Ruthie's Corner

Ruthie Grainger-Starr - providing AWESOME real estate adventures in Pikes Peak!

6 Reasons Your Home Won't Sell Are you ready to sell your home and want it to have a great first impression on the market? Or maybe your home has been listed for a few weeks or months, and you can't figure out why it won't sell, and you know your agent is working hard to market it. We've listed below the top 6 reasons your home may not make a good impression and end up stagnant on the market. 1. IT'S OVERPRICED To be clear, an overpriced home is the #1 reason a home won't sell. We often times want our homes to be worth a lot more than we may see based on the data, but if you put your home on the market for the number you wish it will bring instead of the price it actually needs to be, your home can sit on the market for months without getting a single showing. If you're thinking you need to price high to leave room for negotiations, statistics show that views for your property, for buyers in your price r...

Why Now Is The Time To Buy If you have been considering purchasing a home, you may be curious to know if this is the right time in the market to make your move. The market is fast changing, with new laws coming into play, interest rates are constantly rising, and a whole slew of things buyers have to face when it comes time to picking the right house. What does that mean for you? Well, that there isn't a better time to buy than now. Let's break down the benefits of purchasing a home now, instead of waiting.    1. INTEREST RATES ARE SOARING If you haven't been keeping up with the real estate market, you might be missing out on the data around interest rates. They are going up, and they are going up fast. 5% may not seem like a lot, but can be the difference between hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars on what you are paying out towards your loan on a monthly basis. Would you want to pay an extra $200 towards interest for your...

Achieve Feng Shui In Your Home If you take the time to dig into the philosophy around feng shui, you'll understand that it doesn't come off as esoteric as one my think. It's based around the simple practices to make a home feel healthier and a lot more organized. It also helps you to connect to your home, in a way that can affect your mood and well being. Feng shui is as common as "spring-cleaning," or decorating to make a home feel much more comfortable. This ancient Chinese tradition can be incorporated into your own home. It can be done in a modern holistic approach, while still honoring the age-old traditions that come with feng shui. It's not about transforming the structure of your home, but instead making it to evolve into a space that refreshes your home - and in turn your health. The following feng shui tips will do a little more than just bring some harmony into your home, they can potentially increase the v...

Storage Ideas For Small Bathrooms Is your bathroom small? It’s the worst, isn’t it? Well, unfortunately, small bathrooms are very common, and are usually the smallest rooms in the house. I can almost bet that it almost always feels cramped and tight in there. Although the square footage doesn’t change, a change of organization and storage space can make a drastic change to how your bathroom feels. Here are a few tips and tricks to make your bathroom space feel more functional and spacious.  Medicine Cabinet If you have a regular mirror, replacing it with one that includes a medicine cabinet and provide further storage space.   Shelving If you have free space above your toilet, vanity, or other another empty part of the wall, install shelving units. Purchase a few decorative baskets to maximize shelf space.   Hooks With a few decorative hooks, in a style of your preference, you can declutter by placing a couple on the bac...

10 Staging Tips To Get Your Home Sold Ready to sell your house? Here is a few staging tips to get your home prepared for the market. When listing a home that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, you want to make sure it's presented in the best light. You wouldn't buy a $50,000 dollar car if it was filled from top to bottom in someone's personal content and trash. This is the same mindset you need to carry into selling your home that will be worth well over a $100,000. 1.  SAY BYE TO CLUTTER The best thing you can do for your home for sale is to get rid of all of your clutter! Make a rule for your home that for every new piece that comes in, one must go. One of the biggest factors to a cluttered home is too much furniture. Generally, in a professional staging, half the home owner's furniture is removed to make the house look much bigger. Look around your house and see what you can pack away. It'll be w...