When it comes to energy efficiency and ways to save on heat energy, look for smart features and expertise to help you save energy, reduce your electric bill as well as add value to your home.
1. Begin With A Right-Sized Home
If the home you buy is simply too large for you or your family’s needs or plans, you stand a good chance of wasting energy through excessive heating and cooling costs. If it’s too small, you’ll feel cramped and uncomfortable. It’s a big investment, so seek balance and buy it “right” from the outset. Reconsidering how right your home is? Call one of our real estate agents or start your search online to see the homes available along the Grand Strand.
2. Purchase Energy Star Appliances Such as Your TV, Dishwasher, Washer and Dryer, and Microwave.
How much do Energy Star appliances save? Over time, it can be alot. Especially the refrigerator, as it alone contributes about 10 percent of the energy use in a home and can make a noticable difference. Also, unpluging any electronics tha are not in use or turning off power strips is a good idea to avoid phantom charges.
3. Install Efficient Lighting Such as Compact Fluorescent (CLF) or LED Bulbs in Every Fixture.
Lighting accounts for about 6 percent of an energy bill each year. If you're wondering do LED light bulbs save energy, just know that this can be a cheap, quick...
When you're selling your home, your first home showings can be both stressful and exciting. Knowing how to prepare your home and what you can do to make your home more inviting for buyers can help make the experience more productive. By staging, cleaning, making small repairs and reducing clutter, you can attract more buyers and bigger offers. These tips will help.
Reduce Clutter
Clutter is the number one enemy of home sellers, because clutter can make your home appear to be smaller and darker than it really is. Eliminating clutter is the best way to make your house more appealing to buyers. Clutter takes many forms, so there are many things you can do to reduce clutter in your home. Toys on the floor, knick-knacks on the shelves, bills on the counter and excessive clothes in the closet can all be called "clutter." These tips will help:
- Pick toys up off the floor to make each room look more spacious.
- Clean closets by reducing the number of items stored on the floor and on the shelves.
- Clean off all counters, tabletops and shelves.
For many home sellers, clutter reduction can take weeks or even months. In addition to all the sorting and decision-making (what stays? what goes?), the actual act of getting rid of clutter takes time. Garage sales take weeks to organize, donating...
When you buy a home, it is probably cleverly staged to show the home's best features. This is often a way for the seller to help you consider the space as your own. However, some sellers may use staging to hide or minimize design flaws or serious defects with the house.
Watch out for these four home staging traps, before you end up in a home that is not all you thought it would be.
1. Making Rooms Appear Bigger
There are many ways to stage a room to make it appear & feel larger. For example, exchanging a traditional queen-size bed for a full or even a twin. Switching out regular couches for a couple of love seats and a small table also increases the available space in a room. The seller may put larger curtains over windows to make it seem from the inside that the window is larger.
Unfortunately, none of this is practical for you unless you plan to buy all new furniture for the home. When you visit a home, be sure to carefully review the floor plan, and a printed version with measurements would be ideal. This way you'll can get a better idea for how your belongings will fit in the space.
2. Hiding Serious Problems
On occasion, a person selling a home may try to use staging to conceal problems with the home. For example, they may hang a large picture or even put up wallpaper to hide evidence of mold growing in the walls. This type of cover-up is more likely to happen when a seller stages...
Pets aren’t just random animals, they’re friends and part of the family, and pet owners will do whatever they can to make sure their pets are happy and healthy. When trying to sell a home to move to a new one, pet owners may come across advice saying they need to get rid of their pets or the home won’t sell, but this isn’t true. While selling a home with pets may be more difficult than selling a home without pets, it isn’t impossible, and here are a few different ways pet owners can give their home the best chance of finding a buyer.
Relocate Pets During Showings
A home showing is the most important time for a home because this is when buyers will decide if they want to purchase it or not. For this reason, guests should be made as comfortable as possible during this time, which means any pets in the home should be taken elsewhere for the duration of the showing. Not only are some people allergic to animals, guests may also be afraid of them. Removing pets from a home during showings can also be better for the pets, as it’s possible for buyers to bring along small children who don’t know how to act around animals, or doors can be left open and it could be possible for pets to sneak outside where they can be harmed.
Homeowners can temporarily relocate their pets by taking them...
