While those who own Santa Cruz homes for sale are worried about the real estate market, some buyers are getting good deals. However, there are plenty of people on both sides of the market with a case of cold feet.

For instance, some with Santa Cruz homes for sale took them off the market. Others, who’ve thought of selling, haven’t.

The same can be said for buyers. Many potential homebuyers change their minds or still worry over that age-old question of, “Should I or shouldn’t I?”

Two Cases of Cold Feet
A 26-year old with a steady job, good paycheck and good credit, sums it up for many potential buyers. “My job’s steady and my credit is good.  I keep watching the houses that go up for sale, thinking I could go ahead and buy, but then the ‘what if’s’…

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Selling a home is sometimes a long process. You can sit around worrying and wondering when you’ll have a buyer, or you can get busy to help the time fly.  Here are 10 things to do while waiting for your Santa Cruz home to sell:

1. Clean. I’m sure you’ve already cleaned every part of your Santa Cruz home to prepare it for sale. Make a game of it this time.  Time yourself to see how fast you can clean one room or one drawer.  Or, take out every type of cleaner you have and use it in each room.

2. Plant a container garden. The best part of a container garden is that you can take it with you. Plant some herbs or easy to grow vegetable plants, like tomatoes or cucumbers.

3. Sort through your magazines. Now you have the time to read all those magazine…

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There are many Santa Cruz homes currently for sale.  An obvious question you must ask yourself in today’s market is how to make your home stand out.   

Whether you’re a real estate investor wanting to flip several Santa Cruz homes or a homeowner selling your current home, one of the top ways to increase your home’s value is remodeling the kitchen.  The kitchen is the central meeting place of the American family and people want it to be modern and up to date.

Do a Price Comparison among Santa Cruz Homes

Your renovation budget is one of the primary concerns to take into account before you begin.  The current value of your home, as compared to other homes in your neighborhood, is one way to determine how much you should spend on your kitchen renovation.

…

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Many people have trouble relaxing, even in their Santa Cruz homes.  Why?  Frequently, it’s because of too much visual stimuli such as unfinished projects, knickknacks and clutter.

You may think the answer to being able to relax is to move into a “better” home.  However, what usually happens is that you move your unfinished projects and clutter with you.  Instead, if you take the time to get organized, you may find – like many owners who have backed out of a sale – that you don’t need to move, you just need to re-organize.

Take a moment from your busy, stressful life to read these tips and discover how you can improve and de-stress your personal castle:

1. Add money to your wallet. Unwanted or unused items can be turned into cash. eBay and Craigslist…

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You may just be targeting the wrong market. Young families, Gen-Xers and 30-somethings tend to want to move into a Santa Cruz home with high technology: expensive items like home theatres or home automation. Older buyers, however, have a frugal mindset, are often on a fixed income, and have a different set of requirements for their potential Santa Cruz home.

Why would you want to market to older buyers? Several reasons, but the main reason is the size of this market, especially the size of the baby boomer generation.

The Population Reference Bureau reports that there were 76 million births during the 19 years covering the baby boomer generation.  A large percentage of these baby boomers, who are now between the ages of 46 and 64, are looking or soon…

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Home staging has long been a way to sell Santa Cruz homes for sale. In short, stagers come into your home, look the place over and start packing (if it’s not already empty). They bring furniture, draperies and other things to make the home look warm, beautiful and inviting to buyers.

The trick is to make the Santa Cruz homes for sale inviting in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the buyer’s personal tastes. It’s worked, selling thousands of homes that might not have sold otherwise, and selling them faster than non-staged homes.

For the past year or two, however, virtual (or conceptual) staging has come into the real estate world. Somewhat like traditional home staging, the virtual stager spruces up your home for sale. The differences are where the work is…

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It’s open season on homes for sale in Santa Cruz, and no hunting license is needed. You might want to wear bright orange jackets if you’re a seller, though. It’s a buyer’s market and, in this case, you want the house hunters to see you.

Now, you can only take the hunting analogy so far; I don’t think you’d appreciate being hung on a wall as a trophy. You will appreciate hunters setting their sights on homes for sale in Santa Cruz, however. Here are a few tips to ensure that your home is the one they target:

Stand out in the open
To put it simply, buyers are using more and more technology nowadays. Obviously, you, as the seller, want to be where the buyers are, right? Embrace the Internet. Twitter, Facebook, blogging and other forms of social media are…

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“Buyer’s market” means that the buyers have the upper hand; there’s more supply than demand. When it comes to selling your home, it’s safe to say that you’re competing in one of recent history’s toughest real estate markets.  This is a true buyer’s market, where supply far outweighs demand. So how do you go about selling your home in these conditions?

Interview Santa Cruz  Real Estate Agents
Don’t pick an agent based on looks. An agent who drives an expensive car may very well just be someone who lives beyond his or her means. Instead, create a list of the top Santa Cruz  real estate agents in the area and interview them. Ask:

• About their experiences in selling homes in your area this year and last year – not in years gone by
• What they’d recommend to…

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You don’t list your Santa Cruz home for sale on a whim; you don’t just decide you don’t like the one you have. Selling a home carries significant financial, emotional and family repercussions. Selling your home is one of those life decisions, the ones you discuss with your spouse, look over with professionals and use experts to move forward.

While you might have been able to list your Santa Cruz home for sale and have it sold quickly at the beginning of the decade, that’s no longer the case. Now, you have to be truly motivated in order to get your home sold.   Unmotivated sellers, those without concrete reasons, are not serious sellers. 

If you’re a motivated seller, on the other hand, you have several new marketing weapons at your disposal. These…

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Spring is the rainy season for many parts of the nation and, for those areas where spring doesn’t bring rain, summer does. Rain brings mold, mold grows on your Santa Cruz real estate and buyers run. Of course, if it doesn’t rain, there’s always humidity, which can also cause mold and mildew in the home.

How do I know if I have mold?
Well, for example, if you get up in the morning, walk into your living room and find a swimming pool where your couch used to be, you might have mold once the water dries up. Of course, if you have swimming pool in your living room every spring, you can always use it as a selling point… “Living room boasts natural, seasonal pool!”

On the serious side, mold is often indicated by a musty, often sharp smell in the home. You also…

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