Posted on February 28th, 2008 by Florence Beaton
Green homes are hot right now, and even if your home wasn’t built green, there are plenty of things you can do now that will make it more eco-friendly and help it appeal more to buyers.
Using natural window treatments and décor items in your staging helps a lot, especially if the window treatments are staying with the house. Using other natural materials makes the home seem more inviting.
If you’re not convinced that green homes are selling better than conventional homes, take this anecdotal evidence: a new construction home near my house was built with energy efficiency and environmental friendliness in mind. While most well-priced homes in this area take 6-8 months to sell, this one was under contract within a month. Buyers care about a home that’s going to save them money in the long run (such as efficient heating and cooling systems, good insulation and passive solar design) and homes with energy-saving features fit the bill perfectly.
Realty Times has an article that covers more of why you may want to stage your home in an eco-friendly way. If you’re planning to upgrade any of your home’s major systems or appliances, it’s probably worth it to spend a little extra for greener options, such as Energy-Star rated appliances.
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Posted on December 27th, 2007 by Florence Beaton
Posted on November 27th, 2007 by Tim Menk
If you are planning a move, or want to transport some large objects to your vacation home without renting or driving a truck, you might want to consider becoming a POD-person. No, we’re not talking about Invasion of the Body Snatchers, we’re referring to the increasingly ubiquitous portable storage units being used all over the country. If you haven’t used one yet, or haven’t seen them in your neighborhood, it’s likely you might see one soon.
Last year, as part of a move from Connecticut to Vermont, I contacted a local company that offers portable storage units for rent. At first, I rented two 5’ x 7’ x 8’ weatherproof boxes, so that I could remove personal items and some furniture from the house, to prepare it for sale. After the sale of the property, I rented 4 more units, in order to pack the rest of my household goods and prepare them for shipment north. These storage units were a great help in moving. In previous moves, all of the packing and transporting of stuff needed to take place in a very short period of time, usually one or two days, driven by the high cost of long-term truck rental. And apart form the time factor, better yet, I didn’t need to drive the loaded truck when it came time to transport the storage units north, instead, the storage company trucked them to Vermont for me.
My good experience with having used portable storage units notwithstanding, there is some downside to the use of this method for moving your household. One of the primary problems, these units are not very pretty. They can clutter your yard or driveway, or worse, the street in front of your house, until they are loaded and moved. This could definitely hurt the curbside appeal of your property and could also offend your neighbors. I was lucky on this front. I had ample room behind my garage to tuck the units in out of sight of the street and my neighbor’s homes. This likely wouldn’t be possible in many cases.
If you want to know more about portable storage units, click here for an article that describes some of the pros and cons of using them from the Washington Post.
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Posted on October 5th, 2007 by Florence Beaton
The top viewed property on 2ndhome.net for the past week was a 3+ bedroom, 2 bathroom oceanfront home in Hills Beach, Maine. It’s listed at $950,000 by Hollow Woods Management.
The second most-viewed property was a 5 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom lakefront home on 3.56 acres in Sunapee, New Hampshire. It’s listed at $3,950,000 by the New London Agency.
The third most-viewed property was an ocean view condo in Daytona Beach, Florida. It’s listed at $119,900 by RE/MAX Property Centre.
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Posted on September 28th, 2007 by Florence Beaton
The #1 most-viewed listing on 2ndhome.net this week is located in Sunapee, New Hampshire. This home has 5 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms and is located on 3.56 lakefront acres. It’s listed at $3,950,000 by the New London Agency.
The #2 most-viewed listing is located in Park City / Tollgate Canyon, Utah. This 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom log home is located on .94 acres. It’s listed at $529,000 by Pine Meadows Properties.
The #3 most-viewed listing is located in Tomahawk, Wisconsin. It’s a waterfront land parcel consisting of 5 acres with 220’ of frontage on Lake Mohawksin. It’s listed at $139,900 by McKeough Land Company.
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