Blog - Tips

5 Tips for Buying a Luxury Home

Luxury homes are generally described as those in the top 10% of their market. Luxury homes are usually located in the most optimal areas in a market, are large in size, and built with high-end materials. Luxury homes often have unique design elements and amenities not found in most homes. Want an indoor shooting range, a rock-climbing wall, a ballroom, or a bowling alley? A luxury home might have one of these– or all of them!

If you have not purchased in the luxury market before, you should be aware that the process can be very different from buying a standard single-family home. Here are some tips to help you navigate your way through the luxury home market.

1) Be patient. Shopping for a luxury home may take longer than average. For one, there are…

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Best Inside Low-Maintenance Pets

If you’re a member of a busy household, yet long for a pet to care for, we would encourage you to consider one of the following options. Each of these is best kept inside and is as low-maintenance as a pet can be. 

Full disclosure: no pet is 100% low-maintenance. Vet bills, cost of a cage, food, and bedding, and the additional work you may have to put in to arrange pet-sitting when you’re out of town will—and should—factor into your decision to bring a pet into your home.

With that said, let’s dive right in! Browse the following fluffy, fanged, scaled, and slithering suggestions to see if one of these delightful creatures is right for you!

1.) Hamsters

Long considered the default, best choice for a busy household, hamsters are certainly…

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Making Your Guest Room More Inviting

When you invite a friend or family member to come to town and stay in your guest room, what goes through your mind? Underneath the excitement you feel at the thought of seeing your guest, do you also feel unease about the state of your guest room? This common challenge may even be preventing you from having guests stay over! If so, make 2021 the year you push past this hang-up.

Today, we’re going to share our top tips to make your guest room more inviting. Don’t worry, you don’t need to spend an outrageous amount of cash to create a space that makes your guests feel welcome, comfortable, and ready to relax. However, there are some tried and true techniques below that can be created at a wide range of price points, for those who wish to go all out.

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First-Time Buyers Must Avoid These Mistakes

There are many common mistakes first-time homebuyers make. Some are minor, while others can end up being costly. Fortunately, several of these mistakes are avoidable! Please read and share this article with other first-time homebuyers to help them spot these common errors before making them.

Mistake #1: Looking For A Home Before Getting Pre-Approved

When you shop for a home before approval, you run the risk of falling in love with a home that's out of your price range --ruining the whole home buying experience before you start.

Instead, focus on the finances first. Make sure you have enough saved for a down payment and the closing costs and get your pre-approval before you start home shopping.

Mistake #2: Buying More Than You Can…

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Local Donation Services

Since Tennesseans have spent most of the last year sticking close to our homes, it comes as no surprise that many of us have been bitten by the organization bug. With spring just around the corner, now is the perfect time to make the final push, clearing out all of your boxed up unwanted items once and for all, leaving you with an organized and clean living space in which to (hopefully) finish out the last few months of quarantine.

If you’ve found yourself with a ton of stuff you don’t need anymore but are having trouble deciding just what to do with it, consider calling one of the following local donation services to send a truck right to your doorstep. While you may need to schedule 2 - 4 weeks in advance, rest assured that these charitable…

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Which Flooring is Best for Your Home?

When you are in the process of remodeling or designing a home’s interior, choosing flooring materials is one of the most important decisions you will make. Often, professional designers recommend choosing a type of flooring—as well as the color and finish—before you go on to choose things like countertops, lighting fixtures, cabinets, appliances, and wall colors because flooring is absolutely fundamental to a home’s appearance. 

Today, we’re exploring 9 of 2021’s most popular flooring choices. Modern flooring technology is truly amazing, offering more potential varieties than you may have realized! We hope this guide will help you determine which flooring is best for your home makeover.

1.) Hardwood

Hardwood flooring is timeless,…

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Tips for Creating the Best Remote Learning Space

It was one thing to set up shop at the kitchen table for after school homework - just grab the pencil jar kept near the table, pull out those worksheets from the backpack, and there you have it, a homework station! But what about kids who are now doing full or partial remote learning? That is an adjustment that for most, takes a little more setup than just a quick stop at the kitchen table. For many reasons including concentration, energy levels, comfort, and just plain enjoyment, it’s important to think about the elements that are going into your child’s remote learning space. Below are some of the most important things to think about:

Think Location

When thinking about the best locations for your child’s learning space, go off your child’s…

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Tips for Creating a Home Workout Routine

With social distancing still a must, it’s little wonder that many of us have allowed our fitness routines to slip. We know sedentary life is a clear path toward later disability and illness, though, so it’s time to step up and reclaim our health. Today, we’re sharing our top tips for creating a home workout routine. 

Ultimately, designing your own workout program should be an enjoyable, challenging experience. You’ll no doubt make adjustments to your initial plan, but with some planning and creativity, you should be able to dramatically improve your fitness without spending a cent or hitting the gym once.

1.) Analyze Your Motivation

There is a wide range of motivations for optimizing fitness, and most of them are perfectly acceptable.…

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What Are Origination Fees and Can They Be Avoided?

An origination fee is part of the multi-step process of getting a loan and includes the cost of processing the application, underwriting, and financing the loan. The lender may combine the fees into one charge or may list each one individually.  

Either way, origination fees are separate from your mortgage down payment and are often paid as part of your closing costs.

What Do Origination Fees Cover?

• Loan processing, such as reviewing your application and preparing documents.
• Underwriting, such as gathering and verifying your information, including your credit score.
• Loan Funding, such as "points" that lower your interest rate
  

How To Determine the Cost of Your Mortgage Origination Fee

The typical origination fee is…

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Tips for Making Your Home Warm & Cozy This Winter

Summer comes with so many things that bring joy - there’s sun and warmth, and outdoor gatherings and longer days. The winter? Well, that’s a different story. But there is one thing that very few people can argue with and that is; winter is a time where you get to really lean into feeling warm and cozy right at home. The Danish and Norwegian (who have a lot of practice with dark, winter days) call this concept “hygge”, and while we may not have a full name or word for the feeling, we’re determined to up the warm and cozy. 

Below are some of our favorite ways to make that happen:

Candle Inspired Lighting

Think candles. While candles are the obvious - we aren’t saying just go out and buy more candles. Think about the type of light that candles…

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