Scott Spainhour

Buying

Smart Homes: The Way of the Future or a Risk to Homeowners

Glitches of early iterations aside, smart home technology has an increasingly active presence in the lives of homeowners who are looking for convenience and savings in a pushed-for-time era. From adaptive thermostats that automatically gauge energy usage and alter temperatures for optimal savings, to smart home speakers that use sophisticated artificial intelligence to provide services

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Buying

Do You Have Home Improvement Envy? You’re Not Alone

Have you found yourself longingly peering into the yard next door to check out their new water feature only to start drawing up the blueprints for your own a week later? If you answered yes, turns out you’re just one of the many who experience jealousy—and a little competitive drive—over others’ home improvement projects. In fact,

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Local Resources

How to Make an Open Floor Plan Work for You

Once a trend, open floor plans have become a staple of most modern homes. An open floor plan generally means the living room, kitchen, and dining room are combined into a large space or great room. Before taking a hammer to all interior walls, it’s important to know the structure of your home, as well

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Buying

7 Signs Your Contractor May Be Shady

Building a home or renovating your existing pad is no simple task. From budgeting to design and choosing the right contractor, there’s a myriad of details you’ll need to juggle. But when it comes to choosing the right contractor for the job, it’s important to be mindful that not every contractor is reputable. Here are

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Buying

Avoiding Fraud: Key Practices in Real Estate

Whether by compromised data, cracked passwords or phishing, real estate is a target for cyber criminals. More and more, homebuyers and sellers-and the practitioners who serve them-are reporting theft via wire fraud, in which criminals access emails, learn of a pending transaction, and then message phony wiring instructions to victims. Bogus DocuSign emails, emails with illegitimate

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Uncategorized

On Low Inventory: From Challenge Comes Opportunity

  Low inventory is the foremost issue in the housing market right now. Buyers face relentless demand for a scarce supply of reasonably priced homes. In a recent survey by the National Association of Mortgage Professionals (NAMB), fifty-eight percent of mortgage professionals cited low inventory as the biggest hurdle for homebuyers today.    The inventory dilemma has

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Buying

Millennials Search for Unconventional Down Payment Funds, but at What Cost?

Rising home prices are standing in the way of millennials who want to buy their first home; however, these challenges are being overcome via some unconventional methods. Millennials are getting creative and finding sources for their down payment by any means necessary. But are these methods hurting the millennial generation financially? Borrowing from family: Sure, gifted

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What’s Feeding the Affordability Perception?

Affording a mortgage payment is possible for many prospective homeowners. Why then, by all accounts, is unaffordability plaguing the market? Researchers at Freddie Mac offered several answers to that question in its latest Insight, the first one being perception. Homebuyers struggling to find reasonably-priced listings perceive the housing market in general as unaffordable — a reasonable conclusion,

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Five tips when considering a HELOC for Home Renovations

Homeowners looking to undertake home renovations can often use a home equity line of credit or HELOC to finance their projects. Here are five quick tips on how to shop for and manage a HELOC: Shop around. Comparison shop to get the best rate.   Ask about the margin. If you’re offered a rate that’s

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