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Staging Takes Center Stage
You
don't have to be a star to be in
Beth Ann Shepherd's show.
Sheperd is one of those
"to the stars" service
providers, in this case, setting
the stage to position a home for
sale or staging. It's a smart
marketing move when it's time to
move a home in just about any
kind of market.
Staging is to the interior
of a home what curb appeal is to
the exterior -- nipping and
tucking, furnishing and
accessorizing, buffing and
polishing until the place looks
like a model home, without being
clinical. But it can also
include curb appeal.
With just the right
special effects, the effort can
transform a home into a house of
dreams and help potential buyers
visualize potential.
Done wrong and a home can
become more like the set of a
horror movie, a real
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Metro
Atlanta Average Home Values
Increase by $28,000 Since June
2006
June had more records broken and
more surprises than any other
reporting period I can remember.
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Seven Steps To A
Credit Score Makeover
You
can mitigate the effect of tighter
mortgage underwriting standards by
improving your credit report profile
and, as a result, your credit score.
Just don't expect that your
knee-jerk reaction to tighter money will
generate overnight success. Chances are,
you didn't get all those credit report
blemishes during a single credit buying
binge. And, if you are like many
consumers, you don't even know what you
are up against.
BankRate.com recently found that
32 percent of Americans surveyed never
check their credit reports and have no
idea what shape it's in. It's time to
find out and do something about it.
Local lenders say the incidence of
credit report knowledge is even higher
when borrowers sit down to apply for
home loans. "Less than 10 percent have
seen their report and among those who
have, most of the reports are old, many
are only from one bureau and so they
don't have a complete picture," said
Joel Spolin, president of Absolute
Mortgage in Palo Alto, CA.
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Coping with Higher
Summer Energy Costs
Air
conditioning is costing consumers more
this summer.
The Energy Information
Administration, the statistical division
of the U.S. Department of Energy,
predicts that the price of electricity
will climb about 2.6 percent during
2007. Demand for electric power will
grow about 1.5 percent during the year,
which the EIA says is normal.
This means that if the typical
consumer paid $150 for electricity to
run central air conditioning in a 2,000
square-foot house in each of the summer
months in 2006, for example, that bill
will be $153.90 for June, July and
August this year. That might not seem
like a lot of money, but multiply that
by the increase by the number of
households in the United States and that
means hundreds of millions of dollars.
These costs fall on low and
moderate income homeowners the most.
Diane-Louise Wormley, who oversees a
program to improve Philadelphia
neighborhoods, said that a key to making
homeownership affordable for younger
buyers is to make these older houses
energy efficient so that "everything
won't be going to the gas company."
Much of the housing stock in
Philadelphia, Baltimore and other cities
was built before 1950, when energy costs
were low and insulation was not part of
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Our
"PERFORMANCE" Guarantee
Your Home "SOLD AND CLOSED" in
120-Days or I Will Buy It. Home
Buyers Receive 1% of the Sale
Price Cash-Back at Closing.
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Head
Count Shows
Shifting Population
The
country's fifth largest city is in the desert,
according to the latest Census Bureau estimates.
And though it is only half the size of the next
largest city, the nation's No. 1 city in terms
of population has more than twice as many people
as its closet rival.
Yes, New York reigns supreme as the
largest city in the United States, with a
population of 8.2 million. The next largest city
is Los Angeles, which has just 3.8 million
residents.
Chicago is third with 2.8 million
inhabitants and Houston is fourth with 2.1
million.
Phoenix, the aforementioned desert city,
moved into fifth place, according to the latest
count, moving ahead of Philadelphia. The head
count in Phoenix in 2006 was 1.5 million. In
Philadelphia, it was 1.45 million.
Daily News and Advice
Read about the events
shaping the Real Estate market today,
find current interest rates, or browse
the extensive library of advice and
how-to articles written by some of the
top experts in Real Estate. Updated each
weekday.
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