Larry Buchanan Realtor®

Archive for the ‘Home Sellers’ Category

***Price Reduction*** for today’s market $$$. Renovated duplexes priced right. Top of the line appliances. Updated plumbing & tile flooring in some areas. Two balconies each. Close to beach in an extremely desirable area.

Please allow us to have 48 hours notice to show…..

Call Larry today to get your questions answered
904-910-0203
email: Larry@Larry Buchanan Realtor.com

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Guest blogger, Ben Forbes reveals:

How to Sell Your Home Faster With Solar Energy….
According to the US Depart of Energy, a solar home will sell two times faster. There are also rebates and tax incentives available. Check your local state to find out what is available in your area. Consumers are encouraged to take advantage of tax and state incentives for energy renewable and efficiency.

Home seekers are magnetically drawn to solar powered homes. Take for example, two identical homes in the same neighborhood; one has a solar panel system installed on the roof. Which home do you think is going to get more attention and more serious buyers? Home seekers associate solar power with lower energy cost, saving money and going green. There is nothing wrong with having extra cash in your pocket while doing your part to save our environment. Gone are the days when only a few could afford to integrate solar energy solutions in to their homes and businesses. People are transforming their homes to solar as a means to lower their electric bill and add value.

Consumers have two basic options to go solar. Hire a contractor or go DIY. Hiring a contractor can bring a pretty hefty price tag. The typical cost for the average home is about $24,000. If you are selling your home you may want to take this into consideration. Can I recoup my investment without pricing myself out of the market? A DIY project is not for everybody, but consumers willing to give it a try are surprising themselves with successful results. A number of people favor this method to save the maximum amount of money and some because they like the challenge. You don’t have to be an engineer or mechanical wizard.

It’s a lot simpler than you think. All you need is a good manual to walk you through the steps. Most projects can be completed for under $200 per panel, compared to buying a finished product for $5000 on average. In fact, you would be surprised to learn that some of the parts can be purchased on eBay. So in closing, if you want to sell your home twice as fast add solar power. This can be a single panel or several panels on your roof, by either having the solar energy installed or doing it yourself. The main benefit is that you will be offering your buyers an option that will save them cash on their energy bill while going green. A solar powered home is more attractive to buyers, is energy efficient and allows buyers to identify with the long term savings potential.

Ben Forbes is a solar power enthusiast and owner of http://www.planetsolarenergy.com If you liked this report, there are two additional reports on the website. Website for Government incentives http://www.dsireusa.org

Editor’s note: For an analysis of your home’s market strength, email me today at:
Larry @ Larry Buchanan Realtor.com

Larry Buchanan Realtor, Keller Williams Realty
mobile: 904-910-0203
office: 904-247-0059

Editor’s note: if you have questions about Florida real estate, contact:
Larry D. Buchanan Realtor, Keller Williams Realty®
email Larry @Larry Buchanan Realtor.com

mobile: 904-910-0203
office: 904-247-0059

Larry Buchanan Realtor, Keller Williams Realty
mobile: 904-910-0203
office: 904-247-0059

In today’s market, you as the seller need every advantage that you can get in order to move your home quickly. One of the fastest ways to attract buyers is with an “Open House”. This is one of the strongest reasons to use a professional real estate agent. There are result proven steps, you the seller, must take in order to ensure the “Open House” is successful. You will find the contents of this article to be helpful in preparing your home for the showing.

You have heard the old adage that the first impression is a lasting impression. This saying is never more important than when you are trying to sell your home. This is why your home must be spotless from the top to the bottom. If you don’t have the time to do a thorough cleaning you can contract with a professional cleaning or maid service. The money you spend in this will return to you in two different ways.

The first way is it should help you get a quicker offer to the table. The 2nd and perhaps the most important for you is it will definitely enable you to increase the asking price for your home, thus recouping or possibly even doubling your return on the cleaning service.

The next important impression, which be made upon your potential buyer in going to be the way your home smells. The olfactory senses are arguably the most sensitive of the five senses. Consequently if the house does not smell clean you will immediately turn off many of your open house viewers. Of course one of the fastest ways to eliminate these odors is to have the carpets, furniture, curtains/blinds, mattresses and anything else that smells washed and steam cleaned. It is also a good idea to move pet bedding, cages and litter boxes and of course the pets completely out of the home on the day of the showing.

It is extremely important that the interior of your residence appear as spacious and open as possible when showing the house anytime. Be sure and have all the blinds/drapes open to increase the sense of space.

Take the time to eliminate all the clutter you can from the walls, end tables, entertainment centers, closets and even unnecessary furniture out of all rooms. You can pack the clutter in storage boxes and the extra furniture neatly in the garage.

Better yet you could rent a small storage space temporarily to store the excess stuff from your home. Not only will your prospective buyers be impressed with the space, you will be also. You will have a side benefit from taking this step, as it will make it much easier for your home to be kept clean while you are selling.

Another aspect of preparing for the showing of your home is to create a relaxed ambience within your home. Again this can be done quickly and simply. A few simple things like placing a white tablecloth on the dinning table with a simple vase of fresh flowers, having a tray of cookies with napkins placed on the kitchen counter, soft music playing in the background, a lit lavender candle in several rooms.

It is vitally important for the ambiance of your home that the temperature is set for maximum comfort depending on the season. These few things will make your visitors feel at home and they will remember your home, verses the others which did not take this step, because of the sense of being relaxed and feeling at home in your residence.

When you implement the steps above as a package you will find your “Open House” will be successful and may well lead to an offer being made on your home.

For more tips or to get an up to date evaluation of your home, give me a call. I always return my calls and look forward to speaking with you.

Larry Buchanan Realtor
Keller Williams Realty

mobile: 904-910-0203
office: 904-247-0059

email: Larry@ LarryBuchananRealtor.com

Thanks for stopping by…

You’re probably asking yourself, what does Larry know about wild flowers? I’m laughing out loud when I think back a few years at the easy answer I’d have for that question.

Actually, I’m a Realtor rather than a gardener. But I’ve watched how buyers respond to bright flowers and a nicely landscaped home so I thought I’d share an article with my blog readers. I assure you, curb appeal and landscaping go hand in hand when making a home more attractive….to buyers.

So what’s it take to add a little color and pazzaz to your curb appeal with wild flowers? Read on…

A wild-flower garden has an attractive sound. One thinks of long walks in the woods, collecting hands full of colorful plants, and then of the fun in fixing up a really cool wild garden.

Many people say they have no luck at all with such a garden. It is not a question of luck, but a question of understanding, for wild flowers are like people and each has its personality. What a plant has been accustomed to in Nature it desires always. In fact, when removed from its own sort of living conditions, it sickens and dies.

That is enough to tell us that we should copy Nature herself. Suppose you are hunting wild flowers. As you choose certain flowers from the woods, notice the soil they are in, the place, conditions, the surroundings, and the neighbours.

Suppose you find dog-tooth violets and wind-flowers growing near together. Then place them so in your own new garden. Suppose you find a certain violet enjoying an open situation; then it should always have the same. You see the point, do you not? If you wish wild flowers to grow in a tame garden make them feel at home. Cheat them into almost believing that they are still in their native haunts.

Wild flowers ought to be transplanted after blossoming time is over. Take a trowel and a basket into the woods with you. As you take up a few, a columbine, or a hepatica, be sure to take with the roots some of the plant’s own soil, which must be packed about it when replanted.

The bed into which these plants are to go should be prepared carefully before this trip of yours. Surely you do not wish to bring those plants back to wait over a day or night before planting. They should go into new quarters at once. The bed needs soil from the woods, deep and rich and full of leaf mold.

The under drainage system should be excellent. Then plants are not to go into water-logged ground. Some people think that all wood plants should have a soil saturated with water. But the woods themselves are not water-logged.

It may be that you will need to dig your garden up very deeply and put some stone in the bottom. Over this the top soil should go. And on top, where the top soil once was, put a new layer of the rich soil you brought from the woods.

Before planting water the soil well. Then as you make places for the plants put into each hole some of the soil which belongs to the plant which is to be put there.

I think it would be a rather nice plan to have a wild-flower garden giving a succession of bloom from early spring to late fall; so let us start off with March, the hepatica, spring beauty and saxifrage. Then comes April bearing in its arms the beautiful columbine, the tiny bluets and wild geranium.

For May there are the dog-tooth violet and the wood anemone, false Solomon’s seal, Jack-in-the-pulpit, wake robin, bloodroot and violets. June will give the bellflower, mullein, bee balm and foxglove. I would choose the gay butterfly weed for July. Let turtle head, aster, Joe Pye weed, and Queen Anne’s lace make the rest of the season brilliant until frost.

Wow…I didn’t realize how much reading a simple process could be:) But at least now you have the basics and with a little help from our always varying NE Florida weather, you’ll probably amaze yourself with the results of your wild flower garden. Just take a little time each week to stop back to review this article.

But in case you’d prefer to explore other ideas for improving your curb appeal I’ve got an option for you.

Click on this link for details about a great book, simply called: Curb Appeal

There are great pictures and descriptions of the types of small changes that can make a huge difference in how your home presents itself to prospective buyers.

I hope you find this somewhat lengthy article to be useful information. Please feel free to leave your comments and questions.

Larry
Larry Buchanan Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
Office: 904-247-0059
Mobile: 904-910-0203
email: Larry@LarryBuchananRealtor.com

Purchasing real estate is no laughing matter – whether the economy’s doing well or it’s experiencing recession. It’s a well-known fact that buyers are in a better position to purchase real estate during a recession. However, there are still some risks involved.

So how do you make sure you’re still getting the best real estate deal during the recession times? Here are some tips that you can make use of:

Determining whether you have gotten yourself a good deal in buying real estate, or simply just about anything, depends on your priorities. My years as a Realtor have taught me one thing for certain, all of us have different priorities, that’s a fact.

So if you’d like to make sure you satisfy yourself, get your own expectations in check. Creating a checklist can help you here. Finding a property to buy with a checklist handy can greatly facilitate the process.

I definitely advice about the importance of knowing your priorities and recommend that you create a checklist to guide your decisions. However, flexibility can also get you a long way. Be objective with your judgments and take a hard look at the property you are considering for your purchase.

Think hard and see if you are actually being too choosy to the point of being impractical. Would you like fancy or functional? Is it comfy or uber-elegant? How about trying to meet in the middle? Have you asked for suggestions from family or friends with experience? Do they agree with you?

Although you do not need to wipe your slate clean and accommodate all their opinions, are your expectations realistic enough… and what about your budget? Remember it is recession. Naturally, as a Realtor I can research many of the variables that help you consider your options. There’s no downside to taking advantage of this free service.

Many think that since it is recession, they can just buy and buy and buy properties. Although many property sellers are usually on the lower part of the scale during these times, not all deals are the best ones. You still need to be as careful as ever in purchasing real estate. My listings cover a wide range of choices, and I have access to literally thousands more. Should your schedule open we can set an appointment for a tour that will blow your mind. The market is absolutely perfect for great values at this point.

Many would pursue a short sale trying to grab a good deal. However, before you buy a property with a price that seems too low for the location, check with me about the areas and properties you’ve thought about. I can investigate to make sure you have all the facts. This is important since you should not just make an offer on a pre-foreclosure, short sale property.

Home sellers do know that during a recession, they may not be able to sell their properties for a better price. This means that they would have to wait longer to put their home out on the market. There may be properties for sale, but they get bought quicker, too. It would be helpful if you are prepared enough to make a purchase without dilly-dallying if you really are into it.

Your decision should not be clouded in buying a property. Always shop for the lowest price, which fortunately is more attainable during recession for buyers. However, do not forget that the lowest-priced property is not necessarily the best one.

In summary, there are some advantages to buying a home during recession. However, if you do not really have the budget or are not that well-educated in the real estate industry, do not feel pressured to jump in. There is still time for research and planning to help you make the best choice for the one decision that is a most important investment of your life.

Best Regards,
Larry
Larry Buchanan Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
Office: 904-247-0059
Mobile: 904-910-0203
Email me: Larry@Larry Buchanan Realtor.com

Click here to see my complete listing of homes in the Greater Jacksonville Area

These days I seem to be getting more questions about credit than buying and selling houses. I always look for the positive side of things so my hunch is people want to prepare for a warming trend in the financial markets. Regardless of the reasons, it’s always a good idea to monitor your credit report to make sure you’re in good shape.

Your credit score is a very important in any financial transaction that you make or intend making in future. So it’s good you know exactly how you are scored. You’ll want to understand what is meant by the numbers of your credit score and how you can improve it if it’s not good enough.

If you have ever borrowed money or used credit before, the “score” reflects how well you’ve handled credit in the past. Your credit score is determined by amount of credit you have, how much money you owe and whether or not your payments were made in a timely manner.

Your credit score serves lenders as a predictor of how likely you are to repay credit they can extend. When payments are made on time your credit history will be stronger than with a history of slow and late payments. This is a major issue for both banks and credit unions.

Tips For Improving Your Credit Score

Bottom line, value your credit more than cash on hand. Naturally, it is great to form the habit of putting away cash savings, regardless of the monthly amount.

However, when it comes to our use and understanding of credit, it is easy to accumulate bad habits that can be costly. Check with your banker for guidance. You will find the best advice is easiest to find at your local bank or credit union. And the price is right.

Best Regards,

Larry Buchanan Realtor
Prudential Network Realty
Phone: 904-910-0203
email: Larry @LarryBuchananRealtor.com

As you begin to prepare your home for sale, the most important thing you must take into consideration is the “asking price” also known as the listing price.

Regardless of the condition of your residence, this will be the one thing which will attract ready buyers and help determine how quickly your house will sell so you can get close to the maximum return on your investment, depending on the period when you first bought your house. The information in this article will provide you with some thoughts which will help you reach your goal.

Many people make the mistake of pricing their property below the real value and the current market price of competing and comparable residential real estate. It is true by doing so you will attract the maximum number of prospects (qualified or not) but the reverse can also happen.

There for if you start your “asking price” at or near the “rock bottom price” you may well lose a perfectly qualified buyer, because you have left no negotiating room in your price.

The majority of buyers today expect to be able to do a “little horse trading” when purchasing real estate. And in turn, even if it’s the perfect house for them, they will walk away simply because they feel you are being unreasonable.

On the other hand if you put your “asking price” at the high end of the market once again you could discourage people who are qualified and ready to buy.

One of the first questions the majority of buyers will ask about is the price. With your price on the high end these folks may well decide, the house, even though it is their “dream home” and the ideal area for raising their family, is just too expensive. Which in turn means they are going to seek a more reasonable priced home in the same neighborhood or immediately adjacent to your neighborhood.

Finding and setting the “perfect” price for your home is something many sellers begin by doing a little research on the World Wide Web. Thanks to the internet, and to prepare yourself for when you’re ready to talk with realtor, you can check the “asking price” of several homes in your area. This will help you understand more about the range to consider for reaching a fair asking price both for you and for your prospective buyers.

Naturally, being informed, will help you feel more confortable once you’re ready to price your home. My goal is to help you arrive at a price that is not to low or too high.

You can be confident that, with my assistance, you won’t leave thousands of dollars on the table and be in position to put thousands of more dollars in your wallet by maximizing the return on the equity in your home.

I am always available to answer your questions. Please don’t hesitate to call, even if you don’t feel the timing is perfect for you to make a decision.

Best Regards,
Larry
Larry Buchanan Realtor
Prudential Network Realty
Call me: 904-910-0203
Email me: Larry@Larry Buchanan Realtor.com

Click here to see my complete listing of homes in the Greater Jacksonville Area

Simple landscaping changes can dramatically improve your home’s appeal to buyers. Landscape gardening can make a has often been likened to the painting of a picture, however, you don’t have to be an expert gardner to handle the changes that can make a difference.

With landscape gardening you’ll want to start with a mind picture of what you want to see with the finished project. For our goal of keeping it simple, we’ll work out a little theory of landscape gardening.

Let us go to the lawn. A good extent of open lawn space is always beautiful. It is restful. It adds a feeling of space to even small grounds. So we might generalize and say that it is well to keep open lawn spaces.

If one covers his lawn space with many trees, with little flower beds here and there, the general effect is choppy and fussy. It is a bit like an over-dressed person. One’s grounds lose all individuality thus treated. A single tree or a small group is not a bad arrangement on the lawn.

Do not center the tree or trees. Let them drop a bit into the background. Make a pleasing side feature of them. In choosing trees one must keep in mind a number of things. You should not choose an overpowering tree; the tree should be one of good shape, with something interesting about its bark, leaves, flowers or fruit.

While the poplar is a rapid grower, it sheds its leaves early and so is left standing, bare and ugly, before the fall is old. Mind you, there are places where a row or double row of Lombardy poplars is very effective. But I think you’ll agree with me that one lone poplar is not. The catalpa is quite lovely by itself. Its leaves are broad, its flowers attractive, the seed pods which cling to the tree until away into the winter, add a bit of picture squeness.

The bright berries of the ash, the brilliant foliage of the sugar maple, the blossoms of the tulip tree, the bark of the white birch, and the leaves of the copper beech all these are beauty points to consider.

Place makes a difference in the selection of a tree. Suppose the lower portion of the grounds is a bit low and moist, then the spot is ideal for a willow. Don’t group trees together which look awkward. A long-looking poplar does not go with a nice rather rounded little tulip tree. A juniper, so neat and prim, would look silly beside a spreading chestnut. One must keep proportion and suitability in mind.

Our local agricultural adviser would never suggest the planting of a group of evergreens close to a house, and in the front yard. The effect is very gloomy indeed. Houses thus surrounded are overcapped by such trees and are not only gloomy to live in, but truly unhealthful. The chief requisite inside a house is sunlight and plenty of it.

As trees are chosen because of certain good points, so shrubs should be. In a clump I should wish some which bloomed early, some which bloomed late, some for the beauty of their fall foliage, some for the colour of their bark and others for the fruit.

Some spireas and the forsythia bloom early. The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of colour all winter, and the red berries of the barberry cling to the shrub well into the winter. 

Certain shrubs are good to use for hedge purposes. A hedge is rather prettier usually than a fence. The Californian privet is excellent for this purpose. Osage orange, Japan barberry, buckthorn, Japan quince, and Van Houtte’s spirea are other shrubs which make good hedges.

When making tree and shrub selections it is usually better to choose those of the locality one lives in. Unusual and foreign plants do less well, and often harmonize but poorly with their new setting.

Landscape gardening may follow along very formal lines or along informal lines. The first would have straight paths, straight rows in stiff beds, everything, as the name tells, perfectly formal. The other method is, of course, the exact opposite. There are danger points in each.

The formal arrangement is likely to look too stiff; the informal, too fussy, too wiggly. As far as paths go, keep this in mind, that a path should always lead somewhere. That is its business to direct one to a definite place.

Now, straight, even paths are not unpleasing if the effect is to be that of a formal garden. The danger in the curved path is an abrupt curve, a whirligig effect. It is far better for you to stick to straight paths unless you can make a really beautiful curve. No one can tell you how to do this.

Garden paths may be of gravel, of dirt, or of grass. One sees grass paths in some very lovely gardens. I doubt, however, if they would serve as well in your small gardens. Your garden areas are so limited that they should be re-spaded each season, and the grass paths are a great bother in this work.

Of course, a gravel path makes a fine appearance, but again you may not have gravel at your command. It is possible for any of you to dig out the path for two feet. Then put in six inches of stone or clinker. Over this, pack in the dirt, rounding it slightly toward the centre of the path. There should never be depressions through the central part of paths, since these form convenient places for water to stand. The under layer of stone makes a natural drainage system.

A building often needs the help of vines or flowers or both to tie it to the grounds in such a way as to form a harmonious whole. Vines lend themselves well to this work. It is better to plant a perennial vine, and so let it form a permanent part of your landscape scheme. The Virginia creeper, wistaria, honeysuckle, a climbing rose, the clematis and trumpet vine are all most satisfactory.

Now close your eyes and picture a house of natural colour, that mellow gray of the weathered shingles. Now add to this old house a purple wistaria. Can you see the beauty of it? I shall not forget soon a rather ugly corner of my childhood home, where the dining room and kitchen met. Just there climbing over, and falling over a trellis was a trumpet vine. It made beautiful an awkward angle, an ugly bit of carpenter work.

Of course, the morning-glory is an annual vine, as is the moon-vine and wild cucumber. Now, these have their special function. For often, it is necessary to cover an ugly thing for just a time, until the better  things and better times come. The annual is ‘the chap’ for this work.

Along an old fence a hop vine is a thing of beauty. One might try to rival the woods’ landscape work. For often one sees festooned from one rotted tree to another the ampelopsis vine.

Flowers may well go along the side of the building, or bordering a walk. In general, though, keep the front lawn space open and unbroken by beds. What lovelier in early spring than a bed of daffodils close to the house? Hyacinths and tulips, too, form a blaze of glory.

These are little or no bother, and start the spring aright. One may make of some bulbs an exception to the rule of unbroken front lawn. Snowdrops and crocuses planted through the lawn are beautiful. They do not disturb the general effect, but just blend with the whole. One expert bulb gardener says to take a basketful of bulbs in the fall, walk about your grounds, and just drop bulbs out here and there.

Wherever the bulbs drop, plant them. Such small bulbs as those we plant in lawns should be in groups of four to six. Daffodils may be thus planted, too. You all remember the grape hyacinths that grow all through Katharine’s side yard.

The place for a flower garden is generally at the side or rear of the house. The backyard garden is a lovely idea, is it not? Who wishes to leave a beautiful looking front yard, turn the corner of a house, and find a dump heap? Not I. The flower garden may be laid out formally in neat little beds, or it may be more of a careless, hit-or-miss sort. Both have their good points. Great masses of bloom are attractive.

You should have in mind some notion of the blending of colour. Nature appears not to consider this at all, and still gets wondrous effects. This is because of the tremendous amount of her perfect background of green, and the limitlessness of her space, while we are confined at the best to relatively small areas.

So we should endeavour not to blind people’s eyes with clashes of colours which do not at close range blend well. In order to break up extremes of colours you can always use masses of white flowers, or something like mignonette, which is in effect green.

Finally, let us sum up our landscape lesson. The grounds are a setting for the house or buildings. Open, free lawn spaces, a tree or a proper group well placed, flowers which do not clutter up the front yard, groups of shrubbery these are points to be remembered. The paths should lead somewhere, and be either straight or well curved. If one starts with a formal garden, one should not mix the informal with it before the work is done.

I look forward to your questions, comments and suggestions,

Larry Buchanan, Realtor
Prudential Network Realty
Call me @904-210-0203
email: Larry @LarryBuchananRealtor.com