How to Freshen Up Your Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is essential to drawing in buyers to your home. Here are three ways to increase your curb appeal.

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A client of mine recently asked a question about how to spruce up their home when getting it ready for the market. Specifically, they wanted to know what they could do to increase their home’s curb appeal. These are the three areas I advised that they focus on:

1. The entryway. This is the first impression buyers will get when they actually walk into the house. The door should be in good shape. If it’s not, repainting it and replacing the doorknob are two good options.

2. Home structure. Clean those windows and screens. Repainting your trim is a good idea as well.

3. Landscaping. When someone drives up to the property, this is the first thing they will see. A well-maintained lawn free of weeds is a great image to put into a buyer’s mind. Other good ideas include power washing your walkways and cutting back shrubs or trees that may be blocking natural light coming in through your windows.

These are the most important areas to focus on.

These are the most important areas to focus on for curb appeal, but getting your home ready for showings is an even more complicated task. If you have any questions for us about how to prepare your home for sale, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you.

A Handy Program for Savvy Buyers

I’m joined once again by Barry Krevoy to talk mortgages. He’s got a program right now that can save buyers thousands over the life of their loan.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search

Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

Today I am excited to be joined once again by our preferred lender, Barry Krevoy. He’s with us today to talk about a great program that he has access to that could greatly help you if you’re thinking about buying a home.

Most lenders want you to put at least 20% down on your home purchase, but you aren’t required to. However, if you don’t put that 20% down, you will have to pay mortgage insurance each month. On a $450,000 loan amount, you could pay over $300 per month in mortgage interest alone.

To get around this problem of having to shell out thousands of dollars extra over the life of your loan, Barry has an investor down payment assistance program. With this program, you bring as much as you can to the table for the down payment, and the investor will cover the rest up to 20%, eliminating mortgage insurance.

When you add up all the money you would have had to pay for insurance over the life of the loan, this program is saving you tens of thousands of dollars. This program helps buyers out by giving them a partner. If you end up selling the home at a loss, the investor will take the loss with you.

This is a fantastic program for any buyer.

Another way this program helps, especially in Orange County, is by allowing you to win homes that are just outside of your price range. If you only qualify for $500,000 and your dream home is listed at $510,000, the investor can help you cover the difference. It’s really an amazing program.

If you have any questions about this program or any other loan program for that matter, give Barry a call at (949) 735-4009. If you have any other questions, we are always here to answer them as well. We look forward to hearing from you soon.