Tips - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

REALTORS: Does Your Listing Pass the Interior Design Test?

If an interior designer walked through the front doors of your listing, what would their first impression be?Give the house an interior designer spot test before opening it up to buyers. Realtor.com® offers a few tips from behind a designer’s lenses in a recent article :Traffic flow“The first thing I notice is whether or not the furniture placement promotes good flow of traffic,” says Lorelie Brown, a Showhomes franchisee in Charl

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6 factors that influence a home’s value

Get to know your neighborhoods -- and the types of houses you find in them -- inside and outKey Takeaways Factors to consider when pricing a home are: historic sales price, quality of the neighborhood, the market, nearby features and the size, appeal, age and condition of the home.Trying to price a home accurately, whether you’re preparing to sell a house or you’re ready to make an offer on one, is challenging. Even if you’ve had experien

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Ugly Home Features Buyers Can't Overlook

Home shoppers can get hung up on cosmetic issues of a home, even though often times the problems are relatively inexpensive to fix.Buyers can easily get distracted by flaws or minor repairs, like the carpet or dated light fixtures. They may even let a sale fall apart because of it.Realtor.com® recently featured several potential home features that may jeopardize a deal, but really shouldn’t.Ugly kitchen cabinetsSure, the average kitchen remode

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4 Quick Fixes Sellers Should Avoid

a mad dash when sellers are working to get their home on the market or even to just clean up ahead of a showing. But some common cleanup tools can actually do more damage than many people realize. HouseLogic identified a few common products that can create big problems, so you can be the expert your clients need and help them protect their investments. Bleach is a common cure-all, but this caustic chemical can eat through the sealant on stone s

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5 Questions to Ask a Home Inspector

Home buyers would be wise to interview a home inspector before they hire one. But what should they ask? Here are a few questions to consider.Read more: Do You Trust Home Inspectors?1. What do you check?A home inspector will look at everything from the roof to the foundation and in between, Frank Lesh, executive director of the American Society of Home Inspectors, told realtor.com®. But they are restricted to visual, general inspections. A speci

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REALTORS: How to Win Over More Instagram Followers

Instagram boasts more than 200 million active monthly users. It has quickly emerged as one of the most popular social media platforms. How can you use it to grow your own network? Forbes.com columnist Tom Ward recently offered a few tips, including:Create a theme for your page. Figure out what you are trying to promote on Instagram and stick to it, Ward writes. Have a separate account for your personal posts, if necessary. “You can’t expect

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What Thieves Are Most After in Homes

Here are some sobering stats from the FBI: A robbery occurs every 1.6 minutes in the U.S., a burglary every 18.2 seconds, and a larceny theft every 5.4 seconds.SafeHome, a home security systems reviews resource, analyzed FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data from 2015 to determine the items thieves most commonly target.The most stolen items were classified as miscellaneous valuables, jewelry, and precious metals, according to the report. In some state

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Mortgage Tips for Newbie Buyers

The Motley Fool recently featured a range of mortgage tips to help educate first-time buyers, including:Know their credit score. The credit score can be a big key to knowing how much buyers can afford and how much interest they’ll be paying. Home shoppers should be encouraged to check their credit report and FICO score before even starting the homebuying process.Estimate how much can be borrowed. Lenders generally don’t like to see a mont

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5 Bad Habits Buyers Have

1. Window shoppers: Some clients will take you on a wild hunt for the perfect home, but they aren’t committed to purchasing and say they hope to buy “someday.” “Some home buyers want to see every single house that’s on the market,” even if the home doesn’t match their criteria, says Rae Wayne, a sales associate with the Bizzy Blondes team in Los Angeles. You may want to encourage these types of buyers to attend open houses so they

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8 Dumb Reasons People Can't Buy a Home

akurtz/Getty ImagesBuying a home—especially if it’s your first—can be a lot like losing weight in the sense that people end up doing, well, some pretty dumb stuff in the process. But while desperate dieters might waste money on “magical” weight-loss pills or silly exercise equipment (remember the shake weight?), misguided home buyers could be doing far more serious damage—like undermining their ability to purchase a house at all

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