When you decide to put your home on the market, one of your primary goals will be to receive the greatest possible return on your investment. Below are strategies for achieving that goal that might not seem logical at first glance…but when you review the advantages they provide, you’ll understand how they can lead to a more successful sale.
Read moreConsidering Investing in a Rental Property?
While purchasing a property to rent to others includes many of the same procedures as buying a home for your own, there are also a host of factors–both pro and con–that you should be aware of before considering this investment.
Read more8 Reasons You Should Buy Instead of Rent
One of the best reasons why owning a home is great is that at the end of the day, it’s yours to do with what you wish. Sure, you may have to take out a great big loan, but with every monthly mortgage payment you’re getting one step closer to total ownership, and you’re building equity, too.
Read moreHow To Shop For Your First House Together
Buying your first home can seem overwhelming. It can be hard to narrow down what you want, figure out what neighborhoods are the best and decide how much to spend – let alone do all of that with another person! It's common to have a fair share of disagreements while house hunting, so I’ve put together a few tips to help you find your dream home while putting your relationship first and not going crazy!
Read moreTips for Selling in Spring
Spring months can be the liveliest time to put your home on the market. To ensure a swift sale, implement the following tips to prep your home this spring.
Read moreQuestions to Ask When Purchasing a Waterfront Home
Waterfront homes are naturally appealing to buyers. Who wouldn’t want to live right on the water? But although waterfront homes are of interest to most buyers, not many people are aware of the particular risks and issues that can arise with a waterfront home purchase. When you start looking at waterfront homes, you want to know which questions to ask to make sure you do not make a purchase that you will regret. Here are some questions to ask if you're considering purchasing a waterfront home.
Read moreNew Company Listings - April 5th, 2016
WOW! What a spectacular morning! One (of many) reasons that I love my profession so much is that I just love houses. I love design, I love lifestyle, I love seeing an individual or family's creative personality play out through their home. Our office goes on weekly outings called caravans to tour new listings, and it's one of the most exciting parts of my week!
Read moreBudding Signs of a Crazy Spring Buying Season
It’s a season of changes—signs of spring are all around (hey, is that actually a mosquito in our kitchen?), and we’re quickly going from the slowest time of the year for real estate to the busiest. As we close the books on March 2016, here’s a look at the key trends setting the stage for a crazy spring buying season.
Read moreYou've Put an Offer In on a Home - Now What?
You've spent months, maybe even years researching properties, attending open houses, exploring different options with your Realtor, and saving for that down payment. And now, you've finally put an offer down on your perfect home. Congratulations! That is major progress. Now what? Well, take a deep breath - there's still a ways to go.
Read moreFive Reasons to Buy an Older Home
We have so many gorgeous older homes here in Mystic! They may not be for everyone, but there is something unique about older homes that many home buyers just can’t resist. Everyone has different things that appeal to them of course, and for many people a brand new house built just for them might be ideal, but if you’ve been thinking about buying an older home these reasons might sound familiar.
History
For some people, there is just something intangibly cool about living in a house that has stood through decades, or even centuries. If you live in a neighborhood or town with a good local library or local historians, you may be lucky enough to find photos of your house from many years ago.
Or maybe your house fits into a particular architectural style of decades past: an ornate Victorian, or a sleek, modern mid-century home. Whatever period your home was built in, for many homeowners there is something satisfying about knowing your home’s story and its place in history.
Room for Creativity
One of the drawbacks of older homes can be that they may need updating or renovation to make them more suitable to our modern lifestyles. But many buyers looking for older homes see this as just more room for creativity! With solid bones and unique architectural features, the prospect of updating an older house to work for your family can be exciting and give you the opportunity to create a truly one-of-a-kind home.
Solid Construction
Standard building materials were just different way back when. Solid wooden doors, hardwood floors and thick plaster walls were the standard before more inexpensive materials (designed to look like the real thing!) became the norm for most builders. Siding was made of real wood, facades featured solid brick or real (often local) stone. If a home from a century ago is being lived in today, you can probably assume it was built to last.
Mature Landscaping
Big shade trees, mature hedges and shrubs, flower gardens that have had a chance to grow and establish themselves – when you buy an older home you’re not just buying a building, you are buying the land it sits on and all of the plants and trees that have been planted over the years. Maybe things are a little overgrown, but with a some pruning you never know what surprises will come popping up in the spring. And even if you have to pull out buckets of wisteria or hack back a rhododendron that’s grown too big, you won’t have to wait years before tiny saplings grow big enough to be shade trees, or for flowering plants to finally fill in sparse-looking beds.
Unique Surprises
Admittedly, some of these may be unwelcome and you should prepare to discover things that may need some upgrades or repairs. But old homes can hold plenty of fascinating little mysteries and surprises, just waiting for you to stumble across them one day. Maybe you discover the wiring for an old servant’s bell, or an old garden statue buried in the yard. It might be a box of mementos forgotten in a corner of the attic, or an old-fashioned tool left in the basement. You won’t know until you move in and start poking around!