Home Sellers: A Deck May Make The Difference!

With spring in the air, the exterior of a home becomes even more important when putting your house on the market because buyers now will spend more time outside looking at your property and envisioning what their summer barbeques and family playtime will look like.

The addition of any amount of usable real estate to a property increases value. Customized decks and personalized outdoor living areas are a hot trend in home improvement upgrades, and a great-looking deck may entice more people to come see your home.

Building or updating an existing deck isn’t simply a great investment; it also provides opportunities to personalize your backyard and customize the look to your taste. And with many families staying home this summer to save money, why not think about creating the perfect location for entertaining?

Deck experts agree that multi-level decks are the most popular now. These are a series of decks connected by stairways or walkways, which are aesthetically pleasing and can be used for different purposes. One level can be used to catch the sun, one level can be positioned for shade and another can be set close to the house for entertaining and barbequing.

Wood decks have always been the most popular, but caring for them is tough. They will rot over time, are subject to insect infestation and require a great deal of maintenance to keep the wood from fading. Accordingly, people are embracing composite materials for their decks, which cost significantly more but will last longer with less maintenance.

For those homes that already have a deck, it’s important to make sure that it’s still in good shape and adds to the attractiveness of a property. You can change your deck’s appearance with interesting balusters to match other decorative accents on your house or in your yard and really add unique touches to make the deck a personal haven. Meanwhile, railings offer a good opportunity to pull in color and ornamental detail that complements the house.

By designing your deck with accents, lights and unique accessories, you can transform your backyard into an outdoor retreat one will never want to leave. Whether you’re catching up with friends over a grilled dinner in the evening or are curled up with a book in a lounge chair on a sunny afternoon, a deck is the perfect place to be.

Chip Plumley can be reached at (610) 444-9090 or (610) 357-8635.
Prudential Fox & Roach is an independently owned and operated member of
Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company.
Equal Housing Opportunity.

ChipPlumley.com

Sell Your Home With Great Lawn Care

Spring is in the air and that means that homebuyers are going to be paying just as much attention to the exterior of a home than the interior. Those shopping for a home want to envision their kids playing in the yard, their friends coming over for barbeques and the lazy Sunday afternoon laying on the lawn.

While people are inclined to bring in flowers, paint the deck and work on the curb appeal, often the lawn itself is neglected. The positives of a well-maintained grass yard are many and it’s important to get your grass in tip-top shape before showing your home.

When it comes to growing grass, consistent care is key and failure to invest in long-term turf care can open the window to any number of problems in your lawn.

It’s also important to give your grass the fertilizing lawn care and control treatments it needs based on the season. Lawn care for growing grass as we enter May has different needs than what is expected in late summer and fall.

The way you mow your lawn can either make growing grass easier or harder. In the spring, you need to keep the grass high. You never want to remove more than one third of the total blade height when mowing, or you could chop off the food-producing parts of the grass blade and end up with a brown lawn instead of a green one.

You should also leave grass clippings on the lawn to help recycle important lawn fertilizing nutrients.

Lawn care experts share that growing green plants is the best thing you can do to clean the air and grass is considered to be better than most other plants or trees at removing carbon and other impurities from the atmosphere. Through the process of photosynthesis, grass takes carbon from the air and stores it in the ground.

“A grass lawn enriches the soil by providing a home for beneficial micro-organisms and insects that eat nature’s leftovers—decomposing grass clippings, plant leaves and other vegetation—and recycle nutrients back into the soil,” said Michael McDermott, a lawn care expert. “It also pollinates plants and serves as food for other animals, making grass an important part of nature’s cycle.”

An important component of growing grass is to properly water it, and it is better to water deeply (down to a depth of 6 inches) and less frequently, than lightly and more often. If your lawn dulls in color or begins to wilt, then your lawn needs water. Make sure to sweep any fertilizer that lands on driveways and sidewalks back on to the lawn.

Grass also acts like a natural air conditioner that cools the air as it releases water vapor through its blades. The water evaporates and draws heat, cooling the air in the process. As a result, lawns are a safer surface for children to play on and provide the cool comfort we desire on hot days. Those are selling points that can help any home sale.

Chip Plumley can be reached at (610) 444-9090 or (610) 357-8635.
Prudential Fox & Roach is an independently owned and operated member of
Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company.
Equal Housing Opportunity.

ChipPlumley.com

Bringing The Generations Together

Although your home may have been housing a traditional family of a mom, dad and two kids, savvy real estate agents will tell you that in order to attract more buyers, staging your house as one fit for multi-generations is the way to go.

More parents and grandparents are finding a need to move in with family, as many can no longer afford the increasing rates of the adult communities where they once lived. Furthermore, the economic climate is forcing many kids to return home once their schooling is done.

A recent multi-generational study conducted by the Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C., revealed that multigenerational living has been on the rise over the past decade, fueled by demographic and cultural shifts.

“One of the things that struck me about this change is that it’s coming from all directions,” said Paul Taylor, author of the report. “More young adults are moving back home, more elderly are moving in with their middle-age children and more middle-aged children are moving back with their elderly parents.”

Data from the study shows that in the 10-year span between 2000 and 2009, the number of households practicing multi-generational living increased to 33%, with more than 49 million Americans currently living in homes with three or more generations.

Real estate professionals are tending to highlight features such as finished walkout basements and bonus bedrooms today more than ever. That’s why when your agent tells you that switching out your office or transposing the basement play area to one that resembles more of a bedroom is the way to go, you should be listening.

When selling your home, you need to look at the process from the perspective of all buyers, not just yours. Consider how a multigenerational family might use the various spaces available, and give prospective homebuyers options to easily transform from single-family to multigenerational living.

Therefore, any home that contains bonus space is a viable candidate for a multigenerational buyer who’s planning to bring an ill or out-of-work family member back into the fold.

Experts agree that intergenerational living is easier when each family subunit has its own space. “Everyone who is going to share the home should have a private area of their own,” said Amy Goyer, a multigenerational expert at AARP. “It is best if there is more than one common area so that children and adults have spaces to relax in without everyone having to spend all their free time in the same room together.”

Multigenerational house design can be applied to just one structure or can be accomplished with two or three units to keep families together while preserving their independence and privacy.

According to Cam Marston, author and founder of the research firm Generational Insight, there are a number of benefits for different generations of a family living together. “It’s less expensive, obviously, but more importantly, they can learn from one another,” Marston said. “Separating generations keeps them aloof from the trends and important things impacting each generation. When they are all under one roof, they can grow up sooner and stay young longer. It works on both ends of the generations.”

Another thing for home sellers to consider when it comes to attracting multigenerational buyers is the home’s accessibility for people who might be living with aging parents who use wheel chairs or walkers.

Creating a complete, accessible living space on one level with safety features can make a home attractive to people of all ages.

Chip Plumley can be reached at (610) 444-9090 or (610) 357-8635.
Prudential Fox & Roach is an independently owned and operated member of
Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company.
Equal Housing Opportunity.

ChipPlumley.com

April's Real Estate Market Snapshot

I love selling real estate! The main area where I conduct the most business is doing just fine according to the reports just released from the TrendMLS (Multiple Listing Service).

The local market is what matters, even though the media reports only at the national level.Remember, the real estate market is like the weather forecast. It doesn't matter if it's raining in Florida or California since it's sunny in Chester County.

Click Here to see the full report from TrendMLS for Single-Family Homes. Carefully compare your county's real estate market compared to the national stats. You'll be amazed at what you see!

Interested in Condo Sales? Click Here to see what's going on in the condo market. It isn't as pretty as the single-family homes and is generally what happens during market corrections.

Chip Plumley can be reached at (610) 444-9090 or (610) 357-8635.
Prudential Fox & Roach is an independently owned and operated member of
Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company.
Equal Housing Opportunity.

ChipPlumley.com

Say It With Pictures

They say a picture paints a thousand words and when it comes to selling your home, you want those words to end with “sold.” It’s no secret that better-presented homes get more traffic and more buyer interest, therefore selling faster.

That’s why it is essential that you showcase your home through images in the best way possible.

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, nearly 90% of all homebuyers begin shopping for homes online. Many flip through photos of the homes and send a list of those they want to see to their agent. In fact, homes with few or no photos are often passed over simply for that reason, even if the home’s description matches a buyer’s ideal listing.

Many agents believe that apart from staging, no other marketing investment is as important as professional photography in marketing a property effectively. So, to generate more buyer interest, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of professional real estate photographers in the past few years.

The best photographs are most likely to come from someone who has an eye for the underlying beauty of the home’s structure and spaces; has specialized equipment and techniques for lighting and perspective control; and uses workflow processes for post-processing of the images for use on the Web and in publications.

Let’s face it, as much as we all like to think we take great photos, a professional has an eye for seeing the best vantage points and lighting options and also has better equipment to make the photos bright, clear and sharp. A professional photographer will most likely use a 10mm lens that can capture up to 85% of a room and lighting that can illuminate the entire room.

The same holds true with taking video of your home to add to a website listing. An amateur can show what each room and yard looks like, but a video professional will make the strongest elements stand out and provide a much better video narrative of the home. Plus, you don’t have to worry about any shakiness or dullness that someone not that experienced with a video camera may give you.

Before bringing in someone to photograph or video your home, it’s essential that it is clean and de-cluttered so the pictures entice a buyer to want to see the home in person. You don’t want clothes, pets or anything else distracting people from the photo at hand.

Indeed, homes showcased with the best photographs and videos will attract more sellers and help speed the home-sale process to a successful conclusion.

Chip Plumley can be reached at (610) 444-9090 or (610) 357-8635.
Prudential Fox & Roach is an independently owned and operated member of
Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company.
Equal Housing Opportunity.

ChipPlumley.com

Tips For Spring Cleaning Before Selling

Spring is here and for those selling their home or getting ready to put their house on the market, there’s nothing quite as beneficial as doing a great “spring cleaning” job to not only make your home look great, but to get rid of some of that clutter that could distract someone coming to see your home.

Here are five spring cleaning tips that will help you sell your home.

1: Curb appeal becomes as important as ever when the weather turns nicer and buyers are more likely to spend time outside looking at the exterior of the house and the property. Make sure to have a well-maintained lawn with all the leaves gone, the grass mowed and the hedges trimmed.

Spruce things up by buying some inexpensive, yet colorful flowers and spread fresh mulch in flowerbeds. Fill in any bare spots on your lawn with sod or seed. Make sure to also clean your gutters, wash your welcome mat and put away any rakes or winter shovels that clutter the yard.

2: The phrase “I don’t do windows” should never apply when selling a home. While a REALTOR® may tell you that homes show better with the blinds or curtains up, this will not be true if the windows are dirty. A clean window brings more light into a room and allows buyers the chance to see what the view will be when they look out of their potential new home. It’s important to clean both the inside and outside of all windows until they are streak free and spotless. This includes all sliding glass doors, garage windows and outside doors.

3: Pay close attention to the “little” things that might draw the eye of a prospective homebuyer. Go around your home with a pad and pencil and inspect each room for things such as small holes in the wall where a painting used to hang, outlets that are missing a cover or doorknobs that are loose and squeaky. Also, be sure to check all of the caulking around sinks, faucets and tubs, as well as any grout in tile counters or bathtubs. As you take the time and the small amount of money to fix these items you reduce the reasons for someone not liking your home.

4: Power wash your driveway, walkway, siding and deck. You don’t need to invest in the money of buying a new power washer as they are easy to rent from stores such as Lowe’s. Power washing removes layers and years of dirt and grime from stone and cement, including mildew stains from the winter. Power washing the porch, a fence or deck clears away all the dirt and debris and makes the home instantly seem cleaner. If the outside of your home looks dingy, you may be setting the impression that you didn’t keep up the home itself well, so make sure to have everything looking top notch.

5: One of the first pieces of advice you will get from your real estate agent is to reduce clutter in your home. Spring cleaning is the perfect excuse to get rid of things you don’t really need. Go through all your closets and bag up all the clothes that don’t fit, are out of style or you simply don’t wear anymore and donate them to a charity. Take your old books, the kids’ toys they no longer play with and those kitchen knickknacks and hold a garage sale. A de-cluttered home is always more attractive to the homebuyer.

Chip Plumley can be reached at (610) 444-9090 or (610) 357-8635.
Prudential Fox & Roach is an independently owned and operated member of
Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company.
Equal Housing Opportunity.

ChipPlumley.com