Miami Real Estate

I OFTEN HEAR REALTORS SAY:  ”RE-PAINT THE HOUSE TO MAKE IT MORE  ”NEUTRAL” and  MORE APPEALING TO BUYERS.” 

THERE’S A CERTAIN DEGREE OF VALIDITY TO THAT ” BLANK CANVAS”  THEORY …  BUT   … WILL  BUYERS  ACTUALLY REMEMBER YOUR  HOUSE … OR WILL IT BLEND INTO  UNMEMORABLE SAMENESS?  Here are Five ways to Make  Buyers Remember Your House! Read the rest of this entry »

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SELLING YOUR HOUSE?  DON’T GET OVERWHELMED BY  ‘WHERE TO START”.   START BY REMOVING THE CLUTTER:  BOX UP  PHOTOS, TRINKETS, COLLECTIONS… ANYTHING THAT COLLECTS DUST.  YOU DON’T WANT BUYERS DISTRACTED, TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHO LIVES THERE . 

EMPTY OUT THE CLOSETS, AND RE-ORGANIZE. YOU ARE MOVING ANYWAY!  WHATEVER YOU DO NOW, YOU WON’T HAVE TO DO LATER. GET RID OF WHATEVER YOU DON’T USE AND DON’T WEAR.  THERE SHOULD BE SIGNIFICANT EMPTY SPACE EN EVERY CLOSET (AND THAT GOES FOR THE LINEN CLOSETS AND PANTRIES AS WELL).  ARRANGE HANGING ITEMS  BY COLORS, OR ALTERNATE PRINTS WITH SOLIDS … LEAVING SPACE BETWEEN THE HANGERS.  BASKETS.

CREATE  A “MODEL HOME” OR A ”HOTEL” FEEL  (YOU DON’T WANT HOME BUYERS  WONDERING ABOUT WHO IS/WAS THERE. YOU WANT TO CREAT A ’”THIS COULD BE MINE!’” FEEL SO THEY CAN IMAGINE THEMSELVES LIVING THERE.  

PLACE THE FURNITURE SO AS TO CREATE FLOW AND DEFINE SPACE.  GIVE EACH ROOM A PURPOSE. REMOVE ANY FURNITURE THAT BLOCKS THE DOORS OR WINDOWS.  REMOVE EXCESS FURNITURE TO MAKE THE ROOMS SEEM BIGGER.  THE MORE FURNITURE, THE SMALLER THE ROOM WILL ‘FEEL’.

EMPTY BEDROOMS?   I TELL MY SELLER CLIENTS  TO STACK  THOSE BOXES ( EMPTY … OR THE ONES  FULL OF PHOTOS/BOOKS/PERSONAL NICKNACKS) AND CREATE A ‘BED’.  DRESS IT WITH LUXURIOUS LINENS AND PILLOWS AND YOU’LL HAVE AN ‘INSTANT’ ROOM.  BELIEVE ME, A ROOM WITH MINIMAL FURNITURE OUTSHINES AN EMPTY ONE.

MOST BUYERS DON’T MIND SEEING STACKS OF BOXES IN THE GARAGE. IT’S  AN SOLID INDICATOR THAT THE SELLERS ARE SERIOUS ABOUT MOVING.  ALTERNATIVELY… PORTABLE STORAGE UNITS WORK WELL, AND CAN BE FILLED, AND CARTED AWAY.

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Looking for a way to spruce up your home? Try something simple like taking an unfinished piece of furniture and making it look antique! HGTV has created an easy guide to getting this look.

There are a few materials you will need to get started, like the basic piece of furniture. Get an unfinished piece of furniture, such as the Ikea bedside table, Aspelund, Natural and then the working materials. To finish the piece, get some oil-based primer, 2 colors of satin-finish paint, a stencil, a small foam roller, a paintbrush, cheesecloth, a rag, dark paint and glaze mixture and some polyurethane.

Follow these simple steps to antiquing furniture:

Read the rest of this entry »

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Looking to spruce up your home or are you simply tired of the same color on your walls? Painting is a fun way to change the feel of any room. Barbara Jacobs from HGTV has provided 10 tips to picking paint colors using “paint psychology.” She says that color accounts for 60% of our reaction to objects. The effects of color are psychological, physical, subtle yet significant. The color around us is influential in where we work and live.

1. Start Small: You may not be familiar with painting, so pick a small hall hall or powder room and experiment there. In order to see the results quickly, pick an area that’s quick to do. To start, pick a color from a piece of art, a rug, dishes or a piece of furniture as a main color or accent.

2. Think About Your Mood: Consider the mood of a room when selecting a color. Soft, neutral,  cool colors tend to create a quieter feel while the darker colors are more dramatic. When you think about what kind of dining room ambiance you want, do you think of something formal or something more casual and sociable? If you answered formal, use deeper blue-greens and neutrals. If you answered casual, use warmer, brighter and more contrasting colors.

3. Pay Attention To Lighting: Natural daylight works best for showing true color. Flourescent lighting casts a sharp blue tone while incandescent lighting brings out yellows and warm tones. A strong color might be effective when it’s used as an accent wall with indirect light, while the strong color might be too bright when used on walls that are next to a large window.

 4. Learn The Color Terms: Hue is what color is called. (ex-blue is the hue). How dark or light a hue is will determine it’s value. Saturation refers to how dominant the hue is…the red hue becomes less dominant as you go from red to pink. Intensity is the brilliance of the color. Pure colors like red are more intense than yellow-green. A stronger, more intense color usually has more hue. A very light color can feel too bright and stark when it shows up on all surfaces in a room. Instead, use two or more medium-light and closely related pastels to create a luminous effect when used in the same room. So, even if you want a light colored room, use colors that are more saturated than off-white or a light pastel.

5. Test Your Color Choice: Test your color choices out on a large area of the wall or a posterboard. Step out of your comfort zone by considering soft, deep neutrals like olive green or chocolate brown as main or accent colors. You could add a dramatic feel by using stronger colors on the ceiling, with a tinted celing creating a whole new look in a room.

6. Add Depth With Decorative Finishes: Transform bare walls into interesting spaces using subtle or dramatic visual texture and broken color. Layered color glazes and metal finishes (copper, mica,bronze or antiqued silver and gold),  add depth.

7. Walk Into Another Room: Think of it this way-when you’re in one room, you will see a piece of the other room. Therefore, as you are choosing colors, think of how they will flow from room to room to create a complete picture.

8. Follow The Color Wheel: Use a small color wheel-it’s a great reference point to modify and intensify two or more colors. Take red and green, which are normally opposite colors. They become more intense when used together. You may learn to enjoy entirely new color pallettes when you discover how many colors work really well together. The color wheel also serves to illustrate the visual temperatue of color. Drawing a fine line from the yellow-green mark down to the red-violet, you will find that the colors on the left are warm while the ones on the right are cool.

9. Play Up Monochromatic Schemes: If you think one color is boring, create bold variations by within one color group by using contrasting paint finishes. You can use closely related colors or a single color in different finishes for walls in one space. To create an accent color, use warmer (reds) or cooler (blues) colors to complement the main color group.

10. Choose Different Paint Finishes: To create a cohesive look in rooms with lots of windows and doors, use a different finish on the paint. You can use an eggshell finish on walls and a satin or semi gloss on trim. The color will look slightly different on each surface.

Happy painting! For other home decorating tips, click here.  If I can help you with any of your real estate needs, please send me a note or give me a call.

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Cleaning your home can be a daunting task, but home economist Deborah-Taylor-Hough says it can all be done in 10 minutes…here’s how:

-Make a game out of it-Set a timer for 10 minutes and have the kids race to pick up all they can before the alarm goes off.

-Use the dishwasher to clean non-dishes. Clean things like candlesticks, vases, even children’s toys.

-Prevent bathroom mirrors from fogging up by rubbing dish soap into the mirrors and letting it dry. Rub the soap in vigorously, but it should prevent foggy mirrors for up to two weeks.

-If more than one child uses the bathroom, use old shoeboxes with labels to seperate the toiletries.

-Remove dust from stuffed animals by placing them in the dryer on fluff cycle with a dryer sheet.

-Take 5 minutes a day to clean up each room. It is not in place of a deep cleaning, but it will keep the clutter to a minimum in the mean time.

-Vacuum and then dust, so the vacuum doesn’t kick back dust into the air and onto furniture.

-Refrigerator odors can be absorbed by placing an open bowl filled with two or three charcoal brickettes on a back shelf.

These simple steps can keep your house looking fresh and clean…and it only takes 10 minutes!

If I can help you with any of your real estate needs, please contact me.

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Simple  Home Improvements …  on a dime!  By  replacing outdated cabinet hardware, this Miami kitchen goes from dated … to SELLABLE … in minutes   (spending about what you might  at Starbucks!) .  

A screwdriver and a handful of wrought iron cabinet  knobs:  Outdated gold knobs on the left  -  Trendy ’wrought iron’  hardward on the right (Lowe’s, Home Depot, or online). 

Are you considering buying or selling real estate in Miami?   Please give us a call.    Our listings are selling!

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Some kitchens need more space and adding an island is one way to solve that problem. HGTV gives us these tips on how to build your own island. Follow these steps to making one.

1.Measure the space where the island goes.

2. Before you start, get an estimate of the width and depth for your island. You can use the size of the tiles, but be sure to factor in the space for the grout lines, to fine tune the measurements and draw a diagram of what the island will look like.

3. Use a tape ,measure to measure the birch plywood. Score the birch plywood using the T-square, which will keep it from flaring when you cut it.

4. Cut the plywood pieces with a circular straw.

5. With a table saw, cut a 45 degree mitered angle  for the side panel of the island. Be sure to cut from the underside to get a straight line with no flared edges. Repeat for the other side panel.

6. Glue and nail side pieces to top and bottom pieces and then sand any rough edges. Prime and paint the island.

7. Using a table saw, cut the bottom shelves to size. Prime and paint them.

8. Install the bottom shelf and cut frames for the bottom shelf out of wood stock, using a miter saw to cut each joint at a 45 degree angle. Prime and paint the pieces and attach the frame to the precut bottom shelf using glue and nails.

9. On the frame, dry-fit the bottom shelf and screw it into position. Do the same thing with the center shelf.

10. You can use the same countertops that are throughout he kitchen or get creative.

Once you revamp your kitchen, contact me and I’ll help you sell your house!

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We all want the latest and greatest in kitchens and bathrooms, but it turns out that spending money on these kind of improvements might not be helping SELL your home. Think of it this way: Your kitchen may look fabulous – but if the roof is leaking, most buyers won’t look beyond that factor.

Remodeling Magazine  says that you are less likely to recoup your investment on a major bathroom or kitchen remodel than you are on a basic home improvement project, like new siding. According to their study, siding replacement recovered 92.8 % of it’s cost, while 80% or more was receovered on replacing windows or roofs. The only home renovation that showed a likelihood of a good return was a minor kitchen renovation (approximately $15,000). Read the rest of this entry »

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“Staging” is a household word these days… BUT HONESTLY… getting your house ready-to-sell does NOT necessarily require staging. 

D…A…R…E         (to try!) Read the rest of this entry »

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Choosing the right color for the exterior of your home can be a daunting task. With the help of HGTV’s Shari Miller, these tips should be very helpful in the painting process.

First and foremost, do your research a couple months before you actually start to paint. You can walk around your neighborhood and see what color schemes your neighbors have for their homes. If you find a color you really like, knock on the door and complement the owner. Maybe they will give you the color. It’s nice to blend and be part of the neighborhood, but you can add some accent colors to tastefully stand apart from the rest of the homes around you.

Next, flip through home magazines with lots of color photos. Pick up an assortment of exterior paint colors that offer color combination suggestions. Once you have these materials, spread them all out, cut out colors from the magazines and combine the paint color cards to create a scheme you like.

About a month before you begin painting, evaluate your home. Figure out what the surfaces are made of. Brick, tile, shingles and stone are materials that won’t change in color, so make sure your paint colors work well with them.

Talk a walk out to the street and imagine the siding color you’ve chosen and how it works with the roof, the shingles or even how it looks in between your neighbor’s homes. Take the color closer to the house and hold it up against the surface. Once you narrow down the siding colors to no more than three, go to the hardware store and buy quarts of those colors.

Right around two weeks before painting, get some samples up on the home. Put good size patches of paint along the front of the house, next to the brick (or any material that you may have), in shaded areas as well as areas of full sun. You want to get a good idea as to what the color will look like on the whole house. If you have trim colors picked out, now is the time to add those as well.

The best way to pick the trim color is to make sure it’s in the same color family as the main color on the house, maybe a couple shades lighter. You can have fun with te front door and create an accent piece that generates great curb appeal. Pay attention to how the colors look in the morning, midday, evening and night. Once you decide which color you like best, head to the paint shop.

About a week before you begin painting, have a footprint with dimensions and picture of your home so the shop can tell you how much paint you’ll need. Now, the fun begins!

Painting the outside of your home gives you an advantage when you are selling. Along with a well maintained yard, a fresh paint job creates nice curb appeal-something important for buyers. Many buyers will drive by homes and will disregard the homes with no curb appeal…even if the inside is gorgeous. It needs to invite the buyers inside.   If I can help you sell your house or find a home to move into, contact me .  I would love to help.

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