Real Estate News

 
  • A brick house
    July 12, 2017

    How Many of These 7 Real Estate Facts Did You Already Know?

    Even if you consider yourself the most research-savvy digital consumer of all time, you may not know everything you need to make the wisest decisions when negotiating a real estate transaction.
  • 8 low hassle hacks
    July 11, 2017

    8 Low-Hassle Hacks for a Super-Clean Home

    8 low-hassle hacks for a super-clean home
  • organizing sports equipments
    July 11, 2017

    The #1 Secret Weapon to Organize Just About Anything

    Condense Your Office Space Lara Edge, who has six pegboards in her tiny Athens, Ohio, home, said it all started when she was trying to find a way to get more floor space in her tiny office so it could do double duty as her yoga space, too.
  • creeping plants on a front door
    July 11, 2017

    You Could Be Wrecking Your Home — And Not Know It (Yet)

    You haven’t felt like this since you were a teenager. You have a crush on your new house. (You’re officially a home buyer — wait — owner!) It’s soooooo great. You love its quirks. It’s your very first home, and you want to do everything right.
  • sunset scenery
    July 11, 2017

    9 Things Buyers Regret Overlooking in a Home: Will You Miss Them, Too?

    If you want to avoid being one of these disillusioned buyers, make sure to check out these oft-ignored yet critical features in a home and the surrounding neighborhood.
  • An open kitchen with the words - No thanks
    July 11, 2017

    I Hate the Open-Plan Kitchen—and Amazingly, I'm No Longer the Only One

    If you're considering closing off your cooking space or shopping for a house that features a closed kitchen, consider working with a builder or Realtor who has an eye for creative elements that make separate spaces feel airy
  • image of baby boomers and millennials
    July 10, 2017

    Boomers, Millennials, and the McMansions No One Wants

    Why boomers struggle to sell All of these factors mean that while it's a seller's market in many areas, plenty of boomers are having trouble selling their homes, says Chris Porter, chief demographer and researcher for John Burns Real Estate Consulting.
  • home inspector on a roof
    July 10, 2017

    6 Shocking Things Your Home Inspector Won't Check

    Here's what home inspectors conducting a basic search aren't eyeballing, and what you can do if you want to make sure your prospective new home checks out on all counts.
  • home improvement project
    July 10, 2017

    7 Home Improvements That Could Turn Your Neighbors Against You

    There are a few home improvement projects that, while certainly well-intentioned, are likely to make your neighbors cringe.
  • home repair tools with a house sitting on coins
    July 10, 2017

    Just Bought a New Home? Prepare to Shell Out an Extra $10K

    According to a study from the National Association of Home Builders, in the first year after buying a new home, homeowners cough up a bunch more money on furniture, appliances, and home repairs.
  • Family of 3 infront of a house
    April 11, 2017

    3 Reasons Why Winter is a Better Time to Buy a Smart Home

    Don’t give up on buying a home as winter nears. In fact, December through February may be better for buyers than the busy season in spring and summer.
  • downpayment check
    April 04, 2017

    Solving the Down Payment Problem

    The butterfly effect is a metaphor that originated in meteorology. The notion is that the course taken by a hurricane could be set by a minor perturbation – like a butterfly flapping its wings – thousands of miles away weeks earlier.
  • patio-designs-budget-standard
    April 04, 2017

    5 Tricks to Rejuvenate a Run-Down Patio on a Budget

    Whether you love to entertain friends or bask in the sun with a cocktail and a novel, here are five easy ways to inject new life into your little corner of nature.
  • Outdoor setting with flowers and chairs
    April 04, 2017

    4 Genius Yard Upgrades Even a Klutz Can Crush

    You don’t need to be the host of an extreme home makeover show to build an amazing backyard. In fact, the transformative projects below are easy enough for even the klutziest home improvement newbie to complete.
  • Tax and deductions
    April 04, 2017

    Deductions Aren’t the Only Way to Save on Real Estate Taxes

    That’s no surprise. Roughly 9 out of 10 home buyers borrow money to buy a home, meaning they likely pay some form of mortgage interest. And property taxes are a near-universal expense for homeowners. Both deductions are crucial to making homeownership possible for the average buyer.
  • millennials-buying-homes-less-than-20-down-story-570x225
    April 04, 2017

    How Millennials Are Buying Houses With Less Than 20% Down

    If you pay attention to what’s written and said about people in their 20s and early 30s — the “millennial” generation — you’ll find two common themes
  • water sprinkler and flowers
    April 04, 2017

    Check Yourself: Home Maintenance Tasks You Need to Tackle in April

    Ah spring! It took you long enough to get here, but we’re happy to see you. In fact, we’re so grateful for the slightest hint of warmer weather that we’re ready to rush outside, full of fresh energy, and take on all of those essential springtime maintenance tasks.
  • batman watching over the city
    April 04, 2017

    How REALTORS® Are Watching Out for You and Future Homeowners

    Too often, legislators target homeowners when seeking to fund federal programs. Even recently, some tried to put the financial burden of highway and transportation programs on the backs of homeowner.
  • real estate license id
    April 04, 2017

    Using "REALTOR®": What's in a name?

    You use it every day, but do you fully appreciate what the REALTOR® membership mark signifies? From its earliest use, “REALTOR®” has been seen as a way to distinguish ethical practitioners.
  • A couple signing a home contract
    April 04, 2017

    7 Reasons to Work With a REALTOR®

    REALTORS® aren’t just agents. They’re professional members of the National Association of REALTORS® and subscribe to its strict code of ethics. This is the REALTOR® difference for home buyers.
  • realtor with a for sale sign
    April 04, 2017

    8 Things Realtors® Do to Earn Their Keep

    If you’re wondering what agents do to earn their paycheck, we’ve compiled a list of things they do when you’re not watching (or should be doing—if they’re not, maybe you need a different agent!)
  • Why Use A Realtor Image
    April 04, 2017

    Why Use a Realtor®? 6 Important Reasons

    Real estate is a big deal. For most Americans, a home is the most expensive purchase they’ll make in their lifetime. It’s a serious transaction with significant financial and emotional ramifications for the parties involved, and having proper representation is critical.
  • New Price sign
    March 22, 2017

    How To Price a House To Sell Like Hotcakes

    Putting a price tag on a home you’re trying to sell is a tricky thing. For one, it’s your home, crammed full of memories, hopes, and dreams—and all that stuff can cloud your thinking and lead you toward the wrong price.
  • a lady and 2 guys delibrating
    March 22, 2017

    How To Find the Right Realtor To Sell Your Home

    Once you’ve decided to sell your home, you need a trusted guide by your side: a Realtor, of course! Here we’ll teach you how to find an essential partner in pulling off this most important of all transactions.
  • people doing repairs on their house
    March 22, 2017

    How To Prepare Your Home For Sale

    If you’re looking to sell your home during prime house-shopping season this spring, you’d better get cracking now. After all, it’s not as easy as slapping an ad on Craigslist
  • house icon over blue background
    March 22, 2017

    Here's a Better Way to Calculate the True Rent vs. Buy Costs

    By popular demand, I’m back to take a deeper dive into the math to illustrate—clearly and simply—how owning a home produces wealth over time.
  • Handshake over negogiated home
    March 22, 2017

    Negotiate Your Best House Buy

    Buying a home can be emotional, but negotiating the price shouldn’t be. The key to saving money when purchasing a home is sticking to a plan during the turbulence of high-stakes negotiations.
  • Reduced price sign
    March 22, 2017

    6 Reasons to Reduce Your Home Price

    Home not selling? That could happen for a number of reasons you can’t control, like a unique home layout or having one of the few homes in the neighborhood without a garage. There is one factor you can control: your home price.
  • A contractor working in an apartment basement
    March 22, 2017

    5 Secrets Your Contractor Doesn’t Want You to Know

    You’ve asked friends to recommend great contractors, picked your favorite, checked references — and maybe even conducted an online background check on his business. So you know you’ve found a top-notch guy for your home improvement project.
  • A man refinishing wood floors
    March 22, 2017

    Should You Refinish Hardwood Floors Yourself?

    Just because you can rent a sander doesn’t mean you should. Even if your friends did dub you “Jackie-Of-All-Trades” after that amazing bathroom re-do last spring, you still might not have the stuff it takes to refinish your floors.
  • A dog resting on airducts
    March 22, 2017

    Do You Really Need to Clean Your Air Ducts?

    Do you really need to pay good money to have your air ducts cleaned? The short answer is “probably not.” But before you call up dad to chant “I told you so,” it’s important to understand why you probably don’t need to do it
  • luxurious and well designed stairs in a home
    March 22, 2017

    How Much It Costs to Keep Up with the Joneses

    Jealous of your neighbors’ new master bath? Who wouldn’t be? Actually, ... — resisting the urge to keep up with the Joneses makes you the smarter neighbor.
  • wooden green house on green background
    March 21, 2017

    What's the House Size? No One Is Really Sure

    Just how large a house really is may depend on whom you ask, The Wall Street Journal reports. That’s because appraisers, developers, builders, real estate professionals, tax assessors, and architects all measure spaces differently.
  • A family moving into their first home with boxes
    March 21, 2017

    Help First-Time Sellers Through the Sale

    First-time sellers who have never contended with buyer demands may not initially understand how neutralizing their home or adding small upgrades can make their property more competitive on the market.
  • A dog, bottle of apple cider and air freshner
    March 21, 2017

    3 Sources of Odors That Offend Buyers

    Your sellers may have "nose blindness." The term refers to the process of adapting to the smells around you and becoming so desensitized to them that you learn to ignore them or become less sensitive to them
  • A group of well dressed individuals
    March 21, 2017

    What to Do Next After Losing a Listing

    When you lose a listing, do you ever see the seller again? Many real estate professionals quickly move on after the business is lost, forgetting all about the former client they tried to help. Do you know what that tells the seller?
  • Tiny house with a sunset backgroup
    March 21, 2017

    Why Can’t I Get a Tiny Home?

    Small homes do exist, but not many really small ones. Most lenders, in fact, will only finance homes that are no smaller than 40 to 80 percent of the size of a comparable, nearby home.
  • a big house surrounded by smaller blue colored house icons of same size
    March 21, 2017

    What Everyone Should Know About Equal Opportunity Housing

    The sale and purchase of a home is one of the most significant events that any person will experience in his or her lifetime. It is more than the simple purchase of housing, for it includes the hopes, dreams, aspirations, and economic destiny of those involved
  • new homeowners moving boxes in
    March 21, 2017

    Generation X Re-enters the Housing Market

    The number of Generation X home buyers is increasing thanks to an improving economy, multiple years of strong job growth and a notable increase in home values.
  • A house and some cash on a sclae
    March 20, 2017

    How to Buy a Home While Selling One

    ​Buying a home is difficult, but try selling your home and buying another at the same time. On a level of difficulty, this is the gymnastic balance beam of homeownership.
  • Equal Housing Opportunity Sticker Large
    March 20, 2017

    LGBT Housing Discrimination: How to Spot It and What to Do

    Helping LGBT people combat housing discrimination doesn’t make you immune from it.
  • Credit Counseling - lady counseling a man
    March 20, 2017

    The Benefits of Credit Counseling for Homebuyers

    Buying a home is a complicated process. It’s usually the biggest financial transaction of a person’s life, and often involves taking out a mortgage to pay for the new digs.
  • A house for auctioning
    March 20, 2017

    How to Bounce Back After Foreclosure

    Philip and Denise Powell lost their home in 2011 after Philip’s hours as a pastor were cut in half and Denise was sidelined by a surgery. But they were determined to become homeowners again, so they rolled up their sleeves and got to work.
  • For Sale sign on a lawn
    March 20, 2017

    Thinking of Buying? The Real Cost of Owning a Home

    Owning a home means you can blow out a wall to create a more spacious kitchen or paint your bedroom a flaming fuchsia — things that are certainly deposit-forfeiting and likely eviction-motivating offenses in rental land.
  • Hand carrying a home
    March 20, 2017

    How to Handle Your Home During Divorce

    The marital home is many couples’ most valuable asset, so deciding what to do with it during divorce can be difficult. You and your soon-to-be ex have two basic options: sell the home, or one of you stays in it.
  • Virtual Reality -How Tech Is Changing the way
    March 20, 2017

    Virtual Reality: How Tech Is Changing the Way You Buy and Sell a Home

    Virtual reality is no longer associated with just gaming. The real estate industry is adopting this evolving technology to help you buy and sell your home in ways never before possible.
  • house floor plan
    March 20, 2017

    Millennials, Don’t Forget Estate Planning

    Ask millennials to write down a list of their plans, and it’s likely to be chock-full of career accomplishments and vacation experiences. Graduating, getting a great job, getting married, starting a family, buying a home and traveling are likely to be high on the list.
  • exchange of house key
    March 20, 2017

    Buying a House: Working With a Real Estate Agent to Make an Offer

    Buying a house is emotional, and your agent can help level the field by bringing a more rational approach to the transaction. Here’s how the two of you can work together to get the best possible deal.
  • front view of a luxury home
    March 16, 2017

    How Much Home Can Your Lifestyle Afford?

    If you’re considering purchasing a home, you’ve likely already considered how much you have available for a down payment, what an ideal mortgage payment would be, and how much home you can actually afford based on your monthly income.
  • secret letter to seller
    March 16, 2017

    5 Secrets To Get Sellers to Choose Your Bid in a Hot Market

    Writing a heartfelt letter to the sellers of a Chicago home helped one buyer stand out in a sea of other interested parties.