Curb appeal is important when selling your home

As quoted from an article in KansasCity.com, curb appeal counts when selling home.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. While this old adage was intended as advice for people, the same is true for houses. If someone doesn’t like what they see on the outside, they certainly aren’t anxious to see the inside.
If you are thinking about selling your home, one of the very first steps you should take is to assess the “curb appeal” of your house. Does it beckon buyers? If you were a potential purchaser, would the house shout “Come back!”?

This is very true. Homes that have great curb appeal get more phone and e-mail inquiries. We the realtors will get more inquiries to sift through to find the right buyer. An example would be:
We had a home for sale in a subdivision this past April that had another similar home for sale by another realtor. They were both the same floorplan and within two blocks of each other. Most Most of the features were the same except their front curb appeal. Our home with great curb appeal was listed for $10,000 more than the one with a not so good curb appeal. Our home with great curb appeal was getting on average 2 more phone inquiries and 15 more internet inquiries a day then the home with not so good curb appeal, according to the other realtor. Our home with great curb appeal sold in 14 days at list price, while the home with not so good curb appeal sold in 54 days at 3.2% under list price. Our home with great curb appeal was average until we suggested less than $50 worth of fix ups. Do you think we advised our clients correctly? This is how we help clients.

If you are looking to sell your home and would like some pointers on low cost ways to make your home have better curb appeal, contact The Dowell Taggart Team.

Local Johnson County Report

Employment increased by 3,337 jobs the 1st quarter of the year. However, the number of job seekers also increased. The unemployment rate jumped from 4.3% to 4.4%.

Average home prices increased slightly from $266,700 to $266,800. It has been rumored that we are in a buyer's market, home on the market have increased the last quarter from 3,649 to 4,586 the previous quarter. With the market slowing down and homes taking longer to sell, 343 fewer homes sold this past quarter than the previous quarter.

The number of new homes built decreased from 753 last quarter to 397 the first quarter of this year.

Average days on the market has increased from 65 days on the market last quarter to 85 days on the market this quarter.

Seventeen subdivisons in Johnson county have seen a decrease in the percentage of homes sold. The zip code with the largest percentage loss was 66219.

The zip code with the highest % of asking price/ list price (sold for highest amount above list price) was zip code 66085.

The zip code with the greatest number of homes sold was zip code 66062 (East Olathe).

For more information or information on your zip code or subdivision, contact The Dowell Taggart Team. (913) 980-5809. www.DowellTaggart.com

Johnson County Explores Wi-Fi

According to the July 18th issue of the Kansas City Star, Johnson County and three cities (Overland Park, Olathe & Lenexa) are exploring the option of creating a wireless information system. Unlike Orlando, Florida who started building a system and stopped and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma who built a system for emergency personnel and goverment employees; Johnson County is looking for a private and a public wireless Wi-Fi System.

The Johnson County is looking to build a public/private Wi-Fi mesh that could bring cheaper internet access, a more productive goverment and a better emergency response.

The telecom and cable providers will be mounting a stiff opposition to the study and possible implementation of a giant Wi-Fi mesh.

Overland Park, Olathe and Lenexa are looking to spend $45,000 to fund the study.

This looks like a great idea and with over 300 communities researching the idea, Johnson County is looking to stay ahead of the technology curve.

What do you think about Johnson County building a Wi-Fi mesh? Would you pay for such a service? Should the money to build such a Wi-Fi system come from private or public funds?

Chris Dowell
www.DowellTaggart.com