5 inexpensive tips to help sell your home
Selling your home is like entering a Beauty Contest, and how you dress your home is a vital component. Here are some simple steps to make your home the prettiest in the pageant.
1.Declutter:
When taking pictures or showing the property it is best if you home looks more like a photo in a magazine:
- Hide the toaster (Countertops empty except for a few accents pieces
- Half full (or half empty) closets and bookshelves. (Let them think they have plenty of room for their stuff)
- Get rid of the extra Furniture. (Furniture should leave lots of open space in the rooms)
- Those precious collectibles… start packing some of them away.
The goal is to make your home look like what we all dream our home looked like. Do your best to make it look like an airbrushed model on a magazine.
2.Paint:
Paint to your house, is like makeup on a beauty contestant. It can hide imperfections and make your home look younger. Light neutral colors are best. Use dark colors only as accent tones. Lighter color paints open up a space.
3.Give your property a sidewalk Serenade:
- Landscape and prune your property especially around the house.
- Those trees with low branches, trim those branches back. Don’t let the branches hide your home or make your yard seem smaller. No need to take the tree out just trim the lower branches.
- Trim the hedges (The smaller and cleaner they are the bigger your home and property will look)
- Plant some flowers
- Fresh mulch
- Keep the grass cut; it makes your yard seem larger.
4.Smell pretty:
Light scent that gives fresh sense, the plug in ones are great. If you have a basement get a dehumidifier and reduce the musty smell that often comes from a basement. Send the dog and cat to a friends if possible. Yes, I know they are a part of your family, but they are not a part of your buyer’s family and that is what matters.
5.Clean:
Put a shine on everything you can. This is a continuance of the airbrushed model theory. Remove as many pimples as you can. Wax the floor, clean the windows and mirrors. No leaves overflowing the gutters, no oil and grease spots on your driveway floor.
These steps will help your buyer picture themselves living in the house. It will help your home be the queen of the home selling pageant.
Want to see what your home is worth?
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The spoils go to the persistent
Dr Kelly Flanagan made the following comment in a recent post:
“I have been a witness to people who quit avoiding suffering and decide to carry it—venturing into the world full of courage, because they know they can bear the weight of it, because they know it won’t overwhelm them, because they know they can stand strong in the midst of it.”
Success doesn’t usually go to the most talented or the luckiest. It usually goes to the one who was beat down, failed, was rejected…. And then they got back up at tried again this time a little smarter. Every time they get knocked they get up again.
Four years ago my investing in rental real estate had almost bankrupted our family. I had to negotiate out of a deal I had made. I had made a commitment and it had led my family to the point… “where keeping that commitment would have meant taking food and shelter from my children.”
At that moment I could have quit, here are a list of excuses that would have convinced most it was a “smart decision to get out of rental properties:”
- It is too hard to find good tenants; especially in that neighborhood.
- Maintenance costs on older homes are to high
- The economy is so bad tenants don’t have money to pay rent
- You have to be rich to invest in real estate
- With all the new rules it is impossible to borrow money to renovate a home
I didn’t make a list of excuses, I made a list of lessons learned. Then I got better as a property manager. I became a better business man. And I became a better husband and father. Using these lessons I focused on the properties we had left. I was determined to do it better. Many of these hard lessons became the foundation of our current success.
2013 was our best year ever, and I still have lots of improvements to make to my systems and procedures. Our success would not have happened if it wasn’t for those hard lessons and experiences we had 4 years ago.
Our rental income is now a substantial source of income for our family. What once threatened to take food from my children, now allows me to stay at home with them 2 days each week. We are on our way toward our long term family goals.
I could have let frustration, suffering, struggle, and pain stop me from being a property owner. I could have let those failures beat me up. I choose to chalk-up the $50,000 loss to education expense. I chose to persist and pursue my dream.
My success in real estate hasn’t come because of luck, talent, or inheritance. Success came because I persisted after setbacks and failures. Letting my failures and setbacks teach me.
What is your success story? When have you been beaten down but kept going to find success?
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How to increase your minimum wage!
First the impact of raising the minimum wage for everyone:
1. You will have fewer jobs:
Most minimum wage jobs are basic entry level jobs. These jobs require little training or specialized skills.
Which means; when the labor costs gets to a certain level; companies can often develop a machine to replace that job. (PS the machine rarely takes breaks, doesn’t need days off, no health insurance). Some jobs will be replaced by automated systems and machines. Fewer jobs for those with little training or skills.
How many baggers do you see at your grocery store these days? How often do you self-scan your items? How often do you hear an automated response when you call a company? Companies found a way to design away the jobs.
How many Cashiers does Amazon have?
2. People have less incentive to improve themselves.
If your minimum wage is $11 to $15 per hour some people will be satisfied with that income level and not do technical training that makes them more valuable to society.
Every day we each rely on millions of people to make our lives more convenient and enjoyable. Many of these people you will never see, and yet their contribution to our lives is vital. The more skills and education people have the more they can contribute to the rest of us.
So, please go out and be the best “you” you can be, it will bless the rest of us.
3. Your burger will get more expensive:
That increase in labor cost has to be passed onto the consumers. It will increase inflation. Prices of products increase and this will especially hurt those most sensitive to these price changes. Those most sensitive to price changes are often the same who the minimum wage increase is designed to help.
The cost of living will rise and people will again scream for another increase to the minimum wage. The cycle and situation will remain the same…
So, What is the solution?
Minimum wage jobs are not designed to be a career. They are a starting point not the finish line.
Here are 3 idea for increasing your minimum wage:
- Education: This doesn’t have to be a traditional college so here are some other options
- Technical school, there are great programs for becoming a better you in several fields.
- Apprenticeship, some of these are formal, or you can also find that talented local person who will train you in an informal process through experience.\
- Military: most jobs in the military don’t involve carrying a rifle every day. They train you with real world skills that will transfer to your life after the military
- Entrepreneurship: this is finding a need and filling it by providing a product or service. Instead of looking for a job look for a way to serve others. If you looking for a way to get started try Dan Miller’s 48 low cost business ideas.(Affiliate LInk)
- Persistence: If there is a position you want, keep pursuing it. Then once you get it, keep pursuing and working hard.
“When you do more than you get paid for eventually you’ll be paid for more than you do.”- Zig Ziglar
Comment below: tell us what other ways people can increase their minimum wage?
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48 days book
