Decks are great outdoor entertainment and relaxation areas, especially in the summertime, but they also need regular maintenance and checkups to stay in shape. Here are some tips to keep your deck looking its best: 1. Split or Decaying Wood Decaying wood can be a deck’s worst enemy. Thoroughly inspect the following for rot and decay: Ledger board Support posts Joists Deck...
Contributed by Rick Ryan Editor's Note: This post was originally published on August 4, 2015. Housecall continues to share this piece due to ongoing requests and reader interest. Landscaping is one of the most important ways to increase your property’s value quickly. In fact, a gorgeous landscape design can increase the value of your home by at least 5...
Sizzling temps, rising home sales and up-and-down interest rates have made this summer one for the books. Remarkably, many real estate agents have found time to unwind with a vacation – and according to unofficial findings from our recent Reader Rewards giveaway, the hottest destination for said vacation is, well, hot: Florida. The most popular spots in the Sunshine...
Granite countertops, outdoor kitchens, remodeled bathrooms - we all know there's a certain art to real estate. Just like here in America, a country's culture directly affects the look, feel and styles of homes from all over the world. Even in locations such as Indonesia, Cameroon and the Artic, there are always cultural reasons behind the architecture and why homes...
Contributed by Brandon Cartee When buying a new home, chances are you spend a lot of time inspecting various aspects of the property. Before making an offer, be sure to take a closer look at one hidden area of the home: its foundation. Foundation problems can be costly to repair, so you need to know they exist before making the purchase. A Door That Is Not Square Often,...
The real estate implications of the legalization of marijuana are many, and members of the industry who service markets where the drug has been decriminalized have already begun familiarizing themselves with state legislation related to housing transactions. But as marijuana goes mainstream, a related development may have equal effect on the industry: cannabis construction. As...
Contributed by Zillow Any American child is likely at least generally familiar with the standard, decades-old map of the lower 48 states posted in classrooms and libraries nationwide. The twin protuberances of Maine and Florida in the Northeast and Southeast, Texas’ anchor position in the central South and California’s dominance of two-thirds of the Pacific coastline...
Revisiting population data, the U.S. Census Bureau recently zeroed in on the living arrangements of adults over the last 40-plus years. Notably, the majority of adults in both 1970 and 2014 shared a household with a spouse. But if trends bear out, the gap between married adults and unmarried adults sharing households will close – fast. As of last year, spouses sharing...
If you find yourself handling the buying or selling of a hoarder’s home, you might feel like you’ve landed in an episode of the reality TV show “Hoarders: Family Secrets.” Chances are, you’ll encounter many of the same issues that pop up on the program. To cope with those issues, here are 10 tips from the experts: 1. Recognize that hoarding is a disorder. Hoarding...
If you’re a real estate agent wanting to target millennials, you need to be active on social media and you need to be tech savvy. Even if you aren’t specifically targeting millennials, an advanced knowledge of technology will help leaps and bounds as you set forth to dominate your local market. Applications like Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat are surefire tools...
