Its a highly competitive market for home sellers right now. You can increase your chances of selling faster - and at todays top dollar - by investing in a select few home improvement projects that have been shown to make a big impact on buyers.

Bad news alert: it might cost you a little time, effort and cash.  The good news, though, is that the best projects for quickly increasing your homes resale value tend to be cosmetic and fairly simple and inexpensive to do. Here are five projects with big-time return on investment for home sellers-to-be, in terms of their power to attract buyers, and to attract dollars from those buyers.

1. Painting:  Adding a fresh coat of paint to ceilings and walls is a tried and true way to increase your homes appeal to buyers.  Painting lightens and brightens rooms, instantly removes scuffs and dings and gives every room a fresh, polished feel.

Fresh exterior paint - even if your time or cash budget limits your efforts to accents like eaves, shutters, doors and trims - is also a quick, inexpensive way to polish the look of your home from the curb.

2. Landscaping:  Mow the lawn, trim the hedges, pull the weeds and plant some flowers, bushes or shrubs for the biggest impact - and be diligent about keeping your landscaping very well-manicured throughout the time your home is on the market.  Think clean, simple and elegant for the biggest boost in value.

3. Cleaning and de-cluttering:  Start by removing all your family photos from the walls and clutter from the tops of tables, desks, dressers and counters.  Remove furniture that takes up too much space and fills up rooms. Get rid of clutter such as clothes, boxes, piles of mail and other items.

And then clean - Kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms should look unlived in when they are shown.  And don't forget to clean less obvious places like windows, walls, doors and floors, to dust off shelves and furniture, and to polish appliances.

4. Plumbing repairs and water stain/damage repair: Paying a plumber to make a few stops throughout your home can be well worth the investment.  Leaks and water stains definitely provoke disgust and exasperation on the part of the buyers you want and need to impress.  

5. Staging:  Good staging is equal parts:  removing your personal belongings and replacing it with more artwork, decor and cleaner looking furniture, and tweaking the home's paint, wall coverings and even landscaping to show the place in its very best light.

- Livingston County Department of Planning News Article, Spring  2011

The 2010 Census revealed that Livingston County's population increased modestly over the 2000 to 2010 decade. Cohocta Township and the Village of Fowlerville were the only two local communities to lose population over the ten year period, and the loss was less than one hundred persons in both cases. The communities with the largest population gains were the townships of: Genoa (3,955), Hartland (3,667), Oceola (3,574), and Marion (3,252). Overall, Livingston County gained 24,016 new residents for a percent population change of 15.3%

Livingston County is no longer the fastest growing county in Michigan. The 2010 Census notes that Clinton County now has the distinction of having the #1 largest percent population change in the state. Livingston County is #2. Despite the loss of this title, our County is very fortunate in comparison to many of our surrounding neighbors.

It's that time again!

International House of Pancake's annual National Pancake Day fundraiser takes place Tuesday, March 1, to benefit Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and other local charities.

Visit an IHOP location near you that day to enjoy a free short stack of pancakes and to make your tax-deductible donation.

You can request a reminder phone call from NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young, entertainer Marie Osmond, TV star John Schneider, American Idol star David Archuleta or Miss America 2011 Theresa Scanlan.

This friendly reminder is brought to you by: The Tim Sova Team

First were assuming that everyone who qualified for the tax credit last year knows that they could have filed an amended return as soon as they closed on their new home. And if they did that, they probably already have their tax credit.

But for everyone else, theyll have to file for it on this years tax return.  So we wanted to make sure you know how to properly claim that credit in your tax return before its too late.

The first-time home buyers tax credit for 2010 was worth ten percent of the cost of the home, up to a cap of $8000. It does not have to be repaid, as long as the buyer lives in the home for at least three years after the date of purchase. If you end up selling the home earlier than that, you will have to pay back the government the entire credit, so keep that in mind.

That program was for first time home buyers. But it was soon followed by an expansion of the program, for existing homeowners who bought a replacement home. That program, which had terms similar to the credit for first-time buyers, had a maximum credit of $6500.

Both of tax credits required buyers to sign contracts for their homes by the end of April, 2010, and to close on those homes by the end of September, and the credits were subject to income limits and other restrictions as well. Single homebuyers, for example, had to have incomes of less than $125,000 to qualify for the full credit, while married couples had a $225,000 income limit.

But still for the vast majority of homebuyers in the first half of last year, the credit will essentially wipe out up to $8000 of your tax liability for 2010.

Of course, if you want to collect that money, youll need to make sure you properly submit a claim in your 2010 tax return.

Now heres the important part.

To get the tax credit, youll need to submit a 1040 form, along with federal form number 5405 and you can download these on the IRS website. Youre also going to need to attach a copy of your settlement sheet, also known as a HUD-1 form, to prove that you actually bought a home within the proper time frame in 2010.

For better or worse, and we really believe better, the federal homebuyer tax credit program defined 2010 in residential real estate. It brought a spark to the housing market last winter and generated millions of sales in the spring that served to drain away a lot of excess inventory, and, in turn, allowing prices which had been falling since the beginning of the nations financial crisis to stabilize.

Source:  RET, Real Estate Today Radio

Perform your own home energy audit to see if you need fixes that can lower your energy bills by 5% to 30 annually.  The biggest air leaks are usually found in the attic, but it's often easy to add insulation there.  Is your home squandering precious energy? Heres how you can search out areas of energy waste that may be costing you money. By following up on problems, you can lower energy bills by 5% to 30% annually. With annual energy bills averaging $2,200, investing in fixes or energy-efficient replacement products could save you up to $660 within a year.

Leave the deerstalker hat and magnifying glass behind. All youll need for energy sleuthing is a flashlight, screwdriver, paint stirrer, tape measure, andnot just for serenitys sakea stick of incense.
 
1. Hunt down drafts. Hold a lit stick of incense near windows, doors, electrical outlets, range hoods, plumbing and ceiling fixtures, attic hatches, and ceiling fans in bathroomsanywhere drafts might sneak in. Watch for smoke movement. Note what sources need caulk, sealant, weather-stripping, or insulation.

2. Check attic insulation. Winter or summer, insulation does the most good when its overhead, so start with the attic. First, do you have insulation? If the insulation you see covers the tops of the joists by several inches, you probably have enough. If the insulation is only even with the tops of the joists, you probably need to add insulation.

3. Check wall insulation. Remove electrical outlet covers to see if your wall contains insulation. Shut off power to the receptacle before probing beside the electrical box with a wooden paint stirrer. Check some switch boxes as well. Their higher wall location lets you see if blown-in insulation has settled.

4. Look for stains on insulation. These often indicate air leaks from a hole behind the insulation, such as a duct hole or crack in an exterior wall. Seal gaps with caulk or spray foam insulation.

5. Inspect exposed ducts. Look for obvious holes and whether joints are sealed. Heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) ducts are made of thin metal and easily conduct heat. Consider insulating them. Uninsulated or poorly insulated ducts in unconditioned spaces can lose 10% to 30% of the energy used to heat and cool your home.

6. Check anything that goes through an exterior wall. Examine dryer ducts, plumbing lines under sinks and vanities, anything that pierces a wall. Any gaps around it should be sealed with spray foam insulation or caulk.

Source:  HouseLogic.com

As we try our best to keep our clients updated on the foreclosure trends in Southeast Michigan; The Tim Sova team has subscribed to Realty Trac.  This is an online resource that we can utilize to help you find foreclosure properties, evaluate and purchase foreclosures and other types of real estate investments.

We will guide you in the right direction to finding your perfect investment!

Click here to check out the latest trends.....


Feel free to call us any time.

The Tim Sova Team

Tim Sova, Associate Broker/Listing Specialist
Brittani Simone, Realtor/Buyer Specialist
Colleen Sova, Client Care Specialist

Theres no sense trying to avoid the fact that we live in pretty turbulent times. A lot of homeowners are sitting on mortgages that are larger than the current value of their homes, and the sputtering economy is keeping many others, especially those struggling to keep jobs, from becoming home owners. But the fact remains, despite any scary headlines you may see or hear in the media, that homes are more affordable now than theyve been in a long, long time, and the record low mortgage rates are only the cherry on top of the sundae.

This especially holds true for you homeowners who are thinking of trading up in the housing market, whether youre looking for more space, or simply a better zip code. If youve owned your home for a while, you may be hesitant to step up, because the value of your current home is not what it was a few years ago. But guess what? More likely than not, neither is the home youre thinking about buying!

Lets crunch some numbers.

Lets say your current home is worth 200-thousand dollars, but you are hesitant to trade up because three years ago, your home was worth 20 percent more, or 240-thousand dollars. You dont want to lose the value you once had, and thats understandable.

But lets take a look at the house that youve had your eye on the one with the 300-thousand dollar price tag. Three years ago, that home was also worth 20 percent more, or 360-thousand dollars.

Now, lets put this in perspective. If you had done this deal three years ago, your trade-up, the price difference between your current and new homes, would have cost you 120-thousand dollars. By making that same deal today, even though the value of both homes has dropped, your trade up cost is100-thousand dollars, or 20-thousand dollars less than it would have been three years ago. Yes, values may be lower than they were before the financial crisis, but if you make the leap, your costs will be lower as well.

As they say, timing is everything. Sooner or later, mortgage rates will go up again, and when they do, this unique opportunity will be gone.

No one likes to suffer a loss on an investment, but at the very least, it merits a conversation with The Tim Sova Team.  We are seasoned professionals that know the local market and we will help you make reasoned and informed real estate decisions.

Feel free to reach us any time.  We are happy to help!

Source:  reprinted in part from Real Estate Today

Theres no hiding the fact that optimism has been taking a beating this summer. Consumer confidence is in the tank, jobless benefits are on the rise, and home sales suffered a big drop. Weve all heard about the potential of a double dip recession, and if you pair the words economy and optimism together on Google, youre not going to find much to read about.

And yet, even under the most barren of landscapes, if you practice enough patience and persistence, you will find a seed or two of hope to sustain you through these troubled times.

We hear so much about people who cant afford their mortgages or who cant find a job or who cant manage their debt, that we forget that the fact that the vast majority of us are still gainfully employed, well-fed and have roofs over our heads.

The vision has certainly been frightening at times, but President Franklin Roosevelt was right when he told the nation during the Great Depression that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Fear is what keeps us on the sidelines, and in a nation where 70 percent of the economy comes from consumer spending, we all really need to take a collective chill pill.

The fact is, while the U.S. economy is hardly setting anything on fire, it is still growing up 2.4 percent in the second quarter of the year. Progress is progress, no matter how small.

That growth will be pushed along as consumers have more money to spend, and perhaps the record low mortgage rates can help with that. Have you seriously looked into refinancing your home? Mortgage rates are at record lows, and if you could drop yours by even just a percentage point, you could save hundreds of dollars a month.

Whether youre reducing your debt, or buying more products, youll be helping the bottom line.

And perhaps the bottom line for all of us these days is that we need to be brave, we need to spend wisely and most of all we need to be patient.

If you have any real estate questions, whether it be with your current home, an investment, refinancing, etc. we are here to help you.  We will be happy to discuss your situation and options.

Feel free to call us any time.

The Tim Sova Team

Tim Sova, Associate Broker/Listing Specialist
Brittani Simone, Realtor/Buyer Specialist
Colleen Sova, Client Care Specialist

Source:  Reprinted in part from Real Estate Today Radio Program

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Mobile Highlights:

Search millions of properties anytime, anywhere from any smartphone.

Browse through listings photos and request more information.

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Tim Sova, Associate Broker/Listing Specialist
Brittani Simone, Realtor/Buyer Specialist
Colleen Sova, Client Care Specialist