The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page R010

10 RESIDENCES PalmBeachPost.comfloridahome SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2014 Two of the top-rated remodeling projects ASK the IBIS GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB EXPERT Eric Telchin, The Main Group, LLC 1 ASK the SINGER ISLAND EXPERT Dermot O'Brien, Islands Realty What's not to love? Islands Realty Selling your home is a team effort Question: Why do you like Singer Island? Answer: Named after Palm Beach developer Paris Singer a son of Isaac Singer, the Singer Sewing Machine magnate Singer Island has parks, marinas and bike paths, as well as 47 miles of sparkling white-sand beaches (considered one of the top-five beaches in Palm Beach County). I love Singer Island's laid-back atmosphere, and the beach is simply outstanding! One of the nicest treats you can give yourself is to park for free at Ocean Reef Park in the center of the island, then walk north along the beach all the way to Mac Arthur State Park and back again. It will take a few hours, but this experience will surely change the quality of your day. Singer Island is actually a peninsula, not an island. Before the Lake WorthPalm Beach Inlet was created, it was connected to the island of Palm Beach to the south.

Most of it is in the city of Riviera Beach, but the town of Palm One of the nicest treats you can give yourself is to walk north along the beach to MacArthur State Park. Beach Shores occupies its southern tip. Its latitude is 26.784 and its longitude is 80.037 W. The easternmost point of Florida is located there, in Palm Beach Shores. Singer Island's location is unmatched.

It is 3 miles from North Palm Beach, 5.4 miles from West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens, and only 10.6 miles from Jupiter. It takes about 15 minutes to drive to the Palm Beach International Airport, the island of Palm Beach, or downtown West Palm Beach. Talk about location, location, location! Question: As a seller, what can I do to help my Realtor sell my home? Answer: The sale of a home should very much be a team effort between the seller and Realtor. While your agent is working hard to market the property, see what you can do to make your home show as well as possible. Start by asking your Realtor for suggestions.

Most agents will tell you the most effective (and cheapest) thing one can do is de-clutter and depersonalize the space as much as possible. But I like to give my sellers an extra edge. I have a mantra If you couldn't find it in a furniture or accessories store, hide it or get rid of it. The goal is to make it appear that no one is living in the home, and it's waiting for buyers to occupy it. The folded-up newspaper placed on the breakfast table? A reminder that someone was sitting at that breakfast table hours ago reading the paper.

You want the buyer to feel that they are walking into their home, not someone else's. Depersonalize your space as much as possible so there is room for the buyers to see themselves there. My experience has shown that sellers will often ask for feedback from showings. But it's the astute seller that uses the feedback to make their home show better in the future. For example, if a buyer is underwhelmed by the view, can anything be done to improve that? Obviously, a seller can't move the house to a different lot, but they can add colorful flowers and gorgeous landscaping to create a more appealing ambience.

Ask your Realtor what feedback they're hearing about potential negatives and ask their input as to how you can work together to have your home show as well as possible. Spring and early summer are the most active seasons for starting home remodeling projects. Perhaps those long winter months produced ideas for changes that would enhance the family's lifestyle, and now is the time to implement those plans. The two top remodeling projects during the past year were improvements to the bathrooms and kitchen. Bathrooms were the most common type of remodeling job, according to the National Association of Home Builders' Remodeling Market Index.

Bathroom remodeling was cited as the most common job by 72 percent of remodelers, followed by kitchen remodeling at 70 percent. Bathroom and kitchen remodeling had been jockeying for the top spot in terms of popularity over the past few years. But since 2009, bathroom remodeling has remained the most popular job, according to the NAHB. Other currently popular projects are window and door replacements, whole house remodeling and room additions. Other popular remodeling projects include adding or repairing decks, new siding and basement finishing.

All-cash home purchases still popular RealtyTrac, a source for housing data, released its first quarter of Jim Woodard Open House 2014 Institutional Investor Cash Sales Report. It shows the share of all-cash sales reached a new high in the first quarter, even as the share of institutional investor purchases dropped to the lowest level since the first quarter of 2012. The report shows 42.7 percent of all U.S. residential property sales in the first quarter were all-cash purchases, up from 37.8 percent in the previous quarter and up from 19.1 percent in the first quarter of 2013 to the highest level since RealtyTrac began tracking all-cash purchases in the first quarter of 2011. Creators.com Bathroom remodeling was cited as the most common job by 72 percent of remodelers, followed by kitchen remodeling at 70 percent.

Contact Eric at (561) 301-0249 or visit theteichingroup.com Call (561) 317-1177, or e-mail infoislandsrealty. coin You can also visit www.islandsrealty.com or www.singerislandflorida.com. Dermot O'Brien of Islands Realty is the recipient of the 2014 Florida International Property Award. Eric broker of The Telchin Group LLC, works with buyers and sellers in Ibis Golf and Country Club, where he is the leading REALTOR..