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Is Your Home Ready for Spring? A Spring Maintenance Checklist

Spring is a time for renewal both for ourselves and our homes. It’s also a great reminder to check key areas around the home for defects or repairs. Here’s a handy checklist from the nationwide experts at Pillar To Post Home Inspectors. Interior Check ceiling and surfaces around windows for evidence of moisture Check caulking […]
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Are Outdoor Kitchens on the Outs?

Homeowners continue to cook up outdoor kitchens that in some cases rival their indoor counterparts. Yet some experts insist the popularity of outdoor kitchens has boiled over. Belgard, a maker of outdoor living products, says souped-up outdoor kitchens include professional-grade appliances (particularly refrigerators and dishwashers), numerous cooking surfaces, bar-style seating and brick ovens, while Trex […]
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What You Should Know about Adding Solar Energy to Your Home

When you sell homes every day, no one needs to tell you what a bonus green energy-saving items are. Everyone is concerned with maximizing energy efficiency, both to save costs and to minimize environmental concerns. Adding solar energy to a home is a great way to do both. Solar panels can cut down on the carbon […]
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Ranked: Top 10 Best Downtowns of 2016

In recent decades there has been a resurgence in America’s downtowns. This redevelopment isn’t taking place in just our largest cities. Downtowns in smaller and mid-size towns are also experiencing a renaissance. With this in mind, Livability.com has named the Top 10 Best Downtowns, 2016. These areas are growing and thriving, offering expanded housing options, […]
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Granny Pods: Caring for Aging Relatives in Your Own Backyard

Caring for aging parents is a growing concern for many Americans. For those among the Sandwich Generation, homeowners typically in their forties who are responsible for their own families and their aging parents, what to do with grandma or grandpa is always a trying, stressful question to answer. While nursing homes may feel wrong or unnecessary, and […]
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Consumer Credit Default Rates Inch Lower

Data through January 2016, released recently by S&P Dow Jones Indices and Experian for the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices, shows the composite rate at 0.96 percent in January, down one basis point from the previous month. The bank card default rate increased three basis points in January, recording a default rate of 2.52 percent. […]
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From Huts to Cities: How Changes in Dwellings Impact Human Immune System

The shift from living in jungle huts to cities has dramatically changed human exposure to certain microbes, which could have implications for healthy immune function, according to a study led by researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center and published online February 12 in Science Advances. “Our study found that urban living spaces increase the number of human-associated microbes […]
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10 Most Powerful Celebrity Buyers & Sellers of the Last Decade

Celebrity real estate is a high-paced world of wheeling and dealing. Over the past 10 years, plenty of famous faces have scored big or lost out in attempts to secure (or sell!) the home of their dreams.  To help commemorate its 10th anniversary, Zillow put together this list of some of the hottest homes that have […]
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Report: Auto Insurance Higher for Non-Homeowners

Major auto insurance companies charge good drivers as much as 47 percent more for basic liability auto insurance if they don’t own their home, according to a new analysis of premiums by the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America (CFA).  Based on a sampling of insurance quotes across the country for a 30-year old safe driver, […]