This Month in Real Estate for May 2011 is out!

Jay Papasan first addresses the numbers, with both home sales and median price being up over last month. Freddie Mac’s data showed that the average rate for a 30 year fixed mortgage was 4.8%.

Jay then discusses research about the one thing you can do to make sure your house sells for more money.

What is that one thing? STAGING.

Data shows that spending $250 staging a $200,000 home can result in a sales price 2% higher than those that do not. Currently only 1 in 3 sellers stage their homes. Why staging can be important and help get buyers into your home was also discussed in This Month in Real Estate March 2011.

Bryon Ellington discusses what improvements may be necessary and what may not when selling your home.

Things to note:

  1. Improvements to your home may not result in full return when you resell your house. In general, the only thing that got the highest return was replacing your front door — and that was only at 85% of its’ initial cost.
  2. Though improvements may help a buyer to choose your house over another, it doesn’t mean that they will offer more money.
  3. The price of the home matters the most to a buyer.

What this tells me is that Towson houses for sale need to be priced right to bring buyers to the house. Once it is priced right, they may come in to your home and see your great improvements — but don’t expect them to pay extra for those improvements!