Homes by Design KC
Enjoy samples of my MLS listing description and blog articles
MLS Description Sample
As you cruise up the driveway that gently curves through the rolling field of lush green lawn to arrive at the grand stoned covered entrance, the traditional European elegance and fine finishes transport you to another place, like an Italian villa. Located in (popular city) Kansas, the 8,000 square feet, five bedroom, three bath house was expertly crafted with great attention to materials and design.
Hand-crafted front doors made of solid wood framed by the natural stone wall offer a warm welcome. As you stroll through the inviting entryway to the sunlit living spaces, the sophisticated design is brought to life with high-end finishes including hardwood floors and hand-plastered walls. Antique beams and architectural accents give the home its hand crafted character.
A spacious living area provides ample room for comfortable seating for casual everyday living and welcoming guests. Floor-to-ceiling windows flood the space with light and provides a picturesque view of the lush backyard. When it’s chilly outside have a seat and relax in the warm glow of the architectural fireplace and curl up with a good book.
The heart of the home boasts natural materials rich in style. Wood cabinets, tumbled marble counters, and finishes in nature-inspired colors lend a rustic flair to this functional and attractive kitchen. High-end appliances and a spacious pantry make it easy impress family and friends with delicious meals.
The primary bedroom provides a serene retreat. The spa-inspired bathroom is complete with two sinks, a vintage style vanity crowned with a generous countertop, a walk in shower and high end fixtures. The four other bedrooms and 2 other bathrooms take their cues from the primary bedroom with an emphasis on generous spaces including walk in closets.
The attention to design and natural materials seen inside the house continues to outside spaces. Stacked stone borders a refreshing blue pool topped with a decorative fountain. Dive into the gorgeous pool and cool off on a sizzling summer day. Wander through colorful gardens in this natural outdoor oasis. If this looks like your dream home, contact Realtor Name with Realtor Company at (913) 000-0000 or visit yourrealestatewebsite.com.
Blog Post Samples
3 Organizing Strategies to Impress Home Buyers
Imagine inviting home buyers into your tidy home and quickly getting a great offer on your house. It's easy to impress home buyers and get organized when you follow these three simple stages. The first stage of getting your home ready to sell is decluttering. The second stage is getting organized as a part of the home staging process and the third stage is always being open house ready while you are still living in your home.
Declutter in three simple steps
A major decluttering effort before you move saves you time and effort that would have been wasted moving lots of stuff that you don't want into your new home. The easiest way to break down a major decluttering effort is by category. Imagine the items you are thinking of getting rid of falling into these three categories, dead weight, someday, and sentimental.
Enjoy your first victory in the battle against clutter by focusing on the dead weight items since these are the easiest to get rid of. Dead weight items include paperwork like old bills and credit card statements that were paid a long time ago, packaging for electronics or other items that you no longer own, expired beauty products, expired food products like spices, and useless stuff you have lying around that you will not miss. Getting rid of the dead weight gives you a satisfying sense of accomplishment, but don't break into your happy dance yet. There are still two other categories to work through.
The next category of clutter to attack is the someday stuff. Someday stuff refers to anything you plan to use at some undetermined time in the future. Those books or magazines that you never got around to reading, the clothes that you plan on wearing when you lose weight, the project or hobby that you plan on tackling "someday". Someday is an imaginary date that does not exist on any calendar. Instead of living for someday, focus on celebrating what brings real value to your life today by donating, recycling, or discarding that space-hogging someday stuff.
The last and most challenging category of items to let go of are sentimental items. To decide which items it's time to go of ask yourself these questions. Has the item served its intended purpose? Items like greeting cards are designed to express a personal sentiment. Once the card has been read and appreciated by the recipient it has served its purpose. Toss it in the recycling bin free of guilt knowing that it's the sentiment that matters, not the card itself. Is this item the best representation of the memory I am trying to cherish? You don't need to keep every tacky souvenir, personal memento and candid photo from every trip or event you experienced. Keep your favorite keepsakes and dispose of the rest.
Effective home staging starts with organizing
After completing a thorough purge, congratulate yourself on a job well done! By this point in the organizing process, you have freed yourself of many unwanted items and are ready to move onto stage two. Stage two is designed to showcase your home in the best light by organizing your spaces in a more attractive way.
Potential home buyers are looking at both living space and storage space. The more objects you have cluttering up a space the smaller your home looks. Declutter and neatly organize objects to help enhance the feeling of space. Limit the number of items that rest on counters, shelves and other flat surfaces to three or less. Store beauty products, small kitchen gadgets, paperwork and rarely used items out of sight when not in use.
Multitasking spaces filled with unrelated objects warn buyers that a home lacks functionality. The guest room that looks like a storage unit for random items. The bedroom with home office or exercise equipment. The living room that looks like a kid’s playroom with toys strewn about. When a space does not have one clear purpose it’s hard for home buyers to imagine how they would live in that space. Identify one function for each room and only include furnishings and objects that relate to that function.
A cluttered closet implies that your house lacks storage space. Freeing up floor space and shelf space in closets by removing some items shows potential buyers that your closets have room to spare. Arrange items in your closet by type and leave a little space between hanging items. Shirts grouped next to each other, bottoms hanging side by side etc., creates a sense of order and emphasizes how functional your closet are.
Organizing makes living in a staged house easier
Having a perfectly organized home ready to wow potential buyers is a lot easier when you are not living in that house. Real life tends to be messy which brings us to stage three of the organizing process, maintenance. Before everyday living destroys your organizing efforts, put systems in place that allow you to live in your current home while being able to tidy up and be ready for home showings at a moment's notice.
When it comes to keeping your home open house ready to show, baskets are a home seller's best friend. In the bathroom cheap plastic baskets are ideal for quickly corralling beauty and grooming products to store under the sink and out of way. In the entry it helps to invest in an attractive shoe storage and baskets to contain miscellaneous items.
The easiest way to keep your house ready for potential buyers is to make a habit of putting things away when not in use and eliminating piles. Do the dishes, put paperwork away, and hang and store clothing in its proper place. Now you are ready to show off your home and sell it to a happy buyer who doesn't have to look past piles of clutter to see the potential in your house.
12 Ways to Improve Your Credit and Your Chance to Buy a House
In a hot housing market, buyers with a pre-approved mortgage enjoy a competitive edge against home buyers with credit issues. How you handle your finances affects your credit score and chances of getting a loan. Don't let credit mistakes keep you out of the home you want. Use these 12 tips to improve your credit and land you that dream home:
1. Know your current credit score
It pays to know your current credit score before applying for a loan. You may discover mistakes, late payments, or other issues with your credit that can drastically lower your credit score. Review a complete and current credit report to identify problems that need to be fixed before applying for a mortgage. Your current credit score and credit history can impact your ability to buy a home.
2. Dispute credit report inaccuracies
If you are shocked to see how low your credit score is on your credit report and something looks wrong, ask questions. You have a right to dispute information that is not accurate. Improve your credit score by contacting a credit reporting agency as soon as you notice a discrepancy. Don't allow falsely reported information to sabotage your credit rating.
3. Make payments on time
Show lenders that you can be trusted to handle money by being punctual with payments. When lenders see missing or late payments in your credit history, this can ruin your opportunity to get a mortgage. Use your credit to your advantage by making monthly payments on time to maintain and improve a good credit score.
4. Spend a small portion of available credit
Maxing out credit cards when shopping for a new home is a costly mistake. Even if you pay off your credit cards in full every month, don't spend all of your available credit. Lenders closely examine your debt-to-income ratio during the mortgage application process. Your available credit is an important consideration for lenders determining what kind of financing they will make available to you.
5. Avoid too much new credit
Few things scare off lenders faster than new lines of credit. Spreading expenses across new lines of credit, warns lenders that you have a hard time managing credit. Lenders don't want to see that several credit cards have been opened, or applications for multiple lines of credit within a short period of time. Opening new credit lines also reduces your average length of credit history, which can reduce your score.
6. Keep credit card accounts open
You may be surprised to learn that paying off and closing credit cards can negatively affect your chance to get better financing terms. Mortgage lenders look at your available credit to determine if you can buy a home. Keeping inactive credit cards open increases your debt-to-income ratio. Consistently using credit cards for small purchases, and paying credit card bills in full and on time show lenders you can be trusted with credit.
7. Avoid expensive purchases before closing
A new home provides an exciting opportunity to upgrade your lifestyle. Unfortunately, mortgage lenders are not excited to see major purchases paid for with a credit card when you apply for a loan. Wait until your finances are done being subjected to extreme scrutiny before buying appliances, new furniture and other high-ticket items. When lenders are reviewing your finances, postpone taking on debt for expensive purchases.
8. Do not buy a new car
The worst time to buy an expensive new car is when you are buying a new house. If you buy a new car with a large loan it could prevent you from getting a home loan. Financing a car with a big loan while a mortgage loan is being processed can drastically change the terms of the mortgage loan or cause the mortgage to be denied. Treat yourself to a new set of wheels after the mortgage loan has been processed and approved.
9. Do not cosign a loan for a friend or family member.
Cosigning for a friend or family member who wants to borrow money may seem harmless. Cosigning a loan makes you responsible for payments if they default on their loan. The lender for their loan can sue you if payments are not made. When preparing to buy a home, you don't want the financial liability of being legally obligated to pay for someone else's debts.
10. Do not apply for a mortgage with a partner with bad credit.
If you are buying a house with a partner their credit score is just as important as yours. Verify that your partner has a good credit score. Your partner may not be aware that they have a low credit score so run a current credit report. A partner’s low credit score could cost you a favorable financing rate or ruin your chances of getting a loan approved.
11. Keep your day job
You may not be working your dream job, but if you want to move into that dream home, do not change jobs or become self-employed. Lenders examine your current job situation to determine your ability to pay back a loan. A sudden change in jobs and income can scare off lenders and make it harder to get your loan approved.
12. Ask for a soft-pull credit check
Multiple inquiries may lower your credit rating and jeopardize your chance to obtain a better loan. Ask your lender if they offer a soft-pull credit check for pre-approval. Each time your credit is pulled, your credit can take a hit depending on the purpose and when it was pulled. For pre-approvals mortgage lenders may offer home buyers a soft-pull option so your credit is not impacted during the approval process.
When preparing to secure a loan, call the real estate experts who work hard to make it easy for home buyers to get the right house at the right price. You can rely on our years of experience to guide you through the process and negotiate the best deal for you.
References
Realtor
https://www.realtor.com/advice/finance/5-worst-ways-ruin-credit-score/
Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/closing-house-common-mistakes-2022-2
Berhshire Hathaway Home Services
Neighborhood Loans
https://neighborhoodloans.com/what-not-to-do-before-closing-on-a-house/
Forbes