About Talia

My Background

I come to the real estate profession with an extensive background in sales, advertising, art and marketing. This experience enables me to effectively market your home for sale using my resources and understanding of marketing principles learned in my previous profession. If you're listing your home for sale, take advantage of my expertise and sell your home in a quick, effective way.

I don't just work with sellers though. I would love to help you find your new home as well. Having lived in the Albuquerque area for over a decade, I am highly familiar with the area and can help you find a home that will meet your needs.

Through the many years I've lived in the Albuquerque area, I've come to love it and all Albuquerque and New Mexico have to offer. Having graduated from the University of New Mexico, I've developed deep roots in Albuquerque and remain in touch with the happenings of the city.

If you're looking for a home, who better to help you than someone who has a love for Albuquerque, and has lived and experienced other places and ways of living. Originally from New York City, I come to New Mexico from a vastly different lifestyle from the one found in Albuquerque. I went from the crowded city streets of New York to living on three acres in theTijeras, just outside of Albuquerque. I've come to love and understand the more rural way of life. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a City Girl at heart and often walk around Downtown Albuquerque taking in my dose of concrete and steel. But I love the tranquility and peace of the mountains as well.

If you're thinking of retiring to Albuquerque or are planning to relocate, this in-depth knowledge of the Albuquerque area will help you figure out the best place for your new home.

In the Press:

I write a bi-weekly article for the Westside and Rio Rancho editions of the Albuquerque Journal. Here are some samples of those articles.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Staging Can Help Sell Your House

Albuquerque Journal--By Talia Freedman

       Q: I'm getting ready to sell my house in a few months and I'm not sure how to get ready. I've lived here for a long time and I have a ton of stuff and not a lot of storage space. What should I do?

       A: Staging is an important part of selling a house, especially in a market with a lot of competition. Nothing shows better than a home that is well staged and, if people are living in it, has all of their belongings neatly and easily stored. But before you can stage your house, you need to “de-clutter” it. For some of us, this is a matter of clearing off the refrigerator and removing personal photos. For others it's a much bigger project and involves either getting rid of a lot of stuff or somehow getting it out of the house.
       If you're really struggling with the process, you might consider hiring a professional organizer. They can be very helpful in getting you to actually go through your things. If you're going to try it on your own first, start going through your belongings room by room and either throw away, give away or store anything you don't need for the upcoming season. If you have the room, you can put some things in the garage in light-colored storage containers. They look nice and if they fit along the walls, they won't interfere with parking your car. This is extremely important. The garage has to be clean and must fit the correct number of cars in it. Hazel Thornton of Organized for Life, a professional organizing and staging company says, “This is one case where I suggest renting a storage unit, if necessary.”
       Once you've cleared out as much stuff as you can, make sure your closets, drawers and cabinets have the right shelves and fixtures to make them highly organized and neat. It's worth spending a little bit of money making sure your closets have enough shelves and racks to look organized and roomy.
       After that, it's time to move on to staging. Custom paint colors, moving some of your furniture around and an extremely deep cleaning go a long way in making a house show well. But you have to know what to do with your furniture to show off the best features of your house. Sometimes your Realtor can help you with this, but it's always best to hire the right person for any job.
       All of this preparation is so prospective buyers will have a sense of their stuff fitting easily in your house. If your closets, drawers and cabinets are packed to the point of exploding, buyers will feel there is not enough space. They'll start worrying about storage space rather than how they feel about your house. You want them to stay in an emotional space while they're looking at your house. If they fall in love with it, they'll find solutions to any minor issues they find. If you force them to think analytically, you run the risk of losing them due to a lack of storage space. Most people make decisions about any purchase from an emotional standpoint and then find support for the decision from a more rational perspective. So make sure your house looks clean, orderly, fashionable, up-to-date and most importantly, that all of the stuff you have fits in it well. If you do that, buyers will imagine themselves in the house rather than seeing all of the issues with trying to live there.

More Things in the Press:

"Beating Those Holiday Blues" (Excerpts from an article by By Kathryn Holzka in the Albuquerque Journal on October 25, 2009)

             Homeowners trying to sell their homes in the upcoming holiday season, take heart.
             While it's a traditional time for a slowdown in sales, there are still good prospects for owners willing to take an active role in marketing their homes.
             The success formula? Work in conjunction with your real estate broker by telling everybody you know — from next door neighbors to fellow shoppers in the supermarket — that your home is for sale. And declutter, depersonalize and "stage" your home to present its best features to prospective buyers.
Highlight potential
             Talia Freedman of Signature Southwest Properties in Albuquerque agreed. "I tell my clients that regardless of the time of year, the best house still sells when it is priced appropriately and presented really well to show off its most interesting facets," she said.
             The right pricing and location are still the big motivators, she said, "but the visual impact your home makes is also a key factor in a successful sale."
Consider staging
             Freedman said her best advice to sellers is to view their homes, both inside and out, as objectively as possible and to pay attention to the entire experience the buyer will have when seeing the home for the first time.
             Staging a home for sale doesn't have to be pricey. Often it can cost well under $500.