Emmanuel Fonte | Music | Art | Leadership
If music be the food of love, play on. Emmanuel Fonte website is about music, art, real estate, architecture, design and decor. Occasionally, I talk about my other passion, hockey.
Weber Shandwick’s third annual “State of Seattle” survey polled 500 local residents to find out their perceptions of the city, including the economy, civility, culture and the media. Here is a snapshot of what they found.
source: www.WeberShandwickSeattle.com
After a large, large slump, the housing market is on the rebound. House prices are finally rising and a few markets appear to be headed in a strong and healthy direction for 2013. We are finally moving in a positive direction!
Today’s infographic profiles ten all-star cities, that are sitting pretty in the 2013 housing market. By analyzing median house and rent prices in cities with strong job markets and low vacancy rates, a solid list of cities emerge. This list is a great reference, with valuable information about each city and and plenty of financials to boot.
The list includes Seattle. I you are planning a move here, give today’s infographic a quick read! [Via]
Moving is hard, and not a move anyone takes lightly. Your house is more than just an investment, it is your home. As you begin the process of distancing yourself from the place where you made so many lasting memories you will begin to think about what your home will be worth to someone else. When you are ready to meet with a real estate broker, you may already have an idea of what your home is worth. You may have seen what other homes in your neighborhood have sold for or kept an eye on local listings. Your broker will prepare a comparative market analysis (CMA) that is an in-depth version of any research you may have done on your own. The CMA is used to help evaluate how your home will fare against the competition. It takes a look at homes that are currently listed, pending (properties under contract) as well as those sold within the past 6 months. The purpose is to find the market value and help position your home on the open market.
The CMA includes a fact-based portrait of the home including information such as number of bedrooms and baths, approximate square footage, size of major rooms, age of the home, property taxes, and desirable amenities such as fireplaces and pools. In most expert’s opinion, the floor plan or the architectural design of the home I crucial in comparing , since price per square foot is often consider and we need to compare apples to apples. A rambler should be compared to other rambler and a two-story to other two stories etc. an appraiser will do this in the financing process and we want to make sure that we have properly priced the home to appraise and make sure we can take the contract to completion. The range can also vary. Some will just cover a few streets around your home, CMAs can cover areas as narrow as one or two streets surrounding your home, or as broad as an entire subdivision.
Selling a home isn’t only about the facts. There are many pieces to the puzzle and it’s often the indefinable that impact a potential buyer’s perception of the home. A home purchase remains fundamentally personal. Most transactions are influenced by the buyer’s emotions versus rationalization. Perception can alter reality and so this is an important consideration when looking at a CMA. People make decisions based on curb appeal, light, design choices and many other factors. At the end of each home’s information on the CMA report there will be a brief statement provided by the listing agent that will address some of these subjective factors such as recent remodels, historic features, or things that might be of interest to the buyers. The agent will be marketing the home and is already thinking about how it will be presented as a product to tempt the public.
The CMA is evolving since the Internet era, partly because the potential seller does some homework ahead of time and access to information is no longer just the purview of the real estate professional. It has increased the amount of avenues now available to display more accurate and precise information ranging from short sales, foreclosures and arm-length sales data. While sellers have access to data, an objective professional that is both objective and up to date on contractual nuances, is an asset to a seller in achieving their goal to sell at the highest possible price.
Bankrate.com recently featured a list of the top ways buyers back away from a home listed for sale. Its list includes these items, among others:
1. Dirt: “The No. 1 biggest mistake is not getting the home in the best possible condition. That’s huge,” says Chad Goldwasser of Goldwasser Real Estate in Austin, Texas. “I won’t even represent sellers at this point unless they are fully aware of how important it is to get their home in the absolute best condition that they’ve ever had it in.” Goldwasser suggests also steam-cleaning tile and grout and carpets and replacing carpets if necessary.
2. Odors: “Odors are a big one, especially kitchen odors,” says Julie Dana, co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Staging Your Home to Sell. “I advise my clients not to cook fried food, fish, or greasy food while the house is on the market. … Interestingly, next to the kitchen, the smelliest room in the house is actually the living room. That’s typically the room that has the most fabric, so that is where odors get absorbed.” She recommends having curtains and upholstery cleaned, particularly if someone in the home is a smoker, and taking steps to eliminate any pet odors.
3. Old fixtures: “You need to change out old fixtures in your house,” Goldwasser says, adding outdated ceiling fans and light fixtures should be replaced prior to listing a home. “New cabinet hardware and doorknobs will probably cost all of $400 or $500, but it makes a huge difference.”
4. Wallpaper: When buyers see wallpaper, they think of another thing to add to their to-do list, says Dana. “Wallpaper is extremely personalized. You’ve spent hours looking over books to pick out the wallpaper you want,” she says. “What are the odds that the person walking in the door will also like that wallpaper that you picked out?”
5. Popcorn acoustic ceilings: These ceiling were popular in the 1960s and 1970s but now can date a home. Still, it can be a mess and costly to remove, so real estate professionals say sellers may need to be prepared to credit a buyer in certain markets if they decide to keep the popcorn ceiling when selling a home.
6. Too many personal items: Cluttered homes make it difficult for buyers to see past the home owner’s belongings and start envisioning themselves there. “Anything that makes your house scream ‘you’ is what you don’t want,” Dana says. “I tell all my clients that how we decorate to live and how we decorate to sell are different, and right now, we’re decorating to sell.”
Source: “10 Ways to Turn Off a Would-Be Homebuyer,” Bankrate.com
For the past three years, the average size of new homes has been on the rise. The median new-home size in 2012 reached a record high at 2,306 square feet, according to newly released data from the Census Bureau. That is an 8 percent increase from 2009.
During the Great Recession, Americans showed a preference for smaller homes, and many housing experts were saying it meant the end of the McMansion.
But Jeffry Roos, a regional president for homebuilder Lennar, told CNNMoney that it wasn’t that Americans wanted less space, they just couldn’t afford more space at the time.
Now, they’re upsizing again. A spokeswoman for GL Homes says that the builder has been selling homes that average 7 percent larger than during the first five months of 2012.
Some consumers are choosing to buy larger because they have more people under their roof. Lennar offers homes known as Next Gen, which feature separate suites for a mother-in-law or college grad who has moved back home.
Home shoppers tend to buy bigger than what they originally plan, Fred Cooper, a spokesman for Toll Brothers, told CNNMoney.
“In the downturns, in upturns, whenever, our customers typically added another 18 to 20 percent of floor space onto what already was a very nice house to begin with,” Cooper says.
Source: “McMansions are making a comeback,” CNNMoney
It happens every day, sellers who don’t take the time to ensure a smooth home inspection and sometimes pay for it in the long run. A little preparation can ensure sellers have great home inspections.
Home inspectors usually arrive early to the home inspection appointment so that they are set up and ready to go when the buyers arrive.
On inspection day, the house should be empty of the owners and their presence. In fact, everything should be just like it was on the initial viewing day. Be ready for inspection day by getting up and out of the house an hour before the appointment. The home should also be clean and pets should be removed or crated.
If something isn’t working properly, don’t try to hide it. Inspectors will find it. Buyers get very suspicious when sellers deliberately try to conceal defects. They immediately see them as dishonest and wonder what else they’re hiding. It’s not worth losing their confidence over a trivial defect. Just leave a note: “We know about it and we’re getting it fixed.”
In addition, make sure the location of attic and crawlspace hatches are identified and are easily accessible, as home inspectors hate moving your stuff.
If the hatch is in a closet, remove any clothing that is hanging directly under the hatch as well as anything on the floor. The home inspector doesn’t want to move your smelly sneakers.
It’s also important to check every area of the house for blown light bulbs. This includes the crawlspace, attic, garage and furnace room. We don’t want to waste time determining if a fixture is inoperable or simply has a blown bulb.
Do you have a septic system or a well buried in your yard? If so, make sure you leave a sketch of the locations. There’s nothing worse than a group of contractors, home inspector, buyers and their representative wandering around a yard needlessly, searching for something you know the exact location of.
Lastly sellers don’t leave your dirty laundry in the washing machine or dryer. Inspectors have to test these appliances and we don’t want to pull your dirty underwear out of the washer in front of everybody. Also, make sure the oven and stovetop are clear and clean so that we can easily test them without setting off the smoke alarm. Some of these items may seem rather simple, but a successful home inspection, requires everyone to pay attention to these details.
Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use energy, water, and materials to minimize environmental impacts.
via: LineShapeSpace.com
We just got the Case-Shiller report showing house prices through March.
The annualized gain of over 10% was the hottest reading since April 2006.
Not only are home prices increasing, the recovery is accelerating.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-march-case-shiller-2013-5#ixzz2UhDTzPOO
Americans who are between the ages of 18 and 34 — known as Generation Y — could be a “game changer” in the U.S. real estate market, according to Urban Land Institute. As such, ULI researchers are taking careful note of this generation’s preferences when it comes to homes.
A new ULI survey of about 1,200 Millennials shows that 59 percent of those surveyed prefer a home in a neighborhood that has a variety of housing types. For example, 62 percent said they prefer mixed-use developments with shops, restaurants, and offices, and 52 percent say they like pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods.
The survey also showed that 55 percent of Millennials said they want their home to be in close proximity to public transportation. ULI researchers also note that this generation is more likely than older generations to live in apartments and in downtown areas.
Patrick Phillips, ULI’s chief executive, says he believes the Millennials represent a big change from other generations, in that this group will continue to prefer more compact, urban homes, even later in life. He says that will likely lead to more mixed-use development.
“Over time, we’ll see a return to a more compact, metropolitan development pattern,” Phillips said. “We’ll see less sprawl at the edges … the market preferring solutions that are closer in.”
Source: “Is Generation Y a ‘Game Changer’ for Housing?” The Wall Street Journal