I just heard today about one of the police officers I work with who is about to buy a home. He said it didn’t matter what he wanted, it was his wife’s decision. (Oh how funny we’ve always said decisions are ultimately up to the wife – when Momma’s happy, everyone’s happy!). But as his closing date approaches, I thought this was  an extremely cute gift idea for his house warming.  From Oh Happy Day, a jar of stuff!

All you need is a printout and a paint pen to trace it on the jar. Then just stop by a hardware store to stock up the jar and you’ve got a present.  Materials: A variety of housewarming goods, a large glass jar with a lid, a printout of your desired text, tape, opaque paint pen, ribbon.

Step 1: Print out your text and tape it to the inside of the jar.
Step 2: Trace over the text with your paint pen and then remove the paper from the inside of the jar.
Step 3: Tie a ribbon onto the top of the jar.
Step 4: Fill it up with the housewarming goodies.

This is so cute! Click through to see a whole website dedicated to great crafty ideas!

Photo from Pinterest.

I once had a client that I spend MONTHS working with. In all we calculated that we had looked at well over 100 homes before she finally picked one.  My husband and I discussed cutting her loose at one point, but I just couldn’t.  She was so much fun to be around that the possibility is quite real I was using her house-hunt just to spend time with this unique, funny, smart woman.

However, sometimes difficult clients aren’t much fun to be around. Bahman Davani of Frisco, Texas finally turned someone loose and it wasn’t easy.  But it was important.  His client was a negotiator – always offering to pay HALF of what the list price was, based on the cultural background often employs this method.

However, applying this technique or habit in U.S. stores, such as in a franchises department store,  where all prices are fixed and tagged not only doesn’t work but becomes annoying too. Many of them, at least in last year, were expecting 50% reduction of asking real estate prices, because they have heard from media the economy was not doing good, local market was bad, many foreclosures were coming to the market, etc. They do not realize that though those news might be somehow valid for some parts of country (e.g., California, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Florida, etc), but they are not true for most of other parts of country. For example, in Texas where real estate did not hit as bad as many other places, not only the prices did not go down that much, in some areas such as Collin County the prices have gone up and there are shortages of houses and inventories.

Lesson learned, offer a reasonable price for a house.  Be willing to negotiate, but expect doors to close in your face if you try to “steal” the house.  Doors closed both by sellers – and sometimes your own realtor.

The spring ant invasion into my home has begun. Over the weekend I was coming inside and saw about a hundred of them hiving at the entry of my front door.  I saw two on my desk today at work.  Clearly, it’s time to figure out how to get rid of the invasion.  Hometalk offers what they say is a safe, easy solution,

An exterminator told my friend that when you begin to see ants, they are the scouts. Stop these and you won’t have ants. My son discovered that if you spray them with Windex (or any other glass cleaner), they are exterminated. Keep after it for a while and you won’t have ants. 

But what happens when you see an army of them?

Photo from Home Decorator Space.

Several years ago, we talked about how important it was to correctly price a home for a strong turnaround from list to close.  When the housing market tanked, we talked about how important it was to correctly price a home because with prices dropping, you had to be able to compete.  In today’s housing  market, you still have to price it correctly!

If you overprice, it will sit on the market for much longer than you may want. It could get stigmatized as being a white elephant. And if you have to move – for a new job or more space – you’ll remain where you are, paying interest on the mortgage month after month.

Sandra Paulow of Pinetop, Arizona said overpricing is a betrayal to a client,

We feel that the agents taking these listings with nothing to support their pricing are actually violating the trust their clients are placing in them.  A slight increase over last year would be acceptable and probably supportable on appraisal, but pricing 20 even 30% higher is a betrayal of the trust the clients have placed in them and is not a service.  The properties won’t appraise, so what is the point of doing it?  

I grant you there is far less inventory this year, but does this justify overpricing just to get a sign in a yard and to say you have a listing?

Don’t be blinded by a sweet talking agent. Get several opinions on the price and if two out of three say it’s not worth as much as the third, then you should probably listen to them. Price the home correctly the first time!

Photo from Pinterest.

A healthy housing market has always been a cornerstone of a healthy economy in a clear domino effect.  Strong housing means strong jobs as people have the ability to buy.  It in turn employs realtors, builders, construction sites, home improvement stores, decorating stores, paint stores, and the list goes on.  We work to live, you see. And when we live, we want a nice place to call home!

As housing improvement gains traction, we are also seeing more traction in workforce mobility.  From Reuters.com, it took  David Pendery just three days to sell his house to make the move from Colorado to Illinois recently.

Pendery’s experience may be on the extreme side, but his case may be a sign of a revival in one of the historical advantages of the U.S. job market: the ability of workers to go where the jobs are.

For much of the past five years, falling house prices effectively locked people in their homes, since many were “underwater” – owing more on their mortgages than they could raise by selling.

As people are able to relocate more quickly, they can now go where the jobs are. This is all good news!

If you have a contingency put on a contract and you’re a buyer, it’s a good thing. If the seller gives your first right of refusal, it could be a good thing, but then again maybe not!  What does all this jargon mean?  Our former colleague Miranda Marqquit gives us a rundown of 21 real estate terms that every buyer should know on Wisebread. The most confusing?

LTV
This is the term that denotes how much equity you have in your home. Loan-to-Value looks at how much you owe as a percentage of the value of your home. If your home is worth $200,000, and you owe $150,000, your LTV is 75%.

PMI
Private mortgage insurance is required if you don’t have a down payment of at least 20%. PMI is designed to protect the lender, and if you default, the lender is reimbursed by the insurance. Once your home reaches 80% LTV, you aren’t required to pay PMI premiums anymore.

So there you have it, possibly the most confusing terminology in real estate!  What do you think? Is there anything more complicated?

This is an incredibly cute idea these parents have for baby Clara – a tour of her first house. A part of me wishes I had done that with our first house, but in reality we probably have enough home videos for them to really see it and remember it.

After having shown a lot of houses AND sitting in new construction homes, I can always always always tells when a man has designed a home vs. when a woman has been at the helm.  Don’t get me wrong – some men have exquisite taste and really can nail a design.  But when I’ve looked at homes designed by women, they really seem to get it.  For example, if there’s an inch or two left on the end of a standard set of cabinets, a smart designed will throw in a baking sheet cabinet.

Some designs, though, can go terribly wrong. From How Stuff Works, here’s one of ten design flaws they feature,

Windows that don’t open!

Sealed and shuttered windows create a safe feeling and can prevent drafts in colder climates, but they also pose a safety hazard when the need to escape from fire or other home emergencies arises. Building codes in the United States and elsewhere require exit planning, and older homes need upgrades to meet the minimum codes for safety. Likewise, concealed outer doors and windows — sometimes considered safer due to being out of sight — can become ideal spots for crime or illegal entry.

I had windows that didn’t open in my dorm room a thousand years ago. It was miserable then. It’s miserable today. Don’t make that mistake!