Don Price

About Us:

Pinehurst Area Real Estate like it is has never been bought and sold before'

About:
Advanced Real Estate Services & Staging

Don Price, Owner and Founder of Advanced Real Estate Services & Staging, felt that there was a certain lack of real estate services being offered to home sellers and home buyers in the Pinehurst ~ Southern Pines, NC real estate market by typical franchised or traditional real estate firms.

In response to this need Mr. Price decided to open a unique real estate company in Pinehurst dedicated to exceeding the common expectations by offering the public a more complete solution to their home selling or home buying needs.

Having been a North Carolina Real Estate Broker since 1996, Don knew all to well what traditional real estate offices offered in services and had the vision to see what was lacking. Don saw the large amounts of money people paid in fees and wondered why more services could not be offered without increasing the fees charged for the sale and purchase of real estate.

Thinking, planning and then acting outside of the proverbial box most real estate firms are comfortable operating from, in particular those in the Pinehurst ~ Southern Pines, NC real estate market, ARES-S (Advanced Real Estate Services & Staging) was created. The added services offered by ARES-S are Home Staging by an ASP (Accredited Staging Professional) and Home Repair advice and help by a former Licensed North Carolina General Building Contractor and an active marketing Internet marketing campaign in top local and national web sites.

When Advanced Real Estate Services & Staging was created the goal was to offer Home Sellers and Home Buyers the best services at an affordable price - an ever increasing concern with rising interest rates, the sub-prime fiasco and the therefore shrinking pool of buyers.

Having the experience and expertise as indicted below, Don knew that any real estate firm could say they would ‘Stage' a home or offer their help in hiring a local handyman to make minor repairs. For years part of Mr. Price's construction company's income was made by fixing the mess created by eager agents and homeowners attempting to do this type work without any expertise and knowledge.

Mr. Price and his former construction company gained a reputation as a custom specialty contractor and worked with and advised several nationally renowned ‘Interior Design' experts who are legendary in their field. Don's company not only was chosen by them to do work for and with their clients but on their homes in the Blowing Rock and Boone, NC area. Through these long and prosperous affiliations knowledge was gained that has been added to by over a decade of real estate experience and by obtaining the ASP designation, (Accredited Staging Professional), the only NAR (National Association of Realtors) recognized Home Staging designation, offered by StagedHomes.com and Barb Schwarz.

The Real Deal verses The Pretenders

Home Staging:
With the ASP designation there are basically two types earned. The ASP designation most real estate agents earn is for basically just helping their clients stage their homes and is not as thoroughly trained in all aspects of Home Staging as the next ASP designation. This is obtained by 2 days of intense classroom and hands-on training and while not as complete as the next ASP class, it is far better then obtaining something like what is offered by Internet course providers.

Don, already having gained a lot of knowledge and skills in Home Staging through his previous work in this area saw the need to obtain the higher level of the ASP designation, and went for even more training and earned the higher level of the ASP designation.

Home Repair & Fix-up:
While practically anyone in North Carolina can call themselves a ‘contractor' or a ‘residential contractor' only those who can qualify for and pass a rigorous and thorough exam can call themselves a Licensed Contractor. There are many specialty types of Licenses from plumbing, electrical, roofing etc. but the two most people think of for home building and repairs are the Licensed Residential Building Contractor and The Licensed General Building Contractor. The residential license is limited, as its name suggests, to residential building while the General Building Contractor License covers both residential and commercial construction. The knowledge base and expertise of either of the licensed building contractors should be sought out and not be ignored and the eagerness to save a buck buy hiring a non licensed person to work on a home should be avoided.

Mr. Price is a former Licensed North Carolina General Building Contractor and eagerly shares his knowledge and expertise with ARES-S clients and pitches in when he can to help them prepare their homes for sale so things are done ‘correctly'.

The Home Inspection

Pass or Fail:
Homes really do not Pass or Fail a Home Inspection. Every home is broken down to its components and systems. Each component and system is checked to see if its condition is safe and working as intended. The Home Inspection Report only lists items of concern found to be defective or that needs attention which will in the Home Inspectors mind affect the safe habitability of the home.

The home inspection is one of the best developments if not the best that has become prominent in the past decade in the buying and selling of homes. Mr. Price urges every client to obtain a home inspection before they buy.

For Pinehurst and Southern Pines area home selling clients of ARES-S, Don offers a 'home exam', which along with the help and advice in preparing a clients home for sale, as a Licensed North Carolina Home Inspector Don can find nearly every item that will show up on a home inspection, and hence a home selling client of ARES-S can address the situation beforehand.

The goal is to have any home listed by ARES-S ready to sell at the time it is placed on the market for sale. Homes prepared in this manner get more offers and close with fewer problems, which is exactly what both sellers and buyers want.

Pricing and marketing Pinehurst - Southern Pines real estate to sell:
The initial correct ‘pricing' of a home for sale is often overlooked. A home listed for less then it is really worth may give potential buyers pause wondering what is wrong with the home or if the seller is just desperate. In either case the buyer may come back with a lowball offer, increasing the difference between what the real value is and the amount in which it will be sold for. Great for bargain hunters!

Just as bad and perhaps worse overtime is pricing a home to high for current market conditions, and hoping to find that special buyer who will just fall in love with a home and pay anything for it. Several things are wrong with this and if you intend to sell a home you need to avoid this if you want to sell your home in a timely manner.

With the resources offered by the Internet Home buyer's today are educated, well informed and most likely have research market prices, so they'll avoid altogether homes not priced well for market conditions. Now add the fact that most buyers today have a ‘buyers agent', and if the buyer's agent is doing their job correctly the buyer will have proof in hand what the correct price range is for your home, should they have been shown your home with the hope of a deep price reduction.

Let's not forget about the terms of the contract the calls for the selling price to be validated by an appraisal, and if it is not you either lower your price or the buyer can walk.

Today, being November 29^th, 2007, market conditions all over the United States being in a state of flux and uncertainty and while North Carolina does not at this moment seem to be as dire, and the Pinehurst and Southern Pines area fairing pretty good at the moment, even here in the Center of the Home of American Golf, we are not immune to these economic forces and influences. Pricing a home correctly now is tantamount to getting the best financial return on the investment you have in your home. Try hard to avoid listing a home at a higher price thinking you'll come down later if need be - if you are putting your home on the market to sell then price it to sell.

If you are just fishing or testing the waters to what the temperature of it is, and pricing your home higher then you know the market will bare, then be prepared for agents to show the devil out of your home. What better way can other home prices be justified then to show an overpriced home, this has been done forever.

Don Price and Advanced real Estate Services and Staging keep themselves and their clients' current about market conditions and with Don's decade as a broker and his residential real estate appraising experience has the expertise to stay attuned to fluctuating market conditions and keep both selling and buying clients informed.

Areas of Expertise, Qualifiation and Designations

Testimonials

.....we realized that we needed to try to get the house fixed up the best we could and try to sell it quickly. The problem was that we needed to sell the house during the worst of the housing slump. That's when we realized we would need a lot of help. Our landscaping was terrible, portions of our roof needed to be replaced, the deck in the back of the house needed serious repair, our driveway was cracked and full of weeds and the entire house needed a serious cleaning. All of this in addition to all of the other little things that had gone wrong in the time we had been there.

To help us get the house in selling order we used Don Price of Advanced Real Estate Services & Staging. With his background in real estate, home construction and home staging we knew he would be able to help us with the enormous task of getting our home in condition to sell. Mr. Price generously came to our home and suggested things we could do to our home to get it in the best condition in our time frame and budget. After the decision was made on the work that needed to be done Don then helped us with the work. After we couldn't find a contractor to help us with the work Mr. Price came and helped is with the roof, the driveway and deck. He also power-washed the outside of the house and repainted our gutters to make the outside of the house look nice. He then tackled the inside of our home replacing broken light fixtures and getting stains out of our kitchen floor tiles. The work he did was highly professional and looked so good we almost didn't want to sell the home afterward.

After our home was fixed and cleaned up, Mr. Price also staged our home so it would look its best when potential buyers walked through. This was something that would never have occurred to us, but the rewards were tremendous. We had several buyers and Realtors tell us how nice our home looked and comment on how well the home was staged. We were told that the house looked as if it had been well maintained and that it looked clean and bright. We ended up selling our home in less than 1/3 of the time it has taken other sellers in the same neighborhood and got close to our asking price as well. With the work done by Mr. Price we were able to sell our home for $65,000 more than we had purchased it 1.5 years earlier! My husband and I highly recommend Mr. Price and his services to anyone who wishes to sell their home quickly and get top dollar too.

G & J S

....I am glad to this day that I took that chance! Don was an excellent realtor, and this was evident from our first meeting. Don came to my home and reviewed all of the paperwork for selling a home. He patiently answered all of my questions and made sure I understood everything before proceeding.

After I signed a contract with him, Don took time to walk around both the inside and outside of my home. As he did so, he made some excellent recommendations about steps I could take to improve the appearance of the house. In fact, he was so confident he would be able to sell the house that he agreed to pressure wash the exterior at no cost. He then made a list of the other items I needed to take care of to make the house more appealing.

I followed his advice, which ranged from tasks as complex as repainting the foyer and fixing the screen porch to duties as simple as moving a bed to a different location in a room so the room would appear larger. He encouraged me to keep the house clean and to remove some personal dcor so that a potential seller would be able to imagine the house decorated with their tastes.

Most important was the confidentiality Don provided. At the time, I was preparing to leave a position as the pastor of a local church, and had not announced my resignation. Don easily deflected questions about why I was selling and prevented rumors from spreading in the community. Don also notified me twenty-four hours in advance of any appointment so I could make sure the house was spotless and get my dog out of the home for showings.

In addition, Don held several successful open houses and did everything possible to get the word out to other realtors and potential buyers. Once offers started coming in, Don provided guidance. Although there were a few times I was ready to accept an offer, Don was confident that I would receive top dollar for my home and encouraged to me counter with other offers. In the end, I sold the house for $900 less than the asking price and made an excellent profit. In addition, during the final inspection, Don had been so thorough there were only two corrections I had to make to the house: filling a small hole in the yard, and tightening the hinge on a bedroom door.

Don was an outstanding realtor. You cannot go wrong with him, as his advice is sound, his attention is top-notch, and his work is excellent. I highly recommend him to any seller, and for that matter, to anyone who is buying a house in the area.

Sincerely,

Rev. T. C.