Entries by admin

Mortgage Interest Deductions 101

Purchasing a home comes with many tangible and intangible benefits. One that is commonly overlooked until the start of the year rolls around is the deductions you get on your taxes. As a homeowner, you’re likely able to deduct most, …

Put More Money In Your Pocket Each Month

Reviewing your monthly expenses once a year is a great practice to get into. As you look at your monthly budget, you will find some expenses that are fixed, like your rent or mortgage, car payments, and child care expenses. …

Tips To Light Your Home

Lighting is such a crucial aspect of your home and can affect the ambiance, energy, and vibe in each room. However, sifting through the various styles, bulbs, and placement options can feel overwhelming. Here are a few tips to get …

Common Home Issues Inspectors Uncover

Before finalizing your home purchase, one crucial step in the process is the home inspection, during which a licensed inspector looks at the structure, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and more. Here are 5 common home issues inspectors keep an eye out …

Grocery Shopping On A Budget

As a homeowner, it’s never a bad idea to look at different ways to cut costs and one of the easiest areas to tweak is your grocery budget. Take a look at the tips below to help you tighten it …

State Of The National Real Estate Market

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the real estate market continues to trend upward. According to analytics firm CoreLogic, in November, home prices were up 8.2% year over year. Interestingly, Idaho (15.7%), Maine (15.4%), and Indiana (13.6%) were the states with the …

Your Guide To Recycling

Recycling has a positive impact on the environment for many reasons. It helps conserve natural resources, prevent waste from piling up in landfills, and protect nature. However, if not done correctly, your recycling efforts can be in vain. Here are …

Credit Scores & Buying A Home

Before you jump head first into searching for your dream home, you need to ensure your finances are in order. This includes reviewing and strengthening your credit. Here’s what you need to know!

Why Your Credit Score and Report Matters

Tips For Hiring A Moving Company

The process of moving can seem daunting, but with a little help from a reliable moving company, a lot of stress can be relieved. Here are some tips to make sure your belongings are in safe hands.

Get references from …

Organic Food 101

You’ve seen the label ‘organic’ for years now, but what does this really mean and what are the benefits to you and your family?

According to the Mayo Clinic, the word ‘organic’ references the way farmers grow and process agricultural …

Bring Some R&R Into Your Home

Your home is your oasis. A place to kick back and relax from your day. So, why not invest in some items that can boost the zen in your home? Check out the tips below to help you achieve ultimate …

Tips For Maximizing A Small Kitchen

Does your dream home come with a small kitchen? Not to fear! There are plenty of ways to get the most out of the tight space. You just have to get creative. Check out these tips!

Lighten up the area.

Closing Costs 101

What are closing costs?

Closing costs are the fees for services required to finalize your mortgage. Typically, the buyer is responsible for paying these costs unless otherwise negotiated to have the seller contribute. Fees include (but certainly are not limited …

Moving On A Budget

Purchasing a new home is likely one of the largest financial investments you will make in your lifetime. And on top of the home cost itself, there are additional expenses that come along with this life milestone, like moving costs. …

How To Save Water (and Money!) At Home

As a homeowner, if you don’t maintain good water-saving habits, you could be sending more money than necessary straight down the drain every year. Start saving by trying out the tips below!

Replace the shower head. Daily showers account for …

Build Your Ideal Home Office On A Budget

If you work from home full-time or even part-time, having a dedicated space in your home to sit down and focus is crucial. It should be a comfortable, organized space and everything you need should be easily accessible. And, luckily, …

Must-haves For Your First Home

You’ve just purchased your first home and it’s time to start filling it up. But, where to start? Below is a list of must-haves for each room in your home!

Living room. Aside from standard furniture, like a couch, chairs, …

How To Use Mirrors To Feng Shui Your Home

Feng shui is the practice of using spatial arrangement and orientation to create synergistic, harmonious surroundings in a room or home. Mirrors of many shapes and sizes are often used to achieve this because they help bring light and movement …

5 Harmful Homeowner Habits To Break

Being a homeowner is one of the biggest milestones in your life. You feel excited and proud to take care of your new house and truly turn it into a home for you and your family. To keep your house …

Why You Should Invest In A Rental Property

Investing in real estate can be a great alternative to traditional investments and many owners choose to rent out their property. Here are some of the top benefits for getting into this line of business!

Increase over time. Money being …

Dealing With Scratched Hardwood Floors

Hardwood floors are highly desirable for most homeowners, but they come with their share of challenges when it comes to cleaning, maintenance, and repairs. After a few months or years of heavy use from kids playing with toys and chairs …

From Decorating To Staging

There is a difference between the two and here’s how to get your home ready to sell. Once you’ve decided to put your home on the market you’re looking to sell quickly for the best possible price. One tactic that …

How To Vet An Offer

Many sellers may be tempted to select the highest offer they receive, but there are several other factors to consider. Here are five areas important to evaluate.

Down payment. The size of the down payment should be heavily considered when …

Going Green Starts In The Kitchen

Living an environmentally-friendly lifestyle and helping to keep our planet clean isn’t as difficult as you may think. All it takes is a few small tweaks. To start, here are five great tips for going green in your kitchen!

Filter

Organize Your Closet Like A Champ

Do you desire a closet that looks like it’s straight out of a magazine? Then we have you covered! Follow the tips below to masterfully organize your closet and give yourself peace of mind.

Group like clothing items together. Group …

How Big Of A Home Do You Need?

When buying a new house, it’s easy to get distracted by size and think that bigger is better. However, depending on your situation, the opposite may be true.

So how can you determine if your new home is too small, …

Ready To Go Rustic?

Rustic and farmhouse interior design are still in, and it isn’t going anywhere any time soon! If you’re ready to hop on board this trend, try introducing some of these favorite ideas into a room in your home. Take a …

How To Save Money While Landscaping

Revamping your landscaping can be a huge undertaking. It takes a lot of time, effort, and money. So how can you give the exterior of your home a facelift without breaking the bank or taking out a second mortgage. There …

Prepping To Buy Your First Home

One of the biggest milestones you will reach in your life will be deciding to become a homeowner. But before you take the leap, make sure you set yourself up for easy transaction and a good homebuying experience. Check out …

How To Get Ready For Retirement

For most people, retirement feels like a long way off. But, if you don’t start preparing as early as possible, you may find yourself in a place of financial insecurity when the time does come. To avoid this, consider implementing …

Prep Your Pets For The Big Move

Your moving day is set and it’s time to start preparing. As you’re making your lists and checking them twice, don’t forget to factor in your furry friends. Here are some tips for making sure the process goes smoothly.

Medical

Top Tips For Disinfecting Your Home

In the current world we live in, it’s incredibly important to put a focus on finding strategies to keep ourselves and our families safe and healthy. Although our homes should be our safe place, germs and bacteria can be carried …

Boost Your Internet Speeds

Nothing is more irritating than carefully selecting the perfect amount of bandwidth for you and your family just to experience spotty and oftentimes slow internet speeds while at home. And now more than ever, it is crucial that you have …

Is Downsizing Right For You?

Downsizing your home is not just for empty-nesters. There are numerous reasons and situations where this path could be the right one for you and your family!

Minimizing

Owning a large home and property comes with a large responsibility like …

Reasons To Maintain A Phone-free Bedroom

In this day and age, our smartphones have become just another limb, permanently fixed to our bodies. So, the idea of keeping phones out of the bedroom seems like such a foreign concept. However, here are 5 reasons you should …

Reasons To Maintain A Phone-free Bedroom

In this day and age, our smartphones have become just another limb, permanently fixed to our bodies. So, the idea of keeping phones out of the bedroom seems like such a foreign concept. However, here are 5 reasons you should …

Why You Need To Work With A Buyer’s Agent

The home buying process can be exciting and fun, but also complicated, stressful, and overwhelming. Maximize your chance of success and minimize the amount of time spent trying to keep track of all the details by working with a buyer’s …

Why You Need To Work With A Buyer’s Agent

The home buying process can be exciting and fun, but also complicated, stressful, and overwhelming. Maximize your chance of success and minimize the amount of time spent trying to keep track of all the details by working with a buyer’s …

Happier Hardwood Floors

Tips for cleaning your beautiful hardwood floors and keeping them looking great.

Hardwood floors make for a beautiful, stunning addition to your home. However, they can bring new cleaning and maintenance challenges that aren’t present with carpet. Here are some …

Revamp Your At-home Workspace

Nothing ruins a workday like not having a designated, comfortable place to work from. And when you are working from home, whether it be temporarily or indefinitely, setting up a great workspace gets even tougher. However, your productivity and body …

Give Your Deck A Facelift

Hanging out with your family or hosting friends on your old, dingy deck is not very appealing. Lucky for you, refreshing it doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Try your hand at the makeover ideas below!

Restore your decking.

Give Your Deck A Facelift

Hanging out with your family or hosting friends on your old, dingy deck is not very appealing. Lucky for you, refreshing it doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Try your hand at the makeover ideas below!

Restore your decking.

Upsizing Your Home

Unfortunately our homes don’t always grow with us. What may have initially worked fine for a single person, a young couple’s starter home, or a family with a newborn can quickly become too small as families expand and multiple generations …

New Home, Better Living

When you’re house hunting, focus on the things that will improve your quality of life.

There are so many factors that go into a home buying decision that it can make your head spin—especially if you’re in a competitive market …

Need-to-knows For Smart-home Technology

Homeowners have the ability to automate anything from locks to lights to air conditioning and more. With new technology popping up every day, it’s hard to stay up to date on the smart-home trend.

If you are considering installing smart-home …

Five Steps For Organizing Your Garage

For many people the garage is the place you mindlessly store stuff just to get it out of the way, and before you know it, you’ve got a cluttered mess on your hands. Here are five steps toward organizing your …

Ideas For Accent Walls

An accent wall can totally transform a room, taking it from boring and drab to bold and exciting. Accent walls create a new focal point for your space, add liveliness and contrast, and are typically a very inexpensive DIY project.…

Maximizing Your Outdoor Space

You’ve found the perfect home and it has everything you’ve ever dreamed of. Spacious, modern kitchen. Gloriously open floor plan. Giant bedrooms. Great location and neighborhood. The only downside is the backyard is slightly smaller than you’d hoped. But no …

Feng Shui With The Best Of Them

Feng shui is the Chinese tradition of balancing your home to achieve benefits and advantages associated with your health, finances, career, relationships, and more.

There are many ways to create good feng shui in your home, starting with your bedroom. …

Staging Strategies For Your Home

Staging your home is all about putting the best foot forward for potential buyers. By highlighting its most desirable features, you can draw more interest for your home and leave a lasting impression that is sure to help you sell …

Spice Up Your Kitchen With A Pop Of Color

In the past few years, the biggest kitchen trends revolved around stainless steel appliances, bright white or light gray cupboards, granite countertops, and minimalist decor, maintaining a clean, sleek look. And although this style maintains its popularity among homeowners, color …

Five Hidden Renovation Costs

Renovations never seem to go as planned. There’s always a cost you didn’t anticipate, or a problem that didn’t reveal itself until the project was underway. Here are five common costs to look out for.

Higher utility bills: If contractors …

Tips For A Better Closing Day

Buying a home can be a long process. The last thing you want after all your time spent searching for homes and getting the best mortgage rate is to have everything go wrong on closing day. Here are five tips …

Tips For Maintaining Houseplants

Adding plants to your home will give it a fresher and brighter feel and will also improve your home’s air quality. Although it does take a little bit of work and consistency to maintain your plants, but it’s well worth …

Need-to-knows For Buying Your First Home

Buying your first home can be one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of your life, but it can also be a scary and stressful process. To ensure you have a smooth transaction from start to finish, familiarize yourself …

Wallpaper: Don’t Call It A Comeback!

Guess who’s back, back again? Wallpaper has risen to the top of homeowners’ favorite ways to spice up a room again and its easy to see why.

Options

With a variety of colors, patterns, and styles on the market, it’s …

Tips For Speeding Up Your Home Sale

Selling your home is a huge undertaking to begin with, but if the process drags on for months and interest trickles in much slower than expected, it can be frustrating and stressful. To avoid this, there are a few steps …

Mortgage Rate Math

Shopping around for the best possible mortgage terms is an important part of the home buying process. A few percentage points can make a difference of thousands of dollars over the life of the mortgage. Mortgage rates can be a …

New Home? Here’s How To Save

Here are a few things new homeowners can do to save on energy and maintenance.

When you’ve just purchased a new home, there’s a ton on your mind. There’s moving, decorating, getting to know your new neighborhood, and more. Here …

Create The Gallery Wall Of Your Dreams

Creating a gallery wall in your home is an easy, do-it-yourself way to bring your personal style into any room. There is no right or wrong way to create one and no limit to the possibilities. Before you get started, …

Big Ideas For Small Spaces

Smaller rooms can be difficult to decorate, because if you don’t know a few important tricks, the space can end up feeling a little claustrophobic. Here’s how you can keep a room feeling airy and spacious, even if it’s just …

What Affects Your Home Insurance?

Research suggests that about 1 in 20 homeowners will make an insurance claim each year. So while it may seem that your monthly home insurance expenses aren’t worthwhile, the chances of needing your insurance are higher than you might think.…

Things You Should Not Throw in the Trash

Most of us fall into the habit of disposing of all of our household items when they’ve broken, expired, or simply are no longer useful. But for environmental and safety reasons, here are some items that need to be disposed …

5 Hot Home Trends

When selling a home, it is incredibly important to consider who you are selling to and what they are looking for. Fixr recently surveyed influencers in the industry to discover who’s in the market to buy and what home features …

5 Simple Steps For A Better Home Appraisal

If you’re looking to refinance your home or possibly sell, you’ll need an amazing appraisal. A bank will not refinance a home for more than it is worth, and a potential buyer will not pay more than the recognized value …

Prep Your Budget For Buying A Home

Choosing to enter the home buying process is likely the largest financial decision you will make in your lifetime, so it is not one that should be taken lightly. Ensuring that your other current and upcoming financial responsibilities are under …

Top Tips For Decorating With Area Rugs

Looking for a fun way to bring an additional pop of color or design to a room with minimal time or money investment? Consider trying out an amazing area rug! Check out these tips for revamping your space with this …

4 Things You Need To Know About Making An Offer

You’ve narrowed down your wish list, viewed many homes, and finally found your perfect fit. Time to take the leap and make an offer! This can be both incredibly intimidating and exponentially exciting. So how can you throw your hat …

Create The Home Office Of Your Dreams

Whether you work full-time at home or occasionally need to conduct business in the evenings or on the weekends, a home office a great way to utilize an extra room. A dedicated workspace in your home can be designed to …

Remodeling Mistakes You Should Avoid

Remodeling your home? If so, there’s some planning required on your part before you dive into whatever project you’re working on. Keep in mind that while certain things you do will help the project in a positive way, there are …

Affordable Ways To Enhance Your Bathroom On A Budget

Updated Accessories

Accessories can never be underestimated, no matter what room you’re using them in. You can easily create a luxe look by sprinkling your bathroom with opulent accessories such as candles, perfume bottles, soap dispensers, and others to make

4 Ways to Give Your Home A Fresh New Look

Freshly Painted Walls

Perhaps the easiest and most cost-effective way to give your home a fresh new look is to simply give the walls a fresh coat of paint. Newly painted walls can give a home a new and updated …

Top Tips For House Hunting Online

Hunting for a new home online is a great place to start your search, but it should not be your end all be all. Good listing agents are excellent at highlighting the best features of the home, but keep in …

Finding The Right Mattress

You’ve got more options than ever when mattress shopping these days with no shortage of brick-and-mortar and online-only retailers to choose from. Here are the factors you should consider when you’re shopping for a perfect night’s sleep.

1. Mattress construction:

Dispelling Refinancing Myths

“Refinancing” is a scary word for many people, but that shouldn’t be the case for you. For many homeowners, refinancing can not only lower your monthly payments and help with your monthly budget, but it can save you thousands of …

5 Negotiating Tactics That Can Hurt A Sale

Negotiation is a subtle art in real estate, but skilled negotiators can usually find some common ground that satisfies all parties. On the other hand, using the wrong negotiation tactics can sink a deal pretty quickly. Here are some negotiation …

8 Must-Have Tools For Every Homeowner

From replacing cabinet doors, to burned-out light bulbs, to everything in between, all sorts of scenarios will sneak up on a regular basis in your home that will require your handiwork. Even things like hanging a picture on the wall …

Short Sale And Foreclosure: What Sets Them Apart?

As unfortunate as it can be when homeowners fall behind on mortgage payments and must face the possibility of losing their homes, short sales and foreclosures provide them options for moving on financially. The terms are often used interchangeably, but …

4 Ways To Eat Organic Food On A Budget

Organic food usually tastes better, and is better for you, but it can also be very expensive compared to non-organic products. Organic food can cost nearly 50 percent more, thanks to the extra labor required to produce it and consumers’ …

Priority Tasks For Your Move In

Moving into a new home is an exciting time, and you’re probably daydreaming about decor and paint schemes and new furniture. But before you get into the fun stuff, there are some basics you should cover first.

Change the locks

5 Criteria For Pricing A Home

When you put your home up for sale, one of the best ways to determine the asking price is to look at comparable sales. There’s rarely a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, so a pricing decision often relies on comparisons to several …

Consider This: When To Refinance

Refinancing your mortgage is something most homeowners consider at least once throughout the lifespan of their home loan. It allows you to pay off your previous loan by applying for a new one that has better financial advantages. While there …