Buying furnishings is an exciting moment when you’ve just bought your first home. The idea you’re creating a haven of your very own is a chapter of life that few of us forget. Your selection of furniture is often dictated by the available budget, of course. Having just achieved the milestone of owning your first…
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Summer is a great time to enjoy the outdoors, and it’s also an opportune moment to assess how you feel about the interior of your home – is it really “doing it” for you? Is it time to step it up a notch? Interior design fashions come and go, and so it’s easy to think…
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Location is a critical element when deciding to make an offer for a new home. We focus on commute times, access to transport and healthcare facilities, the quality of schools and the distance to the local shopping centers. And that’s how it should be. Depending on the property, we might also consider the impact of…
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Life can throw the occasional curve ball, forcing us to make decisions at a speed we had not anticipated. When that happens and it means you have to sell your home, there are several strategies to maximize the value of your property. If you need to make a move quickly right now, this is the…
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As home sales across America increase and we track toward 4.03 million deals a year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) says American buyers are waiting for the Federal Reserve to cut mortgage costs to give the market a boost. NAR’s latest data says the average price of a home in America was $422,800 at…
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There are many myths in real estate. One favorite is that only spring and summer are good times to sell. This is absolutely not true, of course. There’s never a bad season to upsize or downsize. The only criteria should be when your own personal circumstances align so a property transaction makes sense in your…
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As we prepare to celebrate July 4, it’s not well-recognized that the Vote for Independence was in fact two days earlier on July 2, and it took Congress those intervening 48 hours to create and make a public statement explaining the decision. It was Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for independence that effectively declared our separation…
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One of the most important elements of a buoyant real estate market is the participation of first-time buyers. They are the bedrock on which home values continue to grow. If there is less demand at the entry-level end of the market, everyone else suffers. The good news is that property portal Realtor.com is reporting that…
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Do you ever stand in the middle of the kitchen, stretching out crumpled plastic film that’s been used for food packaging to see if you can recycle it? As much as we all want to “save the planet”, it’s not always easy. Sometimes, the packaging is clearly marked as recyclable, other times not so much.…
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Are we seeing the story of a “tale of two cities” and even a “tale of two islands” playing out in our market as buyers continue to enjoy favourable conditions while many agents now talk optimistically about “green shoots” of value growth? The latest data from the OneRoof-Valocity housing report shows the South Island performing…
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