Home Selling Tips: Staging Your Home

beige bungalow house
beige bungalow house
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

First impressions are crucial, especially when it comes to selling your home. Luckily, there are some easy and affordable upgrades you can do to make your home stand out from the moment potential buyers arrive.

1. Enhance The Curb Appeal

Try some affordable upgrades like pressure washing the exterior, painting the front door or shutters, replacing old fixtures, adding fresh greenery to garden beds and window boxes, and creating an inviting outdoor living area with chairs on the porch or stoop.

2. Kitchen Makeover

Did you know that the kitchen plays a crucial role in selling a house? The good news is that you don’t need to break the bank to make it more appealing. If you’re on a tight budget, you can update the backsplash by using peel-and-stick faux tile, tin tile, beadboard paneling, or painting the existing tile.

3. Minimize Furniture

When it comes to getting your home ready for sale, one of the most important things to focus on is decluttering. A cluttered home can turn off potential buyers, so it’s essential to get rid of any unnecessary items. One way to achieve this is by reducing the amount of furniture in each room. Professional stagers often remove up to half of the furniture in a home to make it look more spacious. This allows buyers to move around the house freely and appreciate its unique features, like a fireplace or built-in bookshelves. By minimizing clutter, you can help your home appear more inviting and appealing to prospective buyers.

4. Rearrange Your Furniture

When it comes to preparing your home for sale, rethinking your furniture placement can be an effective way to enhance its overall appeal. Arranging your furniture in a way that maximizes the space and highlights the unique features of each room can make a big difference.

5. Add An Office Space

With the rise of remote work and homeschooling, having a designated workspace has become increasingly important for many homebuyers. By making efficient use of available space, you can appeal to potential buyers who require a home office without compromising on other essential features of your home.

6. Depersonalize

One important aspect of preparing your home for sale is creating a neutral and welcoming environment that allows potential buyers to envision themselves living there. To achieve this, remove personal items such as family photos and children’s artwork that may distract buyers from imagining their own lives in the space.

Work on these tips and you might just have a potential buyer knocking on your door. Which tip will you do first?

Events in Portland for April 2023

a woman using a smartphone white taking a photo
snow city landscape fashion
Photo by Brandin T on Pexels.com

Spring into a month of food, drinks, treasure hunts, and celebrating mother earth. There’s so much to do: here are five of Shawn Realty’s picks.


1. OREGON BEER AWARDS

📅 Apr. 6, 2023 | 📍 Revolution Hall | 💵 $25

Meet fellow brewers, beer lovers and the most exceptional beers in the Oregon Beer Awards! This annual event dubbed the “Academy Awards of Beer” is joined by over 100 experts judging beers of all kinds and in over 31 categories. If you have an appreciation for the drink and craft of beer, grab your tickets and drop by Revolution Hill on April 6th.

Location

Revolution Hall
1300 SE Stark St #203, Portland, OR 97214

See website | Get tickets

2. Forest Park Trail Treasure Hunt

📅 Apr. 8, 2023 | 📍 Forest Park | 💵 Free

Get ready for treasures and trails at this adventure-filled event! Forest Park Trail Treasure Hunt is not your ordinary backyard easter egg hunt. Seek treasures along one of the three trails available at the event:

  • Leif EriksonTrail at the Thurman Lane Trailhead
  • Springville Road Trailhead
  • Birch Trailhead

Pick up treasures among bushes and trees using GPS coordinates. On April 8th at Forest Park, try this bonding and learning experience that’s perfect for the whole family!

Location

Forest Park
4099 NW Thurman St, Portland, OR 97210

See website

3. Celebrate Earth Day at Tryon Creek

📅 Apr. 21, 2023 | 📍 Tryon Creek State Natural Area | 💵 Free

Celebrate Earth Day through a one-hour workshop hosted by local small business Poppy and Finch. The workshop features the following:

  • Native plants short presentation
  • Basic planting
  • Floral design composition techniques
  • Centerpiece decoration

Get creatively soiled at this Mini-Habitat Centerpiece Workshop happening at the Tryon Creek State Natural Area on April 21st.

Location

Tryon Creek State Natural Area
11321 SW Terwilliger Blvd, Portland, OR 97219

See website

4. Baker’s Dozen Coffee, Beer & Doughnut Fest

📅 Apr. 22, 2023 | 📍 John’s Marketplace – Powell | 💵 $40-$65

This festival puts a twist to the popular coffee and donut combo – it adds beer! In the 7th Annual Baker’s Dozen, admission gets you 13 coffee beers, specific coffee samples, 13 morsels of doughnuts and a souvenir glass. Discover a fusion of flavors at the Baker’s Dozen Festival to be held on April 22nd at John’s Marketplace – Powell.

Location

John’s Marketplace – Powell
3560 SE Powell Blvd, Portland, OR 97202

See website | Get tickets

5. Portland Flea + Food

📅 Apr. 29-Oct. 29, 2023 | 📍 Various Locations | 💵 Free

It’s your chance to #SupportLocal at the Portland Flea + Food in Portland, Oregon. The event features 80+ local artists, makers and curators of local products. It will be held every last weekend of the month starting this month until October 2023.

Location

DaysLocation
SaturdaysEcotrust
721 NW 9th Ave, Portland, OR 97209
SundaysNova Building
240 SE Clay St, Portland, OR 97214

SCHEDULE

From 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on the following dates:

April 29 & 30, May 27 & 28, June 24 & 25, July 29 & 30, August 26 & 27, September 23 & 24 and October 28 & 29

See website

Source: http://www.travelportland.com

Robert Shiller Said…but Media says this?

Tuesday real estate update 3/28/23

TUESDAY REAL ESTATE UPDATE #TREU

Robert Shiller with CNBC

This is what Robert Shiller said on CNBC interview: https://youtu.be/bZyaKPlWvbc

“Maybe if you have a chance to delay your purchase, it might be a good time to do it. You might get it a little cheaper in another six months.”

“I think it works pretty well most of the time and I wouldn’t tinker too much with it. We have smart people on the Fed and the Treasury Secretary I admire, Janet Yellen. They may have to accept something of a recession.”

Shiller acknowledged there are other factors besides economic conditions that determine “the right time” for any buyer or seller to act, depending on their situation.

“Home purchase is such a family decision, I’d hate to overreact,” Shiller added.

“We do have a declining market at the moment, but there are costs to not selling at the right time, the convenient time, or you might lose a house that you liked to somebody else. I don’t think it’s an easy answer to that question.”

What realtor sees in the current market

  1. Micro markets are still seeing multiple offers on entry level homes. 
  2. Good deals are in any market, just need to do the work. Always be ready and keep looking for a right deal.
  3. Robert Schiller says in a very safe manner. Because he doesn’t really know what will happen. 
  4. More expensive to buy, but cheap 3% mortgage bus is gone and we need to adjust to new norm to be in the market.
  5. White board talk:
    1. Assuming 19% decline, how do you time it to get the best deal? Simple answer is, you just can’t time the market.
    2. Light weight MMA fighter (Fed funds rate and mortgage rate) choking on heavy weight fighter (real estate market)
  6. Talk to a few realtors in your area to know what’s going on in your market.
  7. 2008 vs 2023
    1. Bank issues
    2. Job loss 2.6m in 2008 vs. job increases in Jan 2023
    3. Subprime lending vs Tight lending environment
    4. High inventory. Vs Historic low inventory
    5. 6% mortgage rate vs. 6.25% today
    6. Inflation 3.8% vs 6%
    7. War in 2008 vs War now
    8. Swine flu vs Covid

Don’t pay attention to headlines, talk to local experts, read between the lines, stay in the market and you can always find a good deal in any market!

Tuesday Real Estate Update: Silicon Valley Bank Shut Down and Property Sharks

Tuesday Real Estate Update #TREU: Silicon Valley Bank Shut Down and Property Sharks

Audio only

Silicon Valley Bank bail out, what’s coming?

Silicon Valley Bank bail out, fractional banking only requires 10% reserves of deposits, FDIC covers less than 2% of deposits? $40 Billions withdrawn in one day?

At the current trend, we may expect the following:

  • Maybe more banks mergers coming.
  • Tighter mortgage lending as banks are getting the pressure of keeping better reserves and books.
  • Potential for more investment money coming into real estate.
  • More cash buyers and higher downpayment buyers will have bigger leverage.
  • Higher rate, cooler house price continues this spring.
  • New home builders will slow down due to expensive to borrow money and new home demand is softer. This exacerbate overall inventory shortages.

tips for home buyers and owners

  • Anything more than $250k in your account should be moved to separate bank accounts for federal insurance coverage.
  • Property sharks out there. They do borderline illegal whole sales. Check with your local trustworthy realtor to see all the options you have, before talking to any of these whole sale, property sharks. Almost 99.9% of the time, you will make more money by going through the traditional channels of listing your home for sale publicly and attracting many buyers.

*not financial advise, Check with qualifies CPA.

Tuesday Real Estate Update March 21st, 2023

QE, Sub 6%?

In today’s #TREU

  1. Real Estate Market Overall Trend in the last 3 years.
  2. Financial Sector volatility and what we might see in mortgage rate.
  3. Buying New Homes in 2023 the right way.
  4. Residential vs. Commercial landscape shifting.
  • Year over year trend may appear sluggish, but it’s more of 2021 and 2022 fast train slowdown, not market crash like some fear mongering media portrays. So don’t panic.
  • Poorly managed banks are being bought up, so quantitative easing (QE) might be coming sooner than expected. Not because we solve the inflation problem, but to prevent banking system collapsing.  With that pressure, we may see lower than 6% mortgage rate this spring and summer which fuels the real estate market. Typically speaking lower interest rates, higher real estate price. Higher interest rates, lower real estate price.
  • New home builders are offering lower interest rate and price discounts. Many home builders use short term financing. With a higher cost to borrow money, they need to sell left-over inventory to move to new phase of construction. So if you are looking for a new home this year, ask for more incentives and price reduction. And as always look for the best lot in the subdivision. How to find a right home in new subdivision video from 2019:
  • Calmer waves in residential, bigger waves in commercial section. Due to high office and retail vacancies, especially in downtown areas. Big tech layoffs creating potential ownership change in commercial real estate as home office demand continuously growing since the pandemic.