Moving to Fayetteville? Resources to help you unpack - Guest Post
Reduce the stress of moving to Fayetteville with easy resources!
Happy Sunday, Y’all!
Are you moving to Fayetteville or know someone that is? Our friend Kristen Louis @parentingwithkris has done us a favor and compiled a great resource list with links to help smooth the moving transition.
The challenge of moving is hard enough, but when you add re-organizing your life into the mix, it only gets harder. Not only are you trying to minimize the stress of moving and the impact it has you and your family, but you also need to quickly figure out what services you need….or even where the darn grocery store is. It can be overwhelming and time consuming.
Fortunately, Kris Louis, from Parentingwithkris.com, has a wonderful game plan for busy people who are trying to minimize the drama of relocation. Following her tips (even just some of them!), can really help ease the work and the stress of moving to Fayetteville. Read on for her ideas and strategies that are sure to decrease the stress and hopefully increase your sleep during your move! If you want more tips from Kris, please be sure to visit her website! While the list is not fully comprehensive, it is certainly a good start and time saver for you.
WELCOME TO FAYETTEVILLE - WE’RE GLAD YOU’RE HERE!!
-Casey
8 Types of Resources That Can Make Your Move to Fayetteville, NC Go Smoothly
Buying a new home and moving to a new city can leave anyone feeling exhausted. If you’ve been dealing with offers, paperwork, closings, and moving prep, you may not have any energy left for anything else once you are moved into your new home. If you want to get settled in faster, however, you may need to take care of a few more tasks before you begin relaxing. For folks that are moving to Fayetteville, this list of local resources can make completing those moving checklists less of a hassle, so your new city feels like a home much faster.
Keeping Your Lawn & Garden Green
A bright and tidy lawn can brighten up your spirits, so here are a few top garden resources for you to consider:
Local plants near Fayetteville, NC
Lawn Maintenance & Mowing Services in Fayetteville, NC
Organizing & Decorating Your New Home
Keeping your home tidy can also help you feel less stressed, and these cleaning and organizing resources can certainly help you out:
11 Ideas for a Clutter-Free Home
10 Best Places to Buy Organizers (Besides the Container Store)
Professional Decorating Help near Fayetteville
Self-Storage Units in Fayetteville, North Carolina
Finding Care for Children & Pets
Whether you need a date night or your dog walked, these directories will help you find the help you need for your human and furry children alike:
Daycare or Preschool — What's Best for Your Family
Find a Babysitter in Fayetteville, NC
Directory of Pet Businesses in Fayetteville, NC
Find a Local Pet Sitter in Fayetteville, NC Online
Looking for Deals at Local Stores
Moving can be expensive, but shopping the discounts at local retailers can help you save some stress, cash, and time:
Moving soon? Save Hundreds with These 21 Housewarming Discounts
The 7 Best Supermarkets in Fayetteville
Add Coupons to Your Grocery Card
Searching for Self-Care Services
You’re going to need to unwind after moving into your perfect new home. So treat yourself to a local yoga class or spa session:
The 7 Best Gyms in Fayetteville, NC
Enrolling Children in Local Schools
When the new school year starts, these resources will help you find a welcoming place for your child to learn and grow:
Cumberland County Schools Enrollment
Moving Your Business
If you are a maker, a consultant, or a small business owner and plan to bring your business with you, here are some tips on how to ensure a smooth transition:
North Carolina LLC Instructions
Marketing Tips for Business Relocation
How to Update Your Online Presence
Hooking Up Essential Services & Utilities
Your new house isn’t a home until you can take a hot shower and surf the internet in peace. So use these links to connect your basic utilities:
Fayetteville Public Works Commission
Cumberland County Public Utilities
Feeling at home in Fayetteville can take some time, but it doesn’t have to require a lot of stress. Use the links, resources, and tools above to ease this transition, and you will feel like a local in no time. Congratulations on your new home, and welcome to Fayetteville!
Photo Credit: Rawpixel
Selling your home? How to keep it clean for showings - Guest Post
Reduce the stress of keeping your home clean for showings - especially if you are a busy parent!
Happy Sunday, Y’all!
We have a hot real estate market for a change, which is welcome news for all of us. However, that can lead to additional stress with last minute showings and narrow time windows. How is a busy family supposed to keep pace? The last thing you want is your potential buyer scared away by greasy dishes, dirty bathrooms, and that lingering “what smell is that?” feeling!
The challenge of keeping your home clean is hard enough, but when you add kids into the mix, it adds another layer of complexity. Not only are you trying to minimize the stress of moving and the impact it has on them, but also they have stuff…like lots of stuff…and it seems to reproduce on its own. I am pretty sure every room of our home has at least 3 nerf gun darts, 3 crayons, and who knows how many legos stashed around. What’s a busy parent to do?
Fortunately, Kris Louis, from Parentingwithkris.com, has a wonderful game plan for busy parents who are trying to sell their home. Following her tips (even just some of them!), can really help ease the work and the stress of selling your home. Read on for her ideas and strategies that are sure to decrease the stress and hopefully increase your offers! If you want more tips from Kris, please be sure to visit her website!
-Casey
How Busy Parents Can Keep Their Homes Looking Clean and Clutter-Free for Real Estate Showings
Image via Unsplash
You may be wondering how you’re supposed to keep your home looking clean and organized for realtor showings while you’re still living there—especially when a typical day consists of food messes, sticky doorknobs and walls, and dirty paw prints on your hardwood floors and carpeting. But with a few smart strategies, even busy families can be ready when house hunters call. Here’s what you need to know.
Upgrade Your Household Products
Cleaning is obviously going to take a starring role in your daily life for a while, and when you’re busy parenting, working, and attempting to sell your home, there are a few household products that will help keep things simple when you’re short on time or preparing for a last-minute showing. For instance, a robot vacuum can keep your floors clean and free of crumbs, pet hair, dirt, and dust—even on days where you don’t have time to run a traditional vacuum cleaner.
If your realtor contacts you about a last-minute showing, however, you’ll need a tool that’s on deck for quick tidy-ups. As such, a stick vacuum may be an excellent investment—especially if you’re looking for something lightweight, cordless, and easy to operate. Some will even convert to hand vacs, which is a serious boon in any busy family household.
Lastly, purchase an apron with large pockets in the front and store your essential cleaning supplies in them. This way, you can grab the apron in a hurry and get to cleaning your home in no time.
Focus on the Areas That Matter Most
After working with Haymount Homes to stage your home beautifully, your next step is keeping it that way. But with kids and pets in the mix, you’ll need to take a few minutes out of each day to clean, organize, and keep up on household tasks—such as cleaning the kitchen, bathrooms, and entryway to your home.
By moving much of your personal belongings into storage, however, you’ll make life a whole lot easier before showings—especially if you only keep the items that you and your family use on a daily basis. SmartBox Moving and Storage recommends pulling extra furniture, personal things like mementos and photos, and taste-specific decor. With these things out of the way, buyers can focus on your house, and you’ll have more elbow room for breezing through those speed cleaning sessions.
If you receive a call about a last-minute showing and don’t have time to clean the entire home, Redefy Real Estate recommends taking a few minutes to focus on the kitchen, bathrooms, and main living areas. Deodorize the home, wipe down the counters, fixtures, and mirrors, move dirty dishes into the dishwasher, and re-arrange throw pillows and blankets in all living areas. Then, turn on the lights, open the blinds or drapes, take out the trash, and head out the door before your potential buyers arrive.
Set a Few New Household Rules
As you show your home to potential buyers, you’ll keep your living areas clean, organized, and clutter-free if you establish a few ground rules for your family to follow. On showing days, for instance, avoid cooking odorous foods like broccoli, cabbage, eggs, or fish, and skip messy breakfasts like pancakes with syrup. You might even want to prepare make-ahead breakfasts that aren’t messy and are easy to grab and heat.
Moreover, you’ll keep your home cleaner if you banish food from all areas except for the kitchen table. Then, have everyone load their dishes into the dishwasher immediately after they finish with a meal or snack. To minimize kitchen messes, however, you may even opt for disposable plates, cups, and silverware when showings are scheduled.
Lastly, you’ll reduce clutter throughout the home if you set a new rule that requires your kids to put their personal belongings away after each use. For storing these stray items, purchase empty baskets and bins that can easily be hidden away during showings.
As you can see, living in a home that you’re trying to sell can get complicated—but there are a few things you can do to make it more endurable. Select a few smart tools, enact strategies with simplicity in mind, and get everyone involved. With these tips in mind, your home will stay clean and show-ready—and you’ll manage to keep your sanity while you sell your home.
5 Reasons to Rent Out Your Home
When renting your home is smarter than selling it - obscure reasons why renting makes sense.
Winter is here. Spring is coming. I sound like a Game of Thrones ad!
Seasons matter. I love them all for various reasons - I love the freedom of summer, the crisp scents of fall, the cozy nights of winter, and the HOUSING MARKET in the spring.
Okay, I also love the promise of new beginnings, budding flowers, and extra sunshine that spring brings. However, I have to admit that I love the fun of house hunting in the spring.
Even if I am not moving or buying a house, I am always 'house hunting'. I love doing market research and seeing what is for sale, what has or has not sold, and what is hitting the market. This used to be an "inexpensive" way to window shop; I wasn't able to just "buy a house" with a click of the mouse. However, since we started renting homes, it has become a bit more risky because I tend to fall in love with homes and now have a business that supports buying them!
With every spring comes change. People often move jobs and locations along the timeline of school seasons and semesters, so that means people start to offer their homes for sale in the spring in anticipation of moving in the summer. Therefore, the housing market is most active in the spring and houses tend to sell most easily during this time period.
Most people consider selling their home as their biggest obstacle in the their move, and that is for good reason. It is a lot of work, time, and effort to sell your home. There is a lot of mental and financial stress that goes along with all of that as well. Obviously, there are lots of reasons to sell your home when you move, but some times, people overlook a great opportunity when they are moving. That opportunity is a chance to rent out your current home.
The reasons to rent your home go far beyond this list and I will take the time to cover them in additional posts, but I wanted to share a few reasons that are often not even understood or known by the general public when it comes to renting your home. There are some advantages that you might not have considered beyond the obvious ones that you probably have considered. You can also create an opposing list of reasons to NOT rent your home. That is also true. However, that same thing can be said for any type of situation that has benefits and risks.
So let's get down to it. Here are five lesser known reasons to consider renting out your current home rather than selling it. I hope you find this fun and a nice tool in considering whether or not to rent your home!
YOUR LOAN INTEREST RATE IS LIKELY BETTER
Interest rates on loans for primary residences are almost always cheaper than interest rates on investment loans. This means that you can rent your home with less cost than if you were to invest in a different home to rent. Using an example, let's say your primary home mortgage is $250,000 and your interest rate is 3.50% at 30 years. That makes your monthly mortgage payment $1123/month. If you were to purchase this same home as a rental investment (aka, in addition to your primary residence), you would likely have a loan that was structured more like $250,000 at 4.75% for 30 years. This would make your payment $1304/month for the same house. That is already a difference of $181/month in cash flow and you have not had to do anything different. That amounts to $2172/year. Not bad.
YOU ALREADY HAVE THE HOME
Securing financing for a rental home is time consuming. Remember when you had to secure the loan to buy your home? It's a pain, right? Well, escalate that pain up a notch when you are buying an investment property. There is even more paperwork, time and particulars involved, making the process fairly time consuming and more difficult. If you already secured financing for your home (or even own your home outright), there is very little you need to do to change it to a rental home.
YOU WILL LIKELY PAY LESS FOR INSURANCE
When you convert your primary home into a rental home, you change your homeowner's insurance policy to what is often referred to as a "fire policy". This policy covers your home, the land, and the rebuilding cost of the structure. You are no longer insuring your valuables inside the home (that will be the responsibility of the renter through their rental policy). In our experience, a fire policy has generally been less expensive than a homeowner's policy. That amounts to more money in your pocket again.
TAX ADVANTAGES
This topic is broad enough to fill entire books on the subject, so I will gloss over this and keep it brief. However, there are substantial benefits to renting your home. In a nutshell, when you start renting out your primary home (which will now not BE your primary home and you are allowed to obtain a new one with the same lower financing as before - yay!), you will start making income from your renters. However, any income you obtain will be offset against expenses incurred in owning your home (care, maintenance, repairs, and more). Any improvements you make and or large repairs you make (like a new roof), can be expended as a depreciation expense (meaning you will be able to deduct these costs over each year you rent the home up to the usable life of the item). You even depreciate the cost of the house structure. This is all overwhelming to discuss, but know this: You will be getting to deduct a lot of things from the rental income you make while also reducing the amount you owe on your home. Therefore, you are getting to offset a lot of the income you are making, and your debt on the house is still going down. Your home is gaining equity and you get to do it without a large burden of tax impact. That is a good thing.
LESS TIME ON THE MARKET SAVES YOU MONEY
In our experience, renting a home happens a lot faster than selling it. You can complete the process in a day, in fact, we have often rented a home in a matter of hours. That means, there is not a day that goes by that we spend money on utilities, mortgage payments, or property insurance or taxes in waste. If your house sits vacant on the market while waiting to sell, you rack up costs pretty quickly in all these areas. Renting a home is a less serious commitment for most people than buying one. They are more readily willing to enter into an agreement and the coordination of the transaction is simpler. Time is money. Renting saves on that front.
“Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.”
Hopefully this was interesting and helpful to you in the process of considering home rental. There are so many factors that go into the decision to rent or sell your home, and this is only a smattering of them. Knowing your advantages, including more obscure advantages, can be helpful when it comes to making the decision to rent or sell your home.
Have you ever rented out your primary residence? What made you decide to do so? Did you decide to sell instead? Were you happy with your choice? I would love to know!
- Casey