Check out our latest entry in our “We Make Great Neighbors” Facebook Photo Contest for a chance to win a $200 Lowe’s Home Improvement Gift Card. Daniel & Tabitha just purchased a home in the Winston-Salem area with our Prudential Carolinas Realty sales associate Jamie Harrelson.
Before You Move: Prioritizing and Preparing
Furnishing your new home is a wonderful opportunity to “claim your space” by creating a mood or a motif that reflects your personal style. This is your chance to put your unique stamp on your new home! But moving isn’t cheap, and neither are the costs associated with purchasing a property.
After fees and closing costs (not to mention your down payment), your budget has most likely been exhausted. Luckily, you can decorate your new abode to suit your tastes and your personality without breaking the bank. The following information will help you transform your empty house into an attractive, warm, inviting home.
When you are ready to make your big move, resist the temptation to rush out and snap up every piece of furniture you want for your new home. In order to stick to a budget, you will have to prioritize your needs. Make a list of “must-have” items, and start by shopping for essentials. Do not allow yourself to make impulsive purchases, especially if you still need to pick up basic home furnishings. Once you’ve outfitted your new home with all of the essential items, then you can begin to hunt for non-essential decorations, luxury items, and toys.
Three Simple Steps for Claiming Your Space
1. Paint the walls. You don’t need to shell out loads of cash for expensive premium paints, and you don’t need to pay someone else to do your dirty work. Buy a tarp and rollers from your local hardware store, search the Internet for color schemes that match your personality, and get down to business.
By painting your walls vibrant colors, or by muting your walls but painting your moldings and baseboards white, you can reinvigorate your new home. If you feel creative or adventurous, you can always use painter’s tape to create patterns (like stripes), but solid colors typically work best. Of course, painting will take time (and you might ruin an old pair of jeans), but this activity will help you connect with your home, and claim the space as your own.
2. Start with the bedroom. This is where you’ll be spending about 1/3 of all your time, so it’s important that you get the bedroom just right. If your budget is tight, then start off buying new bedding, and don’t skimp on the thread count. Few purchases are likely to have a greater impact on your overall comfort and quality of life than your bedding, so go ahead and give yourself latitude to purchase high-quality bedding at a higher cost.
And if you really want to splurge, then you can buy your dream bed. Just be sure not to clutter up your bedroom with extra tables and chairs. And no matter what you do, abide by this one rule: no televisions, no exceptions. Homeowners who keep a T.V. in their bedroom tend to sleep less soundly and for fewer hours each night than those who ban televisions and computers from the bedroom.
3. Fight the urge to match your furnishings. When you walk into a high-end home furnishings store, you will notice right away that retailers prefer to match many complementary items—tables, chairs, lamps, etc.—to a single, prominent “show piece” such as a sofa, bed, or desk. This is salesmanship, plain and simple.
If you buy the bed, then you’ll need the end tables, the lamps, the bureau… you get the idea. There is nothing wrong with matching pieces per se, but if you furnish entire rooms with identical items, then your house will begin to look and feel like the furniture section of a department store! Your top priorities when choosing individual pieces should be proportion, scale, and balance. Find pieces that fit your personal style, and don’t be afraid to mix it up.
For more information about your residential real estate needs in North Carolina, contact Prudential Carolinas today.
Check out our latest entry in our “We Make Great Neighbors” Facebook Photo Contest for a chance to win a $200 Lowe’s Home Improvement Gift Card. George and Sam just purchased a home in Raleigh with our Prudential York Simpson Underwood sales associate Chip Barker.
Relocation Services from the Prudential Carolinas Realty Family of Companies
If you’re planning to relocate to North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad region, the Triangle region, or the greater Charlotte region, then the Prudential Carolinas Realty family of companies are here to help you make a smooth transition. As the premier relocation organization in the Carolinas, we offer a full range of services, from corporate group move management to area orientation tours. So don’t sweat the small stuff — instead, let the experienced, professional relocation specialists at Prudential Carolinas, Prudential York Simpson Underwood and Prudential Yost & Little help you get packed, get going, and get settled.
History, Industry, Education, and More: Why Millions Are Choosing to Relocate to the Carolinas
The Carolinas have it all—stunning landscapes, temperate weather, bustling cities and suburbs, a robust economy, and hundreds of world class cultural and educational institutions.
The Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Triangle, also known as the “Research Triangle,” has long been recognized as one of America’s most desirable metropolitan regions. Home to numerous high-tech companies, research facilities, and universities, including IBM, Cisco Systems, Merck & Co., Wyeth, Duke University, N.C. State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Triangle is poised to become one of the country’s most dynamic and prosperous regions in the 21st Century.
Immediately to the west of the Triangle, the Piedmont Triad is an area of approximately 6,000 square miles surrounding the cities of Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point. Picturesque, peaceful, and affluent, the Triad is one of the fastest growing metro areas in the U.S., with a population of just over 1.6 million. Surrounded by scenic streams, mountain ridges, and rolling green hills, the Triad offers everything from small towns to thriving suburban and urban communities.
Not to be outdone, Charlotte is a bustling metropolis, a major U.S. financial center, and home to the Carolina Panthers, the Charlotte Bobcats, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Carowinds amusement park, and the United States National Whitewater Center, a world-class non-profit outdoor recreation center and athletic training facility.
Ready to make the Carolinas your new home? You can trust our relocation services team to make your move as stress-free as possible. The experts at Prudential Carolinas, Prudential York Simpson Underwood and Prudential Yost & Little can provide services and tools to ensure that relocating home buyers will find a home that meets their needs, and exceeds their expectations.
Contact us today to find out how we can help you with:
Our Pru Yost & Little 2nd Annual Family Movie Night is just 1 week away! Make sure you dont miss out on a great family event and the chance to give back to your local community by supporting the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC. Admission is just 1 canned food item per attendee. RSVP by may 14th to 336-748-2094 or MovieNight@PruYostandLittle.com
We have released 60-second market update videos on our website, www.PruCarolinas.com. The information, which will be updated each month, will provide a comprehensive and consumer friendly summary of real estate market data for the markets that we serve in North Carolina.
The videos will focus on infographics, images and professional narration to best present current market information to interested consumers.
“We are excited about providing this great new source of current market information for prospective home buyers and sellers,” said Tommy Camp, President & CEO. “Pru Carolinas, Pru YSU, Pru Yost & Little and our sales associates are committed to exceeding expectations for exemplary service in everything we do, and this is one more way we fulfill that commitment to our clients.”
View the local market videos at:
We have begun our 10 day food collection blitz known as ‘10 Days in May’! All sales associates and staff members have been provided grocery bags to be filled with non-perishable food items and returned to their offices for delivery to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC, Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, the Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC and PORCH.
The 10 Days in May event is part of the Pru Carolinas family of companies food bank initiative, which consists of food drives in all 14 offices and a movie night in Winston-Salem and Greensboro. In 2012, our family of companies donated 171,315 pounds of food to their local food banks—enough to provide about 142,162 meals for those who are food insecure throughout the food bank service areas.
“Our food collection initiatives are always times that our company looks forward to,” said Tommy Camp, President & CEO. “The comradery built within our company through the participation of working together, all while benefiting our local food bank organizations, is a way for our sales associates and staff to give back to our communities.”
