Sold in a Snap: Home Improvements That Will Sell Your House Fast

Sold in a Snap: Home Improvements That Will Sell Your House Fast

When you want to get your house on the market and sell it quickly, it's got to be in tiptop condition. This means making necessary repairs, as well as cleaning, staging, and possibly even making a few cosmetic upgrades that will make your property attractive to a wide range of buyers to ensure your home brings top dollar in fast fashion.

Top 10 Qualities of a  Good Real Estate Agent

Top 10 Qualities of a Good Real Estate Agent

Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or a seasoned seller, the process of buying or selling a

home is challenging, and sometimes stressful. The good news is you don’t have to do it alone.

With the right agent by your side, the homebuying journey - from house hunting to signing the

contract - can be thrilling. After all, you want to work with a professional who advocates on your

behalf, sells your home for top dollar, or helps you find the perfect home for the best price. But

what makes a good agent? A good real estate professional is someone who is personable,

knowledgeable, trustworthy, and has the resources and tools to get the job done.

So, what qualities should you look for in a good real estate agent? Sometimes finding the

perfect match is more difficult than anticipated. To guide buyers and sellers on the path towards

working with the right real estate agent, Redfin asked us and other top Partner Agents to share

our expertise and weigh in on the top qualities to look for in a real estate agent. Check out what

we had to say!

Future Home Buyers: How Much Mortgage Can I Really Afford?

Future Home Buyers: How Much Mortgage Can I Really Afford?

Before you even start looking at properties, the first step in the process should be calculating exactly how much you can afford to pay on your mortgage. Mortgage lenders will use your gross income to make this calculation, but it’s good to know exactly how they decide how much mortgage debt you can take on.

Five Steps to Preparing Your Home for Sale as a Family

Five Steps to Preparing Your Home for Sale as a Family

Preparing your home for a sale can be as exhausting as it is exciting. There is much to do, and adding kids to the mix can create more than a few extra challenges. Thankfully, there are ways you can be prepared, even for last-minute viewings. With the right preparation, you and your family can ready your home for anything. Whether it's decluttering or cleaning for a sudden viewing, working together gets things done faster. This may be a stressful time, but it can bring a family closer.

Affordable Improvements Inside and Out: Tips for Motivated Sellers

Affordable Improvements Inside and Out: Tips for Motivated Sellers

If you need to sell your home quickly, it’s important to make eye-catching improvements that accentuate your home’s best features. That means making upgrades inside and out that entice buyers and leave them with a lasting and memorable first impression that makes your property stand out.

How to Make Buyers Fall In Love With Your Home

How to Make Buyers Fall In Love With Your Home

In some parts of the country, houses can sit on the market for months before they’re snatched up by someone eager to move in. That’s not good, especially if you want to get started on your new life elsewhere. To make sure this doesn’t happen, you need to get plenty of people interested in your piece of paradise so someone will want to commit to a contract quickly. It’s not necessarily easy, but it’s definitely doable if you follow these tips.

Buying a Fixer Upper

Buying a Fixer Upper

The cost of buying a home today is rising, making home ownership more difficult to achieve.In fact, for many Americans, the home they purchase to live in will likely be the biggest financial investment they will ever make. In an effort to succeed in becoming a homeowner, more buyers are choosing to look at homes that have lower asking prices due to some type of condition or repair issue.

Five Ways Landscaping Improves Property Value

Five Ways Landscaping Improves Property Value

One of the best things you can do for your home and property is improving your landscaping. After all, not only does it look great but it can add a significant amount to your home value.

6 Materials to Never Use in Your Kitchen

6 Materials to Never Use in Your Kitchen

About to remodel that old kitchen? Unless you’re cool with treating the hardest working room in your house like a museum exhibit, resist the temptation to buy the cheapest or shiniest materials available and go for durable options that can stand up to regular abuse.

Trust us: Although it may be tough to leave that raised, tempered glass bar top (ooo!) in the showroom, repairing its first (and second, and third) chip will get old. Very fast.

Picking the right materials is easy if you do your homework. “There are amazing products out there,” says Jeffrey Holloway, a certified kitchen designer and owner of Holloway Home Improvement Center in Marmora, N.J. “You’re looking at price point, sanitation, how easy it is to clean the product, its durability and maintenance.”

Keeping those all-important features in mind, here are some materials to avoidduring your next kitchen project.

5 Reasons to Hire a Mold Removal Professional

5 Reasons to Hire a Mold Removal Professional

Mold is a household nuisance that often creates a musty odor. Although it's not a difficult task to remove some common types of mold with towels and a spray bottle of bleach, mold can cause health problems and destroy building material. Similar to smoke or water damage, serious mold removal requires a professional.

Protecting Your Home From Radon

Protecting Your Home From Radon

According to some studies, as many as 21,000 people a year die from lung cancer linked to radon gas. This substance is not something to take lightly. One in ten homes nationwide has elevated levels of the gas indoors.

The Appalachian region is known to have significantly higher levels than this. The gas is a radioactive element that’s invisible, odorless, and tasteless. Fortunately, it’s easy to test for it, and there are effective ways to vent it out of the house.

 

What Home Projects Should You Do Yourself?

What Home Projects Should You Do Yourself?

Why pay someone to do something you can do yourself? Because sometimes doing it yourself costs more than it saves.

More than 100,000 people injure themselves each year doing home improvement jobs. So add medical bills to your DIY budget, and you ending up spending the same, or more, than if you hired a pro.

We're not suggesting that you call a plumber each time you need to plunge a toilet. But think twice about what DIY might really cost you. Here's how to decide.

5 Easy DIY Weekend Projects Under $300

5 Easy DIY Weekend Projects Under $300

Just another weekend? Not if you take advantage with one or more of these 5 great projects you can easily pull off for under $300.

Most of the cost of these DIY weekend projects is in the materials. The labor — that’s you — is free. All you need now are the hours. But, hey, you’ve got two full days — plenty of time to be a superhero weekend warrior and grab some R&R. Read the full article for more info on the following projects:

Project #1: Add a Garden Arbor Entry

Project #2: Install a Window Awning

Project #3: Screen Off Your Air Conditioner from View

Project #4: Add Garage Storage

Project #5: Edging Your Garden

How to Tell If You Should Look for Your First House Or Renew Your Lease

How to Tell If You Should Look for Your First House Or Renew Your Lease

Tired of working so hard just to build your landlord's equity instead of your own? Been dreaming about paint swatches and obsessing over Pinterest projects? Making that leap from renting to owning a home comes with many perks -- both financial and emotional. And even though home ownership comes with great responsibility, you might be surprised how achievable it can be. This article will help you answer the following questions:

  1. Are You Financially Prepared?
  2. Are You Prepared to Make Compromises?
  3. Are You Emotionally Ready?
  4. Will Owning Pay Off in the Long Run?
  5. Has Your Lifestyle Outgrown Renting?

 

HVAC Maintenance Checklist

HVAC Maintenance Checklist

Here's an easy, doable preventative maintenance checklist to keep your HVAC in top shape.

It's a good idea to hire a HVAC company to inspect and do maintenance on your system every fall and spring. They'll do things like inspect and clean the wiring and mechanisms of the unit, which is bit more challenging for the average homeowner.

 But you can prolong the life and increase the efficiency of your system if you follow this simple maintenance plan.

HouseLogic’s Top-10 List of New Years Resolutions for Your Home

HouseLogic’s Top-10 List of New Years Resolutions for Your Home

When the new year arrives, promises and resolutions abound. Here's the top-10 list of what the resolute home owner should accomplish this year.

This time, it's going to be different. A brand new year, brimming with possibilities, and you've resolved to move through your house like a whirling tornado of can-do, fixing, painting, and organizing. This year, nothing will stop you.

Welcome to your home improvement New Year's Resolutions.

Based on the most-common top-ten resolutions gathered by Time magazine, USA.gov, and other sources, we've put together an inspiring list of home management goals.

5 Tricks to Keep Your Pipes from Exploding this Winter

5 Tricks to Keep Your Pipes from Exploding this Winter

 New homeowners may have heard that winterization is important, but in the hubbub of your first year living in a home you own (finally!), it can be easy to overlook the need to prepare for the cold weather ahead. After all, it's just not something renters deal with; prepping pipes for winter (http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/plumbing/prevent-freezing-pipes/) is often the landlord's job.

 Ideally, you should winterize your pipes in the fall, before winter seriously sets in. But if you've forgotten and all of a sudden you're in the middle of a deep freeze, there's still time to prevent disaster.