Blog
Don’t Think of Your Home as an Investment…What?
Isn’t that sacrilegious or something? Despite evidence to the contrary, new homebuyers continue to believe that buying a home is the same type of investment as stocks, bonds, CDs and their 401K. If the housing boom taught us anything, it…
Making a Move to a New Home with Kids
Amidst the excitement of moving to a new home is a lot of stress for families with younger children. Often they don’t understand what is happening. That can make them feel powerless and afraid. Here are some ideas for turning…
Cleaning to Sell
When getting your home ready to sell, spending some elbow grease cleaning can save you some money and make your home more attractive to buyers. Here are a few of the items to try. Cleaning Painted Walls When cleaning painted…
When to DIY and When to Hire a Contractor
Whether you’re preparing your home to sell, or you’ve just moved into your home and want to tackle some of the changes you have in mind to make it your own … knowing which items to do your self and…
Should You Buy a Second Home?
Having a second home in a favorite vacations spot can be a great investment or an expensive luxury. A beach cottage or mountain retreat is enticing while both interest rates and home prices are low. How do you decide if…
Marketing Your Home Out-of-Town, Out-of-State, Out-of-Country
In a tough sellers’ market, homeowners looking for the best possible sale sometimes consider marketing to out-of-town, out-of-state and even out-of-country buyers. So, how do you attract buyers from out of your area? Relocation Services Statistically, homes most often sell…
Relocating Made Simple
Okay, there’s really not a simple way to relocate … after all, you’re uprooting yourself, moving away from friends or family or both, leaving your comfort zone and launching out into the world. But, there are some things you can…
How to Sell for Full Price
Often, homeowners try to “test the market” with a higher than fair-market price when first listing their home. That can be a poor marketing strategy. When your agent tries to talk you out of it: Listen! Setting “too high a…
Backyard July 4th Celebration!
Celebrate your new home with a backyard barbecue! Nothing speaks independence like owning your own home. If you’ve rented for most of your adult life, the freedom to paint walls, barbecue on the patio or hang party lights in trees…
What Homeownership Can Mean for You
When you’ve never owned your home, your relationship to it is less personal. Let’s face it, when something goes wrong in your rented apartment, you call the landlord or manager to fix it. You don’t worry about insurance against natural…
Disappointing Appraisal?
You’ve found the perfect home at the perfect price and made an offer that the sellers accepted. But, the appraisal came back lower than your offer. BUMMER! What do you do now? Any home financed through a bank or mortgage…
Keeping the Old House when Buying the New
The current housing market, while picking up in most areas, has one basic problem: low supply. With many buyers choosing to keep their old home when they purchase a new home, fewer homes are on the market, driving up demand.…
Can My Real Estate Agent Offer to Buy My Home If There are No Off
The short answer is “yes,” but know what you’re signing up for. In a seller’s market it seems like most homes should sell — given enough time and exposure on the market. But there are some situations where a home…
Why More Americans Do Not Own Homes
Even while home prices are on the rise—fueled by the low supply, low mortgage rates and investor buying—the number of Americans that own homes, as a percentage of the population, is decreasing. The reasons vary, since many current renters are…
Do I Want to Buy with Cash?
According to Market Watch, 43% of homebuyers in 2014 so far have purchased with all cash. While some analysts believe that the cash-buying frenzy will not last, there is always more room for negotiation when the buyer brings cash to…
Living Small
No matter what our background, we all have an ideal dream home size in mind. When it comes down to the actual living in it, however, can smaller be better? If your dream is for an urban dwelling with access…
Choosing Paint by Light Direction
Light exposure in your room plays a large part in the visual drama of your paint colors. In rooms with multi-directional sun exposure—either opposing (east/west or north/south) or perpendicular (north/west, north/east, south/west, south/east)—the play of light over your walls, reflecting…
Choosing Paint by Light Direction
Light exposure in your room plays a large part in the visual drama of your paint colors. In rooms with multi-directional sun exposure—either opposing (east/west or north/south) or perpendicular (north/west, north/east, south/west, south/east)—the play of light over your walls, reflecting…