Will a recession caused by the Pandemic look like The Great Recession {or worse}, especially when it comes to Real Estate…

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Hello there, long time no see! I’ve taken some time off from blogging to really think and figure out exactly what I want to be sharing, and what I want that to look like. I still don’t have it all figured out, but with the craziness going on in the world right now I do want to share some thoughts on how the pandemic is affecting real estate, and also whether a recession {everyone is pretty much in agreement that we are officially in one now} is going to look like the last Great Recession, or even worse, especially in…

My big real estate ‘regret’…

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When we think something is impossible, is it really? Or is it just not possible for us because we think it’s impossible? The more years I’m here on this big round ball of air and water, the more I’m realizing that so much of what we think and feel and believe is just programmed into us day after day, second after second, for most of our lives… it’s not right or wrong, it’s just what we know… and if that way of seeing the world isn’t working ~ ie. we think things that we really want are impossible… or that…

What’s the market really like right now, and how to have success as a buyer

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{photo credit: McAlpine Tankersly Architecture} Hi there! I’ve been a little pre-occupied with our renovation lately, but we are in full spring work mode over here and I today I wanted to talk about something that I get lots of questions from people about all of the time ~ what’s the real estate market like right now? And how can someone possibly have success in this market?! Honestly, I get tons of questions all the time, they are all great questions and before I got into real estate I had no idea where to go to get answers for any of…

What it really feels like to buy a house

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You guys, it’s officially official, we bought a house! I shared the super exciting news a few weeks ago, but I also wanted to share our/my experience of going through the actual process, because I feel like it’s something people don’t really talk about. Sure, your friends might tell you when they are doing it, but does anyone really share what it’s actually like to go through this crazy process? So today I’m sharing what it was really like for us, to help de-mystify the whole thing and maybe answer some people’s questions along the way. When I’m the broker…

Smoking kills {your house sale}

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I was out with some clients recently and we saw a fantastic house, it was huge, on an oversized lot, and in a good location… but the sellers were smokers. We were skeptical from the beginning, but without going in person there’s no way to know how bad the smell is. But the house had enough appealing elements that we decided to go see it and just see.     UGH… even through the overwhelming glade plug-ins you could smell it. All the walls were the tell tale yellowish off white with nicotine stains. So disappointing! I wanted to give the…

Our house search has me feeling like Goldilocks… where’s the ‘just right’ one?!

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We are in the house hunt these days and I’m getting a little taste of what my own clients go through during their house search! Sometimes it’s fun and exciting and sometimes well… it’s not. We purposefully rented a temporary space for part of this year so that we could get a great deal on just the right fixer upper in the winter, when real estate is a little slower and you can usually get property for a better value than in the spring. Even though I know we’ll find something I am starting to feel some pressure to just…

Answering the question: Should I rent for a while instead of selling right now?

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Even in the midst of the best market there can be a great deal of stress and apprehension around selling your home. This could be coming from a myriad of things, but usually it all boils down to being worried about whether you’ll be able to sell your house for the amount of money that you want. Every now and then clients ask me if they should hold off and selling and just rent out their place for a year or so… and almost every time the answer is ~ no. Does it ever make sense to just rent out…

That fancy light fixture might be moving on too… what stays and what goes when houses trade hands.

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Did you know that unless you specify otherwise, you are expected to leave all of the window treatments at your house when you sell it? I’m torn between thinking that’s weird and it makes total sense, what do you think? On the one hand, if I like my curtains I might want to take them! But really, what are the odds your new windows will be the exact same size, and you’ll have the exact same number of them as your current house? Long. The odds are long. So they stay put and hopefully they aren’t ugly and your buyers…

Everything is an investment, invest wisely

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I’ve really been thinking about this topic a lot lately. I’m not sure we think of much outside of money as investments in our lives, but really ~ everything is an investment of one sort or another. What we spend or save money on is the obvious one. And the bigger the amount of money in one purchase, the more we think about it, and get stressed, etc. But outside of actually ‘investing’ money in the stock market do you think of anything else as an investment? Do you think of your car as an investment? Do you think of…

How much is your house really worth?

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You guys, I love talking about things that I feel like I shouldn’t talk about. When you feel like something is off limits for any reason, there’s usually just a lot of energy around it. And of course there’s a lot of energy around selling your house! For some reason I feel like no-one talks a lot about pricing and what your house is worth but I’m not really sure why. There are a lot of discussions about the importance of pricing your property right when you sell, but how do we get to that number? When should you even start…