The last few years, the home improvement business has been booming as more homeowners look to spruce up their homes. But are owners getting too confident that they can do it all themselves? “Costs, pop culture, and perhaps overconfidence could be driving DIY culture,” according to a new study from NerdWallet, a personal finance website.NerdWallet’s 2018 Home Improvement Report found that younger generations are particularly gung-ho about
As the temperatures cool, homeowners have a lot of chores to do with their lawn to make sure it weathers well into the spring.Perfect timing is essential for fall yard care, says Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs for the National Association of Landscape Professionals. “For example, for many parts of the country, this fall has been warmer and wetter than usual, which has required that lawns are mowed later into the season, and m
The living room tends to be a major area for social activity in the home, and how you arrange the furniture can either encourage or hamper that.“Every piece of furniture you own might not have a perfect spot in your house, but it does have a best spot,” Myquillyn Smith, author of The Nesting Place: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful, told realtor.com®. Smith sees several common furniture placement mistakes that homeowners mak
Many homeowners overlook key safety measures when performing property upkeep, focusing too heavily on sprucing up the kitchen and overall design of their home and not enough on securing the structure against damage, according to a new survey of 1,000 people conducted by Porch.com. Thirty-one percent of homeowners say they don’t own a fire extinguisher, for example, and nearly 8 percent say that though they have one, they don’t know where it i
HouseLogic, a home improvement resource, recently highlighted some unusual ways to keep a home clean and gleaming.Apply a car product to keep shower doors free from scum. Soap buildup could be eliminated by covering a glass shower door in the rain-repellant product that is used for car windshields (only advised for glass doors). The product creates an invisible barrier, causing water and soap to roll off.Use protectants on furniture and carpets.
Don’t discount the entryway with staging, even if it’s tight on space. It’s the first area that potential buyers see as they walk in the front door. It’s your chance to make them feel welcome and fall in love with the home instantly. The entryway is also a high-traffic area, so it needs to be functional, too—a ready place for muddy boots, wet umbrellas, and shoes.“Entryways set a tone for the rest of the home,” Aimee Lagos, who co-f
Hogweed is popping up in more backyards, and environmental agencies are warning of the dangers of coming into contact with it. For those who do, the giant weed can reportedly give you blisters, cause third-degree burns, and even permanently blind you if you get in your eyes.The towering weed may look unassuming. Realtor.com® describes it as looking similar to Queen Anne’s lace. However, it can grow up to 14 feet high and it can reproduce quick
More spiders will likely be building their webs inside homes this fall. The arachnids from gardens and backyards often creep inside when the weather turns colder. But they also may already be there and just more willing to show themselves in the fall to homeowners.Homeowner Nicole Photianos in Georgia’s Paulding County told WSB-TV 2 that when she moved into her new home she found dozens of venomous brown recluse spiders all over the house. Even
A data-driven analysis of 13,000 property managers and 135,529 tenants by Rentec Direct, property management software company, found that scheduled automatic monthly payments is the most effective way to prevent late fees and save renters money.Of the 10,450 renters who have ACH currently enabled, 3,480 renters with ACH enabled and scheduled monthly rent payments were charged a late fee in 2017 (33%), while 4,932 renters with ACH enabled but did
Mortgage fraud climbed 12.4 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2018, and about one out of every 109 mortgage applications has been found to contain false or misleading information, according to real estate data firm CoreLogic. “Because home prices are rising and demand is strong, most mortgage fraud in this type of market is motivated by bona fide borrowers trying to qualify for a mortgage,” says Bridget Berg, CoreLogic’s prin
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