Curb Appeal Tips for Fall
Delta Media Group
First impressions are everything when it comes to selling your house. When a potential home buyer drives by your home, what will they see? The outside of your home should serve as a preview for the inside of your home.
"WOW" home buyers from the curb with these tips perfect for the fall.
Spruce up your lawn
Brilliant fall foliage can automatically "sell" your home for showings, but that doesn't mean you should forget about raking the leaves and mowing. Keep those leaves raked and give your lawn the TLC it needs to look great. Patch any brown spots, and water the lawn as long as possible to keep it green and vibrant.
Plant fall flowers
Once lawn maintenance is handled, add a splash of color to your landscape by planting fall flowers. Some of the best fall flowers include vibrant mums, yellow marigolds, sedum, or goldenrod. You can also place fall flowers in pots near your front door along with a few pumpkins as accents.
Highlight the front door
Calling attention to your front door is a good selling tactic no matter what season when you're selling your house. Your front door is like an invitation to your home. Hang a fall wreath for added color and a festive touch. A fresh coat of paint in a vivid color can make your entrance stand out.
Tidy up the exterior
During the fall, your home becomes more exposed making its exterior appearance even more important. Before listing your home for sale, pressure wash your siding, sidewalks, and walkways. Clean the windows. Apply a fresh coat of paint as needed.
Clear out the gutters
Being diligent about home maintenance tells buyers you care about your home's upkeep. Keeping your gutters and downspouts clear from leaves and debris protects your home from water damage and ups the ante for curb appeal.
Invest in outdoor lighting
Days get shorter during the fall. Exterior light adds a touch of elegance and sophistication to your landscape and improves safety. Illuminate your walkways, front door, and important landscaping elements so the home shines no matter when people drive by.
Keep outdoor decorations simple
A simple fall wreath on the door and seasonal flowers make your home look inviting to potential homebuyers. However, scarecrows and spooky Halloween decorations may "scare off" homebuyers and distract them from the gorgeous exterior you've worked so hard to otherwise create.
Terrific BBQ Recipes
Fantastic recipes just in time for your late summer get-together!
Tequila Baby Back Ribs
2 Tbsp. chili powder | 1 tsp. cayenne pepper |
2 Tbsp. paprika | 1 tsp crushed red pepper |
1 Tbsp. garlic powder | 1 chopped onion |
1 Tbsp. salt | 1 lg. handful chopped cilantro |
1 Tbsp dried oregano | 3-4 cloves garlic, diced |
2 tsp. cumin | 1 bottle (fifth) tequila |
1 tsp. black pepper | 1 lemon, halved |
1 tsp. white pepper | 2 limes |
Combine all the above and season 2 full slabs of ribs, each cut in half. Refrigerate 2-4 hours. Put half of 1 slab in 1-gallon ziploc bag, layer with onion, cilantro, and garlic. Place other half on top, repeat with onion, cilantro, and garlic. Pour in half bottle tequila. Add juice of half lemon and 1 lime. Seal. Repeat with other slab. Marinate at least 4 hours. Grill with onion, cilantro, and garlic at 350 degrees until done.
Honey Mango-Glazed Baby Back Ribs
1 c. honey | 4 ripe mangos, cubed |
2 full racks, baby back ribs | 1 tsp. pepper |
1 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce | 1 Tbsp. salt |
Remove ribs from packaging, rinse and pat dry. Remove membrane from backside of ribs. Place ribs in shallow pan, sprinkle salt and pepper evenly and set aside. In a small saucepan, add chipotle/adobo, mango and honey. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until cooked down and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Using the slow and low method of BBQ'ing, set temperature to 225-240 degrees. If using coals, let them burn off and move over to one side of the grill. Wrap the ribs and 2/3 of the sauce mixture in aluminum foil tightly and place on grill. Close lid. After 2 hours, flip the ribs and let cook for another 2 hours. Open the aluminum and remove ribs, place them on grill and brush on remaining sauce and let cook another 30 minutes.
Home Repairs that Can't Wait
Delta Media Group
Home improvement can be costly and time-consuming, so it's no surprise that many homeowners put off making repairs as long as possible. Smaller repairs can usually be safely left until the timing is more advantageous, perhaps when you have more money in the bank or some vacation time. There are some repairs, however, that should be taken care of as soon as possible. These home repairs are so important that failing to make them could result in serious injury and increased costs.
Managing Home Improvement Tasks
It can be tempting to leave smaller home improvement tasks until "later," but keep in mind that doing so could cost you more in the long run. Not every repair constitutes an emergency, but that doesn't mean that non-emergency repairs should be ignored. Keep on top of home maintenance and repairs by keeping a checklist of necessary tasks; focus on completing one each weekend or each month. This will help you keep your home improvement projects from piling up and becoming major problems.
Ideas for Upgrading Your Patio
Delta Media Group
Maybe you've been pondering all those cool ideas seen on TV and the web about redoing your drab slab of a concrete patio so that it's a standout feature of your indoor/outdoor entertainment area. Here's the deal. We are all in love with the idea of extending our living and entertainment area into the outdoors. And why not? There are dozens of relatively inexpensive and yet innovative hacks that will make your outdoors as inviting as the indoors, so let's start working from the ground up by renovating that boring, cracked, or scuffed-up concrete patio and see how dazzling it can be.
Although all these projects are relatively inexpensive, you can obviously spend more on some than others. So if cost is a factor, then you may want to go with simple painting or staining.
Once you're done with your new floor, it's time to think about decorating. You might start with a weather-resistant outdoor rug, perhaps in the dining area. Decorate with flower boxes or containers of flowers that can change with the season and move indoors when it's cold. Hang up strands of lights. Add a water feature, which could be a fountain with plumbing or a self-contained model that runs on electricity and recirculates the water.
Let your creativity and inner interior decorator run wild as you think up ways to jazz up that formerly dull space and make it shine.
Have you made some updates to your outdoor living space? Show us some pictures in the comments!
Sweet-Tart: Refreshing & Lemony Recipes for Summer
Summer is here, and it's time to celebrate all things lemony! These refreshing treats are sure to please at your next get-together.
Frozen Raspberry Yogurt Lemonade Pops
In a saucepan, heat lemonade concentrate & water over medium heat just until the concentrate is thawed. Remove from heat & cool. In a blender, place 3/4 c. of the cooled mixture, 1/2 c. of the raspberries, & 1/4 c. of the yogurt. Blend on medium until smooth. If you don't like the seeds, press this mixture through a small strainer to remove them. Divide the mixture among ice pop molds & freeze slightly.
Distribute the remaining raspberries in molds. Combine the remaining lemonade mixture & yogurt and spoon evenly into molds. Return to freezer until firm, about 4 hours.
Perfect Lemonade
Mix well. Serve over ice with a lemon wedge garnish.
Lemon-Lime Spritzer
Mix ice, soda & sliced limes. Add cherries & garnish with mint leaves. Serve immediately.
Adult Lemonade
Mix together and serve immediately
Strawberry Lemonade Icebox Pie
In a blender or food processor, blend strawberries, honey, & water until pureed. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix lemonade concentrate with sweetened condensed milk until combined. Set that aside, too.
With a mixer, whip heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add powdered sugar & whip until it stiffens. Gently fold into lemonade mixture. (The pureed mixture is still kept separate.)
Pour half the strawberry puree on the bottom of the crust. Top with lemonade filling, smoothing evenly. Spoon on the remaining puree in evenly spaced dollops and swirl with a toothpick or knife. Freeze at least 6 hours before serving. Store leftovers in the freezer.
What's your favorite summertime recipe? Tell us in the comments!
From Our Friends at Integrity Computer Consulting and Repair
Technology scams are running rampant right now, whether they come by email, phone call, and now text messaging. We have had several customers reach out about texts that look to be from their bank asking to "verify information." Be vigilant when dealing with any communications via phone call, email, or text that regard any exchange of money or "verifying" any account information with a link or number to call.
Our recommendations are as follows:
You can use your cell phone carriers' built-in number blocking on your phone to stop unwanted calls or texts from specific numbers; you can also block offending email addresses in your email account. But with any sort of fraud, scammers often use hundreds of thousands of phone numbers and emails and move very quickly onto the next. This makes permanent blocking hard.
To really have an impact, we recommend reporting the offending communication to the FTC. This can be done online at: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
A few rules of thumb for spam calls, texts, and emails:
If you have any questions about a suspicious email, call, or text, feel free to contact our office via phone 208.288.4345 or email info@integrityidaho.com.
Recently, Coldwell Banker Tomlinson Realtors®, managers, and staff were honored with a visit from the President and CEO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, Ryan Gorman. Responsible for the operations that support our network of 94,000 real estate professionals in 3,000 offices in 43 countries across the globe, he made the trip from CB's New Jersey headquarters to speak with us about the wild ride that was 2021 and share his predictions about the state of our industry moving through 2022.
Though he foresees a continuation of a seller's market, he believes it won't be "the crazy, crazy" atmosphere we saw in 2021. "Interest rates are ticking up which will slow things a bit," he said, but "inbound migration will continue to be strong, so it will be a long time before the market shifts."
When asked if he was surprised by the activity during the pandemic, he told us that though he did not predict the "nearly 10 years of appreciation in 18 months" in our area, Ryan said he wasn't surprised to see the market remain strong. Despite the economic downturn, "we had the most equity in homes that we had literally ever had (not on a percentage basis, but on an absolute basis), and we had tighter underwriting for almost 15 years by that point than we had almost ever had, so people had good opportunities."
Contributing to the history-making market, he noted, was that for the past five or so years our area has been named to list after list of best places to live, work, and raise a family, so as people were able to work, not only remotely, but more independently, they began to make good on the question if you could live anywhere, why not live somewhere great?
In discussing the issue of low inventory, he is quick to point out that even buyers who have been in their homes two or three months may have equity that could propel them to look at selling to purchase something that better fits their dreams and goals and encouraged agents to inform their previous buyers what their homes are worth today. Buyers, he said, can leverage their equity to move more affordably to another neighborhood or city.
Recently named a "Real Estate Newsmaker" for 2021 and "Influencer" for 2022 by RisMedia, a highly respected real estate news and information service, Ryan says is most proud of Coldwell Banker's integrity. "Integrity is first. That's an easy answer. Coldwell Banker was founded on honesty and integrity, and that has lasted."
To learn more about Ryan's strategies for Coldwell Banker in 2022, check out his interview with Jordan Grice of RisMedia.
Search for your new home at cbspokane.com.
The last 18 months changed what many buyers are looking for in a home. Recently, the American Institute of Architects released their AIA Home Design Trends Survey results for Q3 2021. The survey reveals the following:
If you're a homeowner who wants to add any of the above, you have two options: renovate your current house or buy a home that already has the spaces you desire. The decision you make could be determined by factors like:
In either case, you'll need access to capital: the funds for the renovation or the down payment your next home would require. The great news is that the money you need probably already exists in your current home in the form of equity.
The record-setting increases in home prices over the last two years dramatically improved homeowners' equity. Odeta Kushi, Deputy Chief Economist at First American, quantifies the amount of equity homeowners gained recently:
"Remember U.S. households own nearly $35 trillion in owner-occupied real estate, just over $11 trillion in debt, and the remaining ~$24 trillion in equity. In inflation adjusted terms, homeowners in Q2 had an average of $280,000 in equity- a historic high."
As a homeowner, the money you need to purchase the perfect home or renovate your current house may be right at your fingertips. However, waiting to make your decision may increase the cost of tapping that equity.
If you decide to renovate, you'll need to refinance (or take out an equity loan) to access the equity. If you decide to move instead and use your equity as a down payment, you'll still need to mortgage the remaining difference between the down payment and the cost of your next home.
Mortgage rates are forecast to increase over the next year. Waiting to leverage your equity will probably mean you'll pay more to do so. According to the latest data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), almost 57% of current mortgage holders have a mortgage rate of 4% or below. If you're one of those homeowners, you can keep your mortgage rate under 4% by doing it now. If you're one of the 43% of homeowners with a mortgage rate over 4%, you may be able to do a cash-out refinance or buy a more expensive home without significantly increasing your monthly payment.
If you're ready to either redesign your current house or find an existing or newly constructed home that has everything you want, the first thing you need to do is determine how much equity you have in your current home. To do that, you'll need two things:
You can probably find the mortgage balance on your monthly mortgage statement. To find the current market value of your house, you can pay several hundreds of dollars for an appraisal, or you can contact a local real estate professional who will be able to present to you, at no charge, a professional equity assessment report.
If the past 18 months have refocused your thoughts on what you want from your house, now may be the time to either renovate or make a move to the perfect home. Contact us today to help guide you through the process and help determine what makes the most sense for you!
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When you buy a new home, you want it to be a reflection of you and your style. As you consider various trends, you may come across a popular new one called cottagecore. But what is it, exactly, and will it work for your interior design needs? Essentially, cottagecore home decor is a nostalgic journey to a simpler time and place. If sipping tea in a garden, breathing in the delicate scent of roses and honeysuckle strikes your fancy, this could very well be the interior design style you are seeking. If the homes you are asking to be shown are reminiscent of country living, you may want to consider these key elements:
If you've been waiting for some of the vintage things you love to come back in style, the time has come. Our real estate professionals will be happy to help you find your new home. Contact us when you're ready to make the change.
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ALWAYS HERE TO HELP |
From the March 2021 issue of @Home with Coldwell Banker Tomlinson. Written by Chris Canning, Coldwell Banker Tomlinson Realtor®
As both a licensed REALTOR® and home builder, I often scroll through my Facebook feed and see homes advertised by our area homebuilders and fellow real estate agents. I often see such remarks as: "They want how much for that house? They're crazy!" or "Why can't builders build more affordable homes?" The general public is not aware of the obstacles faced by members of the industry tasked with meeting the demand for housing. Chief among these obstacles are: 1. A lack of affordable land. 2. Dramatic increases in the cost of materials. 3. The scarcity of qualified tradespeople.
Lurking behind every one of these factors in the increasing cost of new homes is the Demon of Demand. As long as Spokane remains the wonderful place to live it is and always has been, we can expect to see increases in the cost of housing, though perhaps less steep than we are coping with now, extending into the future.
Charcuterie boards are perfect for sampling some of the best local flavors! Plus, they aren't just for meat and cheese anymore. Cold days and nights spent indoors have inspired people to build hot chocolate charcuterie boards featuring cocoa and all the fixings, from marshmallows and wafer sticks to caramel cubes and gingerbread cookies.
Whether you go gourmet or comfort, our real estate agents suggest these great shops around Spokane for creating your own charcuterie board.
Imagine sharing a charcuterie board with your family to celebrate your new Spokane home. Contact us at Coldwell Banker Tomlinson and let our experienced real estate agents turn your dream into reality.
Even though your pets are part of your family, potential buyers are likely to be less than thrilled about your four-legged family members. When it's time to show your home, here are a few things pet owners should do to ensure their home looks its best when compared to other Spokane homes for sale.
Looking for a home with more space for your furry family members? Get in touch today to get started!
After buying a home, you may feel as if you've completed a marathon and are due for a little downtime to settle in and rest. But don't sit too long; there's still plenty to do.
We recommend prioritizing the many must-dos that will ensure your safety and comfort in your new Spokane home. Here are five things to get started on.
Whether you're shopping for Spokane homes for sale or moving into your new home, we can answer your questions. Get in touch today.
If you've been exploring Spokane homes for sale, you're likely very excited to find the perfect one and start your new life. However, before you can do that, you'll have to deal with the not-so-fun part -- packing and moving. While this is always at least a little bit stressful for us, it can confuse and upset your pets.
Our REALTORS® have collected the best advice from pet owners over the years and are happy to share these tips with you.
Are you still looking for the perfect pet-friendly home in Spokane? We can help! Contact us today. We'll help you find your dream home and have you (and your pets!) ready to move!
For many individuals, deciding to purchase a home is one of the most important decisions they will make. However, another equally critical decision is deciding when to sell your home. Though our real estate agents can give market insight to assist with your decision, you must also weigh your financial situation and individual needs. Here are a few things to consider as you decide when to sell your home.
The amount of equity you have in your home is an important factor in your decision to sell. If you're upside down in your mortgage (you owe more on the loan that your home is worth), it's likely best to wait to sell your home. When you're upside down on your home, you'll either need to bring cash to the table to cover the difference or get your lender to agree to a short sale. Both options are costly, and a short sale will damage your credit.
Your local real estate market is another important item to research when deciding when you want to sell your home. When possible, wait and sell your home when property values are on the rise. This will help you obtain the highest price you can for your home. Even though no one knows exactly when Spokane homes for sale will secure the most money, your real estate agent can offer valuable insight into the current and future state of your real estate market.
Many people decide to purchase a new home after selling their existing home. If you're in this category, you'll need to consider your ability to qualify for a new mortgage. Credit challenges or a high debt-to-income ratio can make it difficult to qualify for a new home loan, especially if your goal is to upgrade to a larger, more expensive property. A mortgage loan officer can help you determine how large a mortgage you'll qualify for and at what interest rate. If you can't qualify for the loan terms you need, you might want to take time to improve your credit and pay down debt.
When selling your home, you'll likely have quite a few expenses pop up. This is especially true if you decide to purchase a new home before you sell your current home. Some things that you might need to pay for include:
Ideally, you should have cash reserves or extra room in your budget to cover these additional expenses.
You have to decide if your lifestyle makes it necessary to sell your home sooner rather than later. Perhaps you have a long commute that you dread, or maybe you're expanding your family and need more space. If your home doesn't meet your or your family's needs, this can create a stressful environment that may encourage you to list the house more rapidly than you otherwise would.
Want more info about the current real estate market? Contact us today to speak to an agent.
Give a gift this holiday season that will help the newest homeowner on your list feel more at home in their new place. These fun, unique holiday gifts for homebuyers are sure to be a hit. Get gift inspiration with this list from our REALTORS®:
Have your eye on Spokane homes for sale this holiday season? Contact us to learn more today.
Homeowner associations, or HOAs, may seem like a relatively recent concept, but the earliest ones were established by land developers back in the mid-19th century. With the growth of common-interest developments (CIDs) such as condominiums and planned single-family home communities, HOAs now govern more than 26 million homes.
Are you considering Spokane homes for sale that are part of an HOA? Make an informed decision using this list of pros and cons.
Our REALTORS® will help you find a home best suited to your personality and lifestyle. Contact us for more information.
Buying a new home and moving to a new town is exciting — but sometimes it can be a little scary, and at first, your new house or town might not feel like home at all. Our REALTORS® want you to know that this is completely normal. Any time you relocate away from your familiar surroundings, you're going to have instances of uncertainty.
Get acquainted with your new town and have it start feeling like home with these helpful tips.
For help finding Spokane homes for sale in neighborhoods that you'll love, contact us today!