Adrian Willanger's Blog

Have you taken a good look at your bathroom lately since you’ve put your Seattle house for sale on the market? If not, you may be missing something that others are picking up. The bathroom is the place where people will be inspecting the cleanliness and you’ll need to make sure that it is tidy as well. If you have kids you know that this can be an enormous feat but it is necessary when your Seattle house is on the market.

One of the easiest things that you can do yourself is to make a schedule for bathroom cleanups. Get everyone in the house involved and have a set time where someone visits the bathroom and makes sure that it is clean. This is only important if you have a family since if you are a single person you’ll be able to take responsibility for the bathroom yourself. When kids are involved, however, it becomes quite a different story. 

Make sure that the paint on the bathroom walls still looks good and do any spot cleaning where necessary. Take a look at the lighting and see if the bathroom is bright enough. If not, you might want to pick up a cheap bathroom light fixture that can take high wattage bulbs. People love to see a well-lit bathroom when they are looking through your Seattle house is for sale.

Check for any mold around the bathroom tiles. Mold has become quite an issue these days as more and more health studies are revealing that it is dangerous. Black mold can easily develop in a bathroom and it is very easy to handle. There are cleaning products sold in grocery stores that can break down the mold between your tiles for a quick and easy cleanup.

The flooring on the bathroom should be checked as well. Make sure that the area between the baseboard and the floor is totally clean. This is often a place that is overlooked when you are anxious to get your home ready for a viewing. It will definitely stand out, however, if somebody is looking at your bathroom and inspecting it for cleanliness.

Does your bathroom pass the clean and tidy test? If not, take a few moments to make it look like it is a bathroom fit for the fussiest buyers.  When you have a Seattle house for sale every little thing counts.

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1. Sell Your Bothell Home Faster By Fixing Up Your Bathroom (16.4)
2. Staging a bathroom when selling your Seattle home (13)
3. Understanding the Mold Issue (11.4)
4. Keeping Your Home in Show Condition (11.1)
5. Bothell House For Sale – Wash! Wash! Wash! (9.8)

Many people today are becoming increasingly interested in buying and living in a Seattle condo. If you think that purchasing a condominium may possibly be in your plans for the future, you should know about the different advantages such a home type can offer. Make sure that you will be comfortable and at home before you make your decision, and really get to know about condominiums.

Here are some starting-off facts you should be aware of:

- The owner of a condominium must pay to keep up the maintenance of his Seattle condo. This fee offsets the costs of hiring security guards, a bellman, garbage pickup, municipal water costs, etc.

- A condominium property is one of the most popular Seattle real estate properties. It is usually located in the city, making it an ideal place to live in for people that like city living.

-Owning a Seattle condo is very different from owning a house, in that you don’t have to worry about the regular home maintenance that usually burdens a home owner.

- A person who owns a unit in a condo has only the ownership of his room, but shares ownership of the common areas. He does not own the land on which the condominium is built. This means that there may be access to amenities like a swimming pool, a tennis court, a gym etc.

Living in a Seattle condo is much more comfortable than living in an apartment for many people. There can be many shared amenities provided by the condo management. Gyms, pools, gaming rooms and special vents add a sense of community that cannot be found in most other living options. This adds to the list of reasons why Seattle condominiums are becoming the most popular type of real estate on the market.

Seattle Condos:

Condominiums In Seattle under $400,000

Condominiums in Seattle over $400,000+

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There are a lot of people that really don’t fully understand how important it is to keep your Seattle home for sale clean when it is on the market. There are a lot of really dirty houses out there that are being shown daily to prospective buyers that would never consider a home that wasn’t clean. While most homes are neat and tidy and could pass any vigorous inspection test for cleanliness, there are a few that are unsightly, to say it kindly.

If you’re like most people you take a lot of pride in your home and keep it as clean as possible. If you have kids and pets, it’s understandable that there will be some type of chaos in the home, although it will be kept to a minimum.  In these cases it’s not the cleanliness that is affected so much as the tidiness. Usually it just takes a few minutes to gather things up and make the house look ready for a viewing. The problem comes about when homes aren’t clean and prospective buyers can’t see through the mess and the dirt to find the home for sale.

If you feel that your home is difficult to maintain, for one reason or another, and simply can’t keep up with it, your best bet is to outsource the work to others. When you have a Seattle home for sale you need to get it up to par. Really, you are leaving a lot of money on the table by trying to sell a dirty or untidy home. Most people will just turn around and walk out the front door once they see a house in this condition.

Here is a list of available services that you may need.

• Housecleaning
• House Organizer
• Pet Walking Services
• Landscaper
• Lawn More
• General Handyman
• Painter

These are just some of the services that are available in your local neighborhood that can help you get your house into order so that you can sell it properly. If you have small tasks that need to be done around the home you can also find teenagers that are looking for odd jobs in your neighborhood and ask them to help you out.

When it comes to your Seattle home for sale you’ll need to get some help from various services to get it looking clean and tidy enough to sell. The money that you invest in a service will likely pay back big time when the house finally sells. You’ll get a quicker sale, perhaps more money offered and you will have the self-respect of offering a Seattle home that is in great condition.

Sign up to have FREE WEEKLY UPDATES on the latest Seattle real estate market activity in specific zip codes we follow e-mailed to you weekly.

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Even though the idea of selling your home by yourself may seem easier and cheaper, when you take into account the amount of time you would have to spend to market your house as well as the cost of advertising and other marketing, it is much faster and simpler to hire a Seattle real estate broker. You would also be surprised to discover that you are actually not really going to save very much when attempting to sell your home on your own and it will take much longer than needed. Plus, without a Seattle real estate broker there to help you, chances are you won’t be getting the best money for your home.

There is also all of the stressful paper work, legal matters and negotiating that is involved with selling a Seattle home. The time you spend on handling possibly one of the biggest transactions in your life can also be very tiring, and a large responsibility. How much of your valuable time are you willing to sacrifice? With the help of an experienced broker in Seattle you won’t have to deal with any of the above, and won’t have to worry about picking out the serious buyers from the people who are only browsing.

Another aspect of selling your own real estate is the emotional trauma that can accompany it. A Seattle real estate broker can be very firm and knows what he is doing, so he is able to find the best possible buyer for your house.

A broker will act as a mediator when showing your home to potential buyers, and if it looks like any conflicts are going to arise they can easily be avoided with the help of your cool-headed agent.

A well trained Seattle real estate broker is able to quickly and efficiently estimate the value of your house so that you receive the money that you deserve for your home. 

Sign up to have FREE WEEKLY UPDATES on the latest Seattle real estate market activity in specific zip codes we follow e-mailed to you weekly. 

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It seems like a lot of people are really concerned about mold these days and in terms of real Seattle this can easily turn into a buying decision. If the house turns out to have a lot of mold in it buyers can run away faster than if they were told that the house had termites. In this day and age both buyers and sellers need to understand more about the mold issue so that they can make rational decisions about it.

Testing for mold

Mold tests can be performed to find out exactly how much mold is in the home. Only a high quality tester should be used, however, since these tests can often be misleading and actually turn out to be false. Find out what type of equipment the Seattle company is using for the mold and take a look at their credentials. Mold testing requires accurate state-of-the-art equipment for precision results. When your Seattle property is on the line, you need to do everything you can to ensure that the mold testing company knows what they’re doing.

Source of mold

If you do find out that you have mold in your home you’ll have to find out where it is coming from. The only way to handle mold on a permanent basis is to find the cause of it. There can be various causes for mold such as plumbing problems, cracks in the foundation, poor ventilation etc. Once you have found the cause you’ll know what the cure is by hiring an expert in Seattle that can help you out. If you have a plumbing problem, for example, a good reliable Seattle plumber will be able to find any leaks or issues with the pipes.

More and more people are having mold tests before purchasing a house. If you have a house up for sale and are concerned that you may have mold in your home that will be discovered by potential clients, it’s best to get a test done yourself first so that you can know exactly what you’re dealing with. In most cases, your house will be free of mold or will have such a small amount present that the prospective Seattle buyer won’t have to turn and run. 

Seattle Real Estate Market Update

Sign up to have FREE WEEKLY UPDATES on the latest Seattle real estate market activity in specific zip codes we follow e-mailed to you weekly.

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There are three things that you can do to sell your Seattle home faster than ever. These include decluttering, cleaning and repairing. When you put these 3 things into place you can expect to see a faster sale than if you ignore them.

1. Decluttering

Decluttering doesn’t just mean tidying up the home and putting things away. If you have a closet that is full to the brim with new sporting equipment, you may be afraid to open it with the fear that things will tumble down in front of a potential buyer. Take an afternoon and go through the junk that has accumulated in this closet so that you can present an open space to the person that is viewing your home. When you want to sell your Seattle home fast you won’t want to have clutter lying around anywhere in the home.

2. Cleaning

Once you’ve decluttered the place you’ll be able to get down to cleaning it up. In most cases you’ll be able to do this all on your own while in other instances you will have to call in professionals for help. If you have stains on your carpets that have been there for years that you have tried to work out on your own, call in a professional Seattle carpet cleaning company for help. They can usually get these stains cleared up in no time and it really doesn’t cost a lot to call in a cleaner for spot cleaning. A cleaner home will help you sell your Seattle home fast and this can’t be stressed enough. There are a lot of homebuyers that will simply walk away from a home if it is not immaculately clean.

3. Repairing

Call in a Seattle handyman and present him with a list of small things that need to be done around the home. For about $200 plus materials you can get a lot of things handled in the house that may not be a big deal to you but will stick out like a sore thumb to people that are walking through your home. If you can’t see any repairs that need to be done on your own, ask a neighbor or a friend to look around your house for you. It’s not uncommon to get so used to these small things that you can’t see them for yourself any longer.

To sell your Seattle home fast you need to put these three basic points into place first. They are the most important things that you can do and everything else is secondary. When you work on these you’ll be able to sell your Seattle home quicker than if you were to ignore them.

Sign up to have FREE WEEKLY UPDATES on the latest Seattle real estate market activity in specific zip codes we follow e-mailed to you weekly. 

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After your homebuyers have driven up to your driveway and have taken a look at your yard, the first entrance point to the home is going to be your front door. When selling your Seattle home you’ll need to make sure that your front door is in shape. While this is usually the case and your front door is probably okay, give it a quick inspection. There may be some bits of paint missing, some dents in the door or other things that can be repaired very quickly.

The next thing to look at is your front hallway. The entranceway is the part of the home that is going to welcome your visitors. It is a usually a small enclosure so anything that doesn’t look right will stand out like a sore thumb in this part of the home. When you’re selling your Seattle home put extra attention on this area.

You’ll notice that when people walk into your Seattle home they will take a good look at your entranceway and in many cases inspect it more than they will other rooms. It will be the place where they have to spend a few minutes to take their boots or shoes off and their eyes will be roaming while they are doing so.

Make sure that there is nothing on the floor and give it a cleaning. If you have too many things scattered around you can pick up some cheap shelving units at your local department store and a reasonably priced coat rack. If worse comes to worse, you can also just purchase plastic containers with a lid, load up some boots and shoes in them and place these containers neatly in the closet. As long as the closet looks neat and tidy, there’s nothing wrong with doing that at all.

You might want to assign one box for miscellaneous items such as suntan lotion, umbrellas, shoehorns and anything else that tends to collect near the front door. It will turn out to be a great place for people to put things when they otherwise would have just thrown them helter-skelter into the closet.

Take a look at your home as a Seattle homebuyer would. Step outside your door and then walk into your home taking a look at it with fresh eyes. Do you see anything out of place in the entranceway that needs to get handled? It’s often the little things that count when selling your Seattle home.

Sign up to have FREE WEEKLY UPDATES on the latest Seattle real estate market activity in specific zip codes we follow e-mailed to you weekly.

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