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Tips for Selling During the Holidays
Top 10 Tips for Selling Your Home During the Holidays
Attract homebuyers even during the holidays with these useful tips.
- Deck the halls, but don’t go overboard.
Homes often look their best during the holidays, but sellers should be careful not to overdo it on the decor. Adornments that are too large or too many can crowd your home and distract buyers. Also, avoid offending buyers by opting for general fall and winter decorations rather than items with religious themes. - Hire a reliable real estate agent.
That means someone who will work hard for you and won’t disappear during Christmas or New Year’s. Ask your friends and family if they can recommend a listing agent who will go above and beyond to get your home sold. This will ease your stress and give you more time to enjoy the season. - Seek out motivated buyers.
Anyone house hunting during the holidays must have a good reason for doing so. Work with your agent to target buyers on a deadline, including people relocating for jobs in your area, investors on tax deadlines, college students and staff, and medical students and professionals. - Price it to sell.
No matter what time of year, a home that’s priced low for the market will make buyers feel merry. Rather than gradually making small price reductions, many real estate agents advise sellers to slash their prices before putting a home on the market. - Make curb appeal a top priority.
Maintaining the exterior of your is important. Bare trees equal a more exposed home, so touch up the paint, clean the gutters, and spruce up the yard. Keep buyers’ safety in mind as well by making sure stairs and walkways are free of clutter. - Take top-notch real estate photos.
When the weather outside is frightful, homebuyers are likely to start their house hunt from the comfort of their homes by browsing listings on the Internet. Make a good first impression by offering lots of flattering, high-quality photos of your home. If possible, have a bright summer photo of your home available so buyers can see how it looks year-round. - Create a video tour for the Web.
You’ll get less foot traffic during the holidays thanks to inclement weather and vacation plans. But shooting a video tour and posting it on the Web may attract house hunters who don’t have time to physically see your home or would rather not drive. - Give house hunters a place to escape from the cold.
Make your home feel cozy and inviting during showings by cranking up the heat, playing soft classical music and offering homemade holiday treats. When you encourage buyers to spend more time in your home, you also give them more time to admire its best features. - Offer holiday cheer in the form of financing.
Bah, humbug! Lenders are scrooges these days, but if you’ve got the means, then why not offer a home loan to a serious buyer? You could get a good rate of return on your money. - Relax — the new year is just around the corner.
The holidays are stressful enough with gifts to buy, dinners to prepare and relatives to entertain. Take a moment to remind yourself that if you don’t sell now, there’s always next year, which, luckily, is only a few days away.
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Choosing a Rug
Choosing the right area rug for your room can be a long process!
But it’s an important element to decide on. One of the most common design mistakes is in choosing your area rug last. When in fact the area rug can help you decide on other factors that will help you in designing the room. Things like the colour for your walls and what style the room is going to be.
The main rule of thumb to remember for when choosing an area rug is to buy the largest size you can.
LIVING ROOM
An area rug needs to be large enough so you can fit all the furniture on the rug. If the rug is just “floating” in the middle of the room sitting underneath the coffee table it’s too small.
The rug is used to define areas of zones of spaces. One zone would be the sitting area. The coffee table, sofa and chairs would be included in the sitting area. If you can’t fit all these pieces fully on the the rug then the front legs of the sofa and chairs should at least be on the rug.
When you have all your furniture on the rug it makes the space seem larger than it is.
Leave at least 30cm or 8 inches up to a maximum of 24 inches between the rug and your living room walls.
Best options: Wool, acrylic, polypropylene, sisal, jute …
Read More at: ChloeDominik.com
Update A Small Kitchen
Here are some ways you can make your space brighter and update a small kitchen.
I spend a lot of time in the kitchen preparing healthy meals for my family, prepping snacks for the kids, and even just hanging out. Many of the apartments I’ve lived in had a small kitchen with enough room for only one person at a time. In a household with a busy lifestyle that just doesn’t work. Here is a list of the best tips on how you can update a small kitchen so that it functions well and feels great.
Tips for a Small Kitchen
Make It Brighter
Some of the places I’ve lived had no window in the kitchen and a cheap light hiding behind thick yellow plastic. Sounds familiar? The visual effect of a workspace greatly affects how we feel, so it is important to make sure your space feels great. Here are some ways you can make your space brighter and update a small kitchen like yours.
Add Track Lighting
There are many affordable options for adding small strips of lights under your cabinets. If there is no room for light strips, consider puck lights or light ropes that will fit any space.
Paint The Cabinets
A lighter color is usually the better, but if you have an idea for a bold scheme, do it. Your kitchen is a great place to try a fun and quirky design.
Hang Up Some Art
I have a framed photo of a lighthouse with a distant sailboat in the place where my kitchen window should be. That depth gives a feeling of open space in the most cramped corner of my house. Otherwise, think fun and uplifting.
Music
Do you dance with your mop? I do! A rocking Bluetooth speaker can really improve the mood …
Read More at: DecoHolic.com
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4 Ways To Declutter
4 Ways To Declutter While Still Keeping A Cozy Home
When it comes to decluttering your home a lot of people go straight to the idea of a minimalist home. A space with white walls, one sofa and barely any decor. It’s hard to part with things you’ve loved for so long. But you can still declutter and have a cozy home without going to the minimalist extreme. After all you still want to feel like you live there. So a few accessories and items are important.
Decluttering your home is just a way of streamlining and organizing the items in your home. So you are free to enjoy your home. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind to declutter without completely throwing out everything you own!
1. KEEP THINGS YOU LOVE
This might sound an obvious one, “to only keep the things you love” but most of the things is your home you probably loved at some point or another. That’s why they’re there. The key question is do you love it as much as when it first came to live you?
Is it still useful? Functional? If any of the answers are no, it’s time to find a new home for it. Donate it, pass it on to someone you know will appreciate it. Or time to say goodbye for good.
Put your most loved items out in the front and centre and in the main focus points. Other items can be safely organized and stored away out of sight.
2. VERTICAL SPACE
Make the most of the vertical space in your rooms. Especially if the rooms are on the small side. The more the wall space is maximized the less things are kept off the floor. Just keep in mind the depth of the shelves as you don’t want them to take up any more room than necessary. The shelves should be in proportion to the space …
Read More at ChloeDominik.com
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41 Easy DIY Christmas Decorations
41 DIY Christmas Decorations That’ll Save Your Bank Account
The holidays will be here before we know it, which means it’s almost time to spend all your money on festive decor and thoughtful gifts, right? Well, not necessarily. If you can recreate some stylish and seasonal Christmas decorations yourself, you’ll end up saving a ton (and have some fun in the process). So we tracked down 40 elevated DIY Christmas decor ideas that will save you money without making you compromise a gorgeous, decked-out holiday home. Whether you want something modern or traditional, understated or totally bold, you’ll find it on this list of DIY Christmas decor ideas that actually look high-end.
Coffee Filter Garland
You really can use anything to make pretty DIY Christmas decorations if you know where to look. This mock floral garland is made out of coffee filters. If you don’t have any of those lying around, use tissue paper and make an afternoon of it. Get the tutorial from Country Living.
Honeycomb Christmas Bulbs
These honeycomb Christmas bulbs by Studio DIY take oversized to the next level. The budget-friendly craft requires little effort, so you can even make them at the last minute if you’re running low on time before a Christmas party.
Black Paper Tablecloth
Ditch a fussy tablecloth and use black butcher paper instead. This way, you can decorate it however you want. You can channel your inner artist with a paint pen and draw on decorative details and/or customize place cards, and hey, it makes cleaning up after a holiday dinner much easier.