FamilyFirstRealtyBlog

5 Tips To Prepare Your Home For Sale By: G. M. Filisko Print Email Working to get your home ship-shape for showings will increase its value and shorten your sales time. Here are five ways to get your house ready to sell. Many buyers today want move-in-ready homes and will quickly eliminate an otherwise great home by focusing on a few visible flaws. Unless your home shines, you may endure showing after showing and open house after open house — and end up with a lower sales price. Before the first prospect walks through your door, consider some smart options for casting your home in its best light. 1.  Have a Home Inspection Be proactive by arranging for a pre-sale home inspection. For $250 to $400, an inspector will warn you about troubles that could make potential buyers balk. Make repairs before putting your home on the market. In some states, you may have to disclose what the inspection turns up. 2.  Get Replacement Estimates If your home

What is the arbor Day Foundation? Check out: www.arbordday.org This foundation helps keep the planets trees safe and replants where needed as it can with donations. Trees are the custodians of the earth ... they clean the air and the water and help control climate change, not to mention they are beautiful and provide habitat for our animals and birds. Just planting  one tree can make a difference. It provides shade, oxygen, wind break, animal habitat and mulch (leaf litter) then wood at the end of it's life. Do something that will last a lifetime and make a difference. Plant a tree this Arbor Day - In VA it's Friday, April 29th, 2016. Memberships start at only $10   and you choose one of these gifts as our thanks when you join: Get 10 Free Trees Choose 10 trees that grow well where you live, and we’ll send them to you to plant in your yard. You can also choose to send the trees directly to someone else. Plant 10 Rain Forest Trees and Get a T-shirt With your help,

7 Tips For Staging Your Home By: G. M. Filisko Print Email Make your home warm and inviting to boost your home’s value and speed up the sale process. Warm, neutral-colored paint is key when staging your home. Image: Radius Images/Getty Images The first step to getting buyers to make an offer on your home is to impress them with its appearance so they begin to envision themselves living there. Here are seven tips for making your home look bigger, brighter, and more desirable. 1.  Start with a Clean Slate Before you can worry about where to place furniture and which wall hanging should go where, each room in your home must be spotless. Do a  thorough cleaning  right down to the nitpicky details like wiping down light switch covers. Deep clean and deodorize carpets and window coverings. 2.   Stow Away Your Clutter It’s harder for buyers to picture themselves in your home when they’re looking at your family photos, collectibles, and knic

What to Do With a Tax Refund: 3 Ideas That’ll Practically Double Your Money If You’re a Homeowner By:  Alaina Tweddale    HouseLogic.com  Print Email Getting a refund? Turn it into home equity by investing in great projects like a new front door that'll pay you back at resale. Image: Liz Foreman for HouseLogic If this year is anything like the last, almost 7.2 million Americans will get a tax refund this spring averaging around $3,000. If you’re a homeowner getting this refund, you’re fortunate because you’ve got more creative ways to invest it for a profit. Doesn’t matter if you’re selling, staying put, or stuck in the middle. Here are three homeowner-only options to grow that refund: 1. If You’re Early Into Your Mortgage It may not be as instantly gratifying as a treehouse vacation in Costa Rica, but spending your tax refund to pay down your mortgage principal could save you enough funds to take a splurge-loaded vacation a bit