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5 Must-Know Tips for Pet Proofing Your Home

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Pets don’t only leave their marks on your heart; they leave them all over your home.

While they’re excellent cuddle buddies, they’re also excellent at leaving behind scratches, stains, and furry tumbleweeds. Here are some must-know tips for pet-proofing your space to keep it feeling like your sanctuary.

1. Use a Pet-Proof Trash Bin

What’s that smell? It will NOT be the apple core you discovered buried in your dog’s bed this morning if you invest in a pet-proof rubbish bin. Be sure to get one that locks: Pets are sneakier than you might think, and many won’t think twice about knocking over the trash can to score a snack. These bins often have odor neutralizers for extra stink protection, too.

2. Make Your Wall Paint Work Harder

When we think about pet-proofing our homes, our walls don’t immediately come to mind. But they should! Think about all of the scuff marks your pets make on your walls: the spot where the dog crate touches the wall; the buildup of cat dander on your baseboards; the part of your bedroom door your dog always bumps when he brushes by. Washing scuffs and stains is easier when you have the right paint: Benjamin Moore Regal Select Interior Paint. It’s perfect for busy living spaces because it’s washable and durable, so you can stop stressing about how to keep your walls looking so spectacular.

3. Protect Your Furniture with Pieces That Complement Your Style

Once upon a time, pet products looked like, well pet products. Now, brands realize pet parents want items that fit seamlessly into their homes — ones you’re comfortable cozying up on and don’t have to put away before guests come over. No more settling for ugly plastic chair covers or ill-fitting sofa covers to protect your prized furniture pieces. It’s easy to find stylish dog crates, washable linen couch covers, and even rugs you can toss in the laundry.

4. Create Pet-Friendly Zones

Even in small spots, providing pets with their own areas can save you from big headaches. Scratch posts provide cats an alternative to shredding the coveted womb chair you saved up for. Similarly, giving dogs their own beds with toys they can cuddle or chew keep them from getting curious about how your customized headboard feels against their fur or what that sofa leg tastes like.

5. Cover Your Windows

It’s sweet that our dogs want to alert us each time a squirrel scurries across the lawn, someone delivers a package, or their four-legged buddy cruises by on a walk. However, these announcements can be disruptive — and if you’re not home to reassure them that everything is okay, they may spiral into a fit of destructive anxiety. Curtains and blinds help reduce doggy distractions, whether you’re trying to concentrate on a work call or want to give your pup extra peace of mind when you’re not home.

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Ready to Invest in Luxury Real Estate? Here’s 4 Things You Need to Know

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Thinking about investing in luxury real estate? Congratulations! You're making a smart decision that could pay off big time.

However, it's important to understand the ins and outs of the luxury real estate market before you take the plunge. Here are four things you should know before you invest in luxury real estate.

Research Your Market Carefully
Before investing in any property, it's important to do your research on the local market. It is especially important when investing in luxury real estate, as this type of investment often requires a hefty sum of money upfront. Research factors like median home values, average rental prices and comparable sales of similar properties nearby so that you can decide whether the purchase is worth it.

Always Work With an Agent
When considering a large investment like a luxury property, it pays to have professional help. A qualified agent will be able to guide you through the process and ensure that everything goes smoothly from start to finish. When choosing an agent, be sure to look for someone who has experience working with luxury high-end properties and understands the nuances of the luxury real estate market.

Don’t Forget About Maintenance Costs
One common mistake made by first-time investors is forgetting about maintenance costs associated with their property investment. These costs can add up quickly and can eat into your profits if you’re not prepared for them upfront. Make sure to factor these costs into your budget before making any decisions so that you know exactly how much money you’ll have coming in each month after all expenses are paid for.

Understand Local Laws and Regulations 
It's essential that you familiarize yourself with local laws and regulations pertaining to renting or selling properties - these vary from one state/city/county to another! Additionally, get familiar with laws surrounding taxes and other financial obligations related to luxury real estate investments. Doing your due diligence will ensure that you are making an informed decision when investing in luxury real estate. 

Investing in luxury real estate can be a great way to generate passive income and increase your net worth. However, it’s important that you take the time to do your research before taking the plunge so that you understand all of the nuances associated with this type of investment. Make sure to work with an experienced agent who understands how the market works, factor maintenance costs into your budget, and get familiar with local laws and regulations that may affect you as an investor. With these four tips in mind, you should have no problem making smart decisions when investing in luxury real estate!

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U.S. Has a Shortfall of 6.5 Million Single-Family Homes Due to a Decade of Under-Building

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A decade of under-building has led to a shortfall of 6.5 million single-family homes in the U.S., according to a new report released Wednesday.

Realtor.com looked at household formation, housing starts, and home sales, and found that given how many households were formed between 2012 and 2022, the U.S. is short of 6.5 million single-family homes.

But that gap diminishes somewhat if households opted to live in multi-family construction, which has boomed. Including multi-family homes, the gap in housing units in the U.S. falls to 2.3 million homes.

Yet most of those multi-family units won’t necessarily provide a path to homeownership, said Hannah Jones, an economic analyst at Realtor.com.

‘Cooling buyer demand and builder confidence led to slower single-family construction and a shift in builder focus to multi-family last year.’ - Hannah Jones, an economic analyst at Realtor.com

“Cooling buyer demand and builder confidence led to slower single-family construction and a shift in builder focus to multi-family last year. While that brings greater supply to the market, most of it will be used for rentals and won’t address ongoing affordability challenges in the for-sale space,” Jones said.

Builders moved into building apartments, rather than single-family homes, “as the rental market remained profitable with nationwide rent hitting a new all-time high,” the report explained. “Through the first three quarters of 2022, an average 94.5% of all multi-family units started were intended to be used as rentals.”

Plus, “these homes take an average of 15 months to complete, and so their impact won’t be fully realized for some time,” Jones added, as compared to single-family homes that take on average 7 months to complete.

In 2022, the U.S. saw 2.06 million household formations, the report said. That refers to a group of people living together. Household formation affects the economy, as it drives demand for housing, and further down the line, spending on household appliances and furniture.

Affordability eroded homes become scarce and rates remain high

Between 2012 and 2022, there were 15.6 million households formed, Realtor.com said. Yet in this 10-year period, only 13.3 million housing units were started, and even fewer—11.9 million—completed.

Over that 10-year period, the rate of housing starts began to slow. Completions have climbed, yet they’re still not enough.

In 2022, about 1 million single-family homes were “started,” or rather, construction began on these homes. That’s 10.6% fewer than in 2021.

Multi-family starts were much higher, up 15% compared to 2021, reaching 545,000.

Amid this backdrop of a housing deficit, affordability has dwindled.

Just a tenth of new homes sold in the fourth quarter of 2022 were less than $300,000. That’s down from 41% of homes being below $300,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019.

“As inflation and mortgage rates likely soften later this year, buyers are likely to return to the market [and will be] in search of an affordable home, and the ongoing housing-supply shortage will only continue to put pressure on the market,” Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, said.

Realtor.com acknowledges that its headline figure of 6.5 million “overstates the housing shortage,” since it doesn’t consider multi-family units as homes for buyers.

Learn more on Realtor.com

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2 Reasons for Doing Closing Paperwork in Person

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Closing on a property used to be a homebuyer rite of passage.

Sitting in a mortgage broker’s office, branded pen in hand, and signing seemingly hundreds of documents while wondering if you can steal yet another piece of candy from a bowl was the ritual everyone had to go through to own a little slice of the American Dream.

But closing remotely became standard as the pandemic progressed three years ago, and even though in-person activities have since returned, there are still buyers and sellers — and agents, too — who prefer virtual closings. 

Is this a good thing, as many remote shifts have been? Perhaps not. I spoke to three real estate professionals who shared why they still think it’s a good idea to do closing paperwork in person. Read on to find out why you might still want to do this milestone face-to-face. 

It’s a Person-to-Person Transaction

Closing on a house is something to be celebrated and commemorated, and there are conversations that could happen in the small talk between signing approximately 500 documents that add even more emotion to the process. 

“When our team is fortunate enough to represent a first-time homebuyer, we highly encourage an in-person closing,” Haley Cutter, with Boston-based Cutter Luxe Living, says. “This is an amazing milestone that our team loves to be a part of.”

“I had a recent closing where the seller was retiring and liquidating his investment properties. My buyers were new investors, and this was their first property. The seller took an hour after closing to talk to us about his successful investment strategy over the last 40 years,” Tarasa Hurley, a Realtor in Pittsburgh, says. She explains that this in-person interaction gave her clients a personal connection with someone they may not have met otherwise — and introduced them to someone who can offer years of wisdom and expertise. 

On another recent closing, adult children were selling their late mother’s home. Hurley describes the closing, “The mother lived a long life, but the children were still grieving. At the closing table, we found out that my clients had moved here to be part of the church that the mother helped found.” This personal moment created a connection that helped the children confirm that their mother would have been okay with the decision to sell the home — and the new residents.

She goes on to say, “My clients decided to keep the mother’s religious statue in the garden as a tribute. We had hugs and tears all around the table. Sometimes closings are not just financial; they create closure for families.”

Changes Can Be Made

“Simply put, signing closing paperwork in person allows margin for error. When the parties of the transaction sign in person with an escrow or closing agent, errors within the documents or a signature in the wrong place can be corrected instantly,” says Phil Greely, a licensed real estate agent in Seattle, pointing out the more practical reason to show up on closing day.

He explains that had a seller client scheduled to sign in-person, and, when the buyer’s agent opted to credit a small amount of money to the buyer, they had to adjust the documents and get the seller’s initials to approve the new terms.

“Because they were signing in person, the unsigned form was signed immediately during the scheduled signing. Had the seller been out of town or mailing documents back and forth, the closing date may have needed to be changed for this last-minute alteration,” says Greely.

Plus, both parties had a professional guiding them as they navigated the mountain of documents. Unless you buy and sell on a regular basis and these technical and legal terms never become second nature, having your agent by your site is a huge bonus. 

Read more on Apartment Therapy.

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Homes are getting smaller — which could improve affordability

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Newly built homes continue to lose square footage. But agents see an upside for buyers seeking more affordable options.

In the realm of new construction, builders are finding that affordability is now trumping pandemic space.

According to U.S. Census data and analysis by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB), the median square footage of a single-family home dropped to 2,203 in the fourth quarter of 2022, another dip from Q3 and the lowest level since 2011. 

It’s quite a turnaround from the early days of the pandemic, when people wanted more space because they were spending more time at home. 

But space and affordability are competing factors, and in a higher-interest-rate environment, affordability carries more weight, particularly for first-time buyers. “The tighter budget factor is likely to dominate in coming quarters,” said Robert Dietz, chief economist at NAHB.

According to the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index, only 38.1% of new and existing homes sold in the fourth quarter were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $90,000. That’s the third straight record low for the index, which began tracking the data on a consistent basis in 2012. It’s also a big drop compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, when the index was at 54.2%.

Affordability appears to play a role in home size. Prior to recent months, the trend over the past 25 years has been to build larger single-family homes, with two noticeable dips. 

The first dip was prior to the Great Recession, when home prices were skyrocketing. It happened again between 2016 and 2020 as the economy recovered, and construction companies could once again develop starter homes after years of running into funding challenges.

Finding buyers for smaller homes

Changes in land use policies have enabled the construction of more small homes — sometimes very small homes on a shared lot. In Kirkland, a city on the shores of Lake Washington near Seattle, Windermere broker Max Rombakh said he’s seeing different housing options after the city adopted zoning changes to address the shortage of mid-level housing, sometimes referred to as “missing middle housing.” 

The changes have resulted in more options for buyers and homeowners, including cottages and accessory dwelling units that are smaller but attractive to those looking for a good location, Rombakh said. 

“I would want to own the least expensive real estate in the most expensive neighborhood,” Rombakh said, adding that such homes tend to appreciate faster because of the location. The smaller homes Rombakh has seen also tend to have more upgrades, which is a major selling point.

“Ultimately the majority of consumers that are buying smaller homes are downsizers or starter families,” he said. 

While some new buyers are skeptical, purchasing a larger home that’s farther away can have other drawbacks. Plus, smaller homes mean lower utility bills and property taxes, as well as less maintenance.

One downside for some buyers: Smaller homes tend to only have a one-car garage — or no garage at all. “That’s usually the biggest hurdle we’re getting people over,” Rombakh said, adding that yards also tend to be smaller.

However, affordability is often a deciding factor, especially in a place like Kirkland, where the average home price can be in the $1 million range.

Keep reading.

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