Dale Stevens, an associate with Prudential Connecticut Realty in Enfield, Conn., has been bitten by dogs and assaulted by parakeets, but her worst experience came as a result of a cat sleeping in a chair: Her client, terrified of cats, took one look at the snoring feline and walked away from the deal.If your sellers have pets at the home, here are some suggestions from Stevens and other Connecticut practitioners for managing the potential problem. - Clear up allergy conflicts. Make it clear in the listing that a pet lives in the home to avoid any problem with potential buyers who have allergies.
- Get rid of smells. Minimize odors by removing litter boxes and thoroughly vacuuming up dog and cat hair.
- Move the dog out. Ask the sellers to relocate their pets during the selling process. Moving the animal to the home of a friend or relative is the best solution.
- Next best: to the basement. If the pet can’t be moved, then suggest that they confine the animal to the basement or the garage.
- No pets at showings. Insist the sellers take the pet with them during open houses and showings.
- Offer to pay for cleaning. Tell sellers you'll give them a credit at closing to pay for having the house thoroughly cleaned by a professional to get rid of any lingering pet odors and hair.
- Hide the evidence. Remove evidence of the pet, like pet toys, feeding dishes and photos, which can distract potential buyers who don't like the idea of animals living in the house.
Source: The Hartford Courant, Robin Stansbury (0518/2008)
Forget about overhauling the kitchen or redoing the bathroom. The fix-ups that pay off the most are often the simpler and more mundane, says Diane Saatchi, senior vice president at the Corcoran Group in New York. Her specialty is selling high-end properties in the Hamptons. She recommends that sellers focus their improvements on small exterior changes rather than big-ticket projects inside the home. "Make the outside of the house look really great so that people fall in love between getting out of the car and the front door," Saatchi says.That includes repainting the trim and adding new hardware, manicuring trees and shrubs, replacing old siding and replacing windows that aren’t energy efficient.Nationally, returns for all major home-improvement projects are fetching 70 cents on the dollar, according to a Remodeling magazine’s survey of real-estate professionals conducted late last year. That's down from 80 cents in 2004. Source: The Wall Street Journal, M.P. McQueen (05/15/2008)
Home builders are cutting back on square footage and offering fewer amenities to keep the costs down.
"We are dealing with realities of the market. Prices have come down somewhat, and some houses are smaller," says Don Knutson, senior regional president for the mid-Atlantic division of Beazer Homes. "I think square-footage reduction has been about 5 percent between 2007 and 2008."
A 2007 national survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders found that 42 percent preferred a bigger house with fewer amenities, compared with 58 percent who said they would prefer a smaller house with "high-quality products and amenities."
That represented a change from 2000, when 51 percent wanted a bigger home with fewer amenities.
"I would say generally people are realizing bigger is not always better if they can get a smaller home that is affordable," says Knutson.
Source: The Washington Post, Allan Lengel (04/26/08)
