Curb appeal, curb appeal, curb appeal!! This is one item that you can help to improve on your home that can be the difference between successfully selling your home and having it sit on the market for a long time. During this period of time and trying to sell real estate there are many, many homes for sale in just about every neighborhood. Therefore, the buyers have many choices presented to them. You need to try to make sure your home stands out ahead of the others and the way to do it is with curb appeal. You can either hire a landscaper to come in and edge your beds, trim your bushes and shrubs, throw a fresh layer of mulch over all of your beds, plant some inexpensive but nice looking flowers, plants and shrubs, fertilize your lawn (weed and feed), water your lawn, keep your grass cut at a nice level, and take care of any eyesores you may have in your lawn anywhere or you can simply do this all yourself if money is tight or you lack the time or knowledge of how to do all of this. Also, you will want to clean up everything outside and put it into your shed, throw some stuff away or place items into your garage to give your yard a nice overall appearance without any clutter. Fix up any cosmetic things that need to be fixed on the exterior of your home, such as siding, trim-work, flashing, etc if the home needs to be re-painted or power-washed make sure you do this. If you don’t have money to pay a professional painter to come out and do it then you should consider having a house painting party. Invite 10-15 friends and family over to help you paint the exterior of your home and supply some food and beverages for them in return. This is a much cheaper way to get the job done and you can have some fun with it too.

Keep in mind that with any type of refinance, you will also have to pay the closing costs on the new loan, which can be around $5,000 to $6,000 or more. You must determine if it is worth it to you to pay these costs in order to reap the benefit of the refinance. A good loan officer will evaluate your situation as well, to determine whether or not it is in your best interest to refinance. Ultimately, though, the decision is yours, and the loan officer is there to help you no matter what decision you make.

The very first thing you need to do when selling you home yourself is determine an accurate value and selling price. The easiest way to do this is to hire a property appraiser to determine the value of you home. Appraisals generally run between $300-$500 for a single family residence. Another way to determine the value of your home when you are selling it yourself is to ask a realtor for a comparative market analysis or cma. This will also give you an accurate home value but unless you intend to use the realtor in the future you are basically taking advantage of them.

Your local mortgage broker will often have access to a number of resources that could assist you in your fsbo effort. At a minimum, he would be happy to pre-qualify any potential home buyers. This provides you with the knowledge that this buyer has already been approved for the financing necessary to purchase your home. Your local mortgage broker may also have access to a full-scale fsbo advertising program, designed with sellers like you in mind.

If you want to cash out some of the equity in your home to make home improvements, take a vacation, buy a new car, or something else, you can. This is called a cash out refinance. A responsible loan officer will advise against pulling equity out of your home to reap short term benefit’s, such as taking a vacation. Although it may be tempting to do so, you will be paying interest on that money, and in the long run you will probably regret it. However, if you want to make home improvements, then you can actually improve the value and beauty of your home by using some of your equity to pay for it. It is important to know that, although the equity in your home is yours, if you cash-out some of it, it isn’t like withdrawing money at the bank. You are taking out a loan against the value of your home. You will pay interest on that loan, and therefore your monthly payments will go up.

You may want to consider hiring a stager. A stager is someone who can help you make sure your home decor and layout is appealing to buyers. Hiring a stager may be much less expensive than paying realtor fees. If you have a friend or family member who is good with design, consider asking that person as well. And remember that less is more. Of course you don’t want to show an empty house, but the idea is for the buyers to begin to picture their own things in the space.

If you want to eliminate some of your other high interest debt, you can do so by rolling that debt into your current mortgage. This is referred to as a debt consolidation refinance. The benefit of a consolidation refinance is that you can take all of your high interest credit cards, and lower the interest to whatever rate you will be paying on your new mortgage. Also, you have the convenience of only making one payment every month. Consolidating your debt doesn’t actually eliminate it. It simply lumps it all together, and lowers the interest rate that you pay each month.

Another quick tip is to venture out to some open houses of other homes. Take notes of what is appealing about how one home shows as opposed to other homes. Take notice of what the agents have listed as updates and compare it to your own home. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

If you are simply looking to lower your monthly mortgage payment, you may want to consider what is called a rate and term refinance. This simply means that you are refinancing to receive a lower interest rate, and to spread your payments out over a different amount of time. Some people will refinance to change to a 15 year loan, because they want to pay off their mortgage sooner. Most, however, will go with a loan that is amortized over 30 years, because that will result in lower monthly payments.

there are many companies that help you sell your home yourself without a realtor. Usually for a small fee they can help assist to sell your home and help with the documents and transaction procedure. This can save you a lot of money compared to using a realtor to sell your home.