Decorate for the potential buyer. You know who this is because you were once this person! If you're in a starter home neighborhood, the buyer will likely be a younger individual or couple who is looking for more space after cramped apartment living. Pick some trendy paint colors like lilac gray or muted pastels and keep the decor minimalistic and modern. Forget decorating a kid's bedroom and opt for an office layout in the second bedroom instead. If you're looking to downsize from a, say, four-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac, you're probably going to attract the family crowd. Emphasize your space by decorating according to their needs. Have a finished basement? Amp up the recreational feel with some movie theater loungers or make it a game room! Think about your neighborhood as well. If you're in walking distance to a dog park, you may find that your buyer has a furry roommate. If your home is near a highly-rated school, that's also an indicator that kids may come with the package for whoever owns your home next.Take a breather—it's actually easier than you think. Here are four staging tips that are so easy they may not have even crossed your mind: Decorate for the potential buyer. You know who this is because you were once this person! If you're in a starter home neighborhood, the buyer will likely be a younger individual or couple who is looking for more space after cramped apartment living. Pick some trendy paint colors like lilac gray or muted pastels and keep the decor minimalistic and modern. Forget decorating a kid's bedroom and opt for an office layout in the second bedroom instead. If you're looking to downsize from a, say, four-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac, you're probably going to attract the family crowd. Emphasize your space by decorating according to their needs. Have a finished basement? Amp up the recreational feel with some movie theater loungers or make it a game room! Think about your neighborhood as well. If you're in walking distance to a dog park, you may find that your buyer has a furry roommate. If your home is near a highly-rated school, that's also an indicator that kids may come with the package for whoever owns your home next. Use resources. You don't have to take on this process all by yourself. Rent a storage unit so you don't have to worry about hiding away your must-keeps. This way, these items are already neatly packed away and ready for your new home, and they won't get in the way of a buyer who isn't looking to see how bad your shopping addiction is. Additionally, hire a cleaning company. You can find some relatively affordable options, and this will help you stay stress-free throughout the process. Once it's clean, all you have to worry about is keeping it that way! Focus on the small accessories. Take a tour of your own home, but with fresh eyes. What do you see that stands out as grungy, old and just a complete turn-off? This can be anything from a sticky, splattered garbage bin that needs a good cleaning to your shower curtain which has a dense layer of soap scum that's going to scare even the bravest buyers away. Replace any small accessories that won't cost you a fortune, and clean anything that can look like new with some TLC. Use your nose. Again, take a tour of your home, but this time focus on what you're smelling. A better option might be to find a friend or family member who can volunteer to do this for you—someone who doesn't live with you or isn't over all the time. Identify the sources of odor in your home and figure out a solution. The last thing you want is for a buyer to come in and quickly be hit by an unpleasant smell. The cleaning and decluttering should help with this, but there are other things you can do to ensure your home is a breath of fresh air: Open up the windows! Let your home air out for an hour or two. Light some candles to freshen up the rooms. Bake a cake or some cookies right before a potential buyer comes over. Staging can be easy if you just put yourself in the buyer's shoes. It is, however, more than just moving around furniture and putting away the excess items. Think back to the tour you took yourself before buying this home. What stood out to you—both good and bad? Think about how it all impacts the senses. Of course, trends change, but the overall feeling of clean and tidy is always the first thing people notice. And customizing your home with some easy staging tricks can make a big difference! Continue reading ...

Homes cost a lot of money to maintain. But are you spending extra money unnecessarily on upkeep? Here are the 10 most expensive mistakes you could be making in your home. 1. Using Traditional Light bulbs If you still have incandescent light bulbs in your home, you could be throwing a lot of money away every month on inflated electric bills. Over its life span, an incandescent bulb can use $180 worth of electricity. A CFL will only use $41 worth of electricity over the same time period. Even better is the LED bulb, which only uses $30 per bulb. Think what replacing every light bulb in your home could do to your home's bottom line. 2. Ignoring a Leaky Faucet A leaky faucet that drips one drop per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons per year, which is enough water to take more than 180 showers. Some of us live in areas where water is plentiful, but for those of us in areas plagued with drought, this could be costing you a fortune. Fix or replace your leaky faucet and save a ton on your water bill. 3. Using the Wrong Air Filter Size We all sometimes forget to change out the air filters for our HVAC systems or accidentally buy the wrong size. But using the wrong filter or a dirty filter can increase your power bill and cause expensive problems for your furnace down the road. Use the correct filters for your system, and set a reminder to change them after the recommended amount of time. You won't regret it. 4. Not Customizing Temperature Invest in a customizable thermostat. If you're away at the office all day, you can program your heater to shift down a few degrees while you're gone and then shift back up shortly before you return home. Heating or cooling an empty home wastes a lot of money in energy costs. 5. Not Adjusting Air Vents Properly Is one room in your home hot, while the others are cold? Oftentimes homeowners will crank up the air conditioning in the whole house to combat hot temperatures in one area. Instead, adjust air vents to direct the flow of air more evenly throughout your entire home. Professionals will come regulate this to ensure that your entire home is receiving the same amount of air conditioning or heating. 6. Over Watering Lawn Many homeowners have their sprinkler systems programmed to come on in the early morning hours for optimum lawn health. This can become a problem, however, if you're never around to see what you're actually watering. A broken sprinkler head could be causing a fountain, or the trajectory of your sprinkler may be directed at a fence instead of your lawn. Periodically run your sprinklers during the day so you can see how they are performing when you're not around. 7. Water Heater Temperature Set Too High Unless you have a tankless water heater, your water heater is keeping the water in its tank hot 24/7. If you don't keep an eye on the temperature as each season changes, you may be paying too much to heat your water. Decrease the temperature in the summer, and bump it back up when winter comes. 8. Leaky Windows and Doors Leaky windows and doors are great places for cold, winter winds to enter your home. Many homeowners simply ignore them and crank up their heaters. Caulk leaky windows and put rubber seal around doors to keep winter winds out and warmth in. 9. Paying a Handyman Don't pay a handyman for a job that is simple enough to do yourself. If you're unsure of how to do something, look up video tutorials online. Doing simple tasks yourself can save you a lot of money. 10. Ignoring Curled Shingles It may be easy to ignore problems on your roof, but it will only lead to bigger problems later. If you see any possible issues with your roof, repair them as soon as possible, as this will save you significant costs later. Use these 10 tips to cut maintenance costs on your home today. Continue reading ...

Dallas Real Estate Prices & Rents are rising fast. According to Zillow.com, the median home value in Dallas is $192,300. Dallas home values have gone up 14.0% over the past year and Zillow predicts they will rise 12.2% within the next year. The median list price per square foot in Dallas is $205, which is higher than the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro average of $138. The median price of homes currently listed in Dallas is $399,000 while the median price of homes that sold is $298,100. The median rent price in Dallas is $1,650, which is lower than the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro median of $1,700.

In 2018 is shaping up to continue the trend of the last few years as one of the strongest markets in the United States. Despite some fluctuations in the Dallas housing market, demand and sales have continued to climb at a feverish pace for more than two years and show no signs of stopping. The median sale price for a house in Dallas-Fort Worth rose 6.31 percent from $236,100 in November 2016 to $251,000 in November 2017, according to the latest data from the Texas A&M Real Estate Center. Dallas-Fort Worth homebuilders started 33,891 houses in 2017, an increase of 4,488 houses or 15.3 percent above 2016 home starts of 29,403, according to a report from the housing analysis firm of Residential Strategies.

In Dallas housing market, 0.6 homes are foreclosed (per 10,000). This is greater than the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro value of 0.4 and also lower than the national value of 1.6 The percent of delinquent mortgages in Dallas is 1.3%, which is lower than the national value of 1.6%. With U.S. home values having fallen by more than 20% nationally from their peak in 2007 until their trough in late 2011, many homeowners are now underwater on their mortgages, meaning they owe more than their home is worth. The percent of Dallas homeowners underwater on their mortgage is 5.7%, which is higher than Dallas-Fort Worth Metro at 4.4%.

When looking for real estate market opportunities in Dallas or anywhere in the country, the generally accepted standard is to purchase a property that will give you a modest but minimum 1% profit on your investment. An example would be: at $120,000 mortgage or investment cost, $1200.00 per month rental. That would be the ideal equation example. Even with rent increases, buying a $500,000 investment property in Dallas is not going to get you $5000 per month on rent.