Author Archives: Sabrina Mapes

Even seemingly small changes in mortgage rates, like 1% or 0.5%, can make a big difference in what you pay over the life of your loan. When you’re sizing up a home to buy, it’s tempting to focus only on the price to decide whether it fits your budget. But current mortgage rates are an […]

Some improvements have limited appeal to home buyers, and may even affect your sale price when you go to sell. One of the best things about owning a home is the ability to change things up, whether it’s knocking down a kitchen wall to open up space or filling your backyard with your favorite fruit […]

Wondering if home solar is right for you, but don’t know where to start? This guide can help. Solar power can be an attractive prospect for homeowners and shoppers. Home solar technology offers electricity bill savings, more energy independence, and resilience in the face of an increasing rate of power outages. For the environmentally conscious, […]

Plus six things to do every month. Tackling a seasonal home maintenance to-do list is not the way most of us want to spend a Saturday. “I can’t wait to flush out the hot water heater today,”‘” said no one, ever. But for most of us, our home is our biggest investment. Maintaining it is a […]

Buying a house can be a complicated, stressful process. Here are 10 steps to help you confidently find your new home. Buying a home can be stressful during the best of times, and it might feel positively overwhelming in a highly competitive market. Although a few of the details may look different right now, the […]

Resources to help make owning a home a reality. If you’re among the millions of people who want to own a home someday, you’ve probably spent a good amount of time online looking at homes — and home prices — and  wondering “how do people afford houses in this market?” It’s a reasonable question, especially […]

The typical mortgage payment in these housing markets consumes less than a third of the median household monthly income. Finding a home that fits your needs while leaving money in your pocket to enjoy life can feel like an impossible journey at times. But real estate markets vary widely, and there are still markets where […]

Price cuts and an uptick in for-sale listings mark the start of the busiest season for home buyers and sellers. Spring home buying season — typically the most active time of year for home shopping — is about to begin in earnest with a calmer market. But while the boost in newly listed homes that […]

Seasoned homeowners weigh in on what caught them off guard, what delighted them and what lessons you can learn from them. Talk to any homeowner and they’ll probably tell you how excited they were when they first bought their home.  After they’ve lived there a while, they’re likely to tell you about the things they […]

How this non-traditional path to ownership leads to substantial savings and surprising community. For most new homeowners, getting the key to their own home means saying goodbye to roommates they lived with during college or while building job experience. And then there are homeowners like Christine Knapp, who began posting online for a roommate soon […]