Sunday, April 09, 2006

Real Estate News for Sunday, April 9th, 2006

Four of the Bay Area's top residential real estate agents on what it takes to relate to the upper class. But in the upper reaches of the region's housing market, these four women dominate their respective territories. Though they emphasize that they buy and sell homes at all price levels, they are best known for trading in the multi-million dollar mansions of the rich and famous. Combined, Malin Giddings, Diane Gilfether, Mary Gullixson and Olivia Hsu Decker sold nearly $450 million worth of Bay Area real estate last year. Click here to read more.

Investors.com: Real Estate Weekly -- April 7. Energy Saving for the Home. Whether you're thinking of the big picture of our global environment or just the small-screen version of your own pocketbook, saving energy is never a bad idea. Big energy savers on most older homes include new windows, siding and roofs. While modern versions of those home products are tremendously more energy-efficient than their counterparts of the 1960s and 1970s -- and there are a lot of those '60s and '70s homes ripe for upgrade -- tackling such home-improvement projects is an expensive proposition. Strictly from a financial-payback perspective, that kind of investment might not pay off for 10 years or more. Homeowners waste a collective $1 billion a year or more on energy for devices that are turned off -- computers being a key culprit there. (Notice all those little blinking lights on everything.) One easy solution: Put all your devices on a power strip and turn off the strip itself when the appliances aren't in use. Click here to read more.

Quick connections: Competitive agents are embracing text messaging and podcasts to reach buyers. Agents, being agents, are continually looking for new ways to acquire listings and communicate with prospective buyers. Text messaging has joined other innovations, including podcasts, which allow real estate agents to produce audio and video commercials for their listings and zap them to people who request them on the Internet. Several companies have begun offering high-tech services in the last year. House4Cell launched its text-messaging service in 2005, as did one of its competitors, CellSigns, based near Philadelphia. Likewise, companies focused on real estate podcasts rolled out their products last year too, including RealEstateShows.com, based in Marina del Rey, and the Xsites Network by A la mode Inc., based in Oklahoma City. Click here to read more.

First things first: What to do to get your home ready to sell. No matter how grand or modest your fix-up plans, cleaning should be the top priority, the pros say.
A cleaning service will charge, on average, about $60 per hour for a two-person crew that can whip your home into shape. An average three-bedroom, two-bath house will take about two to 2 1/2 hours to clean (for a cost of $120 to $150). Sellers should concentrate on cleaning, landscaping and painting. After that, any money left over can be spent on creating a more polished look, like upgrading plastic patio furniture with a nicer table and chairs. Curb appeal is a priority. Moving inside, he suggests investing $85 to $150 on a contemporary Asian-style area rug. The home stager dismisses mirrors as a way to enhance the size of a room. They simply add clutter, he says. Instead, paint the walls a light color and use an even lighter shade on the ceiling. A 10-by-10 room requires 2 gallons of paint — at a cost of $23 or less per gallon. Natural light should sell the house, he says, but if the windows don't let enough in, supplement with table lamps. To give buyers a sense of comfort and style, set the dining table with your best china and put wine bottles and a dish of nuts or candy on the counter. Click here to read more.

~Tina Jan~
Coldwell Banker Kivett-Teeters
1655 E. Sixth St.
Beaumont, CA 92223
Work: 951-845-5520 Ext. 105
Fax: 951-845-4916
Cell: 909-446-2666
Toll-Free: 1-877-TINAJAN
tina.jan@coldwellbanker.com
www.tinajan.com

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