Declutter, clean, paint, mow, plant, refinish, replace and renew; all words commonly found in blogs, magazine articles and books advising you how best to prepare your home for a quick sale at top dollar. You can do 99 percent of the right stuff to make your house look stellar, but if you let 1 percent of the wrong stuff slip through the cracks, it may be that one tiny thing that kills a potential offer. Worse yet, negative ?reviews? of your house can be exaggerated and widely spread through your neighborhood and the real estate community, possibly scaring away the perfect buyer.
A Rose by Any Other Name?
Let Sleeping Things Lie
No, please don?t. Just because your teenager likes to sleep until early afternoon, please don?t invite potential buyers into your house until you have done a complete sweep for animals and kids hiding under the covers. It just so happened that my employee and her real estate agent were unpleasantly surprised more than once by occupants stirring from their sleep in a back bedroom.
Lights Out
Another big no-no. Drapes drawn, unlit lamps and light switches in the ?off? position can give the impression that a stakeout is in progress. There is good reason on a hot summer afternoon to have shades drawn and lights low to keep things cool, but if you are trying to sell your house, you need to keep things turned on and opened up in order to highlight the best features of each room. Incandescent lamp lighting is most flattering to the human complexion, so if you truly want buyers to say they can ?see? themselves living there, then help them to see themselves at their best in ?their? home.
Picture via cotedetexas.blogspot.com Pictures ARE Worth a Thousand Words
Leave kids, animals, paper piles, open cupboards, and your bathroom toiletries out of the pictures.?Your house can be beautifully staged, but if the pictures on the real estate websites don?t get your ?customer? in the door, then your staging dollars and efforts will not even get one chance to pay off. Tell your buyers with pictures what you can?t tell them with words.
One Bad Apple ?
Can spoil the whole bunch. Remove the bad apples and polish up the good ones. Homebuyers are savvier than you may think. Even though you have never met them, you are preparing your home to become theirs, and you only get one shot at it. Don?t spoil their first or last impression.
Warmly,
Laura Leist, CPO
Organizing with Laura
Source: http://www.realestate.com/advice/be-aware-as-you-prepare-to-sell-your-home-45919/
The mainstream has had little reason to care that Android gives developers much more customization freedom than iOS. But if Facebook's fabled Android homescreen is a hit, the stubbornness of Apple's closed mobile platform could be framed as a drawback after years of its cohesive design and ease being seen as assets.
Though it’s well-known that many of today’s mobile applications generate revenue through in-app purchases, a new report released today shows how powerful this money-making mechanism has become. In January 2012, just over half (53 percent) of iPhone App Store revenue in the U.S. was attributed to in-app purchases, but as of last month, that number has climbed to a record 76 percent. The figure varies by region, however. In Germany, for example, it’s lower – only 61 percent of revenue in February came from these in-app sales. Meanwhile, in Asian markets the number soars. In Hong Kong, Japan, China and South Korea, at least 90 percent of all revenue comes from in-app purchases. These findings are revealed in the latest report from app store analytics firm Distimo, which took a deep dive into the data in this month’s report. In particular, the report examines trends here in the U.S., looking at the business models chosen by app publishers who are using in-app purchases in their mobile applications on the iPhone. Not surprisingly, Distimo found that the majority (71 percent) of apps were “freemium” applications, meaning that the app itself was free, but other features, virtual goods, extra levels, services, upgrades, and more are available for sale once the app is on the iPhone. Another 5 percent of apps using in-app purchases were paid applications, and around a quarter (24 percent) of iPhone apps in the U.S. were paid applications only, without in-app purchases involved. In a crowded App Store where there are now some 800,000+ iOS applications to choose from, developers find it more difficult than ever to have their apps discovered, much less installed. Putting a price tag on the app itself is something that’s seen as a barrier to entry for curious or casual users, especially given that Apple’s App Store has yet to implement a “try before you buy” option, similar to what Google’s Android app marketplace, Google Play, offers through easy-to-access refunds and subscription content trials, for instance. App developers competing for precious homescreen space have clearly been cornered into adopting this business model, even though at times (and certainly in children’s applications) it can almost come across as?disingenuous, or even shady, when not properly advertised. And the move toward more freemium, in-app purchase based (IAP) apps is still?occurring. As noted above, more apps are generating revenue through this method than just a year ago. Looking