Seven Questions for an Open House Visit

The open house is an ideal chance for potential buyers to acquire a sense and feel of a home and its property, its neighborhood or subdivision, and nearby shopping, dining, and conveniences. It's also an opportunity to get some eye-to-eye answers from the seller's agent, who is most likely hosting the open house. If you're seriously looking for a home to purchase, make sure you do some research on it before ringing the doorbell. Prepare yourself to ask some tough questions.

Price

What are comparable prices of similar homes in the neighborhood, subdivision, or nearby areas currently listed or recently sold in this price range? Does this home measure up or not? Has it been reduced in price? If so, how many times?

Days on the Market

The agent should be able to explain the home's days on the market (DOM) in context. A home recently listed speaks for itself. But if it's been on the market for months it begs the question, why? Is it overpriced? Does it have hidden problems? Or, as the open house agent might explain, the sellers had an offer that collapsed due to buyer financing or other reasons.

Offers

Offers reflect serious interest, and if the agent already has an offer on a home that's been on the market for a week or two, chances are it's priced right. But if it's been for sale for months with few or no offers, scrutinize its price, the number of price reductions, its location, and problems that may exist in the house itself. More information on these possibilities can provide leverage in any negotiations.

Disclosures

By law, the seller must disclose any and all problems and code violations they know exist in their home. A written seller's disclosure should be available in all open houses. If not, ask the agent to provide a list of all existing and potential issues. If you're really interested in the home, visit and take pictures of areas of concern. Check out such obscurities as the age of electrical wiring and age and condition of the roof.

Reason for the Sale

Ask the open house agent why the homeowner is selling. New job elsewhere? Moving up? Downsizing? Retiring? The agent is not required to disclose information like this, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Utilities

Depending on the size of the house, utility bills can be significant. Plan ahead before making an offer, especially if you've been living in an apartment. Utility bills can hit your budget hard.

Location

Is the home's subdivision or neighborhood child-friendly? Is there an abundance of retired people? Do nearby taverns flourish on weekends? Some buyers welcome a tight-knit community of individuals in similar stages of life and experiences. Others seek privacy and respect for it. The open house agent or your agent can clarify this for you.

Keep in mind that open houses are a major opportunity for the sellers to showcase properties to potential buyers. Take advantage of it to measure your interest as well.

Monday Wake Up Call

Monday Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

Get to the OTHER Side I hope it was a great month for you. Are you still on track with your goals and resolutions? Market research shows that by the second week of February, some 80 percent of those resolution-makers are at home with a new kind of remorse and disappointment staring back at them in the mirror. Why is it that such good intentions, like getting fit, losing weight and improving our lives, seems so elusive? Unless you first change your mind, don't expect your health goals to materialize. The unfortunate truth is that change, all change, entails some degree of emotional friction, which in turn generates a "heated state" we call stress. Whether you're feeling anxious, depressed, frustrated, fatigued, weak and out of control, or simply bored, emotional friction (stress) becomes the high-octane fuel of failure. When it comes to handling the stress involved in change, many well-adjusted, happy, overweight, out-of-shape people share the fundamental problem of self-sabotage. Why? They lack self-discipline. Essentially, you build self-discipline by willfully enduring the transient discomfort of changing who and what you are. You're not born with self-discipline; you acquire it. Like a muscle, you need to develop your self-discipline muscle, one challenge at a time. Starting today, instead of reflexively feeling a need to minimize or escape the friction involved in change, recognize instead the need to endure it. Bottom line: Don't bail now! Keep the faith – and the pace until you are on the other side of discomfort and well on your way to success. Something to Think About If you made it this far, you have outperformed 80% of your friends, family and peers. Great job! That’s amazing, and it’s just the kind of start that you needed to have your most amazing year ever! Weekly Activity It’s time for celebration! If you have stayed on track, treat yourself to a special day/ night this week doing something you enjoy, but don’t fall off track! Create a vision of what you really want, and hold that focus in your mind each day. Words of Wisdom Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence. - Colin Powell Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. - Henry Ford Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. Franklin D. Roosevelt Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. - Benjamin Franklin

Monday Wake Up Call!

Monday Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

What's It Going to Be? This is the fourth week since setting your goals for 2017. Just saying you're going to make a New Year's resolution really isn't enough; you must have the right mindset and be completely dedicated to what you want to do. Even though around 60% of people have stumbled on keeping their resolutions by the six-month point, those who make the initial commitment are still 10 times more likely to successfully change their behavior. Congratulations on being that person who is way ahead of the crowd when it comes to change, but you are not out of the woods yet. The first mile marker to yearlong success is to make it 30 days! If you are younger, chances are it’s a little easier. The older you get, the harder it becomes to ditch certain habits or bad behaviors. Middle age is when people begin to slow down on their resolution making. When asked how likely they were to make a resolution in the new year, 54% of people under age 45 said very likely, compared to 37 of those aged 45 and up. Stay strong and ask yourself, “What’s it going to be?” Something to Think About Does that mean that we don’t care as much as we get older? Have there been too many failures? Too tired? Weekly Activity It’s time to get re-energized! Regardless of age, or excuses, let’s pump some energy into those goals and resolutions this week! Words of Wisdom Grit is that 'extra something' that separates the most successful people from the rest. It's the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality. -Travis Bradberry If you can dream it, you can do it. -Walt Disney Be magnificent. Life's short. Get out there. You can do it. Everyone can do it. Everyone. -Andy Serkis Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A world of optimism and hope. A 'you can do it' when things are tough. -Richard M. DeVos You've done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.- Ralph Marston

Monday Wake Up Call

Monday Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

Goal Motivators Having someone to cheer you on or call you out when you get off track is a great way to stay on the right track with your resolutions. 59% of those who had a "referee" to monitor their progress eventually achieved their goal compared to 29% who were going it alone. Money is also a great incentive. Dangling a financial carrot in front of your nose may be just the push you need to stand your ground when it comes to your New Year's resolutions. The idea is that you'll be more likely to hang in there, and according to Stickk data, almost 80% of users report success when there's money on the line. Something to Think About That’s why a coach is a great resource and tool when it comes to accountability and staying on track until you hit that goal. It takes an average of one commission per year to pay for a coach. Weekly Activity Find someone to keep you on track: an accountability partner, coach, friend or your Broker. Words of Wisdom Accountability breeds response-ability. -Stephen Covey On good teams coaches hold players accountable, on great teams players hold players accountable. –Joe Dumars Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to results. –Anonymous The best way to predict the future is to create it. –Peter Drucker At the end of the day we are accountable to ourselves - our success is a result of what we do. - Catherine Pulsifer

Four Tips to Freshen Up Curb Appeal in the Syracuse Winter

When selling your home in Syracuse, it is a great idea to organize an open house. If this open house is occurring during the harsh winter months, there are a few steps you'll want to take to give the property a little more curb appeal.

Add Exterior Lighting

As winter approaches and daylight hours become less and less, it can be hard to fully appreciate the exterior of a home when first pulling up to it. A few outdoor lighting options include installing a lantern on either side of the front door or adding lights along the walkway leading to the front door. Floodlights may also be necessary to highlight architectural details you'd like to accentuate for potential buyers and give the whole home a warm glow.

Subtle Decorations

During open houses, buyers want to be able to see themselves in the home they are viewing, and this is hard to do with big and bold decorations. Instead, when selling your house, stick with subtle decorations that offer a warm and inviting vibe. During the Syracuse winter, a seasonal wreath on the front door looks nice, as do a few white lights around a porch railing or the bushes in the front yard.

Winter Tolerant Plants

There are plenty of winter tolerant plants to consider using during the winter months that will help freshen up your curb appeal. Hearty grasses and evergreens work well for planters on the porch or near the front entrance, especially with accenting ceramic pots in warm tones that match the home. Winter hazels and pansies are also nice additions.

Your local realtor can offer additional suggestions on how you can increase your curb appeal during the Syracuse winter. Of course, don't forget the most obvious task to clear any snow or ice and make a safe entrance into the home. Incorporating these tips when selling your home will help create a memorable and inviting experience, even during the coldest winter months.

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Monday Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

Healthy Goals What are your top three goals for 2017? Getting fit, or losing weight is consistently in the top three goals that are made on January 1st. Getting physically fit is easier said than done, and sometimes, making the effort becomes too much to handle. A whopping 73% of people who included some type of fitness goal when making their resolutions gave up before they reached the finish line. And 42% said it was just too difficult to stick to a regimen while 36% blamed a lack of time. If your goal is to get in shape, or lose weight, start slow but stay consistent and your odds of success go way up! Something to Think About If you can tough it out for 90 days, you've got a much better shot at making the change permanent. Nearly 40% of people who make resolutions forget about them by March, but the dropout rate levels off substantially after that point. Weekly Activity Ask 10 of your friends what their top three goals are for 2017, then share these statistics and work together to “make it happen”! Words of Wisdom What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. -Zig Ziglar Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them. -Les Brown The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure. -John C. Maxwell I believe that visualization is one of the most powerful means of achieving personal goals. -Harvey Mackay Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. -Thomas Jefferson

Monday Morning Wake Up Call

Monday Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

Resolve. What an exciting time of the year as we welcome in 2017! Happy New Year! Did you join the New Year's Eve resolution bandwagon when the ball dropped? Well, you are in good company. Approximately 45% of Americans make at least one resolution in January. But you might be the only one of your friends keeping them! Whether it's a lack of willpower or unrealistic goals that are to blame, most people have difficulty sticking to their New Year's resolutions. Just 8% of people who make them will still be committed to them by the end of the year. Especially if you find yourself really busy and crunched for time most days. How well you manage your time apparently has a significant influence over whether you're able to maintain your resolutions during the year. Nearly 40% said that the number one reason they couldn’t follow through was their need to juggle too many other activities. For many people, the first month after making a resolution is the hardest, but if you can get through it, you significantly up the odds of it becoming a permanent change. Unfortunately, roughly one in three people won't even last 31 days, so you really have to buckle down and keep your eyes on the prize if you want to still be going strong by February. Something to Think About One of the reasons why people seem to have so much difficulty adhering to their resolutions is they set the bar too high. Deciding that you're going to run a marathon may seem impossible, but you can take some of the pressure off by taking small steps (run a 10K one year, then a half marathon, before taking on the 26 miler). 35% of those who successfully fulfilled their resolutions broke them down into more easily achievable goals. Weekly Activity Set aside some time this week to go back and review those goals, or resolutions. Are they attainable? Are you willing to set aside the time needed to achieve those goals? Words of Wisdom The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals. -Melody Beattie Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. -Hal Borland Let our New Year's resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word. -Goran Persson I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something. -Neil Gaiman Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. -Oprah Winfrey