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How to Clean Hardwood Floors, No Store-Bought Spray Required

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Hardwood floors are a classic feature everyone wants to uncover under the linoleum.

Still, they require a bit of babysitting to maintain their beauty. Dirt is not only, well, dirty, but it can damage the wood itself, lessening its life span. Thankfully you can totally avoid the need to refinish, repair, or—heaven forbid—replace them. You just have to know how to clean hardwood floors properly. 

In fact, “cleaning your floor is the biggest bang for your housekeeping buck,” says Stephanie Giesbrecht aka The Secret Slob—and she has the answers to every question that might pop up along the way.

How Often Should You Clean Hardwood Floors?

Consider mopping part of your weekly clean. However, once a month, plan to get down and dirty in the nooks and crannies. Scrub the corners of the room and spot clean any stuck-on grime. “I have little kids, so it’s usually noodles or jam,” says Giesbrecht, laughing. She uses Murphy Oil Soap and warm water, then gives the whole floor a once-over with a wet mop.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Cleaning Hardwood Floors

Forgetting About Maintenance

The bad news: Dirt and debris can scratch your floors, wearing down the surface faster. The good news: All you need to do to stay on top of it is a quick sweep or vacuum every few days—read on for the full rundown on upkeep.

Stocking Up on Harsh Chemicals

“The pandemic brought a new wave of bleach-heavy, extreme cleaning and disinfecting, but it is neither necessary nor safe to use on natural wood floors,” says Giesbrecht. Most of the time, a little bit of soap with warm water does the trick. 

Using Too Much Water

H2O is wood’s worst enemy—letting it seep in could ruin your floors’ finish—which means so is a soaking-wet mop. Only get the mop damp and work in one small area at a time. Plus “if you spill liquid on the floor, even water, be sure to clean it up right away so it doesn’t discolor or warp the wood,” adds Giesbrecht.

How to Keep Hardwood Floors in Good Shape Between Cleanings

Constantly rearranging couches and coffee tables to clean underfoot isn’t realistic, but Giesbrecht does suggest sweeping, dry mopping, or using a soft-head vacuum attachment to pick up dirt and debris daily if necessary. Pay the most attention to high-traffic areas like the kitchen, dining room, and living room. 

How to Clean Hardwood Floors

The Supplies

Step 1: Get Everything Out of the Way

If possible, move all the furniture off the hardwood floors you’re tackling, or at least to one side of the room. Be sure to use furniture pads so you don’t scratch your floors. An extra set of hands would be nice, too!   

Step 2: Dust, Dust, and Dust Some More

Clear out all the dust bunnies and debris with a microfiber dust mop. If you prefer to vacuum your hardwood floors, use the soft-head attachment. (Just make sure nothing is caught on the bristles that could scratch the surface.)

Step 3: Mix Up a Cleaning Solution

Giesbrecht swears by a simple duo: “A mild dish soap and water will do as good a job as any expensive store-bought cleaner,” she says. Her go-to ratio: one teaspoon dish soap with three cups warm water, combined in a spray bottle. Do not shake—think of the bubbles! Gently stir instead. 

Step 4: Spray, Mop, Dry, Repeat

Spray a small section of your floors with the mixture and follow it immediately with the swipe of a damp mop. Dry the area with a clean cloth or dry mop, then move on to the next spot.

Learn more.

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Things That Could Unexpectedly Impact Your Real Estate Appraisal

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Although everything in your home is essential, there are certain things that the appraiser will be looking for that don’t include the home’s position, square footage and the number of rooms in the house.

We will look at other factors involved in the house appraisal or valuation, and many of these are dictated by the market, so it will be worth trying to meet the criteria for buying a house!

1. The Floor Plan is Dark and Does Not Flow
Older-style houses were traditionally closed-off with lots of rooms, so it may be worth knocking down a few walls and opening your home up if you are doing a renovation. Homebuyers now favor an open layout for easy living. This is especially true if you have the perfect aspect of a South-facing back garden. Letting in the light could prove financially beneficial during the appraisal process.

When you knock down walls, it can be a fantastic transformation in an older home. In many cases, you move what real estate appraisers refer to as functional obsolescence. For example, walking through a dining room to get to a bedroom is not ideal.
By removing walls, you can often change the lighting patterns and the home’s flow, creating a much more desirable floor plan today’s buyers will appreciate.

If your home doesn’t need a floor plan change, there are other ways to create the illusion of light, including:

– Painting your walls a bright color or even a bright white
– Using strategic mirrors to reflect the light
– Erecting some large seascapes or other artwork reflective of light
– Arranging furniture to create an excellent open flow

When you sell your property, the REALTOR® will probably advise you to send substantial furniture to a self-storage unit, making the house look much more spacious. By doing so, you can open up the flow, which you can’t do with clutter.

Doing these things can make the home look that much more appealing to not only homebuyers but also an appraiser.

2. The Condition of Your Driveway
Before getting the appraiser in, you may have to give your driveway a quick makeover. The driveway is the first thing visitors to your home will see, so if it is asphalt, even it out to get rid of cracks. Getting a driveway seal coat can go a long way toward improving the appearance.

3. Any Strange Odors Coming From Inside
There may be a cracked sewage pipe under your house—and if there is, fix it. Get a plumber in to have a look. Mold can also smell terrible, so check for it.

If you must deodorize under the floor in your house, start with a few bags of garden lime to neutralize the odor. Throw open the windows and burn incense (sandalwood) when no one is there.

4. Outdoor Shed and Outbuildings
If your outdoor shed looks ramshackle and unpainted, get it repaired and painted before the appraiser comes over. A wooden shed will look nice painted cream with green trim and a green roof. The main thing is that it is made to look neat and clean.

You don’t want the shed to impact negatively on your property sale. Plant a small garden bed along the side of it, with a few seasonal flowers.

5. Unsightly Neighbors
When appraisal time comes, no one wants a bad neighbor. If your neighbor never mows the lawn, get the contractor in to do your yard and offer them a free mow at the same time. It will be worth it to ensure the appraiser doesn’t downgrade your property.
Get any overhanging branches cut back and generally tidy up the yard. Make sure that their rubbish bin has been taken inside.

6. A House With a Terrible Past
It’s better to not buy a house where a recent murder has occurred, as you can’t do much about the past. The appraiser could take this into account.

Final Thoughts on Factors That Impact Your Appraisal
Chat to your real estate agent about what else you should do to get more ideas on what impacts a house appraisal.

Get more tips like this on RISMedia.

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As record-setting real estate sales continue in Colorado resort towns, buyers are now looking way down valley

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As Colorado resort home sales and prices continue to set records, hamlets that once were out-of-the-way afterthoughts have taken on the attributes of bustling communities.

The blistering pace of real estate sales is continuing in Colorado’s high country, with every resort community setting new records in each month this year. 

“It’s been crazy,” Crested Butte broker Frank Konsella said, “way past everything in 2019 and 2020.”  

Last year saw record numbers of home buyers paying highest-ever prices for properties in and around resort towns. In eight Western Slope counties anchored by resorts last year, $6.6 billion traded hands through August as buyers flocked to mountain communities during the pandemic. 

Through August this year, Land Title Guarantee Co. has tracked $11.2 billion in sales volume in those counties, a 71% percent increase over 2020. With four months left in the year, sales volume in resort counties in 2021 has already surpassed the total sales of 2019 by more than $2 billion.

Prices keep climbing too, with most resort areas seeing the average and median prices for single homes this year increasing 10% to 30% over 2020. And that pressure is forcing record numbers of buyers into long overlooked areas of Colorado.

The real estate growth in “down valley” ’burbs — think Basalt and Carbondale downstream from Aspen, or Eagle down from Vail, or Ridgway down the hill from Telluride — has been strong for more than a decade as more buyers seek homes outside, but near, pricey resort towns. With the explosion of mountain real estate in 2020 and 2021, that down-valley growth has moved even further down the road. Call it the down, down valley.

Prices and deals in places like the West End in Montrose County, the North Fork Valley of Delta County, Fairplay, Rifle, Silt, Kremmling, Del Norte and Craig have peaked in 2021. It’s not just locals cashing out of their longtime resort-area homes, either. These are newcomers, many working from home and discovering the affordability and appeal of areas far from tony resorts.

This mirrors national trends amplified in the pandemic showing more home buyers and businesses preferring to move to rural communities and smaller cities instead of urban areas. (Although the National Association of Realtors migration trends report for the first half of 2021 shows more families moving to smaller cities, metro Denver ranks among the most popular destinations for individuals who are relocating.) 

In recent years, locals in Summit County have cashed out and moved over Hoosier Pass to Fairplay and Alma in Park County. Now, all sorts of buyers are landing in Park County, said Courtney Peroutka, the president of the Summit Association of Realtors board, who moved to Park County from Summit County 16 years ago. 

Sales volume through September 2021 in Park County is up 40% from the same period of 2020. Prices are up 50% or more from 2020, Peroutka said.

A lot of longtime owners in both Summit and Park counties are selling and moving, cashing out on record prices, she said. But many of them are leaving the area or even the state, she said. 

“It started long ago with a typical buyer in Park County who was the local who shopped in Summit and found it was above their price range so they headed over here,” she said. “Now I’m working more predominantly with investment people … customers who want to buy a house and utilize it for their family, but can’t really afford to use it just for themselves so they are Airbnb-ing. On my road, there are only three full-time residents and the rest are second homeowners who rent them out to visitors.”

A mix of local, work-from-home buyers 

Kremmling also has a long history as a bedroom community for Summit County workers, offering much more affordable homes within an hour’s drive of the resort towns of Breckenridge and Silverthorne. In the last couple years, workers from Eagle County, the Fraser River Valley and even Steamboat Springs have been cashing out of their in-demand resort homes and moving to Kremmling.

And, like all those other bedroom communities across the Western Slope, there’s a new buyer in town: the work-from-home families eyeing life outside the city. It’s an even mix of buyers in Kremmling, some coming from far and others relocating from neighboring resort communities. 

Prices have never been higher in Kremmling, but they are still much cheaper than homes closer to the ski hills up the road. Homes are selling in a matter of days and most sellers field multiple offers. These are not home shoppers reluctantly squeezed out of pricier markets, said Carrie George, a Keller Williams broker who has been working with home buyers and sellers in Kremmling for 17 years.

“People are choosing Kremmling on purpose,” she said. “They are looking for a small, quiet town and they don’t want to live in a resort community. Maybe 10 years ago this would only be the place they slept and their whole lives would be in Summit County. Now they only work in Summit County or they work from home and their lives are in Kremmling.”

In Montrose County, sales volume is up 75% through August compared with 2020. The average price of a home through August in Montrose County — $402,000 — is up 20% from 2020 and 35% from 2019. In Delta County, home to Paonia, Hotchkiss and Cedaredge, volume through August is up 64% compared with 2020 and the average price for a home — $360,000 — is up 20% from the previous year. 

Between Gunnison and Crested Butte, sales volume through August — about $630 million — is well past the total sales for 2019 and nearly double the dollars exchanged in the same period of 2020. Through September in the resort-anchored valley, every month set a record.

Crested Butte typically sees a lot of buyers from Texas, but this year there are more people from the Front Range. And they are moving in, not just buying a vacation home for occasional use. 

“They may not be working from home 365 days a year, but they are spending weeks or even months up here,” said Konsella, a broker with Berkshire Hathaway. 

Konsella sees the surging prices and sales in his region stemming from “a 15-year supply problem.”

“No one has really built anything up here since the last crash. There are no big condo projects. No new subdivisions. And nothing is really in the works,” he said. “There is such a limited supply. It’s really hard to figure out how supply and demand are going to equalize anytime soon.”

The lack of homes for sale around Crested Butte and Gunnison has led buyers to grab empty lots to build their own homes. In the last 12 months, the region has seen 291 lots sold. In the previous 12 months, there were barely 100 land sales. 

“That is remarkable,” Konsella said. “The builders in the valley have years worth of work lined up right now.”

In Pitkin County, sales through August are up 156% over the same period of 2020, which set a record for the Roaring Fork Valley with $4.1 billion in real estate transactions.

And there is very little for sale. 

Homes typically go under contract in a matter of days with sellers fielding multiple offers, said Aspen-area broker Chris Klug. 

Klug has seen this level of activity before in Aspen and Snowmass Village and it did not end well as the Great Recession finally reached the high country in 2009. Klug said double-digit appreciation of homes “cannot continue forever,” but prices will not collapse like they did in 2010 and 2011. There are too few homes for sale and demand continues to climb. 

“We are seeing families moving here and staying here. The world has changed. The way people work … a lot of people are not returning to the traditional workplaces and they are choosing to work from places like Aspen and Snowmass and other resort communities,” Klug said. “This is how people want to live right now. Their eyes have been opened to what we’ve known for decades. These are some of the greatest places in the world and they offer the best quality of life in the world.”

Keep reading on Colorado Sun.

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FRED Real Estate Group x West + Main Oregon

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bend, Oregon - FRED is retiring!

Locally-owned and operated, FRED Real Estate Group was founded by Keeley and Fred Mannila almost fifteen years ago. The company's branding developed an almost immediate following and agents started flocking to the company.

"Initially, we thought it might just be Keeley and I, so calling the company FRED was a way for us to have fun with it,” said Fred. "But, it became so much more than that...we gave hundreds of agents a supportive, inclusive place to sell Real Estate. As we continued to grow, though, we started to think, hmmmm, how the heck are we ever going to retire, with my name all over the yard signs and websites?"

Enter West + Main Homes, a Colorado-based brokerage with a similar culture, mission and brand sensibility who today welcomes the FRED Real Estate team into its growing operation.

"We could not be more flattered to be taking over where Keeley + Fred are leaving off” said Greg Fischer, Co-Owner of the newly established West + Main Homes in Oregon. “We look forward to providing our agents, and their clients, as well as the community the same thoughtful care they have always known with FRED...and we are looking forward to layering in the services currently enjoyed by West + Main agents in Colorado and Oklahoma!"

“We’ve had an amazing journey from 2008 until now and we’re incredibly grateful for the lessons learned, the business partnerships formed, the wonderful clients we’ve been honored to work with, and our FREDtastic team of real estate professionals,” said Keeley. “Built from a simple idea, our fresh approach and company culture were among the reasons we grew to be the largest independent real estate brokerage in Central Oregon, and West + Main is in absolutely perfect alignment, and the only exit we would have considered, always with our agents at the center of every decision. Fred and I might be retiring, but we truly feel like the spirit of FRED Real Estate Group will live on with the support of West + Main.”

West + Main Oregon/FRED agents will continue to operate out of the Company's existing HQ in the Century Center, and are expanding into Downtown Bend with a second storefront location at 750 NW Lava Road. The brand transition will be finalized by the end of 2021.

Visit westandmain.co for more information.

ABOUT FRED
FRED is the largest independent office by sales volume, consistently earning national recognition as a top-performing brokerage, boasting a roster of more than 130 of the friendliest residential Real Estate agents serving Central Oregon, Portland and beyond.

ABOUT West + Main Homes
Founded in 2017 and recently recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing companies in the US, West + Main is an independently owned and operated boutique Real Estate brokerage specializing in residential and commercial properties across Colorado, as well as greater Oklahoma City, as well as Oregon.

For more information, please contact:
West + Main Homes Oregon
Rylie Perrault
720-233-2915
rylie@westandmainoregon.com

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Where to buy a vacation home for best ROI on a short-term rental

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The pandemic didn't put a stop to leisure travel — it just changed the way Americans approached it.

Instead of taking flights and staying in hotels, travelers are now more likely to road trip to a rental. Consider last summer: Americans forked over thousands of dollars for one precious week of vacation in a beach bungalow or mountain hideaway. 

And they'll keep doing so. Technavio, a research firm, recently forecast that the global vacation rental market will grow by nearly $63 billion between 2020 and 2024.

Savvy real-estate investors can reap those potential gains by methodically targeting certain hot spots.

Evolve, a vacation rental platform, just released an analysis of the best vacation towns to buy a rental property in, based on the median annual revenue of its own rental listings and on median home values sourced from Zillow.

The majority of the spots on the list — 75% — are mountain towns with close access to perks like national parks that are attractive vacation destinations in both the warmer and colder months.

Keep reading for the 12 best vacation areas for real-estate investors to target in 2022:

12. Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona

Unlike other Arizona desert spots, like Sedona or Scottsdale, Pinetop is known for its pine-lined hiking trails and dozens of lakes. Its busiest seasons are winter and spring.

Median home listing price: $320,000

Median annual gross rental revenue: $28,043

11. Gulf Shores, Alabama

Gulf Shores is an Alabama beach town that sits on the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida border. It is known for its dive bars and restaurants as well as its white-sand beaches frequented by sea turtles and migratory birds. The busy seasons are spring and summer.

Median home listing price: $346,018

Median annual gross rental revenue: $30,222

10. Windham, New York

Windham, a Catskills town just three hours north of New York City that isn't as expensive as the Hudson Valley, is known for its wine bars and art galleries. The busy seasons are spring and summer.

Median home listing price: $459,500

Median annual gross rental revenue: $46,573

9. Ruidoso, New Mexico

A charming Southwestern town, Ruidoso is best known as a ski destination nestled in the Sierra Blanca mountains and an ideal summer heat getaway. The busy seasons are winter and summer.

Median home listing price: $243,458

Median annual gross rental revenue: $21,827

8. North Conway, New Hampshire

North Conway is a New Hampshire ski resort town year-round allure — many flock to the area to see New England's leaves change colors in the fall or hike the White Mountain National Forest in the warmer months. The busiest seasons are winter and summer.

Median home listing price: $356,946

Median annual gross rental revenue: $39,002

7. Waldport, Oregon

Waldport is an Oregon coastal town with proximity to both national forests and the Pacific Ocean. It is known for its sand dunes and whale watching possibilities. Summer is the busiest season.

Median home listing price: $380,728

Median annual gross rental revenue: $41,182

6. Branson, Missouri

Branson, Missouri, is known as a premier Midwestern family vacation destination. It is nestled in the Ozark Mountains and local entertainment like a famous theater strip and 1800s-themed amusement park. The busiest seasons are summer and winter.

Median home listing price: $179,724

Median annual gross rental revenue: $21,596

5. Surfside Beach, Texas

Surfside Beach, Texas, sits on the Gulf of Mexico and is a beloved destination for seafood, birdwatching, and, yes, surfing. Summer and spring are the busiest seasons.

Median home listing price: $277,642

Median annual gross rental revenue: $41,688

4. Bryson City, North Carolina

A gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, Bryson City is a North Carolina town that hosts part of the Appalachian Trail and borders Tennessee. Summer is the busiest season.

Median home listing price: $194,326

Median annual gross rental revenue: $31,818

3. Sevierville, Tennessee

Sevierville is a Tennessee town close to known travel destinations Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Sevierville offers access to tourist attractions like Dollywood and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Summer and fall are the busiest seasons.

Median home listing price: $296,966

Median annual gross rental revenue: $51,228

2. McGaheysville, Virginia

McGaheysville, Virginia, boasts access to the Appalachian Trail and serves as a gateway to Shenandoah National Park. The mountain town is busiest in the summer and winter.

M edian home listing price: $265,479

Median annual gross rental revenue: $48,838

1. The Poconos, Pennsylvania

The Poconos, a Pennsylvania mountain region dotted with lakes, has always been an attractive vacation destination for East Coasters looking for a nearby getaway. Summer and spring are the busiest seasons.

Median home listing price: $198,667

Median annual gross rental revenue: $41,699

For more like this, visit Business Insider.

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