Thursday, February 12, 2015

Selling your home? Remodel the bathroom! English Conversation

English Conversation lesson about Real Estate and renovations.

As you might know, I used to be a real estate agent here in Israel, before the ignominious exit from Lebanon dropped the bottom out of the real estate market in the country for a few months. I made the exit from the real estate market at that time as well, and took up teaching English.  But it is difficult to say goodbye forever to the excitement of real estate.  So here is an article to help you sell your home!

Read this article and watch the video and discuss it with your English teacher http://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-tips-for-saving-money-on-your-home-125820548.html

Key Terms
unfathomable 
 to get the most value out of a home
folklore into fact
conventional wisdom 
crunched an enormous amount of data
 remodel
functionality
lowest returns on investment
 reach their peak 
bang for your buck
sharp spike 
agent contacts
slips on an ivy-green jacket
price-pointsmak
psychological pricing
the thousands digit 

Questions
According to the article, what is the conventional wisdom if you are going to re model your home? 
According to the data, which remodel brings in more value to the home? 
Which would you rather do? 
Do you like updated kitchens or bathrooms?
When is the best time according to conventional wisdom to sell your home? 
According to Zillow data, what is the "sweet spot?" 
Why would selling in March be better? 
How do you figure out the selling price of your home? 
What does Zillow's data say about this? 
Do you make a difference between $4.99 and $5.00? 
What are price of home like in your country? 
Are housing prices too high?  Why or why not? 
Can people really afford to move nowadays? 



Lesson Plan by Rachael Alice Orbach - Professional English Teacher 

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