Short-term housing rental companies are allowing property owners to turn their homes into investment properties. They’re giving hotels some serious competition.But these short-term renters have specific amenities they’re seeking. IPX1031, a firm that provides exchange services, surveyed 2,000 consumers to ask about what they look for when they rent an Airbnb.Some of the top factors that consumers said prompted them to choose an Airbnb ov
Buyers are showing more interest in technological home features, with 46% of new and prospective homeowners saying, for example, that they want a security camera on the premises, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ latest annual survey, What Home Buyers Really Want.Three of the four most-wanted tech features are related to security, with surveillance cameras leading the pack, the survey shows. Buyers also reported high
Monday is Earth Day, and your clients can do their part to protect the environment and save on utility bills. Going green can also make a difference at resale: 69 percent of real estate professionals say promoting energy efficiency in listings is “very” or “somewhat valuable” in a home sale, according to the latest REALTORS® & Sustainability Report.Ply Gem, an exterior building product firm, outlines the following six-step
This week’s fire at Paris’ Cathedral of Notre Dame is bringing a realization that historic buildings may be prone to such tragedies. The fire spread through the wooden attic, bringing down its 300-foot spire and engulfing two-thirds of the roof, and occurred over just an hour.Building the cathedral attic required the wood of more than 1,300 trees. Attics tend to be dry spaces and, when dust and debris accumulate, they can be even more flammab
As sea levels rise, architects are brainstorming ways to make homes more resilient to flooding. A floating unit is being singled out as a living solution for coastal areas.Oceanix, a nonprofit that designs and builds floating cities, and the MIT Center for Ocean Engineering are showing off a futuristic concept of a floating city. The floating communities can expand, contract, and combine to form cities in prefabricated hexagonal islands of 4
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) -- a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration -- was designed to capture images of a black hole.Today, in coordinated press conferences across the globe, EHT researchers reveal that they have succeeded, unveiling the first direct visual evidence of a supermassive black hole and its shadow.This breakthrough was announced in a series of
Samsung debuted its most extensive new lineup of smartphones, taking on Apple amid a slowing market with new low-end and premium models, 3-D cameras, an in-screen fingerprint scanner and faster 5G connectivity.At simultaneous launch events in San Francisco and London on Wednesday, the South Korean technology giant introduced four new phones: the Galaxy S10, S10+, S10e, and S10 5G. The S10 and S10+ are direct successors to last year's S9 and S9+,
Google's appetite for real estate is growing. The tech giant’s CEO announced this week that the company is building new data centers and offices and plans to expand to several key locations across the country this year. It plans to spend $13 billion this year in real estate.“With this new investment, Google will now have a home in 24 total states, including data centers in 13 communities,” wrote Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, in a blog post
Amazon announced Thursday that it has halted plans to build a second headquarters in Long Island City, N.Y., blaming political and community opposition for its decision.The reversal comes three months after Amazon picked two cities as homes for its HQ2 project—Long Island City and Crystal City, Va.—promising to bring 25,000 new, high-paying jobs to each area. A booming housing market in those areas was expected to follow.Indeed, in the time s
Home prices have cooled in 70 percent of the 200 largest housing markets. That’s good news for home buyers, but home sellers are faced with a new reality on what they may be able to get for their home.However, not every market is slowing down. Realtor.com® has identified a handful of metros where home prices are rising and still seeing double-digit annual price growth.Some of these growing housing markets were devastated by nearby natural disa
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