Blog - home tips

Things That Can Hurt a Home Appraisal

Many homeowners are busy preparing their homes for sale. Are you among them? Selling now certainly makes sense. The housing market continues to favor sellers, with most listings pulling in plenty of competing offers.

Even with the persisting seller’s market, in order to maximize the sale price of your home, you’ll want to eliminate or fix anything that could potentially hurt your home appraisal. A high appraisal will ensure that you can earn top dollar for your home, while a low appraisal can cost you tens of thousands at closing.

Keep in mind that not all home renovation projects will yield a healthy ROI. It’s vital that you consult with your real estate agent to learn more about which recommended upgrades and repairs will be most likely to net…

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Reducing Your Home's Carbon Footprint

Hardly a day goes by without news outlets throughout the world reporting the effects of climate change. Now, even regions previously thought to be decades away from any impactful fallout have been rocked by events like floods, wildfires, and hurricanes.

The science surrounding climate change is complex and often overwhelming for a layperson to analyze. What we do know is that the only way to prevent catastrophic eventualities is for humanity around the world, from billionaires to hard-working blue-collar folks to pull together and keep Earth’s temperature increase under 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Today, we’d like to share seven ways to reduce your home’s carbon footprint. Overall, an individual’s carbon footprint is nearly impossible to accurately…

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Keys to a Well-Functioning Home

The interior design of your home will have a powerful impact on your day-to-day experience of living in it. Over time, a poor design can wear you down, making your dream home feel more like a tedious chore to work around. The good news is, there are practical steps you can take to overhaul your home’s interior design and help you fall in love with your home all over again. Today, we’re sharing our favorite keys to a well-functioning home.

Express Yourself Through Design

It’s easy to be influenced by the trends we see on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. While there’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from designs we love, it’s also important that your final design express your own personality, interests, and preferences. Trends come…

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How to Decorate a Small Living Room

At first glance, a small living room can present a true design challenge. If yours feels cramped and crowded, you’re less likely to kick back and relax in it, let alone use it to entertain your friends and family. The good news is, there are elegant design strategies to suit living rooms of any size. You’ll need to plan ahead, employ some clever styling, and be prepared to think outside the traditional oversized American box, but keep at it: the results will speak for themselves!

The following 12 tips are our recommendations on how to decorate a small living room without skimping on style!

1.) Skip the Sofa

While the image that springs to mind when we think of a living room usually features a sofa as a main feature, anything bulkier than a…

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Front Entryway Alternatives

Your home’s front entryway has a big job. As soon as visitors cross the threshold, they’ve already begun formulating their first impressions of your home’s interior. Additionally, your home’s main entry also greets you each time you return from a long day away.

Because there are already a multitude of fantastic design ideas for traditional foyers and mudrooms, today we’re focusing on homes without a delineated entryway. We’ve seen countless homeowners struggle to create front entryway alternatives for homes, condos, apartments, and tiny houses that either don’t have entryways at all or have spaces that are not clearly defined.

If you’re dealing with how to make an atypical space feel more like an entryway, keep reading. Today on the Parks Realty…

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Pros & Cons of Solar Powered Homes

Powering your home with solar energy, whether fully or in part, is certainly eco-friendly. Most of us are looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint, and switching to solar power will help you achieve great strides toward your goal.

Let’s go over a few pros and cons you may wish to consider as you determine whether converting to solar power is right for you.

Pros

1.) Solar is Sustainable

When compared to consuming non-renewable fuels, it’s clear that solar power is infinitely more sustainable. Long after we’ve ceased powering our civilizations with fossil fuels and other combustibles, we will have access to solar, wind, and water power. By switching your home to solar now, you’re helping to move your community toward…

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How to Make Your Home Kid-Friendly

When one shares a home with children, it can be tricky to strike a balance between an adult-centric and kid-friendly design aesthetic. It’s important not to fill the home with precious things; otherwise, we’re likely to become tense and frustrated when items are damaged or ruined. On the other hand, most of us don’t want to live in a home that feels like a daycare center, either!

Here are our top 10 tips for creating a kid-friendly home:

1.) Choose Easy-Care, Patterned Rugs

Rugs add comfort and style to hard flooring, but they’re also magnets for mud and stains. Because staring at dirty, stained rugs is a recipe for a gloomy mood, choosing the right kind of rug for your home is essential.

Choose an easy-care, patterned rug. In between…

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Ways to Keep Your Home Smelling Great

One of the best things someone can say as they enter your home is, “It smells wonderful in here!” We all know how powerfully smells influence our perception of a place, so it feels good to know our home is making a good first impression. Today, we’re sharing ways to keep your home smelling great, from preventive measures to a variety of tips for sending delicious scents wafting through each room. 

Eliminate Sources of Bad Smells

Before you can add pleasant smells to your home, it’s essential that you get rid of anything stinky. Masking bad odors isn’t really possible, so roll up your sleeves, and let’s get started. 

1.) Scrub Out Your Trash Receptacle

We all know we have to empty our trash often in order to avoid a pervasive stench, but…

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Electricity Basics for New Homeowners

When you move into your first home, electricity may be far down your list of things to keep track of and understand. As long as the lights and outlets work, you’re probably good to go at the beginning. However, if you’re going to be an informed homeowner, it’s smart to have a rough idea of how the electrical power grid works in Middle Tennessee, how to manage your home’s breakers, and what constitutes a warning sign of an electrical issue. 

Middle Tennessee’s Power Grid

Depending on your home’s location, you’ll most likely be pulling your power from either Nashville Electric Service or Middle Tennessee Electric. Unlike the stressed and overtaxed electrical grids powering California and Texas, our power grids are stable, modern, and prepared to…

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Making Your Driveway Look Good & Last Longer

Curb appeal is likely part of what first drew you to your home, so it makes sense to keep your property’s exterior at least as beautiful as it was then. A damaged and neglected driveway would naturally detract from the overall impression one would get upon arriving at your home. Today, we’re sharing the best ways to help your driveway look good and last longer than you might have hoped. By following the tips below, your valuable driveway will be the envy of your block in the coming years.

Regular driveway maintenance prevents difficult and costly issues, so make prevention a priority this summer and all year long! Your driveway’s lifespan will depend on routine maintenance and the care you take to protect it.

Tips for Maintenance: An Ounce of…

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