Trends and Articles
Doing This One Thing Before Putting Your Home on the Market Can Help Sell It Faster
You’ve lived in your home for years and haven't exactly been on top of regular maintenance tasks. Now, your windows are covered in plastic wrap to cut down on the cold drafts, your ceiling seems to be leaking, and those shrubs you planted to ...
What Is an Amortization Schedule? Mapping Out Your Mortgage Payments
What is an amortization schedule? When you borrow money to buy a home, one of the documents you’ll see is an amortization schedule provided by your mortgage lender who could be a retail bank, a mortgage bank, a mortgage broker, or other le...
Curtain Call: 3 Surprising Ways Drapes Can Help Sell Your Home
If you thought your curtains couldn’t be used for much more than hiding from nosy neighbors, think again. Curtains are one of the most underused resources when preparing a home for sale, experts say. The right set of curtains or drapes ca...
The One Thing That Can Make or Break How People Feel About Your House
Considering the time and energy homeowners put toward making their house look great (particularly if they're trying to sell), many make the critical mistake of neglecting another one of our senses that can be far more powerful: smell. Even...
Five Things I Wish I Knew Before I Built My House
Construction on our new house was about half done when the plumber went out for nearly two weeks because a cut on his finger was badly infected. That held up the electricians, who needed to run wire for all the lights, outlets and switches. Tha...
What Is an APR? Annual Percentage Rate, Explained
What is an APR? The annual percentage rate, or APR, is how much you'll pay in interest and other fees when borrowing money (e.g., when you get a mortgage loan or a credit card). APR can also be considered the total cost for borrowing money...
Staging and Selling a Home With Kids: Yes, You Can!
Staging your home is universally acknowledged as one of the most important things you can do to make it appeal to potential buyers. And while no one ever goes in thinking it'll be easy, it doesn't have to be an insane amount of work, either—...
How to Get a Mortgage: A Step-by-Step Guide for Home Buyers
If you want to buy a house but don't have oodles of cash lying around, you'll need to learn how to get a mortgage—that all-important home loan used to purchase property that you will then pay back for years or even decades to come. The va...