Western Mass Homes Lesley Lambert

Lesley Lambert

Thinking of selling your Western MA home? Give the buyers what they want!

Granite Installation, Santa Cecilia Countertop...
Granite Installation, Santa Cecilia Countertop, and Tile Backsplash Design (Photo credit: granite-charlotte)

Each year the National Association of REALTORS does a study to discover what today’s buyers are looking for in the next home they purchase. 

This study gets boiled down into a list of home features with statistics on the level of importance to the buyers.  This list can guide you in preparing your home for sale by alerting you to what areas of the home are most important to home buyers. Many home sellers make improvements to their home without considering what their potential buyers may want.  This can lead to costly improvements with minimal or no benefit in the sale of the home.

What makes the most sense is to tailor your improvements to you Western MA home towards what today’s home buyer is looking for.  For example: 65% of home buyers expressed that central air conditioning is important in the selection of their next home. Having a garage is a big asset as 78% of the buyers in the survey purchased a home with one.  Granite countertops were important to 20% of those surveyed and 17% preferred stainless steel appliances, but more important to these buyers was that the kitchen have an eat-in space and new appliances. These are just a sampling of the total results.  You can review and download the entire report here:

Home Feature Preferences Edited

You can also listen to an interview on this topic.

If you are considering putting your Western MA home up for sale this spring and want a professional and experienced education on how best to prepare and market your home, give me a call: Lesley Lambert of Park Square Realty 413-575-3611.

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Happy St. Joseph’s Day! Will St. Joseph help you sell your home?

Planting St. Joe
Planting St. Joe (Photo credit: Jeff Hester)

Today is St. Joseph’s Day, a celebration of the husband of the virgin Mary and step father of Jesus.

Joseph was a carpenter and also the patron saint of home and family in the Roman Catholic religion, which is presumed to be the reason he is now connected with real estate.

It is said that burying a statue or medal of St. Joseph in your yard will help to move the sale of the home along.  This practice is a fairly recent tradition which hit a peak in the 1990’s.  Legend has it you should bury a statue of St. Joseph upside down in your front yard.  Recommendations for placement vary: some say in the corner of the yard, others in the center facing the house and some say near the real estate sign.
I have never tried this out, but in researching this topic online I see that many people have sent their desires to move to St. Joseph and were met with success.  As with all things prayer related, the actual prayer itself has great importance.  There are prayers offered as suggestions, such as:

Prayer To St. Joseph to Sell House

O, Saint Joseph,
you who taught our Lord
the carpenter’s trade,
and saw to it
that he was always properly housed,
hear my earnest plea.

I want you to help me now
as you helped your foster-child Jesus,
and as you have helped many others
in the matter of housing.

I wish to sell this [house/property]
quickly, easily, and profitably
and I implore you to grant my wish
by bringing me a good buyer,
one who is
eager, compliant, and honest,
and by letting nothing impede the
rapid conclusion of the sale.

Dear Saint Joseph,
I know you would do this for me
out of the goodness of your heart
and in your own good time,
but my need is very great now
and so I must make you hurry
on my behalf.

Saint Joseph, I am going to place you
in a difficult position
with your head in darkness
and you will suffer as our Lord suffered,
until this [house/property] is sold.

Then, Saint Joseph, i swear
before the cross and God Almighty,
that i will redeem you
and you will receive my gratitude
and a place of honour in my home.

Amen.

Many sources, however, state that the homeowner can simply make an earnest and heartfelt plea to the Saint in their own words.  There are a lot of options in purchasing a statue of St. Joseph online.  I did a quick search on Amazon and found very affordable options.

Now, I am not Catholic myself, but for about $5, I would be willing to give this a try!  Have you done this?  How did it work for you?

 

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Great ranch home for sale in Westfield

 

86 Hillside Rd This home is full of fabulous features: hardwood floors, open floor plan, finished space in the basement, large lot and a great deck for summer cookouts!
 
 
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Lesley Lambert
Park Square Realty
413-575-3611
realestate.lesleylambert@gmail.com












 

Whatever Happened to the Starter Home?

Short Sale in Chicopee MAThis was a question posed to me recently by a work associate.  It took me back because of the simple truth behind it….people don’t start small and build up anymore, they want the whole enchilada from day one.

 

When I started on home ownership it took several steps to get to where I am…well more like six steps really and every step was an essential growing point.

I have a client, one of my best repeat clients, who has now bought and sold 9 properties through my mother or I my mom, now retired, was my first real estate broker).  I want to use them as an example:

  • They bought their first home years ago.  It was an 800 sf ranch on a postage stamp lot.  My mother told them it was better than rent because it had equity.

  • They stayed there for a little while and then bought a Colonial home with more room and a larger lot.

  • Following that property they purchased a larger contemporary home on a private lot with acreage.

  • The next home was a large custom built colonial in a premier area.

  • They loved it there, but when a lot with a view opened up they built a home of considerable size.

Now, their real estate history continues beyond that, but for the sake of this demonstration, we can pause at this juncture.

It wasn’t until their FIFTH home that they were in their dream property.  They leveraged their equity time after time to increase their buying power and built themselves up one step at a time.  Had they tried to buy at their maximum at any point earlier, they could have stalled out and slowed their growth.

If you are a new homeowner or thinking of buying your first home, I hope you will give this some thought.  It takes time to get to your dream or “forever” home.  You need to be willing to work towards it and you need a realistic approach.  Most of the time it is smart to purchase something very affordable first and spend the time investing and re-investing in yourself.

If you would like to discuss buying a first, second or tenth home in Western MA

I hope you will call me: Lesley Lambert of Park Square Realty.

 Thinking of buying a starter home?

 
Search All Homes For Sale
Free List of Foreclosed Homes For Sale
What is Your Home Worth?
Homes Close to Where You Work
Lesley Lambert
Park Square Realty
4135753611
realestate.lesleylambert@gmail.com

The one where I talk about glass balls, paraphenalia and headstones.

Abouthom.es girls
Abouthom.es girls (Photo credit: LesleyLambert)

This week on the Abouthom.es Girls video thread the main question was about finding balance in the hectic life of a full time REALTOR.  I answered about how I try to prioritize and find balance by using my glass ball analogy.  Another topic was about the weirdest things we have seen while showing homes.  I am going into my 25th year as a Western MA real estate agent and I have seen some REALLY strange things…watch the video to hear about some of them.

Also, I this weekend is St. Patrick’s Day and I LOVE St. Patrick’s Day in Western MA.  We have a huge weekend here and I can’t wait to enjoy it with my family and friends!

 

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