Don't Get "Grinched"

Apparently, there are some people who will just walk up to someone’s front porch and steal their packages. I guess nothing should surprise me anymore, but I still have to shake my head and wonder about people. On a news story the other day, it was reported some homeowner’s had even caught the thieves on their security cameras. They just walk right up, take a quick look around, grab the box or boxes, and go! 

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/grinch-christmas-ups-fedex-packages-stolen-135622058.html 

This isn’t a new trend, just popular right now because of all the cyber shopping going on and people like you and me sending gifts to family members.  About five years ago, my husband and I were living in Portland and my sister-in-law was coming for the holidays along with other family members. She decided to ship her gifts ahead of time so she didn’t have to lug them on a plane in her luggage. Well, they were verified as being delivered, but we never saw them. Apparently, some Grinch grabbed the box from our front porch while we were at work. My poor sister-in-law felt bad, we felt bad. From then on, we had all deliveries go to our work places.

My theory is that particular neighborhood was a prime target. The houses were close together and front yards very small which made the view to the front porch very visible from the street. I figured someone could easily drive by lots of houses in a short amount of time and see if packages were sitting by the front door all from the comfort of a warm car.

Don’t be lured into thinking you can ask UPS or Fed Ex to put your boxes behind a bush or an envelope under the doormat (which they will do) so it’s not visible and therefore safe. Many of these Grinches drive behind the delivery trucks to see exactly which houses they are going to, then walk right up to the doors to snatch the goods.

Ask a neighbor to help out, have packages delivered to your work or pick up at a delivery center. Also, I understand FedEx offers nighttime delivery or a designated delivery day or delivery by appointment. Don't let the Grinch steal your Christmas!

Is Staging Really Important?

If you are considering selling your home, you've probably been thinking about staging and where to begin, where to end, where to start. Staging is talked about A LOT among brokers. There are TV shows about it, magazine articles about it and businesses devoted to it.

Just how important is it really?  VERY!  I view properties all the time and, believe me, I can tell by the pictures of the home how it's going to present itself. I have an opinion just like the buyers who are walking through the door and it is formed VERY quickly. It's about sight AND smell.

I want to start with the one thing that is so basic, everyone is qualified to do it:  CLEAN! Your home must be spotless, from the front entry, through the kitchen, to the corners of the bathrooms. I'm not just talking picking up the clutter (although you need to do that too). I'm talking sweeping, scrubbing and making-windows-shine clean. The stovetop looks good enough to cook on; the bath looks clean enough to take a bath in; and the buyer will WANT to take-their-shoes-off-in-your-house clean.

And here's another tip:  your house needs to smell clean. No cooking odors, pet smells or smoking residue. Be careful not to overdo the air freshener or any type of perfuming of the air either, which can be offputting and make buyers wonder what you are trying to cover up.

A clean house tells the buyer that you care about your home. That it's been well cared for. It is smells good enough to hang around.

So, yes, staging IS important. But you need to clean first.

It can seem overwhelming, but with the guidance of your broker or a professional stager, you can accomplish a lot more than you think fairly easily.

Ripe Bananas

Okay, so this might be a weird subject to start my new home selling/buying blog, but here goes. I recently included some household tips in my monthly newsletter that I send monthly to clients, past clients, friends, family and well, anyone I think might possibly read the darn thing.

This tip said:  Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected, they ripen faster.  This was intriguing to me as I would prefer my bananas to stay at the slightly green-around-the-edge phase until I have eaten them all up. I included this tip with all the confidence that "if information comes to me in an email, it must be true". Afterward, I realized I had a bunch of bananas in my own kitchen, so I went and pulled off one banana to see if it would ripen at same rate as the remaining bunch. After 3 days, all the bananas looked exactly the same.

Okay, well maybe I didn't do the experience correctly since I didn't take them apart right when I got them home from the store. So, with the next batch of bananas, I immediately picked one off (after taking my first photo of course) and began my experiment anew.  I took pictures after three days to see how the ripening of the bananas was progressing.

Hmmmmmm, they ripened at EXACTLY the same rate. I now know that I can't always believe every thing I get via email. And NO I have not fallen for the million dollars in a bank account in Ethopia thing either.

What harm can passing along bogus information about bananas do? Not much, I agree. But I just wanted all the world to know (or at least my Newsletter followers) that if I pass along incorrect information, I promise to correct it.