As a veteran Realtor, I am repeatedly asked specific questions about today’s market – especially in today’s economy. In an effort to provide more information to my community, I am posting this Top 5 Real Estate Social Networking Systems “e-Article,” to provide you with more useful real estate information.

Don’t Wait – Increase Your Home’s Value Now

In today’s climate of dwindling home values, I am often asked, “How do I make my home worth more without spending a lot?”

To elevate the value of your home, a detailed and specific assessment of your home, and the homes against which it will compete in the market, is necessary. A professional home inspection-especially for those who are not planning to sell their home soon-can go a long way towards increasing the value and creating demand for your home, and can help you plan for expenses if there is work to be done.

As a Member of the Top 5 in Real Estate NetworkR, I am committed to maximizing the potential of my clients’ homes. Having your home professionally inspected well before putting it on the market-or when you’re not even planning to put it on the market-has a number of advantages:

1. For a relatively minor investment, you will have the opportunity to review an objectively prepared assessment of the condition of your home’s structure, systems and amenities.

2. Everything else being equal, your inspection report should be consistent with the report prepared by your buyer’s inspector, virtually eliminating stressful surprises when your home is on the market one day.

3. You will have the opportunity to decide whether to do the work yourself or to have the work contracted while time is on your side.

4. The greatest value of proactive inspection is that the decision to repair vs. replace will be yours alone. A buyer may use the replacement of the air conditioner or the roof as a negotiating gambit when a proactive, high quality repair would have been completely satisfactory.

Armed with the facts, you have the alternative of making a completely professional and perfectly functional repair of the roof rather than deducting the expense of replacement from the price. This places you in a much stronger negotiating position.

5. Finally, you will be able to enjoy the new roof, live worry free with the new water heater or use your new air conditioner and enjoy its higher energy efficiency. When you and your family are ready to move up, relocate, downsize or retire, you can put your home on the market with peace of mind, and concentrate on moving forward rather than looking back upon the costly repairs that you should have made.

Not only will buyers associate a specific value based on your home’s “move-in” condition, but by addressing major repair/replacement issues, you will diminish competition from newer and better maintained homes on the market. Also, you will not have to worry about inspection issues arising at the last minute that could stop your transaction cold especially when this stress could have been avoided. For more information about home inspection, visit www.ashi.org, the website of the American Society of Home Inspectors, or, in Canada, www.cahpi.ca, the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors.

“When It’s SOLD, The Butler Did It!”