The Key to Great Exterior Photos of Your Home

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Right now is the time of the year when your home looks fantastic. The grass is as green as it's going to get, the flowers have bloomed, and the trees are full of leaves. If you plan on selling your home anytime in the near future, now is the time to get the most stunning outdoor photographs of the exterior of your home.

Take pictures of the front of the house, from the side of your house, and from as far back in your backyard as you can go. If you have a deck, you want to be sure to get great pictures of that as well. If you plan on listing your home in March, April, or May, your landscaping won't be looking as pristine as it does now. When the time comes, having photos from this time period to market your home will make your home stand out next to the others.

If you need any real estate assistance of any kind, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We're always available to help!

How Can You Stage on a Budget?

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If you are looking to sell your home, your goal is to get the most money possible in the shortest amount of time. One of the best ways to add value and appeal to your home is through home staging. You have a lot of options for how you want to go about it. You could hire a professional staging company, but that comes with a hefty price tag. Most of the time, a few simple fixes is all it takes to transform a living room. 

Today we are going to go through some of our most favorite, inexpensive home staging tips or you. We hope these will help you save both time and money when it comes time to sell your home.

A fresh coat of paint is always a good idea. Neutral, warm colors work best for highlighting the natural light in your home. This will make it easier to punch up the room with some colorful accessories and pull everything together.

A common design problem facing many homeowners is that they have no real entry way, as their front door opens up to the living room. To fix this, you can add a table, some lighting, and a rug to "fake a foyer" and make it feel like the living room and entryway are two different spaces.

A patterned rug, some pillows, or bright curtains add a ton of texture and an eclectic layer to the space, which is essential to a well-designed room.

In some cases, a "make-under" is just what you need. In the case of most fireplaces, taking some accessories and clutter away enhances the look and feel of the room greatly.

You could spend well over a few thousand dollars with a staging company, or you could do these fixes yourself for around $500. That's a small investment considering the value that you add to your home by adding those pieces.

If you have any questions for us about staging your home or anything else real estate related, give us a call or send over a quick email. We are always here to help, and would love to hear from you!

Why Should You Refinance Today?

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I want to apologize to you all today. I should have told you this sooner. If you are a home owner, now is the perfect time to refinance, based on market conditions. 

The average American would save around $250 per month if they refinanced today. That's $3,000 a year! If you refinance, you can make the same payment, but put that $250 back into your mortgage, so you can pay it down faster. You could also just use that $250 to pay for something else.

Our advice to you if you're considering refinancing is to call a mortgage broker, or call us if you need one. We can get you in their office and discuss your options. The Mortgage Brokers of America met and redid their forecast. They are saying that interest rates are going to start to rise at a faster rate than they have been in the past. If that's the case, now might be the lowest we see rates for quite some time. In fact, my wife and I just recently refinanced our home, when we should have done it a year ago. 

If you have any questions for us, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We want to help you take advantage of this opportunity today!