TheReal Buying, Selling, and Maintaining Your Biggest Asset
Planting for Fall Juliet Clark License #11343304 240 N. East Promontory #200, Farmington, UT 84025 661-313-7120 juliet@julietclark.com
Home Selling Guide
The Benefits of Using Wood and Recycled Plastic Composites
What Happens After Your Offer Is Accepted
Home Selling Guide
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our Realtor is always a fantastic resource for all home-selling questions. But it also helps to know the steps it takes to sell your home and what to expect during the process.
Here is some quick guidance on selling your home in today’s market:
Show the very best condition of your home The first step to selling your home is making sure it’s prepared for market. You can make a great first impression to potential buyers when your home looks its best. Get rid of dirt and trash, remove all clutter, repairs all flaws of your home, and get rid of unused furniture to make it look as spacious as possible.
Price it right A home that is priced right and reasonable will sell in a shorter time than one that is over-priced for the
neighborhood and lot size. Your Realtor can help you determine the value of your home and the furniture in it. Don’t price too low that it will cost you more money and don’t set the price too high so as to lose potential buyers.
Know When To Sell Your Realtor can help you determine the right time to sell your home. You’ll want to put your home on the market when there’s a lot of demand for houses, which tends to be higher in June and July. If you sell your home at the right time, you’ll be on your way to getting the best price.
The Costs Involved You should also know the costs involved in selling your home. These may include attorney fees, closing costs, or any repairs necessary upon inspection.
Marketing Your home Your Realtor will have several ways to marketing your home once it’s on the market. These include: • Online ads • Home Brochures/ Information sheets • Professional Photos/ Videos • Lawn signs • Open houses • Brokers opens • The MLS (Multiple Listing Service) provided by the agents Remember, you are your home’s best sales person, so you can put the word out on your own social media and email list too.
The Offer As soon as an offer (or multiple offers) comes in, your Realtor will help you negotiate to get the highest selling price possible. This will be followed by a home inspection and closing documents and signing. Your trusted Realtor will be able to answer any and all questions that arise every step of the way to ensure you have a smooth experience throughout the sales process.
Juliet Clark 661-313-7120 juliet@julietclark.com
Planting for Fall W
hen the leaves begin to change and the weather gets cooler, most people don’t instantly think, ‘hey, I should start planting new landscaping and garden plants.’ We tend think of fall as a time to put garden ventures to sleep until spring.
But autumn is a great time to plant trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs, and cool weather grasses like Fescue. Here’s why: Roots of newly planted plants and trees continue to grow and become established even in temperatures as low as 40 degrees. And since the
roots don’t have to supply the rest of the plant with energy to grow, more of that energy is focused on root production. So, come springtime, the established root system helps plants shoot out of the ground with plenty of energy for top growth.
Autumn is also the time to plant spring flowering bulbs and divide perennials to ensure your garden will look beautiful when the weather starts warming up once again.
Soil Temperature In the spring, soil is still cool from the winter and roots are very slow to become established. Yet when you plant in the fall, soil is still warm from a long summer. That warmer soil temperature encourages root growth. If you grow plants from seed indoors and transplant outside when the temperature warms, new sprouts still don’t have the advantage of plants embedded in soil in the fall. When Exactly Is Fall? The Fall season officially begins with the equinox in late September. However, Fall weather varies considerably from one part of the country to the next.
Autumn Bloomers Remember, fall isn’t just a time to put the garden to sleep and start getting ready for spring –the growing season isn’t quite over yet. You can still add color and new life to the garden by replacing dying summer annuals and perennials with autumn blooming plants like Pansies, Chrysanthemums, and Ornamental Cabbage and Kale, Marigolds, and more. Autumn is also the time to plant spring flowering bulbs and divide perennials to ensure your garden will look beautiful when the weather starts warming up once again.
To rule of thumb, then, is the best period for fall planting is about six weeks before the first hard frost in your area. You can get an idea of the average first frost date near your area from here: http://www.almanac.com/ garden/frostus.php Just keep in mind that the roots need time to become established before winter sets in.
Juliet Clark 661-313-7120 juliet@julietclark.com
The Benefits of Using Wood and Recycled Plastic Composites
Use Rooms
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ant to be environmentally friendly when constructing a new deck or patio for your home? The most eco-conscious materials you can use are wood and plastic composites. Not only are these materials better for the environment, but they’re also great building materials that are even more reliable than plastic or wood.
The benefits of using wood and plastic composites are many. The price of wood is rising steadily, so right out of the gate, these materials provide you a cost savings. Less Maintenance Every year or so, you need to repaint and refinish standard wood to keep it from looking old and warn. That takes a lot of manpower and it requires the use of many toxic chemicals. But wood and plastic composites bypass this need completely. Composites come pre-made in certain colors and the color is both inside and out so it’ll never need to be repainted. You can select from just about every color imaginable so you’ll be sure to find the right hue to match your home.
Made from Recycled Materials More than 50 percent of the wood and the plastic used in composites comes from recycled wood chips and recycled plastic materials. Each time you buy a composite, you’re supporting several green companies that recycle and reuse the various materials that go into the composites plus the manufacturer of the composite itself. Say Goodbye to Traditional Problems with Wood Rotting wood is expensive and frustrating to deal with. Composites, on the other hand, won’t absorb moisture and mold so they won’t rot over time.
They’re also more resistant to pests like termites. It’s extremely rare to see a pest infestation on wood and plastic composites. Less Pollution Many people are unaware that the actual manufacturing process to create treated wood is highly toxic. Chemicals including arsenic, chromium, and copper are used to treat the wood. This kind of chemical pollution is bad for the environment. Meanwhile, wood plastic composites are manufactured in an environment that is pollutionconscious.
Consider wood plastic composites as your material of choice when building your home’s patio or deck. Less Waste To build a deck or patio with traditional, treated wood, there’s often a lot of waste incurred. Builders have to cut the wood into the shapes needed and that results in a lot of wood chips and discarded wood. What’s more, the factory that originally cut the wood for you created a lot of waste. Since trees don’t come in planks, there’s a lot of the tree that simply goes unused.
Juliet Clark 661-313-7120 juliet@julietclark.com
Wood plastic composites are not cut into shapes. Instead, they’re molded. This means they can be molded into the perfect shape for your individual project, reducing the waste creating by cutting materials. Ready to reduce deforestation, increase recycling, reduce our waste, lower maintenance and make your deck last longer? Consider wood plastic composites as your material of choice when building your home’s patio or deck.
What Happens After Your Offer Is Accepted Congratulations! You’ve found the home of your dreams and made an offer. So what happens before your Realtor gives you the keys to your new home?
The offer is not the end of the process. In fact, it’s really just the beginning of your path to dreamhome ownership.
It will usually be 1% to 3% of the asking price of the house.
Here’s what to expect, step-by-step.
In an ideal scenario, you’ve been pre-approved with a lender. So now you’ll need to finalize terms and get ready to sign. This is a crucial step, because pre-approval doesn’t ensure you’ll get a mortgage or that you’ll get one with the favorable terms you might have hoped for if your credit score or employment situation has changed, or the bank’s lending policy has altered.
Step 1. Give Your Earnest Money Deposit In most cases, home sales include an earnest money deposit to show you are serious about your offer. The realtor will accept the deposit and put into an escrow account which will count towards your down payment and/or closing fees.
Step 2. Apply for Your Mortgage
Remember though, it doesn’t mean your dream home is out of reach. It means you’ll have to start again and have all the paperwork organized so you can compare terms.
Step 3. Get an Appraisal and an Inspection The appraisal will determine if the price is in line with what the house is truly worth. No mortgage lender will give you a loan for more than the value of the house. The inspection will assess whether or not the house is in good repair,
including any issues that need to be fixed by the seller before the sale can go through. Ask your Realtor for the names of two or three reliable home inspectors and make an appointment for them to inspect the property. The inspectors will produce a detailed report on their findings. If the house inspection results in a number of uncovered issues, in most cases the seller will have the “right to cure” the problems – meaning they’ll have time to fix things so the sale does not fall through completely. However, this can take some time and you need to be certain all the repairs are carried out before signing on the dotted line. If you choose to take on the repairs yourself, you should be able to reduce your offer because you’ll be paying for the repairs. Be sure your Realtor attends the inspection and renegotiates based on what inspectors have found.
Step 4. Get Your Down Payment and Closing Costs Prepared Ensure the funds you need are easily accessible. For example, if you plan to take out a loan from your 401k as a deposit, make sure to have the money in an easy-to-access savings account. If you plan to sell stocks and shares, don’t wait until the last minute. Keep all your paperwork to show you have the money ready. With regard to closing costs, be clear about what is involved, like title and deed fees, legal fees and more. Your Realtor can guide you on what to expect. Your earnest money can go towards the costs.
you are happy with any work that has been done. This is the time to speak up since after the sale, it will be too late to make changes.
Step 7. Close the Deal You and your Realtor will be there to sign all of the official documents for your mortgage and for the home. Bring a government-issued photo ID and a cashier’s check for the final amount you’ve been told you will need. If you are buying the house with your spouse or partner, they will also need to be present with their photo ID. Once you’ve paid the money, you’ll get the keys to your new home.
Step 5. Get Homeowner’s Insurance If this is not included with your mortgage, you may have to shop around for the best price.
Step 6. Do a Final WalkThrough Your final walk-through can be 48 hours before closing, and is set up just to make sure
Juliet Clark 661-313-7120 juliet@julietclark.com
TheReal Buying, Selling, and Maintaining Your Biggest Asset
Juliet Clark License #11343304 240 N. East Promontory #200, Farmington, UT 84025 661-313-7120 juliet@julietclark.com