RE/MAX Agents Share Ten Ways to Get the Best of Winter When Selling Your Home

If your home will be for sale this winter, it is important to master certain seasonal issues that are less significant or even non-existent at other times of the year. Here are 10 bits of sage advice from RE/MAX agents that can help put a “Sold” sticker on that yard sign.

Let Those Lights Shine: The best way to combat winter’s short and frequently cloudy days is to turn on your house lights. For a showing, every single light in the house must be on, even in the closets and utility/mechanical rooms, according to Marlene Granacki of RE/MAX Exclusive Properties, Chicago.

“Make sure all the bulbs are working, and stock up on all the right bulbs for lamps and fixtures so burned out bulbs can be replaced immediately,” she advises. “Also, it’s a great idea to keep the lights on in the front of the house even if no showings are scheduled. People are always driving past the house, and keeping it lighted makes it look happy and welcoming.”

Provide Convenient Parking: It’s vital that buyers have a convenient place to park. They won’t want to walk very far in cold weather or be forced to climb over a snow bank to exit their vehicle. Because parking is often more restricted around condominiums, sellers should make sure their agent can pass along parking details to buyers.

Make It Easy to Enter: Winter showings can get off to an awkward start if prospective buyers arrive with snow or salt on their shoes.

“Make it easy for buyers to deal with their shoes when they arrive,” recommends Barbara Hibnick of RE/MAX Showcase, Long Grove, Ill. “Put a festive area rug at the front door for a great first impression and so visitors can wipe their feet. Have slippers or disposable booties available, along with a bench or chair, if there is room for one, where a visitor can sit and easily remove or put on their boots.”

Keep Odors Under Control: Any home tends to be stuffy in winter when windows are opened rarely. That can allow odors to build up, which can be a turn-off to buyers.

“Pet odors can be especially worrisome in winter,” says Mike Mondello of RE/MAX Synergy in Orland Park, Ill. “Use a room fragrance if needed, but nothing too strong, and I recommend that in winter sellers clean more often.” For example, change the cat litter daily, rather than every third or fourth day, or even consider using an air purifier.

If pets are in the house, consider setting the thermostat control so that the furnace fan runs constantly during the day to keep air moving through the house and dissipate odors. Also try to avoid strong cooking odors, especially if a showing is scheduled that day.

Cultivate a Festive Look: Appropriate decorations for Thanksgiving, Christmas and even St. Valentine’s Day help give a home a cheerful look during the winter months.

“I really believe that holiday decorations can help homes sell, but don’t go to excess,” suggests Starr Zook of RE/MAX On Track in Aledo, Ill. “Keeping small, decorative white lights on trees and bushes pretty much through the winter season is fine, but other decorations should be taken down quickly once the holiday passes.”

Don’t Ignore the Outdoors: Make a good first impression on buyers with a neatly maintained yard. Walks and steps should be kept clear, especially of snow and ice.

Don’t Roast Buyers: We all tend to prefer a specific temperature for our homes during the winter, but don’t blast buyers with hot air. Keep the temperature at a comfortable 65 degrees for all showings. Remember, buyers are likely to be wearing their coats even as they walk through the house.

Keep Seasonal Clothing under Control: “One major challenge of selling a home during the winter months is the overabundance of cold weather gear that must be stored,” says Mike Mondello. “A buyer doesn’t want to find the mudroom filled with boots or the hall closet overflowing with heavy coats. Shift some winter coats to another closet and put anything not needed in the closet into storage.”

Encourage Day Time Showings: A home shows to its best advantage during daylight hours, which are relatively scarce in winter.

“Encourage your agent to show your home before 3 p.m. and have it ready to show by 9 a.m. if you want the best results,” Granacki recommends.

Despite the special challenges of marketing a home during winter, there also are benefits, notes Laura Ortoleva, a spokesperson for the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network.

“Buyers out looking at homes in December or January are, as a group, quite serious about buying. Therefore, sellers tend to benefit because each showing is more productive, and fewer showings are needed to sell the property,” she said.

Wildfire Survivors Have Choices With Recovery Grants

"How can I spend the money?" That question is being asked by many Texas wildfire survivors who have received recovery grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency .

More than 80 percent of the nearly $12.6 million in grants FEMA has provided since the wildfires have been aimed at getting survivors into permanent safe, sanitary and functional housing — in the best way they see fit. Instead of using a grant to repair or rebuild a damaged home, for example, recipients may apply the funds toward the purchase of alternate housing.

“In the information packet we send to eligible survivors, FEMA provides guidelines on how to use the money,” said Federal Coordinating Officer Kevin L. Hannes. “However, we want to empower Texans to take charge of their recovery by providing options.”

FEMA’s Individual and Household Program includes grants for temporary housing, home repair or replacement, and other disaster-related needs.

Temporary housing grants allow homeowners and renters to lease a dwelling for a limited period of time when the disaster has made their home uninhabitable. Survivors can choose to rent an apartment or a home. In Bastrop and other wildfire-damaged Texas counties with a shortage of rental properties, FEMA has provided temporary housing units while survivors work on a permanent housing solution.

Survivors receiving temporary housing grants will successfully manage the money when they: Use it for rent and not for home repairs, personal property or other items. Save receipts, as these will be required if a survivor wishes to request additional rental assistance.

Housing repair or replacement grants help eligible homeowners get back into a safe, sanitary and functional home. The funds are not intended to bring a home to its predisaster condition. A grant can be used to help purchase a new home, to purchase materials or to hire contractors or skilled trades workers to complete essential repairs in such areas as: The foundation, outside walls or roof Windows, doors, floors, walls, ceilings and cabinetry Septic or sewage system Well or other water system Heating, ventilating and air conditioning system Utilities — electrical, plumbing, and gas systems Blocking, leveling, and anchoring a mobile home and reconnecting or resetting its sewer, water, electrical, fuel lines and tanks

Other Needs Assistance grants are given to eligible homeowners and renters for a wide variety of losses, including self-employed workers’ lost tools or protective gear, students’ damaged educational materials, household items, furniture, appliances, fuel to heat a home, vehicle damage, clean-up tools such as a wet/dry vacuum or air purifiers, moving and storage expenses or medical and dental expenses caused by the disaster, including lost medications or medical equipment.

Survivors can preserve peace of mind by spending the money on disaster recovery, keeping good records of their spending and saving receipts for three years. If specific receipts are missing, a credit card statement or other evidence can show the grant money was spent on wildfire recovery. As with many other federal programs, the government audits a percentage of grants to assure the money was spent as intended.

HEPA Air Purifiers AirInstinct Monitors Air at its Smart Sensor

Oreck Corporation, a leading manufacturer of quality products in the homecare industry, introduces two new HEPA air purifiers to its lineup with AirInstinct 100 and AirInstinct 200. Both models feature a three-year HEPA filter and are ENERGY STAR qualified.

Unlike most air purifiers that offer different speeds but leave users wondering when to turn it on and at what speed, Oreck’s AirInstinct 100 and AirInstinct 200 continuously monitor particles in the air passing through its Smart Air Sensors and adjust airflow speed accordingly. Both models utilize Oreck’s unique PATH (Pre-filter, Anti-odor,True HEPA) filtration system that enables users to “turn it on and walk away.” A four-color lighting system lets users know when the unit is working and at what speed.

“With AirInstinct 100 and AirInstinct 200, Oreck has merged advanced technology, superior design and HEPA filtration into smart air purifiers that take the guesswork out of the process for the user,” says Scott Vogel, Chief Marketing Officer, Oreck.

The Oreck AirInstinct 100 comes with a three-year HEPA filter and a one-year odor filter installed. The Oreck AirInstinct 200 comes with a three-year HEPA filter and a three-year odor filter installed. Filter life on both the HEPA and odor filters will vary with usage and environment. Additionally, AirInstinct 200 has two extra features, a power saving and a sleep mode, both of which minimize energy consumption.

Airflow speed is adjusted automatically when unit is set on automode. Particle reduction and air circulation depend on many factors. All air in a room may not pass through the filter.

Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., Oreck Corporation is a leading manufacturer in the homecare industry, offering a variety of vacuum, air purification and other cleaning products. Oreck sells its products in hundreds of Oreck Clean Home Centers, as well as through phone and online direct sales.

Honeywell True HEPA Air Filter Review

Raise your hand if you’re skeptical about Hepa filters? Since you can’t see what I’m doing, I’m literally raising my hand, or use to.  That is until I had the chance to test out Honeywell’s True HEPA Compact Tower air purifier.

In terms of the gadgets we review it’s relatively unremarkable.  It’s body is crafted from plastic, there is a dial on the top to control 3 fans speeds and the back flap opens up allowing you to change out the HEPA filters, which needs to happen once a year.  Honeywell includes a carbon filter in the box that is designed to filter out odors and smells.  Since my bedroom has a scented oil therapy thingee – the chicks dig it – I opted to not use this.

So why am I now a card carrying HEPA air filter fan?  Before I tested out Honeywell’s True HEPA air filter I vacuumed my room once a week.  And every week I collected a fair amount of dust.  Now, keep in mind that I leaving my windows closed 90% of the year, if not more.  Crazy, I know, but since I have a fairly strong allergy to mold I figure better to play it safe  than not (plus I live in Santa Monica and it doesn’t get above 75 degrees even during the summer).  After installing Honeywell’s True HEPA air filter and letting it run for a week’s time I could notice not only a reduction in dust on my nightstands and the edge of my LED TV, but even in the vacuum after completing a solid sweep.  But it gets better than that.  I also noticed that I now wake up feeling far less congested, which leads me to the only logical conclusion; the Honeywell Hepa filter actually does work to improve the air quality of a room.

In terms of effectiveness, my room is about 15×15 at the most and that doesn’t include my bathroom or closets.  Nonetheless, it’s designed to work in room’s up to 300 sq feet, but since I can only attest to my room and my experience I can stay it’s effective.  Throughout my testing I kept the fan at 1, which is the lowest setting, though on certain days, say after I had the windows open, I’d crank it to the highest setting, 3, and let it filter out all the toxins that had been collected in my room’s air.  However, at this setting the fan can be a bit intrusive, especially if you watch TV or listen to music close by, but the lowest setting didn’t impede upon my movie watching experience.

So what more can I say.  The Honeywell True HEPA  works.  It cleans the air, isn’t too loud and is easy to setup.  It’s not the coolest looking of Hepafilters, but it’s not the worst.

Cyrus Mistry and the $5 bn brand consumers cannot avoid

Can you remember the last time you watched a programme on TV for a couple of hours and did not see a commercial for any Tata brand?

Today, it’s difficult for an average consumer to avoid a Tata brand in his or her normal consumption pattern. For air-conditioners, water coolers, water dispensers  and water purifiers, there’s Voltas. In cars, you have the Indica, Indigo, Manza, Sumo and, of course, the Nano. In beverages, you have Tata Café, Tata Tea, Tetley Tea and Himalaya water. In entertainment, you have Tata Sky services. In the hotel business, you have the Taj, Vivanta and Ginger. In jewellery, there’s Tanishq. In watches, you have Titan and the brand extension, Titan Eye, for spectacles. In retail, there’s Westside, Landmark, Croma and Tashi. In telecom, Tata Indicom and Tata DoCoMo are major players.

“I think the world over realisation has dawned that as economies develop and consumers have more spending power, people don’t buy products, they buy a promise. A brand is nothing but a way of expressing a promise.

“Today, the Tatas represent assurance, reliability, a sense of nationalism, value for money, and such other attributes that have been built over several decades. Irrespective of the product you are making, those are the attributes you would like to be known for, whether it is through a wrist watch, a piece of software or a car. It is for this reason that the Tata name goes well with a diversity of products — from tea and salt to an Indica car, software development and steel,” Gopalakrishnan had said in the same interview.

What does all this mean for Cyrus Mistry? “He also spoke about how the Tata brand has evolved over the years. From $300 million in 1998 it has gone and become a $.5 billion brand. They are also expecting this number to double by the end of 2011-12 when they do the next assessment of the brand valuation,” moneycontrol reported.

The adjectives that one didn’t see before Ratan Tata took charge as chairman in 1981  are adjectives that very easily come to mind now — aggressive, vibrant, exciting, multinational, risk-taking.

It’s in the businesses and geographies that Ratan Tata has led the group into in the past decade that makes us think differently about what the Tata brand represents. In the acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover, for example, the ‘value-for-money’ tag that the Tata brand name has stood for is pushed into the background, but world-class and multinational come to the fore.

“Tata Motors on Wednesday announced its entry into the international luxury car market with some style as the company snapped up two of Britain’s most famous names in automobile manufacturing, Jaguar and Land Rover, in a $2.3 billion deal with Ford, their American owners. “Ford says Tata to Jaguar” declared a front-page headline in a British newspaper as the country woke up to the loss of a bit of its motoring history in a classic case of the empire striking back,” The Hindu had gushed.

The Corus buy instantly made Tata a risk-taker — and a global player.

“The Tata Group is celebrating its acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch steel firm Corus, and the catapulting of Tata Steel into world steel’s big-five status . It should. The $11 billion deal is a marker in the ground….But Tata-Corus is the largest out of India, and is done by a private sector entity of its own volition, away from the shadow of state influence. For these reasons, it bears noticing,” said Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge.

When this commercial — We also make steel — was made, there weren’t many products in the Tata stable which were consumer-facing and exciting, save for Titan watches. What else did Tata make? They made salt, soap (Tata OK, for example), airconditioners , tea, trucks, and they ran hotels under the Taj umbrella. Except for the Taj, which had a few properties abroad, most of their consumer-facing brands were India focused, and, with the exception of Titan, and, to an extent, Voltas, hardly exciting.

Now, there’s a launch or an acquisition every few months. And every brand that is launched or bought has to pay royalty to Tata Sons for the use of  ‘the group mark and logo’ thanks to the Brand Equity and Business Promotion Agreement, which is signed by Tata Sons and individual group companies.

That’s an addition to the bottom-line of Tata Sons even as there’s appreciation in the brand valuation.

The brand has become so much more than it was when Ratan Tata ‘inherited’ it. In addition to Tata standing for assurance, reliability, a sense of nationalism, value for money and similar attributes before Ratan Tata took over, attributes like exciting, vibrant, diversified, international, aggressive and risk-taking have been added —together handing Cyrus Mistry a $5.5 billion brand to manage.

Thankfully, there’s one attribute that Mistry has which should be of immense help to him as Ratan Tata hands over the baton. It’s an adjective that none associates with the Tatas – young.

“My only regret is that I am not 20 years younger because I think India’s going through a very exciting period in its history,” Ratan Tata had said earlier this year in an interview with CNN.

Singapore-listed direct-selling company opens in the Philippines

Best World Lifesyle (BWL) founder and chief executive Dora Hoan said the company’s operations in the Philippines is part of its regional expansion activities.

BWL, which was founded in Singapore in 1990, currently has operations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brunei, Australia and China. It has also started operations in Korea earlier this year.

Ms. Hoan said the Philippines is a “missing link” in the company’s operations in the region. “We are very aware how big is the direct-selling business here in the Philippines. We know that there is a lot of opportunities here,” Ms. Hoan told BusinessWorld in an interview last week.

The company officially opened its offices at the Robinsons Equitable Tower in Ortigas Center last Saturday. BWL’s parent firm, Best World International, is listed as the only direct-selling company on the Singapore Stock Exchange since 2004.

BWL sells all-natural skin care and personal care products, health care equipment like water and air purifiers, and plant-based nutritional supplements, among others.

In March last year, Best World International disclosed to the Singapore Stock Exchange that it has established a joint-venture company in the Philippines called BWL Health & Sciences, Inc. for its direct- selling operations in the country.

Best World International owns 80% of the joint venture, while the remaining 20% is held by Bestworld Capital Ventures Corp., a private limited company incorporated in the Philippines.

The joint vernture was incorporated with an initial paid-up capital of P11.7 million.

Ms. Hoan, who is currently the chairperson of the Association Services Committee for the World Federation of Direct Selling Association, said BWL is looking at having 3,000 sales agents in the Philippines in the coming months.

These agents will bring BWL’s products closer to consumers. “We are confident that our products will find their markets here in the Philippines,” Ms. Hoan said.

For its initial rollout in the Philippines, BWL will be selling its Avance line of nutrional supplements, the Optrimax brand of slimming products, and the Aestier and Dr’s Secret skin care brands.

Ms. Hoan said the company will bring in more of its products in the coming months, as Filipinos become more aware of BWL.

Airpura And Austin Air Purifiers Offer Industry Leading Air Purification

Stop breathing contaminated air when you get an Austin Air purifier that is made from the highest quality material and are designed from the inside out. The primary focus of Austin Air purifiers is the filter. Austin Air purifiers are designed to take in air from every side at the same time. The purifier then processes the air into each of these four distinct filter stages that very effectively removes all contaminants.

What this does is create the maximum in efficiency of airflow, as well as a significantly longer than average filter life. Commonly, the filters last for five years under normal residential use. For an air purifier to produce the ultimate in clean, healthy air, it must eliminate all gases, submicron particles, and noxious chemicals. In addition, air purifiers should not produce any dangerous byproducts such as ozone.

Austin Air only uses the best, highest quality medical grade HEPA and activated carbon filters. This is the only filter technology is allowed and trusted for use in both hospitals and operating rooms. Unlike ion generators and electrostatic precipitators, none of Austin Air’s cleaners produce any byproducts. Austin Air’s HEPA filters are 99.97 percent efficient at capturing all airborne particles that are as small as 0.3 microns. They are also 95 percent efficient for airborne particles that are small as 0.1 microns. This is truly the most effective particle filter that you can purchase.

All of Austin Air’s activated carbon filters are manufactured to be highly porous, which leaves the surface area of the carbon more exposed which allows it to capture and chemically bind more contaminants like VOCs and noxious gases. Austin Air purifier bodies are all made of solid steel and, as a powder coated, non-toxic paint that is reliable, strong and supplies superior longevity. Because all of these air filters are made of the highest quality and a reliable, every Austin Air purifier comes with a five-year warranty, including a five-year prorated warranty on all filters.

In addition to Austin Air’s exemplary air purifiers, you can also purchase an AirPura air purifier that offers specific purifying qualities for every need. Regardless of your surrounding air, you can choose an Airpura air purifier. Is excellent for people with allergies, to purify tobacco smoke, to eliminate germs, eliminate VOC’s, or an air purifier that provides you with photo catalytic oxidation.

All of Airpura’s air purifiers are extremely simple, powerful, effective and provide the cleanest air possible. Airpura offers the simplest yet most effective airflow, for maximum efficiency and noise reduction. They all come with a powerful, variable speed fan motor, which you can choose the rate at which you clean your air, from a super quiet setting to the premium power filtering setting that provides you with 560 CFM capacity.