Tag Archives: carpet

Sell Your House Fast With These Tips

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If you need to sell your current house before moving into a new one, you’ll want to do all you can to give it that extra edge. Even though we’re currently in a seller’s market, how well you prepare your house to sell can determine whether it sells in six days or six months.

San Antonio RE/MAX realtor, Juan Medina, says there are only two things that will keep your house from being sold – price and condition. When it comes to the condition of the house there are several things that a realtor and home buyer looks at when they first step in your front door.

Here are some tips to help get your house ready to sell as quickly as possible:

  1. Walk through your house as if you were a new buyer or, better yet, have some new friends come over and walk the house with you. Make a list of anything that stands out – things that might need to be repaired, touched up or removed.
  2. It’s likely you will be staying in your old home while you’re trying to sell it. If this is the case, you will want to pack away any unnecessary nik-naks, family photos and other clutter. You want any potential home buyers to be able to visualize themselves in your house, not feel like they’re just visiting someone else’s. Staging is key.
  3. Upgrade outdated or dying appliances.
  4. Give the house a fresh coat of paint if necessary.
  5. Lighting can make all the difference. Take down any drapes and let the sunshine in. Change out worn lampshades and install soft bulbs wherever possible to give the rooms a warm, cozy feel that bright white light just can’t offer.
  6. Wash the windows until they’re sparkling. This may seem tedious, but the cleaner and fresher a house looks, the more appealing the house will be to a potential home buyer.
  7. When showing the house, make sure your pets or any semblance of your pet’s existence is hidden. Put away the food and water bowls as well as any toys. This goes for kid’s toys as well.
  8. The kitchen is one of the most important rooms in any home, and it’s key that simple upgrades such as wall paint and cabinet hardware be implemented. Keep in mind, even one high-end appliance can entice a buyer.
  9. If the house has carpet, make sure to have it professionally steam-cleaned. Don’t just settle on renting a steam cleaner from HEB. You want the carpet as pristine as possible. If you have wood floors, polish them until they shine.
  10. Although upgrades are generally a good idea, you want to avoid any major make-overs that will cost you an arm and a leg and might raise the price-point of the house to a level that isn’t realistic for your neighborhood.
  11. When showing, light yummy-smelling candles throughout the house. This may seem like a small detail, but you’d be surprised how much influence a good-smelling house can have.

Before you sell your old house, let us plan your new one! Give us a call at 210-494-5400 to set up a free consultation. If you wish to be added to our private email list for our newsletter, please sign up here.

 

Step into Your Dream Home with ProSource

 

Amaris Read

Amaris Read

As you get to know all of us at Stone Creek Custom Homes, you’ll also get to meet some of our outstanding vendors and home building partners. We go out of our way to make sure all of the folks we work with are the best of the best in the business, and that includes one of our favorites, ProSource Wholesale Floor Coverings.

ProSource is a trade-only business, meaning they only sell to builders and their clients. Therefore, their builder design center is not open to the general public. Although they only have one showroom in San Antonio, there are 138 locations throughout the U.S., with almost one design center in every city in Texas. We work exclusively with ProSource to find the best flooring options for our customers, including carpet, wood, tile, and even backsplashes for every room in the house.

We sat down with ProSource Account Manager, Amaris Read, to see what she had to say about the work they do and our long-time working relationship.

AMARIS: I work directly with the designers to assist with the selection process. Where our private showrooms stand out is we offer the largest selections for the best prices. You can’t walk into a box store and get service for a whole house selection.

ProSource works directly with our own amazing designer, Carla Royder, who advises our clients based on their individual needs or sometimes sends them straight to the ProSource team for professional assistance.

AMARIS: I love that Stone Creek offers their clients cost on products, so they’re able to get the best value on their flooring selections. They also provide good budgets for their clients to be able to shop here. They really allow them a lot of freedom and liberty in customizing their home, which allows them to expand the selection and quality they get for their dollars. Not a lot of operators work that way.

Like us, ProSource is all about enabling their customers to build their dream homes, literally from the floor up! Call us at 210-494-5400 when you’re ready to take that next important step into a bright future. If you wish to be added to our private email list for our newsletter, please sign up here.

Floors – For Every Step You Take

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They may always be beneath us, but the kind of floor you choose for your home can impact the look and feel of your entire house. Especially if you’re working with a custom home builder like us, the sky’s the limit when it comes to floors, but just what does that mean? If you don’t know what you want, then you don’t know what to ask for, right? Here are just a few ideas to get you brainstorming!

Hardwood Floors

The great thing about hardwood is that it never goes out of style. They’re authentic, renewable, beautiful and durable. As for current trends, dark hardwood is in! Two of the most popular stains are Ebony and Jacobean. They go very nicely in the kitchen with white cabinets or in the living room when used with light furniture – think white or soft blue.

Tile Floors

Tile can be used in so many ways – as a mosaic, for example, or even to replicate wood. People are using textured tiles that look like wood for flooring. Trends include reclaimed, barn wood or aged-looking wood, mixing materials like natural stone and wood-looks, parquet flooring (creating geometric patterns with planks), square-based patters and exotic looking hardwoods.

Laminate Floors

One of the main reasons to go with laminate flooring is cost, although there are certainly other benefits, such as they don’t scratch nearly as easily as hardwood. If you are indeed building a house from the ground up, laminate wouldn’t exactly be our first choice, but it’s a money-saver in a pinch. Fortunately, these days you can find some very nice looking laminate that’s almost impossible to discern from the real thing.

Carpet

Carpet is still a great look for bedrooms, although a gorgeous rug over stunning hardwood simply can’t be beat. Right now, favorite options include carpet with texture and patterns in neutral colors such as taupe or gray, although muted blues and teals are certainly growing in popularity.

Creative Floors

When it comes to what you can use to make a floor, all you have to do is use your imagination. You could make a floor out of marbles, pennies, wine corks, puzzles, ceramic shards, even sheet music. What are your interests? How do you want people to feel when they walk into a room? These are questions you should be asking yourself. Besides the walls in the room, the floor has the most potential to make a statement. So what are you going to do with it?

Please feel free to call us at 210-494-5400 to help you get started building your new custom home from floor-to-ceiling!