Archive for the ‘Truckee CA real estate’ Tag
By Michelle Portesi
We’ve talked about this subject before, but as pictures say a thousand words, we thought we’d show you what we’re talking about! So many folks, especially second homeowners, just want to sell and be done with it, preferably without sinking any time or money into the property to do it. To be appealing to potential buyers and to sell your home quickly, a little elbow grease and a few well spent dollars can make a world of difference. The home below sold in a matter of days!
Staging your home can take a mediocre property from ok to Wow! … and a nicer property from Wow! to Spectacular!!!
BEFORE
Living Room – BEFORE
Living Room – BEFORE
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AFTER
Living Room – After
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As we’ve written previously, a house with too much furniture and clutter not only is uninviting, but makes a house seem smaller than it actually is. Inversely, a house with rundown furnishings or no furnishings makes a home feel cold and unappealing as well. Buyers often have a hard time envisioning themselves living in what is currently someone else’s home. Do them (and yourself) a favor and help them see themselves in the home you are selling. There are a number of Lake Tahoe and Truckee local Interior Design businesses and retail shops that specialize in staging, often drawing from some of their showroom pieces as temporary rentals.
Think of it like choosing a restaurant. You certainly want to be there for the quality of the food, but ambiance can play a big part in your enjoyment of the meal. In fact, ambiance can turn a restaurant with OK fare into something special. And so it is with a house. Staging can make it appear better than it may actually be. Playing up your home’s strengths will help distract from some of its shortcomings.
Kitchen – BEFORE
Kitchen – AFTER
Not only does adding accessories and little pops of color add visual interest to a drab, lifeless room, don’t negate the power of good, professional photography to bring a space to life. Note that the only thing done to the dated kitchen above is the addition of tasteful and current yellow accessories and great lighting.
For more tips and tricks on getting your home ready to sell, read our previous article on preparing your home to enter the real estate market:
https://yourfriendinhighplaces.net/2014/09/16/setting-the-stage-for-selling-your-lake-tahoe-or-truckee-house/
THINK OF ME, LYNN RICHARDSON, FOR ALL OF YOUR LAKE TAHOE AND TRUCKEE REAL ESTATE NEEDS!
www.lynnrichardson.net
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Merry Christmas!
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Wishing all of you and yours a happy and safe holiday!
The ski areas are open, and although all their runs may not be (due to uncooperative Mother Nature) the resorts have all been snowing up a storm via snow making equipment. By all accounts, the skiing has been pretty good. (I have spies at the ski areas who keep me informed! I also hear that The Great Basin Carolers will be wandering Squaw Valley with their holiday tunes on Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas. Grab a hot drink at one of the many eating and drinking establishments and go have a listen…)
Not into cruising down the mountain? The ice rinks at Squaw Valley, Truckee and Northstar are all open as well. Or maybe a Christmas snowshoe or cross country ski trek is in order. What better way to work off all of those calories you just KNOW you will be consuming?
Congratulate yourself on getting outside, breathing some fresh air and getting some exercise.
Go ahead. Have another piece of pie!
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Think of me, Lynn Richardson, for all of your Tahoe/Truckee Real Estate needs.
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Bears coming up the stairs from a home on Lake Tahoe during the fall. ~Photo by Michelle Portesi
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Residing here in the rural mountains of the Sierra Nevada, wildlife sightings are fairly common, and it is one of the cheap thrills of living here. Learning to live with the nature that surrounds you does also come with some responsibility on our part, so that we can both coexist, with neither one of us becoming a nuisance or a detriment to the other.
Anyone who has lived here for any length of time finds out quickly that unsecured trash, unattended open windows or leaving food around will invite one form of opportunistic scavenger or another – usually insinuating themselves where they are not particularly wanted. Animals are like any other force of nature…path of least resistance. Unlike ourselves, survival is not based on waltzing down to the local grocery store for a meal. For the animals, it requires a great deal of expenditure of precious energy hunting and gathering to make it in this life. Anytime someone offers a much appreciated (by them) short cut, they’re going to take it.
As we head into winter, bears especially become extremely active this time of year, their need to fatten up before hibernation intense. Metal bear boxes have become the only real solution of choice, as even a metal can secured in a locked garage can prove to be none too effective in keeping out a truly hungry bear, resulting in property damage in the process. God forbid they should get into the house itself. And if it’s not the bears hitting the trash cans waiting for disposal pick up, it’s the raccoons, the coyotes or the neighborhood dogs…(and to be entirely honest, the dogs make a much bigger mess. Bears tend to plop down and eat trash where they found it. Dogs strew it all over the neighborhood!)
Our early snowfall covered up many food sources that animals would normally be attracted to this time of year, berries, grasses and seeds that would make up much of their diet in the fall. In this case, the early snowfall and some poorly secured trash resulted in a rare serendipitous sighting that almost made the mess worthwhile. Below are photos of a Sierra Nevada red fox! That’s right, a species that is considered near extinct in the Sierra Nevada.
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Photo by Michelle Portesi
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Now, I’ve never even seen a fox of any sort in the Sierra’s in all the years I’ve lived here, let alone a rare red fox. But my friend Michelle, who helps me with the blog, caught site of one right on Donner Pass Road at Donner Lake the evening of Halloween, foraging through an ill gotten trash bag. Fortunately she had a cell phone and snapped these few pictures before he scuttled off looking for more edible booty.
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Photo by Michelle Portesi
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For more information on this rare but beautiful creature (as one joke goes: They’re just dogs with bad P.R.), you can go to the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Nevada_red_fox
http://www.sierraforestlegacy.org/FC_SierraNevadaWildlifeRisk/SierraNevadaRedFox.php
These animals are so rare, that the California Fish and Wildlife department does research to get an idea of their numbers and range, and asks you to report it if you’re lucky enough to see one yourself. (Michelle had no luck with the form on either Firefox or Explorer, so she e-mailed the department directly)
California Red Fox Survey
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
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