Articles Tagged "Home improvement"

A nice green, lush yard is attractive, but if it's loaded with chemicals, that beauty may come with a price. Chemicals can be harmful to the environment, and their warning labels may make you understandably wary of exposing yourself and your kids to these substances. That's why more people are going organic when it comes to lawn care. If you choose this route, however, you'll need to research exactly what works and what doesn't.

Our REALTORS® share the following organic lawn care tips that actually work:

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Smart home technology is becoming more popular as a greater number of devices use Wi-Fi connectivity to make our homes more efficient and comfortable. Some can even help reduce your energy bills and make your home more secure. And when it comes time to put your home on the market, smart technology devices like water monitors can be a selling point that appeals to many prospective buyers and sets your home apart from others for sale.

Our REALTORS® suggest investing in some of the following smart home tech:

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Colors of the Year, which are named by color experts as well as paint companies, can help refresh and inspire your home decor in the new year. 2022's shades range from a vibrant periwinkle to a chocolatey brown, and they'll each bring a new feel and versatility to your decor.

Our REALTORS® share the following 2022 Colors of the Year, including tips on how to best incorporate them into your home to achieve the look you want:

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Whether you're decorating your new home or are refreshing the one you've lived in for years, it helps to have a sense of what your unique decor style is. This information can help guide your decorating decisions so you can create rooms you love.
  
Our REALTORS® suggest the following ways to find your unique decor style:

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It's easy to look at photos on your phone, but by making prints of these special moments, you can have the basis for some interesting and meaningful displays for your home. Photos can be used in a wide variety of ways and can help personalize and add visual interest to any room.

Our REALTORS® share the following ways to rethink your family photos while improving your home decor:

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The foyer is an important but often overlooked part of the home that serves as its entryway. It's the first place your family and guests see as they enter or exit your home, and the same is true of prospective home buyers if you're currently trying to sell your home, so it makes a vital first impression. Your foyer is also the spot where you tend to shed your jacket and take off your shoes or where your kids scramble for sporting equipment or backpacks.

Instead of neglecting this area, fix your foyer up so it's attractive and functional. Our REALTORS® suggest the following improvements to help your foyer give off the right first impression:

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Spring is finally here! And as nature starts fresh in spring, it's also a great time to give your home a deep cleaning and keep it well organized. Our REALTORS® suggest kicking off your spring cleaning with these tips:

• Streamline your cleaning supplies. 
  You don't need a specialized cleaner to make your home fresh and clean. Buy a good all-purpose cleaner and some microfiber cloths, which will cover most of your cleaning, and you can buy others only as needed. You can also make your own homemade cleaner by combining ¾ cup water, ¾ cup rubbing alcohol, 5 to 10 drops of essential oil, and 1 squirt of dish soap. This can be used on appliances, sinks, and quartz, granite, and marble counters.

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If you're looking for a place to manage some of your clutter, your attic is a natural storage spot. But since this room is often unfinished and prone to pests, leaks, mold, and extreme temperature changes, it will take a little planning to make the most of your attic storage and ensure your items last for years. Short of a major revamp, there are plenty of storage ideas that can help transform an attic into the ideal version of itself. Our REALTORS® have put together a few tips to help you manage the process and optimize your attic space.

• Assess the Attic Floor
  Placing items on non-weight-bearing surfaces can be dangerous. Before you start storing things in your attic, consult a professional to determine if the area is structurally sound and the joists can bear weight. If your attic is structurally sound, you can convert empty spaces and floor areas into usable storage options by resting a plywood board or attic decking panels over strong joists.

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If you're looking at Midland homes for sale, you may tour dozens of properties before you find a perfect fit. Finding a home with adequate space and style may seem like a challenge, but it's not impossible with help from professionals like our REALTORS® who understand your needs.

Everyone's dream home is different, but flooring is one feature that's important to all homeowners. While some people prefer the natural appeal of hardwood floors, others prefer the cushion of carpet under their feet. Choosing between hardwood and carpet can greatly impact style, durability, maintenance, and costs. Here's what you should know about each.

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Drafty windows can be a major annoyance. They can make the temperature inside your home consistently unpleasant, and even small leaks can affect your heating bill. If you've recently noticed a chill, try one of these tips from our REALTORS® to find the source and stop that leak.

1. Look for possible leaks inside and out.
   Visually inspect around the windows for holes, cracks, or gaps in caulk, and damaged or missing weather stripping. These are all places the cold air can get in.

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Selling your home comes with many tasks, chores, and steps that all go toward closing. Most of these things are meant to make your home appealing to buyers and get that offer. But selling a home is more than just accepting an offer. After showing buyers how good your home looks, you need to convince them that it's in a state worth buying. This is where a home inspection comes in. A home inspection is often a deciding factor for the majority of home buyers, so you want to make sure it goes well. Here are our REALTORS® home inspection tips for sellers.

• Rely on the Expertise of Your Real Estate Agent
  In addition to marketing the house, your listing agent should also help you improve your home to make it more appealing. Your agent will know what the inspector will be looking for and will be alert for issues that you may miss, such as insect and mold issues, furnace issues, roofing problems, leaks, or structural problems. They will also know how best to approach them. Real estate agents also have superior negotiation skills. When the inspection report arrives, they will know what constitutes grounds for negotiations and what does not. It's your agent's job to see to it that you get the best possible deal.

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There's no time like the present to settle in and nest in your home. Whether you have a large yard or a small garden, our REALTORS® have come across plenty of fabulous ideas that can breathe a bit of fresh air into your landscape. The following are seven of our favorite weekend projects that you will want to put on your "to-do" list. 

1. Add Shutters and Flower Boxes
   Shutters and flower boxes are easy to attach to your windows and railings. Adding the right shutters can add depth and dimension to your home's appearance, and the flowers that bloom right outside the window are guaranteed to brighten up even the gloomiest days.

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With many of us seeing the inside of our homes much more of than usual, you might have decided it's time for a little updating. Some of these tasks might be on your mind anyway if you'll be adding your home to the list of Midland homes for sale in the near future. These home improvements are easy to take on even if you're sheltering in place.

• Declutter. Our REALTORS® always suggest sellers start here, but it's a good idea even if you're just trying to get a new look. Decluttering will make the space look neater and more organized. Getting rid of things you no longer need frees up space for other uses and helps you see exactly what you have to work with.

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Virtual tours aren't new to the real estate industry but they're perhaps bigger — and more important — today than ever before. Virtual tours offer a number of benefits to both buyers and sellers. Buyers can conveniently take walk-throughs of properties all around the world, viewing as many spaces as they wish before committing to an in-person walk-through. Sellers, in turn, only receive qualified and motivated buyers at their doorstep and the decreased cleaning requirements also save them money in the long-run. If you're planning on listing your house alongside other Midland homes for sale, here are a few tips from our REALTORS® that will help you prep your home for a successful virtual tour.

• Begin With the Basics
  Your virtual tour preparation begins with the same basic open house preparation. You should create a checklist of all of the cleaning and maintenance tasks that you need to complete. Separate these by room so you can close each space off as you finish.

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If your home has a bonus room, you already know the benefits of having extra space. Our REALTORS® love homes with these spaces because it allows buyers extra flexibility that they just can't get with other Midland homes for sale. Even if you're just beginning to think of putting your home on the market, there's no time like the present to define your bonus room.

The following five tips will help you make the most out of your bonus room while also avoiding a few of the most common mistakes. 

1. Consider Potential Buyers
   The first thing you'll want to do is get a clear idea of the type of buyer who is likely to be interested in your home. If your neighborhood is family-oriented, then showcasing your extra room as a children's playroom or a fun game room might be a great idea. However, if you're in a trendy, professional area then buyers may find a well-designed home office or an entertainment space far more appealing.

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Our REALTORS® know a little extra useable space is something that buyers are always looking for. With telecommuting, self-employment, and freelancing all on the rise, turning that extra space into an office is likely to be just the thing to make your home stand out from other Midland homes for sale. Here's how make an eye-catching and functional office space in your home.

• Declutter.
  If you're not quite sure where you could put an office space, the first step would be to do a little decluttering. Once you've cleared out things you don't need, you'll have more room to work with. If you already have a space in mind, decluttering is still a good place to start. And after your office is complete, make a regular appointment with yourself to keep it decluttered.

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Decluttering has been a big trend this year. And while you're browsing Midland homes for sale, you might be thinking that you should declutter before you move. These tips will help you through every step of the decluttering process so you can enter your new home and enjoy a completely fresh start.

Why Moving is the Perfect Time to Declutter

If you aren't using something, why go through the trouble of moving it to your new home? This is the biggest reason why moving is the perfect time to declutter. Plus, many moving companies charge by the box. This means that if you don't declutter, you'll end up paying to move things you can't even remember the last time you used.

Decluttering can also be advantageous when you're selling your current home. Our REALTORS® say that a cluttered house looks smaller. By getting the clutter out of the way, you can make your house look more open and inviting to potential buyers.

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If you're getting ready to put your home on the market in 2019, you'll be looking for ways to update it to wow potential buyers. A fresh coat of paint is a great place to start. Painting your home—inside and out—can have a huge impact on its overall appearance, and is one of the fastest and least expensive ways to make it stand out from the crowd of Midland homes for sale. So what do you need to know about painting your Midland home to sell in 2019?

Why Prioritize Paint?

A good paint job can help you as a seller make a quick and lucrative sale. It's a great—and very economical—way to give your home a fresh, bright, and modern appearance. Painting to sell is especially important if you have a home customized to suit your unique sense of style, adding bold accent walls, murals, or wallpaper, for example. While you may love these personalized touches, people have different tastes, so some potential buyers can be put off by them.

Light, bright, spacious, and neutral is the look you need to go for to appeal to the widest range of buyers. The goal is to allow most anyone to be able to visualize how they could furnish and decorate the space to their liking—without having to paint over colors that might clash with their preferred color scheme.

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As the weather gets warmer, it's time to pack up sweaters, coats, and boots in favor of shorts, t-shirts, and sandals. Your home is also ready to shake off winter and get a fresh new look for spring. Follow this handy checklist from our REALTORS® to have your home in Midland ready to wow the spring buyers.

1. Inspect the Roof
   April showers bring May flowers, but they can also bring mold and other interior problems if your home has a leaky roof. If you'd rather not climb a ladder, use binoculars to look for missing or damaged shingles. Contact a professional roofer to handle any necessary repairs.
   
   

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When your Midland home is up for sale, how do you make it stand out above all the others on the market? Staged homes have the potential to sell faster than non-staged homes and at the price you want.

Proper staging takes a bit of time, but it doesn't have to take a lot of money. Here are some great staging tips our REALTORS® have learned from successfully showing Midland homes for sale. 

• Clean and Declutter
  This might seem like a no-brainer, but it's worth emphasizing. Clutter and disarray make a home look smaller and not well maintained. Box up unnecessary items and put them in storage, then give the house a serious deep-cleaning. Hire a cleaning service if need be; it's worth the cost.
  
  

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