Get the Straight Facts About What Can Make or Break the Sale of Your Home. 

Is Remodeling Worth the Expense?
Remodeling magazine's 19th annual "Cost vs. Value Report" could give prospective home remodelers a cause for concern. According to the report, the cost of remodeling increased at the same time that the return on the dollars invested decreased. ... 

Blueprint for Home Sale: Price it Right.
The current market value of your home may be more than, less than or the same as it was last year depending on where you live and what you have to sell. Nationally, the median sale price of homes sold in October 2006 dipped 3.5 percent from October 2005, which was an exceptionally strong month. But there are still pockets of the market, such as Portland, Ore., where prices are still going up. ... 

What to do when Home Listing Expires
Three months was more than enough time last year for home listings in many areas to sell and even close. But now listings are expiring unsold, often leaving sellers wondering what to do next. ... 

Navigating Home Inspection Process
There's one thing that buyers and sellers agree on: home inspections are no fun. Buyers and sellers hope for a good end result, but something invariably comes up. To complicate matters, inspectors sometimes disagree on what is wrong, what should be done to correct a problem or how much it will cost. Finding the right inspector isn't always easy, but it's often critical to resolving an issue. ... 

Overpricing a Home Could Lead to No Sale
Overpriced home listings usually don't sell in any market. In today's market, there's no margin for error when selecting a list price. If your price is too high, the market can literally pass you by. Many sellers ask: What's the harm in pricing high initially? You can always come down. While this is true enough, you may end up with a lower selling price if you start too high to begin with, particularly if the market is declining. ... 

Home Staging Takes Listing from Drab to Fab
Staging a house for sale is a concept foreign to many home sellers. But, it has been immensely popular in the San Francisco Bay Area where sellers have reaped huge benefits from their efforts. You don't have to fix up your home before selling. A home can be sold in virtually any condition, if it's priced right. There are basically two reasons why sellers go to the effort and expense to prepare their homes for sale. One is that it helps to bring a higher price. The other is that it usually results in a quicker sale. ... 

Sellers Still Unrealistic About Asking Prices
Sellers who aren't happy with the first offer they receive are often inclined to refuse it and wait to see if something better comes along. However, some sellers are finding out the hard way that the first offer was their best offer. ... 

Numerous Ways that Home Sales Fall Apart
Recently, a Los Angeles home seller thought his sale was a sure thing. Mere days later, his house was back on the market. What went wrong? The buyer didn't qualify for financing. ... 

More Listings, Fewer Buyers Change Expectations
You may be kicking yourself for not selling your home last year when the market was hot and gave sellers an advantage. Now, in most parts of the country, you'll be selling in a balanced market, at best. In a balanced or normal housing market, neither the buyer nor seller has an advantage over the other. ... 

Pitfalls of Contingent Home-Sale Offers
Last year, real estate offers made contingent on the sale of the buyer's home stood little chance of acceptance due to record low inventories of homes on the market. Now, swollen property inventories are making the home sale market more challenging for sellers. And contingent sales are making a comeback in some markets. ... 

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