Factors to Consider Before Building a Home

When it comes to buying a home or building one, some consumers choose the latter. Building a home allows them to design their house to their particular needs and specifications. In addition, it gives consumers more control over the building products that are used, how green their home will be and the custom rooms and features the property will exhibit, according to U.S. News and World Report.

However, for all the benefits building a home can bring, there are still other factors individuals should consider that may influence their decision. Read more

How to Stage Your Home for Sale

dining room How to Stage Your Home for SaleLast week we dedicated an entire week to content for the first time home buyer looking to gain some knowledge before entering the real estate market for the first time. We got lots of good feedback, but one comment asked a very appropriate question, “What about those selling a home?”

Selling your home is an arduous task and it’s hard to know where to get started. One of the first things you’ll want to tackle is making sure your home is staged and ready for those home shoppers. Any seasoned Coldwell Banker real estate professional can help you with this, but we understand sometimes you may want to get things prepped yourself.

The video above will give you some useful tips on how to stage your home for sale. The insights come from the experts at the Real Estate Staging Association who know how to get a home ready to sell.

Take a look at the video above and if you’ve sold your home before share any staging tips that you found useful in the comments.

Home of the Week: A White House in San Francisco

In the second video version of our ‘Home of the Week‘ series, we move from Southern California up to the Bay Area to look at an architectural masterpiece in San Francisco.

What immediately strikes you about this dramatically beautiful home is its uncanny resemblance to the White House. No doubt, this $8.9 million home isn’t on Pennsylvania Avenue, but it’s every bit as luxurious and stunning as its D.C. counterpart.

The home features over 8,000 square feet of truly luxurious living space. From the retractable skylights to the meticulously manicured terrace and gardens, on over to the wine vault and museum-like u shaped gallery; you’d be hard pressed to ever want to leave this estate if you called it ‘home‘.

As per usual, my favorite part of this home would have to be the lower level theater with the projection screen and ultra comfortable seats. A close second would be the playroom located on the same level that could used as a home gym, arcade or basketball court!

Our newest ‘Home of the Week’ is so lovely that it sold within the week since we filmed this episode! We’re sure that plenty of memories will be made by whoever bought this beautiful home. Enjoy!

Real Estate Headlines for the Week Before Memorial Day

While summer doesn’t officially arrive until June, Memorial Day acts as the unofficial kickoff to those summer days. While we are still seven days away from Memorial Day, this is the week that your home starts to transform as you prep for the potential pending BBQ or bringing the outdoor furniture up from the basement. So while you start thinking about all the stuff you have to do this week, let’s ease you into the Memorial Day mood with your weekly dose of real estate headlines:

Tom Cruise is rumored to be selling his Greenwich Village townhouse in NYC.

KCM Blog has a really interesting infographic showing the economic impact of a home sale across the country.

Mortgage rates look to be trending upward.

Think owning a Frank Lloyd Wright home would be pretty great? The Wall Street Journal shares the pleasures and pitfalls of owning a home made by a legend.

This is pretty cool: Use an old bathtub to turn your backyard into a soothing oasis.

About.com has some tips on how to avoid home buyer’s remorse.

Here’s an interesting study on how age and personal finance affect your home preference.

Check out a map that show where home prices have increased since 2009.

And finally, if you missed out on our week’s worth of content dedicated to first time home buyers, click here to see our entire library of first time home buyer content.

Tour the Luxury Miami Home of Kim and Kourtney Kardashian

kim kardashian Tour the Luxury Miami Home of Kim and Kourtney KardashianWhether you love them or hate them, there’s no denying that Kim Kardashian and her family have made a name for themselves. And they have ridiculously nice taste in homes.

Proof of the latter can be seen in the video above which comes to us from our friends over at NBC’s LXTV Open House who got a tour of the home Kim Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian lived in during their recent stint in Miami while shooting their reality show. Read more

Real Estate 101: What is a Walk Through?

Our next post in our real estate terminology series brings us to the walk through. A walk through is more important than one might think.

In the video above Diann Patton of Coldwell Banker Grass Roots Realty talks about why you want to make sure you are focused when it comes time to do your walk through on your new home.

Common Closing Costs for First Time Buyers

The following post comes from Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty, Inc. agent, Kim Knapp. Kim is an experienced agent in Northern Florida and has a great team who has worked with countless first-time home buyers. Below is Kim’s list of closing costs that you should be aware that will potentially be expected of you at closing. 

You’ll likely be responsible for a variety of fees and expenses that you and the seller will have to pay at the time of closing. Your lender must provide a good-faith estimate of all settlement costs. The title company or other entity conducting the closing will tell you the required amount for: Read more

Real Estate 101: Explaining the Closing Process

It’s closing time on that new home! It’s a joyous occasion, but did you realize that different states of different processes when it comes to closing on a home?

Diann Patton of Coldwell Banker Grass Roots Realty gives you the lowdown on what to expect when it comes time to close on that first home.

Real Estate 101: Making an Offer on a Home

Making an offer on a home is both exciting and frightening at the same time so it’s important to understand just what goes on after you make an offer on that  home of your dreams.

Diann Patton of Coldwell Banker Grass Roots Realty explains just what happens after that offers is made.

Property Taxes and Its Impact on How Much Home You Can Buy

Before my girlfriend and I took the “leap” and jumped right into searching for our first home to buy, I was impervious to the joys of property taxes and its huge impact on the amount of home you can buy. From my initial conversation with my mortgage advisor Stephen Kulisek, I learned that upward shifts in the purchase price of a home have minimal impacts on what my monthly payment would be versus seemingly small shifts up in property taxes.

While I’m about the furthest thing from a mathematician,  conventional wisdom has it that a $50K increase (in a home’s purchase price) would be more impactful on my finances than a $5K increase (in taxes). 50 > 5 after all, isn’t it? Well, the reason why this can be wrong and fly against typical math is that an increase in the cost I’m paying for a home is spread out over the life of my mortgage (usually 30 years) while what you pay in property taxes is a cost incurred every year and usually paid monthly. Read more