Whether you are considering selling your home, or just want to dress it up a bit for the Fall, there are some easy things that you can do that will change the front of your home, and, with a bit of planning, will not cost you a great deal of money. Whether you live in Piedmont, Berkeley or Alameda, the principals remain the same.

The key is to step away from your home. Drive or walk away from your house, and then come back with the idea of seeing your home from the eyes of a stranger or potential home buyer. Ask yourself what impression are you giving them? Check and repair the following:

a. Remove all debris from the front of the house. Include the gutters, the sidewalks, the garden beds, and the all the yards, both front and back.

b. Weed and…

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When buying your home in the Oakland Rockridge area, or the Redwood Heights, or even the Trestle Glen area, you will find that some things are common among all home purchases.  It is important that you place yourself in the best possible position to purchase the home that you decide you want to have.  Here are some suggestions to put you at the top of the list:

1. Do All Your Financial Homework First--Make sure that you have enough funds to qualify for that purchase.  The rule of thumb followed by most lenders is that your total debts including housing costs, should be no more that 38% of your gross income(before taxes), and your ultimate housing debt alone should be no more than 33% of your gross income(before taxes). While there are other issues,…

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When the time comes to sell a home, both the sellers and the buyers should be prepared to consider ordering a professional home inspection as part of the process.  There are a number of reasons for this.  For the buyers of an Alameda home, a home inspection is a reasonably priced way to assure that they are getting the full picture of the condition of the home that they want to purchase.  The sellers, however, should consider ordering a home inspection before they put their home on the market.  This is worthwhile, because it allows them to have a sense of what issues need dealing with.  With this information, they can decide which repairs really need attention, and which they are willing to negotiate about with the potential buyers. 

Depending on the…

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When you have finally decided to sell your home, you will be surrounded by all kinds of advice from friends and family as to the best selling price.  Much of this advice is well meaning, but it is not the best source of information to arrive at for this valuable point of information.  Whether your are considering selling a Piedmont home or perhaps an Oakland home, there are three very effective sources that you should use if you want to be assured that you are pricing your home at its best.

1. My Website--www.brucewagg.com--With its comprehesive Multiple Listing sources and search engines, you can search by city, town, price, etc. to see what homes in and around your home are selling for.  It will show you pictures of the houses, and, in most…

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Perhaps you are considering making some significant changes in your home.  Ultimately, these changes will affect the home's resale value.  Sometimes doing your pre-sale homework will pay quite well when you are considering the size and scope of these changes.  Much of the time, adding bathrooms or bedrooms or family rooms is a good idea--IF it pays you back financially.  That is the key to a successful plan. Your homework should be to find out how much value your additions will-or will not-add to your home at resale time. 

It makes sense to add another room to your Berkeley hills home if your family has outgrown the present one.  If you are all crowding into one bathroom, or are sharing a super small kitchen, the time has come to consider more…

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When you, as a potential buyer, begin to search for your Piedmont home, you will be given a MLS Property Information Sheet from each of the agents showing each property for sale.  This sheet is a truly valuable source of information for you about the house, and you should take the time to study it at every location before you leave to visit another. 

To really use it properly, you should first have a very good sense of the kind of home that you want. Really take the time to write things down.  How many square feet do you need?  How many bedrooms and baths?  What kind of yard is important?  Next, take this information and compare it to the MLS Sheet.  How close are the two parameters?  If they are good, move to the next step.

The next step is to…

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With the large amount of websites available with information regarding Oakland homes for sale, it seems that picking out your new home should be easier, because there is so much to choose from.  However, with the variety of choices offered to you, my job as your real estate agent is to assist you to find just the right home in the most efficient manner.  Here are some ideas to consider in working with me as your agent:

1. Be as specific as possible about your needs--  No one wants spend hours touring homes that are not suitable.  Once you decide your price range for purchasing, it is worth your time to look through the matching choices on my website, and then spend time analyzing what appeals to you and why.  You will soon see things that are…

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Oakland has so many homes and neighborhoods to choose from.  Whether you want to live in Rockridge, Redwood Heights, or the Trestle Glen neighborhood, there are some steps that you can take to make sure that the time that you spend house hunting is truly productive, and that you end up with the best home that you can afford.

The first step for most serious home buyers is to begin to search the Internet for all the various web sites listing homes for sale.  It is a good first step, because it begins to give you an idea of what is immediately available.  As your agent, I need to have a sense of what you want in your next home.  It is helpful if you create a list for me using the following criteria:

1. The Must Haves--These are features that you…

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You have just bought your new Oakland home.  You are going to move locally from your Alameda home, and now you need to begin to make some plans to do so.  One thing that is important to know is that local moving costs are based on time. You are charged for how much time it will take the movers to move your household items from your first to your second house, and you are charged on an hourly rate for a van and the men needed to complete that move.  In essence, in local moving, time is money.  The more time involved in moving you, the more money it costs!   Below are some tips to save you valuable funds:

1. Pare Down Your Items In Every Way Possible--The longer you have been in your home, the more things you have accumulated.  Start considering what…

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When buyers are considering purchasing a home, its size, and how it will fit their needs, becomes very important to them.  Even though you tell them that your Piedmont home is 2445 sq. ft., if it does not actually look that size when they enter, will cause you to lose much of the valuable first impressions of spaciousness that you want to convey.

Additionally, many Oakland homes and Berkeley homes are often quite large inside, but need to be presented in the best way possible.

 Many things can cause a home to look smaller than it is. Here are some tips to make it appear to be the size it actually is:

 1. Before you begin showing the home, go through each room and remove as much furniture as practicable. Side tables, end tables, bookcases, chairs and…

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