Date Archives: July 2016

Avoid These Pitfalls When Moving Into Your New Home

Moving can be chaotic and complicated.  When clients share their experiences about moving into a new home, we often hear the same types of stories and answer similar questions.  Consequently, our team at Old Dominion Realty has compiled this list of the top ten most common moving mistakes home buyers make when moving into a new home with tips on how to avoid them.

# 1 Procrastinating

Waiting until the last minute to pack and hire movers is a no-no. Save yourself stress by preparing in advance of your moving date. It might be helpful to complete one thing each day so that you are not overwhelmed.

Click Here to Read More...

Is Home Staging Worth the Investment?

When you decide to sell your home, you'll be offered plenty of advice from an abundance of people. One subject that will come up consistently is home staging—and whether it's a worthy investment or not. The answer for many is, it depends. It's determined by a set of factors. But before you can figure out whether home staging is right for you when you're selling a house, you need to know what it is and why people benefit from it.

What is Home Staging?

When you're selling your home, people generally prefer to see a home's potential not the persona of the people who currently live there or an empty space. Both scenarios have a downside. With your own items, the home is personalized to your tastes, and most likely isn't neutral. An empty space doesn't work for those who have a hard time visualizing possibilities—and while some people can, you don't want to leave out everyone who don't always see things as they could be without a little help.

That's when home staging comes in. Staging a home is about making your home crisp, clean, organized, uncluttered and neutral. Even more importantly, it should appeal to the masses rather than the few. You can stage a home several different ways: using what you already have, using what a home stager has or a combination of both.

Click Here to Read More...

Coping with a Case of Home Buying Cold Feet

Ever heard of getting the cold feet syndrome?  It's a common occurrence that happens quite a bit in real estate.  Now, I don't mean your feet get cold when you walk around the house barefooted in February. It's that period of time either just before or right after you sign your name on a purchase contract.  You'll know you have cold feet syndrome when your excitement about buying a house starts to fade and you get the jitters from second guessing your home buying decision.

Not to worry … there is a remedy.

First, you need to remember home buying jitters affect almost every real estate buyer.

However, if you've done your homework and followed all of the right steps:

• Saving for a down payment
• Finding a lender
• Getting loan pre-approval
• Working with a reputable REALTOR®

You're off to a great start to buying the home of your dreams.

Click Here to Read More...

Vacation is an exciting prospect that many people look forward to. Often in the excitement, small details are forgotten until the time to leave is upon you. One aspect that can be a concern for homeowners is keeping your house safe while you're away. The best way to do that is to take the time to plan in advance. Here are 10 tips for keeping your house protected when you're on vacation so you can have some peace of mind and enjoy your well-deserved escape.

Keeping Your Home Secure and Safe

#1: Have someone stay in your home or stop by frequently – A home that's occupied, even if it's for a short period each day, can help prevent any issues. Consider asking a friend, family member, or trusted neighbor to housesit or at least drop by each day to check on things. This can include looking for packages dropped off, turning lights on or off depending on the time of day, making sure the newspaper is picked up—basically doing things that let others know that "someone is home."

Click Here to Read More...