Staging Approaches to Boost any North Las Vegas Home Sale

With spring already upon us, we stand at the threshold of our North Las Vegas first major selling season of 2014. If you are preparing to add your own property to the North Las Vegas home listings, the International Association of Home Staging Professionals would like to draw your attention to some statistics that bolster their members’ proposition. None is more compelling than this one: non-staged homes remain 79 days longer on market than their professionally-staged neighbors.

Still, since not everyone hires a professional staging company to work their magic, you’d think there would be a few DIY alternatives that would well worth doing. Of course, there are: and some go beyond the most well-known staging rules that are basic to any home sale:

 
1. De-clutter (then de-clutter again). The stagers’ single most important line item remains this: de-clutter. There is little cost to de-cluttering a home (usually no more than a storage unit’s rental). The professional insight is that once you have done it, go back through the house and do it again! That second round might only involve boxing up a few remaining personal knick-knacks, but it can also suddenly reveal items that clash with a room’s overall color palette.

 
2. Light(en) it up: Neutral colors are the rule for staging a home, but good light can be equally important. Make sure every room is well-lit, with clean windows, bright light bulbs (some do dim over time), and plenty of lamps or fixtures. If possible, disperse the height of lighting sources by mixing floor and table lamps, windows and overhead fixtures.

 
3. Find the focal points: The largest item in the room does not always have to be the focal item. If you have an antique chest or a captivating painting, see if you can arrange the room so that it’s the first thing your eye picks up as you enter the room. A strong focal point gives a sense of character to a room. It works to your advantage, since the focal point naturally emphasizes the strongest feature of the room.

These are approaches that do take some time and effort—but imaginative staging really does make an impact on perceived value, and, as a result, time-on-market. For more North Las Vegas home selling insights, give me a call anytime to discuss your own real estate plans!

Andrea Gonzalez, Realtor® "Your Dedicated Realtor for Life"Realty One Group
5550 Painted Mirage Rd, Las Vegas, Nevada 89149Serving: Summerlin, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas
Direct: 702.485.7887Search For A Home: Las Vegas Online Search



It is always an honor to assist Home Buyers and Sellers with their Las Vegas Real Estate needs. If you are searching for Las Vegas Real Estate Listings, then I urge you to utilize the valuable tools on my VERY USER FRIENDLY WEBSITE. Most important, Write, Phone or Text Me with any questions.

Being Your Own Boss and Getting a Loan For Your North Las Vegas Home

You don’t have to tell anyone who is self-employed that there are extra costs that go with the benefits. In addition to the long hours and weight of responsibility that come with the job description, getting a home loan has always added special challenges. Now that we are into the new Dodd-Frank era of federal oversight, some of the changes warrant an early heads-up. The 2010 legislation that went into effect on January 10 created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with the function of tightening the rules lenders follow in order to discourage the issuing of mortgages that borrowers can’t be reasonably expected to be able to repay. To deliver on that worthy purpose, more proof and more paperwork will be required to support the income claimed on loan applications (here you might well be hearing an imaginary smacking sound from self-employed persons reading this and whacking their foreheads—paperwork is the bane of the self-employed). If you are your own boss and getting a loan in North Las Vegas is on your horizon, take heart! Just because it may be more difficult to apply for home loan doesn’t mean it’s impossible. The new lending rules describe eight specific factors lenders should verify and document before advancing home loans. They include the borrower’s assets, credit history, employment status and other debt obligations. The penalty for lenders who fail to do so adequately is that they may be legally liable if a borrower proves unable to repay. For the self-employed, the extra burden can come with the requirement that borrowers be able to show consistent income (hear that forehead-smacking sound again?) The general rule is that borrowers be able to provide at least two years’ worth of personal tax returns. Since self-employed people getting a loan in North Las Vegas often have perfectly valid reasons for fluctuating annual incomes, it’s vital to talk with a broker and lender as early as possible to establish the taxable income level needed to qualify for a loan. That talk should cover other areas. For instance, self-employed people have greater flexibility than most when it comes to reporting deductible expenses on their income tax forms. Since those same deductions result in lower net incomes, that can be problematical when it comes to getting a loan. One way to counter that problem is to demonstrate that the expenses incurred were used to buy things that will improve their business in the long term. Another approach is demonstrate that similar expenses are not likely to re-occur (particularly apt when a business is just starting up). If you are among the self-employed—and plan on getting a loan—planning is key.  Get your ducks in a row now so the loan process doesn’t derail you later. It’s never too early to call me as an early resource before we get to move on to the fun stuff—your home search!

Being Your Own Boss and Getting a Loan For Your North Las Vegas Home

Search All Homes For Sale Homes Close to Where You Work Avoid Foreclosure What is Your Home Worth? Andrea Gonzalez Realty One Group 702-485-7887 andreag714@gmail.com

North Las Vegas Listing Activity Gets a Weekend Dose of Good News

Real estate offices have been gearing up for the imminent spring selling season, the time when North Las Vegas listings swell to meet the expected surge in buying activity. I sometimes put quotes around ‘selling season’ because so many factors go into home sales that it can be slightly misleading—we do sell homes all year long, after all!

But there is a lot of truth (and historical verification) to the idea that springtime brings a burst of new North Las Vegas listings and accompanying selling activity. There can be lots of reasons why that happens, but this past weekend, area homeowners who were reading The Wall Street Journal might have seen some extra reasons to hurry up and add their homes to the North Las Vegas listings.

Some of those reasons have to do with weather; some with the economy.

The front page of WSJ’s Weekend Edition headlined the first piece of long-awaited good news: “Job Rebound Eases Fears of Spring Stall.” It explained that Friday’s payroll numbers showed upticks despite the widespread harsh weather that should have knocked them down.

Most economists had been on the fence about whether the years-long weak economic recovery would continue. Even though the previous two months of slowing growth had been attributed to the ‘endless winter’ blanketing much of the nation, it wasn’t clear that underlying weakness wasn’t also present. But the sudden improvement in the job picture, even as the weather failed to lighten up, was an unexpected event—one that could “ease worries” about the likelihood of a fundamental slowdown. In fact, forecasters were beginning to project that the negative economic effects due to the unusual weather (estimated at a loss of 1%) may be more than restored when the sun returns. Spring conditions are now expected to add an additional 1.2% to second quarter growth.

Even a slight rise in the unemployment rate was greeted as hopeful news. What sounded like a negative turns out to be the opposite: more people were returning to the workforce, a sure sign that workers see jobs beginning to reappear. Jobs have always been tied to real estate listing and sales activity, so this year, the NAR’s website truism may be on the mark:

“Spring brings rain and flowers – and possibly extra green in the final sales price of your home.”

 

Andrea Gonzalez, Realtor® "Your Dedicated Realtor for Life"Realty One Group
5550 Painted Mirage Rd, Las Vegas, Nevada 89149Serving: Summerlin, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas
Direct: 702.485.7887Search For A Home: Las Vegas Online Search


It is always an honor to assist Home Buyers and Sellers with their Las Vegas Real Estate needs. If you are searching for Las Vegas Real Estate Listings, then I urge you to utilize the valuable tools on my VERY USER FRIENDLY WEBSITE. Most important, Write, Phone or Text Me with any questions.

North Las Vegas Home Loan Rate-Watchers Eye New Fed Leadership

On January 6, the Senate confirmed Janet Yellen to head the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, making it the first time ever that a woman has led the nation’s most important financial institution. In some respects, it makes her the most powerful woman in the United States.

As with every personnel change in the Fed, Yellen’s rise has fostered plenty of concerns about the direction the Federal Reserve will take under her leadership. Since it’s the institution that determines the federal funds rate—which in turn dictates how much businesses and individuals pay for their loans—any change in Federal Reserve policy has a significant impact on our North Las Vegas home loan rates. Sooner or later, those rates affect just about all of us. 

So, what clues do we have about the direction Ms. Yellen is likely to lean? One came just before the financial crisis. Before the financial meltdown, Yellen expressed concerned. In 2005 she is quoted as saying, “Analyses do indicate that house prices are abnormally high, that there is a “bubble" element, even accounting for factors that would support high house prices."

Last year was an excellent one for North Las Vegas real estate, yet according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Index, national housing prices are still 20% off the peaks set in 2006. Research from real estate website Trulia shows that U.S. housing is still 4% undervalued (compared with a 39% overvaluation reached at the 2006 peak). Happily, Yellen, an early identifier of the previous housing bubble, has not expressed similar concerns about today’s real estate market. 

In 2012, the Federal Reserve’s previous leadership announced an unemployment threshold of 6.5% as the point at which it would consider raising interest rates. During Yellen’s first testimony as Chairman, she stated that the Federal open market committee would likely keep interest rates near zero well past that mark. In Yellen’s view, the “recovery in the labor market is far from complete.” As evidence, Yellen pointed to 7.1 million people who are mired in part time work but who would prefer full time jobs—and to the 3.6 million people who have been unemployed longer than six months.

For North Las Vegas home loan rate watchers concerned that a rise in rates might dent real estate values, the new Chairman has sounded some reassuring notes. In her recent address to the Committee on Financial Services, Yellen explicitly stated that she expects “a great deal of continuity in the FOMC’s approach to monetary policy.”  That could mean that interest rates for local home loans might gradually rise, it’s not likely to be precipitous.

The bottom line: dramatic rises in interest rates are unlikely under Yellen’s watch, but those considering getting a home loan who have not yet taken advantage of still low interest rates might do well to consider doing so.

Andrea Gonzalez, Realtor® "Your Dedicated Realtor for Life"Realty One Group
5550 Painted Mirage Rd, Las Vegas, Nevada 89149Serving: Summerlin, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas
Direct: 702.485.7887Search For A Home: Las Vegas Online Search


It is always an honor to assist Home Buyers and Sellers with their Las Vegas Real Estate needs. If you are searching for Las Vegas Real Estate Listings, then I urge you to utilize the valuable tools on my VERY USER FRIENDLY WEBSITE. Most important, Write, Phone or Text Me with any questions.