Deb Tebbs Group

Cascade Sotheby's International Realty

Monthly Archives: May 2012

Condo in New York Sells for Over $90 Million!

May 29, 2012 – 8:51 pm

An apartment on the 89th and 90th floors of the One57 building in New York City was sold to an unnamed buyer, setting the record for most expensive apartment ever sold in the New York. The 1,100 square foot apartment boasts sweeping panoramic views of the city below it, an effect enhanced by the 23-foot ceilings with floor-to-ceiling windows.

For more down to Earth properties, be sure to take a look at our listings for the Central Oregon area.  For those that appreciate mountain views as opposed to concrete views, Bend Oregon is the place to call your home.

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Prepping Your Home for Sale

May 29, 2012 – 7:32 pm

When you’re prepping your home for sale, there are a lot of things to consider and it can quickly become overwhelming.  The best way to approach this gargantuan undertaking is to break your tasks into small, manageable chunks and attack them one at a time.  Go room by room instead of running all over the house.  Focus on one aspect, such as cleaning, and worry about painting the walls on the next pass.  To make things a bit easier for you, here are some basic areas that are essential to making your home as sellable as possible.

Clean, Clean, Clean!

The importance of a clean home cannot be stressed enough when it comes time to sell.  Ensure that all the bathrooms are spotless, with fresh soap and towels. Carpets should be deep cleaned and wood floors polished.  Make sure the kitchen sink is clean, and that there is no trash in the bins.  Consider hiring a cleaning service to make sure that no square inch is ignored.  Ask a friend to inspect your cleaning job; it helps to have an extra pair of eyes and a good friend won’t be afraid to tell you that you’ve missed a spot!

Make Your Rooms Shine

A fresh coat of paint can make a huge difference.  If you can, repaint any rooms that are losing their sheen.  Painting your living room, kitchen, family room, and hallways the same color will make your home feel more open and connected, increasing the sense of space.  Contrast the bedrooms with the hallway paint to set them apart.  Replace or remove completely any outdated wallpaper.  Repair cracks and damage in the walls.  Make sure that all the room doors open and shut well.  Strongly consider hiring a home inspector to find any issues that could come up in the selling process.  This gives you a chance to fix them before they negatively impact your home’s value.

Get Rid of That Junk

Clutter will distract potential homebuyers from the home.  Sure, it will be gone when they move in, but it makes it difficult for them to envision their own belongings in that space.  One of the first things buyers look for is storage space.  Clean out the garage and the closets.  Hold a garage or yard sale. Get rid of old food, scrapped projects, old clothing, and obsolete electronics.  Ask yourself, “Have used this since I last moved?”  If the answer is No, then it might be time to dump it.  Also, be sure to remove any personal decorations such as family photographs, trophies, certificates, heirlooms, etc.  You want buyers to imagine that they live there, and personal items make it difficult to paint that mental image.  This also protects you, because buyers are strangers, and it is best if you don’t have personal data lying out in the open.

Improve Your Curb Appeal

The front of your house is the first thing the buyer will see on a visit or driving by, and what they say about first impressions holds true.  Clean up the yard, keep the lawn mowed, trim the bushes.  Get a new welcome mat if the old one has become worn, or if you never had one to begin with.  Add some flowers for some color; planters are great because they add to the picturesque feel of the home and you can take them with you when you move.  Replace or repaint any fading house numbers, and touch up the trim.  Consider upgrading the lanterns to more stylish ones, they make a big difference.

Make a Checklist

Your home will most likely not sell right away.  You need to be prepared to maintain the home in a sellable state for as long as it is on the market.  Create a weekly checklist of tasks that should be taken care of to ensure that the house is always ready to be shown.  This checklist should include: weekly landscape maintenance (especially in the summer months), regular dusting, sweeping walkways and porches, checking on fresh flowers both indoors and out, washing windows, regular vacuuming, and cleaning the shower or tub.  Try to put yourself in the shoes of a buyer and make sure to focus on what they would focus on.

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Bend Housing Market Improving

May 25, 2012 – 8:04 pm

It’s no secret that the Bend, Oregon Real Estate market has struggled in the past few years, but things are beginning to turn around. One big indicator is the fact that the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) has just added Bend to its NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index for May 2012, a list which currently includes 100 metro areas in 34 states around the nation. The markets are added and removed from the list as their individual conditions change, and the NAHB publishes the list on a monthly basis. This is fantastic news for current and future home owners in Central Oregon.

In order to make the list, a housing market has to steadily improve in several key areas over the course of at least six months. These areas include gains in employment, increasing home prices, and single-family housing growth. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is used to determine employment, the U.S. Census Bureau data is used to determine single-family housing growth, and Freddie Mac is used to track housing prices.

Bend improved in all of these categories, which qualified it for the list. This is great news for residents and future home owners in Bend, as these are solid signs of an improving economy. More jobs and new construction benefits everyone. Since the market started its drop in July 2006, many have wondered if Central Oregon Real Estate would ever recover. It will be a long process, but news like this is a sure sign that things are getting better.

The key to the NAHB list is the fact that the market has to show measurable and sustained improvement, which is indicative of long-term growth and recovery.  This is most readily apparent because once a market is on the list it rarely gets taken off of it.  In the most recent list, 83% of the markets remained in the index. Besides the addition of Bend and a few other metro areas, and the removal of a few markets, this list has remained essentially unchanged over the last several months. This means recovery is happening not only in Bend Real Estate, but around the country.

So if you were thinking of making Bend your home, but were worried about the economic conditions, this should begin to relax some of those fears. There’s a lot of work to be done, but that work is beginning to pay off in the form of economic growth. An improving economy means a more livable Bend for everyone. More jobs mean more opportunities and new neighbors. New neighbors mean a more vibrant community, which has always been one of the best reasons to choose Bend, Oregon as your new home. And if you’re already a resident of Bend, increasing home values is always good news.

The Deb Tebbs Group has a wide variety of homes listed for any budget in Bend, or the surrounding areas including Sisters, Sunriver, and the golfing communities of Pronghorn and Tetherow. Contact us today and let us show you why Bend is still the premier Oregon destination!

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