How can buyers determine if a community is a good fit for them? Sure, they should walk the neighborhood and make visits at various times of the day. Realtor.com® recently interviewed housing experts to identify signs that a neighborhood could be on the brink of a decline. Here are some of those possible indicators:Several houses are on the market.Two or three homes for sale in close proximity is OK, but more than that could be an indic
Revamping a kitchen can be a costly undertaking, with the median price of a remodeling job coming in at $60,000. So, how do you make sure the changes you make won’t look dated in a few years?HouseLogic, a home improvement website by the National Association of REALTORS®, offers ideas to future-proof your kitchen, including:Stick with whiteWhite has remained the top choice of the National Kitchen and Bath Association’s annual s
Home remodeling isn’t as easy as it looks on TV. And for nearly two-thirds of homeowners who’ve attempted a do-it-yourself house project, they say they regret not calling in an expert on at least one of their projects, according to a new survey from ImproveNet of about 2,000 Americans.But the motivation to save some money is a big driver for their attempts. On average, homeowners said they hoped to save at least 60 percent in costs by bypassi
You may not have the extra funds to stage a property, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways you can still spruce it up.“Everyone needs to stage their home to sell it efficiently,” Laura McHolm, co-founder of NorthStar Moving, told realtor.com®. “But you do not need to spend a lot of money to stage your home.”Some of the biggest staging moves can be free. Beyond decluttering and depersonalizing the property, realtor.com® recently h
Sellers whose homes aren’t in tip-top shape may need to spend extra money or put in a little elbow grease to get their properties in market-ready condition. But what are the most important repair or maintenance tasks that support a higher asking price? “Smaller and less expensive updates in combination with good staging will have a great return,” Susanna Haynie, GRI, a sales associate with Colorado Real Estate Group in Colorado Springs, tol
You and your clients may need to consider the signs of a refrigerator that is about to explode when making your next appliance purchase.Though refrigerator explosions are rare, recent cases have prompted consumer alerts, and they should no longer be “ignored disasters,” says Neil Everitt, former editor at air-conditioning and refrigeration magazine ACR News. Refrigerator explosions occur spontaneously and sometimes with little warning.In
Luxury home sales are cooling off, and some home sellers are finding they may have to invest in a few upgrades to nab top dollar for their home.High-end sales posted a 7 percent gain in October annually, the second slowest increase in more than two years, according to an analysis from realtor.com®. And while sales are slowing, inventories of homes for sale are swelling. The total number of properties listed at or above $1 million is posting doub
More homes may soon be energy-free. Homes and commercial buildings consume 40 percent of all energy used in the U.S., but the growth of net-zero homes could drastically curtail that. The Zero Energy Ready Homes—those that make the energy they use—are becoming more of a reality.In 2017, 8,547 units of net-zero housing or zero-already housing had been built in the U.S. About 38,863 were under construction, according to the Net-Zero Energy Coali
A Kansas City, Mo., couple lost their entire $130,000 down payment on a home purchase from a money wire scam that has been increasingly targeting real estate transactions.Ross and Melinda Fulton were purchasing a home to live closer to their daughters and new granddaughter in the Kansas City area. Ross, a retired pastor of 46 years, and Melinda found the perfect home in Independence, Mo., and were planning to pay for it with cash.They receiv
The biggest pest of 2018? Bedbugs.The second annual Terminix Entomologists’ Almanac took a look at the biggest pest trends from the past year based on social media chatter and internet queries. Bedbugs clinched the title for the second year in a row.Americans searched for information about bedbugs more than 6.7 million times this year—more so than any other pest. Terminix, a national pest control company, says it has seen a steady increase
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