Posts from June 2016

Outdoor projects go a long way to adding protection from the elements and value to your home. Done right, they also add a lot in the way of curb appeal. Americans spent more than $326 billion on remodeling projects in 2015, but still, it's hard to know which improvements will appeal the most to buyers and add the most value when it's time to sell.

To get some guidance, the National Association of Realtors asked Realtors to rank home remodeling projects by appeal to buyers for the 2015 Remodeling Impact Report. I'm sharing the exterior projects that will get your home the most attention. And in every case, the exterior projects that Realtors say are most appealing to buyers are the ones that add the most value to your home.

Give these projects some consideration when deciding how to spend your home-improvement dollars, and 

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It's such a good time to be out looking at homes. The Roanoke Valley real estate market is busy, and potential buyers have a lot of choices.

There are dozens of steps to buying a home, but finding the right property is the best part of the whole process. Sometimes it takes time and persistence to get there, but every house we look at helps you figure out what you want (and what you don't) and gets you a little closer to your next new home.

Whether you're a first-time homebuyer or a house-hunting pro, these are my do's and don'ts for getting the most out of a trip to look at homes:

DO tell me what you're looking for.

The first thing we need to do is talk about what you want in a home -- your must-haves and your nice-to-haves. This is everything from number of be...

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To say that the internet has changed the way buyers look for homes is an understatement. Visit nearly any Realtor's website in the Roanoke Valley -- or any market -- and you'll find not only their own listings, but the entire market's inventory of listings just waiting to be searched.

So it was no surprise when the National Association of Realtors reported in its 2016 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends study that searching online for homes increased among all age groups in 2015. In fact, for every age group except homebuyers aged 70-90, looking at online listings is the first step they took in the homebuying process. And 65 percent of all buyers walked through at least one home as a result of searching online.

So what does this tell buyers and sellers? For buyers, the best sources of informatio...

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If you've been paying attention at all to the for-sale signs around your neighborhood, you're probably seeing some of them change to "under contract" or "sold" within a few weeks or even days.

Houses are moving pretty quickly across the Roanoke Valley right now, and sellers are getting good prices. If you've been thinking about selling your home, now is a good time to consider it seriously, especially if it's in good shape.

As you start doing research about selling your home, you'll likely stumble upon some information about selling your house on your own, or For Sale By Owner. Among other things, you'll probably read something along these lines:

• You'll save money on commission if you sell your house yourself.

• There's no real magic to selling a house; anyone can do it.

• Realtors say they get better selling prices than FSBO, but their sta...

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