Stage to sell

If you're thinking of selling your home, staging is a word you've probably heard many times. Home staging helps your home stand apart from the competition. Given our current market, staging is very important right now. Some buyers are feeling a lack of quality inventory, so they are moving fast on stand-out properties. Make your property stand out with these staging tips.

Home staging is more than just de-cluttering and cleaning – although that's a big part of it. Staging also includes strategically setting up furniture so that rooms appear bigger. Removing personalized décor will detach you and your family from the house and help others emotionally attach themselves to the house.

Start staging by removing clutter and packing it away. Packing up family photos and other personalized décor will help you get a head start on packing up your home too. Next, thoroughly clean the inside and outside of your home - remember, your yard is the first impression buyers will have of your house.

Contact me to get started on selling your house and to get assistance with staging. I can look at your home impartially, and recommend how to rearrange furniture, remove clutter, best decorate the home, as well as quick home improvements.

Increase your negotiating power

You can gain a distinct advantage over other homebuyers by arranging for financing before you put an offer on a home.

A pre-approval is a written letter from your lender that lets you and others know how much you can borrow and that your credit is acceptable. A pre-approval will give you an edge over other buyers in multiple offers or negotiating situations, because the seller will know you are qualified to buy the house.

Once you're pre-approved, you'll also receive a good faith estimate of the costs you'll need to pay at closing. By starting the mortgage process early, you'll be in a better position as you search for and make an offer on a home.

However, don't get pre-approval confused with pre-qualification. Pre-approval provides more assurance to sellers than a pre-qualification. A pre-qualification is a non-binding opinion of how much you may be able to borrow, but it doesn't ensure that your credit will be acceptable for a mortgage in that amount.

There are many types of mortgages available, each having different rates and features. Learn more about mortgage financing.

We've got the lakes covered

Did you know that there are more than 90,000 miles of shoreline in Minnesota alone? That's more than California, Florida and Hawaii combined. Here in the Midwest residents love vacationing near our lakes to fish, swim, or simply to relax.

Now is the time to find a secluded second home, weekend cabin or land for hunting to enjoy during the summer and throughout the year. With access to lakeshore real estate in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, I can lead you through the process of finding the right second home for you.

In addition, there are specialized tools on my website to help you find recreational properties, including a lakeshore search to find waterfront properties and a land search.

Spring lawn care tips

After receiving a record amount of snowfall this past winter, your lawn may need a little extra care this spring. A combination of fertilizing, controlling weeds, and mowing can get your yard in tip-top shape. Here are some tips from Planet Green's website to help you get started.

Spring is an important time to fertilize your lawn so you can replenish the nutrients in your yard. Proper fertilization is important to help your lawn recover from harsh winters. It also will help get your grass growing quickly and prevent weeds like dandelions and clovers.

You can apply a preventative weed killer on your lawn to stop weeds from growing before they become an issue. In addition to weed killer and fertilization, a proper blade height on your lawn mower will help reduce weeds in your lawn. For cool weather grasses, keep your mower blades set at a height of 2.5 – 3.5 inches. Setting your blades too low can actually increase weeds by exposing the soil surface to sunlight.

Increase in new construction starts

New construction starts rose 7.2 percent nationwide in March from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted rate of 549,000 units, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In a recent interview with Fox Business, Ron Peltier, chairman and CEO of HomeServices of America, Edina Realty's parent company, said he's encouraged by the increase of new construction starts. "2011 is the year we'll start to see the inventory compared to demand balance out," said Peltier.

The Midwest saw the biggest increase in housing start activity, where starts rose 32 percent.

If you're looking to buy a home, consider new construction. The residential building industry is highly competitive, and there are a number of good builders to choose from. When you buy a new construction home you get to customize everything, and all of the building materials and mechanicals are brand new. You won't have to worry about tearing down the decade-old wallpaper in the bathroom or making other updates throughout the house.

Search for new construction homes now.