Making Your Home Look Luxurious Without Breaking the Bank

In new home purchases, these are often called “upgrades,” and they can run into thousands of dollars.

For those who can’t afford a total remodel or who prefer not to spend a ton of money trying to make the home more luxurious, here are a few things that can be done that won’t break the bank.

1. Get rid of clutter and clean
One of the easiest ways to make your home look more luxurious is by getting rid of things that you either do not use or no longer need. Items strewn about make a space look busy, cluttered and dirty. Try organizing and throwing things into boxes and baskets for safe keeping. By removing these unnecessary items you not only tidy the space up and make it look bigger but make the space look more inviting and luxurious. It is also important to keep the room clean by dusting, vacuuming or mopping on a regular basis which not only will make your space look cleanly but will facilitate keeping the clutter at bay.

2. Lighting
This is another simple and inexpensive way to upgrade your home. Harsh lighting can wreak havoc on a room. Switching all lights to dimmers not only softens the light and lets you control the amount of light in a room, but can make the entire home feel richer and luxurious. Also consider pendant lighting over islands for a fresh update. And while at it, you might also change out the white plastic switch plates for something such as brushed nickel or something artistic for a more sophisticated look.

3. Laminate and vinyl flooring
One of the most sought after luxury home features is hardwood or tile flooring. Buying genuine hardwood and tile can be quite expensive. If this is still the look that you are going for then there a couple options that are much cheaper. Laminate and luxury vinyl plank flooring is easy to install and come in a number of synthetic wood stain and tile types. These flooring types are both more resistant to damage and easier to take care of than those of genuine nature.

There are also numerous other relatively inexpensive ways to make your home look more luxurious but these three are some of the best.

Article contributed by Ashley

The post How to Make Your Home Look More Luxurious (Inexpensively) appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

For those who still haven’t made travel plans, there may be some surprising resort bargains to consider–while other large and super-luxurious resorts are stalled under construction and financing difficulties.

Crisis in Paradise via Breitbart shares some disturbing news:

• Cap Cana, a luxury resort under development in the Dominican Republic is now reportedly paralyzed. A mega resort with four luxury hotels, villas (with roof tiles on the ground), three golf courses and a large yacht marina, Cap Cana is just one of many luxury resort projects “affected by the economic tsunami that has paralyzed the global financial markets,” said Cap Cana President Ricardo Hazoury.

• Also stalled in the Ritz Carlton Molasses Reef Resort in West Caicos. This luxurious project with hotel, condos and marina is three-quarters complete.

• The massive Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas has laid off 800 workers, blaming low occupancy rates.

• The Wyndham Nassau Resort has laid off 40 employees–presumably for the same reasons.

• Puerto Rico’s Caribe Hilton is also laying off employees because of rising cost and those pesky occupancy issues.

If reasonable air fares can be snagged, this could be the year for luxury travel bargains!

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Good Bargaining Tips for the Luxury Home Buyer

If this is the worst real estate market (for sellers) in recent history, then surely it creates some of the best luxury bargains of a lifetime as well.

We are seeing smart money aggressively buying in our San Diego real estate market, and hear reports of the same elsewhere. The properties are being bought as fix-and-flippers or are being held as longer term rentals.

We receive inquiries about these homes almost daily; but more recently, we are being consulted about bargaining tips for buying luxury homes at bargain prices. These buyers may not have to sell their existing home to buy another, or are open to exchange possibilities.

Below are 7 bargaining secrets we use to help our luxury home buyers (and others) get some of the best luxury bargains on the market.

1. Study Market Time: Luxury homes in general may take longer to sell because of pricing, custom features and a more limited pool of buyers. But that doesn’t mean sellers are any less motivated to move on with their lives. At one time, we thought little of $million-plus homes sitting on the market for 90 days or more. These days, we seek buying opportunities if a home has been on the market over 60 days and are seeing some heavy price discounting if days on market goes over 90 days.
2. Check Tax Records and other Sources: Is there more debt on the home than what it is worth? Has a Notice of Default been filed that would indicate a looming foreclosure? If so and if this is a home of interest for our buyer, we submit an offer contingent on the successful negotiation of a short sale (where the lender sells the property for less than what is owed). In this case, either we or professional negotiators deal with the lender(s) to reach the best possible price for our buyer.
3. Did Owners Pay Cash or Have They Owned Their Home for Longer than 10 Years? These sellers may be in a position to sell at a discount or may be motivated to do so due to life transitions or other investment opportunities. They may also be open to owner-financing for all or part of the home mortgage.
4. Are You Open to Remodeling? Homes sold in as-is condition are more likely than others to sell at a substantial discount. Owners, especially when the home has been on the market for some time, are often overwhelmed with the thought of remodeling and updating–and fearful that their decor choices will not suit potential buyers. Especially in the uber luxury home market, older or outdated homes are sometimes sold at land value.
5. Foreclosoure Sales: The f-word (foreclosure) is occurring even in the luxury home market. Highly leveraged homes purchased in the last few years are more frequently ending up on the courthouse steps. Foreclosure purchases, which require cash and carry no disclosures or guarantees, offer both great potential for profit–and dire dangers for the uninformed. Bidding should be non-emotional and it is best to have a professional bidding for you–but only after thorough-as-possible research has been done regarding the home’s condition, its history and resale potential. Cracked slabs, structural defects and boundary line encroachments are unwelcome surprises.
6. Home Exchanges: This is a rather novel strategy for those trying to sell their luxury home in a bloody market. Life transitions encourage luxury homeowners to make moves. Empty-nesters may wish to relocate from their large estate to something equally posh but far less demanding in upkeep. Others may have expanding families that crave acreage, pools, tennis courts or equestrian facilities. In the Southern California market, Owner-Broker Bob Dyson and Villa Sotheby’s International Realty have set up a property exchange platform that allows homeowners to directly exchange properties and ownership. It is a tactic that helps to support neighborhood values and removes many of the pressures involved in having a home on the market for an extended period of time.
7. If the property you want is listed, have your agent check the other real estate agent’s listing history. If that agent tends to have listings on the market for a long time, you may wish to lower your offer. On the other hand, if the agent prices properties aggressively and has short “days on market,” you may consider coming in near to or at list price. You will likely find the listing is already priced at or below market to attract multiple offers. This bargaining tip is crucial!

A combination of patience, perseverance and the ability to move quickly will serve all astute buyers of real estate these days, but the greatest potential of all may lie in the luxury real estate market where replacement value could far exceed the purchase price. Follow these bargaining tips and let us know how you succeed!

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Thinking of buying a well-located $1 million luxury flat in London, Paris or Tokyo? Think you’ll get a bargain?Think again:

1. In London, you’ll get 328 square feet.

2. In Paris, you’ll do better with 522 square feet.

3. In Tokyo, you can really spread out with 594 square feet.

These are averages reported by the most recent issue of Forbes magazine. The weakened dollar against the Sterling, Euro and other currencies has contributed much to a real estate situation where, for example, the U.S. dollar purchases 25 percent less in London than it did just five years ago.

But if the tables are turned, premier areas of the United States are relative bargains for many international real estate buyers. We have a client who recently retired in Belgium, then moved to the San Diego suburbs, and purchased a lovely coastal Encinitas pool home (around 3000 sf) for just under $1 million. This jolly client still chuckles when mentioning that his retirement comes in Euros, which helps to create a very comfortable retirement given current U.S. exchange rates. He also loves that he can play tennis year round. For him, the purchase was a bargain.

This is a situation that might be repeated throughout premier real estate markets in the United States. Excluding a few areas, real estate prices in this country have softened in the last couple of years. An international real estate buyer might be able to purchase a prime property at a substantial discount not only because of weakened market conditions, but also because of the increased purchasing power of his or her native currency.

Given this interesting and favorable set of circumstances, we are actively courting international real estate buyers. Prime U.S. real estate has become a relative bargain for these shoppers. It is a market that cannot be ignored.

by Roberta Murphy

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