Adrian Willanger's Blog

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.

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You want to get the best value for the money when you purchase Seattle real estate and the more research and homework you do about the subject the better off you’ll be. By working hand-in-hand with your real estate agent you’ll be able to reach your goal of getting a great home at the best value.

One thing you can do in liaison with your agent is look at the market trends in your city. Ask about long-term trends so that you’ll know exactly what you can expect in the far future. The prices of homes will rise at a different rate in different parts of the city. You can find out what areas of town will give you the best value for your money based on past trends in the Seattle housing market.

Find out everything you can about the Seattle home you intend to purchase

What is its history? Is there anything hidden? For example, if you see some evidence of concrete work that has been done along the edge of the home, question it. Was there any type of water leakage into the home? What kind of company did the owners hire to fix it? Look for the little things that stand out and find out everything you can about them. A small leak in the concrete can lead to a bigger leak over time.

Ask about things that aren’t visible. Is the roof in good shape? How about the chimney, has it been inspected lately?  How old are the windows?  Can you feel a draft coming through them? These are things that you will not see when you inspect the house on your own and will have to find out more details about them. Actually go and stand in front of the window and see for yourself if you can feel any drafts coming in. Ask about the fireplace, the chimney and the roof. If there has been any work done, ask if they have a copy of the work reports.

Owning a home is a long-term proposition and a big financial obligation. You’ll get your money’s worth on the home by working with your Seattle real estate agent, examining trends, history and the overall components of the home

This Seattle real estate market update is courtesy of Adrian Willanger at Coldwell Banker Danforth& Associates 206 909-7536 helping people buy and sale homes in the Greater Seattle area. 

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