Buyers Beware of the Home Stager



July 23, 2010I was reading today about a favorite trick of real estate agents, "home staging." In case you are not familiar with the concept, the idea is to make the house more appealing to buyers by preparing a home for viewing. For example, sometimes having a million dusty nick nacks all over the place can detract from the beauty of the home, and reduce its appeal to buyers. The home stager is advertising...

Possible Extension of Tax Credit Deadline for New Home Buyers



June 30, 2010Missed Your Closing Deadline for the Tax Credit?  Don’t despair; you may still get the credit you deserve! Are you one of about 180,000 home buyers that went into contract by April 30th but may miss the tax credit because you haven’t closed yet?  Because of the popularity of the tax credit, lenders and appraisers have experienced closing delays.   If this is affecting you, there is good...

Home Viewing Advice: Tips For Finding Your Dream Home



June 25, 2010Develop a "Dream Home List." My husband and I had developed a list of characteristics to help find our future home when we first started house hunting.  We defined “must” haves and “want” to haves.  The list included everything from price range, to age of home, to location, to basic floor plan.  We each wrote our own list, without consulting the other, and then combined lists to come...

Top 5 Things to Look for When Viewing Houses



June 1, 2010After looking at what feels like a million homes with our exclusive buyer’s agent, we became very efficient house hunters.  At first, it was hard to strip away the bad decorating or the incredible upgrades to the bathroom and see the house for what it really was.   Over and over again, I keep hearing this advice “Look at the things that you can’t change.”  Again, I have to go back to...