Fun Stuff - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

10 Off-Beat Cities Named Best Places to Retire

Retirees may want to head to Lancaster, Pa. The town earned the top spot in U.S. News & World Report’s list of 2019 Best Places to Retire in the U.S. Lancaster’s housing affordability and its residents' high rank for their happiness, helped it to bump Sarasota, Fla., from the number one position this year.U.S. News & World Report evaluated the country’s 100 largest metro areas to see how well they met retirees’ expectations, suc

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Homeowners Reveal Their Top Nonnegotiable Amenities

Home shoppers are unwilling to negotiate on certain amenities, and prime among them are central air conditioning and a private patio or backyard, according to a new survey of more than 1,000 homeowners conducted by remodeling site Porch.com. On the other hand, prospective buyers are less likely to consider stainless steel appliances or a swimming pool as deal-breaking must-haves.Renters and homeowners differ quite a bit in their priorities, the s

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5 Most Affordable Places for Outdoor Enthusiasts

How can you spot a town that is an outdoor haven? “If you see a lot of rugged vehicles with bike racks and hauling kayaks, that’s a telltale sign at the ground level that you’re in one of these places,” Chris Chesak, a travel consultant based in Cincinnati, told realtor.com®. “In an outdoors city, [residents will] meet up for a hike. The primary focus isn’t sitting around—it’s being outside.”Realtor.com®’s research team scou

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Cubs Player Taps REALTOR® as Home Run Derby Pitcher

A REALTOR® is always a good person to have on your team, and Cubs all-star Kyle Schwarber must have known that when he chose Michael Sinicola—a real estate professional with The K Company Realty in Tampa—as his pitcher for Monday night’s Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. Schwarber had the most total home runs this year at 55 (the second most in Derby history) and set a new semifinal record of 21 runs, but he was just shy of the grand

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The Happiest Places in the U.S.

The U.S. ranked as the 18th happiest country in the world in 2018, according to the World Happiness Report, released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the U.N. So, which specific counties are making the country the most happy?To find out, researchers at SmartAsset, a personal financial website, compared U.S. counties across eight factors, including the unemployment rate, poverty rate, affordability ratio, marriage rate, divorc

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Agent Lands in Guinness World Records for Sales

Real estate pro Ben Caballero of Dallas has made history: He’s the first real estate agent ever to be recognized by the Guinness World Records for a mammoth number of home sales. Caballero sold 3,556 verified homes in a single year—this means essentially selling an average of more than 68 homes per week, or nearly 10 homes per day, every day of the week.Caballero was honored this week for his achievements at a REAL Trends conference in Denve

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Retirees Preferring Dog Parks Over Golf

Generations of retirees are showing a shift in housing priorities. John Burns Real Estate Consulting recently compared nearly 3,000 registered new-home shoppers born in the 1940s to more than 5,200 new-home shoppers born in the 1950s to uncover some of those shifting trends.For one, younger retirees are showing more preference to live near dog parks. The 1950s generation surveyed rated a dog park as their top retiree amenity, which replaces golf

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Mandarin-Speaking Robots Could Assist Foreign Buyers

Juwai.com, a Chinese international real estate website, announced it’s partnering with a tech firm to introduce a line of Mandarin-speaking robots that real estate agents and developers can use to serve Chinese buyers. The firm Singou Technology of Macau will develop the “Butler 1” artificial intelligence robots.The robots could be used in real estate offices to assist with Mandarin-speaking clients.“The robots are really designed to help

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The Art Factor Boosts Housing

Public art has been linked to building booms and price increases for residential real estate. That's why developers and city planners alike are working to weave art throughout new real estate projects and public spaces.“Developers are beginning to see that if they want to attract tenants, they have to offer them more than just four walls,” says Barbara Goldstein, a public art planner and consultant in San Jose, Calif. “We’re going to see

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Agent Goes Viral With Bobcat vs. Rattlesnake Video

Real estate professional Laura Lucky was showing a home to a couple in Scottsdale, Ariz., when they drove up on a sight taken straight from the Wild West: a hungry bobcat versus an undeterred rattlesnake along the road.Lucky began recording the snake as it took a bite out of the bobcat. The two fought for several minutes. She posted her video on social media. As of Thursday, the video had nearly 1 million views.“The rattlesnake had come up and

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