Although the general real estate market is still a little sluggish in Seattle, the rental market is a totally different story. Last month, my clients had to re-rent their house on Queen Anne. They posted an ad with only one exterior picture on Craig's list and got over one hundred responses. After setting up an open house and interviewing the best candidates in advance, I was able to negotiate $100 more in rent for them. Since they did not have any decent interior pictures, I suggested the following:
1) Make a deal with the tenants allowing them to move their furniture in a few days early with the stipulation that I could re-arrange their stuff. This saved the cost of moving new furniture in just for pictures.
2) Install inexpensive window treatments - less than $200
3) Add some accessories and artwork - I provided this
4) Hire a professional photographer to shoot 6 pictures - this cost all of $75
For under $300, they now have gorgeous pictures to post the next time they need to re-rent. And I bet you they will have their next tenant set up to move in the day after the old tenant moves out. They should also be able to increase their rent by at least $300 a month.
If you would like to find out how to get more rent and better tenents for your rental, call me at 206-781-1724 or e-mail me at Susan@SusanPeters.com.
The Better it Looks...The Better it Sells It also rents a lot better too.....
You know the drill. You spend eight plus hours showing a dozen properties and your next day is spent fielding calls from all the listing agents.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind giving feedback. In fact, I wear the title of "Bossy Oldest Daughter" with pride. Just make it a little easier.
Do be prepared for a little lecture on the importance of staging. I just can't help myself because "The Better it Looks...The Better it Sells!
Just make it easy and I'll be happy to oblige.
Sectional couches are wonderful. They are big enough for your whole family, including the 4 footed members, and after Thanksgiving dinner, three or four people can pass out at the same time. But when it comes to selling your house, sometimes a sectional can just be too much of a good thing.
That was the case with this house. The sectional ate up almost the entire living room and took the focus off the beautiful fireplace.
What's the solution?
The house sold in 5 days, so all's well that ends well!
Before: After:
If you need to save the sale of your house from a ravenous sectional, give me a call!
Susan Peters
206.781.1724
The Better it Looks...The Better it Sells!
My clients were recently faced with the challenge of placing their parents in an assisted living facility and selling their home. This is how we did it, step by step, in seven days. (From the time we listed it!)
1. This is the most important part. They moved their folks into the assisted living facility before they even talked about selling the house. Having your house on the market is stressful for anyone, but there is nothing more distressing for elderly sellers than having strangers tromp through their house day in and day out.
2. We set a budget of $15,000 for improvements that would give the best return. This included: paint, refinishing hardwood floors, new sink and counter tops in the kitchen, some new lighting fixtures, a ton of yard work and a new (tear off) roof.
3. After the work was done, I brought in furniture, artwork,and accessories and then staged the living daylights out of it!
4. Instead of using my traditional real estate sign, I had a custom sign made that mimicked my flyer. On Sunday afternoon, I had over 200 people come through my open house. By Sunday night, we had a full price offer and we closed in 30 days.
Before After
The funky Euro style laminate cabinetry which had been sponge painted was transformed by painting out the entire cabinet with Latte by Restoration Hardware.
The biggest improvement here was painting out the fireplace. Lightening up the drab green wall color paint helped to wake up the entire room.
Again, paint was the hero for this little bathroom.
If you'd like to sell your parent's home in seven days, give me a call!
The Better it Looks...The Better it Sells!
Susan@SusanPeters.com
206.781.1724
www.SellingYourParentsHome.com
I was enjoying a leisurely breakfast a couple of weeks ago when I smelled something electrical burning. I quickly followed the smell down to my basement and, much to my shock, I found my old electric water heater had flames coming out of the bottom of it! It was surrounded by all sorts of stored flammable items -boxes, a bedspread and wrapping paper, which I frantically pulled several feet away from the fire.
Thank goodness I had a fire extinguisher, but, of course, it was upstairs in the kitchen. After all, that's the first place I thought a fire would start. That's what I was told. No one ever mentioned the hot water heater. I was able to put the fire out without any damage, but I was pretty shaken up for the rest of the day. What if I hadn't been home or even on the second floor of my home? I wouldn't have smelled the fire until it was out of control or my house had blown up. I'm not exaggerating. Check out the link below and watch just how serious this is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmJoyuUJj2Q
Height of blast: 45 feet. Width of blast: 25 feet. The tank flew 500 feet! Apparently, this can happen with either a gas or an electric water heater.
If you are working with a client who has either an older home or an old water heater, I recommend they do the following: Have them replace the water heater when if needs it - don't have them try to squeeze more time out of it. You may all just have a flattened house for a listing! Have them put a smoke alarm wherever the hot water tank is located and keep a fire extinguisher close enough to reach it quickly.
I am the Seattle agent who stages, redecorates and re-designs every home that I put on the market, at no additional charge. My motto is "The Better it Looks ... the Better it Sells!"
20 years ago I moved to Seattle and bought an old house that suffered from a "charmectomy". I rolled up my sleeves, opened my checkbook and undertook my first renovation project. By the time I finished, I had the home of my dreams and I found my career as a real estate agent. I've been actively involved in the Seattle market practicing real estate "by design" ever since.
"The Better it Looks...The Better it Sells" is more than just my tag line. In real estate as well as in life , you only get one chance to make a first impression. By staging my listings I have consistently been able to get top dollar for my clients in a matter of days instead of weeks or months, even in this market.
Best of all I don't charge an additional fee for staging. My buyers also benefit greatly from my design experience. Go to http://www.susanpeters.com/ for hundreds of ideas for your own home.
The best of Susan's blog posts:
1. Botox for an Aging Front Door 6. How to Make a Big Impact While Spending Very Little $$
2. Steriods for Your Artwork 7. Kitchen Dragging Your Listing Down?
3. Window Treatments to the Rescue 8. Top Ten Reasons to Spank Your Listing Agent
4. $8 Window Treatments - No Kidding 9. There's a Cute House Buried Under Here Somewhere
5. Big Old Ugly Mirror 10. How Many Plates Can You Keep in the Air?
Susan Peters
"The Better it Looks ... The Better it Sells"
206.781.1724 direct
206.781.1855 fax
http://www.susanpeters.com/
http://mailto:susan@susanpeters.com
In the last 20 years I have remodeled, redecorated and redesigned five properties of my own in addition to staging and listing 100s of properties for my clients. Making window treatments, retrofitting light fixtures, upholstering furniture and creating custom artwork are just a few of the skills I've mastered in the process. I've taken classes in color design, Feng Shui, furniture placement, landscaping, and interior design trends. When you hire me you get the expertise of an agent, staging specialist, designer, photo stylist and a copy writer. It's like hiring a small advertising agency. I live, eat and breath real estate design.
Letter of Reference
Susan Peters
Although this letter may be lengthy, it will be worth your time to read it. The difference that was made in the sale of my condo and the purchase of my new home was nothing short of amazing, due simply by letting my Realtor do what she loves to do and what she does best.
To start off, having Susan Peters as my Realtor netted me far more money than I would have made if I had tried to sell by myself. I’m not exaggerating here – I made at least $40,000 more on the sale of my condo than I expected to – and that was after paying her commission.
Before I spoke with Susan about pricing, I thought I would list my condo for $225,000 and I would have felt I’d done well if I had sold it for $215,000 since the comps for the type of condo in my complex showed a maximum sales price of $235,000 for a totally updated unit, which mine wasn’t. With Susan's expertise, my condo ended up selling for $269,990 – far beyond my expectations. And the purchase of my new home was as smooth and profitable as I could have wished for. Here’s my story:
I had found a house on my own that was perfect, but it was already “sold subject to inspection”. Although I had let go, Susan started watching the market continually and when the offer fell through a week later, she was on the phone to me with in hours of it reappearing on her active search. Due to her focus and fast action I got my offer accepted without having to compete with anyone else.
Next came the inspection period and that’s where having a good inspector's expertise was invaluable. He went through it with a fine tooth comb. Meanwhile, Susan offered her insight as to how I could make decorating changes for very little money. In addition to making the whole purchase process an easy one, her win-win negotiating style motivated the seller to complete many repairs and make a generous financial concession as well.
However, with the closing of escrow, it meant I had to get moved into my new house and have my condo ready to put on the market in 2 weeks. I couldn’t see how this was going to happen as I hadn’t packed a thing and I had done nothing to get my property ready for sale.
This is where Susan and her team became worth their weight in gold. First, my condo needed some repair work, new carpeting and repainting. Susan selected the perfect paint color and had a crew out to my house, working 12 hours each day over that weekend. They had the entire condo finished with everything completed, including the installation of new drapes throughout. All of the renovation and repairs were handled efficiently and economically. Susan knew exactly how to advise me as to what issues I needed to address and what I could leave alone, thus saving me thousands of dollars in repair and updating. My town house was now in top shape and looked brand new…a perfect blank canvas.
The next step was the staging. This was particularly important since I have very specific taste in antiques and Victorian accents, which appeals to a fairly narrow group of people. Two days later, after I was settled into my new house, Susan arrived at my condo with a moving van chocked full of furniture, artwork and accessories. She then transformed this empty space into a beautifully decorated home. Susan’s innate skill for being able to bring out the best in a home and make it appeal to a broad sector of the market is phenomenal. I couldn’t believe I had ever lived there or that it could look so stylish!
To complete the picture, she hired a professional photographer to shoot the listing photos. The virtual tour was amazing. This was the final touch that made all the difference between how my condo was presented on a real estate search.
There was just no comparison to my competition with their amateur photos and either no staging or little guidance in how to present their properties in the best light.
Susan had both pushed me a little to get my condo on the market before Memorial Day weekend, not because it would be a big weekend for traffic, but because of her experience she knew that after that weekend many more properties would be listed and they wanted mine to be one of the first to be considered. It worked! Exactly 10 days after I closed on my new house, my condo hit the market and within a week and a half I had received 3 offers. At the time my property was listed, there were 2 others in the complex which had been on the market for several weeks. Both were much larger units than mine and both had just dropped their asking price. My condo sold for more than either one and closed way before theirs did, thus saving me months of double house payments. I ended up netting so much more than I had dreamt of. As a result, I have been able to complete projects in my new home that I thought would be put off for years.
When it came to follow through, Susan was always available, no matter what. I never felt ignored or like I was “just another commission”. I was given the very best service I’ve ever had through these types of transactions and I’ve been through several of them with different agents.
To sum up my rather long-winded story, I cannot emphasize enough what a huge difference it made to use Susan rather than going it alone. It was tempting to check out the “Do it Yourself” or “Discount Broker” route and save what seemed like thousands of dollars in commission. I could not have been more incorrect. After all was said and done, I wouldn’t be living in my dream house and I would have lost far more money than I paid in commission. And believe me; she more than earned every penny of it, along with my deepest gratitude and appreciation. If you want to get the best result for your purchase and/or sale, I cannot recommend Susan and her team more highly. If you wish to speak with me in person regarding Susan Peters, please do not hesitate to call me – you’ll get a glowing and well-earned review!
Sincerely,
Lise Van Deusen
425-252-8096
"Susan's new program Instant Interiors is transformational! I now feel like I'm staying at my very own Four Seasons Resort! In just an afternoon Susan came in and quickly assessed my interior design style, current situation, and budget, and used that to create a space that supports my lifestyle.
She rolled up her sleeves and helped me to move existing furniture and curios, hang pictures, and re-arrange the built-in bookcase to get the most impact. Susan taught me how placement, location and color of the interior effects my life, using the principles of Feng Shui. She staged my home for living, to where our greatest assets were showcased, and the impact of a sofa waiting-for-reupholstering is minimized. At the end of the session I had a do-able list of projects complete with color palate, dimensions and model numbers for further improvements, everything from "drop this picture off for framing" to "I'll let you know when I see slipper chairs on sale".
She introduced me to types of furniture and lighting that would serve to create distinct spaces with harmonizing transitions where a thoughtless jumble of furniture existed before. The transformation so inspired me, I accomplished some long-dormant projects like wall-paper removal and interior painting! Now I'm excited to entertain, and to just come home to an oasis of pleasing comforts in a designerly composition at the end of the day." - Dr. Tolle Murphy
"Thank you so much for helping us with our house. I thoroughly enjoyed our work together. You're creative and practical and so much fun to have around! You give me confidence that I'm spending money on the right things in our house - not only things that I'll enjoy but will add value to the house. You have definitely found your calling!" -Susan Youngsman
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