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Smelly cat? Pets need not complicate home sales

Pets are a loved staple of American home life, and 68 percent of U.S. households have at least one pet. But when it's time to sell the family home, pets can complicate the process.

"My main concern with pets is their effect on a home's cleanliness and its smell," says Mark Santoy. "If a home is nicely cleaned and free of pet odors, the presence of pets is rarely an issue. However, if there is pet hair everywhere, strong pet odor in the house or pet waste around the yard, it can increase the time needed to sell the property and reduce its value."

Animal allergies are a common concern, and buyers who have them can be easily turned off if a house has pets. While some buyers may ask upfront not to view homes with pets, the often doesn't come up until after they're inside a listing.

Preparing a pet home for sale

• Clean the entire house, especially rugs or carpeting, before putting the home on the market. It may mean calling in professionals – and don't forget air vents.
• Once the house is clean, keep it that way.
• Pet owners often don't notice the odors caused by animals, so ask a Realtor or friend if they can smell anything.
• If animals have urinated in the house, replace the affected carpeting or flooring, and eliminate the odor at its source.
• Ideally, pets should be removed from the home while the house is on the market. If impractical, take pets out during showings or keep them confined in a small room or crate.
• Safety is the major reason to remove pets from the home during showings, "Pet owners usually think their animals are harmless, but accidents do happen, and both homeowners and brokers could have legal liability."

Pets can also be a distraction. Some people are phobic about animals. Others adore them. Either group can have a hard time ignoring a pet wandering around a home, and 15 minutes playing with a cat takes time away from viewing the home.

www.LuxuryHomes-SWFL.com 

© 2015 Florida Realtors®

Chinese-American Buyers Cite Feng Shui as Key

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2015

The ancient design philosophy, feng shui, still proves to be a powerful influence to Chinese-American home buyers, finds a new survey of 500 Chinese-Americans by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and the Asian Real Estate Association of America.

Seventy-six percent of Chinese-Americans surveyed said they were familiar with the principles of feng shui, which guides spatial arrangement and building design to increase the flow of energy in a home. Over half of those who said they were familiar with feng shui follow the practice in their daily lives, according to the survey.

Feng shui can prompt a big majority of Chinese-Americans to buy too. Overall, 86 percent of respondents said feng shui will play a role in a future home-buying decision, and 79 percent said they are willing to pay more for a home that has feng shui principles. Respondents reported a willingness to pay 16 percent more for a home that uses feng shui.

Indeed, 81 percent of Chinese-Americans surveyed who are also home owners said that feng shui factored into their most recent home purchase. What's more, 36 percent said they would avoid a real estate agent who was not familiar with the feng shui principles.

"It's critical for real estate professionals to understand all consumer drivers within the home search," says Sherry Chris, president and CEO, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC. "For this population, feng shui applications are as essential as other traditional characteristics of a home. Understanding these considerations is part of being a sophisticated service provider as well as an invaluable resource for our clients during the home buying and selling processes."

Chinese-Americans surveyed said the biggest design deal-breakers that went against feng shui principles are: the home being located at the end of a dead end street (31 percent); the home's back stairs directly facing the front door (29 percent); the home having a sloped backyard (29 percent); and the home's front and back doors being aligned with each other (24 percent).

"As the Asian American community's influence in the real estate market continues to grow, feng shui principles are gaining much needed attention and have already influenced real estate developers and interior designers alike," says Carmen Chong, 2015 AREAA national chairwoman.

                                                 www.LuxuryHomes-SWFL.com

3 Ways to Write a Tempting Offer When Buying a Home

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By Erika Napoletano

You've found it: the house of your dreams. In fact, you went home last night and played a little game of Where Does the Sofa Go? But before you can say "home sweet home," there's an offer to be made -- and it has to be accepted before you can move that sofa into the living room.

While these three tips don't guarantee your offer will be chosen, they will help you be competitive so you're one step closer to landing your dream home.

1. Carefully consider your approach.

If you think your dream home's listing price is just a place to begin negotiations, think again. First, have a conversation with your real estate agent. Look for similar homes and recent sales in the area.

You can do a little sleuthing on your own by searching Trulia for sold homes -- just be sure to choose a time frame in the past three months for the most accurate results. Comparables will give you a better idea of the seller's asking price in relation to similar properties and help you shape your offer based on property-specific amenities and location.

Next, you should decide how you'll pay for your purchase: cash or financing. Cash offers can sometimes command a lower selling price since there aren't mortgage details to sort through and the closing should go faster. If you're using financing but can offer a quick close (less than 30 days), take that into consideration in your offer price -- your real estate agent may be able to leverage a quick close to sweeten the deal.

If you're thinking of submitting a lowball offer, have a candid conversation with your real estate agent. Agents know the market well and might even know a thing or two about the listing agent through previous sales. There are certain times when a lowball offer might start a favorable negotiation process, but there are many others when it can derail the reality of landing your dream home. If you decide to submit an offer substantially below the listing price, be prepared for a negotiation process -- or a flat-out "no."

When you're ready to make your offer, back it up with everything the seller needs to know. You want them to believe that your offer is the one offer they should look at twice. Be sure to include completed offer paperwork, signatures where they belong, and make sure you're asking for seller concessions that make sense for the market.

2. Weigh the pros and cons of your requests for repairs.

Maybe you're looking to have some of your closing costs covered. Perhaps you just want the old, worn-out carpeting replaced. Asking for seller concessions is a normal part of the offer process, but you need to know what you can reasonably expect.

If you're in a competitive bidding situation, odds are that the seller is going to choose the offer requiring the least amount of work on their part. Work with your real estate professional to make a list of "musts" and "would like" items for the sellers to tackle. You can put these concessions side by side with your offer price and see what makes for the most compelling deal.

Bottom line? If you're entering into a negotiation and something's got to give, your requested concessions are probably the first place to consider revising to stay competitive.

3. Don't be swayed by emotions

One step it's important not to forget in the offer process is setting a maximum price. If you're financing, you will have a purchase ceiling from your mortgage lender, but when the perfect home comes along, it's easy for heartstrings to overrule good financial sense.

How much can you comfortably carry as a mortgage payment each month? (Use a mortgage calculator to get a rough idea.) How much is that home really worth? How long do you plan on staying in the home, and does that justify a higher-than-asking price?

And remember, the tips we're including here are for traditional sales, not short sales or purchases of bank-owned properties. Those types of transactions have nuances all their own.

www.LuxuryHomes-SWFL.com 

Trump Sells Apartment He Never Lived in for $21 Million

A private elevator leads to the five-bedroom, 

7.5-bath apartment on the 

24th floor of the Trump Park Avenue building.

By Melissa Allison

When he's not stumping for the Republican presidential nomination or making decrees on "The Celebrity Apprentice," Donald Trump still works in real estate -- and he just made a killing on a Manhattan apartment.

Trump sold the nearly 6,200-square-foot dwelling on the 24th floor of his 32-story Trump Park Avenue tower for $21 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. He listed it in 2013 for $35 million and cut the price twice, settling on $24.995 million earlier this month. (However, Trump purchased the entire building in 2001 for $115 million, the Journal reported, and since has converted it into 120 luxury condo units.)

Trump never lived in the just-sold apartment, listing agent Michelle Griffith of Trump International Realty told the Journal. She also said Trump rejected an offer to rent the place for $80,000 a month.

A private elevator leads to the five-bedroom, 7.5-bath space, which boasts high ceilings and lots of windows. Luxurious details include Italian brass doorknobs, custom moldings and a kitchen with marble floors and counter tops.

The master suite features two bathrooms, two walk-in closets and a study.

wwwLuxuryHomes-SWFL.com 

Cape Coral Showstopper

A simple video camera often can be installed by the homeowner. 

Its presence alone is a deterrent to thieves.

You want to keep your home safe from thieves, but you don't want to spend a fortune doing so because, frankly, you don't have a fortune worth stealing.

Technology has significantly brought down the cost of home security systems and home surveillance cameras, many of which you can install yourself. But there are also many low-tech solutions that cost little or nothing that will keep your home safer from intruders.

"Most burglars are just opportunists," says Martin Holloway, owner of Hollotec.com. A security expert who teaches lock-picking and specialized entry techniques to law enforcement and the military, Holloway says burglars are going to "find the easy house."

A professionally installed security system can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, plus $30 or so a month for monitoring. But in the last decade, dozens of do-it-yourself alarm systems have come on the market, some with monitoring options and others that send alerts to you via email or text so you can decide whether to call police. Even a rudimentary system is likely to make a loud noise when an intruder enters the house, and sometimes that's all it takes to scare away a burglar.

"Some of them are almost plug and play," says Holloway, who has a $60 security camera that he installed himself at his home. "I can control it with an app on my phone, and it's great." For a simple DIY security system, you can install cameras inside or outside your house, with a hard drive or cloud storage that collects the video footage so there is something you can review after a break-in.

Neal Scott, an Internet marketing consultant for security companies, cautions homeowners who go the DIY route to make sure they know what they're doing and install the system properly. He says homeowners should also ensure the system includes sensors for doors and windows.

One factor to consider is your insurance company may not grant a discount on your homeowners insurance if the system is not professionally installed, and some municipalities may require installers to be licensed. Good tech support is important, too.

"A technology problem with your smartphone is not a big deal, but a technology program with your security system is," Scott says. And the newest technology may not yet be tested, he warns.

"There an awful lot of time and experience that's gone into professional home security devices," says Scott, who has been working in the security system field since he started at his father's company at age 15. "I'm a proponent of going professional."

Security system or not, cameras or not, there are also free or cheap low-tech solutions that can be surprisingly effective against thieves. Here are seven free or low-cost ways to protect your home:

Use your deadbolt lock. The basic lock on your doorknob isn't really very good, Holloway says. "Many knob locks can be defeated by simply grabbing the knob with, at most, a pipe wrench or with, at the least, two hands and twisting hard," he says. "The internal locking mechanism shears and the door can be opened, and this can all happen in a matter of seconds. This is an old burglar trick." Deadbolts are harder to defeat, and a cheap deadbolt is as good as an expensive one. "The lock isn't going to break, but it's the doorjamb and the wood around the door that's going to break," Holloway says.

Protect your garage door. Garage doors have a pull cord that can be used to open them if the power is out. A burglar can stick a coat hanger down the top of a garage door, latch onto the cord and "unlock" the door. To keep that from happening, Holloway advises placing a zip tie through the piece from which the cord is hanging, which will make it almost impossible for a thief to open it from the outside with a coat hanger.

Secure sliding glass doors. Many older doors are easy to open from the outside. Use a broom handle lying on its side on the track to prevent the door from being opened.

Make sure your home is well-lighted outside. Motion detector lights are inexpensive and an easy way to illuminate anyone who approaches the house. "In all the years I was a cop, I don't think I worked a single case where a burglar kicked in a front door," says Alex Bracke, a police officer turned real estate agent in Northern Virginia. "The reason for that is because the front door is commonly the most visible part of the house, and if there's anything would-be burglars don't want, it's to be visible."

Make it look as if you're home. Lights, radio and TVs on timers create the illusion that someone is home when you're gone on vacation. Get a neighbor to pick up mail and newspapers when you're away.

Make it painful for thieves to climb in your ground-floor windows. "A window is the most vulnerable part of your house," Holloway says, reminding homeowners that keeping windows locked also is important. A thief who has to climb into a bed of thorns may be deterred. He suggests planting these three plants that grow in most parts of the U.S.: Pyracantha, also known as "firethorn," European holly, which has very sharp leaves, and voodoo rose. Homeowners who live in tropical areas can plant Bougainvillea.

Make it easy for people to see potential entry points. You want to have easily "inspectable space," says Joshua Godknecht, a sensitive compartmented information facility design specialist for AdamoSecurity.com, which designs and builds secure rooms for the government. "Most people have lots of overgrown plants or hedges to provide privacy, but trimming hedges and arranging your landscape so that it creates a single, very visible path to your front door, and only your front door, is practically free and ensures that no one could take advantage of the hidden places near your home."

www.LuxuryHomes-SWFL.com