Monday, April 23, 2012

10 Tips for Saving Money in the Garden

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Copyright 2012 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Evaluate Your House for a Deck

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Copyright 2012 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Staging Your Home For A Spring Sale


Staging your home for spring sale
Any home stager will tell you that “staging is staging” and the principals remain the same throughout the year—keep things clean, clutter free and colorful. But that doesn’t each season comes without its own brand of staging magic.
For spring, there are a number of things you can do both inside and outside to take advantage of the beautiful weather.
Barb Schwarz, creator of Homes Staging® and CEO of Stagedhomes.com, suggests adding splashes of color to your porch with potted flowers. She favors larger pots placed on each side of the front door bearing tulips or daisies with greenery in the middle.
Bringing spring colors into a home is just as easy, especially with accessories like throw pillows, area rugs, artwork, towels and bedspreads.
staging your home for spring“Change accessories and the whole house changes,” Schwarz said. Swap-out decorative pillows on a sofa for a fresh, new look. “This year nature colors are really in; green is really big and hot orange is an accent that is strong.”
Designers recommend using other knickknacks that speak of spring, such as pears, eggs, sea shells, nature, leaf patterns in fabrics, wicker, real leather and rust metal as contrast.
Schwarz said it’s also a good idea to replace the drapery panels in a home or office. She recently changed a den from a daisy pattern in blue to cream plain panels that went from ceiling to the floor “and the whole room looked bigger and more elegant,” she said.
Of course, all rooms in the house are important and there are ways to liven up each one as the spring season blooms. You want the buyer to buy the whole house, not just one or two rooms staged, so it’s important to create a cohesive design.
Yet don’t forget your “great outdoors.” Clean up your yards, remove fallen leaves and dead plants, and trim bushes and hedges.
Indeed, spring brings more buyers so take advantage of all that the season has to offer.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Got a Leak? This is the Week to Plug It

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Copyright 2012 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

February 2012 Utah County Housing Statistics



Housing Statistics
Pending home sales posted a tenth straight month of double digit increase, sitting at 564 which is up 37.9% this February. Closed sales are back up with a 7.7% increase, sitting at 337 sales last February and 363 sales this year. This should continue to increase with the high pending home sales.
Inventory and new listings continue to decline. February new listings were down 9.1%. This has pushed our total inventory down 25.1% and our months supply of inventory is also down substantially to 6.7 months, a 33.7% decrease from last year at this same time.
Utah County February 2012 Utah Housing Statistics

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

7 Home Products You Didn’t Know You Needed

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Copyright 2012 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

20 ‘Reader-Wise’ Ideas for Small Bathrooms — What Are Yours?

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Copyright 2012 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

January 2012 Utah County Housing Statistics


Housing StatisticsPending home sales posted a ninth straight month of double digit increase, sitting at 478 which is up 23.8% this January. Closed sales did dip slightly with a 4.8% decrease, with 333 sales last January and 317 sales this year. This should rebound though with the jump in pending home sales.
Inventory and new listings continue to decline. January new listings were down 10.7%. This has pushed our total inventory down 22.8% and our months supply of inventory is also down substantially to 7.0 months, a 31.3% decrease from last year at this same time.
Utah County January 2012 Housing Statistics

Friday, February 24, 2012

Is a Tankless Water Heater Right for You?

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Copyright 2012 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

2012 Utah Valley Home Expo


Utah Valley Home and Garden ExpoDon’t miss this year’s 
Utah Valley Home and Garden Expo:
March 23 & 24, 2012
11 am – 8 pm 
UCCU Events Center
at Utah Valley University
Utah Valley Home and Garden ExpoUtah Valley knows the best way to create your perfect home is to attend the Utah Valley Home and Garden Expo at the UCCU Events Center in Orem, Utah. Packed with exhibits, experts and ideas on home improvement inside and out, the annual Home Expo is the premier home event in Utah Valley. The Expo focuses on the latest decorating and remodeling trends in the industry. Whatever it is, you’ll find it here. And look for many Expo-only incentives to ready your home for not only a fantastic summer, but to be your pride and enjoyment year round.
The 2011 Spring Home Expo is Friday and Saturday, March 23rd and 24th. Each year nearly 12,000 visitors enjoy Utah County’s largest Expo. Expect another great show including good food, exhibits from nearly 200 top home-oriented businesses, free prizes, play areas, seminars and much much more.
Nearly 200 great exhibitors
Family activities including childrens areas
Free seminars and home ideas
Food and refreshments
Door prizes (valued at over $200 per prize) hourly
And much more…
Here’s your FREE tickets, simply click and print as many as you need:
Utah Valley Home Expo Ticket
This year don’t miss your opportunity to qualify for Utah’s Amazing Home Race and win $10,000 for a down payment – sponsored by Prudential Utah Elite Real Estate. Visit our booth at the entrance of the expo to learn more!
Utah's Amazing Home Race

Friday, February 17, 2012

Fence Etiquette: Tips to Avoid Neighbor Disputes

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Copyright 2012 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Monday, February 13, 2012

Snow Shoveling: Tools, Techniques, and Tips to Save Your Back

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Copyright 2012 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

99-Cent Store Solution: Scuffed Countertops

  • 99-Cent Store Solution #1: Scuffed Countertops

    At HouseLogic, we love to find and share inexpensive solutions to household problems. Our five solutions this week—one a day—don’t even require a trip to your big-box home improvement store—not that we don’t love stocking up at Lowe’s or Home Depot. Instead, pay a call to your 99-cent store. Its aisles are crammed with the inexpensive (and multipurpose) wares to fix what’s ailing. Read
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Copyright 2012 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

December 2011 Utah County Housing Statistics



Housing Statistics
Closed home sales have posted their seventh straight month of gains over the prior year. December put us at 24.6% over 2010 closed sales, pushing our year to date at 533 more sales than last year, a 10.9% increase. This trend should continue as pending sales posted an eighth straight month of double digit increase, sitting at 15.1% this December compared to last and YTD we are up 13.0%.
Inventory and new listings continue to decline. December new listings were down 14.3% and YTD we are down 13.8%. This has pushed our total inventory down 23.2% and our months supply of inventory is also down substantially to 7.0 months, a 31.7% decrease from last year at this same time.
Utah County December 2011 Housing Statistics

Monday, February 6, 2012

Super (Toilet) Bowl Championship: Clog Busters Vie for Title

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Copyright 2012 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Thursday, February 2, 2012

November 2011 Utah Housing Statistics



Housing Statistics
Utah home sales were up for the sixth consecutive month in November, rising more than ten percent, according to the UAR’s newest report. During November, Utah Realtors sold nearly two hundred fifty more homes than last year.
Sales were also up for the year as a whole, rising eight percent compared to the first eleven months of 2010. Since the beginning of the year, more than thirty thousand homes have been sold.
The sales increases should continue in coming months. The number of purchase contracts signed rose thirty-one percent in November. Pending sales measure future activity and have increased for seven consecutive months.
Inventory continued to decline in November, with levels down twenty-three percent. Inventory has been falling for a year, with November marking the fewest number of homes on the market since April 2007.
Contributing to the lower inventory was the fact that fewer homes were put up for sale. The number of new listings was down about twelve percent. About five hundred fewer homes went on the market this year versus last.
Houses were also absorbed faster. In November, it would have taken less than eight months to sell all of the homes on the market at the average sales pace. That’s significantly down from last year when there was an eleven-month supply. Month’s supply has not been lower since 2007.
Nevertheless, price improvements still lagged behind the progress made in other areas. The median sales price was one hundred seventy thousand dollars, down about nine percent from last November’s median. For the year as a whole, prices are down about eight percent.
Those prices combined with another month of low interest rates brought affordability close to the record high. The typical Utah family makes one hundred sixty-seven percent of what is needed to buy the median-priced home under prevailing interest rates. The record was set in September when affordability was just slightly higher.
November 2011 Utah Housing Market Overview
Utah Nov 2011 Closed SalesUtah Nov 2011 Days on MarketUtah Nov 2011 InventoryUtah Nov 2011 Months Supply

November 2011 Utah County Housing Statistics


Housing StatisticsClosed home sales have posted their sixth straight month of gains over the prior year. November put us at 8.3% over 2010 closed sales, pushing our year to date at 424 more sales than last year, a 9.4% increase. This trend should continue as pending sales posted a seventh straight month of double digit increase, sitting at 36.6% this October compared to last and YTD we are up 13.5%.
Inventory and new listings continue to decline. November new listings were down 6.6% and YTD we are down 13.8%. This has pushed our total inventory down 22.7% and our months supply of inventory is also down substantially to 7.5 months, a 29.9% decrease from last year at this same time.
Utah County November 2011 Housing Statistics