Date Archives: November 2021

It's the most wonderful time of the year, and our real estate agents want to help you make the most of it. Mark your calendar for these exciting holiday events taking place in December around the Triangle.

• Winterfest '21 - Cary Arts Center, 101 Dry Ave., Cary, NC 27609
  The air near Cary homes for sale will be filled with the joyous sound of classic holiday carols at Winterfest '21. For the twelfth year, the Cary Town Band will be performing a selection of your favorite holiday tunes. The audience will also have a chance to vote for five or six singalong songs. Winterfest '21 is set for Thursday, December 9 at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are welcome. 
  
  
• Lights on the Neuse - Boyette Family Farms, 1620 Loop Rd., Clayton, NC 27527
  Enjoy an old-fashioned holiday for the whole family at Lights on the Neuse. Leave the driving to someone else as you take a 20-minute hayride through the glittery lights at Boyette Family Farms, not far from Clayton homes for sale. Afterward, head to Santa's Sweet Shoppe for hot chocolate, coffee, kettle corn, and DIY s'mores kits. Lights on the Neuse runs through Friday, December 24. Visit the website for days and times. Tickets are $10 per person.
  
  
• Santa's Reindeer Roundup Express - New Hope Valley Railway, 3900 Bonsai Rd., New Hill, NC 27562
  Kids can help Santa find his nine missing reindeer during the 50-minute ride on Santa's Reindeer Roundup Express, just minutes from New Hill homes for sale. Special holiday scenes set up on the train, alongside the tracks, and in the rail yard make great photo opportunities. The Roundup Express leaves the station weekends through December 18. Visit the website for the schedule. Admission is $15 for adults and 13 for kids ages 2-12.
  
  
• Christmas Parade - E. Academy St. & S. Fuquay Ave., Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526
  What's a holiday without a parade? Cap off a day of viewing Fuquay-Varina homes for sale at the town's festive Christmas Parade, held in the historic downtown area. The route begins at the intersection of E. Academy St. and S. Fuquay Ave. Bring folding chairs and blankets and arrive early to get the prime viewing spots. The parade kicks off at 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 5.
  
  
• Historic Holiday Festival - Wake Forest Historical Museum, 414 N. Main St., Wake Forest, NC 27587
  A perennial holiday classic is the theme of the inaugural Historic Holiday Festival at the Wake Forest Historical Museum, right down the street from Wake Forest homes for sale. "It's a Wonderful Wake Forest!" features the Calvin Jones House done up in holiday finery as It's a Wonderful Life plays in the museum auditorium and local musicians provide entertainment. Food, drinks, and seasonal wreaths will be available for purchase. The festival takes place Saturday, December 4 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and admission is free.
  
  
• A Vintage Christmas - NC State Fairgrounds, 985 Youth Center Dr., Raleigh, NC 27607
  Find one-of-a-kind gifts your family and friends will treasure at A Vintage Christmas. More than 120 vendors will have upscale vintage art, antiques, clothing, jewelry, and other great items. Live music and food trucks round out this unique event, right by Raleigh homes for sale. A Vintage Christmas is scheduled for Friday, December 10 and Saturday, December 11 from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sunday, December 12 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Admission is $5 -$15.

Where is your perfect Triangle home for the holidays? Contact us at Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston for help with your year-round real estate needs. 

Are you thinking of selling your home during the holiday season? While this is a busy time of year, it can actually be a great time to sell. If you stage your home appropriately for the holidays, the cozy, celebratory vibe can really appeal to potential buyers. Our real estate agents have plenty of tips for staging a home at the most wonderful time of the year.

• Keep Exterior Decorations Minimal
  Curb appeal is important when selling a home. So while you do want to decorate your home for the holidays, you don't want to go overboard. Stay away from giant inflatables and other dramatic holiday decorations this year. Keep it simple with a few lights to accentuate the best element of your landscape, a festive wreath on the door, and maybe some garland on the porch. 
  
  
• Accentuate the Fireplace
  If your home has a fireplace, make it the focal point of your holiday decor. Fireplaces make people feel warm and welcome, especially around the holidays. Some snowmen on the mantel, a garland, and some simple white lights paint a stunning scene.
  
  
• Don't Let Decorations Take Over
  When decorating the inside of your home, make sure your decorations accentuate what's there rather than overwhelming it. For example, choose a smaller tree that fits next to the living room sofa rather than a huge one that forces you to rearrange the furniture. Add a couple of holiday figurines to your dining room table, rather than replacing the whole table with a red and green one. You want potential buyers to be able to imagine what the home looks like outside of the holiday season, too.
  
  
• Don't Change the Color Palette
  Try to choose holiday decorations that coordinate with the room's existing color palette. If red and green decorations clash with a room, use silver or blue ones instead. Use muted burgundy instead of red in rooms with more natural color schemes. Use brighter colors in brighter rooms. A cohesive color scheme makes people feel more comfortable in a space.
  
  
• Go Easy on the Scents
  Scents are a common element of home staging. And the holiday season is the perfect occasion to use scents like pine and fresh-baked cookies to your advantage. However, you don't want to go overboard and overwhelm your buyers. Some people are susceptible to scents. To avoid making your space too smelly, opt for potpourri over spray air fresheners and essential oil diffusers. A nice, pine-scented, or cinnamon-scented potpourri will add a gentle, holiday-inspired scent that's not headache-inducing.
  
  
• Keep Things Less Personal
  When you typically decorate for the holidays, you might display family photos from previous years or personalized ornaments that your kids made in school. But making a home feel too personal can turn off buyers. It makes it harder for them to picture themselves living in your home. Stick to non-personalized decorations when staging a home for the holidays. 
  
  
• Don't Block the View
  Potential buyers want to look through windows and see what view they get to enjoy. So, make sure your holiday decorations don't block that view. Don't put any decorations on your windows. A few lights around the window frame or a bow at the top is more than enough.

There are plenty of buyers looking for Raleigh homes for sale around the holidays. If you're thinking about selling your home this season, keep the staging tips above in mind. Contact us to learn more about our real estate services and how our agents can make selling easier.

Home sustainability plays an important role in keeping our planet and our community healthy and clean. From recycling to energy efficiency, eco-friendly best practices can help reduce pollution, diminish dependence on raw materials, and ultimately helps prevent garbage from filling up landfills.

With National Recycling Day coming up on November 15, our real estate agents thought we'd take a moment to reflect on the importance of green living. Here are some everyday sustainability tips to incorporate into your home and life.

1. Start With A Recycling Bin
   Investing in a recycling bin is an easy first step towards sustainability. Recycling is significantly easier when you have a dedicated container conveniently placed near your garbage can. When throwing things away, you can sort your glass, paper, aluminum, and plastics into your bin. Be sure to rinse your materials thoroughly and check with your local recycling company on what they'll accept.
   
   
2. Create A Compost Bin
   A compost bin is an excellent way to reduce the amount of trash you produce, and it can have great benefits for your garden too. A compost bin is a place you can toss your decomposing food, plant, or organic materials. Over time, they'll transform into compost, which can be used to fertilize your soil. Vegetable and fruit scraps, dry pet food, newspaper, or cardboard are some examples of the hundreds of items that can be placed in a compost bin.
   
   
3. Use A Water Filter
   Plastic bottles can be very harmful to the environment, especially when continually placed in a landfill. Instead of buying bottled water, install a water filter on your faucet or under your sink. You can also buy a filtered water pitcher, which can be fairly inexpensive.
   
   
4. Wash Your Clothes With Cold Water
   Your washing machine consumes a significant amount of power and over 90% of that energy is used to heat the water. Therefore, you can save a significant amount of energy and reduce carbon emissions by getting in the habit of running all your loads with cold water instead
   
   
5. Adopt LED Lighting
   Lighting typically accounts for 15% of your home's energy usage. You can significantly decrease this number by switching to LED lighting. LED stands for light-emitting diode, are these bulbs are 90% more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs. They're also brighter and last significantly longer too. Beautiful LED lighting is frequently used in many of these modern Raleigh homes for sale. 
   
   
6. Install A Programmable Thermostat
   Programmable thermostats have helped to revolutionize energy-efficient heating and cooling. These thermostats allow you to schedule temperatures based on the time of day. Many of them also allow you to adjust your home's temperature from your smartphone, which makes it easy to turn down the heat or air conditioning when you're not at home. This functionality not only reduces your utility bills, but it is also incredibly eco-friendly.

Energy efficiency, sustainability, and green-living play a critical role in reducing carbon emissions and reducing utility bills. For assistance finding a home with eco-friendly features, contact us today.

Searching for a new home can be a nightmare if you go in unprepared. There are plenty of Raleigh homes for sale, but how do you find the one that's right for you? How do you know if the price is reasonable and that everything in the house is in good working order? You can't do it alone. You need a real estate agent.

More specifically, you need an HPW agent, to guide you through every step of the process and get you moved into the home of your dreams. Here are some of the ways an HPW agent can help you.

What Does a Real Estate Agent Do?

There are two types of real estate agents. A listing agent represents the person selling a home, whereas a buyer's agent represents the person buying it. Most real estate agents do both, but not for the same sale.

As a homebuyer, your HPW agent is a liaison between you and the homeowners. They'll guide you through all the necessary steps and paperwork, from the initial offer, through escrow, all the way to closing. But first, they have to find the home that's right for you.

It's a real estate agent's job to know all the homes in the neighborhood: what they're like, what they have to offer, how much they are, etc. Nowadays, people can look up house listings themselves online, look at photos, compare prices, etc. But it's still not the same as having an HPW agent in your corner.

Looking at photos online is no substitute for someone who's actually been to the house and can take you there personally for a guided tour. Whatever you're looking for, your HPW agent can find it for you.

Negotiations

Once you've found the home you want, it's your agent's job to get you the best deal. As members of the National Association of REALTORS®, they're obligated to put your interests ahead of their own. They know the home's worth, both on its own and as part of that particular neighborhood, and can tell whether or not it's priced fairly. If it's not, your agent will negotiate with the listing agent for a better price.

They'll also organize an official house inspection, to make sure everything works the way it's supposed to. Do the lights turn on when you flip the switch? Do the outlets have power running to them? Is there anything broken or worn out? Is everything up to code? Once they have the results of the inspection, they can use it to have the homeowners either fix anything that's wrong with the house or lower the asking price accordingly.

There's a lot to deal with when it comes to buying a home. Your HPW agent is there to shoulder the load, making the experience easier for you and ensuring you come out on top. Our real estate agents can help you with every step of the home buying process. Contact us to get settled into your dream home!