If you are selling a petite house, don’t automatically fall into the mindset of “buyers won’t be interested in my property because it’s too small.” While it is true that a large number of potential buyers will be turned off by the size of your home, there is a specific type of home buyer that is attracted to small properties; a first time home buyer. First time home buyers are a niche market that you need to target in order to sell your tiny home, and you should plan for customized home improvement projects to benefit this target market.

According to a survey conducted by the U.S Census Bureau, “The average first time home buyer is 33 years old and has a household income of $64,100 per year.” What do these stats tell us? They tell us that we will need to cater to a market of young and hip professionals, and we will have to carry out our home improvement projects accordingly.

What does a young, hip and professional first time home buyer want in their starter home? Modern accents. Therefore, our goal is to transform the bathroom from cramped, busy and messy to modern, simple and streamlined. The good news is that this goal can be attained with just a small investment of $500 and a weekend of your time. What will you need? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Below is a chart of the items you will need to purchase and their average cost.

According to HGTV (Home and Garden Television), “You will recoup a rate of 102% on a minor bathroom renovation. Since this small-scale, yet highly effective home improvement project will cost you just under $500, this project falls into the “minor bathroom renovation” category. Ok, it’s time to get the ball rolling. When choosing your wall color, stay as neutral as possible.

While it is true that colors that are associated with modernism tend to be on the bright and bold side of the spectrum, sticking to a modern paint palette that falls on the “safe side” is ideal for a minor bathroom renovation. After all, you are trying to sell a house here, right? A safe and modern color palette will appeal to the masses, in turn pulling in a wider range of interest from the first time home buyer set.

The next most important factor of your bathroom makeover is to build cohesiveness. In order for the bathroom to appeal to buyers, the eye needs to flow throughout the room without obstruction. The easiest way to build a visual obstruction is to place a black finish wrought iron towel rail into a bathroom with nothing but stainless steel finishes. The towel rail will stick out like a sore thumb, consequently breaking up the flow provided by the stainless steel finishes. Choose hardware and accents in the same finish. If your faucet has a stainless steel finish, make it a point to purchase matching hardware and accents.

Another thing to remember when transforming your bathroom is to choose a vanity that blends in with your modern theme. Nothing will turn off a buyer (especially a choosy first time home buyer) like a bulky vanity that looks as if it were catapulted from the late 70’s. Remember, modern is synonymous with up-to-the-minute and antonymous with ancient.

Jazmin Espinal is a professional freelance writer and the owner of Capital Web Writing, a web content solution for businesses and webmasters. To contact Jazmin or to see samples of her writing, please visit CapitalWebWriting.com.

The majority of FSBO properties fail to sell because of ineffective real estate marketing strategies implemented by the seller. The main detriment to being an unrepresented seller is that the marketing responsibilities fall into your court; and frankly, if your home doesn’t sell there is no one to blame but yourself. Traditional methods of real estate marketing are expensive, have a low response rate and generally do not lead to a sale. Why, you ask? The answer is simple: Traditional methods of real estate marketing don’t target a specific demographic.

Anyone can place an ad in a newspaper, anyone can buy radio time and anyone can place a flyer in front of the post office. But, guess what? Anyone can turn to the next page in the newspaper to avoid your annoying real estate ad, anyone can tune in to a different radio station in order to avoid your annoying real estate ad, and anyone can ignore your flyer when walking into the post office to pick up their package. Notice a pattern here? These people are annoyed by your ad; it’s an inconvenience.

Let’s Talk Demographics

You need to start marketing your property to people who actually are interested in what you have to share.  Real estate marketing, and all marketing for that matter, come down to one thing: targeting the right demographic and presenting them with an opportunity that they can’t refuse. Make your home the opportunity they can’t refuse. This may sound simple, but it’s not. Narrowing down your target demographic is going to be the hard part. So, let’s get to work.

What’s Your Unique Selling Proposition?

In order to cater to your target demographic, you need to know figure out your home’s unique selling proposition. What do you have to offer that is different from all of the other houses on your street? What do you have to offer that will be beneficial to a select group of home buyers? Does your home have ample square footage and a generous amount of spacious bedrooms? If so, you can market your property as a potential bed and breakfast. Market your home to retired couples who may be looking for a little excitement and profit in life. Does your home host a professional grade kitchen that has been approved by the state for commercial use? If so, you can market your property as home-based bakery business ready. Market your home to stay at home moms who may be looking to bring in some extra income. Both of these are unique selling propositions. And most homes have them. If you feel that your home doesn’t have a built in unique selling proposition, create one. Creating a USP can be as simple as mirroring the walls of an entire room and adding a ballet bar. It’s truly as simple as that, now you’re unique selling proposition is an in-home ballet studio.

Let’s Get Down to Business

So, you’ve got a unique selling proposition, now what? The next step is to purchase direct mail leads to a list building provider. You can purchase direct mail leads from Experian.com. Experian allows you to narrow down your local direct mail leads by specialty, life style, occupation, consumerism and business, so you can create a pretty targeted direct mail lead list for your real estate marketing campaign. Expect to pay anywhere from $1.50 to $3.75 for a single lead.

You’ve figured out your unique selling proposition and have purchased a local direct mail lead list, are you done yet? No, now it’s time to create the marketing collateral. In this real estate marketing campaign, your marketing collateral will be postcards. Take high quality pictures of the front of your home, the backyard, the unique selling proposition and the kitchen. After you have taken a batch of photos that you are happy with, you need to create your property description. Click here, for a step by step guide to writing compelling property descriptions.

Once you’ve created the property description you need to hire a graphic designer to create your marketing collateral. You can find an experienced graphic designer for a reasonable price on Elance.com. When you have chosen a designer you would like to hire, send him your property description and photos and let him get to work. The designer should be done with your postcards within a four weeks and deliver your postcards via snail-mail within six weeks of the project’s start date. The next step is the easiest and most rewarding step of the process. Place a stamp on each postcard and address them to each recipient. Now, all you’ve got to do is walk over to the post office, mail your postcards and wait for the inquiries to start rolling in. Isn’t real estate marketing fun?!

Jazmin Espinal is a professional freelance writer and the owner of Capital Web Writing, a web content solution for businesses and webmasters. To contact Jazmin or to see samples of her writing, please visit CapitalWebWriting.com.

Before the economic crisis hit, the majority of home buyers wholeheartedly supported no money down home loans. However, it seems that following the economic crisis no money down home loans have been taking metaphorical beatings from all angles. Frankly, the condemnation of the no money down home loan is uncalled for. The problem is that many people fail to build their own opinions on the matter off of personal observation and would rather rely on the opinion of a “financial guru.”

The financial guru worshipper flicks on the television and overhears Rachel Maddow and Suze Orman expressing their disapproval on the matter and claiming that home buyers who opt for no money down home loans will lead a foreclosure ridden homeownership, immediately they assume that the gurus are in the right. What most people fail to understand is that these are not factual statements. These statements are not based on extensive studies or scientific analysis. These statements are mere opinions, based off of personal observation and theories.

Admittedly, there is merit to their claims. Home buyers who cannot afford to keep up with monthly mortgage payments should not squeeze their way into premature homeownership with a no money down home loan. That is why so many people with no money down are facing foreclosure; premature homeownership. However, classifying all who opt for a no money down home loan into a foreclosure ridden home ownership is an inaccurate overgeneralization.

Recently married young couples who are fresh out of college with promising careers are ideal candidates for no money down home loans. First time home buyers who fit the above description have the funds to keep up with their monthly mortgage repayments, but they simply do not have the capital to pay for a traditional 20% down payment. Would you peg this young professional couple as “foreclosure ridden?” More often than not the answer would be no.

Those who are foreclosure ridden are heading in that path due to personal lack of money; it has nothing to do with the amount of money they coughed up for a down payment. Granted, the number of foreclosures would likely drastically decrease if unqualified home buyers weren’t given the opportunity to default on their loans, but the ones responsible are the lenders. If lenders would tighten up their lending strings, our economy would most likely be in a much healthier state than it is in now.

Why do I blame the lenders? I blame the lenders because of sheer irresponsibility. Handing out home loans to people who can not afford it to keep up with payments is like selling alcohol to a 15 year old boy; nothing good can come from it because he is not equipped to handle alcohol.