| Don't miss any Bottom Line Secrets. Add our address, bottomlinesecrets@news.bottomlinepublishing.com, to your Address Book or Safe List. Learn how here. April 13, 2011    
Dear healthwellness82@gmail.com, Though it’s hardly a seller’s market, you still can do very well selling your home if you take advantage of the seven marketing secrets from nationally recognized real estate expert Barbara Corcoran -- including ways to transform even a tired-looking home into a charming abode. Sell your house at the highest possible price in the shortest possible time -- that’s the goal. We all would like to exercise smarter, not just harder. Timothy S. Church, MD, PhD, MPH, professor of preventive medicine research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shares an innovative way to work out. It is so effective that it puts things like running on a treadmill to shame. All the best,  Jessica Kent Editor BottomLineSecrets.com Don’t forget to check out Bottom Line President Marjory Abrams’ latest blog posting: Verbal Diarrhea. And don’t forget to share your thoughts on the blog with Margie.  Trump to Hannity: "Newsmax Poll Best of All." Your Vote is Needed Too Donald Trump emphatically says President Barack Obama has replaced Jimmy Carter "as the worst president in the history of this country." Trump also told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Thursday that polls show he is either tied or can beat Obama in 2012 -- and the Newsmax poll was "the best of all." The ongoing Newsmax poll -- which says when Trump faces off against the best and the brightest GOP contenders for 2012, he takes 57 percent of the vote -- has him a clear winner. What do YOU Think? Vote Now! Get Top Dollar for Your Home -- Even in This Market Barbara Corcoran If you’re putting your house on the market this spring, congratulations -- you probably missed the worst of the real estate crash. Home prices have begun to flatten or rise in some parts of the country. But it is hardly a seller’s market and median prices remain 20% to 25% below 2006 peak levels. You need to stage, advertise and price your property much more carefully than during a boom. Steps to take... Choose a shrewd broker. During the boom, about one-fifth of all home sellers saved themselves the 6% average sales commission by listing their properties For Sale By Owner (FSBO). That’s riskier in a down market. For example, you could lose more money by mispricing your home than you would have to pay an agent. Brokers are practiced at showing houses and playing up the qualities that buyers care about most. And many will "prequalify" anyone who makes an offer, doing a preliminary credit check. To get the right broker, first find out which real estate firm dominates the business in your area by looking at For Sale signs and talking to neighbors. Then call the sales manager and ask for the broker in the top 10% of the office’s sales rankings. These agents generate 90% of revenues. They’re the most likely to sell your home at the best price. Before you commit yourself to a relationship with a broker, ask him/her extensive questions to be sure that...
Get your marketing right. Most home buyers start their searches online. Make sure your property is listed on the five biggest Web sites for real estate sales -- Yahoo, Craigslist.org, Trulia, Zillow and Homes.com. If your broker doesn’t provide this service, you can post a listing on Craigslist, Yahoo and Zillow. (If you have given the broker an exclusive listing, the broker collects the commission even if it is your Web listing that attracts the buyer.) Only real estate professionals can list on Homes.com and Trulia. Advertising costs range from nothing for a Craigslist.org or basic Yahoo listing to $300 and up for enhanced features such as first-page positioning, slide shows and videos on some sites. Besides raising your home’s visibility, Trulia, Zillow and Homes.com let you or your broker keep track of the traffic your listings generate and see what comparable properties have fetched recently. Use professional photos. Market research shows that photos influence house hunters more than any other marketing tool. A wide-angle lens will magnify your space, and good lighting compensates for any shadows. Some brokers send a professional photographer to take the photos for a new listing -- if yours does not, hire one yourself. This can cost as little as $100 or over $500 depending on where you live and how big your property is. Stage creatively. Back during the boom, home sellers spent tens of thousands of dollars on trendy appliances to lure buyers -- and it worked. In fact, a Sub-Zero refrigerator was said to add twice its price to the value of a house. Today you can’t count on recovering hefty remodeling costs, because buyers want a bargain more than they want state-of-the-art decor. So make the most of what you already have by taking these steps... Clean out the closets. Neatness implies that you take care of things. Buyers may think a messy closet means faulty plumbing and wiring. Throw out the clutter. Every piece of junk reduces your home’s value because people can’t see past it. Rent storage space for a few months if necessary. Let the light in. Buyers prize brightness above everything else except location. Take down heavy drapes, wash the windows, move furniture away from windows, and trim any outdoor foliage that blocks the sun. Paint walls a creamy white. Borrow from the pros. Attend an open house at a new development to check out the latest decorating trends. Pretentious, "Trumplike" luxury isn’t popular today. Ten years ago, buyers wanted kitchens with cherrywood cabinets, black granite countertops and black appliances. Now the preferred look is French country kitchen -- white cabinets, blond countertops and stainless steel appliances. Instead of installing new kitchen cabinets, put new doors and knobs on the ones you have. And because buyers like a "spa" feeling in the bath nowadays, consider buying a "rainfall" showerhead for $200. Price with care. Underpricing is often the smartest strategy. The market will correct a low asking price -- you entice multiple buyers with a great value, then let them bid against one another. The worst thing you can do is start too high and ratchet down your asking price by degrees. Buyers will smell desperation, making low-ball offers, or they will wait to bid until your asking price reaches rock bottom. Offer an up-front financial incentive. In today’s market, buyers are looking for value. So a cash incentive can give you a huge advantage over other sellers. Even a relatively small gesture works -- anything free will make an impression. Example: Offer to pick up all or part of the closing costs, which can run from 2% to 8% of the sale price. Don’t wait for potential buyers to ask for this perk, which has become more common lately. Advertise it in advance, and more people will want to view your property. Or you can sweeten the deal by offering to prepay property taxes for the first year. In a buyer’s mental arithmetic, a year without property taxes sounds like a year of living gratis. It carries so much value that you may more than recoup the expense with a higher sale price. Including fixtures or furnishings that a buyer likes also can help nurture a deal. Consider seller financing. Offering to finance the purchase of your home can be a win-win for you and your buyer. There’s no need to be skittish about this technique -- about one-fifth of all home sales in the US involve whole or partial seller financing. Buyers may not be able to qualify for an institutional mortgage because, say, they are self-employed or they can’t come up with a 20% down payment in time. If you don’t have a mortgage to pay off... aren’t buying another house... and don’t have another pressing need for the cash, you can charge 4.5% to 5% on the loan, and your collateral is a property you know and trust. The buyer gets to skip the hassle of applying for a mortgage and saves on closing costs. The down payment becomes negotiable -- an advantage to the buyer that may translate into a higher sale price for you. And you may be able to spread any capital gains taxes you owe on your home over several years because you’re making an installment sale. Important: Have your lawyer or accountant perform a credit check on the buyer, which usually costs $50 to $60, and draw up a formal promissory note. The contract should stipulate that you may take over the property if the buyer falls behind on payments by more than one or two months, depending on how tough you want to be. Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group real estate company and president of Barbara Corcoran Inc., New York City. She is the weekly real estate contributor for NBC’s Today show and a panelist on ABC’s entrepreneurial reality series Shark Tank. She is author of Use What You’ve Got (Portfolio) and Nextville: Amazing Places to Live Your Life (Springboard). www.BarbaraCorcoran.com  A Better Way to Walk Timothy S. Church, MD, PhD, MPH You can turn a walk into a whole-body workout with a pair of Nordic fitness poles -- long, handheld poles modeled after cross-country ski poles. Pole walking (or Nordic walking) is a low-impact aerobic activity that strengthens the upper body... improves posture... minimizes back and leg strain... and boosts your calorie burn during a walk by almost 20%. Picking poles. One-piece poles are safest, especially for seniors and people with balance problems, because they won’t collapse the way adjustable-length telescoping or twist-locking poles might. Test for size: Grasp the pole handle and place the tip on the ground a few inches in front of you, elbow bent and tucked into your side. If your elbow makes a 90-degree angle, the pole is the proper length. Or: Multiply your height in centimeters by 0.68 -- the resulting number is your pole size. Choose poles with interchangeable tips -- metal for trails, grass, sand or snow... rubber for pavement and mall walking. Poles are sold at sporting-goods stores and online (check 877-754-9255, www.skiwalking.com). Cost: $70 to $160. Correct technique. To get started, swing your arms normally as you walk -- left arm moving forward as the right foot takes a step and vice versa. As the right foot lands, bend your left elbow to 90 degrees and plant the left pole tip across from your right heel... then push the pole against the ground to help propel yourself forward. Keep poles angled rearward -- they should never be farther forward than the front foot. Goal: Walk at a moderate to brisk pace for at least 30 minutes five times a week. Pole-walking is safe for just about everyone -- but it’s best to check with your doctor before starting any exercise program. Bottom Line/Women’s Health interviewed Timothy S. Church, MD, PhD, MPH, professor and director of preventive medicine research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has coauthored a number of journal articles on pole-walking and the role of exercise in health. The Drugs No Senior Should Ever Take In 1991, a team from Harvard Medical School identified 20 drugs too dangerous for use by elderly patients. Then they found out that 23% of seniors are receiving these very drugs. And the Journal of the American Medical Association said this study was "merely the tip of the iceberg." They were right. Now the list has grown to several dozen drugs. Congress was so disturbed it asked its watchdog agency, the General Accounting Office, to look into it. Using Medicare data, the GAO found over 17 percent of the elderly receive unsafe drugs. Learn more... Important: Help your friends get much more out of life -- forward this E-letter to them. Better: Send it to many friends and your whole family. This is a free weekly e-mail service of BottomLineSecrets.com and Boardroom Inc. Boardroom Inc. 281 Tresser Boulevard Stamford, CT 06901-3229 ATTN: Web Team You received this e-mail because you have requested it. You are on the mailing list as healthwellness82@gmail.com. Or... a friend forwarded it to you. Disclaimer: Bottom Line Secrets publishes the opinions of expert authorities in many fields. But the use of these opinions is no substitute for legal, accounting, investment, medical and other professional services to suit your specific personal needs. Always consult a competent professional for answers to your specific questions. Bottom Line Secrets is a registered trademark of Boardroom Inc. Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Update My E-mail Preferences Change My E-mail Address | Contact Us | Privacy Policy Copyright (c) 2011 by Boardroom Inc. |
The person has sold several homes in your general neighborhood and that those homes sold for attractive amounts.
No comments:
Post a Comment