Improving your curb appeal of your home is something that many people do not even think about when they are looking to sell their home, however it is important.  Curb appeal is what will actually attract the consumers to your home and honestly, it is something that will get their foot in the door so that you can sell them on everything that your home has to offer.

Outdoor lighting is by far one of the best ways to improve the curb appeal of your home and in the next few blogs; we are going to talk about some of the trends in outdoor lighting that seems to be popping up.

Solar lights are certainly something that are popping up everywhere but by far, the color lights and orbs are something that are very popular in the way of outdoor lighting right now.  More in the next blog people!

In this blog, we have talked a lot about real estate and the market itself and we have also given you tips and tricks as a real estate agent as well as a buyer or renter.  With that being said, we are now going to talk about something very, very important … home insurance.

If you are a landlord and you are renting out to someone either a room or even an entire apartment, you might want to ensure that they do have renter’s insurance.  This can actually really harm you if they do not have renter’s insurance.

Recently … as of Sunday actually, I fell down the stairs of my rental home.  Now – I personally do not have renter’s insurance.  If I wanted to, because I am not covered and the landlords are – I can actually sue them because I fell down the stairs.  Now … I am not going to do that because I am fine, but what would happen if you weren’t fine?  More on this in the next blog!

Now that we have talked a little bit about what you should be doing with your tenants and how you should be meeting them face-to-face whenever possible, let’s move onto the rental application.  This is a piece of paper similar to a resume for the prospective renter and I can promise that if you evaluate it right, you are going to find the ideal tenant.

One of the first things that you need to do once you get the application is call of the past landlords that the tenant has had.  That way, you can make sure that the tenant has a good rental history, as that is what is going to be key whenever you are trying to get someone to rent something that belongs to you.

You always want to make sure that they are going to take care of it and you want to ensure that they are going to respect it.  Next, check their credit – do they pay their bills on time?  These are key things here.

If you are a brand new landlord, I can promise that you are going to have not only a lot of questions but you truly lack the experience that a lot of other landlords might have, therefore you might not know what a good tenant looks like versus a bad one.  Well, that is what we are here for and I can promise that there are a lot of different tenants out there for you to choose from.

Firstly, you always want to make sure that you meet the tenants in person.  You never want to rent to someone that you have not met or at the very least talked to do an extended period of time on the phone.  It is hard to find people to just come in and look at your space, but truly, you want to try to get as many people in as possible to see the place that you are trying to rent.

In the next blog, we will talk about how you can evaluate your rental applications and what the process is to truly find the right tenants for you!

One of the very first things that you want to make sure that you do when you are trying to overcome your fear of cold calling is taking stock of yourself and your skills.  You want to list all of the things that you can do for the person that you are calling, list all of the qualities that make up you, as a person and make you the person the prospect should work with.

Next, you want to make sure that you list all of the benefits of working with you.  You always want to make sure that you keep these lists right by the phone so that way you can tell any prospects them without hesitating at all.

Finally, you want to make sure that you take the first step and pick up the phone – it is the hardest step but once you pick up the phone, you will feel better.

With the way that the economy is right now, in the real estate business, we are all going to face some sort of fear when it comes to cold calling.  When you are real estate agents, you are in the sales business and while not all sales businesses are about dealing with making call daily, this particular business is.

In the game of real estate, you need to make sure that you are generating brand new business and you are gaining more and more prospects in order to meet your quarterly quota.  Well, you do that by calling on prospects and that can be difficult.

In the next couple blogs, we are going to talk about how you can overcome the fear of cold calling and how you can generate more and more business for yourself.

We all move.  Whether you are moving to a brand new house or you are moving into a new apartment, you want to make sure that you leave your old apartment in good shape.  Currently, I am going through a move myself and while I am not exactly moved out yet, I intend to leave the property the way I found it.

That does include some things that you may not want to be doing.  For example, cleaning out everything and making sure that the walls are painted.  This is something that many people forget about, however you always want to make sure that you do not burn any bridges when you move.

In the next blog, we will talk about exactly what you should be cleaning out and what you can leave.

Now that we have talked a little bit about adding in a covered porch – the next step that you should take is actually making sure that your roof hangs over a little bit.

The reason for this is actually so that way, it keeps the sun off of the windows and exteriors, which will help the house, stay extremely cool in the summer.  It also really helps to protect the siding from the weather, which means you can go twice as long between repainting.

Next, you want to make sure that you reuse and remodel.  If you are planning to really tear down your home and start over, why waste?  Why not try to salvage your home or even your first floor and build around it.

In this day and age – real estate is all about how green your home is and honestly, the greener your home is, the better chance it has to sell and that is surely what you should be concentrating on whenever you are looking to sell your place.

There are tons of little things that you can do to make your home greener and in the next few blogs, we are going to talk about some of those ways.

The first way is by adding in a porch – new covered porch shelters are actually fantastic to keep the morning rays out of your home so you do not have to kick on the AC as much in the summer time.

Now that you have figured out exactly what neighborhoods or towns you are going to be looking into, the next logical step is going to be researching them.  You want to make sure that they are safe for you and your family so go ahead and look online and make sure that these neighborhoods and towns are going to be extremely safe.

Next, you are going to have to figure out if you want to rent a place or if you are going to buy a place.  Honestly, this is going to be the biggest decision, because if you buy – you might be stuck there but if you rent, it makes it easier for you to relocate again.  After this decision is made, go ahead and contact a real estate agent.

What most people don’t realize is that real estate agents can actually help you with renting and buying, so no matter which one you want, make sure that you keep your agent informed.