Manhattan Beach Real Estate Options: Buying New
By Mike Dunitz | August 2, 2010
The decision of whether or not to buy a new Manhattan Beach home versus an older Manhattan Beach home is one that doesn’t always come easy. The CA real estate landscape is one that offers a wide range of home types, including everything from centuries-old historic homes with completely renovated interiors to brand new houses in family-friendly communities.
Depending on what you want out of your home, finding the right style for you can be a lot of work – fortunately, it can also be quite a bit of fun.
Costs of New vs. Older California Homes
Topics: California Real Estate, Manhattan Beach California Real Estate | No Comments »
“Fixing” Your Home’s Layout
By Mike Dunitz | July 9, 2010
One of the first things homebuyers look for when shopping for California real estate is the layout of the house. Like the location of the house and its overall size, layout is one of the things about a home that cannot be changed without a very large time and money investment.
In the current Manhattan Beach real estate market, many of the things that make a house unique – its paint color, flooring, the kitchen counters, and even the size or type of the windows – are being upgraded to entice buyers. But if your home has a restricting layout, which makes the house look smaller, darker, or inaccessible, you might have a difficult time making a “quick fix” to increase your chances of a fast sale.
Topics: California Real Estate, Manhattan Beach California Real Estate | No Comments »
Buying vs. Renting in Today’s Real Estate Market
By Mike Dunitz | June 3, 2010
Rental properties and homes for sale in Manhattan Beach provide a great opportunity for those who want to live in this wonderful, vibrant city, and many area residents take advantage of both housing options. However, one of the most common questions that arise regarding the Manhattan Beach and California real estate landscape is just how beneficial it is to buy a home rather than rent one.
The question is a good one in today’s real estate market. While buying a house was once lauded as the best choice for people of all backgrounds, the truth is that buying a home is a big investment that takes time, preparation, and careful planning.
Topics: California Real Estate, Manhattan Beach California Real Estate | No Comments »
Maintaining Distance When Selling Your CA Home
By Mike Dunitz | May 10, 2010
Selling a home in Manhattan Beach or Hermosa Beach can be a very personal experience. After all, this is the place you’ve lived for years. Maybe you renovated the interior with your own two hands. Maybe you got married here. Maybe this is even where you raised your kids. No matter what it is that makes your home, well, home, the decision to sell isn’t one that comes lightly to everyone.
The personal attachment we all have to our homes is part of the reason it can be difficult to sell a California home.
Topics: California Real Estate, Manhattan Beach California Real Estate | No Comments »
Your Dream Home: Why Neighborhoods and Communities Matter
By Mike Dunitz | April 8, 2010
Finding the right home in Manhattan Beach, isn’t always as easy as relying on a checklist of square footage, number of bathrooms, and the upkeep of the yard. Although these types of features are important when determining where you want to live and raise a family, another important consideration is the neighborhood where your dream house is situated.
Manhattan Beach, and Hermosa Beach homes for sale are noted for their family-friendly communities and idyllic backdrop, but that doesn’t mean that every home is ideally placed. Before you purchase a home in any California city, it’s important to research what the rest of the neighborhood has to offer.
Topics: California Real Estate, Manhattan Beach California Real Estate | No Comments »
Selling a Home: Why You Have to Engage all Five Senses
By Mike Dunitz | March 15, 2010
If you’re getting ready to sell a home in Manhattan Beach, you probably have a checklist of ideas for making your home more marketable. CA homes tend to sell better when they have more immediate appeal; for example, well-tended yards, impeccable siding, and a welcoming kitchen can go a long way in enticing homebuyers in the area. There are a number of ways you and your real estate agent can work together to make these things happen, and one of the best ideas is to ensure that you’re engaging all of the senses.
Sight
When selling a Hermosa Beach home or preparing your Manhattan Beach home for viewing, you should pay attention to both the big picture and the details of your house.
For a bigger picture viewpoint, try to see everything with fresh eyes. When you pull into the driveway, what overall impression does the house give you? Is it clean and well-cared for? Does it look like the sort of place a family would want to live?
Then, as you walk up to the front door, pay closer attention to the little things: the state of the flowerbeds, a cracked panel of siding, or an unsightly satellite dish at one corner of the house. These little things are often the easiest to fix in terms of time and money.
Do the same thing as you walk through each room of your house. Take a quick survey from the doorway, and then walk through to make note of smaller defects. Different homebuyers look at different things, so it’s best to ensure that even the littlest problems are attended to.
Sound
The sounds of an ideal California home are pleasing to the ear, and you should do your best to keep them that way. Avoid running any noisy appliances when you’re expecting potential homebuyers to stop by. Televisions, radios, and even kids playing outside can all contribute negatively to the experience. When possible, you should either opt for silence (to demonstrate the peacefulness of your home) or use light background music that won’t be offensive to anyone. If you live near the water or wilderness, you might also open a few key windows to let in the most natural sounds.
Smell
It’s long been held as a “rule” of real estate that you should bake cookies or light a vanilla-scented candle when you show your home. These traditional smells are ones that most people associate with happy memories, which can trigger better feelings about your CA home for sale.
While you don’t have to stick to traditional baking smells, the idea is a good one. However, if you use scents, choose ones that are inoffensive, are hypo-allergenic, and aren’t too obvious. You can also choose smells suited to particular rooms. Light and airy scents are well-suited to bathrooms, while the baking smells tend to do better in living rooms and kitchens.
Touch
In most cases, you don’t want people walking through your home to touch your personal possessions. However, the sense of touch can be important. Plush carpeting is welcoming in bedrooms and living spaces, while cool hardwood or tile makes a kitchen feel cleaner and more efficient. Crisp, clean appliances promise a treat for the fingertips even if the potential homebuyers don’t make actual physical contact.
For the sense of touch, it’s best to promise a great tactile experience, rather than actually provide one. Place soft furnishings next to clean architectural lines. Throw a cozy blanket over some leather furniture. Choose draperies that are either light and airy or heavy and warm, depending on the mood you want to set.
Taste
When you have an open house in Manhattan Beach, keeping appetizer trays on hand can go a long way in making a good impression. Elegant sandwiches, tasty tarts, and other bite-sized treats cause people to linger and take a better stock of their surroundings. Food at a open house, while potentially messy, is also more likely to draw other real estate agents. At the end of the day, greater exposure – whether it’s potential buyers or real estate professionals other than your own Mike Dunitz – means a greater likelihood that your home will sell quickly and easily.
Selling a CA Home
A house is more likely to sell if it seems like a home. When you engage all the senses, you’re doing more than showcasing the physical features of your house – you’re demonstrating how comfortable and welcoming it is. And in today’s market, taking those few extra steps can make a huge difference in how quickly your Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach home sells.
Topics: California Real Estate, Manhattan Beach California Real Estate | No Comments »
Finding and Purchasing an Eco-Friendly Home in California
By Mike Dunitz | February 9, 2010
These days, buying a home in Manhattan Beach is about more than finding the right square footage, number of bedrooms, and price range. While these factors almost always make up the primary concerns for any home buyer in CA, the truth is that there is so much more to a home than the numbers and figures you see on an advertisement. In fact, Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach are part of a growing trend of buying homes that are not only an investment in your future, but an investment in the future of the planet, as well.
What is an Eco-Friendly Home?
Topics: California Real Estate, Manhattan Beach California Real Estate | No Comments »
Do-It-Yourself Real Estate Marketing in Manhattan Beach
By Mike Dunitz | January 16, 2010
Marketing a Manhattan Beach home to make it attractive to buyers isn’t just about staging the house or putting a For Sale sign up in the yard. In today’s real estate market, it’s important to reach out to a larger audience through various types of media. After all, buying and selling a home in the Hermosa Beach region means tapping into everything that people use on a daily basis: computers, newspapers, magazines, and more traditional real estate routes.
A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words
Topics: California Real Estate, Manhattan Beach California Real Estate | No Comments »
Benefits of a Home Inspection
By Mike Dunitz | December 9, 2009
Although new tax breaks and great housing prices in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach make buying a home easier and more cost-effective than ever before, it can still be a daunting task to undertake the path to home ownership. In addition to the stress of moving, you’re probably worrying about things like loan processing fees, down payments, mortgage options, and closing costs. Even with a financial advisor and a realtor at your side, these can add up to quite a bit of hard work!
Topics: California Real Estate, Manhattan Beach California Real Estate | No Comments »
Buying a Historic Home in California
By Mike Dunitz | November 23, 2009
For many people living in or moving to CA, the best real estate purchase is one that combines the comfort of home with a piece of history. Buying a historic home in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach or Redondo Beach is fairly common in today’s market, thanks to an incredible real estate climate and one of the most dynamic historic districts in the state.
However, if you’re simply looking at the intricate architecture and are thinking how great it would be to own a piece of the city’s history, you might want to take a step back and consider all the work involved in becoming a historic home owner.
Topics: California Real Estate, Manhattan Beach California Real Estate | No Comments »