No matter what, the home absolutely must look its bestKey Takeaways Quality photography is defined differently by different agents, but the key is turning out a professional product.With more than 90 percent of buyers starting their home search online, listing photos are your new curbside. And if you want buyers to stop and investigate further, your exterior photos, especially, need to create a positive first impression.But exactly what does cons
The door for first-time homebuyers is wide open.Rents are rising faster than incomes, which is causing many millennials to enter the market and buy. In fact, half (50 percent) of today’s homebuyers are under the age of 36, according to Zillow’s 2016 Consumer Housing Trends Report, and 47 percent are first-time buyers. Solo homebuyers are in the minority, while most buyers are shopping with a spouse or partner (73 percent).Buying a home is t
Buyers want to be able to picture themselves in the houseWhen you show your home’s best features by staging it effectively, you help increase your final selling price without breaking the bank. As our infographic below shows, the following five golden rules of home staging will help you show off its best assets:The five golden rules are:1. De-personalize: While your family photos are beautiful and your kids’ drawings on the fridge are adorabl
A new survey of 30 large cities in the United States shows that the cost of water utilities has risen by up to 150 percent over the last seven years.The data from Circle of Blue, a group of journalists and scientists tracking water issues, shows that in some cities, a family of four using 12,000 gallons a month—which is considered average household use—could pay up to $154 per month.That was the rate for Santa Fe, N.M., with San Francisco com
Ongoing inventory shortages are propelling home prices higher, causing pending home sales to slump for the third consecutive month, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Wednesday. None of the major regions of the U.S. saw an increase in contract activity in May.NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, dropped 0.8 percent to a reading of 108.5 in May. The index is 1.7 percent below a year
Homeowners can make a lot of mistakes during that first year in homeownership, especially when eagerness can sometimes lead to ignorance. HouseLogic recently featured several of the most common and costly missteps homeowners most often make in their first year, including:1. Always going with the lowest bid.Homeowners may be smart about gathering multiple bids when, say, that HVAC system needs repairs. But they may be tempted to always go with the
A Pennsylvania judge has upheld the sentence of a 33-year-old man who was convicted of attempted rape charges stemming from 2013 and who had been appealing the sentence.Frank Yeager was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. In an appeal, he contended that his lawyer did not question whether his confession was legal. But a judge for the Superior Court upheld his sentence and portrayed Yeager as "a dangerous, full-blown psychopath," according to n
Nearly 4.5 million borrowers are eligible to refinance and could lock in savings on their monthly mortgage payments but have not taken advantage, according to a new report from Black Knight Financial Services.The average borrower stands to save $260 a month. Nearly 700,000 borrowers could save $400 or more per month, the report shows.“The recent pause in the upward movement of interest rates continues to encourage late-to-the-game borrowers to
A surge of renters are ready to make the leap into homeownership. According to a new TransUnion analysis on the U.S. rental market, 55 percent of those who actively shopped for a mortgage in the first quarter of 2017 were non-homeowners and primarily renters. This is up from 50 percent in the first quarter of 2016 and 45 percent in the first quarter of 2015.“The rental market has seen sustained growth for the last several years, but occupancy r
YouTube released a new virtual reality video format called VR180 that could pave the way for the future of viewing property listings. The VR format uses 180-degree video but in stereoscopic 3-D—the picture appears wider than normal while providing more depth and height. If a client using this VR format turns around, however, they’ll just see black instead of the continuous imagery found in 360-degree virtual reality.“There’s no ne
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