A Smart Way to Minimize Your Child’s Clutter While Selling

Selling a home with kids can be difficult. Here’s a quick tip to make things a bit easier for everyone.

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One of the most stressful parts of selling your home can be getting your kids prepared. Having kids of my own, I know the struggle of trying to keep all of their things tidy when a showing could happen in a moment’s notice.

Decluttering your child’s room or play area can be hard, especially when they are young. It’s not until you start putting their toys away into storage that they mention the toy they haven’t played with in a year is their “favorite.”

Give them the choice to keep the things they really want.

Here’s what I suggest you do. Give them the choice to keep the things they want. Get a big storage bin, but not too big that it doesn’t fit under your child’s bed. Tell them that they can keep the box full as long as you are in the house. If it fits in there, it stays until you move. Anything that doesn’t fit in the box, however, has to be put away until you can unpack in your new home.

Every time you have a showing, all you or your child needs to focus on is making sure the box gets filled back up and put underneath the bed. This really simplifies the decluttering process and still allows for your kids to have their favorite toys on hand. The clients of mine who have followed this advice have had significantly less stress during their home sale than those who haven’t.

If you have any questions for me or you’re thinking about selling your home, give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help out in any way possible.

Don’t Believe This Myth About the 2017 Market

Since the number of home sales dropped significantly from December to January, should you be worried about the 2017 real estate market?

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There is a myth out there about the 2017 market that has incited some unnecessary panic in our area.

Recently, an article came out of Orlando stating that from December of 2016 to January 2017, there was a 25% decline in home sales. This article went on to say that the entire market is declining and that this is the beginning of the end.

Don’t worry, though— there’s nothing to panic about. That decrease in single-family home sales is a normal trend in our market. For example:  

• From December 2014 to January 2015, sales dropped by 26%
• From December 2015 to January 2016, sales dropped by 28%
• From December 2016 to January 2017, sales dropped by 28%

The number of sales drops every year from December to January and soon, we will see an increase in inventory.

Every year, the number of home sales drops from December to January.

Ultimately, the month-to-month number of sales is not a reliable indicator of how our market is doing. You are not comparing apples to apples.

However, if you look at the yearly numbers, you’ll see that from January 2015 to January 2017, the number of home sales went down by 13.5%. The market is declining by about 7.5% each year, so that is the more concerning issue.

Our market has been in a strong seller’s market, though, so this slowdown is more of a leveling off. Our market has had three to four months of inventory and we’re starting to see five to six months of inventory. The market is not going to implode in 2017; we will simply see more of a balanced market than we have the last couple of years.

Going forward, 2017 will be a great, prosperous year. If you have any other questions about our current market or about real estate in general, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!