By Natalie Wise on 7/5/2016   Originally posted on http://www.zillow.com/digs/guides/living-rooms/splurge-save-furnish-space-budget/ Furnishing a new house or apartment can be a challenge, especially if you’re working with a small budget. Sometimes it’s hard to know where to spend your hard-earned money. We put together this guide so you know what to splurge on, and what you can get at a lower price — without sacrificing quality. Here are eight pieces of furniture to get you started. Splurge: Couch It’s time to get rid of that couch you “inherited” from your mom’s basement. A good quality couch is the first investment you should make as you collect furniture for your new space; a sturdy, comfortable couch is worth the money. You can Scotch Guard upholstery to give it extra life and protect the fabric from stains and spills. If it’s in your budget. real leather is preferable to faux leather, as faux leather will split and crack. A sectional couch is a great option for entertaining, if you have the space. Save: Coffee Table Coffee tables run the gamut from sleek and slim to heavy double-duty storage pieces. Regardless of the style you choose, look for one that is made of real wood or thick glass, stable and able to withstand some wear and tear. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box: instead of a traditional coffee table you can use an old trunk or crate, or a large tufted ottoman that can also serve as seating. Thrift and vintage stores are great places to find unique and durable coffee tables at low price points. Splurge: Loveseat A loveseat is a small, two-person couch. The loveseat is traditional in a living room to create the classic “L” shaped furniture arrangement. This shape allows for easy conversation and lets everyone see the focal point of the room, be it a television or fireplace. Loveseats generally match the couch, but could also be a surprise decorative element in more contemporary or eclectic spaces. If loveseats are out of your price range, or simply don’t fit in your space, consider purchasing an armchair or two to create a similar living room feel. Save: Dining Table and Chairs A dining table and chairs may not be a top priority investment for you right away. Still, it’s nice to have a place to eat, so a small table (square or round) and at least two chairs will be a good place to start, even if they’re inexpensive. A table that folds down on both sides is a smart space-saving option if you don’t have a lot of room. As you accumulate more furniture over the years you can prioritize saving up to get a nice dining set...

Posted in Commercial Real Estate, Consumers, Economics, Mortgage Financing, Technology, by Robert Freedman on February 29, 2016 36 One of the side effects of digital communication is it can make people slow to get out from behind their screens to talk to someone face-to-face. Maybe you’ve noticed it with people you know, particularly young people who’ve grown up with technology. Research conducted for NAR last year found that young people experience a high level of anxiety when it comes time to move from online home shopping to talking to a real estate professional. As long as they’re gathering information on their phone, tablet, or laptop, they’re fine. But as soon as they want to talk to someone in the business, they find themselves outside of their comfort zone. That’s an interesting finding from a sociological standpoint, but from a business standout, it’s a problem. That’s why NAR did something different this year with its national ad campaign. Instead of focusing on the benefits of home ownership or why now is a good time to buy, it focused on this tension-point for young people. It did this in two ways: First, it designed content that speaks directly to people who are comfortable gathering information online but less so picking up the phone. Second, it designed a digital-first strategy for placing ads. That means focusing on what people see on their phones, tablets, and laptop and putting less emphasis on what they see on their TVs. Traditional media like TV, radio, and print remain important, but because young people live their lives online, the campaign places a new emphasis on the digital side. NAR’s ideas behind the ad campaign are explored in The Voice for Real Estate, NAR’s news video. The video also looks at an effort that is gaining ground to let veterans using federally backed, zero-down financing buy their house without having to worry about loan caps. Right now, VA loans are capped based on market area. That makes it hard for veterans to buy a house that costs more than $417,000. That amount goes far in many markets but there are also markets where that doesn’t even reach the median home price. In good news, the House passed a bill that would eliminate loan caps for VA loans. That’s a move NAR supports, and now the Senate needs to act on it. NAR played a role in getting the House to pass the bill. A REALTOR® from the Orlando area in Florida recommended changes to the loan caps in testimony before a VA subcommittee, and lawmakers heard the recommendations loud and clear. The video also looks at an interesting development in commercial real estate finance. Real estate professionals say...

Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, March 29, 2016 For the majority of home buyers, they want a home with about 9 percent more space than they currently have. A new study translates that to a median of 2,020 square feet. Read more: New Homes Are Getting Bigger and Pricier But the amount of desired square footage can vary quite a bit among the different age groups, according to findings from the National Association of Home Builders’ “Housing Preferences of the Boomer Generation: How They Compare to Other Home Buyers.” For example, millennial and Gen X buyers desire the most space, at more than 2,300 square feet. Baby boomers and seniors, on the other hand, mostly would be happy with homes that are under 1,900 square feet. Take a look at this chart below from NAHB that shows the gap between current and desired home sizes among the various age segments:   NAHB’s study also found that more than half of all home buyers across all age groups would like to have a home with three bedrooms. Thirty percent of respondents say they’d prefer four bedrooms or more. Millennials and Gen X’ers are most likely to want a home with at least four bedrooms. Source: “Housing Preferences Across Generations (Part II),” National Association of Home Builders’ Eye on Housing (March 17,...

Posted in Staging Tips, by Blog Contributor on January 18, 2016 641 By Tori Toth One of the most cost-effective ways to prepare a home for sale is to organize it, but I know for many home sellers it’s no easy task. It’s important to contain and, in fact, erase clutter for three reasons: Gain more square footage. Showcase the positive features in the home. Buyers can visualize living in the space. Clutter comes in all different forms and it lingers in most homes. So if you see piles of paperwork, clothes on the floor, stuffed closets — it’s time to declutter! Here are some tips: 1. Start small. Organizing is an evolving process that changes as the needs of a home owner change. Start small: One room, one closet, one corner. Just start somewhere! To make it count, tackle the first cluttered area a home buyer would see as they walk into the home. 2. Schedule it. Many times a home owner never starts the decluttering process because of time constraints. Schedule blocks of time (2-4 hours) or even just 15 minutes a day depending on what needs to be organized to make your goal a reality. 3. Find a home. One reason why clutter can build up in a home is if an item is homeless. Creating a place for each item in your home is a crucial part to obtaining an organized home. Of course, keeping the space in order only happens when you return an item back to it’s home after use.  4. Adopt “good habits.” By always returning an item home, you’re building in a maintenance system in your organizing process. Another good habit to adopt is to take 5-10 minutes every night and put items away. This way when you wake up in the morning, the house is ready to show off. For more tips on how to organize a home, view: “Lose the Clutter: Habits That Could Make or Break Your Home Organizing Goals.” ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tori Toth is an Amazon best-selling author who wrote “Feel At Home: Home Staging Secrets for a Quick and Easy Sell.” She is also the founder of The Stage 2 Sell Strategy, the world’s first online home staging video course for home sellers. Toth opened her staging company, Stylish Stagers, Inc. in New York City back in 2009. Her book, how-to videos, newsletters, products and appearances now inspire hundreds of thousands of home owners and real estate experts worldwide. Meet Tori by visiting her website or Facebook Fan page....

If the piles of paperwork and jampacked closets have you feeling like a deer in the headlights, take a deep breath and a baby step…   It’s a common problem. You know you have way too much stuff for your available space, but you become paralyzed at the thought of decluttering. One solution is to start with something that takes minimal effort but makes a big impact in your home right away. From carving out a bit of breathing room in your closet to making a dent in the junk drawer, these five ways to begin the decluttering process are relatively painless. You can do this! Priestley + Associates Architecture Where Not to Begin Don’t plan to start with a major weekend-long purge. Plan to start being the key phrase. A big decluttering weekend can be a great way to make progress, but carving out such a large chunk of time may not be easy to arrange — and if you keep putting off getting started because you’re waiting for a big space to open up on your calendar, you could be waiting a very long time. A Darling Felicity Photography Don’t start with other people’s stuff. Oh, it is so tempting, I know! But although you may be dying to bag up your least favorite items from your spouse/significant other/kid/housemate’s space, resist the urge — it’s not likely to go over well. Even if you have way less clutter than the other members of your household, it’s important to take responsibility for your own part. If you’re lucky, the clutter-clearing bug will be catching! California Closets Don’t start at the front door. In theory, the entryway is a wonderful place to begin decluttering. But guess what tends to accumulate around the front door? Stuff you actually use a lot. That means that while there could be a few things to get rid of in this area, it’s more likely that the stuff just needs to be put away. But if everywhere else in the house is packed, there’s nowhere for the entryway clutter to go. Le Michelle Nguyen Where to Begin 1. Discard a few clothes. Removing some of the clothes and shoes you don’t wear from your closet and drawers is a good first step. By clearing out a bit of space in your bedroom closet, you can then tuck away some of the extra items (jackets, scarves, shoes) cluttering up your entryway, in effect clearing two areas of your home at once. If you’re following the Marie Kondo method of tidying, this is also where she recommends beginning. How to: Try not to get hung up on winnowing down your entire closet right now; just grab...