Tips - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

How to Protect a Home’s Pipes from the Freezing Cold

Subzero and Arctic temperatures across a dozen states this week are putting homes' pipes at risk of bursting. As water freezes, it expands. That can put pressure on metal or plastic pipes, prompting them to burst and leading to costly repairs and home destruction.Homes in the northern parts of the U.S. may be at less risk for frozen pipes since many homes are built with water pipes within a home’s building insulation to help protect them from f

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What Sellers Should Not Display in their Home Office

The home office has become an important space to stage, but certain memorabilia displayed could turn off some buyers who view the property in-person or online.“For more buyers to see themselves in that office space, you’ll do well to take a lot of ‘you’ out of it first,” Chris Haro, a real estate professional in Hilton Head, S.C., told Apartment Therapy.For example, real estate pros and stagers say college degrees and other homeowner ac

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5 Indoor House Plants to Consider for your Staging

Plants can help brighten indoor spaces and may offer other mental and physical health benefits. As such, it’s no surprise indoor plants are one of the favorite accessories of home stagers.Research has linked indoor plants with reduced stress, increased productivity, and improved quality for the home’s air. Some of the most effective house plants to improve the air quality are areca palms, Boston ferns, rubber trees, spider plants, and ficus t

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15 Home-Staging Essentials

Photo by: Laura Amour GoodStart With Curb Appeal First impressions matter, so make your home stand out the instant buyers pull up to the curb. Some upgrades can be done in a weekend and will cost more in sweat equity than actual dollars. A few suggestions: rent a pressure washer to remove dirt and grime from your siding, roof, fascia and gutters. Paint the front door and/or shutters a bright color, but make sure it coordinates well with the rest

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4 Disinfection Tips that may Surprise you

Disinfecting took on new prominence in 2020. Keeping bad germs out of your listings and office became critical in the pandemic. Americans learned more about the proper ways to disinfect this year.For one, cleaning may be what you have traditionally done for prepping listings prior to 2020. Cleaning is all about aesthetics and a home looking spotless and ridding it of dirt. But sanitizing and disinfecting went mainstream in 2020. This is reducing

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Stagers’ Secrets for Making Closets Feel More Spacious

Storage areas in a home can be viewed as a premium, particularly as house hunters have reportedly been looking for additional space since the beginning of the pandemic.A cluttered closet can make the space look small. Home stagers know the importance of organization and staging a closet to not only show off its storage space but to also improve a home's appearance.To make closets feel more spacious, leave the closet floor space open and clear of

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Luxury Pantries Satiate Buyers’ Latest Craving

Pantries, once simply closets or cupboards for storing a few perishables, have become much more elaborate—especially now that people are staying at home more. The walk-in pantry has emerged as the most desirable kitchen feature for home buyers in recent years, according to a 2019 survey from the National Association of Home Builders. More than 85% of homes larger than 3,500 square feet feature a walk-in pantry.“We’ve been offering

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Where Rooftop Solar Panels are Worth the Money

Solar photovoltaic panels can offer homeowners reduced electric bills and are a more environmentally friendly way to power up a home. But they can be pricey to install, leading to questions about whether the return on investment is worth it.Home Innovation Research Labs recently analyzed the cost-effectiveness of rooftop solar panels on new homes in five markets: Phoenix; Tampa, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo.; Boston; and Seattle. The analysis did not fa

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TIP: Add Greenery to Reduce Stress, Studies Show

House plants are growing in importance in the pandemic, touted for bringing in cleaner air and absorbing carbon dioxide and for boosting productivity, improving mental health, and making rooms look more inviting, Forbes.com reports.“Plant therapy isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the real thing,” Melanie Berliet, general manager for The Spruce, a lifestyle, home, and food site, told Forbes.com. “Research has shown that the abs

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Bids that Stand to Lose in a Multiple-Offer Situation

The term “bidding war” lends an adversarial tone to multiple-offer situations, and pitting one side against the other is the wrong way to handle such a transaction, Greg Glosson, managing broker at Fast Track Realty in Memphis, Tenn., said Tuesday at a session called “Multiple Offers = Multiple Confusion” during the virtual 2020 REALTORS® Conference & Expo.“We need to be very cooperative with one another because we are all try

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