Debating Between a Townhome and a Single-Family House?

When buying a home, one of the fundamental questions you will ask yourself is whether you want a townhome or condo or a single family home. There are advantages and disadvantages to both and depending on your needs, one may be a better option for you than the other.

Consider the following when trying to decide between a townhome/condo and a single-family house:

• Budget – Generally, townhomes and condos are less expensive than their single-family home counterparts. Because single-family houses are generally bigger than condos and townhomes, the heating and air conditioning bills will most likely be bigger as well. Determine your budget to help you decide what will be best for you financially.
• Location – Do your research to make sure the location and neighborhood you’re looking at is safe and worth your investment. If you want to live in the heart of the city, a condo may be your best option.
• Yard and Home Maintenance – Do you want a yard your children can play in with a garden you can maintain? Or would you rather not bother with a yard at all? When you own a house, you will be responsible for all the maintenance, so make sure that’s something you’re willing and able to take on. The bigger the property, the more it will cost to maintain. 
• Privacy – In a townhome or condo, there’s a good chance that you will occasionally hear your neighbors, and they’ll occasionally hear you – no matter how well the home is built. You may have to share a hallway or back or front yard as well. If you want complete privacy, a single-family home may be the best option for you. However, if you find comfort in having close neighbors, consider a townhome or condo.
• Homeowner Associations – Homeowner associations include fees and shared decision-making. They help keep neighborhoods clean and help maintain home values in the neighborhood. Most of the time, townhomes and condos are part of homeowners associations. You’ll need to decide if you’ll use the amenities you pay for with your HOA fees. If you want complete control of the decisions regarding your home, consider a single-family home.
• Family Lifestyle – If you don’t have any children, or don’t plan to have children for a while, a townhome or condo can simplify your life and limit maintenance you’ll have to do on the home. If you want pets, many condos and townhomes don’t permit them, so do your homework.

Contact Cobblestone Realty Today (561) 429-3340 for all of your Real Estate needs.

5 Mistakes Sellers Make

When deciding to sell your home, it’s important to avoid the big mistakes that will keep your home from selling.

Here are 5 mistakes that many sellers make that will either cause a home to stay on the market too long or, at the other end of the spectrum, cause a seller to leave money on the table.

1. Hiring the wrong agent. Don’t hire a real estate agent just because he or she is a friend or family member. This is a business transaction. Hire a real estate agent with a good track record. Get referrals from friends and neighbors, and do your research.  
2. Overpricing. This can be the biggest mistake a seller makes. If your home is overpriced, you will receive less interest in your home as well as fewer offers. If you want your listing to perform well in a competitive market, you need to price it competitively. Work with your real estate agent to determine the right price for your home that both you and your potential buyers will be happy with.
3. Ignoring the importance of home staging. Presentation is everything. Hire a home stager or stage your home yourself. Either way, make sure the home has a fresh coat of paint, the carpet is clean, the furniture is arranged in a way that makes it easy to walk through the home. Take down family photos and knick-knacks so potential buyers can picture themselves living in the home. Always make sure the home is as clean as it can be when there is a showing scheduled. Don’t forget the home’s curb appeal. Staging your home can make a big difference in the number of offers you’ll receive.
4. Prematurely accepting an offer. Being up against a deadline should never be an excuse of accepting an offer that is too low. You might be excited when you get your first offer, but you need to allow yourself enough time to see what other offers you may receive. Buyers need to compete on price. Respond to the offers quickly when they come in, but make sure the offer is at or above the price you’ve already agreed on. Let your home be properly exposed to the market and remain on the MLS long enough to receive multiple offers. However, if you’ve only had your home on the market for a few days and you get an offer you think you want to take, ask your agent to call other agents who have expressed interest in showing your home. Have your agent let them know that you have an offer in hand and ask them if any of them are interested in submitting an offer. Give them a firm deadline for receiving offers, but don’t prematurely accept one.
5. Getting emotionally involved in the transaction. This is a big challenge. You’ve lived in your home, created memories there, invested time and money in your property, etc. But once you move forward with the decision to sell your home, it becomes a commodity. You may think your home is “worth” a specific amount, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter what you want. Not everyone will appreciate your home like you did, but now it’s time to move on. Put your emotions aside and move forward with the sale as a business transaction.

@Cobblestoneinfo

Make Dollars Out of Scents

Spruce up the Aroma of Your Home to Sell

When homebuyers walk into a home for sale all five senses are actively scanning the environment. The sense of smell can send a strong message to the brain while the brain is busy formulating a first impression.

Regardless of your home’s appearance, an unpleasant odor can turn buyers away. At the same time, pleasant aromas can invoke feelings of comfort, relaxation, happiness and peace.

Carefully selected scents can actually help you get more dollars out of your home when combined with other staging methods. We have experience in creating just the right setting to present your home for sale. Feel free to contact us for a no obligation consultation and tips to make your property even more desirable.

1. Dirt Stinks.

Let’s face it, no matter what kind of candle, spray or air freshener you use the fine scents will not cover up the smell of an unclean environment. The first smell to create is a clean smell. Don’t use overpowering industrial cleaners that leave strong scents behind. Even those scents are sometimes undesirable.

•  Wash walls, baseboards, and floors
•  Leave no dirty dishes in the sink or on counters
•  Clean the garbage disposal regularly
•  Keep trash cans empty
•  Clean toilets regularly
•  Eliminate all signs of mildew and mold
•  Dust often
•  Avoid smoking indoors
•  Never leave dirty diapers in the house
•  Keep laundry clean and put away
•  Keep pets outside or keep litter box clean and fresh for indoor cats

2. People are Sensitive to Smells

Once your house is smelling clean and fresh, be very careful about the scents and methods of distributing those scents. Many people have allergies to spray air fresheners. Other people simply feel overpowered by the scent of a strong burning candle. Still others may associate certain smells with negative memories or experiences in their lives. Strong, overpowering smells may be offensive and may make buyers suspicious you are trying to cover up a bad smell.

3. Natural, Subtle Scents are Best

Play it safe by creating an atmosphere of natural scents and smells.

Place fresh, fragrant flowers in strategic locations throughout the home for a subtle, natural scent. Flowers from your own garden are wonderful! If not available, fresh flowers from the grocer will do just fine.

Consider whipping up a batch of fresh chocolate chip cookies as your guests arrive to create a homey feeling. Maybe you could choose the day of their visit to put a nice stew in the crock pot.

Creating just the right ambiance in your home when staging it to sell could net thousands more in the final sales price. Remember, don’t over do it. Natural is best.

 Cobblestone Realty, LLC

TAXING ISSUES: Making and keeping your 2014 New Year's Resolutions

My New Year’s resolution is to save up for a new house; get rich; get in shape; help the less privileged; buy low and sell high; quit smoking; travel more; win the lottery! How many times have we heard these words uttered?

As you sit at the dining-room table with pen to paper, sipping coffee with the fireplace crackling in the background, pause for a moment before making that New Year’s resolution list and glance at the crumpled, faded list from last year. How many of your resolutions were actually accomplished? If you are like lots of other Canadians, then not many.

The new year is the time for us to put 2013 behind us and reboot for another year. It’s a great starting point to forget the old and embrace the new. It’s a time to pause and look at what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done.

No one is successful without goals and objectives that can be measured. Although, my accounting and tax background do not give me the expertise to help you lose weight or quit smoking, the approach to financial resolutions may not be much different. The old adage, “Life is what you make of it,” applies to accounting, sports, business and family goals alike.

Set realistic resolutions. “I want to look like I did as a teenager” is unlikely, unless you are one!

Don’t just say, do. Resolutions can’t be accomplished without action and following through. Stop talking about joining a health club, and do it. Regardless of what some so-called experts say, you can’t lose weight by sitting in front of your computer (although the eyes and fingers may get a good workout).

Having a plan and its execution is as important as the resolution itself. Without a plan, there will be no success. “This year, I would like to save for a home.” This is a great resolution, however how will you achieve this? How much will you need? Where will the savings come from? How and where will you obtain financing? Step one is to create a cash-flow budget. Identify how you can increase income and where you can cut expenses.

Set long-term goals, but make them achievable objectives that can be measured periodically. For example:
a: If you would like to lose 20 lbs. this year, set a weight-loss goal of three pounds per month.
b: If you would like to start an RRSP, contribute $X by the end of the year. This will be achieved by setting up an automatic payment plan with your financial institution. Pre-authorize monthly RRSP contributions.

Goals cannot be reached, unless you reach for them!

#CobblestoneRealty #RealEstate #NewYears2014 #SouthFlorida #Resolutions #BeRealistic

Tips for Decorating Small Rooms

If decorated poorly, small rooms can seem claustrophobic and uncomfortable. However, there are many design and decorating tips that can make the room look bigger than it is and give the illusion of space. Here are some decorating tips and tricks to making a small room look bigger: Choose light colors. Light colors make rooms look bigger and maximize the effect created by natural light. Dark colors make rooms appear smaller because they absorb light. Use multi-function furniture. Multipurpose furniture such as sofa beds, chest of drawers, beds with storage drawers, and extendable dining tables can all save space and help keep small rooms looking clean and organized. The more light, the better. If you can let natural light in, it will open up the room a lot. Make sure that any window coverings are sheer and/or pulled back. If there isn’t a lot of natural light in the room, adding more light fixtures will give a similar effect. Keep the room organized. Having too much clutter will make a room feel and look very cramped. Don’t cover walls with a lot of pictures. Limit the number of accessories in the room as well. Add mirrors. Mirrors give rooms an illusion of depth. Use a focal point and angle the mirrors toward it.
Cobblestone Realty LLC	Categories: General Real Estate, Helpful Tips, House and Home, New Trends, Opinion, Other, Places/Spaces, Real Estate Practices

Is your property photo ready?

So, the asking price for the property has been agreed upon and every room is edited and de-cluttered. The property is staged and the architectural features are highlighted – not the lovely assortment of figurines that have been collected over the years. Now the property is ready to be photographed and marketed. This is one of the most important details when listing a property for sale, because if the photos are not fantastic, no one will show up to see your house in person. Everyone looking to purchase a property is looking at the photos online first. The pictures need to accurately represent each room. Wide-angle photography is perhaps the most deceiving. Of course, it has its place in small rooms like washrooms, dens or home offices. But often, wide-angle photography completely distorts not only the furniture, but the actual space in the room. Any linear features in the room will be “warped” like hardwood floors, tiles, patterned carpets and even cabinetry. These lenses can make an arm chair look like a sofa. The interior of a small property looks like a 5,000-sq.-ft. home. All in all, a turn-off to potential buyers who show up and see something completely different than what they were expecting. A photograph taken on a normal setting will show the space in a truer form. Take photos showing the transition from room to room if possible. This allows the buyer to get a feel for the flow of the property. And remember to turn on all the lights and lamps, even if you are taking the photos during the day. When shooting your photos, consider what is in the forefront. Ensure each piece of furniture is as visible as possible. Stand in a corner of the room because often, the shots taken at an angle are better than those taken head-on. I cannot stress this enough: please clean and tidy each room. I actually saw a photograph online that had a blue recycle bin – yes, the one from the back lane – in the kitchen. The same property was represented online with unmade beds, piles of dirty laundry, and the ever-decorative overflowing ashtrays strewn throughout every room. Remember, the first impression is the only impression, so make it count!

Categories: Real Estate Practices, National Topics, House and Home, Helpful Tips, General Real Estate