Living – Page 40

Living

getting the most of out home buying season with Owners

Buying and selling a house at the same time has to be one of the most challenging things to do in a lifetime, especially in a weird market. You may have already found some Castle Oaks homes that you like the look of, but that doesn’t mean that buying will not be a stressful process. For those of you that have been hanging around since 2013 you probably remember all of the stress I was under while we were selling and looking to build/purchase a new home.

Home buying season is upon us and if trial and error, tears and anger qualifies one as an expert on a topic than I am well versed in the struggles that come with purchasing a home. There are so many things to be aware of when purchasing and one of the major tips I have is to do your research to make sure you are getting the best deal all around. If you are look into purchase a home for the first time or a family home and live in the Brabham area of Australia, it is also just as important to do your research into the type of home you want to purchase. You should also be aware that there are plenty of legal struggles surrounding housing sales I’d consider looking into Conveyancing Quotes comparison sites that’ll make sure you get the best deal and great support through the buying process.

Now that it is easy to gain access to some of the tools real estate agents use to find homes it is easy and imperative to become involved in your home buying process. I can’t stress this enough. I’m sure I was a little more involved than desired but I ended up with what I wanted.

I was often sending homes to our agent because I knew she was busy and I couldn’t stand to think about missing out on a great deal because she was working with another client or busy. In essence taking this approach can mean that in hindsight you did all of the work on finding your home and still be responsible for paying the agent a commission. I’ve discovered a new, better option for those of us who really want to own our home buying and selling experience- Owners.com.

This top 10 U.S. online brokerage offers innovative services to home buyers and sellers. Sellers are able to list their home for a flat fee of only $695 (including MLS exposure) which means on a $300K transaction, that savings is $8,305 (up to 1.5% back) when buying a home (saving approximately $4.5k on $300k transaction)*.

This new choice in end-to-end real estate services allows you to keep a portion of the commissions for doing a portion of the work yourselves. Just think about where you could put the money you save! Update a bathroom or kitchen, open a college fund, or take a vacation!

As Owners.com branches into Atlanta they discovered that 78% of buyers in this market are impressed with the idea of not having to pay for services they don’t use, which in terms of the current market trends means a boost in using these new options to buy and sell.

According to the same survey by Owners.com, home buyers in Atlanta are significantly more likely to say they prefer ‘move-in’ ready (79%) to a ‘fixer-upper ’ (21%). Using their website allows you to search for a wide-range of home styles within your budget, including those listed For Sale by Owner. The buyers rebate will give you a chunk of change to tackle improvements for those who seek a fixer-upper!

Owners.com offers home buyers the option to search for homes that are not only For Sale by Owner (FSBO) but MLS listed properties as well. You can easily search by zip code, neighborhood, school district or city and put the power of the home buying process into your own hands.

Here’s a property listing in Sandy Springs for instance with a lot to offer!

I’ll be back to talk about how Owners.com helps sellers in the near future. In the meantime, if you are looking to step into home ownership for the first or third time Owners.com is definitely worth looking into. Thank goodness I’m done with this process but I send you all love, support and Owners.com to help you along your way!

*Buyers can receive a rebate Based on an average home price of $300,000 (U.S. Census. Jan-Sep. 2015) and average buyer agent commission rebate of 1.5%. Some limitations apply. Rebate not available on all properties or For-Sale-By-Owner listings. See Owners.com for details.

This discussion has been sponsored by Owners.com. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

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Featured• Living

life lately

As much as my heart desires to complete a project 365 I just can’t do it. I’m way too flaky to take a photo a day and the pettiness in me won’t let me take two photos on Wednesday and pass one off as being taken on Monday. Just not in me.

I still capture many random moments in our lives so I’ll share them from time to time as a glimpse into our life.

Here is life lately:

Imagine marinating the meat for your favorite meal, turning on the stove and discovering your stove cooked it’s last meal yesterday. This happened. I was without a stove for nearly a week. I did not cook and did not feel bad. In hindsight there is a crockpot and griddle that could’ve been used but that is neither here nor there . I had a week in which I did not cook and I didn’t feel any way about it.

We managed to throw the most bootleg Superbowl party ever. Cause we are all in eradicate debt mode our budget didn’t call for a full on Superbowl party. When a few friends asked if they could come over, we said yes but you have to bring your own food and drink.

I know. I know.

It was the chicken wings they left that fed us for the week while the stove was broken. Man, that really worked out. They got to see Bey in large form and hear her in surround sound and we got dinner for the week. WIN

I have dreams of a wash and go this Summer. I keep chopping on my hair not because I love it so much but that I am hoping to get my curls back. I think I see them, do you? Heat damage is a muva.

…and parenting these people has been challenging to say the least. They are developing their own personalities and are needing to be parented differently. Send wine and good vibes for my nerves of course.

Working on this for a March 1 launch. A little excited and a whole lot scared.

I’m sure I’m not the only mother who doesn’t sleep when her kids are sick. A spiked fever or a puke session in bed while I’m sound asleep, the thoughts keep me sleeping with one eye open when I have a sicky poo. Then they wake up well rested and I’m tired.

… and this is what strep looks like

I suppose she became sick and tired to avoid cleaning up?

What’s life looking like on your end?

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Featured• Living• Photography

3 simple steps to organizing digital photos on your computer

Remember film, and how our parents would take photos of us and drop those little rolls off and a few days later come back with a bag full of pictures?

Those little kiosks in parking lots that were devoted solely to being the place where you would drop off and pick up your memories?

I do. My father was a photographer and film rolls in the refrigerator in those little round black containers were my reality. Fast forward lets say 30 years to be on the safe side and I can’t remember the last time I actually took the time to get my photos developed although it no longer requires me getting in my car, and is as easy as uploading to a site and having them on my doorstep in a matter of days. We’ll take issue with that laziness later.

Today I’m sharing with you a few tips for effectively storing photos to your computer so that when it is time to look for first day of school photos, or that photo with grandma from the family reunion, within a few clicks you will know where to find those memories on your computer. It is incredible the different things you can do to your pictures with a computer, have a look at these image best practices to find out more about the things you can do to make your pictures even better.

Create a Consistent Upload Location

I’ve been guilty of uploading photos to my desktop, my external drive and to the downloads section of my computer. Do yourself a favor and pick a consistent upload location. If you do this you will automatically know where to look on your computer for your photos

Create a Hierarchy of Folders

Say goodbye to just uploading photos, because we are uploading now. We’re not letting photos sit on our memory cards and deleting non important ones when we need space. We’re not.

Create a hierarchy of folders starting with one renamed for the year. This simply tells you, if you know the year the photo was taken it will be stored in that file.

From there break it down even further creating sub folders named after the month, and within those month folders create another level of sub folder renamed for any special events. Examples would include ballet recital, 100th day of school. Get really descriptive because it is likely in a few years a vague description won’t help you out when you are looking for a photo.

Create a Backup Location

As a person whose last half of 2013 is missing thanks to a dropped external drive. Please create a back up location, and then a back up for that back up. Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites do not count. While we think these places will be around forever they may die a slow death and take your photos along with them to a digital heaven you have no access to. Myspace anyone?

There are so many options for external methods for organizing digital photos. I currently use Dropbox and an external drive, and I am thinking about adding a cloud service as well. I’m not really versed on all of the technicalities of ways to back up photos, however Lashawn at Everyday Eyecandy has some great suggestions if you are looking to learn more about methods by which to back up your photos. She totally breaks down everything. Your memories are worth preserving so I encourage you to take a peek at the options she has to offer.

These are just 3 very basic steps to get you on track to organizing your digital photos.

How are you organizing your digital photos? Are you even dowloading them out of your camera?!

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Featured• Living• Vlog

weekend vlog

Press play for our weekend happenings!

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