Author Archive

Kitchens with little workspace, poor lighting, cramped traffic flow, and inadequate storage can easily be redesigned into high-functioning spaces.

Space Planning

If there is room to borrow space from somewhere else—the utility room, pantry, or living area—you can increase functionality by installing new cabinets, drawers and countertops that are a few inches shallower than standard. You’ll have more room to walk around 18” deep cabinets and less trouble bending over to retrieve pots or dishes from the back of a 24” cabinet. Buy upper cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling for extra storage. Locate your dishwasher so that the open door doesn’t bang into nearby cabinets and drawers.

Streamlining

You’ll have more workspace if you keep countertops cleared of clutter. You can choose a cabinet that includes a convenient appliance garage to store blenders, coffee grinders, and other small appliances. Instead of building a separate pantry, attach an extra-tall cabinet unit on the end to use for canned goods, brooms, etc.

Lighting

Nothing beats natural light, but you can brighten workspaces with undercabinet lighting and canned ceiling lights. For overhead lights, install a flush-mount fixture with multiple lightbulbs.

Appliances

At 30”-36” wide, refrigerators can hog precious workspace. A narrower fridge between 24” and 28” is more suitable for a smaller kitchen. Microwave/convection/oven units cook multiple ways and can be recessed into a wall. Freestanding ovens with four-burner cooktops come as compact as 20” to 24”, large enough to roast a Thanksgiving turkey.

Filed under: Blog by Jane Sullivan Horne
Comments Off on Improve Your Small Kitchen’s Functionality

As the spring homebuying season kicks off, you may be ready to buy a home of your own, but continuing inflation, high home prices and high interest rates may be giving you pause. Is now a good time to buy a home?

Market conditions are changing. According to a new report, national mortgage rates have gone from a high of 7.37% in October, to 6.2% into January 2023. Home prices in November were 2.5% lower than the peak achieved in spring 2022, and 42% of home sellers offered concessions in Q-4, 2022. Also boosting homebuyer confidence is that the job market has improved. In January 2023, the national unemployment rate lowered to 3.5% as employers added an unexpected 223,000 new jobs.

While those shifts aren’t monumental, they’re making some consumers feel better about the housing market; homebuyers believe home prices will fall through Q3-2023, and they also said they believe mortgage rates will come down, despite the Federal Reserve’s determination to tame inflation by increasing interest rates.

Let your Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network professional show you the latest sales trends in the area where you want to live with a custom competitive market analysis. You can use the past six months of data to help your agent and you to develop a strategy such as choosing a less expensive neighborhood or a smaller home in the area you want. You may be pleasantly surprised that market conditions are more favorable at the local level than national data may indicate.

Filed under: Blog by Jane Sullivan Horne
Comments Off on Is Now the Time to Buy a Home?

Whether you’re selling your home or wanting to add more decorative flair, consider small improvements with little money or time spent.

The first thing you want to do is boost your curb appeal. Your home’s front entrance is crucial to first impressions. Add a new steel door or paint your existing door with a trendy new color. Round out the look with a new welcome mat, a new framed house number, a freshly painted mailbox, and planters of fresh greenery or flowers.

Regular exposure to dirt, dust, spills, and high foot traffic makes wood and carpeted floors look dull, dirty and distressed. Polish your hardwood flooring once a year or when you list your home. Weekly vacuuming can pick up topical dirt from your carpets, but it takes professional equipment and cleaning solutions to remove stains, pet odors, allergens, dust mites, and deeply embedded dirt. Your carpets will look like new and last longer, too.

Dress up your interior by installing new trim, molding and shelving. Crown molding and trim can transform a room, and it’s available already painted or you can paint it yourself. If space is an issue, add some decorative or modular shelving to an unused blank wall or cut out some drywall to make a recessed area for displays of books or collectibles. It will eliminate clutter from your tabletops and make your home appear larger.

Last, replace outdated, yellowed outlet and light switch covers with upgraded plates in bronze or a modern ceramic.

Filed under: Blog by Jane Sullivan Horne
Comments Off on Small Home Improvements, Big Results

Whether you’re selling an inherited property, a second home, or your own home after moving out of state, handling a long-distance property transaction can be challenging. But with good professional help, you can easily sell your home without leaving the comfort of where you live.

Ask your Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network professional for a referral to a listing agent in the property’s area who has:

1. Property management experience.
2. Expertise with long-distance sellers.
3. A strong network of homebuyers that they’ve brought to the table.

Many real estate agents don’t manage properties, but the ones who do can help you with many services that you’ll need. For example, they can help you prepare your home for sale before it hits the market. They have turnkey resources such as a detail-oriented cleaning crew, staging professionals, landscapers, housekeepers, handymen, roofers, painters, carpenters and mold and radon mediation teams, as needed. They can recommend a real estate attorney or closing agent who will facilitate the closing of your property electronically.

A listing agent who frequently works with buyers and is part of a large U.S. and overseas network such as Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, is invaluable when it comes to marketing your home. They know what appeals to buyers in their market as well as to their network of professional contacts, past clients, and other sources of buyers.

Your long-distance agent should contact you often with buyer comments, renovation updates and market conditions so you know your property is in good hands.

Filed under: Blog by Jane Sullivan Horne
Comments Off on Selling an Out-of-state Home

Repairs or replacements that the homebuyer requires to be completed before closing on the sale of your home can blindside you if you’re not prepared. While any unforeseen expenses are an unwelcome surprise, you’ll still have to fix the problems or risk letting your buyer out of the contract and having to disclose the problems to future homebuyers.

Homebuyers have the right to have the home they’re buying professionally inspected. The purpose of the inspection is to inform the buyer as to the condition, age and likely lifespan of major systems and appliances in the home. As a contingency in the contract, the buyer has the choice to proceed with the contract or ask the seller for repairs or replacements. This is fair because many issues with a home can’t be seen with the naked eye. An inspection gives a rough idea of future expenditures; if there are more problems than the buyer is willing to allow, the transaction will be in jeopardy. The buyer can’t help but wonder what other problems may come to light about the home.

Your Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network professional knows that the less the buyer finds wrong, the smoother the transaction will be. Before you put your home on the market, hire a licensed home inspector to alert you to unknown problems and repair or replace them so the buyer has no misgivings. You’ll also be able to ask a higher price for your home when it’s in pristine condition.

Filed under: Blog by Jane Sullivan Horne
Comments Off on How to Avoid Homebuyer’s Remorse

A recent survey of homebuyers who purchased a home in 2021 and 2022 found that 72% had buyer’s remorse. Thirty-one percent paid over asking price, a median of $65,000; 36% made offers without seeing the home; and 43% made concessions to sellers such as waiving a home inspection.

If you’re planning to buy a home in 2023, how can you avoid buyer’s remorse syndrome?

Get prepared. Research neighborhoods and types of homes so you can find a home you’ll be happy with for years to come. You’ll need earnest money, a down payment, moving costs, utility deposits, unexpected repairs and replacements, and more. Talk to your lender and get pre-approved for a loan, so you’ll know the ceiling of what you can comfortably afford. Be clear about your needs and dealbreakers so your Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network professional can help you search for the right property.

Buy within your means. While you peruse homes online, shop within your budget. It does no good to look at homes you can’t afford or that aren’t the best fit for your household. If you need to consider fixer-uppers, make sure your mortgage loan can cover the necessary improvements. Be aware of all the costs, including taxes, HOA fees, mortgage insurance, moving, etc.

Ask for seller concessions. Sellers in many markets are lowering their prices, agreeing to fix or replace expensive appliances or operating systems, paying the buyer’s closing costs, and other concessions. All you need to do is ask.

Filed under: Blog by Jane Sullivan Horne
Comments Off on How to Avoid Homebuyer’s Remorse

Smith Mountain Lake is a great place to call home and a great place for a vacation home! Thanks to Travel + Leasure for this great article that helps put us on the map!

Virginia’s ‘Lake Tahoe of the East’ Is One of the Best Places to Buy a Vacation Home in the U.S.
Set against the towering Blue Ridge Mountains, this scenic lake is often compared to Lake Tahoe and offers abundant recreational activities.  Click HERE for the full article.

Filed under: Uncategorized by Jane Sullivan Horne
Comments Off on Virginia’s ‘Lake Tahoe of the East’ Is One of the Best Places to Buy a Vacation Home in the U.S.

Sooner or later, all interior design trends change, and often in the opposite direction. After years of cool minimalism, homeowners are turning toward warmer, cozier colors, fabrics, and wall coverings to maximize comfort. So what’s old but new for home décor in 2023?

Greens and other warm neutrals

Colors come in two ranges – warm and cool, and warmer colors are seizing the moment away from greys and pure whites. Golds and avocado greens from the 1960s and 1970s revolutionized kitchen appliances making complementary autumn colors like oranges, tans and browns wildly popular. If you like the look of clean look of white and grey, but want trendier colors, try cream, beige and other earth tones instead.

Texture everywhere

Texture gives neutral colors like beige, stone and greys more interest. Not since interior designers Dorothy Draper and William Haines popularized “Hollywood Regency” in the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, has opulent maximalism been revived as well as it is today. Apartmenttherapy.com recommends getting the glamorous look with gold or shiny metallic accents pieces, jewel tones such as emerald green, mirrors with speckles and sparkle, a touch of Chinoiserie fabric on chairs or in wallpaper, and crystal chandeliers. Plaster, a lime-based putty, adds depth to colors and textures. You can achieve this look with special paint finishes.

Wallpaper scenes

In the 1920s, wallpaper was the ultimate status symbol, according to SouthernLiving.com. Murals and larger repeat prints give interiors unique personality, texture and color. And unlike removal in the past, today’s wallpaper is peel and stick.

Filed under: Blog by Jane Sullivan Horne
Comments Off on Home Decorating Trends Making a Comeback

What will the new year bring for homebuyers, homeowners and home sellers? Lower or higher home prices? Higher or lower mortgage interest rates? Or a continuation of the overheated pandemic-inspired housing market?

There’s no question that the blistering housing market of the past three years was hard on homebuyers. By October 2022, the average mortgage interest rate for a 30-year fixed is 7.24%, more than double the 3.22% level in January 2022.

According to Fannie Mae, the combination of high inflation, monetary policy tightening, and a slowing housing market is “likely to tip the economy into a modest recession in the first quarter of 2023.”

Many economic forecasters believe housing prices will decline, but that homebuyers shouldn’t fear buying during a declining market. Morgan Stanley predicts a 7% dip in home prices for 2023 that would return housing prices to where they were in January 2022 – 32% higher than prices were in March 2020 when the pandemic began. Economists with Goldman Sachs and Moody Analytics are predicting 5% to 10% declines in home prices, based on lack of homebuyer affordability, slowing housing sales, fewer mortgage applications and a looming recession, however mild.

BusinessInsider.com reports that the Federal Reserve’s overnight rate hikes have raised mortgage interest rates, pushing affordability to new lows, but that a recession could bring interest rates down again. That combined with softer homebuying demand due to inflation and sellers lowering their prices would make spring and summer 2023 great times to buy a home.

Filed under: Blog by Jane Sullivan Horne
Comments Off on Housing Outlook 2023

Have you ever needed an extra life jacket when family or friends drop in or have an unexpected need for a different size life jacket?  That is where The Life Jacket Loaner Progam comes in….and we have this service right here at Smith Mountain Lake! The Sea Tow Foundation has helped make this service possible to make Smith Mountain Lake safe and there are 1,000+ life jacket loaner stations that are placed in locations where boaters will have easy access to life jackets to borrow, such as boat ramps, marinas, and parks. See the full map online at http://www.boatingsafety.com/…/life-jacket-loaner…

There is also a great video for more information on the Life Jacket Loaner Program! Sea Tow Foundation

Filed under: Blog by Jane Sullivan Horne
Comments Off on The Life Jacket Loaner Program