Private mortgage insurance, also known as PMI, is cursed by homebuyers when, without it, many of them wouldn’t have been approved for the mortgage used to buy their home. Yes, it makes house payments higher and, yes, it sticks around far too long. Worse, although it’s called “insurance,” it does nothing to protect the homeowner. Its sole beneficiary is the…

Have you ever noticed that information and advice for first-time homebuyers is plentiful across the internet? What happens when you look for that same information and advice for first-time home sellers? Crickets While buying a home for the first time is somewhat confusing until the process is explained, selling one for the first time is even more so. This is…

Wire fraud is a very common problem these days. NAR General Counsel Katie Johnson provided a summary of the problem recently on realtor.org. She said, “Hackers are gaining access to e-mail accounts through captured passwords, and they’ll search inboxes for messages related to real estate transactions. Once they find a victim who’s in the process of buying a home, they’ll…

Insurance is a necessary evil – we buy it, hoping we’ll never need it. After all, it’s a hedge against catastrophe. The sheer cost of replacing a home with custom finishes, and the fact that high-end homes may contain priceless works of art, expensive vehicles and irreplaceable values, makes the process of insuring luxury homes far different from insuring other…

You know those gloomy weekend days when you just can’t stand the thought of heading outdoors and and Netflix has nothing new to offer? Have we got a job for you! Take a look at the grout in your tile floors. Rather gross, right? Unless you suffer from ablutomania (we’ll wait while you go look it up), those spaces have…

More than 1,500 years ago, a double-hulled canoe full of Polynesians landed at Ka Lae, on the southern coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. If they came from the Marquesas Islands, as many archaeologists believe, it was a journey of 2,500 miles, using only the stars to navigate. It’s a safe bet that none of these first settlers ever…

If you’re one of those people who won’t buy a product or use a service until you’ve checked the online reviews, then you are as pleased as we are with the proliferation of review sites. Do you ever wonder if a lot of the glowingly positive reviews are fake? Hey, we don’t blame you – skepticism is healthy. And, thankfully,…

We all get complacent when it comes to safety factors in our homes, so let’s make 2018 the year we look at our sanctuaries with an eye toward making them safer. We’ve compiled some tips on how to prevent the three most common types of home injuries. Falls Falls are the most common accidents that occur in the home and…

Negotiating the successful close of a home sale begins with price and contract terms and doesn’t end until the deal closes. One of the most frequently negotiated items, after the aforementioned price and terms, has to do with the home inspection results. They’re also among the most contentious negotiations. Very few home inspections are “clean,” meaning there’s not a thing…

All those gorgeous windows that allow summertime sunshine to stream through the home are useless to view the winter wonderland outside if the glass is covered in fog. When that frosty outdoor air hits the heated glass of a window, it’s inevitable that the result will be condensation. There is a way to foil this natural process, however. What causes…

The real estate industry does a spectacular job educating first-time homebuyers. There’s so much valuable information out there that no buyer should go through the process uninformed. Buying a home in a new community – a brand-new home that no-one has ever lived in – is not only first-time homebuying on steroids, but the industry has left the homebuyer behind…