Category: Homes
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Homes
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: DIY Until You Can't
When it comes to tackling household projects, I think it's safe to assume that most homeowners see two potential paths: hiring someone to do it for them or doing it themselves. Yet, I'm here to argue that there's a third, hybrid option. In fact, it's the approach my wife and I just took. I like to call it "DIY Until You Can't." Our DIY Until You Can't Story As I've...
Homes
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: It's Going to Be a Long Spring
I know that Spring is supposed to be an exciting and beautiful time. Yet, I find that, more and more, it's the season I dread the most. That's partially because of what the pollen and other airborne particles do to my allergies — but also because of how the Spring season affects me as a homeowner. So why am I so down on this blooming season? Here are a few key...
Homes
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: The "Magic" of Virtual Staging
A few weeks ago, a "For Sale" sign went up in front of our next-door neighbor's house. This was pretty expected on our end since they haven't been living in the home for months and had only been by a few times to do some work on the place. Anyway, once I saw the sign (and it opened up my eyes), I headed to Zillow to check out the listing....
Homes
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: Preparing for a Snow Storm
Like much of the country, it seems that we in Springfield, Missouri are in for a winter storm this weekend (sidenote: I'm very relieved to be flying home on Thursday and not any later). With this being the third winter since we bought our house, we have some idea of how to handle snowy conditions in terms of managing our property. Yet, you never truly know what to expect —...
Homes
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: A Long-Held Housing Market Problem is Clearing
If you've had trouble finding many homes for sale in your area of interest over the past several years, you've probably been told a theory of why that might be. The logic goes that since many homebuyers were able to obtain mortgages with interest rates of 3% or less during rough economic times, they were reluctant to sell. Potential home sellers seemed to opt for staying put rather than moving...
Homes
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: The Spam and Scams Don't Stop
When we closed on our house, our mortgage broker and the title company warned us that we'd likely be getting a bevy of junk mail related to our new homeowner status. That's because, at least in Missouri, the transaction is public record. In turn, various companies take the opportunity to target us — and some of these operations don't appear as ethical as others. Having survived that initial influx of spam...
Homes
