Ask Permission Before Opening Doors

If someone else lives in the home – especially if that person is present during showings – ask permission before you go opening doors. Most homeowners expect you to poke around in the house when you’re viewing it, but be respectful and ask. It’ll help put the homeowner at ease. If the homeowner isn’t present, check with the realtor before opening doors, and make sure the realtor is present in case the homeowner later complains about anything being moved or missing.

Don’t Touch Personal Belongings

When you’re viewing someone’s home, never touch their personal belongings. You might want to move something out of the way so you can see how it would look without it, but it’s a big breach of etiquette to move personal belongings. General exceptions are closets or hanging curtains, but ask before you go moving things around and make sure the homeowner or realtor is present in case there are complaints later.

Wipe Your Shoes or Take Them Off

When you’re viewing a home, make sure you wipe your shoes off thoroughly, or take them off when entering the home. In winter, you could track snow into the home on your shoes. In the warmer months, you could track mud, grass or rain. Be mindful that this is still someone else’s home, and treat it respectfully.

Be Sensitive When Asking Questions

You’re going to have questions about the home, but if you’re asking the homeowner directly, be sensitive. Don’t pry into the homeowner’s personal situation; if the homeowner says he’s relocating or dealing with a life change, don’t press for details. Don’t ask rude or brash questions – be aware of the owner’s comfort level and know when to stop asking.

Improve Storage Options

One of the biggest problems many homeowners have is a lack of storage. It feels like homes never have enough closets to hide away clothes, vacuum cleaners, mops, carpet shampooers, out-of-season clothes, coats and jackets, sports equipments – you get the idea. And when it comes to storing things for lawn and garden care, and all the other stuff that gets piled up in your garage – space gets even more cramped. Be creative about adding to your storage options, and remember that a little organization goes a long way.

Maximize Garage Storage

The garage is one of the most easily cluttered areas of the home, and unfortunately, it has to do triple-duty. You store your cars in your garage. You also store lawn and garden equipment there. And outdoor equipment, such as bicycles, sporting equipment, vollyball nets, baseball bats, fishing stuff – all gets stored in the garage, too, most of the time. And then there are the tools.

Fortunately, a little organization can help you maximize your garage space. Workbenches add workspace, and you can store things like tool chests and sporting equipment under them. Pegboards on the wall enable you to hang garden and lawn-care tools, like rakes, shovels and hoses – instead of having to find floor-space for them. Think creatively about your organization options and you can fit a lot more in the same space – as long as you put everything away.

Consider Adding a Shed or Outdoor Storage Options

A shed or outdoor options can go a long way toward relieving the storage issues for your garage. Sheds can be used to store things like lawn mowers, yard care tools, hoses, bicycles, sporting equipment, camping supplies – all the detritus that seems to pile up in a garage. A small investment in a shed can free up your garage for other things, like your cars and your tools.

Even if you can’t invest in a shed for financial or homeowners’ association reasons, most home supply stores carry small outdoor storage units; everything from the size of a chest to a vertical outdoor closet. These units can ease the burden of your garage without investing in a more permanent – and expensive – shed, and help solve your organization problems.

Clear Up Fall Debris

One of the easiest things you can do that boosts your curb appeal throughout the winter is to clear up that fall debris. It’s not uncommon for homeowners to leave leaf debris and other landscaping elements sitting until spring, when the yard gets a good clean-up to prepare for warmer weather. But if you clean up leaf debris, put away yard tools you won’t need until spring and generally de-clutter your yard, you can make a better impression.

Keep Pathways Clear

Many of us live in parts of the country where snow and ice put in an appearance throughout the winter. When you’re showing your home, keep all pathways clear of snow and ice. Keep your driveway clear, too, if possible, to make the best impression on visitors – a driveway full of snow just makes potential buyers think about all the shoveling they’ll have to do!

Invest in Landscaping that Thrives in Winter

Depending on where in the country you live, you may have great options for outdoor potted plants and landscaping that thrives even in the winter. Several plants bloom and flower even under snow and ice, and you can also invest in plants that retain their green-ness and add color to an otherwise drab winter garden.

Use the Opportunity to Touch Up Trim and Exterior Walls

In the winter, foliage melts away and you can often see parts of the home you can’t see in the summer. Use this opportunity to touch up trim and exterior walls that are otherwise obscured by trees and bushes. It’ll look better when the bushes are bare, and make a better impression on visitors.

Helpful Tips

Showing your house in the winter can become an uphill battle. People may be less inclined to come out in the cold; if it’s raining or snowing, people may already be in a neutral or unhappy state when they arrive. It takes more work to make a good impression when you’re showing your house in the winter. But, if you’ve got the right attitude and a few tips and tricks; showing your home in the winter can actually give you an opportunity to stand out and make a great positive impression on potential buyers.

Counter the Outside – Inside

The most common issue with showing a home during the winter is that it’s cold, rainy, snowy or dark outside. All of these things can make a negative impact in potential buyers’ minds, and make them less likely to look favorably upon your home – even if your home is fantastic. But to counter this influence, and actually make more impact on potential buyers than you might otherwise – counter the outside – inside.

What does this mean?

If it’s cold, rainy or snowy outside, make it warm and cozy inside. Not stifling, but comfortable and inviting. If you have a fireplace, light it. Woodburning stove – light it. Show your buyers that your home can be a cozy and inviting haven in winter conditions, and you’re on your way to making a positive impression.

If it’s dark outside, close the curtains and light plenty of lights in the house. Make sure all of your rooms are well-lit; re-arrange or add lighting as needed to chase those shadows away. Warm, yellow bulbs create a cozier atmosphere than fluorescents; even if you normally use a fluorescent bulb, swap it out temporarily while you’re showing the home.

The smells of baking can make a huge positive impression on a chilly or snowy winter day. Freshly baked cookies, brownies or bread can make your home smell delicious and inviting, and evoke images of coziness and the warm, comfortable lifestyle that buyers could have in your home. Stay away from cooking, though – baking smells are generally delicious to most everyone, but cooking certain foods can be much more polarizing, and create the opposite impression.

Also, things like hot cocoa or coffee are great to offer buyers when you show your home on a snowy day, and make a great companion to fresh-baked smells.

Vehicle Storage

Vehicle storage may not seem like a big deal to you when you’re shopping for a home – or you may find a two-vehicle garage firmly entrenched on your list of must-have amenities. Even if you don’t think it’s important, you may later change your mind and wonder why you didn’t put more thought into your garage. When you’re viewing homes, make sure you consider your vehicle storage needs and evaluate whether the property can offer what you want.

Measure, Measure, Measure

It may sound silly, but measure your existing vehicles. You can fit two compact cars and a fair amount of stuff in a two-car garage, but two large vehicles, such as Buicks or even trucks, take up a lot more space. Something like a Hummer may not even clear an average garage, and certainly won’t leave you with enough space left over for a second car.

Measure your vehicles, and know how much space you need. Then, don’t be afraid to measure the garage when you’re viewing a home. Make sure you give yourself clearance for the mirrors, and for opening car doors. Think about how much space you have leftover, and whether it will be sufficient for your lawnmower, your fishing pole collection or other typical garage-stored items.

Consider Your Future Vehicle Storage Needs

You may only be a two-vehicle house now, but do you have a teenager approaching driving age? Do you intend to add a motorcycle to your household, or other vehicle best stored indoors? Try to give yourself some breathing room, and be realistic about your future vehicle storage needs. Ask yourself if you have the space and ability to add on to the garage, or build additional driveway to store more vehicles. Will a vehicle stored outside be in the way when you need to pull cars in and out? All of these factors play a role in whether a property offers enough vehicle storage.

Yard Tips

When you buy a home, you’re making a long-term investment. Most people are likely to remain in a home for anywhere from 5 to 20 years, and some people stay longer. So when you’re thinking about whether a home meets your needs, you have to not only consider today, but to consider your future plans. This is true both inside and out. Your yard is almost as important as the home itself. Is it big enough for what you might want to do with it? Is there a homeowners’ association that can limit what you can do with your yard? Consider your future when you’re home-shopping, and ask yourself what you can do with your yard.

Consider Future Landscaping Projects

Have you always wanted a deck overlooking a restful koi pond in your back yard? A rock garden? Want to watch a beautiful tree grow from a sapling to a majestic size? Ask yourself whether the yard you’re considering supports your landscape projects – and whether you live in an area governed by a homeowners’ association that can limit what you can do. Given the length of time most people spend in a house, your “someday” landscaping projects will probably happen right where you’re buying. Think about that when you do.

Consider Kids or Pets in Your Household

Have you discussed having children? Or have an infant now that’s quickly growing into a child who might want a swingset, a slide, a treehouse or some other backyard play area? Ask yourself if the yard has space, and if you can safely enclose it for your child. Also, again, you’ve got to ask the question about whether a homeowners’ association will restrict what you can do.

The same thing goes for pets; do you have dogs right now, or think you might want to add one or more in a future? Does your new yard have a fence, or can you add one? If there’s an existing fence, is it safe enough to contain your pets? Don’t just think about your current yard needs when you buy; consider the future, and how your family might expand.

Snow Removal Tips

Winter snow removal is an unpleasant task for people in many parts of the country. But winter snow removal can also be hazardous for your health; a recent study showed that the risk of heart attach increases drastically among certain demographics while shoveling snow. Don’t take any risks with your health; consider these tips to make your winter snow removal easier.

Shovel More Often

It seems counterintuitive – if shoveling snow puts you at the risk of a heart attack, why do it more often? But it may be the right call; shoveling more often means you’re shoveling a smaller amount of snow, and thats less cardiovascular work. Instead of waiting for a few inches of snow to pile up, shovel every inch or so, when it’s easy to just push the shovel along to make a path in the snow. It’s lifting the big shovels full of heavy, wet snow that is particularly dangerous. Putting salt or other ice-melt down after you clear the snow can also help prevent forming a layer of ice from the ground’s moisture, and can help prevent snow from piling back up again immediately.

Consider Investing in a Snow-Blower

If you’ve got a large area where you shovel, such as a wide or long driveway, or a lengthy walkway, consider investing in a snow-blower. A good snow blower isn’t cheap, but spending a few hundred dollars is far better than risking a heart attack. If you have neighbors who don’t own a snow blower, you may also be able to amortize that cost by clearing their snow, too, for a few bucks.

Hire Someone for Snow Removal

If you live somewhere you only get a few snowstorms a year, a better investment might be hiring someone to do your snow removal. Hiring someone is the most expensive route on an individual basis, but if you only have to hire someone to come out three times a year, that’s a lot cheaper than buying a snow blower – and it eliminates your risk of heart-attack. Ask for referrals from friends and neighbors, and if you do hire someone, make sure you book early – snow removal professionals get really busy in the right season, and you don’t want to miss your chance to get an appointment.

Evaluate Appliances

When you’re viewing a home you’re thinking of buying, it’s easy to remember to check the big things off your list. You might even remember the more detail-oriented stuff, like checking around doors and windows for drafts, looking around for any signs of leaks, or checking that lights and plumbing work as expected. But one thing that many people don’t even consider is appliances. Are the existing appliances coming with the home – and if so, do they meet your needs, or will you want to replace them? If so, you may want to consider asking for concessions, and at the very least, think about the added cost after you purchase the home.

Do the appliances work properly and meet your needs?

Make sure you take a good look at appliances, check them out, ask questions about them and make sure they meet your needs. Some people are fine with very simple, somewhat limited appliances. Other people like large, roomy appliances with a wide range of options and settings. Ovens, for example; some people might be perfectly satisfied with a small oven that offers limited cubic feet, shelf space and has only a simplistic temperature selector dial. Other people might require an oven with an LCD clock, timer, light and self-clean cycle. Bakers or people who cook a lot might want a roomier oven that can fit multiple trays, and have more options for shelf height.

Maybe dishwashers are your thing, or refrigerators, or washers and driers. The point is to take a good look at the existing appliances and make sure they’re functional and meet your needs.

What can you do about it?

If you’re not satisfied with the existing appliances, you can deal with it in a couple of ways. For non-functional appliances, it’s not unreasonable to ask the homeowner to replace them. For appliances you personally don’t like or that don’t meet your needs, you might ask the homeowner to split the cost of replacing them with you and reduce your purchase price or offer closing concessions. Depending on the state of the housing market, an owner may be more or less willing to concede these points. In a booming housing market, the owner may opt not to accept your offer; but in a slow housing market, an owner may be more inclined to make concessions.

Organize Space

It may seem obvious to say, but organizing your home makes a big difference in the amount of usable space you have – and how cluttered or un-cluttered your home feels. If you’re thinking of buying a home, but the home you’re considering has a limited amount of storage space, effective organization habits can take care of your needs, and make the “challenging” home a real option.

Organize Your Closets

Closet organizing sets consisting of shelving units and clothing rods of various lengths and heights make it possible for you to customize your closet organization needs. Even a small closet can make great strides by rearranging clothing rods, adding shelving or storage boxes and drastically increasing the amount you can store. With the right organization tools, one closet could go from holding 20 shirts and pairs of pants to 20 shirts and pairs of pants, a comforter, two sheet sets, three sets of towels, two pairs of shoes, and a few folded sweaters.

Organize Your Kitchen

Most kitchens are full of clutter and make very inefficient use of counter space. Corner cabinets and over-the-sink or over-the-fridge cabinets can be difficult to utilize. And kitchen drawers get piled with gadgets with no rhyme or reason.

Take some time out to organize your kitchen, and you’ll see a huge boost in what you can fit there. Use corner cabinets to store kitchen appliances you don’t use frequently, like blenders and food processors – which also frees up counter space. Store things like large mixing bowls that you use less frequently in the more-difficult-to-access cabinets above the fridge. Put the things you use most often in easy-to-reach spots, and put everything else away. Baskets or drawer organizers can help you get your gadgets under control, and use the opportunity to throw away gadgets you don’t use anymore. And finally, you can hang things like pots and pans – or knives – on the wall with hooks or special storage tools.

To View or Not To View

When you’re looking for a new home, a lot of factors go into the list of potential properties you create. Price range is the biggest factor, but things like number of bedrooms and bathrooms, special amenities that the home boasts, it’s location and neighborhood – all play a factor, too. Some properties, you can easily dismiss on paper because they don’t meet your criteria. But the properties you don’t dismiss – how do you decide which ones to view? And what if you dismiss something that might turn out to be your dream home? Keep these factors in mind when you’re deciding whether or not to view a home:

Price Range is a Sticking Point

Assuming that you are looking for a reasonable price range given the area and type of home you’re considering, price should be a sticking point. You can view something slightly outside of your price range, but more than $5,000 to $10,000 out of your price range is an amount you’re not going to be able to negotiate down. Establish a reasonable price range for your area and home type, based on comparable sales – and stick to it. Buying too much home isn’t the way you want to start your home ownership.

List Deal-Breakers and Flexible Amenities

Divide your criteria between “deal-breakers” and amenities where you can be more flexible. Most people have a few “must have” home features, and the rest is “nice, but optional” – and you may be willing to overlook something missing from your list if it’s in the perfect location, has fantastic landscaping, has a great deck – you never know what you might find if you stay open to options that don’t meet your ideal criteria.

Prioritize Based on Location

Scout out the areas where you’re hunting for homes prior to any home visits to decide if you like the area, feel good about the neighborhood and are comfortable with the distance to shopping, food and other amenities. Then, when you’re ready to view homes, schedule viewings in clusters.

There may be two homes you’re dying to see on opposite sides of town; schedule a viewing for one home, and look for other homes that are on your “maybe” list nearby. You might find a “maybe” that turns out to be your dream home, and you can visit a lot more homes more efficiently with a location-based approach. Then, schedule a visit for the other home you’re “dying” to see on a different day, and schedule a cluster of “maybe” visits for nearby homes.