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You Can Never Have Enough Pro Selling Tips

Jan 29, 2010 Residential

Home staging can take your ordinary, ho-hum home and instantly make it feel larger, more spacious, warmer, brighter, more cheerful and more welcoming.

It may be hard to believe that simple home staging can do all that, but it’s true! Often times, it is as much about your feelings as it is about the home itself. Home staging helps set the stage, so to speak, so that buyers can immediately feel at home the moment they walk through the door. After all, buying an Louisville home is an emotional process.

If you are unsure how to approach home staging, here are the basics to get you started:

• Remove any unnecessary furniture to eliminate a cluttered feeling. Once you have accomplished that, work to move your furniture away from the walls and into warm vignettes. For example, instead of placing your living room sofa against the wall, move it to face the room’s fireplace. In one fail swoop you have created a warm, interesting room that plays up the room’s best feature – the fireplace.
• Add warm fabrics, such as throws and pillows, to beds and sofas, thereby instantly adding the feeling of warmth and comfort to the rooms of your home.
• Pack up your personal knick-knacks, photographs and the like and instead use simple mirrors and prints on the walls and vases and flower arrangements on the tabletops. You want to allow your buyer to imagine himself in your home, and it’s a bit hard to accomplish this when you have family photographs scattered about.
• Remove the clutter from your kitchen counter-tops and instead replace it with bowls of colorful fruit or fresh flowers.
• Set the mood with lightly scented candles and scented soaps.
• Change up your daily towels with beautiful guest towels.
• Eliminate silk or dried flowers and replace them with live plants and fresh bouquets.
• If you have a fireplace, light it and instantly set the mood.
• Don’t forget your outdoor spaces. Create living spaces with pretty outdoor furniture, and use outdoor area rugs and pillows to pull it all together and create a feeling of comfort and relaxation.

Tags: Richard Soto

Prices Drop Nationally, While Sales Increase in 2009

Jan 26, 2010 News

It appears that while home values were down more than expected for 2009 the number of sales increased over 2008. Keep in mind that the following data is from an AP story considering the country as a whole.

Still, prices plunged by more than 12 percent last year – the sharpest fall since the Great Depression. The price drop for 2009 – to a median of $173,500 – showed the housing market remains too weak to help fuel a sustained economic recovery. Total sales for 2009 were nearly 5.2 million, up about 5 percent from 2008.

As we wrote earlier this month about real estate in Louisville, Kentucky, “…from 2008 to 2009, the total of all home sales went up 2.5%, while prices dropped 4.5%.” Our sales experienced half the growth of the nation but only dropped 4.5% compared to the nation’s 12%.

Tags: AP, Louisville real estate

Is Your Next Louisville Home ‘Green’?

Jan 25, 2010 Home Improvement

I think it’s safe to say that Green is the new Black and that’s not likely to change. But many green products are very costly and their benefit to the environment is relatively small. So, how do we decide which ones make the most sense?

Leigh A. Poltrock is an attorney in Pittsburgh who published a piece called Going Green Without Going Broke. It’s directed at people thinking about incorporating green building practices and products into their new home. There’s a myriad of government programs and incentives centered around energy efficiency in today’s homes that clever consumers can benefit from. This section especially caught my eye:

For an increase of up to 5 percent in development costs, studies have shown that buildings could use 30 percent to 50 percent less energy to heat and cool, 20 percent less electricity, and 10 percent to 20 percent less water. This equates to savings often far exceeding the 5 percent initial premium.

If you’re looking to custom build a green home here in Louisville, these builders have a great reputation: Landis Homes, Kimbel Construction and Thoroughbred Homes.

Also, John Morris with Kentucky Quality Homes is one of the few local builders who builds with insulating concrete forms (ICF) which is very energy-efficient and has increased strength against severe storms and tornadoes. Here’s a clip on his building process from FoxNews.

If you’re not planning a move but want to green-up your current home, thedailygreen.com posts simple tips daily to help you go green and spend less. Switching light bulbs is easy (and obvious) but they have a large amount of helpful advice, as well.

Tags: green products, John Morris, Kentucky Quality Homes, Kimbel Construction, Landis Homes, Leigh A. Poltrock, Thoroughbred Homes

NAR Pushing ‘Awareness’ Campaign

Jan 17, 2010 Marketing

The advertisement you see above is one that the National Association of Realtors in putting in a number of publications lately. Their intent is to make sure that people are aware that now is a good time for them to out house hunting.

I don’t have a problem with their intent but I believe their execution is very disappointing. As a real estate professional, I know the many reasons that now truly is a good time for certain consumers to be house shopping. Chief among them are, 1) the historically low interest rates, 2) the never before seen tax credits from the government, 3) the reduced home prices, and 4) the large house inventories across the country.

But it seems that NAR is only focusing on the tax credit portion. Check out this commercial.

Nothing really wrong with this spot but I believe there is so much more they could have done. With interest rates expected to rise in 2010 along with the other variables I just mentioned, I would have thought a more comprehensive message would have served better. But because you read Louisville Homes Blog, you’re getting the entire picture.

Tags: home values, house inventories, interest rates, NAR, tax credit

Best Louisville Neighborhoods: Graymoor/Devondale

Jan 16, 2010 Neighborhoods

Graymoor-Devondale is an unassuming neighborhood in an amazing part of town. Close to shopping, schools, the expressway and just minutes from Downtown, this neighborhood really does have it all. Just north of Lyndon, Graymoor-Devondale is the merger of two previously separate neighborhoods. Also nearby are the great subdivisions of Northfield and the Woods of St. Thomas. Read More »

Tags: best louisville neighborhoods, Graymoor/Devondale, homes for sale, louisville ky

Louisville Build, Renovate and Landscape Expo

Jan 16, 2010 News

Forgot to post this earlier, but if you don’t have anything going on this weekend, you might want to visit the Louisville Build, Renovate and Landscape Expo being held at the Convention Center. They’ll have a large number of exhibits and experts on hand to answer any questions you might have. There’s another, larger event taking place in March as well.

Tags: events

The Future of Louisville Real Estate, 2010 Edition

Jan 11, 2010 Trends/Statistics

At the turn of every year, we like to look back and reflect on the year past. Here at Louisville Homes Blog, we’re no different. But it’s also important to look forward and see how to best take advantage on the real estate market for your own situation.

Predicting the future is always a tricky task but there are some very bright minds at the National Association of Realtors (NAR) who make it their job to study the data.

Now, this data isn’t specific to Louisville, KY but we can still learn a few things from it. Here are some of the high points from a recently published NAR article.

National: Existing Homes

National: New Homes

These national numbers are interesting but don’t translate well for Louisville real estate. Let’s look at data from the Louisville MLS.

Louisville Kentucky: All Homes

So from 2008 to 2009, the total of all home sales went up 2.5%, while prices dropped 4.5%.

If we use National projections for 2010, which I don’t necessarily recommend but it’s a fun exercise, then Louisville should have approximately 13,002 sales and average prices would rise to $164,037 for our market. Check back next January to see how close we were.

Tags: MLS, National Association of Realtors

Greater Louisville 3Q Improves in 2009

Jan 4, 2010 Residential, Trends/Statistics

I’ve got another post on deck, but before we look forward I wanted to highlight some data I just found about Louisville’s 3rd Quarter of 2009 in real estate.

The first table shows total units for Greater Louisville, Region 3 of Kentucky.

As you can see, that’s a pretty big jump; higher than many projected. Which brings us to the second table. Why was the increase that large? Probably because prices dropped so much.

It’ll be interesting to see what prices did over the entire year. Be sure to check back and I promise to keep throwing more Louisville real estate statistics your way.

Louisville Waterfront Scam

Jan 2, 2010 Residential

Are you looking for waterfront apartments in Louisville? Beware a Craigslist scam trying to prey on you. When in doubt, contact a professional.

Tags: craigslist, scam

Louisville KY Home Sales: December 2009

Jan 2, 2010 Trends/Statistics

Numbers are down for December, as expected, especially after a stronger than normal November. But maybe not as down as one might have guessed.

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

December 2009

AREA	SALES	AVERAGE	DoM
0 Central Downtown District	6	$135,721	25
1 Downtwn/Old&WestLouisville/Shively	74	$46,566	77
2 Butchertown/Highlands/Germantwn	68	$178,766	76
3 Brownsboro/StMatthews	37	$244,747	82
4 Pleasure Rdg/Valley Station	52	$102,138	67
5 Auburndale/Fairdale/Iroquois Park	55	$102,387	69
6 Buechel/Highview/Okolona/FernCreek	96	$116,143	93
7 FernCrk/Hikes Point/Jeffersontown	111	$164,247	80
8 Hurstbourne/Middletwn/Anchrg	79	$226,479	85
9 Anchrg/Lyndn/Prospct/UpRvrRd	63	$222,647	83
11 Bullitt Co.	81	$134,269	73
19 Spencer Co.	17	$161,819	77
20 Oldham Co. – North	37	$260,946	86
21 Oldham Co. – South	27	$211,465	91
30 Shelby Co.	37	$145,713	131

Source: MetroSearch, Inc. Values are not warranted by LHB.

Tags: December 2009, home sales, louisville ky