The sun will always rise in the east and set in the west. All people will someday die and, as long as you make a certain amount of money, you’ll always pay taxes. There are some things in life we cannot change, no matter how much we wish otherwise. Real estate, too, has its immutable laws and there are three…

It happens to the best of us – one day you’re gainfully employed and the next day you’re not. Despite the fact that the nation’s unemployment rate is at a 17-year low and job growth is strong, layoffs are still occurring. While unemployment rates have fallen in many other cities across the nation, in a dozen or so states they…

Want to make an extra $1,500 on the sale of your home? Paint the front door dark gray or navy blue, according to a study by Zillow. Nab another $1,500 by painting the home’s exterior greige (a mix of beige and gray). Or, you can leave that taupe or medium brown paint alone and take a chance on losing nearly…

Even if you aren’t considering selling your home in the near future, a finished basement offers more living space – something most homeowners dream about. If you are considering selling, you’ll recoup 70 percent of the cost of the remodel, according to Remodeling Magazine’s 2017 Cost vs. Value Report. Furthermore, keeping your basement-finish budget to no more than 10 percent…

Writers have a target audience in mind as they peck away on the keyboard. Radio DJs are admonished to hold a mental image of their audience (one person of a certain age group, by the way) every time they open the mic. And, the key to success for professional marketers is to “know your audience.” The latter uses market research…

What on earth are you doing with all that stuff? You do know that you can make money by selling it, right? One man’s (or woman’s) trash is another’s treasure and a garage sale is the perfect way to feed that guy’s treasure craving. The most successful garage sales are planned and prepared meticulously. So, let’s look at some tips…

There are few things in life more frustrating than that longing to own your own home combined with the very real fact that your bank account is a bit on the skimpy side. The media is full of stories about shrinking home inventories and multiple-offer situations so there areobviously others who have found a way to swing the dream of…

When trying to forecast the future housing market, most experts look at pending home sales. If they’re consistently trending upward, we can comfortably look forward to a robust near-future. For most of this year, the pending home sale statistics have looked like a rollercoaster, with three consecutive months of declines until June, when they began increasing again. With ever-shrinking inventories…

The United States is home to more than 350,000 homeowner associations (HOA). This represents more than half of all owner-occupied homes in the country, according to HOA-USA. This means that the chances are good that the home you will fall in love with will be in a managed community (governed by an HOA). While not all HOAs are the evil,…