6 Best Ways To Enhance Curb Appeal

As an active realtor in Orlando, I always make it a point to inform my seller clients how a home’s curb appeal is a one-time opportunity to give buyers an inviting impression of your home…so listen up! 

The front door should give potential buyers an indication of the way the home looks on the inside.  The good news is that you can enhance your curb appeal without spending a lot of money. Below are some things you can do to change your entrance from bland to grand!


Paint Your Front Door

Make your front door pop by using a bright color or even super dark color, it could be just the touch that you need to give it a modern touch. If you live in a neighborhood with a strict homeowners association, then you should find out about any color restrictions they may have or you could end up painting twice.    

Decorate Your Entrance

The entrance to your home is the main focal point of the front. If you have the space, try decorating a bit. A couple of nice porch chairs and a small table or maybe even a cozy swing could give your entry a whole new look that potential buyers will love. Be careful not to go overboard, you don’t want your entryway to look cluttered.    

Add Lighting

Having curb appeal at night is almost as important as it is during the day. Most interested buyers will drive by the home at night to see if it looks as good in the dark as it did in the daylight. Having some warm lighting at the entrance by using decorative lanterns or solar lights will enhance the appearance of any front entrance.    

Use Large and Stylish Address Numbers


One of the most annoying things for me when I’m trying to find an address is having to slow down and squint to see the house number. A small house number can also take away from the overall look of the house. Be proud of that house number! Celebrate it! Use big stylish numbers to identify your house. You’d be surprised at how much of a difference this simple step can make.    

Minor Landscaping

Most of the time all a house needs in the landscaping department is some clean-up and trimming to give it that “fresh haircut” look. If you really want to make a good first impression then add some flowers with bright colors leading up to the doorway. This will help to set the mood for people right before they walk in.    

Replace The Hardware

If you haven’t changed out your front door hardware in a long time then I would strongly recommend that you get rid of that rusty door handle and replace it with a new one. Having a new door handle and maybe even adding a door knocker and kick plate will give your entryway that brand new feel to it.     

These subtle changes and tweaks to your front doorway won’t cost much money and the best part is that you can do it yourself in less than a weekend. If want to know more about how you can enhance your curb appeal before listing your Orlando house on the MLS, call me at 407-902-7750 or visit me at https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/contact/jenny-realtor/. I’m here to help.

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2015 Tips For De-Cluttering Your Orlando Home

With the introduction of the new year, resolutions are in full swing. It’s also the best time of the year to do a massive cleaning and de-cluttering of your Orlando home. For our family, the means to donate old toys, outdated furniture, and other objects so that we can utilize the extra space in each room. It’s actually something that I really enjoy doing because it gives me that sense of a new beginning. I don’t know what you’d call the opposite of a hoarder, but that’s me [out with the old, in with the new!].

For some people, however, this can be a painful process. Just the idea of cleaning out those daunting cabinets, closets, and drawers can make them want to run for the hills.

6 Step Guide To De-Cluttering Your Orlando House With No Stress

  1. Don’t Try to Do it All at Once! This will make the task seem overwhelming and impossible. Pick the room that’s the most cluttered in the house and start de-cluttering, one room at a time. I like to start with the biggest items and work my way down to the small stuff. You can put the things you want to keep in a storage facility or your garage and donate everything else. You will see that once you get started it’s kind of hard to stop (It is for me anyway). The more you get rid of, the better you feel.
  2. Decide What Stays and What Goes. When moving the things back into the room after cleaning, it’s a great time for you to ask yourself; does it stay or is it history? Bring the items back into the space one at a time.
  3. Get Organized! When clearing everything output similar items together in a box. This will allow you to take inventory and get rid of unnecessary duplicate items scattered throughout the house.
  4. Stay Organized! When you’re to start putting things away, make sure that you place things in a location that makes sense. For items that you use day-to-day, put them in a location that’s easy to access. For other items that may not get used that often, maybe a high cabinet space or in the closet. Having a specific place for the items you wish to keep will prevent things from ending up all over the house again.
  5. Don’t Procrastinate! Once you’ve figured out what gets thrown away and what gets donated then either throw it away or take it to the donation box immediately. Don’t put it off, the sooner you get that stuff out of your house and clear from your mind the better off you’ll be and you’ll have a better of preventing clutter from returning
  6. Clutter Prevention. It’s a good idea to not purchase items unless you need them. If you’re like my wife, then you love a good bargain and sometimes it’s hard to resist getting a good deal on something,…even if you don’t need it! Take a moment to think about where you will put it in your home, will you really use it? Where will you store it? I the answers don’t make sense, don’t make the purchase.

The key to keeping you’re home de-cluttered is to keep things organized by creating a system that enables you to keep your home free from clutter every day. Once you’ve committed yourself to be clutter-free, you’ll feel better and actually be healthier. If your home is free of clutter, then your mind will be able to focus with less effort for maximum production.

Working as an Orlando listing specialist, I’m always giving my clients tips and advice for staging the home before listing it. The first thing on my list of recommendations is always to clean and de-clutter the home. Doing this step alone will make a huge difference in the way the house shows and together with my other staging recommendations will ultimately attract more buyers and a higher selling price. If you need help or advice on helping you to sell your Orlando house, call me today! I’m happy to help.

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Another Orlando Foreclosure Stopped In A Nick Of Time!

This is the story of Veronica from Hunters Creek, FL. I’m not using her real name or address because this short sale is still being processed. However, the fact that we’ve stopped the foreclosure sale a total of five times in the past two years I felt was worth writing about.

It’s the typical short sale stuff you hear from lenders. “We didn’t get the file”, “the financials need to be updated”, “the BPO came in too high”, “we’re still waiting to hear from the investors”, you name…on this file, we’ve heard them all.

This case, however, came with a bit of a twist at the end of the year. In December of 2014, everything was set to go, the bank had everything they needed including a solid offer for the price that they wanted. With a foreclosure sale date of January 20, 2015, there was more than enough time to get this one closed and put it behind us.

Out of nowhere, the bank decides that there isn’t time for them to process the short sale and they proceed to close the file!!? WTF? are the only three letters that make sense here. Any realtors that specialize in Orlando short sales know exactly how frustrating this can be, especially after putting so much work into something.

Although I’m not an attorney, after making hundreds of visits to the courthouse, sometimes I feel like one. My client was so disgruntled with the bank that she was ready to call it quits and just let the property go to foreclosure. I asked my client to allow me to give it one more try and asked her to write to the judge requesting a postponement and explain her side of the story. The judge immediately agreed and granted a hearing the following week. Since my client had to work on the day of the hearing, I just had her sign a power of attorney so that I could speak to the judge on her behalf.

Being that we had already stopped the foreclosure sale on four separate occasions, I was a little worried to be perfectly honest. I guess the lender’s attorney assumed this would be a slam dunk and didn’t even bother to show up! This made things a bit easier for me to explain my case to the judge. It took some explaining but after working on this file for over 2 years, I wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

After hearing the entire story, the judge decided to postpone the sale date once again! He granted us another three months to get the deal closed, March 12, 2015, which also happens to be my birthday! Although we only need a few more weeks to close it, it’s nice to know we have time to spare.

Working as an Orlando short sale realtor since 2004, I have countless stories like these. If you’re looking for someone to help you avoid foreclosure and the short sale of your home, give me a call at 407-902-7750.

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The Time To Sell Your Orlando Home Is Now!

If you’ve been wanting to sell your Orlando home but keep putting it off, you may want to stop procrastinating. according to the NAR National Association of Realtors, the housing inventory in the Orlando real estate market is way below average when compared to December of 2013.

When the supply of homes on the market is this low, it puts the seller in a great position for negotiating. Right now, homes that are priced accurately and nicely staged don’t last very long in today’s market. The truth is that if want to make an offer on an Orlando property, you should act fast.

Lately, we’ve been getting multiple full as well as above asking price offers on properties in as little as 24 hours after listing them on the MLS. It’s painfully obvious that right now sellers are in the driver’s seat and have very little competition due to the lack of inventory in the Orlando real estate market. However, with inventory slowly but surely rising, homeowners should act now in order to enjoy the reduced amount of competition that they will have while their home is on the market.

Low mortgage rates are also a big contributing factor to the current real estate market favoring sellers. Interest rates are still low and there are many incentives for those who want to buy now.

Sellers Who Wait Run The Risk Of Losing Thousands

As the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. This also holds true when talking about real estate. I remember back in 2007 when the real estate market crashed Nation in what seemed to be from one day to the next. Homeowners and especially investors that were holding on to Orlando real estate thinking they would eventually sell for a huge payday were suddenly scrambling to sell. Then when the banks stopped lending, it all came crashing down.

It wasn’t long before home values in nice Orlando neighborhoods were cut in half and in some cases even less. I don’t believe that we’ll see another market crash as we saw in 2007 anytime soon but I do think that this seller’s market we are currently experiencing will eventually cycle back around to being a buyer’s market. 

Orlando homeowners should keep this in mind if they’re on the fence about selling. Sure it’s possible to eke out a few more thousand if you wait a little longer but it’s also possible that you’ll end up selling your home for much less than you expected by waiting too long.

Find out how much your Orlando Home is Worth

 

 

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Free Orlando Home Value Tool

The Orlando Realty Consultants team is now offering a free Orlando home value tool for homeowners that are considering selling their homes. This tool determines your property’s value by factoring in various details about the home including the current condition of the home, the square footage, upgrades, etc. All you have to do is fill in the fields on the home value estimator and within 24 hrs you’ll receive a free report prepared by a top Orlando realtor of what your home is worth in today’s real estate market.

This tool is a great way for both experienced homeowners as well as those people that just want to test the waters and aren’t really looking to sell. With new construction once again on the rise in certain neighborhoods, it’s the perfect time to find out what your house is worthwhile Orlando is still in such high demand.

Selling a home can be a very complex process and there are several factors that can affect your home’s value. For anyone in the Orlando area, our free home valuation tool is a convenient and very effective way for potential sellers to find out the true value of their home. These tools will also tell you what adjustments can be made by the potential seller to increase the home’s selling power.

Home Value Reports Prepared By Top Orlando Realtors

values

The biggest thing that sets our home valuation tool apart from other home valuation tools in the industry is that the report you receive from us is created by highly experienced Orlando listing specialists that work for us as opposed to receiving a generic report as you would get from Zillow and other similar companies.

The information that you submit goes directly to one of our Orlando listing specialists for completion. The agent then takes all of the info that was submitted and researches comparable properties in that same area. That’s why it’s important to submit as many details about the home as possible. Once the report is complete, it gets sent to the homeowner with absolutely no charge or obligation.

We also realize that some homeowners just aren’t ready to speak to a realtor which is why the agent will not contact the potential seller unless the seller requests to be contacted. Find out what your Orlando home is worth.

 

 

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