screens on the windows or take them off if appropriate

5)      Straighten the garage – but it is okay to stack boxes in there you are moving

6)      Replace worn out comforters, doormats, decorative towels, shower curtains etc.

7)      De-clutter all surfaces especially baths and kitchens (less is more)

8)      Replace all light bulbs –remove most if not all family photos

9)      Touch up paint as needed – corners doors – heavy traffic areas

10)   Remove any dead landscape replace with simple plants or ground cover and mow lawn

While these items may seem obvious or small they are not. They will help protect the equity you have built up in your home. Buyers will discount for a poorly maintained home. Homes that do not show well do not sell quickly. This is all in your financial best interest.

If your home has significant deferred maintenance look for our upcoming article about how to deal with those issues when you don't have the funds to do so.

For more helpful home ownership, buying and selling tips please use the search feature on this blog in the right hand column or contact us on our website at www.PSagent.com

Palm Springs 14.5 Million Dollar Celebrity Home For Sale

Suzanne Somers home in Palm Springs California is for sale.  No strange to Celebrity Palm Springs has been home  stars of the stage and screen many times over the years.  Stars like Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Lucille Ball, Barry Manilow, Johnny Mathis, Jerry Herman, Leonardo Dicaprio, Carol Burnett, Liberace, Jane Wyman, Kay Ballard, Rita Rudner and even Monty Hall have all had homes here in the Palm Springs area.

While this property, in the Mesa neighborhood,  has been for sale for a few years now this is the first glimpse most people have had of the unusual setting the home has.

Find your Palm Springs Estate at PSagent.com

Call Michael at 760-408-5300 or Marcia at 760-861-5643 for assistance.

Why You Should Never Be Home When your House Is Shown

Think about this for a second. No, really think about it! When you are buying a house you want to walk around the property and check it all out for yourself. You know what you like or don’t like. You are smart enough to ask questions if you don’t see something or don’t understand something.

Oh yes, I know as the seller you know your house forwards and backwards. You can – or think you can –point out all the really good features! But in the end you are in the way. Sorry to be blunt but it is just the truth. The buyers and the agents don’t want you there! It is not because they are going to open every drawer or look behind the sofa – or even talk bad about you. However, the buyer and their agent do need to converse freely about the pros and cons of the property for the buyers unique circumstances. This showing is make it or break it time for your sale so don’t blow it!

You may know a lot about your house but you don’t know this! So please – take the dog for a walk, run your errands, go to the post office, go grab a cup of coffee but please – we really need you to go! It will only take 15 minutes. Yes, that’s right with just a few

rare exceptions - the showing of your home will take between 12 and 15 minutes. Surely you can find something else to do for those 15 minutes!

Later….yes, much later ......if the buyer decides your home is the one then that is the right time to meet them and show them what is special to you about the home. You are paying the commissions to the agents for many reasons but one of those reasons is so that they can impartially “sell” your property to a prospective buyer.

When looking for Palm Springs Homes for sale be sure to visit www.PSAgent.com where you will find a totally AD free,

accurate search tool. No registering, no gimmicks no spam - just accurate Palm Springs Real Estate listings.