Many homeowners enjoy the summer because it allows them to get outdoors and plant flowers, shrubbery and other yard accents. A home is a large real estate investment, and for many owners, their yard is an extension of their house. Maintaining a well-manicured lawn is not a difficult or tedious task, but it does require [...]
There are lots of things you can do to add a bit of curb appeal to your home (learn lots of our favorite tricks in our Ultimate Guide to Curb Appeal!), but you'll find that one of the simplest and most impact changes you can make is with a touch of color. Jenni Radosevich, author of [...]
When you make the decision to sell your home, it can be tricky to know which changes would make your home sell more quickly or boost the sale price — and which would just be a waste of your time and resources. Each home (and each homeowner) is different; that’s why we’ve come up with [...]
About 20 years, most hardwood floors start showing their age; scratches, dullness and discoloring are the most common signs that the wood is due for refinishing. Fortunately, the typical ¾-inch-thick hardwood floor can be sanded about six to eight times during its lifetime. So unless you live in a particularly old house, or a previous [...]
The promises of a reverse mortgage -- never having to pay a mortgage bill again and using your home's equity to finance retirement -- can sound too good to be true. It almost was too good to be true during the Great Recession, when more borrowers were withdrawing most of their home equity at closing [...]
Energy prices may fluctuate from time to time, making it difficult for homeowners to estimate their monthly bills. However, there are a few actions individuals can take to keep their costs low without sacrificing efficiency. More owners conduct energy audits after initially buying a home, but it’s important to keep up on these examinations over [...]
I bought a house for a bit under $2 million in Los Altos, Calif., (about average for around here). The seller and I were both represented by (different) agents from the same local branch office. I was encouraged by my agent to bid aggressively for the house as “several disclosure packets had gone out” and [...]
Many existing homeowners choose summer time to spruce up their homes and make upgrades or improvements. While some home features, such as formal living rooms, have waned in popularity as of late, there are several common improvement projects that consumers still turn toward, to increase space and improve their real estate value. Storage Space Built-in [...]
New Study Reflects America's Changing Views on Marriage Should couples wait until marriage? Times are changing, and a new study from Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC uncovered that about one in four married couples between the ages of 18 to 34 purchased their first home together before their wedding date, compared to 14 percent of those [...]
