If you have much experience with selling your house, you probably have your own ideas about what has seemed to be the preparations that made the most difference with the least trouble and expense. Here are three you might not have used before:

* Closets – every now and then you’ll see clutter-clearing advice that emphasizes how important it is that closets be neat and organized—shoes lined up, drawers closed, shelves neatened, etc. The new idea is to empty the closets. Not entirely, though: empty just half of what’s in there! It’s actually a good way to use a closet, because when it’s jammed to the rafters, many items are never used anyway (they get lost among everything else). By putting half the stuff into storage, the net effect is that closets appear much more spacious.

* Refrigerators — an age-old adage has it that what you’re really selling isn’t a Williamsburg house; it’s a kitchen. That’s an exaggeration with a grain of truth. Nobody would say that you’re selling a refrigerator—but there might be another grain of truth in there as well. Buyers really do open refrigerator doors, and what they find registers. So the cleaner, the better. Since cleaning involves emptying it shelf by shelf, while you’re at it, you might as well take the opportunity to declutter. In refrigerator terms, decluttering means getting rid of the bits and pieces and too-ancient jars you won’t ever use again anyway. Some expert advice includes actually staging your fridge: adding healthy items selected for maximum foodie appeal. But since you have to continue preparing actual meals for everyone, I suggest sticking to the usual family favorites.

* Lights: at night — especially once I’ve planted my “FOR SALE” sign out front—there is a fresh opportunity to indulge in some inexpensive Williamsburg showmanship. Think “stage lighting.” Now that the Williamsburg days are short and nights long, more folks are out driving in the dark of night or early morning. A floodlit entryway flanked by attractive spots highlighting landscape features will add eye-catching architectural interest. Too, when you’re selling your house, it never hurts when you also subtly upstage the surrounding properties. For some homes, color can be especially appealing when it’s not too garish.

Those are just three easy but effective ideas that are among those that can add up to a Williamsburg house that earns its “SOLD” sign fast. Since every property is unique, each offers different opportunities. When you give me a call for a no-obligation consultation, we can put our heads together to come up with some that will work best!

A number of “Smart House” products made headway in 2016, so before the crystal ball gets hauled up over Times Square, this is an appropriate moment to review which ones promised relevant real estate applications. Anyone who will be house hunting or selling in Williamsburg VA. anytime soon might want to become familiar with some of what’s out there.

 It’s safe to say that the whole notion of household management gadgets that plug into the internet—an idea that was exotic a few years back—is now readily recognized by the majority of Williamsburg consumers. More and more of us are beginning to consider which ones will make life easier (rather than just producing a ‘gee whiz!’ reaction from friends and family). The best smart features really do add value.

 The greatest enabler for most smart house devices is the presence of a home wireless network. Whereas installation was formerly tricky and expensive, it’s currently close to foolproof (even for those without a twelve-year-old to handle the installation). And prices are definitely down. You can find plug-and-play wireless routers for under $40—some of them carrying 90+% customer approval ratings. Pricier models are more powerful.

 When it comes to having a real impact on Williamsburg real estate commerce, true smart house innovations are those that have a practical application for controlling household systems. Those dealing with household security are among the leaders. There are smart deadbolt-enabling kits that remotely control compatible deadbolts. There are wi-fi-to-internet-connected video doorbell outfits that do a lot more than doorbells—they broadcast and record video of visitors while allowing truly remote smartphone monitoring.

Also in the security realm, there are smart batteries that plug into existing smoke or CO2 detectors. If the alarm goes off, it alerts your smartphone. You can then call 911 or silence the alarm. Battery-operated garage door openers have always been remote—but some of them now are smart, too. Just tap your mobile device’s screen to open or close the garage door. Soon, manufacturers say they will automatically open when your car nears the driveway, and close when it's safely inside.

If you’ve ever had a nightmare about being on vacation when one of your house’s “water-prone places” floods, smart water monitors can send an alert to your mobile device. Smart light bulbs can be your artistically-attuned mood managers, changing their demeanor from bright white to softer tones based on the light in the remainder of the room. Some sense motion to help them decide whether they should turn themselves on or off. They can even pow-wow with the heaters, deciding that the heat should be turned on or off, depending on whether you’re at home.

More on the entertainment area are the smart speakers, like Echo or Google Home. They’re always on, slavishly awaiting your request for information about the local weather, news, or the kind of questions that occur to you when you know a robot database is craving attention. They’re called “speakers,” but they’re really pretty decent-sounding complete sound systems—so making your music library available for instant playback is increasingly popular.

Not yet available is a Williamsburg real estate smart speaker application that would respond to the command “play music that makes prospects want to buy this house.” Until they come up with that one, to sell you own Williamsburg home, better just call me!

 For prospective home buyers who have been eyeing the Williamsburg listings without any particular sense of urgency, last week’s mortgage interest rate news could have added an element of angst. In the up-again/down-again world of consumer finance, even the threat of higher mortgage interest rates acts as a nudge in favor of action. And the lead story in USA Today’s Money section headlined it succinctly:

“Mortgage rates, home sales hit 4-month high.”

The actual rise in mortgage interest rates in itself was scarcely significant enough to spur potential Williamsburg buyers to action. The rise was tiny—just 0.05%. That was still below where rates were even a year ago, when they were near historic lows. Per The Wall Street Journal, “borrowing costs remain low…well below the September 2015 average of 3.89%.”

But that good news for buyers didn’t come without an overhang of apprehension. In fact, the reason for the jump in home sales could well have been mortgage interest rate anxiety. Analysts weren’t shy about pointing to the expectation that the immediate future would probably include higher rates. In other words, a Fed decision. Again.

“The Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates later this year,” according to CNBC, citing remarks made by New York Fed President William Dudley. The week also found the Fed’s San Francisco counterpart, John Williams, broadly hinting at a hike sooner rather than later, since “it makes sense to get back to a pace of gradual rate increases.”

The specter of higher mortgage interest rates has always been related to home buying activity since the size of homeowners’ monthly payments are so dramatically tied to them. Especially for those who can remember when Williamsburg mortgage interest rates were two or three times those quoted today, the desire to avoid repeating the experience is compelling.

That sense of urgency wouldn’t be dampened by news that the pace of home sales have also quickened. Nobody wants to be too slow to seize a closing opportunity—so last week’s headlines about rising sales and rising mortgage interest rates could easily have been a wake-up call for some.

That’s not to say that any prediction about what the Fed will actually do isn’t an iffy proposition. Although most analysts seem more certain than not that a hike in December is all but baked into the pudding, there were a few naysayers. MarketWatch highlighted economist Lindsey Piegza, who said that although a rate increase was already being priced into the market, “I don’t expect the Fed to actually pull the trigger in December.” The reason: the data continues to support the notion that the Fed needs to remain on the sideline.”

Williamsburg mortgage interest rate watchers would scarcely be surprised if that proves to be the case: we’ve seen it play out the same way for most of the year. But as a reality check for anyone who might be seriously considering a real estate move anytime soon: now is a terrific time to buy from any perspective—historical or financial. Which makes it prime time to give me a call 1-757-328-0095 (Marshall)!

 Whenever you’re in the planning stages for your next Williamsburg real estate venture, the best available local mortgage rate is a number you look for. Whether you are thinking of a purchase of a new home in Williamsburg VA or simply refinancing your existing property, that rate determines how much you will pay each month.

You would think that getting a good idea of what that number is should be pretty easy. Certainly you would be encouraged by what you find on the web. That number—the mortgage rate—is available online almost everywhere you turn. It’s in TV ads. It’s on the radio. It’s almost looking for you. 

But as everyone soon learns, those numbers aren’t exactly the ones that you need. What appears in the ads and pop-ups isn’t necessarily that number (if by “that number” you mean the mortgage rate you will wind up paying). 

This whole topic was addressed this last weekend by USA Today in an article that did a good job of explaining why the actual mortgage rate that most applicants will be offered is not readily available. The rates in the ads are called the “published” rates. Unlike many other kinds of consumer advertisements, in mortgage financial parlance, a “published” rate isn’t the same as a “promised” rate. As this month’s survey by Freddie Mac specified, the mortgage rate average of 3.45% was on average only available to customers who chose to pay an additional fee—in this case, .5 point of the loan amount. For a $275,000 loan, that would cost the borrower $1,375 up front to get the “published” mortgage loan rate.

That isn’t the only wrinkle. As USA Today put it, “Lenders also publish rates that have very specific prerequisites.” The rate may only apply to applicants with specific credit scores. The rate might call for a minimum loan-to-value percentage, too—or only be available in specific areas (which may or may not include our area).

This might sound like a deliberate bait-and-switch tactic by the lenders, but when you get to the reasons for all the razmatazz, it’s actually necessary. Our town’s mortgage lenders are able to keep rates competitively low by only lending to borrowers who have a very good chance of repaying the loan. Those whose histories indicate that they pose a higher risk of not being able to keep up their monthly payments have to expect that they will be quoted a higher interest rate. The last time mortgage lenders stopped doing a good job of those risk calculations, it triggered what we now call “the great recession”—and just about everyone paid a price for that.

So it may be inconvenient, but in order to really find out what your true interest rate will be for a specific real estate transaction in Williamsburg VA, you have to go through the motions of applying for it. In this age of readily available instant information, that can seem like a run-around—but it’s necessary. I’m here to make this and every other aspect of your Williamsburg real estate doings as easy as possible. Call me!

Homes for sale in Williamsburg VA compete in the marketplace based on the major search criteria that have long been in place: location, architectural style, number of bedrooms and baths, overall size, style, quality, age, etc. 

It’s a given that curb appeal and the property’s other photogenic qualities also make a difference for how much buyer interest is generated, and how soon serious offers roll in. We who deal in the marketplace also keep an eye on any emerging or strengthening trends and that could impinge on our Williamsburg clients’ properties’ popular appeal. One of those factors might be in the process of becoming more important—it has to do with landscaping.

In any year, this is the season when landscaping makes the biggest impact on potential buyers.  If January is prime time to show off a home’s outstanding fireplace or welcoming radiant heating setup, July does the same for a property’s outdoor living attributes. A welcoming yard or leafy patio can be the final extra feature that propels a house for sale in town into the ‘sold’ column—but now it seems more important that the effect be due to the right kind of greenery!

That’s the takeaway from the ASLA’s latest query to its membership. The American Society of Landscape Architects is its members’ pre-eminent professional association. Part of their charge is to track the trends and innovations in what is called residential outdoor design elements—exterior features that can make a home for sale more saleable—or, it now seems, less so.

In their latest poll, landscape architects were asked to rate the expected popularity of backyard design elements based on what they are hearing from the field. Needless to say, we might expect those factors to show a commensurate impact on their popularity with prospective buyers of our area homes for sale. 

Among the Top Ten project types that registered the highest expected consumer demand, all but two reflected some element of the same theme: water sustainability. Scoring highest was “Rainwater/graywater harvesting” with 88%. The next three most popular project types also showed an awareness of water conservation. “Native” and “Drought-Tolerant” plants and “low maintenance landscapes” each weighed in with more than 80% of respondents. “Permeable paving”—which can be a method of avoiding water wastage through pavement washing, came in next. Also in the list were “rain gardens”, “drip/water-efficient irrigation,” and “reduced lawn areas.”

Water conservation has long been a serious concern for those with a keen green awareness quotient, but when responses on this kind of popularity list reach eight out of ten, that awareness and concern must be notching up considerably. It’s something to bear in mind for those whose Williamsburg VA homes will be up for sale in the future—particularly if any landscape beautification projects are being considered. I hope you will feel free to call me whenever a question arises about how to prepare your own property for our area’s active real estate market!