Tag: real estate

The 5 Steps for Planning a Home Addition

January 22, 2024

Everyone wants to find their dream home. Sometimes, that dream house might be out of reach because of price or location. Other times, that dream house just doesn’t exist – yet! If your family is expanding beyond their current space, or if changes in your lifestyle require more from your home, the answer may not necessarily be to find a new place to live. Instead, additions are a great way for homeowners to expand their homes into a space that better fits their needs. If you just love your neighborhood or you want to create your dream home without moving, here are the five steps to consider for planning a home addition. Step 1: Ask Yourself Why You’d Like to Add On to Your HomeWhile there are many great reasons to plan a home addition, the process comes with its fair share of drawbacks. First is the cost, which can vary widely depending on the type of addition and sometimes even approach the original price of the home. Additionally, the process of building a home addition can take a lot of time, some of which will include moving out temporarily or sharing space with building crews throughout the day. If

What to Expect: How Long Does a Typical Home Inspection Take?

December 18, 2023

Purchasing a home can be one of the most simultaneously exciting and stressful processes anyone will go through. Considering the sizable investment and the long-reaching impact that a closing negotiation can have on both the buyer and the seller, it is completely understandable to lose a couple winks of sleep while worrying about each odd detail of a home’s sale. In these instances, buyers (especially first-time homebuyers) who learn about the need of a home inspection can get a bit antsy through the process, viewing the inspection as a roadblock to their homeownership. This is where a frequently answered question comes into play: How long does a home inspection take? While there may be a typical range of time to expect for a general home inspection, there are a wide array of factors that make this question tough to answer point blank. However, in the interest of easing any concerns, we will take some time today to discuss how long a home inspection takes, what can extend or shorten the process, and why a good home inspector needs this time. To begin, let’s review what a home inspection is and why it is a necessary part of every home’s sale.

Will Your Next Home Be Printed?

December 4, 2023

A more recent technology that’s been making its rounds by disrupting and inspiring innovations across industries is 3D printing. Glasses, shoes, car parts, prosthetics, and movie props are all being 3D-printed today, and the speculation of how this technology might change people’s everyday lives seems to be at an all-time high. With the speed and ease that common items can be printed, some have started to think even bigger. Enter businesses like Texas-based ICON, Denmark’s COBOD, and Shanghai’s Winsun, who all believe that 3D printing is the future of home manufacturing. Citing shockingly quick construction times, cheaper costs, and little required human oversight, many believe that 3D-printed homes becoming the norm is less of an “if,” and more of a “when.” So, if you’re curious to find out what your future home will look like, let’s discuss the process of 3D-printed homes! What Are 3D-Printed Homes?3D printing homes is actually quite similar to the process used when 3D printing other mundane items. Also known as “additive manufacturing,” 3D printing involves a machine printer containing a robotic arm dispenser, a chosen material to use in the item creation (usually plastic for most things unrelated to building construction), and a blueprint design

Setting the Stage for Your Home Sale: DIY Home-Staging Tips

November 27, 2023

When putting your home on the market, you obviously want to get as much out of the sale as you can. And ideally, you’d like the process to run quickly. Throughout the years, agents, interior designers, and other real estate professionals have searched for the best strategies to make residential transactions move as smoothly as possible, and what they’ve discovered is the fine art of home staging. Home staging is the act of redecorating, cleaning, and designing a home so that buyers can more easily imagine themselves living there. Real estate agents are professionals at accentuating the strengths of a home while bringing any flaws into perspective, and home staging is there to reinforce these efforts through what potential buyers actually see and experience during a tour. According to a National Association of REALTORS (NAR) Research Group’s 2023 Study, 81% of buyers’ agents said that home staging made it easier to visualize the property as their future home. Despite this, many home sellers skip this step in order to save on costs. Since the largest investment most people will make is their home, home staging is well worth the cost and time commitment. 3 Options for Home-StagingHome sellers can go

Homeownership Is A Journey. But Are Container Homes the Answer?

November 20, 2023

The modern home comes in many strange and striking varieties. From the staple Mid-Century Modern to classical Queen Anne homes, the residential market never stops innovating to fit new tastes. One new trend that’s been turning heads and appealing heavily to DIYers everywhere is known as the container home. In other words, homes constructed fully out of shipping containers. That’s right! Although it may sound strange to those unfamiliar with the concept, many homeowners are using those same steel-based boxes used to transport goods across the ocean as bases for their own prefabricated house, or the start of an ambitious DIY project. So, are container homes just a quirky, trendy home alternative that’ll fade away in a few years, or can these lego houses make a practical impact that lasts? To try and answer that question, let’s take a deeper dive into what makes these homes tick. What is a Container Home?Container homes are a newer trend of homebuilding that seems to be cut from the same cloth as tiny homes, appealing to individuals and families who would like to cut down on unnecessary space, while having an incredible amount of input on the construction of their homes. One way

The Keys to Assembling a Great House Flipping Team

September 4, 2023

Some of the best must-see reality television today comes from house-flipping shows: seasoned real estate experts find appealing residential properties or fixer-uppers, then transform them into dream homes for a tidy profit. It’s no mystery why these shows are so popular either, as real estate window-shoppers, amateur handymen, and people with an entrepreneurial spirit are all drawn to the home renovation genre. With that said, the average Joe who might be interested in jumping into the house-flipping world should take pause due to the considerable learning curve involved. Anyone who hosts a show on HGTV is going to have vast experience and a top-notch team behind them that can make house flipping look far easier than it really is. To break into the house-flipping world successfully, a person would either need broad experience in real estate and home improvement or (much more realistically) a great team to lean on. If you’re looking into house flipping for supplemental income or a career shift, here’s some of the essential traits you’ll need on your team. What is House Flipping?Before jumping into the deep end, let’s review a few important definitions. Namely, what is house flipping anyway? “House flipping” is a term best

Passive-Aggressive Architecture: The Odd Phenomenon of Spite Houses

July 17, 2023

Homes are, traditionally, structures designed with a combination of comfort and function in mind. Architectural styles have risen and fallen in popularity as families seek out the perfect place to raise their children and entertain their guests. But, what happens when a less-than-pleasant motivation becomes the driving force of a new home’s construction? The Hollensbury Spite HouseIn historic Alexandria, Va.,the Hollensbury Spite House has become a tourist attraction in its own right thanks to its strikingly skinny dimensions–less than 7 feet wide when approaching from the street level. This bright blue, two-story, 325-square-foot home is sandwiched between two much larger buildings to its east and west, and begs an explanation as to why such a small, blink-and-you-miss-it house found its way to 523 Queen Street. As the story goes, John Hollensbury was a prominent citizen of Alexandria and a member of the city council back in the early 1800s. All seemed well for the Hollensbury family, aside from issues regarding the alleyway between Mr. Hollensbury’s home and his neighbor’s which attracted many loiterers and carriage traffic. When gouges from carriage wheels began piling up on the exterior walls of Hollensbury’s home, he decided to purchase the land between the two

American Architecture: Touring Regional Styles in the US

May 15, 2023

The United States has a rich history of architecture that draws influence from many different parts of the globe. Throughout its history, regional climates and cultures have heavily influenced the ways that their iconic cities grew and the unique look of their homes. Although recent trends toward a common, international look have reduced regional influences, a legacy of architectural taste still has considerable impact in the US. Per an article by design specialists at Dwell, architect Marlon Blackwell describes the current context as “…a shared language, that’s almost global, based in the International Style or Modernist language…Where it becomes geographically and culturally specific, then that’s where it becomes altered.” Although many American cities will see a variety of architectural styles in their neighborhoods today with only small variations that pull from regional factors, these styles cut their teeth on the shores of New England, in the wide open midwestern plains, and in the sandy Southwest. Today, let’s take a brief tour of some of the United States’ favorite architectural styles. The Northeast – Cape CodSome of the US’s most iconic homes were built by pioneers in the Northeast, with their styles slowly adapted and updated over time. Unsurprisingly, there are

Why Do The Suburbs All Look Alike?

May 8, 2023

Fans of architecture and those that frequent open houses “just for fun” may have expressed a similar sentiment. Why are all the homes in that new development so “same-y”? Old homes seem to have much more character – why would anyone buy a new home? Or, put in another way, why do the suburbs all look alike? Every city has similar areas. Rows upon rows of houses that are identical to one another, maybe with slight deviations in color, which all result in a dizzying maze of monotony. The truth behind this phenomenon finds its beginnings nearly eighty years in the past, when a sudden need for housing led to an innovation that was too good not to replicate. The Beginnings of Tract HousingAs veterans were returning from their service in World War II, society had to adjust quickly to the sudden surge of people and the new families looking to settle down with their own homes. With demand through the roof, the real estate investment group Levitt and Sons realized that they could purchase a large tract of land with the intent to divide them into small plots for quick, easily-constructed homes. This idea proved to be a huge

Why Is Vinyl Flooring So Popular? Should Homeowners Be Concerned?

May 1, 2023

Anyone familiar with the home real estate market has surely experienced the impressive prevalence of vinyl flooring. From the basement to the dining room to the family room and everywhere in between, it can seem impossible to avoid this synthetic flooring option. In fact, it has officially become the most popular flooring option on the market (just behind carpeting). However, for designers and homebuyers who prefer natural materials, the massive footprint of vinyl in the flooring market is a frustrating turn. After all, vinyl flooring is ultimately just an imitation of the authentic stuff (hardwood, stone, or tile). Other than affordability, is there any benefit to opting for vinyl flooring? To help drill down the real reasons for why vinyl flooring is so popular, let’s look at its potential benefits before discussing its lesser known problems. What is Vinyl Flooring?Far from a recent invention, vinyl can trace its history back to a legacy of “resilient flooring,” or flooring materials that were bendable and flexible, which made them much easier to install. In the late 1800s, vinyl was developed and first introduced to the public when incorporated into golf balls, shower curtains, and shoe heels. Vinyl actually wasn’t proposed as an