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What's the right amount of money to spend in upgrading your home?

by Bethany Rowan


What's the right amount of money to spend in upgrading your home?

  You’re wanting to freshen up your house a little bit and you’ve already determined what you think you should do to make it amazing for you to really enjoy it. Before you jump into your renovation project, make sure you set a budget so you can spend the right amount of money upgrading your home. Without a plan and a budget, you can spend tons of money on all kinds of neat options — from a new marble island-top for your kitchen to a swanky hot tub for your backyard...

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When is the Best Season of the Year to Buy to get the Best Deal

by Bethany Rowan


When is the Best Season of the Year to Buy to get the Best Deal

    Since the market meltdown in 2008, the US housing market has rebounded dramatically. In fact, even if you purchased a property at the lowest point of the market crash and held onto it until today, your home would have appreciated by roughly 25 percent. What’s even better news is that It’s expected that the housing market will continue to climb in the future due to the changes that were made in the lending market coming out of the mortgage debacle.  Plus,...

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When is the best time of the year to sell?

by Bethany Rowan


When is the best time of the year to sell?

    You want to sell your home, maximize the amount you sell it for and get it sold in a reasonable amount of time. While there’s no horrible time of the year to sell your home, there are better times of the year to put it on the market to get the best results for yourself. We’ve done the research and the results are in. Here’s the best time of the year to sell. And the winner is… Life happens and sometimes, you just don’t have a say...

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Why Get Pre-approved? Structuring Your Offer to Get the Best Deal

by Bethany Rowan


Why Get Pre-approved? Structuring Your Offer to Get the Best Deal

    Buying a home is a dream come true, but the process of getting an offer prepared and accepted can be a nightmare if you don’t know what you’re doing.   There are over 80 variables that need to be managed properly when buying a home and mishandling just one of them could cost you tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary expenses.   Making a home purchase is expensive enough that you don’t need to part ways with any more of your hard-earned...

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Why landscaping can make your home sell faster and for more money

by Bethany Rowan


Why landscaping can make your home sell faster and for more money

      Plain and simple, the quality of your landscaping determines whether or not your home feels inviting from the outside.   Curb appeal is what people call it and it’s a key ingredient in the decision to buy a home to more than 71 percent of homebuyers. As you know, landscaping plays a huge role in the curb appeal that you present to prospective buyers for your home. The first impression is key: if buyers don’t like what your home looks like from...

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Why You Should Get a Home Warranty When You List Your Home

by Bethany Rowan


Why You Should Get a Home Warranty When You List Your Home

    Home warranties aren’t just for buyers anymore. In the past, buyers have asked sellers to pay for a home warranty to give the them a year of protection after it sells on roughly 16 major systems in the house including things like the electrical system, appliances, hot water heater, furnace, etc. Overall, it makes sense because the first time claim on a home warranty for most buyers runs around $1,100 - $1,200 including the $75 deductible that comes with making the...

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Why You Should Have A Home Inspection Before You List

by Bethany Rowan


Why You Should Have A Home Inspection Before You List

        One of the largest home sale killers is the home inspection.   Nearly one-third of all terminated real estate contracts fell apart because of the inspection results. Inspections also ranked as the number three cause of delayed settlements, accounting for 13 percent.   For some reason - and I’ll never get it - a home inspection that comes back with anything less than a perfect report strikes fear into the hearts of buyer agents and home...

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10 questions you must ask an agent before you list your home

by Bethany Rowan


10 questions you must ask an agent before you list your home

Currently, there are over 1.3 million Realtors in the United States alone. The number of people that have joined the real estate sales force over the last 10 years is staggering.   No two agents are the same and less than 10% of the total number of Realtors to 90% of the business.   In addition to that, not all agents are created equally. Many of them don’t get you the best results for your specific needs.   In 2017 — one of the hottest markets in recent history...

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How much money will go into your pocket after your home is sold?

by Bethany Rowan


How much money will go into your pocket after your home is sold?

  It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep that matters. This holds especially true when it comes to the sale of your home.   The sales price you see at the top of the closing paperwork is rarely, if ever, the amount of money that ends up in your pocket as the seller.   There are often a variety of costs and fees associated with getting a home sold, so it’s important that you understand exactly what you’re going to walk away with before you...

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How much should you offer on the home you fell in love with?

by Bethany Rowan


How much should you offer on the home you fell in love with?

    You’ve spent the last few months looking for a home and now, the only thing that stands between you and having the right to negotiate full ownership of the home of you fell in love with is preparing an offer that will be acceptable to the seller.   The purchase and sales agreement iis the first formal communication that leads to the final deal and eventually a closing when it’s time for you to take ownership of the property.   The total agreement...

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