These Work-From-Home Hacks Are the Difference Between Stir-Crazy and Serenity

How to chill out when you’re feeling cooped up.

FaceTiming coworkers, Slacking from bed, making calls in the kitchen—for a lot of us, this is a new reality. In the hope of slowing the spread of COVID-19, many companies in the U.S. are encouraging employees to skip the office and work from home. So what does that really look like? Living in your pajamas sounds nice at first. But then the idea of being cooped up in your house or a tiny apartment with roommates starts to sink in and it all seems like a recipe for going stir-crazy.

Pushing yourself to be productive is one thing; figuring out how to move your body, take breaks, and wind down at the end of the day is another. Advice from some WFH veterans via Domino:

Take a Walk

Trinity Mouzon Wofford, the founder of Golde, runs her business out of her apartment, so she’s used to having to make an extra effort to disconnect from her inbox. Toward the end of the day, she’ll pop out for a walk around her neighborhood. Some fresh air, a bit of stretching, and a solid hour of natural light can make a world of difference.

Try Meditating

According to Sarah Romotsky, head of health and science strategy at Headspace, studies have shown that just one 15-minute meditation session can result in reduced stress, feeling calmer, and a decreased heart rate. Do it in the morning after breakfast or give it a go when you feel a lull in motivation coming on—it can reduce mind wandering and increase focus by 22 percent, she says.

Become a List Person

As far as staying on track with tasks goes, writing out your to-dos is the easiest way to ensure you accomplish things on a daily basis. Author Amanda Montell likes to keep hers realistic by only focusing on achievable goals. “I do this in my Google calendar…nothing fancy or complicated,” she says.

Switch Spots During the Midday Slump

Be mindful of changing up your environment, notes designer Ginny Macdonald, who worked on the Create & Cultivate office. Going from a high table to an upright desk chair to a lounger will keep your mind active and alert, and it will also remind you to chill out every once in a while.

9 More Tips from Forbes:

Productivity Tips For Working At Home

1. Confine your work space to a specific area in your home so your job doesn’t intrude into the lives of other household members and you can concentrate. Have a space that you designate as your workstation instead of checking emails, voicemails or texting in front of TV or spreading work out on the kitchen table. Make your space a stress-free zone of quiet and solitude where you can concentrate. If you don’t have a separate room, find an area with minimum traffic flow or a corner of a room off from the main area.

2. Block the neighbor’s barking mutt, excess noise from household members or ambient traffic with noise cancelling head phones or ear buds. Studies show that a delicate blend of soft music combined with soothing nature sounds—such as waterfalls, raindrops, a rushing brook or ocean waves—activates the calming part of your brain, helps you concentrate and lowers heart rate and blood pressure

3. Go to the same designated place on a regular basis so your mind doesn’t wander, you can focus and increase your productivity. Establish water-tight psychological boundaries so you’re not constantly reminded of temptations around you (there’s chocolate cake in the fridge) or unfinished personal tasks—such as doing laundry, vacuuming or organizing your spice rack—that otherwise could compromise your productivity. And complete these personal activities outside of work hours as you normally would.

4. Set water-tight physical boundaries around your designated work space that is off limits for housemates. Treat it as if it's five miles across town, and ask house members to consider it as such (e.g. no interruptions from another room when you’re engrossed in a project unless an emergency). If possible, only go to your designated space when you need to work. Stick to a regular schedule, and keep your work space at arm's-length after hours. Try to maintain the same hours you log in at the office so you don’t get swallowed up by the workload.

5. After a reasonable day’s work, put away your electronic devices and work tools just as you would store carpentry tools after building shelves or baking ingredients after making a cake. Keeping work reminders out of sight keeps them out of mind and helps you relax and recharge your batteries.

6. Discourage personal intrusions. If you’re a teacher or doctor, friends don’t just stop by the office to chat, hang-out or interrupt your work. But sometimes well-intended friends, family members and neighbors think working at home is different. Interruptions and personal phone calls can cause you to lose your focus, procrastinate or get behind on a deadline. It’s important to prevent intrusions into your work space by informing others that although the location of your job has changed, it is no different from any other profession requiring privacy and concentration. Notify others that during at-home work hours you’re unavailable and cannot be interrupted. And let them know the after hours when you’re available to connect.

7. Employ your video communications perhaps more than you normally would, now that you’re more isolated. Make sure you have your company’s telecommuting devices—such as Zoom—hooked up and ready to go so you can stay connected with team members or office mates and you’re available for video calls and teleconferencing. If you start to feel lonely, consider setting up a support group of friends and colleagues who are also working at home by satellite. Make plans to meet on a regular basis and share creative ways you’ve adjusted to the new situation.

8. Avoid cabin fever. Now that you’re spending a disproportionate amount of time at home, get outside as much as possible with gardening or walking around the block. Mounting research shows that spending time in nature lowers stress, helps you relax and clears your mind. After work hours, enjoy other areas of your home: watching a good movie, reading a book, or cooking a fun meal. And lead as much of a full social life as possible such as having non-symptomatic friends over for dinner. The new normal is not to limit social devices but to take advantage of them. Use Facetime, Facebook or Skype with friends and family members so you feel connected to the people in your life that you care about.

9. Keep your attitude in check. Above all, be creative and don't let your confined circumstances dwarf your tranquility, happiness or productivity. Your greatest power is your perspective. It can victimize you or empower you. When you look for the upside in a downside situation and figure out what you can control and what you can't, it’s easier to accept whatever is beyond your control. Your best ally is to find the opportunity in the difficulty during an uncontrollable situation instead of the difficulty in the opportunity. Take advantage of this restrictive time to clear clutter out of your basement, pull weeds in the garden or get caught up on fun hobbies you've neglected for a while.

How Coronavirus is Impacting the Housing Market

As Real Estate professionals, we get a lot of questions.

Right now, most of them are about the impact that COVID-19 will have on the Real Estate market. In an effort to bring you the latest facts, information, and industry forecasts, we will continue to share from trusted sources. Please let us know if there is anything that we can do for you.

From Curbed:

Few homes look their best in the dirty grays of late winter, which is, in part, why homebuying season coincides with the arrival of spring.

This year, however, the crocuses that can make a house look that much nicer are showing up alongside the less reassuring news of a virus circling the globe.

The rapid spread of COVID-19—more commonly referred to as coronavirus or novel coronavirus—has officially been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. It’s already claimed more than 4,000 lives. Major events and conferences are being postponed or canceled, corporations are telling employees to work from home, and the stock market has dropped more than 15 percent since February 24.I

f you’re in the market for a house, all this uncertainty might have you worried about the housing market. Will it suffer a swoon similar to Wall Street? There are a few ways the virus could effect the housing market that you should be aware of—but before we get into the details, you can breath a sigh of relief, because a housing catastrophe on the scale of the 2008 financial crisis is almost certainly not going to happen.There are more than 1,000 cases currently confirmed in the United States. 

The countries where the virus has hit the hardest—namely China, where more than 80,000 cases have been documented—are global manufacturing hubs that corporations use as suppliers. China’s economy has been brought to a standstill as a result of the virus, and if that continues it could lead to further economic fallout.However, historically low inventory, a humming economy, and rock-bottom mortgage rates are setting the stage for a highly competitive homebuying season.

Coronavirus already pushing mortgage rates lower

The current dip in the stock market is being caused by what will likely be diminished corporate earnings. The virus has already disrupted the supply chains of 75 percent of U.S. companies, and consumer demand will likely take a hit as offices close and travel grinds to a halt. But what matters more for housing is bonds, the price of which affect mortgage rates. When investors start thinking the stock market is too risky—like right now—they sell their stocks and buy bonds.

The increased demand pushes the price of bonds higher. The higher the price of bonds, the lower the interest payment—called the yield—is relative to the price. When bond yields are lower, mortgage rates are lower, too.This is why mortgage rates have dropped as a result of coronavirus. Rates are down to around 3.7 percent, and the Federal Reserve has already announced one target interest rate cut. However, mortgage rates are already at three-year lows, and it’s an open question how low mortgage lenders are willing to go, regardless of whether the Federal Reserve cuts its target rate again.

Where the housing market currently stands

The housing market is, in a word, tight. Consider Seattle, where home prices have risen dramatically as it has become one of the country’s leading tech hubs. And while the nation as a whole is suffering from housing shortages, Seattle’s available homes for sale dropped a dramatic 27.6 percent year-over-year in January. The housing market in other cities isn’t much better off: supply is at near record lows nationwide, and demand is near an all-time high. This combination means home prices are also near all-time highs in most cities as many potential buyers are bidding on a limited supply of homes for sale. At the end of 2019, the number of houses for sale dropped even lower, particularly on the West Coast.

Compared to a year ago, some cities saw double-digit percentage decreases in available homes for sale, although that is partly a function of there having been a supply spike in the second half of 2019, so the decrease looks more stark than it otherwise would. But the supply spike was short lived. “It’s actually back down near record lows in terms of the level of inventory for many markets and the country as a whole,” says Jeff Tucker, an economist with Zillow.

On the demand side, key indicators suggest there will be a lot of buyers in the market. Low unemployment, solid wage growth, and low mortgage rates are all signals of high demand. Todd Teta of ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data provider, says they’ve seen unusually high web traffic to real estate portals like Zillow and Redfin.

“We look at the portals, and traffic was way up relative to seasonality than what you saw in January of 2019,” he says. “All those indicators are looking pretty strong.”It’s hard to forget the recent history, but while the 2008 financial crisis saw both the housing and stock markets drop in tandem, this was an aberration in so many ways; the housing market crash was ultimately the cause of the stock market crash. Typically the housing market isn’t tied to swings in the stock market, because people don’t buy houses purely as an investment.

Housing is a basic need, and the decision to buy one is usually prompted by entering a new stage of life.A newly married couple is moving in together and is buying a house. A couple is having a kid and needs more space to accommodate the baby so they buy bigger house. Empty nesters have more house than they need after their kids go to college, so they downgrade to a smaller house.

A stock market correction doesn’t change these circumstances for people. Even in full-blown recessions, the housing market is incredibly durable. In some previous recessions home prices have actually gone up.

Another thing to consider is that as the stock market drops, investors look for safer places to park their wealth, hence the bond market going up. The stock market drop can have the same effect on the housing market. Roofstock, a platform investors use to buy and sell single-family rental properties, has seen huge spikes in web traffic since the outbreak of the virus, as global investors look for less volatile investment options. This added demand could be playing out across the housing market.

Are homebuilder supply lines being disrupted by coronavirus?

The short answer is yes. Nearly a third of home building material inputs come from China, according to the National Association of Home Builders, not to mention more finished products like bathtubs, sinks, appliances, and more.

This could delay home construction at a time when it has finally picked back up. Since the financial crisis, home building has struggled to keep pace with demand because of the cost of construction, lack of available land, and a construction labor shortage.

However, home builder confidence has skyrocketed in recent months, according to the NAHB. This signals that builders are more inclined to start construction on homes. To wit, new home sales—largely dependent on how many homes are built—have spiked dramatically in recent months, as have construction starts.

But if supply lines are disrupted, it could dampen the pace of home building and contribute to inventory shortages.

“Low interest rates help support demand, and consumer confidence readings in the coming months will be key, but the virus does heighten some of the longer-term challenges on the supply side in terms of housing supply,” says Robert Dietz, an economist with NAHB.

So how should I approach things heading into the spring homebuying season?

The conditions are set for the spring being an incredibly competitive housing market. Inventory is low, demand is high, and mortgage rates are low. If you already own a home, you might consider refinancing while rates are this low; other homeowners are already jumping at the chance.

However, it’s worth taking recent housing market history into consideration. Two years ago, similar conditions existed in the market and one realtor told Curbed that we were entering “the most competitive housing market in recorded history.”

That market didn’t materialize. Instead, home prices hit an affordability ceiling that kept many buyers out of the market. Eager sellers who listed their homes in hopes of taking advantage of the favorable conditions saw their homes linger on the market, leading to an inventory pile up not seen since the 2008 housing crash, particularly on the West Coast.

Home prices are still very high. If the same conditions existed and home prices were a little undervalued, it would likely create rapid home-price appreciation. But with prices already potentially maxed out, it remains to be seen whether current market conditions cause prices to break even higher or hit a ceiling.

The wild card in the housing market is coronavirus. If its impact is prolonged and induces even a minor recession, it could put a damper on demand—which would actually be welcome for buyers in particularly competitive markets. Still, don’t expect home prices to drop. It would likely just slow down the pace at which they are rising.

For more information like this, subscribe to Curbed’s newsletter, it’s pretty great.

Stuck at Home? These 12 Famous Museums Offer Virtual Tours You Can Take on Your Couch

Experience the best museums from London to Seoul in the comfort of your own home.

Going into a self-quarantine can have many complex issues and complications beyond having enough food and supplies for two weeks. In terms of entertainment, it also probably means you’re in for a lot of boredom, a lot of Netflix, and a lot of browsing the internet.

But there is a way to get a little culture and education while you’re confined to your home. According to Fast Company, Google Arts & Culture teamed up with over 500 museums and galleries around the world to bring anyone and everyone virtual tours and online exhibits of some of the most famous museums around the world.

Now, you get to “go to the museum” and never have to leave your couch.

Google Arts & Culture’s collection includes the British Museum in London, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Guggenheim in New York City, and literally hundreds of more places where you can gain knowledge about art, history, and science. This collection is especially good for students who are looking for ways to stay on top of their studies while schools are closed.

Take a look at just some of Google’s top museums that are offering online tours and exhibits:

British Museum, London

This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. You can also find hundreds of artifacts on the museum’s virtual tour.

Guggenheim Museum, New York

Google’s Street View feature lets visitors tour the Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase without ever leaving home. From there, you can discover incredible works of art from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary eras.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

This famous American art museum features two online exhibits through Google. The first is an exhibit of American fashion from 1740 to 1895, including many renderings of clothes from the colonial and Revolutionary eras. The second is a collection of works from Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer.

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

You can virtually walk through this popular gallery that houses dozens of famous works from French artists who worked and lived between 1848 and 1914. Get a peek at artworks from Monet, Cézanne, and Gauguin, among others.

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

One of Korea’s popular museums can be accessed from anywhere around the world. Google’s virtual tour takes you through six floors of Contemporary art from Korea and all over the globe.

Pergamon Museum, Berlin

As one of Germany’s largest museums, Pergamon has a lot to offer – even if you can’t physically be there. This historical museum is home to plenty of ancient artifacts including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and, of course, the Pergamon Altar.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Explore the masterworks from the Dutch Golden Age, including works from Vermeer and Rembrandt. Google offers a Street View tour of this iconic museum, so you can feel as if you’re actually wandering its halls.

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Anyone who is a fan of this tragic, ingenious painter can see his works up close (or, almost up close) by virtually visiting this museum – the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh, including over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and over 750 personal letters.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

European artworks from as far back as the 8th Century can be found in this California art museum. Take a Street View tour to discover a huge collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, manuscripts, and photographs.

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

This less well-known gallery houses the art collection of one of Florence, Italy’s most famous families, the de'Medicis. The building was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 specifically for Cosimo I de'Medici, but anyone can wander its halls from anywhere in the world.

MASP, São Paulo

The Museu de Arte de São Paulo is a non-profit and Brazil’s first modern museum. Artworks placed on clear perspex frames make it seem like the artwork is hovering in midair. Take a virtual tour to experience the wondrous display for yourself.

National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City

Built in 1964, this museum is dedicated to the archaeology and history of Mexico’s pre-Hispanic heritage. There are 23 exhibit rooms filled with ancient artifacts, including some from the Mayan civilization.

Sadly, not all popular art museums and galleries could be included on Google Arts & Culture’s collection, but some museums are taking it upon themselves to offer online visits. According to Fast Company, the Louvre also offers virtual tours on its website.

To see more of Google Arts & Culture’s collection of museums, visit the collection’s website. There are thousands of museum Street Views on Google as well. Google Arts & Culture also has an online experience for exploring famous historic and cultural heritage sites.

Prefer looking at home tours?

Search for Homes.

Searching for Homes While Preventing the Spread of COVID-19

The Real Estate market has not come to a screeching halt due to Coronavirus precautions and warnings, but it’s important to be diligent if you are searching for a home while the risk is present.

To help with this process, here are some ways you as a home buyer can keep yourself and others safe during the buying process.

Only tour properties if you feel healthy.

Discuss your recent travel history with your agent, especially if you’ve recently been out of the country.

Ask your agent to show you the property instead of attending an open house.

Drive separately from your agent to the property.

Be considerate of the seller’s home and wash or sanitize your hands before entry, touching as little as necessary. While many sellers will likely provide it, bring your own hand sanitizer and use before and after you tour the home.

Ask your agent to confirm with the seller’s agent that they have not recently been sick or in contact with someone suspected of having COVID-19.

Sellers often ask you to take off your shoes when you tour their home or wear protective booties that have been provided. Consider bringing your own booties and throwing them away when you’ve finished touring.

Reduce the amount of time spent with other people in the same room. This “social distancing” practice can curb person-to-person spread.

Do not tour homes if you are currently self-quarantined because of illness or other reasons, you should not tour homes in person.

Do not view homes when you’re sick, feeling like you’re about to be sick, or getting over an illness.

We do not recommend touring homes after returning from international travel or travel that exposed you to a large group of people in close quarters, like large events.

Alternatively, ask your agent to video chat with you while they tour homes you are seriously considering buying so you can see them virtually.

If you have questions or concerns, let us know.

Here’s Where People Are Actually Finding Their Forever Homes

One region reigns supreme.

There’s a reason every real-estate agent’s favorite phrase is “location, location, location.” When you’re making a decision as serious as buying a house, the property itself is just as important as the neighborhood—even the city. On the hunt for your forever home? We just uncovered the ideal road map. 

LendingTree recently analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau to determine where people are staying put the longest, and one region in the country stood out. New York City, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia—all in the Northeast—ranked highest on the list, with people staying in their houses an average of eight and a half years. On the flip side, the study found that homeowners in warmer areas of the country (think: Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Austin) move more often and the listing prices tend to be higher. So while settling down somewhere cooler might mean shoveling snow occasionally, you’ll save some money.

Now that you know where to look for your forever home, it’s time to address what to look for. ips from buyers who have gone through the process:

Talk to the neighbors before putting in an offer. They’ll likely give you the inside scoop, and if they’re feeling generous, put in a good word with the sellers.

During the inspection phase, investigate the plumbing and condition of the sewer lines (ones made of cast iron will fail sooner rather than later).

Also, don’t let fancy new appliances sway you. These bright, shiny objects might be there to distract you from larger issues like mold in the walls or an incorrectly installed HVAC. 

Good bones are the key to a home that lasts a lifetime.

Need a recommendation for a great Realtor in one of these areas, or anywhere in North America? We would be happy to make an introduction to a wonderful person that we know + trust who will take care of you!