Smart Moves

A widow in her late 80s had lived in her classic colonial for more than 40 years before resolving to move to an assisted-living residence in another state. One day her grown children arrived with a truck to take her and her basic furniture -- a bed, dresser and kitchen table -- to the new apartment.

Happily resettled, she phoned her listing agent, Ashley Richardson, to say her house was ready to sell. But when Richardson arrived, she was startled by what she found.

"The house was a disaster -- in truly terrible condition, and filled with junk. Buyers could never see past all that stuff to picture themselves living there. The place was simply unsalable until it could be cleaned up," she says.

Every room was crammed with dusty accumulations, including books, magazines, clothes, bedding and knick-knacks. And the kitchen counters were laden with many small appliances, among them blenders, coffeepots and mixers.

After a major weekend cleaning by the family removed 45 bags of junk, the house sold quickly, attracting four competing offers and fetching nearly the full asking price.

The moral of this true story? Through teamwork, focus and diligence, even a heavily cluttered home can be cleared out relatively quickly. And the reward for all that hard work can often translate to a speedy sale and more money in the bank.

Mark Nash, author of "1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home," says the removal of clutter is the most important step sellers can take to ready their home for market.

"(Buyers) can't fall in love with your house if it's filled with junk," says Nash, a veteran real estate broker.

Here are a few pointers for home sellers:

-- Take an inventory of your accumulations.

Sellers who do a thorough assessment of their clutter problem tend to be more efficient in solving it, Nash says.

To help you evaluate the nature and scope of your problem, he suggests you ask your listing agent to come over with a clipboard or notebook. Together, list the furnishings and other belongings that should be removed before your house is shown to prospects.

"One woman I know saved every birthday card and gift her husband sent her during 30 years of marriage, along with her daughter's crib and all the dresses she'd worn as a child. Other people save drawers and cabinets full of souvenirs from every vacation," Nash says.

Hard as it is, Nash says most sellers must face the necessity of reducing their collections of memorabilia.

-- Formulate an action plan.

Instead of proceeding on a random course, those who are efficient at preparing a home for sale follow an overall plan.

As an initial step, Nash recommends you plot the available space in your new property before deciding what to take with you. To do an accurate estimate, buy graph paper and plot the floor plan and storage space you'll have in the next home.

-- Take a systematic approach to sorting your stuff.

In the beginning, Nash recommends you sort like items -- such as candles, light bulbs or rolls of wrapping paper -- in one place.

"When people go through their houses, they realize they have a lot of 'rampant duplication' -- everything from flashlights to batteries to clothespins. When you discover you have way too much, it's easier to edit your collections," he says.

As you sort by category, Nash recommends you use a "three-box" system. One box should be labeled "keep," a second "give away or sell," and a third, "I don't know."

To ensure you keep up your momentum, make immediate arrangements to have your "give away" items removed quickly. Doing that will yield you more time to go through the things in your "I don't know" box, which require additional scrutiny.

"You don't want to second-guess yourself on what to keep. It's the decision-making process that gets people paralyzed. Making decisions is easier if you have fewer things to look at," Nash says.

-- Reach the end-point of your work by calling in reinforcements.

Even for organized people, culling through a house full of belongings can prove a difficult and emotionally tiring process, especially if they've lived in their home for a long time and have many attachments. Nash encourages such beleaguered home sellers to seek the help of friends, neighbors or family members.

"It's not ideal for relatives to help. They're not objective and could start reminiscing along with you. That might take you off on tangents and slow you down," he says.

If there's no one in your circle you're willing to ask for assistance, Nash recommends you run an ad to find reasonably priced help. In many cases, high school or college students are eager for this work to earn spare cash.

"Students are very good for the grunt part of the job. And their sheer presence should help keep you going at a good rate of speed," he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

Now that their four children are finally through college, a construction company executive and his wife, a hospice nurse, are eagerly searching for the much larger and glitzier house they couldn't afford when the kids were young.

Like many homebuyers currently scouring the market, the couple is convinced that now is an optimal time to fulfill their big-house fantasies, says Michael Byrd, the agent representing them and president-elect of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (www.naeba.org).

Like the couple in this true story, an increasing number of homeowners who have the equity and desire to trade up are now planning to move to larger quarters. Such "upsizers," as real estate agents call them, include young families and older couples with long-deferred housing aspirations.

"There's a tremendous amount of buying activity going on right now. People realize that the concurrence of low prices and low mortgage rates give them phenomenal buying power," says Byrd, who believes this is the best market for buyers since he entered real estate in 1987.

Here are a few pointers for people who want to buy a larger or fancier home in the current market:

-- View your housing options in a holistic way.

Making a housing change inevitably involves trade-offs, says Byrd, who personally prefers living in a small, easy-to-maintain property. Instead of making a hasty purchase, he urges buyers to plan and reflect before heading out to shop for a home.

"Every decision on housing is a lifestyle decision. You have to figure out which house and neighborhood features are vital for you and which you could sacrifice," he says.

To sketch out their priorities, Byrd recommends that prospective buyers take out a legal pad and create three columns. In the first, list "must have" features; in the second, "really want to have;" and in the third, "nice to have."

When it comes to married couples (or those living together), Byrd says it's critically important that both partners do the paper-and-pencil exercise separately and then compare the two lists. For example, a husband might insist on a house with a three-car garage that's near a golf course. But his wife might put a short commute and a gourmet kitchen on her "must have" list.

"When buyers get stuck on where to live and how big a house to buy, it's usually because husband and wife disagree," Byrd says.

-- Make sure you're saving enough for retirement.

Granted, there's much more to quality-of-life decisions than financial priorities. Still, a comprehensive plan focused on present cash-flow concerns should also take into account long-term financial needs, says Eric Tyson, a personal finance expert and author of "Mind Over Money: Your Path to Wealth and Happiness."

Before deciding how much to spend on better housing, he urges you to think through your retirement savings situation.

To gauge how well prepared you are for retirement, he suggests you use the free planning calculators provided by such mutual funds as Vanguard (www.vanguard.com), and T. Rowe Price (www.troweprice.com).

"If you're already close to retirement and haven't saved enough to date, you need to try to catch up. Don't make yourself house poor at the expense of your retirement savings," Tyson says.

-- Keep in mind the extra responsibilities associated with a bigger property.

Perhaps your ideal home is quite lavish, complete with elaborate landscaping as well as a backyard swimming pool and fountain. If a financial analysis shows you can afford it, should you go ahead on that basis alone?

Not without considering the time implications of owning a much larger property, Tyson says.

"Many people underestimate how much time it can take to own and manage a big property. This can be a huge commitment, even if you're handy and can afford to hire help. Remember this is free time you could put to other uses, like exercising, reading good books or enjoying friends and family," he says.

Tyson, who co-authored "Home Buying for Dummies," suggests people carefully review their personal priorities before taking on ownership of a property that will tax their time.

-- Don't rule out a move to another neighborhood or general area.

Moving to the suburbs could allow you to purchase a larger, splashier house for less money than if you bought closer to a town center or city.

"If you're comfortable living far out and you really want a brand new place -- one with a big yard and the right to pick your favorite paint colors and appliances -- then moving to an outlying neighborhood might be the right answer," Byrd says.

"Not everyone needs to worry about a long commute. That's because many more people can now work from home. And retired people usually have lots of choices on where to live," he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

Home prices are climbing again, and one of the nation's leading property valuation experts says now might be a good time to consider selling your home.

"If you're in one of those 'up neighborhoods' and want to move, I say go ahead," says Karl E. Case, co-founder of the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller indices, which track home prices throughout the country.

According to the latest index of 20 large cities, home prices rose in all the metro markets, indicating the beginning of a nationwide recovery for real estate.

"It's a real increase. The 'up' areas are really up," says Case, an economics professor emeritus at Wellesley College.

However, he cautions that within the 20 major markets there are pockets of both strength and weakness. That means pricing trends can vary widely on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.

"There are now wider disparities in values than there were in past years when real estate was rapidly booming or falling," Case says.

The current neighborhood-by-neighborhood shift in real estate values is making it harder for aspiring sellers to peg the right asking price for their property. To avoid guesswork, Case says there's no substitute for a listing agent with an in-depth awareness of pricing trends in your local market.

"It's never wise to get a real estate agent from the far side of town," he says.

Here are a few pointers for would-be sellers:

-- Acknowledge the vital importance of proper pricing.

Sid Davis, a real estate broker and author of "A Survival Guide to Selling a Home," says that in some exceptionally strong real estate markets, buyers are beginning to cope with the reality of multiple offers.

He says the major factor fueling brisker sales in strong markets is that long-pent-up buyer demand is starting to be unleashed in those areas.

He says a skilled listing agent is a valuable ally to sellers who want to hit the target when their home first goes up for sale.

"Even in a strong market, asking more than your home is really worth is a big mistake. Most buyers won't even make an offer if they think you're greedy," Davis says.

-- Seek a general idea on value before looking for a listing agent.

In the Internet age, there are a number of websites that promise to give you a free and immediate assessment of your home's value. One of the best known is Zillow (www.zillow.com).

Davis says that such "fast pricing" websites can't be expected to provide you a definitive answer on your property's worth. Still, he considers them a good starting point.

Besides using the Web, another way to get a feel for the strength of your local market is to attend open houses.

"If people have begun to flock to open houses in your neighborhood, that's a positive signal," he says.

-- Interview at least three candidates before hiring an agent.

When it comes time to sell a home, many owners think it's wise to hire a trusted family member as their listing agent. But Davis cautions against choosing someone from your inner circle.

"Your home is your biggest asset. You have a lot at stake. Would you automatically hire a relative to manage the assets in your retirement fund, or would you search for the best expert you can find? The same principle applies when selling your home," he says.

Even if your family member has a proven track record in real estate, choosing that individual as your agent could be a mistake.

"Your relatives probably won't tell you if your place is a dump that needs to be de-cluttered or that it's worth a lot less than you think," Davis says.

He recommends that you interview three agents who work in your area to determine the right one to sell your house. Ask each to give you a candid evaluation of both the condition and current worth of your place. Also question all three on how they came up with their pricing recommendations.

"You want to see the actual comparable sales used to support their recommendations. In an upward market, it's especially important that these sales be very recent --preferably for houses sold within the last month," Davis says.

-- Check into an agent's track record on pricing.

Are you planning to sell a home in an area where property values are flat or still slipping slightly? In that case, it's unlikely you'll receive your full asking price at the closing table. But if your property was marked correctly from the outset, you should still come quite close.

"The idea is to hit the bull's-eye from the beginning rather than letting your house become shopworn," Davis says.

How can you judge whether the agents you're interviewing have a good track record on pricing? One way is to review a few key numbers on their past listings, such as "list-to-sale" statistics. These compare the original asking price versus the sum ultimately received by the sellers.

If the agent is routinely making realistic recommendations, there should be little difference between the original list price and the final sale price, Davis says.

"As sellers, you always have the final word on your asking price. But you don't want to hire an agent who tries to flatter you into going too high at the start on the premise that you can always make deep cuts later. That's a losing strategy," he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)