As Featured in West + Main Home Magazine: Obsessed with Houseplants

“My first plant was a ginger bonsai that I got for my 13th birthday,” said Elliot. “Since then I have received plants as gifts, picked them up at farmer’s markets and boutiques, and I love every single one of them.”

-ELLIOT STAUB

16-year old Elliot’s bedroom is filled with gorgeous plants - from tiny succulents to trailing pothos and even a giant monstera - so we just had to know how her collection got started and her best advice for taking care of so many leafy friends!

KEEPING THE PLANTS THRIVING

Elliot uses Google Calendar to keep track of her plants and their watering schedules. “I also follow a lot of plant care accounts on Instagram and TikTok,” she shared.

“My string of dolphins plant has grown so much since I have gotten it, because of that it is probably my favorite, but it’s really hard to choose!”

KEYS TO SUCCESS FOR YOUR HOUSEPLANTS

It can be daunting keeping a space of plants alive and healthy, but follow some of these easy tips to keep your plants thriving.

1. Give them the right amount of light Depending on your plant, some thrive in lower light areas versus direct sunlight. (Aspidistra elatior) or snake plant (Sansevieria), don’t mind dim corners or interiors.Others — especially blooming plants — need bright windows or supplemental fluorescent or grow lights. Research your plants to figure out the best environment for them.

2. Don’t over-water  Most plants need a container with drainage holes, so water doesn’t stand around their roots and cause rotting. If you keep a saucer underneath your plants to catch drips, empty it after watering. Moisture indicator probes can be helpful for telling when your plants need attention.

3. Keep them clean If you see that your plant is accumulating dust, that is not a good sign. It can block your plant from getting the right amount of sunlight or nutrients. If you’ve got a large potted plant, wipe the leaves with a moist sponge or a dry dust cloth. Gently clean fuzzy-leaved plants, like African violets, with a soft paintbrush or toothbrush.

4. Groom when needed If you have flowering houseplants, keep the spent blooms picked to encourage more flowers. Take off dead or yellow leaves, too, and cut stems that have lost their leaves to the soil line.

5. Add Humidity If you see brown tips on the leaves of your plants, the air in your home or office is probably too dry for them. Add moisture by grouping plants together, or putting them on top of pebbles in trays or saucers filled with a little water. (Don’t let the pots touch the water so the roots don’t stay constantly wet.) You can also mist your plants or even add a humidifier.

Follow plant accounts we’re obsessed with!

1. @PlantKween

2. @Reagankastner

3. @thereseplants

4. @benji_plant

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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Purchase mortgage apps defy surging rates

Mortgage applications increased 4.2% from the prior week, propelled by borrowers’ demand for purchase loans

Despite mortgage rates reaching the highest level in 14 years, mortgage applications increased 4.2% from the prior week, according to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) survey for the week ending June 17.

“Mortgage rates continued to surge last week, with the 30-year fixed mortgage rate jumping 33 basis points to 5.98% – the highest since November 2008 and the largest single-week increase since 2009,” Joel Kan, associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting for the trade group, said in a statement. 

Rates for mortgage loans were strongly impacted by tightening monetary policy to combat rising inflation. On June 10, the U.S. Consumer Price Index showed an 8.6% increase year-over-year in May, the highest level in four decades. Consequently, the Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 75 basis points last week, a rate hike not seen since 1994. Another 0.75% hike is expected from the Fed’s meeting in July.

With mortgage rates now at almost double what they were a year ago, refinancing applications decreased 3% from the prior week and were 77% lower than the same week in 2021. Refis were 29.7% of total applications last week, decreasing from 31.7% the previous week, the survey shows.

Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted purchase index ticked up 8% from the prior week but was 9.4% down from the same week a year ago. According to Kan, purchase applications increased for the second straight week, driven mainly by conventional applications. 

Higher rates usually cool off prices, and Kan noted a potential trend in this week’s data. “The average loan size, at just over $420,000, is well below its $460,000 peak earlier this year and is potentially a sign that home price growth is moderating,” the economist said. 

The adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM) share of applications jumped to over 10.6%, demonstrating continued popularity among borrowers. The average interest rate for a 5/1 ARM rose to 4.78% from 4.57% a week prior, according to the MBA

The FHA share of total applications increased to 12% from 11.8% the week prior. Meanwhile, the VA share went from 11.7% to 10.7%. The USDA share of total applications declined to 0.5% from 0.6% the week prior. 

The trade group estimates the average contract 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for conforming loans ($647,200 or less) increased to 5.98%, from 5.65% the previous week. For jumbo mortgage loans (greater than $647,200), it went to 5.49% from 5.25%.

Get more like this on Housing Wire.

Related Links

• 13 Visual Tricks Home Stagers Are Playing on You

• Are home prices about to fall?

• 31 Little Ways to Save for a Down Payment This Month

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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13 Visual Tricks Home Stagers Are Playing on You

In today’s ultracompetitive real estate market, it’s said that potential buyers make up their minds within seconds of stepping inside a home.

Thats why an ever-growing number of sellers turn to professional home stagers—whose services, some say, can add instant appeal and even sell a house up to 40 days faster.

Their secret? An arsenal of optical illusions and psychological tricks that draw buyers’ eyes to all the right places. Yep, that’s right. Home stagers are fooling us! (And we love it). Here are some of the secrets of the dark art.

1. They never leave a room empty

Any home seller’s top goal is to make a small space look bigger. (Serious about selling? Here’s how to find a real estate agent in your area.) To get that look, you might be tempted to empty out the space and remove all your bulky furniture. But there’s a twist: Emptiness can actually make rooms look smaller.

Instead, professional stagers manipulate your visual perception of a room through the use of the right kind of furniture, says psychologist Kristie Barnett, author of “Psychological Staging: The Home Staging Secrets of the Decorologist.”

“An empty room gives buyers no point of reference for size,” Barnett says. “I have seen many buyers walk away from a vacant home because they falsely believe their own furniture will not fit in the master bedroom or that the living room will not provide enough seating for entertaining. Staging rooms with furniture helps establish the room’s size and helps a buyer visualize how they can arrange their own furniture.”

2. They really think about furniture placement

“We scan a room from left to right upon entry,” Barnett says. “If you place the tallest piece of furniture in the room in the far left corner, the room will appear larger.”

Placing a large or tall piece of furniture on either side of an entryway or door makes a room appear smaller, according to Barnett, while placing such pieces farther back in a room makes the space appear larger.

3. They use the ‘Rule of Three’

Interior designers swear by this golden rule of home staging, which involves grouping items—from chairs to lighting to artwork and accessories—in threes (or fives or sevens or nines).

According to Whitney Parrott, lead designer at Everything Creative Designs in San Diego, arranging items in odd numbers forces the eye to move around a space and makes the overall experience more natural and visually rich (compared with the forced feeling you might get from even numbers).

4. They highlight focal points

Walk into any well-staged home, and you’ll notice great accent accessories positioned near a room’s best attributes. For example, a grouping of (three!) vases near a gorgeous fireplace or a large plant near a window with a view. Stagers also frequently position furniture at an angle to facilitate better movement in a square or skinny room, or to highlight existing focal points.

5. They create cozy conversation spaces

Prospective buyers want to socialize in a home’s common areas without moving chairs. Plus, placing furniture in conversational groups (think a love seat and two chairs) makes rooms feel larger.

In long rooms, consider creating two separate chat areas and delineating them with area rugs to create the illusion of more space. (Pro tip: Using just one rug that’s too large actually makes a room look smaller.) The back of a couch can also be a great divider between rooms in an open floor plan.

6. They don’t overdo it with rugs

“Unbroken floor space makes any room appear larger, which is why I recommend removing most rugs (except to anchor a conversation area), bed skirts, and items off the floor of closets,” Barnett says. She likes using furniture with long legs to further the effect.

7. They use consistent color to make rooms flow

Weaving the same pops of color throughout your home allows your space to flow cohesively from one room to the next, according to Parrott. Incorporate similar hues across rooms in pillows, artwork, and accessories. Generally, stagers recommend dedicating 60% of a room’s space to a single color, 30% to a secondary color, and 10% to an accent.

8. They let mirrors create the illusion of space

Hanging curtain rods just below the ceiling (as opposed to above the window) adds the illusion of height to an otherwise average-size room.

Read more on Realtor.com

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• How Many Moving Boxes Do I Need?

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• 31 Little Ways to Save for a Down Payment This Month

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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How Many Moving Boxes Do I Need?

The amount of moving boxes you’ll have factors heavily into any quote a moving company will give you.

So in order to save you from my procrastination-induced panic, here’s a guide to knowing what you’ll need, with advice from the professionals.

What types of boxes will you use?

The types of boxes you’re going to need really depends on what you already have to use and what kind of stuff you need to move. Before you do anything, declutter and get rid of everything that’s not moving with you. Then, “look around your home to see what you already have to pack in, like suitcases, canvas bags, and more,” says Jodi Farbish, Common’s Chief Move-In Officer. “This will help save the numbers of boxes you need.”

For breakables and things that could be water damaged, consumer trends expert at Opendoor Beatrice de Jong suggests using plastic bins instead of boxes. “I find that plastic bins get the most reuse, especially if you have kids that are constantly growing out of clothes, or bringing home keepsake crafts from school you want to save,” she says.

You can also get special boxes for your television, your clothes, and your picture frames, which will overall reduce the amount of boxes you need, because they have specialty uses. Try not to get any boxes from the moving company. They can bring them on moving day, but it’ll be more expensive and you’ll be left scrambling at the last minute to pack things that you really should already have boxed up.

Is there a secret formula movers use to determine the amount of boxes?

As you probably expected, there’s not.

“Unfortunately, there is no magic formula, and sometimes movers need to actually see your home to get a proper idea,” de Jong says. Most reputable moving companies will want to do a walkthrough of your property first, so they may be able to estimate based on their own experience. But overall, there’s no real way to know for sure.

So how do you know how many boxes to use?

See if you can make an estimate by looking around your house, and then get more than what you think you need. It’s always better to have too many and not use some than to have too little and be scrambling at the last minute. If you really need a guide, de Jong suggests budgeting for 10 boxes per room, at least to start. “Even if they aren’t all used in one room, they will get used eventually,” she says.

Read more.

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• The 4 Backyard Pool Features Real Estate Agents Absolutely Love to See

• Are home prices about to fall?

• 31 Little Ways to Save for a Down Payment This Month

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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31 Little Ways to Save for a Down Payment This Month

There’s a meme going around that says something like, “I unsubscribed from Netflix and have been packing my own lunch; should be able to afford a house any day now!”

This is exactly the type of zinger that resonates with today’s generation of homebuyers. Home prices are at record highs, and factors like student loan debt, salaries not keeping pace with inflation, and high rent prices all make saving for a down payment really difficult.

To put it another way? It’s passé (and laughable, really) to tell anyone that skipping an iced coffee run here and there will magically translate to a down payment fund in this unprecedented market. But if you are looking to put some money aside for a down payment, here are 31 smart strategies that can help — one for each day of the month — and none of which are a cliché attack on avocado toast.

1. Save your tax return (and other windfalls).

If you’re getting a tax return back, stash it away in savings or use it to pay down any high-interest debt (which can be the archnemesis of savings!), recommends Nathan Grant, a senior credit industry analyst with Money Tips, a personal finance site. You can also plan to put away any other money that comes your way, like one-time performance bonuses at work.

2. Spend your credit card rewards.

If you have cash-back rewards, sign-up bonuses, or any other credit rewards sitting on your card, consider cashing them in as statement credits to pay off your balance and free up money for savings, Grant says. Or, cash them out and transfer them to savings directly, he recommends.

3. Round up your purchases.

“There are more apps than ever before that can give you more control over your finances,” Grant says. Set up automatic deposits, he suggests, or use a banking app that allows you to round up your purchase to the nearest dollar. Bank of America has a “Keep the Change” savings program that rounds up to the nearest dollar when you make a purchase, transferring the change to your savings account. Or, an app like Acorns will invest your spare change.

4. Crowdfund.

When your birthday or the holidays roll around, family and friends can contribute to your down payment fund on sites like HomeFundIt. Some couples are asking for down payment contributions instead of gifts at their weddings.

5. Consider savings bonds.

For example, the Series 1 Savings Bond is currently offering 7 percent interest, which is much higher than any other savings account on the market, says Danetha Doe, Clever Real Estate’s economist and spokesperson, as well as the creator of personal finance site Money & Mimosas. 

6. Limit your spending to one day a week.

Choose one day per week that you will do your grocery shopping, and any other shopping, Doe suggests. “This will help you practice money mindfulness and eliminate impulse spending,” she says.

7. Name your savings account.

Some banks will let you name certain accounts, which can be motivating to see money piling up in your “first home fund.” 

8. Find a money buddy.

Find a friend who is also working on a savings goal, and hold one another accountable, Doe suggests. “Financial goals, like fitness goals, are easier to achieve if you have someone in your corner rooting for you.”

9. Flip furniture.

If you own a van or truck, there is a good chance you can make some extra money to save by finding used furniture, cleaning it up, and reselling it, says Adam Sanders, director and business coach at The Relaunch Pad, an organization that helps hard-to-employ individuals find financial success. There is a constant stream of used furniture being sold on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and other local classified services. 

“Spending a little time every day going through the listings can be a great way to find great deals that you can clean up,” he says. “With a little elbow grease and knowledge, you can take scruffy furniture and resell it for hundreds more than you bought it for.”

10. Continue “paying off” your debt.

Say you recently paid off your credit card, car loan, student loans, or other type of debt. Figure out what you were paying toward that debt each month, and automatically transfer it to your savings, suggests Rick Albert, a real estate agent with LAMERICA Real Estate in Los Angeles. It’s a trick he’s used in the past, explaining “if I lived without that money before, I can continue to live without it.”

11. Consider changing up your cell phone plan.

A recent study found that 90 percent of mobile users waste money on unnecessary unlimited data plans and use much less than what their plans allow for, points out personal finance and money-saving expert Andrea Woroch. You could consider switching to a lower-tiered data plan or go with an online carrier like Mint Mobile, which offers plans for as little as $15 a month, she points out. 

12. Hack your insurance bill.

When was the last time you checked the price of your auto insurance policy? Chances are, you shopped around for the best price when you first purchased your car, Woroch points out. You can use sites like The Zebra to find cheaper insurance options and potentially lower your bills, freeing up money for savings, Woroch suggests.

For the full list, go to Apartment Therapy.

Related Links

• The 4 Backyard Pool Features Real Estate Agents Absolutely Love to See

• Are home prices about to fall?

• Housing Market Hot but Not a Bubble, Economists Say

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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