In the latest episode of Charlotte Today, Nancy Braun shows how home staging can make a huge difference in your home.

If you are planning to put your Charlotte NC home on the market, it goes without saying that you are hoping to sell your home as quickly as possible and get your asking price. There are two simple rules to follow to assure a quick sale: price the home correctly, and make sure it looks amazing. Whatever the asking price, its appearance needs to be flawless. Presenting a well-cared for home creates a positive first impression.

Home staging is a practice that has become an important sales tool in recent years, and for good reason. Staging your home brings out the best features of your property and gives you a competitive advantage. In addition, staging can facilitate a quick sale and get the best possible price for your home in today’s real estate market.

Nancy and her team at Showcase Realty can provide you with an honest appraisal of what you need to do to help sell your home or put you in contact with a professional stager, if desired.

In this episode, Nancy gives a tour of a gorgeous home for sale in Providence Plantation and shows how home staging can help potential buyers walk in and envision the property as their home. She demonstrates how good furniture placement can help show off a room and makes a huge impact as a buyer walks through it. Nancy also highlights the importance of clearing clutter and de-personalizing your home without making it look deserted.

Selling your property is a serious undertaking. How your home for sale in Charlotte NC is presented and perceived should be given much importance and consideration. Take the time to properly prepare your home before listing it for sale so that you can can reduce the time on market and maximize the selling price. Call Nancy Braun today at (704) 997-3794 to get started.

Eugene Robinson: If you want to sell your home in a hurry, there certain things you could do to get the best price very fast.

Colleen Odegaard: Staging a house can make all the difference. Nancy Braun from Showcase Realty shows us. Staging a home can make all the difference when it comes time to sell your home and for top dollar. Nancy Braun from Showcase Realty has more to say on that here in the beautiful Providence Plantation neighborhood. This is one of your properties that's for sale, and you want to show us what a difference staging has made.

Nancy: Absolutely, absolutely. We're gonna take a peek inside but I just want to focus on the outside of this home. It's on over an acre and a half of land, tree lined, wooded street, one of the prettiest streets in all Providence Plantation. So let's go take a peak.

Colleen Odegaard: Nancy, I think this room is absolutely spectacular. It didn't always look like this though.

Nancy: Absolutely. It's a great room to work with though. You have the exposed beam ceilings and the vaulted ceiling, and the gorgeous fireplace. Brick all way to the ceiling. And what we did is simply just simplify it. So we took out some pieces that were specific for the current seller that really reflected their lifestyle and their travels and brought in some neutral pieces that anyone could envision their furniture in the space and made it so that you could walk around, you could easily envision an armoir on this wall, and take away some of the clutter that just makes the place feel airy and bigger.

Colleen Odegaard: Another thing that makes this home field airy and bigger is this gorgeous sunroom, I love the furniture that you put in here as part of your staging business.

Nancy: Absolutely. It's separated by this custom rock and panel that really I think makes the sun room special. And then the sun room overlooks one-and-a-half acres of gorgeous wooded property where they can see deer on a daily basis.

Colleen Odegaard: Nancy, I think this room is spectacular. It's great for people who like to entertain.

Nancy: Absolutely isn't it really special? It’s my favorite room in the house, so. It's just warm and inviting. This room, you can just envision the family just merging and watching TV together, reading a book. I just think it's terrific.

Colleen Odegaard: I love this house. I think it's special. I think it's gorgeous and the staging has made such a difference.

Nancy: Yeah, yeah, so we've brightened up this room. It had a beautiful sophisticated wallpaper on here, but we took that down and then we really neutralized the colors, so anyone can put their furniture in here and and make it a really special family room.

Colleen Odegaard: Nancy let’s show everyone this spacious master bedroom, I think this is gorgeous. Again, your staging came into play beautifully with the seating area. You can really envision what it would be like to live in this home.

Nancy: Absolutely, and this is just a beautiful sprawling ranch. 3800-plus square feet and everything on one floor. But one of the things, it's an older who built in the 80s. But look at all the rooms, they’re all big. Big walk-in closets, big everything. Every room is really spacious, and open to the beautiful nature.

Colleen Odegaard: I think the staging you've done in this home is absolutely spectacular, and that's something that you help all your clients with if they need that.

Nancy: Absolutely, absolutely. There's one person's perspective may be an interior designer or decorator, or the homeowner might want to live in a certain way, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to sell for top dollar in that way it's decorated. So we took away some of the personal items and really neutralized the home. We can come into your home and we can say, “We can replace the furniture, we can just take some of the furniture out so there's more walking traffic patterns. So you feel like there's more room for the new homeowners furniture or belongings. And we can also just help you rearrange what you have.” But color is really important too, so we give advice on that as well.

Colleen Odegaard: This backyard is spectacular with the beautiful trees on this oversized deck. I just love this house. I think it's special.

Nancy: Oh, I do too. I've always loved this house. I love selling it to these clients, and I love making it available to the new homeowners, and I think the staging is just bringing out some of the beauty of this home and making it, really feel as open as it is and all the details about the home and uniqueness about the home is really coming forward. So little things like planting red and yellow flowers makes a difference in Feng Shui. It helps sell homes, but we could do some miracles with staging So, it could be as small as moving furniture around, as big as re-furnishing your property or just taking away some things. So it's less cluttered.

Colleen Odegaard: Well, you've done an excellent job it's really beautiful. Nancy, thank you so much.

Nancy: Thank you I really enjoy showing you this gorgeous home.

Colleen Odegaard: Nancy is so good and Nancy Braun can help you with all of your home buying and selling needs. By the way that homely featured in the piece that you just saw in Providence Plantation, it is for sale. It is spectacular. I totally fell in love with that house.

Eugene Robinson: The outsides are beautiful too.

Colleen Odegaard: No, it’s cool. It’s a ranch 3800 square feet, I mean that’s big for a one-story house. I really like it. Call Nancy If you're interested in seeing it. The number 704-488-3109, 704-488-3109. Call her if you'd like to see that home or if you would like help listing your home, or staging your home. Nancy's your person.

Eugene Robinson: Indeed.

In the latest episode of Charlotte Today, Nancy Braun talks about why a buyer should never skip a home inspection.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of buying a new home that some buyers tend to forget to make the important decision of having a home inspection conducted soon after they are under contract. However, a home inspection is a crucial part of the of the homebuying process that can save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

A home inspection is an all-encompassing examination of the condition of a home usually performed at the time of the sale. It is an inexpensive way to discover the overall condition of the property you are thinking of purchasing. Since a home is one of the most important purchases one will ever make, Nancy highlights the importance of ensuring that you are not buying a property in need of major repairs.

Most of the time, it's the buyer who pays for their own inspections, unless the seller’s paying for the buyer's closing costs. The typical cost can range anywhere from about $400 to about $1500, depending upon how many inspections you're gonna have.

Now, where and how do you find a qualified home inspector? Your Realtor® most likely maintains a list of home inspectors who are reputable. The inspector will look for problems with the property you're considering purchasing.

There are many different types of home inspection processes that you may want to conduct before the purchase of a home. Nancy recommends having termite and radon inspections.

The most important reason to have a home inspection before you buy is to really know what you’re buying. A home inspection is designed to keep people and property safe. The more you know, the fewer surprises there will be down the road.

If you have more questions about your home inspections or buying a home in Charlotte NC, get in touch with Nancy Braun at 704-997-3794. You can also start your home buying journey today.

Eugene Robinson:  Buying a home is one of the largest investments you will make in your life that’s why you'll want to know everything possible about the condition of your home that you're purchasing.

Colleen Odegaard:  Here to help us through the home inspection process is Nancy Braun with Showcase Realty. Nancy good morning, thank you for joining us today. 

Nancy:  Good morning.

Colleen Odegaard: Alright, you have insider inspection tips to really help buyers through the process. First, let's talk about this. Does the buyer or seller pay for the home inspection?

Nancy:  Typically, the buyer will pay for the home inspection unless the seller's goint to do an inspection prior to listing their home, but normally it's the buyer will pay for their own inspections, unless the seller’s paying for the buyer's closing costs.

Eugene Robinson: So okay, what are the typical costs of doing an inspection? 

Nancy: Well, they can range anywhere from about $400 to about $1500. Depends upon how many inspections you're gonna have. So, it also depends upon the home. So you could have a general home inspector do almost everything. You might have a pool, so maybe a pool inspection, you might have a radon inspection, you can have a termite inspection, structural engineer, roof inspection, furnace inspection, septic. Well, it could add up.

Colleen Odegaard: Why is it so critical for a home buyer to get a home inspection done before they go under contract?

Nancy: Well, that's the most expensive thing that you're going to buy probably in your lifetime, so you want to make sure that you know what the condition of the property is and during the inspection you're going to learn maintenance tips and you're going to learn how to take care of your home. And what specific things are specific for that home that you might need to keep an eye on.

Eugene Robinson: Okay, here it is, I'm looking for an inspector. What should I be looking for and what's going delineate who's a good inspector, and what's a bad inspector?

Nancy: Yeah, so, you know, inspectors are licensed and they have to pass exams, and most have affiliations with national organizations. Your realtor is probably going to be your best advisor on giving you a couple choices, on inspectors that they've used that they've liked, and they believe do a good job.

Colleen Odegaard: What are the most important inspections that should be covered. the most important things?

Nancy: The home inspection and in Charlotte, the termite inspection. I also really urge all my buyers to do a radon inspection, 'cause if you have radon in your house, you don't know it. It's an invisible gas, and it's deadly.

Eugene Robinson: Is there a different type inspection for doing a single home and then of a condo?

Nancy: It’s the same. It's usually a condo is a little less money, it's not as complicated 'cause usually the HOA takes care of the exterior so it's really more on the mechanicals and the inside, but the home inspector will, you know, do either.

Eugene Robinson: Should we be concerned about the inspection report that we get? Because sometimes that could be a little bit intimidating.

Nancy: It is intimidating, it's very thick. And we actually, when we sit down to work with a new buyer, we'll show them an example of what a home inspection looks like because they need to know what all the documents are going to be involved in the transaction, so we go through this enormous book and show them each. But the home inspection is full of a lot of detail, a lot of disclaimers, a lot of fluff, and maintenance tips. So you want to go to the summary page. Usually there's a page that just shows the items that are concerns that you need to address, but not be overwhelmed by the volume of it, because it's big for everyone

Colleen Odegaard: And that's where you can really help people through that process, because to your eye, it might be overwhelming, but you help us get to the important stuff. That's summary page,

Nancy: Yeah.

Colleen Odegaard: So what kind of disclosures are required by law?

Nancy: The residential property disclosure statement is required by North Carolina and in South Carolina has their own disclosure as well and they have to disclose any known malfunction or defect that the homeowner, their seller knows about.

Eugene Robinson: Okay, now you say that you would sell a home for free if the buyer is not happy with it, is that correct?

Nancy: Well, yeah, so we have a program that if my buyer ends up not like loving their home in twelve months and they want to sell their home. I will sell it for free. They do have to buy another home with me and that is the condition. But other than that, you know, we want our clients to be happy.

Eugene Robinson: That’s generous, that is very, very generous. 

Nancy: Most of my... I've never had anyone exercise it because they were always happy with what they buy. So, but it certainly takes away the fear element of getting into the wrong house.

Colleen Odegaard: The market is still really good right now. How long do you think it'll take to sell a Charlotte home? I know it kind of depends on the area and price point.

Nancy: I think it's 34 days on the market now is on the average, it used to be much higher, so we have less than a two-month supply in the Charlotte area. A stable market is six months' supply, so it's a seller's market.

Eugene Robinson: And then quickly, how in an inspection report if they find things that are wrong with the report, how quickly should the seller get on top of it, on fixing those things?

Nancy: Well, ideally we would go and get estimates from contractors immediately, so we know what we're dealing with, 'cause typically, a home buyer is gonna be very worried about the items that are on the list and they might think, "Well it's gonna cost a hundred dollars to fix a faucet, but then it might be only a ten-dollar fix. So we would like to get bids before we're even starting to negotiate whether the seller will do the repairs or the seller could put up money towards the repairs and then the buyer can get it done after closing.

Colleen Odegaard: Nancy, thank you you're so good, thank you so much. For a comprehensive buyer's agent home inspection cheat sheet visit BuyerBeware13.com, BuyerBeware13.com or you can call 704-997-3794 again 704-997-3794. Nancy and her team are happy to work with you. Thank you so much for being here today

Nancy: Thank you.

Are you thinking of putting your  Charlotte NC home up for sale?. For many sellers, one of the most dreaded tasks is to prepare the home for sell. 

Cleaning, decluttering, and organizing your home takes up too much time and effort, and if you are busy with work, you may not have the energy to deal with it all.

But this step is crucial if you want to sell your home in Charlotte successfully, so you have to do it. 

Is there an efficient way to deal with home preparation prior to selling? Yes, there is.

Here’s a ten-step home preparation guide which can help you make the most use of your time and effort.

1.  Declutter. Clutter makes your home seem smaller. Removing unnecessary items can free up the space in your home, which gives it a more open look.

Throw out, give away, or put into storage any unused items. Decluttering can take up time, so it is best to do it long before you have the open house.

A great tip I have picked up is to commit 10 minutes each day to decluttering.

Use that time to go through rooms in your home and start putting things you don’t use inside a large black trash bag. Do this for ten minutes each day, until you feel that only the essentials remain in your room. Then move on to the next room.

At the end of the week, you’ll notice you have cleared a good amount of space in the different rooms of the house.

2. Organize. Once only the essential items are left, organize everything so it looks tidy and presentable. Home buyers like to check closets and drawers, so make sure that you also clear out those areas. When your things are organized, home buyers can more easily imagine their things in those spaces.

3. Depersonalize. Now is the best time to take down those old photos hanging down the wall. When you are selling your Charlotte home, your personal taste should not be reflected on the wall and in the decor of the home. No, there is nothing wrong with your preferences, but remember that it is the house you are selling, not you.

4. Clean. Cleaning is so much easier when there’s less stuff and mess, which is why it is important that you declutter first before you attempt to clean.

You’ve probably seen episodes of Clean House or Hoarders, and how drastic the difference is when the homes are cleaned.

For homebuyers, one of the biggest turnoffs is a dirty house. You don’t have to tackle the entire home in a day. You can do it one room at a time.

Or if you don’t have the time, have professional cleaners do it. Your home will look so clean and fresh by the time they are done.

5. Repair. There is no better time to fix that loose cabinet door or leaking faucet than when you are preparing your home to sell. Fix everything that needs repair, from the basement to the roof. You don’t want the buyer to find a reason to break the deal due to repairs that can be easily fixed.

6. Repaint. A fresh coat of paint is like an instant booster - it changes the look of the house. Paint can make a house look smaller, bigger, lighter, or wider.  In choosing color, go for a neutral tone. Beige, cream, taupe and white are among the most popular choices, and it makes a great base for a bold trim color.

7. The smell test. Each home has a unique smell. You may not notice it, but it doesn’t mean it’s not there. It could be from your pet, your air freshener, or your favorite food.

The best way to solve this dilemma is to ask a friend to come in and tell you honestly what your home smells like, then try to eliminate the smell. One of the source of offending smells is the carpet. Have the carpets deep cleaned or replace if necessary.

8. Sparkling appliances. It would not be appealing if your house is clean, but your appliances are not. Make sure to thoroughly clean all your appliances, and to organize your food inside the refrigerator. This may seem excessive, but you’ll never know if and when a possible homebuyer will look in your refrigerator.

9. Stage. This part is a favorite among many homeowners. Staging is fun and easy when you've cleared most of the furniture and appliances of your Charlotte NC home for sale.   Think minimalism when you stage. Think of the stunning photos of homes in various magazines and TV shows that you see, get some staging ideas from those. 

10. Curb appeal. Don’t forget curb appeal! A home with lovely curb appeal draws the eyes, and is very appealing to home buyers. Make sure that your front lawn is well-kept, trim the pathway, repaint the porch and front door and add some flowers to the garden for a pop of color.

Yes, selling your Charlotte property  can be a difficult real estate journey, which is why it is better to be organized. Having a time table and sticking to it will also help.

Call me, Nancy Braun, at (704) 997-3794. Allow me to help you prepare and stage your home better to get its best price when selling. If you are looking for new homes for sale in Charlotte NC, I can also be of help.