Selling Your Home Soon?

If so, you have undoubtedly spent sleepless nights wondering how to maximize the sale price of your home. Did I choose the right agent? Is this the best time of year to sell? Should I make minor improvements before I sell? These are all excellent and necessary questions to ask before putting your home on the market. There is also a technique often underutilized that can net big returns at closing: home staging.

What Is Home Staging?

Staging a home is essentially preparing your home to appeal to the highest number of buyers. This can be achieved through various means – from the simple removal of clutter, photos, and excess furniture up to contracting a staging company that will remove all of your belongings and replace with professionally chosen furniture and décor as props that will create a highly desirable setting for potential buyers to view your home, both in person and via online photos (where 90% of homebuyers start a search).

How Much Does It Cost?

Average costs for professional staging are approximately $1800, although the range is anywhere from $1000 to over $6000. Before the sticker shock sets in, know that homes that have been staged spend about 80% less time on the market than their unstaged competition and often receive multiple offers.

Why Have Your Home Staged?

• Even well-decorated houses can benefit from professional staging. Many buyers get fixated on the “stuff” that is inside a house instead of the actual house and its features. Home staging attempts to refocus buyers on the features of the home instead of just the contents.
• Today’s home buyers are much more educated than those of the past. At any given time you can find multiple home remodeling shows on television that instruct consumers on remodeling techniques, décor ideas, and quality of construction to expect. They are not willing to look past minor flaws that might stand out quite a bit if a home is not staged.
• Home staging typically results in a sale price that is 7-10% higher than those homes that are not staged. The investment does pay off.
• A vacant house will actually appear bigger with furniture.

Home Staging Too Expensive?

Try these DIY tips to maximize your sale price even if home staging is not in your budget:

1. Try a fresh coat of neutral paint.
2. Clean, clean, clean AND de-clutter.
3. Depersonalize the space by removing photos and mementos.
4. If it’s broken-fix it! Small fixes of broken handles, drawers, etc. can go a long way.
5. Light it up! Open blinds, curtains, and turn on all lights for showings.
6. Cheap fixes such as a new shower curtain or updated kitchen cabinet hardware can make a big difference.

We Can Help!

Frog Hauling can help the process of staging a home much easier. By having one of our roll-off containers delivered to your home, you instantly have access to a disposal site for all of the clutter, old furniture, and all things unwanted in your home. We will take care of disposing of all of it properly.

The result will be a much cleaner, clutter-free home that will either be ready for the updates you will make on your own or clear the way for a professional staging company to do their thing. Either way, you can expect a higher sale price as a result.

Contact us at (614) 258-3764. Together we can make your home the most desirable home on the block!

As we head into February and the weather outside is still frightful, we are all just about tired of winter. We have completely exhausted all of the local restaurants and watering holes, maxed out our credit cards at Target, and witnessed almost every sporting event that has aired in the past two months. It’s time to do something productive. Why not take one of these cold weekends ahead and do something that will actually add value to your home AND give you a sense of accomplishment rather than gluttony? Try out some of these easy weekend DIY projects that can do just that.

1. New sink/faucet = fresh clean start:

For around $500 and a few hours you can easily replace a dirty, scratched kitchen sink and faucet and replace with a bright, fresh, clean new update. Kitchens and bathrooms ultimately sell houses, so if you intend to sell at some point in the future, chances are you are going to get most of this money back out. Added bonus, purchase an energy efficient faucet to save money on your water bill as well.

2. Splash your kitchen with style:

For a few hundred dollars and with a little patience you can add a new backsplash to your kitchen to make a big statement. Those that are super challenged in the home improvement department can even make it even easier by using peel and stick tiles. This is a great way to bump up the style in your kitchen with just a small investment.

3. Throw some color on the walls:

A gallon of paint is around $30 but the benefit pays far more than that. It is amazing what a transformation a room can take on with just a fresh color on the walls. Cover those crayon stains or scratches and give your room new life. A few hours and you will be amazed at what you will see.

4. Organize, organize, organize:

There are few households (if any) in the world that couldn’t use a little organization and de-cluttering. We are so overwhelmed by our own stuff that we can’t even hear ourselves think sometimes. With just a few hundred dollars in organization supplies like shelving and storage bins, we can take our homes from cluttered chaos to Zen in just a weekend.

5. Give yourself a new throne:

Toilets are gross. We change our toothbrushes every few months. Why not change our toilets (where things a lot worse than brushing our teeth take place) at least every few years or so? Because toilets fit over existing plumbing fairly easily, this is a relatively quick and easy project that will only cost about $200 or so. You can upgrade to a more energy efficient version too.

Don’t just sit around again this weekend. Go to your local home improvement store, get some supplies, and get to work. Once you finish your projects you are going to have a lot of garbage to get rid of. That’s where we come in. Frog Hauling will deliver a mini dumpster right to your driveway so you can toss it all away with ease. You tell us when to pick it up and you can consider the project done. With your elbow grease and our easy garbage removal services, together we will have your home looking fresh and new by spring! Here’s to hoping that is sooner rather than later.

Are Your Children Breathing Clean Air?

Many parents are unaware of the poor air quality that their children may be exposed to as they run outside to play. Families that live close to freeways, power plants, railways, and industrial sites are often at a higher risk of developing breathing complications such as asthma. Completely eliminating pollutants, other potential toxins, and geographical barriers are impossible, as is keeping our children cooped up inside at all times. However, we can take steps to do our part to improve the air quality around us.

Change The Way Your Family Lives

One simple step that can ultimately improve the air quality around your home is eliminating excess trash and debris from your home and surrounding the property. This can be accomplished efficiently and cost effectively with a mini dumpster rental from Columbus, Ohio-based Frog Hauling. A compact dumpster can be delivered to your home, filled by you, thus eliminating potentially harmful trash and debris, and then picked up at a time convenient for you. Frog Hauling streamlines the junk removal process and eliminates a lot of the headache of such a process for you. What happens from there is an environmentally responsible disposal of your trash and unwanted junk. What is left for you is a cleaner home and yard and, therefore, improved air quality as well. Feel more confident in allowing your kids to run outside to play knowing that potentially harmful garbage is gone!

Tackling a painting project in your home can be exciting for some and downright dreadful for others. While many people find painting to be relaxing and a great way to add personality and style to a home, others find the tedious task boring and laborious. Regardless of which end of the spectrum you may be on, most will agree that one of the biggest problems with home painting is what to do with the leftover paint. Many people will just leave it in a basement or garage for years to come simply because they do not know how to properly dispose of it. Even worse, others will toss a can of used paint in the garbage and not worry about the harmful effects to the environment.

Here are some helpful tips to think about before disposing old paint:

Keep what you can

Latex paint can last up to 10 years if sealed correctly. You never know when you might need some of that kitchen paint to touch up a crayon mishap from one of your kids. The safest way to seal your used paint can is to place a layer of plastic wrap in between the can and the lid and then store upside down. By doing so, the paint itself will create an airtight seal. Also, do not bang on the lid with a hammer in an attempt to seal the can-this only damages the sealing rim and allows air entry.

Store the Product Safely

Keep the product in its original container with the label intact and store the product out of reach of children, pets, heat, and away from the house, if possible. Another helpful hint is to create a paint color/product spreadsheet to be used for future reference. Many homes have very similar colors throughout, so it is helpful to have a spreadsheet that lets you know which colors/products you used in which rooms. You may not remember if your bathroom was Stone Beige or Canyon Tan. Keeping records will help to eliminate any confusion and make it easy if you ever need to purchase more of a color in the future.

Donate the Paint

If you have no use for the paint, maybe ask a friend or family member if they could use any. If not, charities such as Habitat For Humanity ReStore will accept unwanted latex paint in some cases. Why not put your unwanted paint to good use for someone else?

Dry the Can of Paint Out

Safely dry out unwanted paint. You MUST dry out used paint before it can be disposed of. Small amounts can often be dried up just by sitting the can out in the sun for a while. Larger amounts may require kitty litter to speed up the process. Furthermore, home improvement stores now sell paint hardeners at a very reasonable cost that make the job much easier.

Take It to the Trash

Once paint is completely and thoroughly dried out, must communities will then allow the cans to be left curbside with your trash, provided the lid is removed so the trash removal service can verify it is dry. Check with your local trash removal company or city hall to verify your community’s procedures.

Happy painting!

Green Superheroes Of Waste UNITE!

Ninja Turtles, Battle Toads, Frog Hauling… Yeah, we’re all tight, bro. Waste is bad, “ummkay”. But without waste we wouldn’t have some of the best comic book characters ever, IMHO. Take a look at these comic book characters who came alive from the waste of the world.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael. Named after four Renaissance artists and trained in the art of ninjitsu by their sensei mutant rat, Master Splinter, these four reptiles-turned-humanoid martial artists evolved out of nuclear waste that washed into the storm sewers of New York City. They battle petty criminals, evil overlords, alien invaders as well as evil mutated beasts born from the same toxic ooze. First appearing in comic book form, they later expanded into a cartoon series, films, video games toys and other merchandise. During the peak of franchise’s popularity in the late 1980s through the early 1990s, the franchise gained considerable worldwide success and fame.

Battletoads

The Battletoads: Rash, Zitz, and Pimple were originally ordinary teenage roommates Dave, George and Morgan who worked as computer technicians for game programmer, Silas Volkmire. The group was testing his latest invention – a sort of virtual reality gaming system which allows players to fully enter the Gamescape through a unique, computer-generated portal. Once inside, they would transform into anthropomorphic toads to battle programmed rivals such as Psyko Pigs, an army of rats and their Dark Queen, all created by Silas. The trio becomes physically mutated and trapped in the gaming system by Volkmire and the Dark Queen to find out the Dark Queen is very real and the gaming system merely serves as a portal between Earth and the Dark Queen’s world and minions, who wish to be rid of the Battletoads and break through the portal to dominate Earth forever.

The Battletoads generated 4 video games and an arcade. Their story was also adapted for an animated pilot with the back story of Battletoads also being published in a Nintendo Power comic.

Toxic Avenger

Once a weakling janitor, Melvin Ferd III was always getting bullied by a particular group of customers at the Tromaville Health Club in New Jersey. As the days go on, the harassment intensifies to a climax of poor Melvin being chased around the club and out of a second floor window from which he falls into a drum of toxic waste. Despite his best efforts to wash it off, it transforms and disfigures him, though resulting in developing superhuman size and strength along with a keen instinct for tracking down evildoers! Toxie vanquishes thugs, drug dealing gangs, pimps and goons, corrupt politicians and eventually leads a gang of mutated superheroes to destroying a group of polluting aliens. All this while making time to help the elderly across the street! The Toxic Avenger has spawned 4 feature films, a series of comic books, an animated spin-off, and even a musical!

Frog Hauling

Frog Hauling is the largest mini roll-off dumpster service in the Columbus Metro area. We provide an exceptional trash hauling and junk removal delivery service and accurately sized containers to residential and commercial customers. If you are a builder, remodeler, or “do-it-yourself” homeowner, our construction dumpster rental service will meet your needs. We have dumpsters for rent in sizes that are perfect for small, medium and even large projects. We are fervent advocates of green trash hauling. Our goal is to recycle as much as we can of the junk we remove and trash that we haul. When possible we recycle the junk that we remove (metals, wood, plastic, tires, cardboard, Eco items, etc.). If items are salvageable, we take them to an appropriate charity drop off location.