Real Estate Information Archive

Moving into a new home is exciting — for the humans in the family. It can be less comfortable for pets who need time to adjust to a new environment, learn their way around and discover the best nap spots in their new home. As a loving pet parent, you want every member of your family to be as happy and comfortable as possible. Here are some tips to make your home more welcoming to your four-legged family members: 

Convenient Dining 

Your furry friend will need his own space for meals — unless you don’t mind him begging at the table when you eat! Make sure he has a bowl that is appropriate for his size and always clean it between meals.  

Vets recommend feeding pets only once or twice a day, so you’ll want to stow away bowls when they’re not in use.

Hang-out Space 

Dogs and cats spend a lot of their day napping and relaxing, so be sure to provide a variety of spaces for your pet to just hang out — with you or on his own.

Sun-rooms are also great for both pets and their humans to enjoy the feeling of al-fresco dining while remaining securely inside. Sun worshipping pets can also catch some rays while hanging out. 

Helpful Grooming Stations 

While many dogs enjoy a bath now and then, the process can be messy at home. Including a pet wash station with a hand-held hose in the mudroom ensures you’ll be able to clean up your dirty pup before he drags dirt through the house. Make sure you outfit your wash station with an ample supply of soft, absorbent towels, dog shampoo and all the grooming tools you’ll need to keep your pup looking great. 

Safe and Happy Outdoors 

Many pets enjoy a good romp outdoors, and you want your companion to be able to safely play in his outdoor environment. Start by adding a fence if you don’t already have one. Choose one with vertical slats or rails close enough together that a pet can’t slip through, and high enough that he or she can’t jump over it. Next, be sure your pet has plenty of shady spots where he can hide, nap or just chill. Consider adding an outdoor pet fountain so pets always have access to fresh water, and a pet door to allow your dog or cat to easily come and go from your backyard. 

Cosmetic Concerns 

Unless you have a rare hairless breed, you probably deal with pet hair daily. As you’re decorating your new home, remember choosing carpeting close in color to your pet’s coat will make shed hair less visible. You should also keep in mind the size of your dog as you’re choosing hard flooring. Sturdy laminates will hold up better if you have large dogs in the house, while smaller dogs and cats may have trouble getting traction on vinyl or hardwood floors. 

When you’re buying a home, it’s important that you consider every member of the family, and pets are a huge part of our families. (BPT)

Did you know that you are entitled to a free credit report once a year from all of the major credit reporting companies?  I don’t know about you but that is news to me!  If you are in the market to purchase a new home and have not had your credit report pulled lately you may be happy to find this news out!  By checking your credit report before you purchase a home or for any other reason for that matter you will be able to  see if there is anything on your credit report that is not accurate and remove it and you may also be able to find out if you have been the latest victim of identity theft.  The major credit reporting companies are Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.  If you want to get your yearly free credit report  all you have to do is go to each of these sites and click on “Request Your Credit Reports”.  You can also send a letter to each of the three major credit reporting companies.   A few tips to follow are below.

• Be sure that if you get on a credit report website and are asked for money that you do not respond. There are many hackers out there trying to get your information and this is just one of the many ways in which they do it. 
• Do not give out your social security number unless you are on a site that you know is secure. 
• Check your credit report every four months or so to be sure that your account hasn’t been compromised. 
• There are credit monitoring companies you can hire to keep a watchful eye on your credit report if you feel it is necessary to do so. 

Again, be sure that you are not asked for any monies when trying to get your free credit report. Be assured that there are many companies out there that claim they will give you a free credit report only to ask you for your credit card information at the very last step.  Step away from those companies and continue with your search until you find one that lets you leave the page without asking for any form of payment.  Once you get your report you can then be on your way to making any changes needed to help improve your score.  When you get your credit where you want it and where it needs to be, the world will open up to you in ways you never thought possible. 

Courtesy of Wilmington DE Real Estate Expert Tucker Robbins.

You may or may not have small children living in your home but even if you don’t you might have a family member or a friend who does, so tips on how to childproof your home may be advantageous to you.  There are several ways in which you can make your home child friendly so that you don’t have to worry about any little ones getting hurt or any of your stuff destroyed. 

• The first and most important tip to make your home childproof is to cover your electrical outlets.  For some reason electrical outlets are very interesting to little hands and fingers.  The best way to keep the kids from exploring your electrical outlets is to buy covers for them.  Make sure to get the electrical outlets that are not that hard for you to pull out so that you don’t constantly have to try so hard to remove them when you want to use an outlet. 
• This may sound silly but get on your hands and knees and travel around your home looking for things that might be dangerous.  You may find that you see much more clearly by getting down to a child’s level when it comes to childproofing your home.  Fix any issues you deem to be hazardous to kids while you are in this position.
• Put glass items and valuables up high out of reach of children.  This will not only help keep children safe in your home but it will also keep your valuables from getting broken.
• If you have anything sharp such as a fireplace with edges made from stone or brick you may want to buy covers for those edges to use when you will have small children around.  If you have little ones who live in your home you may want to keep these areas covered at all times. 
• If you have a swimming pool, always make sure that someone is outside watching the children if they want to play in the back yard.  Even if you have the pool surrounded by a fence you need to make sure the kids are looked after if they are anywhere near a pool. 

Hopefully some of these ideas for childproofing your home will be helpful to you and will prevent an accident from happening.  Once you feel as if your home is childproof then you will no longer have to worry about little ones getting hurt and you can enjoy your new or existing home. 

Courtesy of New Castle County Realtor Tucker Robbins!

New Castle County DE home sales declined in December 2015 with 446 homes sold compared to 456 in December 2014. The average sales price rose 2.75% in December to $229,443 from $223,303 in December 2014.

Information courtesy of New Castle County DE Realtor Tucker Robbins.

Owning a home of your very own is exciting and is the American dream.  You should know however that when you apply for a home mortgage you need to be as honest as possible so that your dreams are not crushed at the last minute. Below are a few tips on what not to say when you are applying for a home mortgage.  You may think that a little white lie won’t get you into trouble when applying for a home mortgage but what most people don’t realize is that you will likely get caught in that lie and may end up not getting approved after all.   Also the penalties for such lies can be quite severe such as a 30 year prison sentence and a million dollar fine. 

• If you don’t plan to live in the home in which you are getting a mortgage but rather you plan to rent the property out do NOT apply for a mortgage as your primary residence.  Default rates are higher on investment properties than they are on primary residences.  Down payments are larger on investment properties as well.  These are some of the reasons why folks try to lie about using the mortgage as their primary residence. 
• Lying about how much money you make  to get a home mortgage is also a no-no.  If you try to lie about your income for the purposes of getting a better home mortgage you are very likely to get caught because your lender is going to verify your income by looking at your w-2’s as well as your tax returns. 
• If you don’t have enough money for the down payment on your new home, you CAN borrow it from a family member or friend but if you do this you need to be sure to have the paperwork that supports the fact that it is a gift that you don’t have to repay otherwise it is considered a loan and the mortgage company will need to know about it.  This little white lie may seem harmless but it isn’t and it can get you into trouble with your mortgage lender. 

Basically, tell the truth about any and everything your mortgage lender asks you. If you want to have part of the American dream by owning your own home, don’t destroy the dream by lying.  Once you get your mortgage and you move into your new home you will be glad you did everything the right way and that you don’t have to worry about anything coming back on you in the future. 

Courtesy of New Castle County DE Realtor Tucker Robbins!

New Castle County home sales are trending upward with 559 homes sold in November 2015 compared to 529 in November 2014. The average sales price rose 6.96% in November to $249,336 from $233,115 in November 2014.

Courtesy of New Castle DE Realtor Tucker Robbins.

You may think that it might be impossible to sell your home while you and your children are living in it, especially if you have a lot of small children.  Selling your home doesn’t have to be a major headache as there are many tips and tricks to get the job done even with the little ones running around making messes everywhere.  Let’s take a look at a few tips on how to sell your home despite the "little people".

• A good idea to get your kids involved in the process of selling your home is to get them to take care of any clutter they may see around the house.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be clutter they created, just any kind of mess that may be lying around will do.  Kids love to feel helpful and what better way to help them feel helpful than to get them to help.  If you have older kids you can perhaps motivate them with a bit of cash to get the job done correctly. 
• You and your kids need to make a plan for when someone comes to tour your home so that you can all get out of the house together and have something fun to do.  When you have a last minute showing you and your children will easily remember that plan and head out together to wherever you have already decided upon.  A good place to go if it is summertime or springtime is the local park; if it’s cold the library might be a good option. 
• Have your children be in charge of packing their own rooms away for the future move.  They can easily pick through their toys and pick out the ones they don’t play with as often and go ahead and pack them away in boxes.  This is also cool to do because once you finally make the big move it will feel like Christmas to them when they open the boxes filled with toys they had forgotten they had. 

Whatever you do, try to make the packing and moving as low key as you possibly can, for your sake as well as your children’s.  Kids can sense when you are upset or stressed about something and then they can upset and stressed.  Do your part to make the transition of selling your home as smooth as possible. 

Courtesy of Wilmington DE Realtor Tucker Robbins.

It’s that time of year again, time for all of us to wrap up in a blanket and or turn up the heat in our homes.  This time of year is called winter and it can be daunting to say the least.  Many of you may be wondering how you can stay warm inside of your home this winter without breaking the bank by turning up your heat and making your power bill skyrocket.  Below you will find a few tips to stay warm this winter without running up your power bill.

• Heated rug pads are a great way to stay warm this winter.  Yes there are things such as these and you need only to do an online search for them to find one of your very own.  Simply place a heated rug pad underneath your area rug in your den and voila you will be warm and toasty in no time!
• Heated mattress covers are also a great thing to think about purchasing to make it through the winter.  These types of things use electricity of course but they are not going to cause your power bill to go up as much as turning up that dial on your thermostat.  Heated mattress covers can be found in area local department stores. 
• Heated slippers are a fun an innovative product to add to your Christmas wish list this year.  These can be purchased at your local department store as well and will do a great job of keeping your little tootsies warm this winter.  Imagine the warmth and coziness that heated slippers will provide you during the long cold nights ahead!
• One really silly but fun and innovative invention that is now available is heated toilet seats.  These types of seats will run you about $122 online but think about all the savings you will have with your power bill by using something as silly and simple as this to stay warm.
• Of course you can always use an extra large heavy blanket to curl up in this winter to keep warm.  Use these types of blankets to make your family time more fun by piling under it with as many of your family members as you can get under one.  All you will need besides the blanket is a movie and a bucket of popcorn and you will be set! 

Don’t let the cold air of winter get you down, use some of these ideas to stay warm  and keep that electricity bill at bay. 

Courtesy of New Castle County DE Realtor Tucker Robbins.

Although the economy has improved some over the last few years, it doesn’t seem to be getting a whole lot better for most Americans.  A good way to save money is to downsize your home.  This is especially a good idea if you have already raised your family and you and your husband are left paying a mortgage on a home that is too large for you.  Let’s take a look at how downsizing your home will help you to save a bit of money, to live more comfortably as well as some easy ways that you can downsize.

• One easy way to downsize is to look for a home that has a small garage or even no garage at all.  If you and your spouse are living in the home alone and your children are grown it is likely that you don’t have a bunch of stuff to store in a garage.  Buying a home without a garage is a great way to get more house for your money and to downsize your payment. 
• Finding a home without a lot of land is another way to downsize and to save big.  You can find a lot of cute houses on the market these days that don’t have a ton of land with them.  It is also good to find a home without a lot of land if you are older and don’t have the stamina you once had to do all the yard work that is involved with a house with a lot of land attached. 
• Buying a home that is one story is also a good way to downsize and to save when it comes to buying a new home.  Buying a home without stairs is good for when you get older as well because you won’t want to or may not be able to climb them once you get up in years. 
• Realize that you don’t have to give up on the home of your dreams when you downsize.  There are plenty of adorable houses on the market that won’t break your bank account that are 1500 square feet or less.  Don’t let society dictate to you that you need a large house in order to fit in.  There are plenty of upsides to downsizing to a smaller home!

Once you set your mind in the right direction and you realize that you don’t need to have a huge house and that it’s no longer important to “keep up with the Jones’’ you will be well on your way to saving a lot of money.

Courtesy of New Castle County Realtor Tucker Robbins!

Home inspectors are good at their jobs but they are not above missing some things because they are human.   There are several things that home inspectors have been known to miss during a home inspection so you might want to keep your eyes open and pay close attention during the inspection so that you don’t end up having to pay for expensive repairs once you move in to your new home.   A few things that may be missed by your home inspector  are below.

1. Inspectors do not always go over all the bells and whistles of a home and appliances are on the list of things they do not always pay a lot of attention to.  The last thing you want is to move into your new home to find out that you have a leaky dishwasher that needs to be replaced.  If you want to make sure appliances have not been overlooked you may want to check them yourself. 
    
2. Leaky faucets are also things that can be overlooked by home inspectors.  Take your time to walk through your soon to be new home and check the faucets for leaks just in case your inspector may have missed something.   It’s a good idea to check outdoor faucets as well.
    
3. Cracked sewage and drainage pipes might also be something that your inspector doesn’t take a look at and may therefore miss.  It may be worth your while to pay a bit of extra money to have an in depth look at your drainage pipes. 
    
4. Sometimes home inspectors will not pay a lot of attention to decks, porches and balconies.  There can be problems in these areas such as safety issues and cracks that may not arise until right before you make the purchase of the home.  Perhaps a second follow up inspection may be a good idea if you feel that one of these areas may be a potential problem. 

Again, home inspectors are human and they are not above missing some potential problems  with your new home.  Realize this fact before you have your home inspection so that you too can keep your eyes open for any potential problems you see in and around your prospective new home.  Once you move in you will be able to rest assured that you have not bought into a money pit. 

Courtesy of New Castle County DE Realtor Tucker Robbins!