Is a Net Zero Home Worth the Investment?

Climate Change and Net Zero Homes: A Likely Pair

With the climate catastrophe looming and more and more people trying to become greener as they reduce their carbon footprint, talk of net zero homes seems to be on the rise. We should point out here that by definition, net zero homes are homes that create as much energy as they consume, for a net energy consumption of zero or less.

This phenomenon is currently made possible through advances in solar power, which allows for people to build solar panel homes that absorb their energy directly from the sun. Combine this with energy-efficient construction, energy-efficient practices, and a little bit of luck, and you wind up with a net zero home. So is it worth the investment? Read on to find out.

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How to Choose The Right Real Estate Agent

Picking the Best Real Estate Agent for Your Unique Situation

Buying or selling a home can be one of the most exciting things a person will ever do. It can also be one of the most challenging experiences you’ll ever have. In the end, much of the difference between these two extremes comes down to the quality of your real estate agent.

A lot more goes into picking the right real estate agent than simply picking the person with the best online ads, the biggest company backing them, or the most years of experience under their belt. With all that in mind, here’s how to choose the right real estate agent for your home sale or search.

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Why You Should Buy A Home in Spring

Why Spring Might Be the Best Season for House Hunting

Spring is here, and in any normal year, it brings with it the biggest buying season the housing market will see. There are many reasons for this. Chief among them is that winter is the slowest season for the real estate market, typically because of the holidays and the cold seasonal weather.

Spring may be the hottest season in real estate and house hunting, but does that make it the best season for you to go shopping for a home? Let’s take a look at why spring is such a busy season for home buyers and sellers, why it may be the best time to buy, and why you might want to wait just a bit longer before you step into the market this year.

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Getting Your Home Ready This Spring to Sell This Summer

Will It Be a Seller’s Market for Home Sales This Year?

If you have your choice, most people feel that it is best to try to sell your home in the spring. Selling your home in the summer presents a number of challenges, including the fact that people may go on vacation or may be focused on entertaining their children or enjoying time off from work, and not really looking to buy a home.

But does that mean it is impossible to sell a home in the summer? Far from it! Plenty of people successfully sell homes in summertime, and the late spring and early summer months are considered by many to be the busiest time of the year for home sales. But either way, the time to start preparing is during the spring months. With that in mind, here are some tips for getting your home ready to sell this summer in the spring.

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A Guide to Mortgaging a Tiny Home in 2020

Considering a Mortgage to Buy Your First Tiny Home?

The tiny house movement has been growing steadily over the past few years, as people try to reduce their carbon footprint and realize they often have much more home than they really need. Whether you buy an existing tiny house or you get a little plot of land and buy your own, you can reduce your costs considerably when you go down this road to homeownership.

Unfortunately, while a tiny home is much cheaper than a traditional size home, they are still not exactly pocket change. Because of the small return, it can be tough to get a mortgage lender interested in helping someone out with a mortgage loan. That does not mean, however, that getting a mortgage loan for a tiny home is impossible. In 2020, as tiny homes continue to gain acceptance, you may have even more options than ever before.

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Boosting Curb Appeal Before Spring

Before Getting Ready to Sell Your Home, Make Sure It’s Competitive

Spring is the prime time for listing your home on the market because it’s the top time of year that folks go looking for a new home. That said, real estate spring fever also means more competition for buyers, and it can be tough to find ways to make your home stand out, without breaking the bank in the process. Check out these five handy, low-cost ways to give your home the edge in any competitive market this spring.

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How Much Home Do You Actually Need? Here’s How to Figure It Out

Will We Be Able to Live in This Home… Forever?

When you’re on the lookout for the right new home to buy for yourself and your family, there are so many elements to take into account space-wise, not the least of which is budget. As you surf real estate listings online and in-person, factor in these four crucial variables to make sure you’re getting the space you need, as well as the most bang for your buck.

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Timing Your Sale and Purchase So You Don’t End up in Storage

How to Time Your Current Home’s Sale

If you’re buying your first home, timing is not necessarily going to be an issue. After all, you will continue to live in your apartment, your parents’ home, or wherever you hang your hat until your new home is available – and then you’ll move right in. However, if you already own a home and are buying a new one, things are a little trickier. You probably need to sell your old home before you can buy a new one, but if you sell before you buy, where are you going to put all your stuff in the interim?

There has to be some way to time things so that you can move into your new house before you have to move out of your old one, without having to pay to put all of your possessions into storage. Fortunately, people do this all the time. Here are some tips for timing your home sale and home purchase.

To begin, there are basically two ways to time your sale and purchase; you can buy, then sell, or sell then buy.

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Using Social Media to Pick Your First Mortgage Lender

Can Social Media Channels Help With Buying Your First Home?

We use social media for just about everything these days. We use it to connect with friends, to find out what events are happening around town, and, most importantly for some, to get advice on what we should buy. Peer review sites are some of the hottest sites on social media, where you can find out whether or not something meets its claims straight from the horse’s mouth.

People frequently follow the accounts of their favorite brands on Instagram or Twitter, to see what promotions they might be running, what new products are coming out, or even to see how clever their tweets are. So why not use social media to pick a mortgage lender?

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