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10 Best Tips To Sell Your Orlando Home

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

 Sell Your Orlando Home For Top Dollar

If you need to sell your Orlando home for top dollar, then showing your home to buyers is unavoidable. So it’s important to make a good first impression on interested buyers. Here are some tips that I recommend you follow when showing your house to a potential buyer.

 1- Make Them Feel Welcome

As an Orlando real estate agent, I prefer to show houses without the sellers being there, but many times the homeowner insists on being present when other people walk through their home which is completely understandable. If it were me, I’d probably be the same way.

If you want to be there during showings, you should politely greet the potential buyers and invite them to look around. Tell them to take their time and let them know that you’d be happy to answer any questions they may have. Don’t follow them around as they walk through your house! Your presence may make them uncomfortable and restricted. Let the agent give them the 10-cent tour while going read on the patio or walk the dog. This will allow the buyers to communicate freely with their agents and voice any concerns.

 2- Be Flexible With Showings

Bending over backward to make your home available to show at any time will be advantageous to you. Most home buyers are on tight schedules because of work or other commitments. Sometimes I get out-of-state clients that only fly in for a day or two to see houses before flying back so try to be as flexible as possible about scheduling showings. If you still live in the home it’s very important that you be ready for a showing at a few moments’ notice. Some people can only see houses in the evening time and especially on weekends. Being as flexible as possible with showings will give you more opportunities for the right buyer to walk through that door and make an offer.

 3-Room Temperature

Make sure that when a potential buyer walks through that door, they feel comfortable. They don’t want to be cold during winter or hot in the summertime. If they’re not comfortable, they may not spend enough time in your home to decide if it’s an option for them or not. The last thing you want is for a buyer to rush through a showing because they can’t wait to leave.

 4- Keep It Clean

If you’re still living in the home, you should try to keep it showing ready at all times so that you’re never caught off guard. Make sure all clutter is cleaned up, run the vacuum whenever needed, and keep the kitchen and bathrooms spotless at all times. A clean and de-cluttered home appears larger as opposed to a dirty and cluttered home can appear small and uncomfortable. Having scented candles around the house is always a good idea and if you really want to make a good impression, you can bake some cookies and have them on the table. This entices the senses and they will also know that the oven works. lol!

 5-Not Everyone’s An Animal Lover

If you have a pet or pets, the best thing to do is temporarily remove them from your home or at the very least, put them in their crate. Not everyone is an animal lover and you don’t want a nervous animal distracting the buyers or making them uneasy. This will allow buyers to tour the home without any distractions. You should also remove any animal toys, dog bowls, etc.

 6-Let There Be Light

Your home should be well lit regardless of it’s day or night. When we live in a home, we develop habits of only turning on certain lights. The best thing to do is turn on all the lights during a showing. Most potential buyers won’t be drawn to a dimly lit home.

 7-Provide Documents About The Home

If you’ve recently had the AC or the roof replaced, have the warranty paperwork on the table. Did you have it appraised recently? Have that on the table as well. As a matter of fact, you should have any important paperwork regarding your home in plain view. This will make them believe that you have nothing to hide and that you are organized as is your home.

 8- Talk To Your Orlando Realtor

There are always certain things about a home or neighborhood that are not always in plain view. Educate your Orlando listing agent on things that you may want to be pointed out during showings. For example, having great neighbors is always a plus, but a potential buyer won’t know this by just walking through your house. If you have wonderful neighbors and your neighborhood is very family oriented, let them know.
9- Good Curb Appeal

The first thing a buyer will see when the drive up is the outside of your home and it’s your job as the seller to make sure your home looks as good as it can. The goal is for a potential buyer to be eager to see the inside because of how the outside looks. Make sure the lawn and shrubs are always perfectly trimmed and any flower beds are free of weeds. You’d be surprised how a little clean-up and some brightly colored flowers can enhance your curb appeal.

 10-Get Feedback
If you really want to know what they think, then place some comment cards in the home where buyers can openly leave their feedback about your home. The information they provide may help you for the next showing. Either that or it will piss you off [lol!]. If you’re the kind of person that doesn’t like criticism, you may want to skip this step.

If you need to sell your Orlando home and want more tips on how to get your house “showing ready” contact us at 407-902-7750. We’re here to help!

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Orlando HOAs Revealed!

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Recently, I had a potential buyer call me about moving to Orlando from New Jersey. This particular buyer was interested in the neighborhood of Hunters Creek, FL because he had a young family and he knew that Hunters Creek was voted the 21st best place to live in the U.S. just a couple of years ago. In our first conversation, he says to me “Whatever, you don’t show me any houses where there is a homeowners association”. I can’t say I was surprised to hear this, I hear it all of the time. There’s a lot of bad press about HOAs, especially when it comes to short sales and trying to negotiate with them on discounting the amount owed by a seller, but that’s a different subject altogether.

My first order of business as an Orlando real estate agent was to tell this buyer that every neighborhood in Hunters Creek is governed by an HOA. I then had to educate him on how communities like these put HOAs in place to protect their residents. Imagine if everyone was allowed to paint their house any color they wanted…Yikes!!! or what if residents didn’t have to pick up after their dogs? It would be total Chaos!

I knew that if I was going to keep him as a client I would have to do one of two things; either find him another neighborhood to live in or convince him that not all HOAs are evil. It forced me to do some deep research about HOA’s. See below.

What’s An HOA?

An HOA is an organization in a planned community or condominium that makes and enforces rules for the properties under its jurisdiction. An HOA survives by collecting fees, either monthly or quarterly to pay for the upkeep of the community’s common areas like soccer fields, dog parks, tennis courts, community centers, etc. They also enforce the community rules AKA “the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions”. If there weren’t a set of rules in place, the neighborhood would be much less appealing. These are the rules that keep your neighbor from painting her house bright purple or parking their RV in the driveway. It’s true that sometimes HOAs can be overly strict in some cases, but it’s always in the best interest of the community.

What Do HOAs Cover?

It depends on what community you’re talking about because every HOA is different. You can find out what any particular HOA covers simply by contacting the one that runs the community that you’re interested in.

Who or What Runs The HOA?

The HOA is run by the Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions AKA the CC&Rs. This will decide how a HOA will function including but not limited to: what’s allowed, what’s not allowed, and how elections and assessments are managed. Typically, there’s a Board of Directors that are unpaid residents of the community that make sure that the community rules and restrictions are followed and enforced. Also, there’s a management company that’s hired to collect fees and schedule maintenance to common grounds like landscapers, park maintenance, etc.

What Happens If You Don’t Pay Your HOA Fees?

The HOA has the right to put a lien on your property for non-payment. If the homeowner doesn’t pay the fees for whatever reason, the HOA can actually have the ability to foreclose on the property. This may be hard to believe but it happens all the time here in Orlando. Even though the mortgage company is in the first position if it goes into foreclosure, the HOA has the right to receive up to one year’s worth of HOA dues under Florida law

Why Do Some HOA Fees Increase?

The short answer is inflation. The fees that you pay to your HOA are based on the budget that was determined for that fiscal year. The budget covers day-to-day operations, field maintenance, pest control, landscaping, etc. Also, there should always be a reserve for any unforeseen events that may come up. If the HOA determines that the fees charged won’t cover the needs of the community, then the fees will increase. 

 

 

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Choosing The Best School For Your Child

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

If you’re a parent like I am, you know that when you make everyday choices in life it’s all about what’s best for your kids first and foremost and everything else comes second. Even the friends that we hang out with these days are other parents we’ve met either through school the soccer team or some other activity that our kids are involved in together, with the common denominator always being the kids.

Back in the day, people wouldn’t put too much weight into what school their kids would be going to when searching for a house to call home. Mostly because their options were very limited, you would either send your child to the closest public school or you would enroll them in a private school. I personally went to a Catholic school in New Jersey [and my ears still hurt]

As parents today we have so many different options that the challenge now is choosing the right school for your child. There are several factors that you should consider when determining the best educational choice. For example, if your child is a soccer star, you may want to pick a school with an outstanding soccer program. Maybe you would like for the school to be close by so that your child can walk to and from school. Whatever it is that you’re looking for in a school, you have to do some research so that you know which school will be best for you and your family.

Working as an Orlando Real Estate Agent, I always try to educate my buyers on the schools that are available in the area they’re looking to buy in. If someone’s not happy with the school that their child will be attending, then they should probably consider living in a different neighborhood if at all possible.

How To Start Researching Schools
A good start would be to write down what your child’s needs are first then the needs of your family as a whole. `
What are your child’s strengths? What are they excelling at? What’s their best shot at getting a scholarship!? For example, if your child excels in science or math, you’d be better off with a school that is known for having a strong science or math program. If your child happens to be a talented guitarist, why not send them to a school that specializes in music.

Once you’ve imagined what the perfect school would look like, you can move forward to the next step, online research. There are countless online resources available to help you get information like national testing scores and how the schools rank statewide as well as nationally.

Go In Person
It’s an amazing time we live in where we can research soo many things at the touch of our fingertips. However, when it comes to finding a school for your child, it’s worth taking that extra step to do an onsite visit of your top choices if at all possible. And if you have the option of bringing your child along, even better. Have a list of questions ready for your visit. Like the ones listed below.

Some Basic Questions To Ask On The School Tour

How many classrooms are there?
What’s the average number of students per classroom?
What facilities do they have?
What extra-curricular activities do they offer?

One of the best ways to research a school is to talk to other parents. They are experiencing the school the same way as you will be. Parents will be able to tell what they like and what they don’t like about the school within a matter of a few minutes. At the end of the day, just knowing that you have different options is a great thing.

Here are some fantastic resources for researching schoolshttp://www.greatschools.org/florida/

nces.ed.gov/

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7 Simple Steps to do Before Selling Your Orlando Home

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Owning a home means that you are constantly doing maintenance as well as home improvements. There’s always something that needs to be repaired, replaced, or touched up. It’s lucky for us that these things happen at different times throughout the year, although sometimes it feels like everything happens at once.      Personally, I tend to procrastinate on the small things until there’s a whole bunch of little things that need my attention. These little things typically don’t get done until my wife decides to have people over the house. It seems that once I have a deadline for my to-do list, everything gets done on the same day.


When you’re selling your Orlando home, however, you should keep it in tip-top shape at all times, even the little things. Research has shown that you will not only get more money for your home but it will actually sell faster if you follow the steps that I’m about to outline for you below.  

1- Cleaning and De-cluttering: This is absolutely the most important thing you can do to improve the overall appearance of your home. As a matter of fact, if you can only do one thing on this list, this should be it. It’s hard for buyers to see themselves living in the home if it’s filled with wall-to-wall stuff everywhere. I would start by moving any large items into the garage that are making the house look smaller or just seem out of place or in the way. After the big stuff is gone, it’s time to clean like you’ve never cleaned before. I’m not talking about your routine cleaning, I mean deep cleaning everything including cabinets, walls, carpets, ceiling fans, fixtures, and whatever ever else can be cleaned.    Removing personal items like family portraits is also a good idea so that potential buyers can envision how their things will fit into a space. Also, you should lock up any guns, medicine, and valuables. Assume that every door and every drawer will be opened up by a stranger.    

2- Maximize Your Curb Appeal: That old saying ” never judge a book by its cover” doesn’t apply when selling Orlando real estate. One saying that does come to mind however is “the perception is the reality”. That means that whatever people perceive to be real is actually real to them.   The front door should make a statement by looking sharp and freshly painted with a color that pops. Keep your lawn and shrubbery perfectly trimmed and plant a few colorful flowers near the entrance. You should also pressure wash the entire house if possible or at the very least, the front.    

3- Fix It If It’s Broken: Assume that a prospective buyer will notice every detail. Don’t leave anything to chance, fix that leaky faucet or cracked window. If buyers notice that little things are in disrepair, they will automatically assume that the regular home maintenance has been neglected. The last thing buyers want is to move into a home and then have to make a bunch of small repairs to it. You should also take into account that buyers will tend to overinflate the price of repairs which may cause them to put in a lower offer.

4- Fresh Paint: There’s nothing like a fresh coat of paint to give your home a facelift. The painting will give you by far the biggest bang for your buck. It’s relatively cheap and makes the biggest impact on the overall appearance of your home. Stick to neutral colors like white and off-white. This will give it a clean elegant look and can be easily painted over by the new buyers if they wish.    

5- Make It Smell Good: Sometimes real estate agents will bake fresh cookies during an open house so that when you walk through, it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. You don’t have to go that far or you’d be baking cookies every time there’s a showing. You should, however, make sure that there aren’t any undesirable smells in the air like animal odors. Make sure that the house smells fresh and remove any evidence of pets like litter boxes, pet beds, etc if at all possible. It’s also a good idea to take the pets with you during showings. If that’s not an option, then I would suggest keeping them in the garage or a  crate during showings.

Cigarette smoke is also a big one. I’ve had clients not like a house solely because it smelled like cigarettes. If someone in the house is a smoker, I would highly recommend telling them to smoke away from the home from now on. Smoke tends to attach to curtains furniture and carpet. Unfortunately, getting smoke odors takes a lot more work, like having your carpets, furniture, and curtains shampooed. 

6- Windows: You don’t need to replace your windows unless they’re in bad shape. You should at least make sure that they are spotless inside and out. The same goes for the blinds and curtains. If they are in rough shape, consider replacing them or if you can’t afford it, just remove them together.

7- Lite Staging: This is an important one. I’m not saying that you should hire a professional stager to come in and re-furnish your whole house for the purpose of selling it. As an Orlando listing specialist, I also have experience in staging homes by using the existing furniture and other items in your house to make it look its best for potential buyers.

By following the steps outlined above, you will put yourself ahead of the game when it comes to getting your house sold fast for the highest amount possible.

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Hunters Creek 5th Grader And His Dog Serving The Community

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Matthew Conde, resident of Mar Vista in Hunters Creek has found a fun and constructive way to walk his dog “Jax”. Matthew says ” I’ve been walking him around the pond and he loves jumping in the water and picking up plastic bottles in the grass along the waterline. He kept bringing me the different objects that he found so now I have to bring a poop bag and a garbage bag!”. On a typical walk around the pond, Jax picks up between 3- 5 plastic bottles and other objects.

Matthew attends 5th grade at West Creek Elementary where he recently won 1st place in the school spelling bee. He’s an A student and is involved in several other activities like playing on a U-11 competitive soccer team for the Hunters

dog

Creek Soccer Club. Matthew’s parents, who are both listing agents in Hunters Creek said that ” anything Matthew puts his mind to, he does well”. This is why when he came up with the idea of using his dog to help keep the neighborhood clean, they weren’t at all surprised.

“Jax” is a 10-month-old yellow Labrador Retriever who loves jumping in the water and playing fetch as most Labs do. Jax however, is more interested in retrieving plastic bottles and other objects out of the pond than he is in chasing balls. Matthew’s parents say that the 5th grader spends lots of time playing and training with the K9 on a daily basis. [right after he finishes his homework].

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