Home Maintenance for People with Better Things to Do Owning your own home shouldn’t mean an endless list of chores. Weekends are meant for coaching a youth soccer team to victory, chopping your way through “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” or training for a 5K to help save the pandas — not working your …
Buy, Buy, Baby
Investors are buying more student housing properties than ever before. “Last year was the biggest year ever, investment sales-wise,” says Fred Pierce, president and CEO of Pierce Educational Properties. But hang on tight–this year is likely to be even bigger given the pace of transactions so far in 2016. From the start of 2016 through …
What Boomers Want Most
New research from Next Adventure Home reveals key home buying insights from baby boomer buyers. Washington, DC – (August 4, 2016) – Hanley Wood and home builder Taylor Morrison have just unveiled new research on what buyers in the 55+ age group want when purchasing a new home. Research revealed includes findings gleaned from a …
8 Dirty Secrets in Your Home
Steel yourself: We help you expose — and purge — your home’s dirtiest little secrets. In denial about the crud that’s festering in the nooks and crannies of your home? The maintenance and cleaning pros we talked to say these eight jobs are among the grossest — and among the most important. One job could even …
Give me Some (Tax) Credit
The Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credit (THPTC) is a little known incentive program established through Texas House Bill 500 during the 83rd Texas Legislative Session. With the goal of making historic preservation projects more economically viable and feasible in the state, the THPTC offers a 25 percent franchise tax credit for eligible rehabilitation costs for …
Texas Real Estate Market Sizzles
Reprinted from CultureMap Austin The housing market in Texas is as hot as this summer heat. The latest quarterly housing report from Texas Association of Realtors (TAR) shows home sales have continued to increase across the Lone Star State for the hottest season to date. Looking at the second quarter of 2016, the median home price …
New Music Festival Coming to Texas
The daily CultureMap email arrived this morning with an interesting announcement: there’s a new music festival coming to town. And by ‘town’ I mean ’35 miles east of Austin’. Many new festivals have popped up in our area over the past several years, but I thought I’d check this one out. Let me just say this: we …
What Do Real Estate Pros Look for When It’s Their Turn to Buy?
What you really need to know about buying — from the people who house hunt for a living. One house you’re looking at has the wraparound porch you’ve fantasized about, but it’s on a high-traffic street. The condo you like has a doorman in the lobby (finally you can become an Amazon Prime member!), but …
Dealing with Financing
As the events of the last few years in the real estate industry show, people forget about the tremendous financial responsibility of purchasing a home at their peril. Here are a few tips for dealing with the dollar signs so that you can take down that “for sale” sign on your new home. Get pre-approved. …
5 Tips for Buying a Home
Looking to buy a home? Here are five essential tips for making the process as smooth as possible. Get your finances in order. Start by getting a full picture of your credit. Obtain copies of your credit report. Make sure the facts are correct, and fix any problems you find. Next, find a suitable lender …