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Sell Your House Quickly – A Matter of Presentation

Selling a house quick can be very tricky in the current market but do remember that there are a considerable number of people who are buying now in order to take advantage of the fallen house prices.

Keep in mind that 95% of people buying a house are after a home and not an investment or development project. For this reason they can’t see beyond the presentation. You must have heard of the popular proverb “First impression is the last impression”. You must make sure that your property makes a good first impression to your prospective buyers.

You really have to ensure your house is in an excellent order. This is a lot harder to accomplish than you may initially think. When you have been living in the house for many years it is so easy to get used to the way things are and stop noticing the important bits that outsiders see immediately. Take another look at that crack in the ceiling, or the damp patch with mould growing in the corner, or the mould in the grout around the bath or the broken drainpipe outside. All these are simple jobs to rectify but are all stored away in a potential buyer’s first impression.

Call an estate agent and ask for an appraisal. It costs absolutely nothing and you will be told exactly what areas need improving. Here is what you should look out for:

OUTSIDE

It is amazing how most people overlook this part. It really is where the first impression starts so it must be as best as it can possibly be. Make sure you mow the grass and keep the garden nice and tidy even if it is only a small garden. You can make a small garden look cosy rather than small. Only keep items which will enhance the garden. Ornaments which you may think look nice may not be to a potential buyer’s taste such as gnomes.

Have a good look at the outside walls of the house. Are they looking worn and need a little TLC? If so, call upon friends and family to give it a bit of a paint over.

INSIDE

People buying houses with the desire to turn in into a home for themselves are particularly attracted to kitchens and bathrooms. These are the two most important rooms in any house. Even if you don’t have a fantastic kitchen or bathroom you can certainly make them look more appealing by cleaning the taps and any fittings making them shine brightly. Clean all furniture with perfection and don’t forget the cupboard doors, fridge doors, microwaves, dishwashers and any other loose piece of equipment around. Make sure your stove shines.

All doors around the house must look like they are always in use. In other words, they must be well oiled. Creaking doors give a bad impression to prospective buyers. It gives the impression that the house has not been well taken care.

Plants in the right places can add vibrancy and a glow to your home. This little touch will make it feel like a home for the prospective buyers. All these simple changes will help make your house sell quick. Of course this involves some labour on your part but will make all the difference.

Alternative Option

There is an alternative option if you find you do not have the time to do all the work to the house yourself. If you are really desperate to sell your house quick you can have the option of selling it to an investor. Investors are the remaining 5% who purchase property and they don’t worry about the presentation at all.

Investors can buy your house in as little time as 10 days or even to suit your own deadline requirements. They also pay for all the legal costs. A short term sell and rent back agreement can be arranged if you find you need a little extra time after completion. Sales can be done so quickly that you find you are not ready to move. It happens a lot.

If you are selling due to financial difficulties and do not want to move but are being forced to then the sell and rent back option is definitely for you. You can take advantage of the sell and rent back scheme which will allow you to sell your house and rent it back at rents which are set to the current market rates in your area.

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Increase Product Sales – Add Your Products to Google Product Search

Selling more products via the Internet is a major concern of most product retailers, distributors and manufacturers in today’s online world. The Internet has proven to be a terrific way to distribute products in a cost effective and efficient manner and should be a major focus for just about every product company.

If you’re a product company and are looking for an affordable way to sell more products, then lo and behold! Google Product Search is exactly what you’ve been looking for. Google Product Search, formerly named Froogle, is a place where product companies can submit and list their products directly with Google’s shopping search engine.

It’s a free service offered by Google that provides users with a search feature to search for products and be directed to the website(s) where they can purchase them. The previous name Froogle, named back in 2002, was originally a mash between the words “Google” and “Frugal” (meaning thrifty or thriftiness). The named was changed from Froogle to Google Product Search in August of 2006 because Google felt the word Froogle suffered in that users had no idea what Froogle offered from the name. There was nothing to make you think that Froogle meant shopping or product search, hence the new and improved name – Google Product Search.

Since Google has changed the name, Google Product Search has gained significant exposure from online users and it’s becoming more common for product companies to submit their products on a daily basis to increase product sales.

Google allows you to reach more shoppers by submitting information about your products to Google Base so they’ll be found on Google Product Search. You can link directly from the Google search results to your website. Depending on how many items you have, you can choose to submit your products one at a time, all at once using a bulk upload, or by having an automated product feed submitted three times a week, eliminating the need for you to manage the uploads all on your own.

The great part about doing an automated feed is once you’re setup, you’re done! Shoppers will be able to find your items on Google Product Search within 24 hours after they are submitted to Google Base and will be automatically updated three times a week. So as you add new products to your website, they are automatically added to Google Product Search, dramatically increasing product sales for your product company.

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3 Tips For CIOs To Become Better Negotiators

It’s interesting to realize just how important the skill of negotiating is to CIOs. Sure, we all know about the importance of information technology, but when you think about it, we spend a great deal of our time negotiating no matter if it is with vendors, other departments, or even members of our IT team. Since we do so much of this, we should always be looking for ways to get better at it…

3 Ways To Become A Better Negotiators

First off, when we dive into a negotiation be it with a vendor or with someone who works for our firm, all too often we just start things off with a vague idea about what we’d like to accomplish. We know that we need to create a deal, but we’re not 100% what that deal is going to look like. However, we believe that we’ll recognize it when we see it.

What this mean to you as the person with the CIO job is that before your next negotiation starts, you really need to do some homework. By taking the time to prepare for a negotiation, you’ll have an advantage over the person that you’ll be negotiating with. Doing your homework can be as simple as coming up with a plan for what you want to propose to the other side. When you do this, the next step is for you to highlight the key details in your plan that you want to make sure that are part of the deal that you reach.

When we are negotiating with someone, all too often it can be easy to assume that they have more power than they really do. They may represent a big company or a powerful internal department. We need to take a step back and realize that they are just a peer – no more, and no less. If you can see them as someone just like you, it can remove a great deal of the intimidation that they may be presenting to you and you can focus on getting what you want from them.

Finally, don’t worry if what you are asking for has never been done before. Hey, there always has to be a first time, right? Make your case and explain to the other side how things will work. If they still seem nervous about agreeing to a deal, you can create checkpoints that will allow them to determine if the deal is being implemented in the way that they agreed to.

What All Of This Means For You

At the heart of what it means to be in the CIO position is the ability to communicate well. One form of communication that we all need to take the time to master is that of negotiation. Since we negotiate so often and with so many different types of people we need to get better at doing this.

There are three ways that we can become better negotiators. The first is to make sure that we always show up prepared to negotiate – we need to do our homework. Make sure that you see the person that you’ll be negotiating with as a peer – they do not have any special powers. Finally, just because something has never been done before does not mean that it can’t be done now.

As a CIO, you never seem to have enough time to get everything done. When you are trying to decide where to spend your time, learning to become a better negotiator is one thing that will be on your plate. Among all of the other things that you have to do, this is a good way to spend your time. Time spent becoming a better negotiator is time well invested.

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