Category: Uncategorized

Only yesterday you could trust a home that sold to stay sold.  Negotiating repairs was sometimes testy but rarely fatal, and after that it was straight on to closing.  Those were the Good Old Days. Now its not enough to find a house, beat out multiple offers to win the house, and get through repairs. …

  I have a new listing in Scotts Mill, a wonderful craftsman-style neighborhood in Apex, NC. After my Open House last Sunday, I drove to revisit a particular house. I was new in real estate when Scotts Mill was being built, and the first house I ever sold was in Scotts Mill. It was new…

How fast is the housing marketing moving right now? On Friday a first-time buyer sent me a list of homes he wanted to see when we went out on Sunday. There were ten properties on his list. I told him ten is too many — eight is the max that stamina and sanity can endure. So…

  I love these pens so much, I buy them by the box! Here’s why: 1. They write smoothly. 2. The rubbery grip is comfortable. 3. Pink is pretty. 4. Nobody steals them, and nobody forgets to give them back to me. They’re too distinctive, and for men probably too pink. 5. These days pretty…

Had a good time this morning “speed-dating” a dozen local builders at this month’s meeting of the Raleigh Chapter of the Women’s Council of Realtors. New home construction has really taken off again after the long pause 2009-2013. It’s hard to keep up with all the new communities out there, so this was a great…

There’s a reason that Spring is high season for buying and selling houses. “Add color!” my stager is always saying. We mortals can stage the interiors, but it’s Nature that stages the yard with all the colors of spring: white dogwoods against a blue sky, yellow forsythia, and stunning azaleas from a palatte of reds,…

MACARON DAY The classic macaron is a cookie made primarily from almond flour, sugar, and egg whites. The macaron traces its history back to 16th Century Italy, but today is associated mainly with France. The modern version comes in a variety of colors and flavors, with a creamy filling Macaron Day began in Paris in…

  Years ago in graduate school I was assigned a book titled “The Design of Everyday Things.” The book argued that we consumers are plagued with poorly designed things in our lives because we don’t demand better. For example, those glass doors in commercial buildings with a horizontal bar across them. If you can’t tell…

When I take my stager into a new listing, almost always she says, “We have to add color.” The American color palatte is conservative and, frankly, boring. Carpet and walls are beige, furniture is brown. You can add color without spending a lot of money. What about bright pillows and a throw on the couch…