The Brian and Kindra Show

On Season 2, Episode 1 of The Brian and Kindra show, they discussed the benefits and challenges in downsizing your home.  There are multiple reasons why one would downsize.  Often buyers choose to downsize due to changes in their family units.  Maybe they have divorced or have an empty nest.  Another reason can be the cost efficiency that comes with a smaller home as the taxes, heat/air, and utilities are often less expensive. Living small means less debt and less risk. A smaller house will cost less and not require a large loan. Maybe this allows for travel or more entertainment opportunities.  Owning a smaller house is mentally freeing. It provides you the time/money to do more. You have more time with less cleaning and you have more money from no high utilities. Between first time home buyers and people downsizing, smaller homes are often easier to sell. There are generally more purchase options when shopping for a smaller home. This means smaller homes may also be a wiser investment opportunity.  One of the biggest upsides to a smaller home is cleaning. There is less cleaning and maintenance to do with less square feet. Also, bigger space collects stuff. The more space you have, the more stuff that piles up or you purchase to fill the space. So, a tiny home helps reduce unnecessary clutter. Smaller homes can also encourage family bonding. There is no room to hide. You see your family more often because of the shared spaces. Sometimes, downsizing can be an emotional challenge. Often, when one has lived in one home for many years, they find they are attached to their house and in a sense, include it as part of their family.  Don’t forget, when you move into a smaller home, you won’t lose memories of the old house. You’ll have those memories to cherish and get to create new ones in the new house. Brian and Kindra hope these tips have been helpful to you. As always, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to reach out to your local real estate professional.

On Episode 52 of The Brian and Kindra Show, they discussed countertops as a simple way to upgrade or update your kitchen. Kitchens and bathrooms are often said to be the main items that will help to sell a home. Updating your kitchen counters is an easy way to freshen up your kitchen.   Quartz countertops are low maintenance and non-porous. Quartz doesn’t soak up moisture and nor hold bacteria. Adversely, granite looks similar but is porous and requires more maintenance including sealing, a simple process. These two types are popular amongst homeowners because of the variety of colors available. Quartz you can easily match-up pieces because of the natural variation in color/design. Granite is formed in a way that you would need one piece in order to stay away from seeing two visibly different pieces. Granite comes in all shapes, colors, and sizes. It’s heat and scratch resistant. It’s more cost efficient than quartz, but not by much. It also may be more affordable than you realize and provides a classic style. Soapstone provides a nice aesthetic but is rare and costly.  Brian and Kindra advise that before doing costly upgrades to a home you plan to sell, you may want to ask a professional to complete a comparative market analysis so you don’t waste money on a project that won’t show a return. However, even though you might not see a financial return on some upgrades, you can see a quick sell if it catches a buyer’s eye. Solid surface countertops such as Corian and Laminate, are man-made. Corian is a slightly dated look that can be more uniform. Corian is an easily repairable countertop, that can be cost-efficient. Laminate countertops can last years and are easily perceived as granite. If you like change, laminate can be changed quickly and affordablyEco-friendly countertops, like Butcher Blocks, provide a clean look. However, they can harbor bacteria if they aren’t used properly.   However, it can be sealed to provide sanitation. Butcher block is said to have the same heat resistance as granite. An upside to Butcher Block counters is that if they are scratched, they can be sanded out and re-sealed. When updating countertops, if you pick a dark countertop make sure you have enough lighting so it doesn’t bring down the ambiance of your kitchen. Also, if upgrading your countertops or cabinets is out of budget, you can always repaint your cabinets to freshen up the space. If you’re updating to sell, give Brian and Kindra a call. They can offer tips on what is current and what might bring return in selling your home. As always, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to reach out to your local real estate professional.

On Episode 50 of The Brian and Kindra Show, they discussed how to decorate for the holidays while your home is on the market. Attempting to sell you home during the holidays is that you want it to still be festive, but not too festive!!  Some of the best decorated homes Brian and Kindra see can actually be distracting to buyers. The buyers get distracted looking at all the decorations, rather than looking at home. The thing to remember is that you’re selling your house, not your christmas decor. If you have to move the couch to the garage for decorations, you should definitely downsize your festivity!! When it comes to trees, they come in all shapes and sizes. You should display a tree that is sized appropriately to reasonably accommodate the space in your house. One idea to reduce tree size is half-trees. Essentially, it is a tree in half vertically and it goes against the wall, easily cutting down half the space. If you are attached to a real tree, put it in your backyard. The scent and its allergies of a real tree can be too overwhelming to some buyers.With outdoor decorations, keep it simple. A holiday mat and/or a wreath is plenty. If you want to put lights up, consider keeping it neutral with white or clear lights.Inside, minimal decorating is always a safe bet. You could go as simple as a decorated mantel and a tree. To aid in minimal decorating, having lit candles around the house in holiday scents can help make it feel festive. With mantel decorations, stockings can be that simple decoration.Reducing clutter during the holidays can be hard. An easy way to do this is to not display your christmas cards and to put away all personal christmas decorations. You want your decor to relate to everyone, so the “Baby’s First Christmas” decor might not be the best. De-personalize the decorations. However, if the christmas cards are just too sentimental to not display, put them in a basket so that they are neat and tidy.  If you like to decorate bathrooms, keep this to a holiday scented hand soap and decorative towel. It adds festivity, but it keeps it functional. The big picture here is that the buyer might not like your decorating, so minimizing that will help ward off distraction. The key word is de-personalize. Of course it isn’t ideal to do that, but hopefully you’re selling your house just for one season and the next year you won’t have to worry about it. On the upside, this gives you an early start to packing the personal decorations for the move! When selling your home around the holidays, the buyers are far and few between. However, they are serious buyers. If someone is buying a house during the holidays, it’s often that they have to buy a house and will do so quickly so you will want to keep your house as ready as possible for showings!  Brian and Kindra hope these tips have been helpful to you. As always, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to reach out to your local real estate professional.

On Episode 49 of The Brian and Kindra Show, they discussed the common home seller pitfalls. First, Brian and Kindra understand you may want to feel you need to sell your home on your own, without a professional. If you do, make sure you research and know the commitment. “For sale by owner” is absolutely your right, but Brian and Kindra want to make sure you know that realtors exist to help, not hinder. Just like getting your car oil changed, you can research how and where to get the tools and do it… but often you find it is worth the ‘expense’ to have a professional complete the job. Realtors are professionals with selling houses. Overpricing one's home seems to be a common pitfall.  Often, a homeowner will make a statement that if they price it higher, they’ll get better offers.  On the contrary, when a home is priced too high, it is often more difficult to get an offer. The buyer might think that selling a house is an emotionally charged event and they don’t want to hurt feelings by presenting too low of an offer.  As a seller, don't be unwilling to negotiate. Listen to your agent about offers. Cleaning is another seller's pitfall. Potential buyers will grade your home on how you maintain it. Reduce clutter and tidy up your house when showing it. If your home is dirty, they view the house as dirty. A well-cleaned house feels like a well-maintained house.  Brian and Kindra frequently hear statements like, “If they don’t clean the bathroom better than this, how do I know if they have even changed the HVAC filter?!?”  Brian and Kindra have also seen a “nice, neat and clean” older,  lesser updated home has also ‘sold’ before a newer, dirty home!  At the same time, Brian and Kindra know you live in your home and it’s hard to have it ready to show 100% of the time. They give you as much notice as possible when they have a viewing scheduled, but sometimes those appointments can come in rather short notice. One thing to help get your home ready to sell is Brian and Kindra’s home ready program. The first thing you have to do is pull yourself outside of your home by depersonalizing it and look at it from a different perspective.  This will help to eliminate clutter and also allow your buyers to picture themselves in the house.  Brian and Kindra hope these tips have been helpful to you. As always, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to reach out to your local real estate professional.

On Episode 48 of The Brian and Kindra Show, they discussed what your realtor does behind the scenes. One of the first things they do is market research. Market research is a comparative analysis of the market to see how the price of a home is measured vs. other properties and their size, square footage, etc. This helps realtors know if they need to do price-drops, painting, or other smaller renovations to make the price of the home comparable to the market. They also gather relevant information for buyers. This entails speaking with code enforcement and sometimes contractors last minute if a home feature isn’t up to code. Additionally, they can gather prices for what it would cost to change a home feature that a potential buyer hates while loving other parts of the home. For example, maybe a buyer loves a house, but the flooring isn’t their favorite and that’s their deciding buying factor. Often, their Realtor will obtain an estimate so the buyer or seller can make an informed decision.  On the flipside, they research costs showing the cost to upgrade a feature on a home. For example, maybe a buyer loves the property but they will only buy with a shop. Brian and Kindra have the resources to research the price of what that cost would be to build a shop and occasionally can even help to coordinate a project like this to be completed prior to closing.  Third is the amount of phone calls and scheduling. Kindra handles the ever-moving arrangements of showings, closings, and meetings. One upside to Brian and Kindra as a team is that they can be twice as productive day-to-day. While Brian is at a showing, Kindra can attend a closing. However, the scheduling doesn’t stop there. She handles scheduling for appraisers, inspections, title companies, etc. One thing to know is that realtors are human and sometimes make mistakes. One area is communication. Kindra is great at communication as things happen, so with buyers she’s immediate when appraisals come back and other pertinent information to the process. For communication with sellers, sometimes communication can lack. Not that they aren’t selling your house, but they are busy looking for buyers for the house. So in that process, communication failure can happen if the seller wants to be updated frequently. Brain and Kindra recognize that they are fallible in that regard and are working on it. They know they are busy, but busy is what sells. Brian and Kindra want to thank you for your continued loyalty and support. They hope these tips have been helpful to you in understanding what happens behind the scenes. As always, if you have any questions or need help, please feel free to reach out to your local real estate professional.