Ways to Maximize Your Home’s Marketability

It’s time to sell your home because you are ready to move on, move up, or move out of state and relocate.  Since real estate has been on the steady track to recovery, chances are good that your home will sell relatively fast in this emerging market.  However, there are ways to maximize your home’s marketability to be able to compete against all of the other home owners who are having the exact same hopeful thoughts as  yourself.  Take note of the concepts below when you are preparing your home for sale.

Keep it Simple:
The way to sell a home successfully to a potential home buyer is to help them imagine their furniture, children, pets, friends, and life in your currently occupied space.  You may want to consider going ahead and packing away the items in your home that make you “uniquely you,” which could include African animal heads on the wall, an extensive doll or teddy bear collection, or a series of books from a particular author alphabetized on your bookshelves.  You never know what people may find strange or offensive, so you want to minimize their exposure to these types of personal belongings.  In the kitchen, living room, and even your master bedroom, get rid of the clutter and clean up the surfaces to allow buyers to “fill up” the spaces with their imaginary lives.
 
Keep it Clean:
This may be a common sense concept for many home sellers, but your definition of clean and a potential home buyer’s concept of clean may be totally different.  Don’t take any chances: go from the outside in and the floor up.  You don’t necessarily have to hire someone to pressure wash the exterior of your home to clean it up, although, here in Louisiana, homes can accumulate mildew in

less than 2 year’s time, so it might be time for a thorough cleaning.  If you want to put some elbow grease into it, you can actually just mix up buckets of lightly bleached water and using a long-handled scrubbing tool for those stubbornly stuck-on spots, you can “wash” the exterior of your home to make the paint look fresh and almost new.  More work can be done by washing your windows both on the outside and the inside, making your floorplan more light and airy while also making the glass sparkle.  Vacuum and MOP your floors on the inside of the home – this will make your home smell fresh as well.  You can either rent a steam cleaner with a scented deodorizer in it or use a powder deodorizer in your vacuum cleaner for your carpets.  Once you have scrubbed every inch of every surface in your home, cover up any remaining odors and put your best foot forward by buying plug-in’s for each room.  They are very powerful and will probably last for the hopefully 30 – 45 days it will take to sell your home.  You never get a second chance to make an excellent first impression.

Keep it Maintenanced
There is a good chance that it will rain in Louisiana while you are trying to sell your home – a chance that it may even rain very hard.  You will want to make sure that your home is kept in good repair throughout the entire selling process.  Before you even start the cleaning process, make sure you REPLACE damaged parts of your home – this includes dents in the walls, water leaks, cracked door or window frames, broken windows, and chipped formica or granite.  If you are not selling your home as a KNOWN, as-is renovation project, you don’t want a buyer to bypass purchasing your home because they see that work will have to be done as soon as they move in.  When selling a previously-owned home, there may be an understanding that it has already been lived in by other people, but you want to give them the illusion that they are buying a home that is in superior condition and will need little to no work at all.

Keep it Exposed
If you use the Internet for professional or personal use, you know that there are websites out there which maximize your home’s marketability through the use of social media.  You can be your own online agent for your home by taking excellent pictures (or having your really talented photographer friend take pictures) of your home and then posting to your personal social media pages.  If you do not yet have an online presence, ask one of your tech-savvy friends to help you by posting the listing for your.  In addition to social media, you can also sign up for real estate websites for free such as trulia.com, zillow.com, activerain.com, and redfin.com to post just your house for sale on the Internet.  Remember, the more pictures and descriptive information that you add, the more your listing will show up in the search results.
After all of your hard work, and your new home sells; you may be interested in building a new custom home on a lot in one of the excellent subdivisions in St. Tammany Parish.  You can Contact Ron Lee Homes at 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com to get started on building your new home.

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7-Part Series of Education Workshops for Local St. Tammany Parish Businesses

As an increase to 2014’s workforce development series, the St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation will be sponsoring a 7-part series of education workshops for local St. Tammany Parish businesses, a year-over-year increase from the successful 5-part series which was hosted in 2014.  Founded in 1981, the St. Tammany Parish Economic Development Foundation (STEDF) has been

highly integral in the attraction and retention of new business to the parish.  Even before Hurricane Katrina, this foundation had been gradually increasing business opportunities to the Northshore.  After Hurricane Katrina, the construction growth and economic development of the region has lead to national recognition of the I-12 corridor being one of the fastest growing regional areas in the United States for new business opporunities.


In 2014, the St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation was responsible for the creation of 315 new jobs and the retention of 276 jobs with the completion of 13 projects which saw $54.3 million in investments.  The foundation is diligent in businss retention in St. Tammany Parish by utilizing “retention visits” to existing businesses to gauge their satisfaction and confidence in the local economy.  According to their annual report, the STEDF visited 112 different times to businesses which, all told, provided 7,891 jobs for residents of St. Tammany Parish.

This forward-thinking, proactive, and “preventative” approach to retaining business on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain has been the mission of the STEDF.  They are continuing that mindeset by offering the seminars and classes below:

April 28: Healthcare and Biosciences
May 19: Manufacturing
June 23: Digital Media
July 14: Construction and Coastal Restoration
Sept. 22: Energy, Oil and Gas
Oct. 13: Education and Training – Jump Start, Two-Year- and Four-Year-Colleges
Nov. 10: To be determined

“We hope this series will increase your knowledge of workforce opportunities, connect you to resources for workforce enhancement and training and provide insight about the future needs and trends of the workforce in our region,” Ashley Cangelosi Llewellyn, programs manager for the foundation, said in a news release.

To attend any of these workshops about workforce development opportunities, attendees must register in advance during the enrollment period for each program.  The classes themselves will be held in the STEDF conference room on Koop Drive in Mandeville from 9am – 10am with doors opening at 8:30am.  To register for the April event, email stedfinfo@stedf.org.

Click Here for the Source of the Information.

Act of Sale for the Nearly 300 Acres of Land in St. Tammany Parish

The act of sale for the nearly 300 acres of land that currently encompasses the former Southeast Louisiana Psychiatric Hospital – now known as Northlake Behavioral Health – will be held, Thursday, March 26, 2015, at 2pm.  The sale is between the state of Louisiana and St. Tammany Parish.  The parish negotiated a sales price of $15.4 million to buy the property, and the parish

plans on utilizing the land for a few different purposes: possible expansion for Pelican Park, a new roadway from Hwy. 190 (Florida St.) to 1088 reducing congestion for both Hwy. 190 and Hwy. 59, and to bolster the government’s wetland mitigation bank.

St. Tammany Parish’s wetland mitigation bank is served by Mossy Hill Mitigation Bank which also serves the wetland preservation needs of Washington and Tangipahoa Parishes.  It will also review requests for credit from areas outside of these areas on a case-by-case basis.  The idea is that builders and developers may purchase a one-time credit from the Mossy Hill Mitigation Bank to offset the impacts that their construction will have on the wetlands involved with the project.  They must offer another portion of the project that is close to or adjacent to the job that they own in exchange for this credit so that the wetlands in other areas are preserved.

“When impacts to jurisdictional wetlands are unavoidable, a one-time credit purchase from the Mossy Hill Mitigation Bank prevents mitigation cost overruns and irrevocably transfers your perpetual mitigation liability to Ecosystem Investment Partners (EIP), one of the nation’s leading providers of environmental credits,” according to the website for the Mossy Hill Mitigation Bank.
St. Tammany Parish’s Pelican Park may purchase as much as 100 acres of the land involved in Thursday’s act of sale to expand upon its already 321-acre park. In conjunction with the expansion is the hope that St. Tammany Parish will go ahead with the road building / expansion project between 190 and 1088 in order to construct a second entrance to Pelican Park on this cut-through road.

The “fate” of Northlake Behavioral Health is secured through this act of sale because one of the conditions of the purchase was that St. Tammany Parish leave the buildings and land belonging to the psychiatric hospital campus intact and operating as a behavioral health hospital.  Meridian Behavioral Healthcare, the current company that mangages operations at the hospital through a privatization program has expressed interested in purchasing the entire campus and land from St. Tammany Parish.

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Ron Lee Homes Now Offers Renovations and Remodeling

Floorplan design is the most essential part of the home building process, and Ron Lee Homes takes great care and pride in offering unique, beautiful semi-custom and fully custom floorplan designs for our clients.  Ron Lee has been designing and building state-of-the art new homes in St. Tammany Parish for over 20 years.  His hands-on approach to his projects has not only exponentially increased his knowledge of home building techniques that are both technology savvy and energy efficient but also stylish and elegantly beautiful.  He has found that even the smallest details such as matching tile choices for flooring and backsplashes as well as crown molding and built-in cabinetry trim selections can create a stunning display of craftsmanship and workmanship in the homes that he builds.
With this standard in mind, Ron Lee Homes has recently hired Cheryl Murphy, a design specialist who worked for many years with Floor to Ceiling off of Florida Street in Mandeville, Louisiana.  The purpose of adding her to the team at Ron Lee Homes is so that we can offer an even more specialized design service experience for our customers while they are building their home with us, or if they have an individual remodeling or renovation project that they need handled.  Many people may have heard of making “selections” during the home building process.  Some builders offer minimal selections such as carpeting colors, tile design choices, paint colors, siding colors, etc.  For the homes built with Ron Lee Homes, our custom home design process can be extensive, and the choice of selections can be “dizzying.”  That is where Cheryl Murphy will take over and make the process of navigating the selection choices a more manageable and pleasant experience for the custom home building part of her job.

With her background at Floor to Ceiling, Cheryl was a designer who helped home buyers, renovators, and remodelors find the perfect selections for their kitchen, bath, cabinetry, and flooring.  From wood styles and colors, to kitchen cabinetry, countertops, fixtures, and appliances, to flooring choices, Cheryl will use her instinctive design skills to help clients choose the perfect blend of color, textures, and styles to make their project the very best that it can be both architecturally as well as aesthetically.  In addition to the construction aspects of the renovation and remodeling projects, Cheryl also excels at helping her clients choose accessories such as bathroom furniture, rugs, floor coverings, blinds, drapes, and other window treatments, and even specific requests such as wall art, sculptures, and stand-alone pieces. Lighting packages are also a specialty of Cheryl Murphy’s design skills.  She can help clients completely change the look and feel of the room that they are remodeling by completely changing the lighting scheme throughout.

So, whether you are building and designing your home with us as a semi-custom or custom home project, or you have a smaller remodeling or renovation project, you will have the expert assistance of Cheryl Murphy with Ron Lee Homes to help you make the perfect selections for you and your project.  For More Information About Renovations and Remodeling by Ron Lee Homes, Call 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.

Visit Ron Lee Homes' Open House This Weekend!

Ron Lee Homes is holding an open house at Bedico Creek in St. Tammany Parish this Saturday from 12pm - 2pm.  We would love for you to come out and visit our new, custom home with tons of gorgeous and exciting features!!  You will also have a chance to tour St. Tammany Parish's fastest selling new master planned development in Madisonville, Louisiana - Bedico Creek Preserve!  We hope to see you out there this weekend!

OPEN HOUSE THIS WEEKEND!!

Bedico Creek Preserve
420 S. Fairway Drive
Madisonville, LA 70447

Click Here for Directions!

Saturday, March 14, 2015
12:00pm - 2:00pm

 

Approximately 3,600 Living Square Footage
4 Bedrooms, 3 Baths With A Gameroom

French Style Home
The Perfect Home for Entertaining Inside and Out!!!!
Exposed Beams on Front Porch
4 Bedrooms, 3 Baths
Open Floor Plan
Designated Formal Dining
Beautiful Chef Kitchen for Entertaining with Large Island
Butler’s Pantry between Kitchen and Dining
Walk in Pantry, Mudroom for all your Shoes, Coats, & Bookbags
Spacious Master Suite with Built in Library
Exquisite Master Bath, You don’t want to miss this one!!!!
Huge Outdoor Patio overlooking Large Lot
Outdoor Kitchen for Socials
3 car Garage with ample storage
Large Gameroom over Garage for Kids (or Kids at Heart)
Walking Distance to the Community Pool, Firepit, and Pond

Contact Us By Calling 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com for Your Personal Viewing of Plans and to Discuss Pricing.

 

Three Ways Homes Are “Getting Smarter”

It seems that the faster that you keep up with the latest, state-of-the-art technology, the faster technology changes.  Builders both nationally and locally in St .Tammany Parish are learning very quickly that they either have to stay abreast of their knowledge of high-techn options and accessories for the new homes that they build, or they may lose potential home buying clients.  At Ron Lee Homes, there is a constant stream of education and educational courses and seminars that are offered by the National Association of Home Builders, and both Ron Lee and Nancy Lee of Ron Lee Homes continually are attending these classes and courses in order to stay on the cutting edge of building technology.

Informational articles are also helpful to advise and inform both builders and home buyers alike about the latest trends in technology and how these trends affect the real estate market.  Below is a list of up and coming products that are being offered as high-tech accessories or necessities for new homes being built.

1. Lighting by Bluetooth: Technology has advanced so much that you can now build a network throughout your home where all of your lighting and light switches are on what is called a mesh network.  Each part of the network works off a node that “talks” to the other parts of the network, and the network can be accessed through Bluetooth and any smart device.  When using this network, you can install a new light switch by sticking a new plate to the wall by using double-sided tape if you would like.

2. Talk to Your Home: As you may or may not already know, there is technology out there that makes it so that you can control your thermostat, alarm system, lighting system, and garage door openers by using a smart device like a smart phone, tablet, or pad.  The systems are already “wired” or networked together and you can access them by using an app. The newest technology makes it so that you can use a language processor like Siri to “talk” to your home.  You simply speak the commands into your smart device, and then that device talks to the systems in your home.

3. Low Power Wifi: This is a fairly new development on the market . The idea behind this device which is a super long-lasting “battery” that has Wifi capability, is that it will “retrofit” existing features of your home which use batteries and turn them into “smart devices.”  One of the examples of this product is called the Roost.  The Roost is installed in your smoke detectors, and if smoke is detected, it sends a notification to your smart device.  This is just one of the many ways that such a device could be used to retrofit existing appliances and features of your home.

With technology moving, it seems sometimes, faster than the speed of light, it is the goal of Ron Lee Homes to stay on top of the latest trends and to be able to troubleshoot solutions to make the technology in the new custom home that you build with us user friendly for you and your family.  Contact Us Today to discuss your technology needs.  Call 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.

Click Here for the Source of the Information.

Involvement in the New Home Market is Beneficial

According to all of the statistics from many corners: housing research firms such as Zelman Associates, investors in the stock market, the National Association of Realtors, and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), involvement in the new home market is beneficial on many different levels.  Investors are significantly pleased with the robust returns of national publicly held home builders such as Meritage Homes Corp., Toll Brothers Inc., Taylor Morrison Home Corp. and Standard Pacific Corp.  The U.S. Home Construction Index of the Dow Jones

has seen a 10.8% gain excluding dividends for its investors.  Toll Brothers Inc. celebrates a 13% increase in orders year-over-year compared to 2014 as well.

Builders are reporting the sales of new homes have gotten off to a tremendous start in January and February of 2015.  The NAHB is also in line with this assumption, so the only downward impactful news out of all of this is that the sale of existing homes is faltering.  However, for once, there is good news associated with this negative trend.  Because of the real estate market recovery after the Recession, the inventory of homes that are on the market to be sold that can immediately be bought is 4.7 months.  This means that it would take only 4.7 months to buy every home that is currently for sale in the United States.  During the Recession, the inventory of homes reached almost 2 years, so this low amount of inventory is an indicator that the housing recovery has truly taken a positive turn.  However, during a healthy housing market, the inventory normally stands around 6 months.  So, existing home sales have slowed to their slowest pace in 9 months because of this and other factors.

Last year, both builders and Realtors alike suffered through the numerous and overwhelming polar fronts that came sweeping down from not just Canada but the Arctic itself.  These weather patterns last year literally had the housing market at a standstill during the 1st quarter of 2014.  While not as bad this year, the weather has affected people’s home shopping habits and kept them indoors.  Also, January and February are not normally booming months for real estate sales, so it’s definitely not time to panic and start liquidating all of the assets just yet!

While the two factors above may be slowing down existing home sales, overall, home sales are set to increase during the spring which is typically the “busy season” for real estate because of three factors: the economy (GDP), job growth, and interest rates.  The GDP has been increasing each quarter for the past 1.5 years.  However slight, these increases seem to be “piling up” so that even some economists are surprised by the growth each quarter of the GDP.  Unemployment has been dropping for many months in a row and showing a consistent increase in available jobs each quarter as well.  The job market is getting so robust that people that had been on long term unemployment are once again entering the job market.  Finally interest rates for mortgages are still unbeatable at lower than 4%.  They do climb over 4% every couple of weeks, but even at those rates, they are still lower than an average interest rate in a “normal market” of 5.5% to 7%.

Investors, builders, researchers, and economists are sure to have their eye on the real estate market for both new homes and existing homes moving into the spring quarter (and hopefully the busiest quarter), so they will be able to predict if this sales phenomena is merely a lull or an actual trend.  In the mean time, new homes are for sale throughout the United States, and at the moment, buyers are interested in purchasing them.

Click Here for the Source of the Information.