If you've lived and worked in the Washington metropolitan area long enough, you know our commute is among the worst. Fortunately most employers allow telecommuting. As a result, as I show home buyers prospective properties, space for a home office is almost always a must. Whether you are using your home office for running your own business, working from home on certain days, or just as a place for paying bills and organizing your schedule, you'll want to make sure it's a prod

Run If You See Any of These Red Flags Fly Are you ready to build your dream home, or maybe just a beautiful outdoor deck? Then it's time to find a contractor to do the work. Your home is one of your most valuable investments, which is why it is vital for you to pick a dependable and honest contractor to complete the work on your home. Make sure to watch out for these six contractor red flags. No References Before you hire a contractor, make sure to check out his or her refere

If you haven't already laid out major money in home repairs, you're lucky. In fact, HomeAdvisor's survey found that over 75 percent of homeowners had to pay for an emergency repair within 12 months of buying. Don't get caught off guard as most people are. Add these tools to your toolkit. No. 1: Repairs and Maintenance Fund The first and most important tool in your toolbox is your repairs and maintenance fund. You may think to yourself that you just bought this house or that y

If You Want Your Mortgage Process to Go Quickly and Easily, Get Ahead of the Game with These Tips Mortgage applications get a bad rap. They’re notoriously tedious, taking weeks and weeks (sometimes even months) to get off the ground, processed and finalized and sometimes, even after all that, the mortgage doesn’t even get approved.It can be frustrating for a homebuyer—especially one who’s looking to move into a new home quickly and efficiently. Fortunately, not every mortgage

There was a lot to like in February’s jobs report. Employers added 242,000 workers to their payrolls, more than economists had anticipated. More people joined the workforce, a sign of confidence in the labor market and the economy, and unemployment held at 4.9 percent. We’ve had a good run of strong job creation for a while now, which has boosted demand for homes and apartments, pushing up the cost of both. Which brings us to the bad news. Even though hiring is brisk, wages

Yep! It's tax season! If you’re a homeowner, you can claim some sizable deductions that can help reduce the amount you’ll owe Uncle Sam in April. Mortgage interest, property taxes and mortgage insurance premiums are just some of the deductions you can take if you have a mortgage on your home. These deductions might seem small individually, but together they can add up to thousands of dollars in savings on your tax bill. To help you get the most out of your real-estate-related

A Symbol of the Suburban American Dream I was born in the 60s. The era of Mad Men. As a young girl growing up, I learned I should want to be like Don's wife, Betty Draper. Betty represented the American dream. She was married to the most handsome man ever. She had two-point-five children, a stationwagon and a home with a white picket fence--the symbol of the ideal middle-class suburban family life with children happy playing in the yard, a large house and peaceful living. The

Maximize your budget by choosing something that won't go out of style quickly If 2016 is the year you’re planning to make home improvements, you’ll want to do some research to find out which trends are popular right now, especially if you plan to sell your home in the near future. Luckily, we already did the research for you! To find out which home improvement projects have been #trending the last four years, we identified popular keywords used in real estate listings and too