Archive for the 'Roommates' Category

How to Stage your Home

This guest post was provided by Central Austin homes maven, Allison Allen.

One of the most steps to selling your home is making it attractive to prospective buyers. Showing the house is one thing, but showing it well is a whole different ball game. Even the most seemingly insignificant adjustments can transform your cluttered clamor into the house of people’s dreams.  Here are some tips to help you get started.

The first thing to do: remove clutter. Nothing hurts home showings worse than clutter and disorganization and there are plenty of easy ways to de-clutter.

Turn unsightly household objects into home buying appeal. If you have a bunch of old magazines and books lying around, organize them into a bookshelf, or use them to accent other home décor. Old books make great lamp stands when stacked. If you haven’t used the stuff lying around your house in a while, then get rid of it. Whatever attachment you felt towards those things will soon be replaced by a sense of relief for your clutter free household.

Clutter doesn’t just come from knick-knacks and other things lying around, it can also come from having too much furniture packed into your living rooms and bedrooms. Although it my have been a nice set up for you, the potential buyer will be distracted by the lack of space. The less furniture that you have, the bigger the house will look, and that’s a good thing when showing a house. The more space the buyer sees they are getting for their buck, the more willing they will be to meet with asking prices. Before you show your house, take some of your excess furniture and store it away until the move. It will let the house breath and make the space much more accessible to the potential buyer.

Once clutter is removed, and the house is looking nice and open, it is usually a good idea to replace fixtures just to give it that “new house” look. This is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to really give your home a visual kick

Just as important as the inside of the house, the outside must also make a great impression on the potential buyer. Basic steps are to landscape and touch up any blemishes on the exterior of the property. Mulch that flower bed and plant something! Got dirty gutters, clean them! Nothing will hurt a house showing more than a beautiful interior and the second they step into the backyard, there’s potholes, patchy grass, and dirty windows—another inexpensive, sure-fire way to help your For Sale by Owner experience.

But perhaps most importantly in the staging process is the first impression, or as we say in the real estate business, “curb appeal”. The entrance to your home will set the tone for the rest of the house. So, tidy up that entryway. Maybe even give that front door a nice bold coat of paint on it so that the entrance will be fresh and inviting.

When selling your home, the most important element of the selling process is how the home shows. No matter your price, an ugly, uninviting, cluttered home won’t sell and it won’t look good on the part of the seller. So remove that clutter, dust of that lampshade, polish that doorknob and present a respectable and asking-price-worthy home to the buyer. Hey, you never know–after you’re done staging, your home might look so good you’ll want to stay.

Tips and Advice When Living with a Roommate

By Relocation.com

Living with a roommate is both exciting and daunting. You might have grown up having your own room, or sharing a room with a sibling, but living with a complete stranger is a task that should never be taken lightly. Conflicts arise only when things are unclear. Sometimes anything petty, like eating his or her food, or leaving dirty dishes in the sink can cause many fights.  An important piece of advice: keep communication lines open and be clear about everything with your roommate from the very beginning. This helps to avoid such conflicts and misunderstandings.

Here are some areas where rules must be set so that you and your roommate can maintain a good relationship and keep peace and harmony around your shared apartment.

Personal and “public” stuff.
This must be clear between you and your roommate: which among your stuff is available for common use and which is restricted. Do you share your books and CDs? Will you allow your roommate to use your kitchen utensils? Are you sensitive about the use of your shaver? These are some of the issues that must be addressed.

Visiting hours.
Your apartment building may set their own time for this, but you and your roommate must also agree with regards to your own apartment. Issues to address include: What time is considered to be available as visiting hours? Who may be accepted as visitors? How long can guests stay over?

Entertainment.
Some people love loud music while others don’t. Some like TV, while some hate it. Be sure to have an agreement as to how loud s the music can be played inside the room at up to what time should the television turned on. You might have to battle on who takes control of the remote.

Housekeeping schedule.
If you don’t have any experience in housekeeping, it may be a pain. This time it’s a necessity for both of you to keep it clean. Your mother won’t be around to pick  up after you. Make an agreement on the assignment of tasks and a schedule: Who deals with cleaning the floor, putting out the trash, dishes? The important thing is to be fair.

Lights out.
It is important to set a time for the lights out so both of you may properly manage the time. You may follow different timelines for your stuff, so plan your schedule. Say, activities that may need lighting should be done early on so that you will not need to go beyond your scheduled lights out time.

Bills payment.
There are cases where you may have to pay for some bills like water, electricity, as well as cable and internet. Since you might be sharing the use of these, be clear on how you would split the bill for each.

Kitchen and toilet supplies.
Have an agreement on how you will purchase or use your toilet or kitchen supplies. You may decide whether you should take care of buying your own supplies or just splitting the cost of those between each other.

It will save you a lot of trouble if you can arrive at a consensus on the areas enumerated above. Make sure that you always have an open line of communication with each other. Be proactive and take time to discuss problems with your roommate as soon as possible. Both of you should be able to live in peace and harmony.

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Donotrent.com: A New Apartment Review and Social Networking Website

Donotrent.com integrates real estate rental reviews and through social networking features where they can search and post reviews of apartments, rental homes, student housing, vacation rentals and more. Donotrent.com is also a trusted partner of Relocation.com, a complete moving resource where consumers can receive competitive moving quotes.

The newest user review and social networking website donotrent.com went live late November 2010. The review platform is based on tenant experiences, past or present, renting apartments, on or off campus student housing, rental homes, vacation rentals and more. The site allows users to search and post reviews in every city in the United States. Users can also post pictures of the apartment and rate it using a unique 5-star rating system that ranges from “Not That Bad” to “Absolute Nightmare.” Although the name, donotrent.com, implies and actually encourages negative reviews, users can also post positive reviews. “The reviews that users post are meant to help future tenants become more aware of possible issues and ask the agent or landlord tough questions before they sign a lease,” says Cerny, a Chicago based real estate professional and co-founder of the site. Landlords are welcome to respond to posts about their properties if they believe a review is inaccurate or if a problem has been corrected.

It happens all too often, an interested party walks through a beautifully furnished unit with an agent or landlord and decides to sign a lease because everything looks perfect. It is very obvious that the agent or landlord is not going to mention that they receive numerous noise complaints about the neighbors throwing parties all the time or that the unit has a mold problem in the kitchen ceiling which they continue to simply paint over. Donotrent.com allows users to easily share their experiences in order to help future tenants make an informed decision about signing a lease after they read the apartment reviews. The goal is to make leasing agents, landlords and property managers more accountable by disclosing more information to prospective tenants.

Besides the review side of the website, it is built around a social networking core, which includes a conversation forum, public blog and a classified ads section. The main difference between donotrent.com and their competition is that they appeal to the next generation of internet users with numerous social networking features. Unlike the competition that has dated features and no social networking, donotrent.com uses Facebook connect along with the AddThis sharing service. Both of these features will allow users to stay connected with friends by sharing posts and messages instantly on their favorite social networking sites.

The layout and review system of donotrent.com is similar to the popular review site Yelp. The main difference is that its niche is rental property reviews and not reviews of every single business in the world. It will only be a matter of time before we start to see other review sites startups that focus on niche markets since quality on a specific topic, business or interest will always trump quantity.

For more information regarding this website, please visit http://www.donotrent.com.

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Pre-Rental Checklist

By Relocation.com Staff

Is it safe? Is it clean? Are the essentials located nearby? Those are the types of questions to ask before you pick a new place to rent and before selecting moving companies. Here a list of things to watch for when you’re looking at apartments for rent or homes for rent.

Outside the Apartment:

Do you feel safe in the neighborhood and the surrounding area? That’s the first and most important question by far, and is always the first question to ask yourself.

If you visit the apartment during the day, think about how will feel coming home late at night, or early in the morning. If the thought makes you scared, move on. No amenities or cheap rent can compensate for the feeling of insecurity.

As part of this, ask your neighbors about safety, and check in with the local police about crime statistics.

Is the building close to major roads and public transportation? Do trial runs for how long it would take to reach your work, your daycare, or other frequently visited placed.

Is the building clean and well-kept? Are entryways and hallways well lit? Are unsavory types hanging about? How the building is kept up is a pretty good indicator of the vigilance of the apartment manager.

Is the laundry nearby? If you don’t have a car, it better be close, preferably in your building. Picture yourself trudging there every week or so and ask yourself how you feel about that.

Where are gas stations, supermarkets, restaurants, banks, drug stores, dentists and gyms – is the distance friendly or far away? If you’re on public transit, figure out how long it will take to get to these various places that you might visit often.

Inside the Apartment:

Before signing a lease and moving, make a quick check of the apartment, not only the appearance and cleanliness, but see that things actually work. Don’t take anything for granted – something that doesn’t work now you’ll have to deal with right away when you move.

Bathroom: Check the water pressure in the sink and shower, and flush the toilet to make sure it operates properly. Also, make sure the hot water works.

Walls: If the building’s near a road, can you hear the traffic? Can you hear the neighbors next door? If near an airport, how is that noise?

Appliances: Check the fridge, the heating and air conditioning, the stove and oven and any other appliances that might be in the apartment.

Windows: Make sure they open and close easily, and make sure there are no holes or cracks in the glass.

Electricity: With any switch you see, try it out to make sure it works.

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