Jun 15
What Living in a Tiny Home is Really Like There’s a growing hype surrounding tiny homes and micro-apartments, especially in places with skyrocketing rents like San Francisco, Seattle, and New York, but what’s it really like to live in one? A New York Times reporter recently spent the night in a brand-new 302-square-foot micro-apartment, …
Jun 14
Seller To Buyer After Closing: ‘I’m Not Leaving’ A woman in Nashville ran into an unusual problem after buying her first home: The seller is now refusing to leave. “It’s been a nightmare,” Tamara Holloway told News 2 in Nashville. “The seller has essentially pirated my house. Holloway closed on the home on June 1. …
Jun 13
Productivity Killers: Don’t Utter These Words Nobody can escape the temptations to procrastinate from time to time. But that doesn’t mean you have to succumb to them. “Fighting procrastination teaches us to fully engage in our work, get more creative with it, and ultimately, get more done,” Forbes contributor Travis Bradberry, co-author of the bestselling …
Jun 10
The Multi-functional Kitchen Nothing can kill a sale faster than a dated, closed-in kitchen area. Many of today’s buyers see the kitchen as the home’s command center, and not just a place for cooking and eating. They want the kitchen to be many things at once, hence the rise in popularity of what is …
Jun 09
Loan Rolls Student Loan Debt in With Mortgage A new loan from a mortgage originator is designed to rescue student loan–burdened millennials struggling to save up for a down payment on a home or qualify for a mortgage. Developed by Burkey Capital, the new loan wants to help move college graduates into home ownership …
Jun 08
Hef’s Neighbor Buys Playboy Mansion Here’s why you should consider marketing homes to the neighbors: Daren Metropolis, who owns the property adjacent to the Playboy Mansion, is under contract to purchase Hugh Hefner’s infamous home. Metropoulos, the principal at the private equity firm Metropolis & Co. which famously rescued Twinkie snacks from extinction, …
Jun 07
Top Cities for Dog Lovers A whopping 54.4 million households – or 44 percent – own at least one dog, according to the 2015-2016 American Pet Products Association survey. That trumps the 35 percent of cat-owning households. Americans sure do love their pets. In fact, spending on pets has doubled from 2001 to 2015, …
Jun 06
Test Your Website’s Mobile Friendliness How business-friendly is your website? Luckily you can now find out using Google’s new business tool that tests your website’s mobile friendliness as well as the page speed for your desktop and mobile sites. You just put in your website URL and you’ll instantly receive three scores from …
Jun 03
Sellers May Have You Under Surveillance Your conversations might not be so private when you’re on a home showing with your buyer. Reports are showing a rise in sellers using surveillance cameras around their home, from those hidden in hallways to a camera placed in that smiling teddy bear in the corner. Home surveillance …
Jun 02
Problems Uncovered in Home Inspections Even a house that seems perfect may not be so when it comes to a home inspection, which is meant to discover potential problems with the home’s systems, appliances, and structure. “Depending on the age, location, and type of house, the potential for problems will vary,” according to an …
May 31
Banks Rush to Offer 3% Down Payment Loans As some banks veer from Federal Housing Administration loans, they’re offering their own low down payment mortgages to appeal to home shoppers struggling to save enough to buy a home. Wells Fargo made headlines this week when it debuted its 3 percent down payment loan. …
May 26
New-Home Sales Surge to Post-Recession High Sales of new single-family homes climbed 16.6 percent in April, reaching the highest sales pace since January 2008, the Commerce Department reported this week. Newly built, single-family homes rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 619,000 units in April. “Builders remain optimistic about the housing …
