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Archive for the ‘Real Estate Tips’ Category

Puurrrfect Interior Design: How to Make a Cat Friendly Home

David Cross in Opinions, Real Estate Tips   •   1 comment Aug 21, 2012

Puurrrfect Interior Design: How to Make a Cat Friendly HomeLearn how to turn your home into a cat friendly haven from author Bob Walker. Beware: Cute cat pics await you.

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Interior Designers v. Decorators: Not Cut From the Same Cloth

David Cross in Real Estate Tips   •   0 comments Aug 15, 2012

Interior Designers v. Decorators: Not Cut From the Same Cloth Do you know the difference between interior designers and decorators? Movoto Real Estate set out to answer this question, in style of course.

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What You Secretly Wanted to Know About Nudist House Hunting But Were Afraid to Ask

David Cross in Real Estate Tips   •   1 comment Aug 8, 2012

What You Secretly Wanted to Know About Nudist House Hunting But Were Afraid to AskWhere do nudists go to buy homes? We spoke with clothing-optional realtor Jackie Youngblood to learn the ins and outs of nudist real estate. (Don’t worry, it’s safe for work.)

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Spike TV’s Flip Men: Secrets to Turning a Profit

David Cross in Real Estate Tips   •   1 comment Aug 2, 2012

Spike TV’s Flip Men: Secrets to Turning a ProfitThis week Doug Clark and Mike Baird of “Flip Me” make their return to the small screen for a second season. Movoto Real Estate spoke with Clark about how to get into the house flipping business.

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How Would You Like Your Agent Today? Responsive With a Dash of Experience

Chris Kolmar in Opinions, Real Estate Tips   •   0 comments Jul 26, 2012

How Would You Like Your Agent Recently, Movoto Real Estate interviewed more than 100 homebuyers about their experience immediately after they purchased their homes. Our goal was to better understand the homebuying process from beginning to end. What we found will shock agents. (Hint: Homebuyers love the Internet.)

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What Your Realtor Really Means: Agent Jargon Decoded

Kristin Crosier in Real Estate Tips   •   1 comment Jul 19, 2012

Here, you’ll find Movoto Real Estate’s own interpretation of common real estate jargon that we’ve heard about (or unfortunately had directed at us). Feel free to consider it a guide for maneuvering your next housing adventure, or for use if you’re in need of a good laugh. Forget memes and Tumblr—a glimpse at our infographic should give you a glorious moment of uncontrollable giggles. It did for us.

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5 Cities That Will Make You Want to Leave the Suburbs

David Cross in Opinions, Real Estate Tips   •   0 comments Jul 9, 2012

Last month the brains at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released its annual report that details the nation’s housing trends. There is a lot of information to comb through for real estate junkies, but one area that has caught the media’s attention is a bonafide American trend.

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5 Yard Sale Tips: Treat Your Yard Sale Like An Annoying Co-Worker

Kristin Crosier in Opinions, Real Estate Tips   •   0 comments Jul 5, 2012

We all think of having a yard sale the same way we think about working on a big project with our peevish colleague: it’s annoying, inconvenient to organize, potentially problematic, and requires commitment and bargaining. But with our list of helpful tips on how to approach the event, you’ll successfully unload those discarded goods onto other people (or excel at your assignment).

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Is Instagram Real Estate’s Next Frontier?

Kate Folk in Real Estate Tips   •   12 comments Jun 27, 2012

The value of having professional photos taken for your house listings has been thoroughly documented. A well-composed photo using professional quality equipment can make a huge difference in how potential buyers perceive your listing, as the Wall Street Journal reported two years ago.

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Comparative Market Analysis: How Much is Your Home Worth? (Infographic)

David Cross in Infographic, Real Estate Tips   •   13 comments Jun 15, 2012

Knowing the value of a home is the first step in selling a house. But this can be a difficult task. It’s not enough to have a rough estimate. An agent is a trained professional who understands local housing markets and makes educated guesses as to what a home is worth. One important tool a real estate agent has at his or her disposal is a Comparative Market Analysis.

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You’re Making Your Landlord Rich

David Cross in Apartments, Homes for Sale, Real Estate Tips   •   2 comments May 2, 2012

cheaper to buy or rent in californiaIt’s expensive to rent–really expensive. More than you think.

With spring coming and a number of staffers at the Movoto Headquarters soliciting for help schlepping cardboard boxes and floppy futons into new apartments and homes, we started thinking about what it would cost to do away with paper-thin walls and inattentive landlords.

What we found was in 8 of California’s 11 most prominent metro areas, renters on average spend $480 more per month for their units than homeowners in similar homes.

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Advantages of Newer Homes

Movoto Team in Buyer Tips, Real Estate Tips   •   2 comments Feb 29, 2012

Who doesn’t like something new? New things look good and come with fewer worries. You don’t have to worry about the treatment they got from previous owners, because you’re the first. This goes for new homes, too. Buying a newer home, there’s not as much to assess, it seems. That’s the main advantage. You don’t

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The Psychology of First Impressions When Selling Your Home

Movoto Team in Real Estate Tips, Seller Tips   •   0 comments Feb 22, 2012

  How to make your house more appealing before a buyer has even walked through your front door.   Psychologists say that we make up our minds about a person within the first fifteen seconds of meeting them. And the same is true when viewing a house. It’s likely a prospective buyer will have made

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Tips for Building a Home

Movoto Team in Buyer Tips, Real Estate Tips   •   0 comments Feb 21, 2012

Many real estate developers purchase derelict houses for an unbelievably low price, knock it down, rebuild it and either flip or rent it. Although this can be incredibly profitable for some people, others may unearth problems during the building process which cause them to make a loss on their development project. If you’re considering building

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Advantages of Older Homes

Movoto Team in Buyer Tips, Real Estate Tips   •   0 comments Feb 19, 2012

Are there any advantages to buying an older home like this one in Boston from 1900? An old house could be rundown, it could need repairs and it could have unforeseen problems. But there’s a reason why it’s made it more than 100 years. It’s well-made with expert craftsmanship. And it’s got old-world charm. Fireplaces to

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Divorce and Real Estate: Custody of the House

Movoto Team in Real Estate Tips, Seller Tips   •   0 comments Feb 15, 2012

No happy couple thinks about the possibility of divorce, not when you are registering for china, and certainly not when you are signing off on a 30-year mortgage. However, life happens, and sometimes couples do not wait until death to depart from one another. Children’s time can be shared, but a house cannot go to

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Scam-Alert

Avoiding Residential Building Contractor Scams

Movoto Team in Other, Real Estate Tips   •   0 comments Feb 9, 2012

For some homeowners, DIY is actually more favourable to them than hiring a contractor to carry out the work. Aside from the financial savings related to DIY, some fraudulent tradesmen have really given contractors a bad name. With television shows constantly airing and unearthing rogue traders and neighbours filling your ears with tales of their

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Reverse Mortgages

Movoto Team in Other, Real Estate Tips   •   0 comments Feb 5, 2012

Maybe you’ve been seeing commercials on late-night TV lately asking “Is a reverse mortgage right for you?” and then offering vague ways to go and get one. What are they talking about anyway? They’re talking about borrowing against the equity on your home to get a lump sum cash payment, a line of credit, or

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Moving With Children: Good Luck With That

Movoto Team in Other, Real Estate Tips   •   0 comments Feb 3, 2012

  Unless you are an unflappable Type-A personality who has everything figured out or a totally laid back dude who worries about nothing, moving is a stressful experience. Toss a couple of squirmy, high energy youngsters who think they know everything into the mix, and you might be in some trouble. This is what nervous

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Top 11 U.S. Cities for Raising a Family

Movoto Team in Real Estate Tips, Top Ten   •   1 comment Jan 31, 2012

Top-10 lists for the most the family-friendly cities in America are a pretty regular occurrence. Forbes seems to do one every year. MSN Real Estate’s got one. Kiplinger and Parenting have them. Usually the criteria range from crime to quality of schools. Other things to consider might be what kind of environment, overall, do you want

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