We help people buy houses so they can create a home. Here we share more than mortgage finance tips (although we do that too). We aim to help you make your house a home through DIY projects, pet care, hosting tips, yard maintenance, and much more!
Putting the “Fab” in Pre-Fab
“Turn onto a street in the Cottage Home neighborhood of Indianapolis, and you might think you’ve wandered into a hipster colony on the West Coast. A group of prefab, ultramodern builds has made a colorful splash in a landscape filled with ranch-style homes.” This quote, from realtor.com, sums it up perfectly! Seeing the bright colors bouncing off the siding and the square design of these homes certainly make them stand out in a typical suburban neighborhood.
Stockton Welcomes Joe Daly
Everyone at Stockton Mortgage Corporation is excited to welcome Joe Daly, our new Director of Renovation. Joe possesses over 30 years of real estate and renovation loan experience. He loves what he does and it shows. Joe prides himself on helping Realtors better understand the ins and outs of renovation lending; he has conducted countless fun-filled classes, some even contributing towards Continuing Education (CE) requirements. Joe loves teaching CE because he has seen the effects that this knowledge has had on an agent’s business as they help their clients build their dream homes—ultimately, making more money for themselves and the families with whom they work.
Simple to Stunning: Fixer Upper in Ohio Chip and Joanna Gaines aren't the only people out there flipping houses. With all the popular fixer upper type shows it leaves many of us thinking that we must have a cable network budget supporting us to take on fixing up a house to make it our dream home. Today, we are featuring a couple of real estate agents in Cleveland who have flipped a home in Ohio and you won’t believe this transformation! This house had “little trees” growing in the gutters and now it is beautiful, clean and totally transformed. I’ve included a few photos below of the transformation but for more detail, check out the linked article below.
Piggy Bank: How to Open a Bank Account
Doing new things can be intimidating and for many young people, walking into a bank to open a bank account could be one of those things. Luckily many have older people in their lives who are there to assist in taking these things on. But I recently discovered that when we do research on our own and then come out successful on the other side, there is a sense of pride and ownership that develops. (My situation involved a shelf falling and paint spilling everywhere but nonetheless, I was thrilled with myself when I cleaned it up on my own without prior knowledge.) So, while you are there to help a young person or as a young person, you will seek the help of a trusted adult to open a bank account, knowing the steps may give you more confidence when approaching this step life.
Host a Housewarming Party, Painlessly Moving is stressful enough; going through the mounds of boxes, organizing closets, and all those extra expenses. Then once you are in, everyone wants to see your new home but you just did all the work; are these people crazy, they want you to throw a party? It sounds worse than it is. In fact, if you choose to host a housewarming party, I think you will be glad that you did! I’ve included some tips below to make the whole thing way less painful!
Tax Refund for Down Payment Many people are receiving their tax refund or anticipating receiving one. If you find yourself in this fortunate position, have you considered using it for a down payment on a home? The more you can contribute towards your down payment, the less you will have to borrow.
Secret Home Maintenance There are home maintenance tasks out there that are total secrets! Did you know that? We all know that we need to clean out our gutters if we want them to function well and we need to change out our air filters for the same reason- proper function. But what about these secret tasks? Thankfully, the folks at realtor.com didn’t leave us in the dark. Here are some of the home maintenance chores we may have overlooked and why it’s beneficial to add them to the list of tasks!
Piggy Bank: Lessons from the Rich
Do your kids think that you are totally the coolest? Unless they are under the age of 9, likely you are shaking your head no. Let’s put it this way, when you tell them that they don’t need the pair of $120 designer jeans, do they roll their eyes and assume that you don’t know what it is like to be cool? It’s okay you aren’t alone in this. When I came across “11 Frugal Habits of the Super Rich”, I thought, “hey, now I have some ammo”. If you too need to be able to tell your child that Beyoncé likes to save money or Mark Zuckerberg (the founder of Facebook) wears the same thing all the time then you are in the right place! Below is a list of 11 frugal habits of the super-rich:
Spring has (almost) Sprung
Who has heard of Pinterest? Even now, typing that question almost makes me laugh out loud. Perhaps a better question is who hasn’t heard of Pinterest? With Spring right around the corner my Pinterest app is full of flowers, dresses and bunnies. One thing we can always count on is for the “Pinners” (people who use Pinterest) of this world to help determine what trends are on the horizon. The Huffington Post turned to them to see what home décor trends we can expect for the Spring and I thought I’d share.
