Month: February 2014

In honor of Valentine’s Day here are three ways to add some romance to your décor:

1.  Metallic Accents.  A metallic accessory or two can be unexpected and glamorous and lend a feeling of romance to a room.  Something like a chest of drawers, side table, or chair in a warm, metallic shade are perfect!

2.  Monochromatic Colors with a Pop.  A monochromatic color scheme can be give a room a crisp, romantic feeling as long as the shade is lovely and warm.  But to keep it from becoming too boring, pop a bright color in the mix like bright pink or a warm violet in just one or two places.

3.  Black and White.  Black walls can be very sensual.  Paint a wall black and hang white accents such as wall art in white mats for a very stunning look!

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-856-6434.

When you find a home that seems perfect for you, be sure to look carefully for potential problems before you put in an offer.  Here are a few red flags to look for:

1.  Lack of Maintenance.  If you can tell that a home hasn’t been well maintained just by looking at it, think hard about whether or not you are up for the challenge.  Chances are that in a situation like this there will be more to fix than just the cosmetic.

2.  Foundation Issues.  Comb the foundation for damage.  Look for noticeable cracks, bulges, and grading issues in the yard which could mean that water has run down the foundation.

3.  Old Wiring.  If there are outlets or switches in the home that do not function, or if the outlets are double pronged instead of triple, if any lights flicker or circuits don’t work that is all a sign that there may be wiring issues.

4.  Funky Smells.  If you smell bad smells inside or out it could be a sign that there are bigger issues.  Additionally, if you smell strong overlying scents like potpourri, candles, etc. then just keep in mind that it may be masking other not-so-nice smells.

5.  Limited Fresh Paint.  New paint is the number one way for sellers to spruce up their homes before selling, but if you only see new paint in certain areas, look for deeper issues which may be hiding under the paint, such as mildew or mold.

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-644-2266.

If you’re house hunting the last thing you want to do is waste your time looking at a bunch of properties that are wrong for you.  To make the most of your time and effort, start by working with a realtor.  Find someone you trust, but also someone you like since you may be spending a lot of time with them!  Once you have a realtor and they have your wish list you can start touring homes.  If at all possible drive with your realtor when you go on tours.  This gives you time between homes to discuss and debrief so that your realtor can help you narrow your search, and insures that nobody will get lost or separated.  When you go on a buyer’s tour make sure you have plenty of time free.  If you have to rush back to work or on to your next plans you won’t be able to spend time truly exploring homes that you actually like.  And while we’re talking about exploring, if you don’t like a place a cursory once-over is plenty of time to spend, but if you really like a place open every cabinet, drawer, and door in the place.  After you’ve looked at a home, be sure to discuss all the details with your realtor.  Voicing any concerns and criticisms that you have can help your realtor narrow down your home search so that you can use your time and effort much more efficiently.  And finally, if you want to make your life easier wear shoes that you can slip on and off.  Often homes with new carpet also have signs that ask you to remove your shoes, and being able to slip your shoes on and off will make the whole process much faster!  Happy house hunting.

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-629-6693.

According to several surveys updating a tired bathroom is the single best project to undertake before selling your home.  But all updates are not considered equal… some updates have a better return on investment than others.  If you can’t afford an entire room make-over you definitely want to replace the sink and faucet.  This sets the tone for the rest of the room, and although it can be costly, it also returns the entire investment plus some upon sale.  After the sink and faucet, changing out the counters and vanity for something function but stylish and replacing the flooring both offer a good return on investment.  If you still have some room in the budget, replacing your current toilet with a water saving model and replacing a worn tub/shower with something is also a good idea, but if you can’t do it all these are the two areas you will want to skip for sure.  It is often said that buyers make offers based on the kitchen and bathrooms, so if you have the budget for a project, making your bathroom a buyer’s dream before you sell is well worth it!

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-629-6693.

For better window treatments, try these tips:

1.  Hang high.  Hang your curtain rods at the ceiling and add floor length drapes, even if your windows aren’t floor length.  This draws the eye up and gives the impression of enlarging the room.

2.  Go full.  Using full height window treatments on small windows give the illusion of a larger window.

3.  Utilize Architecture.  Use curtain rods and other window treatment hardware with some architectural interest to add some drama to the room.

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-856-6434.

Whether you’re selling your home and trying to keep it as clean as possible, or just desire a cleaner home, here are some chores you can do in 5 minutes or less:

• Swiffer/sweep/vacuum the floor in any room
• Make the bed
• Fold laundry
• Clean the toilet bowl & wipe down the bathroom sink
• Dust the television and wipe off the screen
• Open the refrigerator or freezer and throw away everything that needs to be tossed
• Choose a room and dust all surfaces with a once-over
• Wipe down kitchen counters
• Clean out the kitchen sink
• Load or unload the dishwasher
• Wipe down door knobs and/or cabinet handles and/or light switches with disinfectant
• Open a drawer and clean it out
• Clean out the medicine cabinet
• Recycle old magazines and newspapers
• Wipe down sofa or other upholstery and fluff pillows
• Choose a room and clean any spots on the wall with a magic eraser
• Sort laundry and start a load

Enjoy your cleaner home!
Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-644-2266.

If your home is on the market, but it’s not selling, consider putting in some time and elbow grease to make it more appealing to potential buyers.  Here are five relatively inexpensive tips to help you market your home:

De-clutter.  You want to show off your home to potential buyers, not your stuff.  Even if you feel like your stuff is organized, the truth is it is still taking up space… space that will seem more appealing to buyers if it is empty, giving the illusion of more square footage.  Here are some tips to help you:

• If you haven’t used it in over a year get rid of it – donate it or throw it away.
• Pack up knick-knacks, books, photos, etc. – you want potential buyers to envision themselves in your home, but they won’t be able to do that if they see your family everywhere they look.
• Get a small box for essentials (toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc) and put them out of site (like under the sink) when not in use.
• Rent a storage unit – all homes show better with less furniture.  Remove pieces that are too bulky for their space, block walkways or doorways, or are not necessary.  For example, take the leaves out of your dining room table and store extra chairs – this will make your dining room seem larger.  If your guest room doubles as an office, either remove the desk and all office furniture or store the bed and other pieces of bedroom furniture.  You don’t want potential buyers to walk into a room and wonder what it’s used for.

Get rid of your stuff, get organized, and get potential buyers thinking about the space in your home as theirs.

Clean.  When a house sparkles it give buyers the impression that you are the kind of people that take good care of your things.  Everyone wants to buy a house that has been well cared for, so keep your house clean and increase your odds of selling.  In addition to daily cleaning, consider renting a power washer and spraying down your driveway, sidewalks, and exterior, wash your windows inside and out, dust for cobwebs, polish all faucets and mirrors and keep them polished, get your carpets professionally cleaned and then vacuum daily and anything else that will give your home an “extra clean” feeling is well worth your time.

Check curb appeal.  You don’t want potential buyers to walk away before they even come inside!  Walk around your house and think about how it comes across to potential buyers.  If you can’t be objective ask a friend or neighbor for help.  Consider the following: edge sidewalks, trim bushes, plant flowers, add potted plants, mend fences, keep sidewalks cleared, keep the lawn mowed, paint faded trim, be sure that your house number is clearly visible.

Make Minor Repairs.  Even inexpensive repairs can make a big difference in showing a home.  Consider the following: tighten leaky faucets, patch holes in walls (even nail holes from those family photos you removed!), caulk or plaster where necessary, replace cracked tiles, fix doors that don’t close properly, fix windows or drawers that jam, replace burned out light bulbs or broken light fixtures, fix broken blinds, oil squeaky hinges or windows that get stuck, replace any window or door hardware that is broken or “tricky”

None of these suggestions require a large amount of money, but if you combine them with some time and elbow grease your home will be much more appealing to potential buyers.

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-644-2266.

Some common plumbing problems can be easily fixed with just a few dollars and a little bit of elbow grease.  Here are three common problems that you can fix on your own:

1.  Stop Sprayer Woes.  If your sink sprayer always seems to be caught, it’s probably getting caught on the shut-off valves below.  Covering the pipes and shut-off valves with ½ inch foam pipe insulation will take care of the problem for just a couple of dollars.  If it won’t stay on, just add a bit of tape to keep it in place.

2.  Get The Creak Out.  Copper piping can creek a lot when it expands and grinds against joists and other things above it.  If this is your problem, just purchase some adhesive-backed felt at the hardware store, cut it into strips, remove each hanger and wrap the pipe in the felt before refastening it to the hanger, which will silence the creaking.

3.  Fix Your Toilet.  If something hard like a toy, toothbrush, or other foreign object is dropped in your toilet, using a plunger may only lodge it further down.  Using a wet/dry vac instead to suck out the water and the object is a much better option.

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-644-2266.

No matter how large your kitchen is, it always seems that every kitchen needs more storage.  Here are five tips for maximizing the storage your kitchen already has:

1.  Corral your lids.  By mounting a drawer for pot lids directly under your pot shelf you will be able to corral your lids and create a more efficient kitchen.

2.  A second utensil drawer.  Utensils drawers tend to be a deep jumbled mess of interlocking utensils and other handy tools.  By building a sliding tray that creates two shallower spaces in one drawer you can organize your utensils more efficiently.

3.  Add upright storage.  Keep baking trays, cutting boards, and other difficult to store items that take up a lot of flat cabinet space upright by adding a divider to one of your cabinets and creating an upright storage space.

4.  Add shelves.  Take a look in your kitchen cabinets… is there a lot of wasted space?  If so, add an additional shelf to your cabinet by cutting some plywood to fit and purchasing a bag of shelf supports.

5.  Utilize cabinet doors.  Your cabinet doors offer many storage options such as a built in knife rack, hooks for storing measuring cups or spoons, narrow racks for storing spices, and more.  Depending on what would best suit your space, a quick internet search is bound to bring up many suggestions for cabinet door storage that I would recommend taking a look at.

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-856-6434.

If you’re selling a home you should be prepared to deal with lowball offers even though you might find them annoying at best and offensive at worst.  However, it would behoove you, as a seller, to take all offers seriously – even the lowball ones.  For one thing, if a buyer liked the home enough to make an offer, even a lowball one, they are now emotionally invested in the property.  As a seller, you can come back with a counter offer at or close to your asking price.  At that point the potential buyers will either walk away, if they weren’t serious in the first place and you haven’t lost anything.  Otherwise they will come back with a more realistic offer and you can negotiate from there.  Through good negotiation a lowball offer can become your best option for selling.  Remember that for every month your home stays on the market it is costing you money, so selling for a little less than you’re hoping for might actually bring you the most money in the long run, so it is in your best interest as a seller to take every offer that comes across your plate seriously.

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-629-6693.

If you’re looking to buy, you know that after looking at house after house, things start to run together in your memory.  Here are a few hints to help you stay organized.

1.  Take Notes.  Snapping some pictures on your phone (or bringing a camera along) won’t hurt either.  Carry a notebook with you and dedicate a sheet to each page you see.  Write the address of the property at the top and then fill the page(s) with any notes to help you distinguish the home in your memory later.  Include in your notes any questions you have about the property. Which leads me to number two…

2.  Ask Questions.  Ask any and all questions that come to mind while you’re at the property.  If you have a good realtor, he or she should be able to answer many on the spot.  Jot these answers in your notes.  If your realtor doesn’t know the answer, they can check on it and get back to you, so write the questions in your notes if you’re waiting for answers. (See number one!)

3.  Know Your Priorities.  Prioritize your wish list and know your priorities.  If you know that you need four bedrooms, don’t waste your time looking at three bedroom houses.  If a large yard is a deal breaker, then skip the homes that don’t fit your criteria.  Most importantly, know what’s most important to you – price or location.  If you’re lucky you’ll find your dream home in both your price range and your desired location, but many times one or the other has to bend a bit to fit your needs, so be clear before you go in on which one you’re willing to flex if necessary.

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-644-2266.

Whether you’re looking for a quick makeover or a complete renovation, here are a few tips to help you stick to your budget.

1.  Negotiate.  Ask everyone if there’s any flexibility in the price and negotiate your heart out!  You’d be surprised where you can get discounts.

2.  Prioritize.  If you have a limited budget chances are you won’t be able to do everything on your “wish list,” but you can do the ones you care most about if you prioritize before you begin the work.

3.  Shop Surplus.  Ask vendors and showrooms about overstocks, floor models, closeouts and other sales and be flexible with your vision to include these deals when possible.

4.  Shop Secondhand.  Salvage yards, flea markets, thrift stores, yard sales and stores like Habitat For Humanity’s ReStore are great places to source inexpensive makeover materials.  You never know what you might find, so they’re definitely worth checking out.

5.  DIY.  Do-it-yourself is a good way to stick to a budget.  Doing your own grunt work can save you a bundle, just don’t try to do things you can’t handle, because then you’ll end up paying someone extra to come in and fix your mistakes before they can do the work.

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-629-6693.