Real estate agents were being wooed by would-be home buyers with diamond rings and even a brand-new luxury car. But the gifts weren’t the key ingredient to getting a winning bid on a luxury home.
Here are three things high-net-worth individuals can do to get the winning bid on a house they covet. Read more
Tyson and Tyson and Audrey Leavitt build playhouses. And not just your typical nailed-to-a-tree backyard boards. Real playhouses. Fantastical playhouses. Charmed Playhouses, as their business name suggests.
They’re each partial to certain projects–Audrey loves the fairytale cottages (“They’re exactly what I would have loved to play in as a child!”) and Tyson gets nostalgic about the pirate ship playhouses.
Then Tyson, with help from family and crew members, is in charge of actually building the structures. Audrey is in charge of decorating the interiors. “It’s fun to find tiny treasures to fit our theme, that the kids will love,” she said.
Laptops and organizer apps make pen and paper seem antique, but handwriting appears to focus classroom attention and boost learning in a way that typing notes on a keyboard does not, new studies suggest.
Students who took handwritten notes generally outperformed students who typed their notes via computer, researchers at Princeton University and the University of California at Los Angeles found. Compared with those who type their notes, people who write them out in longhand appear to learn better, retain information longer, and more readily grasp new ideas, according to experiments by other researchers who also compared note-taking techniques.
Turn on any number of TV channels almost anytime during the day or night and you’re bound to find at least a couple of shows about flipping houses.
Enticing, right? If you’re getting ready to plunk down cash for your own flip, here are a few things you need to think about. Read more
April 15 is only about a month away, but there’s still time for homeowners to reap tax savings on their 2015 returns.
Here are some tips from tax advisers to help maximize home-related deductions. Be sure to consult a tax expert for specifics on your home and mortgage. Read more
If you find a house that seems like it has possibilities, do your own initial home inspection, inside and out, before making an offer. Your intention now is to be alert for obvious deficiencies. Assuming you’re not looking for a fixer-upper, too many of these may be a reason to eliminate this house from further consideration.
Note: This is not meant to replace a professional home inspection. Once you make an offer on a house, you’ll want a licensed home inspector to go over it with a magnifying glass.
Here are some things to look for in your initial inspection:
After years of getting help from mom and dad, some adult children are returning the favor and buying their parents a house.
Not all lenders will allow adult children to co-sign for their parents on jumbo loans-those that exceed $417,000 in most areas and $625,500 in some high-priced places, says John Walsh, CEO of Milford, Conn.-based Total Mortgage. However, enough lenders allow it that most children who want to help home-buying parents, whether working or retired, should be able to co-borrow, Mr. Walsh says.
Exercise has had a Goldilocks problem, with experts debating just how much exercise is too little, too much or just the right amount to improve health and longevity.
New, impressively large-scale studies provide some clarity, suggesting that the ideal dose of exercise for a long life is a bit more than many of us currently believe we should get, but less than many of us might expect. The studies also found that prolonged or intense exercise is unlikely to be harmful and could add years to people’s lives.
These new studies, both of which were published last week in JAMA Internal Medicine, helpfully tackle those questions. Read more
You can safely enjoy your new fireplace for years to come if you follow some basic safety rules. The following fireplace safety information will help you understand what’s involved in keep your home and loved ones safe:
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