There is an obvious and tremendous benefit from having a great working relationship with a real estate (and also a mortgage) professional long before you actually have to call on these people to help with the purchase and/or sale of a home. You know your deal will be handled in the best possible way; you know that your specific and unique needs will not only be heard, they will be acted on; and you know that you can trust the advice and suggestions of your professional assistants. These are huge matters!

And there’s more. What you may not realize is that an on-going relationship with your real estate and mortgage professionals will help you stay on top of the national and local real estate markets. They will also keep on top of interest rate trends, make you aware of new mortgage programs, and apprised of relevant new opportunities as they arise. You will have a knowledgeable professional reporting to you whenever something that could benefit you becomes available.

Your home is probably your most important investment—it’s a near-cliché by now—and it’s also the foundation of your financial life. For your health, you have an on-going relationship with a doctor and dentist; for your financial security, you have (or should have) an on-going relationship with your insurance expert; for your tax matters, you have an on-going relationship with a great tax advisor. It makes sense in so many ways to give yourself the benefit of a great real estate advisor and a trusted mortgage professional. For information call Beth at 425-450-5208 or email her at beth@bethbillington.com.

This is a very involved question. Is it better to remodel your existing home or to find the home that answers your needs and move into it?

Truly, you will benefit by discussing the matter at some length with your real estate advisor, but let’s look at a few of the more obvious considerations.

The reality is that you are usually better off finding another home that truly meets your needs and wishes. You can do the necessary research and wind up very confident that your next home’s value hasn’t been distorted by additions to or subtractions from its original design, and isn’t out of line with the value of other homes in the same neighborhood. Further, you don’t have the problem of trying to fit square pegs into existing round holes, or newborn children into former closets.

By far the most important issue is to know exactly what you need your new (or remodeled) home to provide you. The second issue is sheer economics. Not only do you need to see whether you can get the money back out of your house that you put into it in a remodel, but you also need to look at market conditions. Is it reasonably easy to sell this home today? How easy or difficult is it to buy another? What would the differences be between financing your remodel and financing the purchase of another home? Again, be sure to talk with your real estate advisor about these questions. Just call Beth at 425-450-5208!

Arguably, the practice of “staging” a home—in which design professionals prepare a home so that it won’t just look good for potential buyers but will also romance them into a personal relationship with the home—is quickly becoming a nearly standard portion of marketing a home.

All of the old traditions still hold. It’s important to make a home as bright as it can possibly be, with unobstructed windows, a sense of the outdoors flowing into the indoors (often with plants on either side of the windows), and with every light in the house turned on. The house should have the domestic counterpart to the smell of old-fashioned comfort foods—floral scents, a freshness in the air, perhaps the smell of baking in the kitchen. Wherever possible, the home should be freshly painted, with bright displays of flowers in all the gardens.

Nothing new there. What is new is the way a home can be made to tell a story—a tale that the potential buyer moves herself and himself into. And this means the obvious indications that someone already lives in this house, such as photo displays, should be removed, as should a great many extremely personal objects. Further, just the right amount of furniture—for a good showing, not necessarily for optimal living—should grace the rooms.

It’s worth talking about carefully with your real estate professional. It can bring a faster sale at a higher price. Just call Beth at 425-450-5208.

If the market slows and house prices decline, there is a big temptation to wait on the sidelines—even if you find a bargain price and great terms on precisely the home you want—until you’re certain that prices have reached their bottom for this cycle. Do not heed this temptation unless you’re an inveterate gambler.

Remember two things. First, when prices turn, interest rates usually join them on the upswing. A home that had a bargain price and superb financing, therefore, can lose its price advantage nearly overnight. And once the market has truly turned, history tells us it is very unlikely to descend again.

Second, there are a lot of things other than money considerations that go into a purchase decision. If you have found the right home for your own future and the future of those in your household, it usually isn’t worth risking the loss of that home over a few hundred dollars—or even a few thousand dollars—that you might have saved if you’d waited until the extraordinarily brief moment when prices and rates were the most favorable to buyers.

This isn’t just a financial issue. It’s an issue involving how well you live the life of your dreams. Keep those dreams in mind when the price still looks great and the terms and rates are favorable.

Arguably, the practice of “staging” a home—in which design professionals prepare a home so that it won’t just look good for potential buyers but will also romance them into a personal relationship with the home—is quickly becoming a nearly standard portion of marketing a home.

All of the old traditions still hold. It’s important to make a home as bright as it can possibly be, with unobstructed windows, a sense of the outdoors flowing into the indoors (often with plants on either side of the windows), and with every light in the house turned on. The house should have the domestic counterpart to the smell of old-fashioned comfort foods—floral scents, a freshness in the air, perhaps the smell of baking in the kitchen. Wherever possible, the home should be freshly painted, with bright displays of flowers in all the gardens.

Nothing new there. What is new is the way a home can be made to tell a story—a tale that the potential buyer moves herself and himself into. And this means the obvious indications that someone already lives in this house, such as photo displays, should be removed, as should a great many extremely personal objects. Further, just the right amount of furniture—for a good showing, not necessarily for optimal living—should grace the rooms.