Why It’s Important to Stage Your Home

Selling Your Home /

Are you considering putting your home on the market? If so, you may be wondering if it’s worth staging. After all, your home is already furnished and decorated – why do you need to go through the hassle of staging it again?

But, believe it or not, staging can make a big difference in how quickly your home sells – and how much you get for it. Here are a few reasons why staging is so necessary.

When the market is booming, the buyers are urgently moving into their new houses. This means they have to choose a place that could easily sway them through first impressions and emotions.

The house owners can use this sense of urgency to their benefit by staging their homes. You can also subtly strengthen the buyer’s connection to the house by staging according to seasons.

A well-staged home can attract multiple offers right after you list it.

You can use several ways to stage your home that ranges from hiring a professional company to producing your home. Or you can even direct it yourself by using your creativity through using your own or borrowed furniture to enhance the look of the space as much as possible.

Benefits of Staging Your Home​

1. Buyers Visualize the Space

This is one of the most compelling reasons for staging a home and the most used one. A well-staged house can help the buyers imagine or visualize the usage of each of the rooms present in the place, be it a living room or a finished basement.

According to a study conducted by the National Association of Realtors, approx. 80% of the buyers said that viewing a staged  home made  it easier for them to decide when buying their future home.

2. It Increases the Value of the House

Staging a house is an expensive thing to do, and in some cases it can cost a fortune. Although, when you calculate the benefits of staging and the probabilities of a higher offer, you can conclude that staging has the potential of increasing your property’s value.

3. Shortens Listing Time

In addition to the various perks and potential benefits, staging a house helps shorten the length of time your property lists on the market.

Staging a house is an expensive thing to do, and in some cases it can cost a fortune. Although, when you calculate the benefits of staging and the probabilities of a higher offer, you can conclude that staging has the potential of increasing your property’s value.

In addition to the various perks and potential benefits, staging a house helps shorten the length of time your property lists on the market.

Bottom Line

Even if you have stacks of cash, you should not put all your investments into the staging process. Of course, you must know about the best features of your home, but you should also have an idea of what would help in selling the home and what makes it more usable. In conclusion, if you want to get the most out of your house, the staging process should be carefully monitored.

If you are looking to sell your house and need help, send us a message using the form below!

Send Us a Message

Contact Lookup Realty

Why It’s Important to Stage Your Home Read More »

Why Owning a Home is Better than Renting

Buying a House /
man holding key after choosing to buy home instead of renting

Finding a place to live can be an extremely stressful task. Many thoughts go through your head when you decide, specifically “Should I buy a house or rent one?”. Before you get on with your search, you must first decide which option is best for you.

It would be best if you considered a few things before making this giant leap. The primary factor that would impact your decision is how much you are willing to spend. Renting a house might sound a bit beneficial for now, but if you see it in the long run, you might get no benefit out of it. Homeownership is better than renting. Not only do you get to call your place of residence “home,” but there are some very compelling financial reasons why owning a home beat renting in almost every category (tax benefits, equity growth, long-term goals)

man shaking hand of real estate agent after buying a home

Here is what you need to know about the benefits of owning a house instead of renting:

1. Relief from Paying Rent:

Don’t you hate paying rent? With the ongoing market conditions and mortgage rates, now is the time to consider transitioning from writing a monthly rental check to investing in your own home. The financial benefits of buying a house can outweigh your monthly mortgage payments if you keep your housing costs low enough by shopping around for the best rates on mortgages and insurance.

You can use the Buy Vs. Rent Calculator to consider the decision of buying a property or renting it. For example, if you buy a house worth $ 200,000 today and increase value by 3.9% every year, your home would be worth approx. $ 233,000 after five years.

2. Tax Advantage: That would save you a lot

There are several advantages of buying a home which includes the ability to grow equity and certain tax advantages. It’s also an acquired milestone that offers a sense of pride and accomplishment. The current real estate and mortgage market conditions have created the perfect opportunity to transition from paying monthly rentals to investing in your own home.

3. Market Condition

Today’s real estate market conditions have created the perfect opportunity to move from paying a landlord for a set amount of space at a fixed rate every month into buying that space yourself. A house is indeed your castle, and buying one beats renting in almost every category

4. Building Equity

In many cases, buying a home offers the opportunity to build equity as you pay down your mortgage. According to a study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, homeowners can accumulate wealth at twice the rate as renters do over time.

You can also minimize risk with proper insurance coverage because it protects against unexpected catastrophes such as fire, severe storms, vandalism, and theft. Quit wasting money on rent and start investing in your future!

Bottom-Line:

Buying a house has always been a profitable investment. With all of the benefits lined up for you above, the decision lies in your hand whether you want to buy a house or rent it. If you’re looking for a competent consultant, then Look Up Realty is your place to go.

Send Us A Message

Contact Lookup Realty

Why Owning a Home is Better than Renting Read More »

Is 2021 a Good Time to Buy a House?

Buying a House /

There’s never been a home buying market like this one. Buyers are motivated by significantly low mortgage rates. Apart from low mortgage rates, many companies allow their employees to work from home, meaning buyers have more flexibility to choose where they’ll live.

If you’ve ever considered buying a house, you’re probably asking yourself if it’s the right time to buy a house in 2021.

Here’s everything you need to know about buying a house and why it potentially is –and isn’t—a good idea:

image of house for sale in 2021

The advantages of buying a house in 2021

Let’s firstly start with the advantages.

The current market situation

At the beginning of this year, the housing market was noticeably hot. Thanks to the low mortgage rates, a plethora of buyers wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and decided to buy a house. They were so interested in buying houses that it even lead to bidding wars. This, of course, drove the prices even higher.

The good news is that at the moment, this isn’t a trend anymore. In the last few months, we’ve seen the market slowing down. Houses are staying on the market longer, and there are overall fewer bidding wars between buyers.

Low mortgage rates

As previously mentioned, the mortgage rates were close to historic lows at the start of the year. They stayed that way until the second half of February, when they started to climb. The climb, however, stopped mid-April, and since then, they remain consistent.

While the rates may continue to climb during 2021, it is very unlikely they’ll spike in the near term. Experts debate that we could see the rates rise in 2022/2023, but it’s impossible to say by how much.

image of calculator to represent the cost of buying a house in 2021

The disadvantages of buying a house in 2021

Uncertainty in the market

Some people are uncertain about the current situation as many experts discuss different topics such as the presumable inflation, higher unemployment, or the housing market being a bubble. It is all a matter of speculation, and no one truly knows what’s going to happen.

We want to emphasize that there are always many angles you can look at a specific topic, but it’s important to say that the majority of people are optimistic and look for the American economy to stabilize and become as strong as it used to be before the covid pandemic.

Be prepared to pay premium prices

The demand for housing has been on a consistent uptrend since last year. As the demand spiked, so did the house prices. The average U.S. house price has gone up by 15% compared to last year.

Conclusion

Although it’s impossible to accurately predict the upcoming economic trend since it depends on many aspects, we still believe that buying a house in 2021 can be a good choice.

We hope our article helped you to gain the necessary awareness about the topic of buying a house in 2021. If there’s anything you’d like to ask us, feel free to do so. Our team will be more than happy to answer all your questions!

Is 2021 a Good Time to Buy a House? Read More »

Pierce County, Washington, 2021 Housing Market Report

Housing Market Reports /

The time we currently live in isn’t sure the most certain time. In today’s world, it’s more important than ever to stay informed about the current situation with the economy. Not just on a global or national scale but also on a local scale. For this reason, we decided to write a brief article about the Pierce County housing market to raise the awareness it deserves.

Without further ado, here’s everything you need to know about the Pierce County housing market:

Pierce County Housing Market

Pierce County Housing Market 2021

The overall housing market of the United States has been on an uptrend since the last significant market crash in 2008. We’ve seen this trend evolve even faster in the last 12 months alone. In April 2021 were the home prices up 25.3% compared to last year. When it comes to the median price, it currently sits at $500k.

There were 1558 homes sold in April 2021, up from 1010 last year.

We can, without a doubt, say that Pierce County, WA, is a seller’s market, meaning there are actually more people looking to buy than there are homes available.

On average, homes in Pierce County sell after 36 days on the market, and buyers are often willing to go into bidding wars.

How will the trend evolve?

We all would like to see the value of our assets rise, but, as we all know, markets cannot only go up, and eventually, corrections are inevitable. The market has been on a consistent uptrend for the last 12 years. In addition, many financial analysts warn about upcoming financial problems such as hyperinflation due to economic issues concerning the covid situation and ways of trying to stimulate the economy such as printing money. Over 40% of all dollars ever printed were printed in 2020 alone. This fact alone should suggest that something’s not quite correct.

 With that being said, we predict that the markets can keep rising for quite a while, but nobody knows if that means three months or two years. Eventually, in the long run, we will see a significant decrease in the value of many assets before the economy stabilizes again. If you ever thought of selling your home and take in your profits, this is the perfect time to do so before it’s too late.

Conclusion

Pierce County housing market is sizzling hot at the moment, considering the fact that there’s nothing really logical about the 25% increase in prices in a matter of 12 months. This, however, isn’t an issue of this area specifically but rather an overall U.S. housing market problem since we are starting to see overpricing of some types of properties in some regions of the United States.

We hope our article helped to raise your awareness about this important topic. If there’s anything, you’d like to ask us, feel free to do so. Our team will be more than happy to answer all your questions.

Pierce County, Washington, 2021 Housing Market Report Read More »