Tony Brewer

I’d like to put a thought “out there” for people who are considering buying a home.  If it is at all possible, I’d like to recommend that you rent the home with the option to buy it BEFORE you commit to buying it.  There is some sound reasoning for this.  First of all, there is the “try it before you buy it” rationality.  If you live in a house for a few months or a year, you will get the feel for what the neighbors are like (which is more important than you realize) and if you have kids you will get a good idea for whether or not the school system meets your needs.  In addiditon you will get to know the house itself - whether or not the roof leaks, how often you might having plumbing issues, how reliable is the heating and cooling system, do the appliances meet your needs?  If, after you have lived there for a few months or a year, you find that it does NOT meet your needs, then you can simply move away without having to try to sell the house!  Yes, try before you buy.  Good advice.

Being involved in real estate, I understand the importance of curb appeal.  If the exterior of a house looks shabby and neglected, potential buyers will not be interested in going inside to look and see if the house meets their needs.  There have been several times over the past few years when I’ve had clients decide to not even get out of the car when going to show them a house that does not have good curb appeal.

One way to enhance curb appeal is with a nice looking mailbox.  Dented mail boxes simply look shabby.  Prospective house buyers can easily assume that the appearance of the Mailboxes reflect how much pride the seller has been taking in the upkeep of the house in general. 

I’ve heard people say that you should always keep the foyer to a house clean and neat because it gives a first impression of the cleanliness of the rest of the house.  Similarly, a nice looking exterior of the house will make a good first impression as well.

This afternoon I was looking out my front window and happened to see my next door neighbor kicking leaves and trash from his front lawn onto my front lawn! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I called Teri over to see for herself what was happening! She couldn’t believe it either! This neighbor has his house up for sale; if it wasn’t up for sale, I think I’d confront him on this. He has no right to kick leaves and trash from his yard into ours!

With the economy as bad as it is right now, there is a lot of concern about how the real estate market is going to improve.  So many people are losing their homes because they’ve lost their jobs, or had other bad things happen in their lives which has made it impossible for them to continue to paying their mortgage. So there is a real glut of houses on the market right now.

Teri bought a book for me yesterday called Profit from Real Esate Right Now by Dean Graziosi. The book is written by a guy who has made a lot of money in real estate, and has his own television show.  He contends that this is a really good time to profit from the real estate market, even in this bad economy. I’ve seen him on television a few times, and have thought that we he says make sense, so I will be reading the book with much interest.