This Month in Real Estate May 2012 has been released.

Home sales activity reduced slightly to a pace of 4.48 million to be sold this year. The median home sale price rose $8,000 to $164,000 last month. The average interest rate for home loans jumped came back down from the average of 4.08% in March to 3.9 in April, in reviewing This Month in Real Estate April 2012.

Jay Papasan, in the Top Story, talks about how staging can help sell your home faster and for more money. According to research, spending $250 on a $200,000 home resulted in a sales price of almost 2% higher than those not staged.

In News You Can Use, Bryon Ellington discusses what updates a work may be needed in order to make your house ready to sell.

Know that if you made significant improvements to your house, you will most likely not get the full value out of them when you sell your home. Remember that you made those improvements over the years for your own enjoyment!

With the exception of changing the front door, no home improvement project gets more than 85% return on investment, guaranteeing at least a 15% loss on your investment.

Byron then continues to let sellers know that PRICE is the #1 thing to get right.

Price is is the FIRST thing buyers see. As Byron says, recently improvements can help a home make a buyer’s “short list,” but it doesn’t mean they will offer more money. Pricing your home correctly is of utmost importance.

For more information about selling a Baltimore home, please contact me. I would love to help!