Video Doorbells

Everywhere you look, new smart home technology seems to be popping up. Security cameras that can tell friend from foe and UPS delivery man from the neighbor’s dog, door locks that only need a smartphone to unlock them and thermostats that can adjust themselves to keep you comfortable all day and night are just a few of the most popular offerings in this segment, but there’s another piece of tech that’s gaining in popularity: the video doorbell.

But what good is a video doorbell when you can peek out through the front blinds, really?

Video Doorbells Are More Than Just a Ding Dong

Forget everything you know about doorbells and prepare to be amazed. Well, at least, prepare to be informed and maybe you can remember a few things you knew about doorbells and we’ll just keep that between us. A video doorbell does do all the things that an old-fashioned doorbell does, but it goes well beyond just giving guests a convenient way to ring your bells to announce their arrival.

In fact, you can configure your video doorbell to not ring at all. This is especially helpful if you have small children or especially anxious dogs, both of which will begin their own alarming at the sound of the old door chime. With a video doorbell, your smartphone can be the chime box, buzzing, beeping or lighting up when someone arrives and presses the button. But beyond this point is where it gets very un-doorbell-like.

Video doorbells combine the concepts of doorbell, intercom and security camera. So, when someone does buzz your smartphone, you can have a two-way conversation with them, even if you’re not home. Delivery guy show up early? Just tell him to leave the box on the porch and you’ll be there soon. Neighbor kids running around ringing doorbells after dark? You’ve got ‘em on video, now you can help the Neighborhood Watch figure out which parents to confront.

3 Reasons You Need This Tech

Anyone who’s dipping a toe into the world of smart homes needs to look into a video doorbell early into their adventure. Unlike, say, a smart light bulb, it’s a one-and-done piece of tech that is immediately useful and it’s a pretty simple install, giving you a huge confidence boost if you’re going to DIY it. There are lots of reasons to go for the video doorbell, here are a few of our top picks:

1. You’ll always know who’s coming and going. Anyone with kids, especially tweens and teens, knows the pain of having people running in and out of the house constantly. It’s bad enough when you’re home, but who’s coming and going when you’re not home? Sure, your daughter said that she was studying with Jessica tonight while you’re working late, but did she really invite Tommy over instead? Now you’ll know, and have a video record, of who’s been knocking at the door.

2. No more running to the door for false alarms. Whether you have overly-enthusiastic pets or are simply waiting for party guests while grilling on your back deck, running back and forth to the front door is exhausting. Stop doing that. A video doorbell lets you relax in the knowledge that your actual, real guests will chime in when they’ve arrived, so you can tell them to come around back or that you’re coming and will be at the door soon. You can give Fido the night off, if he’ll take it.

3. Less stress in those “just in case” moments. Everybody’s had one of those days when they’re running a bit late to meet someone at home, be it a salesperson, a friend or a family member. They’re left standing on the porch, wondering what to do next while you’re driving frantically in the hopes you’ll reach home before they leave. Save yourself and the other drivers on the road — the video doorbell will give you a way to let your visitor (or child who forgot their keys again) know that you’re on your way and will be there very soon. Remember, safety first.

So You Wanna Buy a Video Doorbell

There are currently several big names in video doorbells on the market, as well as some that are still in pre-order, but are heavily anticipated. The models listed here are just a few of the offerings available, just to give you an idea of what to expect when you go shopping for video doorbells. It’s not meant to be comprehensive by any means. But if you wanna buy a video doorbell, you have to start somewhere, right? Take a look at these three doorbells before you head out to Best Buy or log on to Amazon:

Nest – Hello Smart Wi-Fi Video Doorbell. $229.99. Currently in pre-order, this is the first Nest-native video doorbell, meant to mesh seamlessly with the new Nest security suite and the Nest Learning Thermostats. It utilizes the Nest IQ software to identify friends and family, records all day and all night long in high definition and has a 160 degree diagonal field of view. You’ll have to have an existing doorbell to power this model, however.

Ring – Video Doorbell Pro. $246.99. Ring has several doorbells on offer, this is one of the latest and trimmest in the line. Set custom motion zones to trigger motion alerts to your smartphone, with live video options day or night. It also offers a 160 degree view of your porch, records in HD and requires existing doorbell wiring to function.

Skybell HD – Wi-Fi Video Doorbell. $199.00. If you prefer your doorbells a little more circular and futuristic, then Skybell already fits your aesthetic. Much like the other doorbells mentioned, it records in HD, 24 hours a day, features a motion sensor that will alert you to activity on your porch and lets you speak to your guests, even if you’re in another country. It also offers color night vision, as well as a theft guarantee, so if someone comes and steals your doorbell, the company will replace it for free. Also like the other doorbells listed, you’ll need existing doorbell wiring for success with the Skybell.

If you read all of those descriptions and were disappointed because you don’t have doorbell wiring, don’t despair. An innovative, battery-powered video doorbell meant to rival those bells above is coming soon, according to the manufacturer. Blink will run on batteries where necessary, so you’ll soon have that option.

Want a Smart Doorbell, But DIY Not Your Jam?

Video doorbells are more than a convenience, they can literally prevent theft, protect your family and even help improve your productivity if you’re one of the millions of people who work from home.

Gardening 101

Just because you were dreaming of a white Christmas doesn’t mean that once January rolls around, you’re not totally over winter already. Don’t worry, spring is just around the corner and the closer it gets, the less time you have to plan and worry and fiddle with your current or potential garden spots. Whether you’re thinking about planting edibles, ornamentals or a little bit of both, planning ahead will ensure that your gardens and landscaping come together beautifully.

Start With Compatible Plants

Many first time gardeners end up disappointed and frustrated because they find some kind of plant at the nursery or outside the market and decide they want to put it in a particular spot in their garden. But no matter what they do, that plant won’t thrive and eventually, it just dies. What went wrong? A plant’s a plant, right?

That’s the problem. When you think about plants, you probably think about them as being a homogenous group, like goats or crocodiles or June bugs. The reality is that you should be thinking of them on a much larger scale. Taxonomically, that is to say, when it comes to the organizational level like “species” or “genus,” “Plantae” is at the Kingdom level. That’s the same level that “Animalia” falls.

When you think of plants, you should be thinking of them as being as diverse as all the animals there are on the planet. You’d never take a frog and keep him at near freezing temperatures — it’s simply incompatible with his biology — even though polar bears would be thrilled with that treatment.

In the same way, different types of plants have different needs and requirements. For the home gardener, the biggest things to keep in mind when choosing plants are light, water and outdoor temperature. Everything else you can work around. But if it’s too wet, too bright or too cold, there’s just not much hope.

The first thing you should do is learn what your USDA Hardiness Zone is by clicking here. Next, you can check the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center’s Climate Maps to learn more about your area’s rainfall patterns to determine if you’re on the dry side, in which case you’ll need to irrigate, or pretty rainy, which will require you figure out how to keep many of your plants from getting too wet.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for beautiful landscaping that you don’t really need to touch again, native plants are seeing a huge resurgence across the country. They’re stubborn, sturdy and need very little upkeep. And because they’re native to your location, they’ve evolved to withstand whatever it is that your climate can throw at them. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center maintains a list of businesses that sell native plants and seeds here.

Just how many of these plants do you need? Well, to answer that, we’ll need to draw a garden plan. Let’s play with it a bit.

Basic Garden Planning

Although there are apps for garden planning, one of the easiest ways to do this efficiently is to go back to the old fashioned paper and pencil method. It’s simple, you don’t need a lot of tools and it’ll give you a very good visual idea of how your plants will fit together when they’re fully mature.

What You’ll Need:

– Tape Measure
– Grid Paper
– Pencil
1. Measure the areas you intend to turn into garden or landscaped spaces. Don’t stress too much if your measurements aren’t perfect, as long as you’re within about six inches, you should be ok.

2. Assign a value to each square on your grid paper. One square foot to one grid square is an easy one to remember and makes it easy for others to interpret your drawing.

3. Draw your garden plot on the grid paper, noting anything that might influence plant growth such as partial shade conditions caused by nearby trees, large rocks that make an area unplantable and so forth. This will be important when it comes to choosing plants later. Don’t forget to note the locations of walls or other major structures.

4. Lightly sketch in the plants you want to include, at their fully grown size. So, for example, if you’re planting Buddleia, otherwise known as butterfly bush, and the one you have in mind right now is about a foot tall and maybe six inches wide, you need to imagine it grown. That bush will grow up to about six feet wide and tall. Even if it looks a little empty now, don’t be tempted to overcrowd your garden, that’ll only invite serious fungal and bacterial disease.

5. Set the drawing aside for a day or two. When you come back to it, make sure you’re really happy with it. Look it over and ensure you didn’t accidentally place a taller plant where it’ll block much-needed sunlight from a smaller plant or even blackout a window in your home.

Caution: Before you run off and buy plants or seeds, make sure that you’ve tested your soil and amended it with organic materials as needed. We’ll cover that in an upcoming blog. A drawing is only a map, it’s the first step to creating a successful garden plot.

My First Garden: Edible or Ornamental?

Home gardening is experiencing a huge comeback, as younger gardeners realize the potential benefits of gardening that extend far beyond being able to grow their own food. It’s a great way to get a little outside exercise, it lowers your stress level, and it can get the whole family involved in an activity that promises big rewards. But often, first time gardeners are overwhelmed by choice. There are so many plants, so many catalogs, so many types of gardens!

It’s ok. Take a breath and get away from Pinterest for a minute.

Both edible and ornamental gardens can be delightful and easy to manage, if you choose compatible plants and focus on their individual needs. Some plants are much more disease and trouble-prone than others, and some are simply nigh-on impossible to grow in some areas. You really don’t have to choose between edibles and ornamentals, though. Plenty of ornamentals and edibles are highly compatible, a classic example is tomatoes and French marigolds.

There aren’t really any rules when it comes to what you put in your garden. Just make sure you space each plant far enough apart that they don’t have to compete for water or nutrients and you can easily work between rows or clumps. A plan is a great place to start, though, so you know just how many plants or seeds to buy.

Is There Lower Maintenance Gardening?

If you’re looking for landscaping that’s even less maintenance than a native plant garden, you’re looking for one that’s cared for by a professional landscaper. They can help you choose plants, even ones that are harder to maintain, and they’ll do all the work for you no matter what the weather’s like.

February 2018 Steve & Jack's Home News

Happy New Year!!! We hope you enjoyed a fun and safe New Year's celebration, or if you are like us stayed home with your kids and enjoyed the festivities from the comfort of your living room. We actually have a tradition of planning the next year's trips and vacations that night, which ends up being quite an expensive New Year's Eve! Did you set any New Year's resolutions? Ours is to be healthier and, as such we have made a commitment to plan specific healthy meals, buy food and prepare it over the weekend for easier meal prep during the week. What is your resolution?

Steve's mom Mary Anne, after a delay last year, had a successful knee replacement surgery last Monday. She went home on Tuesday and has been religiously doing her exercises. It has been painful, but she is pushing forward. She has a long road ahead of her, but is taking things one day at a time. We hope this will eventually provide her the pain relief and mobility she desperately needs. Jack is doing a superb job of waiting on her hand and foot to ensure she has everything she needs. Continued prayers would be appreciated for a speedy recovery.

Steve's family is doing well and is back into the swing of things after many school cancellations and delays. Ana continues to practice for her next Indianapolis Children's Choir concert as well as 15 new songs for her international trip with Blue Lake Fine Arts International, which leaves in June for 3 weeks to France, Germany, Italy, & Belgium. We will be spending about 12 days in Paris and then Brugge, Belgium to see her perform and can't wait! Tali had her second gymnastics meet yesterday and scored a first place on uneven bars, a 3rd on vault, and 4th of floor. We are so proud of her!

Kylie enjoyed a nice long break during the holidays and enjoyed time with her family, all of whom are doing great. Having her back certainly is a relief!!

THANK YOU to all of our friends and clients who attended our first Happy Hour of 2018! We had a big turnout and a lot of fun and connections. Please join us for our next Happy Hour in February on Wednesday, February 21st from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's.

THANK YOU to all of our clients who wrote such amazing reviews for us on Angie's List!! We are so excited to announce that for the 3rd year in a row, we are among the top 3% of real estate agents on Angie's List who earned the Super Service Award for 2017. We couldn't be more grateful and thankful! Please keep those great reviews coming!

December numbers have not been released yet, but we will send those in our next newsletter. Suffice it to say, our market is hotter than ever. Inventory is the lowest on record, appreciation is outstanding, mortgage rates are low, and the economy is strong (see the link below to This Month in Real Estate). Many articles and economists have indicated that 2018 will be just as strong as 2017, but they are warning that the window MAY be closing and to get into the market now before it does close. If you, or anyone you care about are thinking about selling, please take out your phone, look up our number and call us right away. We would love to learn more about your situation and consult with you about your options, so you can make an informed decision.

Please enjoy our special Valentine's Day edition of our newsletter and let us know how you like it. Happy Valentine's Day!

Click here to read our February newsletter.

Click here to access coupons and discounts at places you shop every day.

Click here to get the most powerful real estate app around.

Click here to view This Month in Real Estate for December.

Your Friends in Real Estate,

Steve, Jack, & Kylie

P.S. Please don't keep us a secret!

Wi-fi Security

Every morning, you ask your digital assistant for the news and weather while you’re getting ready for work. From there, you check the traffic with your smartphone, strap on your smartwatch, set some mood music for your pet for the day, have your digital assistant set your home’s thermostat to “away” mode and head out to the garage. You open your smart garage door before you realize you forgot to turn on your security system — but that’s not a problem, you have an app for that.

All of this technology touch seems perfectly normal these days. Absolutely everyone has a WiFi network at home to feed all of these neat tools that we collectively call the Internet of Things (IoT). Unfortunately, not everyone has a very secure WiFi network, which opens up IoT devices, computers and the network itself to attacks by nefarious types who would use them for tasks you probably didn’t have in mind.

Before you catch Alexa trying to order a DIY rocket kit from Acme without your authorization, let’s go through some basics of WiFi security to keep your home network and IoT devices protected.

Types of WiFI Security

There are basically four types of security you’ll find in a wireless router, some are much better at protecting you and your devices than others. As with anything to do with technology, the more modern protocols are going to be better at protecting you than older ones, so if your router is more than a couple of years old it might be time to consider an upgrade. Check this list to see if it has an appropriately secure protocol available first, though:

WEP. Wired Equivalent Privacy is a protocol reaching back to 1999. It was essentially the first wireless security type, so if this is the only option you’ve got available on your router, get yourself to Best Buy. This router cannot deal with modern challenges, bottom line. You might as well not have any internet security.

WPA. WiFi Protected Access was created in 2003 as a response to the many problems with WEP. A new security standard known as Temporal Key Integrity Protocol was developed that was much stronger than the encryption used with WEP, but it still used a similar implementation, so was problematic.

WPA2. WPA2 is an upgrade to WPA that was introduced in 2004. This upgraded version of WPA switched to a security protocol based on the US Government’s preferred choice of encryption known as the Advanced Encryption Standard. WPA2 is still the gold standard for home WiFi security, though older computers may not be able to utilize it. If your system or router is rated for 802.11g or less, you should consider an upgrade.

WPS. WiFi Protected Setup was supposed to make adding a device to a WPA2 network easier by granting people in physical proximity to the router the ability to just push a button and enter an 8-digit PIN to connect. Unfortunately, a well-known hack has been developed and distributed widely in the recent past, turning WPS into a very vulnerable convenience.

As of the writing of this article, most experts recommend that your router be secured using WPA2 with WPS disabled. This combination will give you the most bang for your security buck, keeping as many problems at bay as is possible with WiFi security protocols alone.

More Ways to Secure Your Network

Using the right security protocol is just the first step to protecting your WiFi network. There are lots of practical ways to keep yourself safe, too. Here are a few of our favorites:

1. Change the name of your router. Your router came with a unique name called the Service Set Identifier (SSID). It might be random numbers and letters, or it might be something more readable like “Bob’s Network.” Your job is to name it something that doesn’t give away your location, but is also memorable so you know which network is yours. For example, if you’re a DC comic fan, you might name yours “SpiderLan.”

2. Also, change that router password. Never leave the default password on your router, especially if that password is blank! All anyone would need to do to access the settings is park close to your house and point their phone at it, then you’re in big trouble. Again, choose a password that’s secure, but memorable. Use numbers, letters and special characters. Short sentences can be good if you’ve got a poor memory, “N33d_M0ar_B33s!” is a surprisingly secure choice.

3. Remember to check for updates to your router’s software. Occasionally, your router’s manufacturer will push updates to the software that controls your hardware. Update this device as often as possible, it’ll give you the best security available.

4. Setup a secondary network. A lot of modern routers allow for a secondary network with a different SSID and password than the main network. This is a great way to give guests access to your network without compromising your data, as well as the ideal solution to IoT devices that may be less secure. When Alexa is on her own network, hackers can’t ask her how much money is in your bank account or where the nearest ATM for your bank is located.

5. Remember, no one is giving away free money. Last, but not least, remember that Nigerian princes and foreign lotteries just begging to give you cash are, sadly, just dreams we all wish were true. Get to know what scammy emails look like, never click on email attachments that seem a little weird and always ask yourself “Do I know this person and would they send me a thing like this?” You can lock your network down as hard as you want, but if you let a hacker in your front door, all your effort will be for nothing.

Secure Your WiFi Network to Protect Your Smart Home

There’s no feeling like knowing you’re doing all you can to keep your home safe. After all, you’d never post a giant sign saying “thieves, there’s gold in here!” and then leave your front door unlocked. Your smart home is no different when it comes to digital criminals. There’s lots of valuable data to be had that could result in identity theft, or even old-fashioned theft, so the stakes are quite high.

Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Jack, & Kylie

What Is a FICO Score Anyway?

Stand and Be Measured: What is a FICO Score Anyway?


Another month, another rent payment that’s helping your landlord pay off the house or apartment where you’re living. Another month, another rent day spent pondering just how much equity you could have paid down on your own house by now. So, why not you? Why not now? Sure, buying a house can be complicated and intimidating, but your mortgage professional and Realtor will be there every step to help.

Wait, let’s take a step back. Before you even call them, it’s important to fill in some informational blanks. For example, do you know what a FICO score is or how it affects your ability to get a mortgage? A lot of first time homebuyers will need to do some work on their credit accounts, so it’s a good idea to start looking into this stuff six months to a year before you bite the bullet and make a loan application.

Today, we’re going as basic as it gets with the FICO score.

Fair Isaac Really Isn’t Judging You, Mostly

So, back in the 1950s, getting credit was a whole different kind of thing. Rates and down payments or securities were high, terms were short and credit was not nearly as widespread as it is today. Then two fellows named Bill Fair and Earl Isaac came along. They believed that there had to be a better way to make business decisions using data and computer algorithms (a bit ahead of their time, eh?), successfully completing the first credit scoring system in 1958.

By 1970, the Fair Isaac Company was delivering scoring systems for bank credit cards, then in 1981, it developed the credit bureau risk score — similar to the one your bank will be using to determine if you’re going to get a mortgage. The secret proprietary algorithm has been updated throughout the years in a quest to develop the most accurate picture possible of potential borrowers based on their past behavior.

Your FICO score isn’t a judgement of your character, of your job or anything like that. It’s simply a number that tells lenders how likely you are to be willing and able to pay back credit over the long run. If you’ve never had credit or not had much credit experience, expect your number to be lower simply because there’s no data on you. If you’ve had some credit, maybe a student loan or a car loan, and always paid on time, you’re probably golden.

A score of 620 is serviceable, a 650 is generally enough to get a mortgage.

What’s in a FICO Score?

A lot of people are confused about what exactly gets figured into a FICO score. FICO is just an algorithm, remember, so there’s nothing that it can calculate without being fed data. So, the score is based on the information from whatever credit bureau that you’re using to request a FICO score. Nothing else. Things like your on-time utility payments or car insurance, for example, don’t tend to report, so they won’t be added into the calculation.

When shopping for a pre-mortgage score, it’s best to look for a tri-merge report, or a product that gives you scores from all three bureaus: TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. This is exactly what your bank will do to qualify you. MyFICO.com offers this service and you’ll get scores directly from the horse’s mouth, but feel free to use whatever tool works for you. There are plenty of legit sources out there that can approximate your FICO score.

The main factors that influence that score are probably exactly what you’d expect. They’re bits and pieces that are telling about your credit usage and ability to repay. FICO’s own site lists these as the primary components and weights of an average borrower’s score:

Payment History (35 percent). If you don’t make your payments on time, the credit bureaus report that and FICO makes a note. Non-payments, late payments and the like don’t report until they’re 30 days past due, but it’s still good practice to pay on or before the due date. If you’ve had late pays in the past, just keep paying on time now. The more space you put between today and those late pays, the less they’ll affect you.

Amounts Owed (30 percent). Are your credit cards maxed out? … like, every month…? Well, this is something you need to get a handle on. This metric looks at not only how much you owe, but how much you owe in relation to how much credit you have. The magic number for utilization is a meager 30 percent. If you’re trying to establish credit, it can be a tricky thing to keep your usage under 30 percent, but above zero to prove you can maintain payments long term.

Length of Credit History (15 percent). The age of your credit accounts, as well as the average age is considered under this metric. FICO looks at both opened dates and the date of last utilization to figure out your risk here. To even be in the running for a bronze medal, you need an average credit line age of over two years, but people with extremely good credit scores may have credit histories of 25 years or more.

New Credit (10 percent). FICO wants to see if you’ve recently acquired a bunch of new credit, maybe in anticipation of charging everything up and fleeing to Canada. Experience has told them that suddenly opening several new accounts in a flurry means that you’re a big time risk for default.

Credit Mix (10 percent). Do you only have store credit cards, or do you also have a car loan and a student loan? The better the variety in your credit history, generally the better risk you represent. Don’t run out and get a bunch of different loans just to see how it shakes out, but if you just have a car loan, it won’t hurt to get a small credit card through your bank just for emergencies.

Improving Your Credit for Beginners

Now that you know what the FICO algorithm considers when it calculates your score, you can use this information to improve your credit score before you apply for a mortgage. Be patient, though, it takes time to see these kinds of changes manifest.

Start by going to AnnualCreditReport.com and requesting your free credit reports (you’re entitled to a set of free credit reports from this site once a year). Check them thoroughly for errors of any sort. Dispute, dispute, dispute. Many credit files have some kind of errors on them.

While the credit bureaus are working on your disputes, you can start to pay off any judgements that appear on your credit reports, as well as developing a plan to pay each and every future payment on time. If your checks come on a regular schedule, autopay isn’t a totally bad option, but if you’re part of the gig economy, of course, that’s probably not going to help.

With each payment, your credit will start to improve. Leave those credit cards alone. Just put one payment in front of the other, and before you know it, you’ll have beautiful credit. Super extraordinary stuff. There’s no real secret to it, it’s all just perseverance.

If you think you might need some help doing the research or coming up with a plan to take care of any credit issues you discover, there are some very reputable credit repair companies out there.

Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Jack, & Kylie

Four Ways to Destroy Your Home's Value

Going Down: 4 Ways to Destroy Your Home’s Value


You’re a homeowner now, you can kiss bland uniformity goodbye the moment you turn your apartment keys over to your now former landlord. The world is your canvas — at least, that part of the world that you now are obligated to pay a monthly mortgage payment on — and you’re the artist that’ll mold it into a shape that tantalizes and delights the senses.

You may have big dreams for that new home, but cool your jets. This is a time for careful consideration, not for hastily scribbled modern design notes on cocktail napkins. Although there are certainly changes you can make that will update or upgrade your new home, there are others that can potentially devastate its value. This is no small thing.

If you thought that ugly entryway light fixture was a real turn-off, just read on to learn about things potential buyers will find extremely unappealing down the road.

There’s Good, There’s Bad and There’s Ugly

Every homeowner will leave a mark on the homes they own, this is an inevitable fact of life. The only question you need to ask yourself is if your mark will be a good one. Will you be the homeowner who planted the gorgeous maple tree that eventually turns into a beloved climbing tree or are you the one that glued neon green shag carpet to the hardwood floors?

We’ve made a short list of some of the most dramatic ways to destroy your home’s value without even trying all that hard so you can, hopefully, avoid these problems when you go to sell. Now, this is an important point to note: if you’re in your forever home, go hog wild. If you don’t need to sell that puppy ever, feel free to do whatever thrills you. Just be aware that your outlandish choices could prevent things like refinances and even reverse mortgages down the road.

Having made those disclosures, let’s talk about home value destroying projects!

4 Things That Can Lower Your Home’s Resell Value

Now that you own a house, people will be giving you all sorts of weird advice. You’re going to have to learn to tune it out, because generally, random people don’t know. Most people own two or three homes in their lives, which doesn’t give them a whole lot of experience with market values and making upgrades that will make a house really pop.

Realtors, general contractors and other home pros, on the other hand, make it their business to know what’s just in vogue and what’s a classic, evergreen sort of modification that will stand the test of time. These are the people to ask when you really need a second set of eyes.

But, before you even get that far, let’s count down some of the worst ideas for your new home.

#4 Really Personalizing the Place

Look, we know you’re eager to make your house your own. But step away from the lime green wallpaper and the orange tiles. Just for a minute. Think this through. Some buyers can see past over-personalization, others simply cannot. There’s a reason Realtors used to advise sellers to paint everything beige, it creates a blank pallet for a buyer to start from.

If you want to use quirky wallpaper, choose something that’s easy to remove when you go to sell. You may want to choose a tile that is mostly neutral and scatter those orange ones in just here and there like confetti. In short, tone it down a bit. However, feel free to paint to your heart’s desire — just plan to repaint before you put the house on the market.

When a buyer walks into your home, the first impression they have informs every other thought they have as they walk through. They’re simultaneously calculating two things in their heads: “How much can I afford to pay for this house?” and “How much will I have to pay to fix this place?” Each intolerable thing they encounter, like that orange tile, is another thing that goes in the repair budget. As it grows, the price they’re willing to pay shrinks.

Oh, you left the flamingo wallpaper in your bedroom? The repair budget’s getting pretty heavy. And these are just the immediately visible things, they haven’t yet gotten to the inspection period. The point here is: do you, but do it in a way that can be reversed before anyone shows the house.

#3. Converting the Garage to Anything Else

There’s a difference between using your garage as a gym and making it a gym permanently. When it’s a permanent gym, you can’t push some stuff out of the way and pull the car in real quick to get it out of the rain. In fact, you probably don’t even have a garage door anymore!

Many people have made this hasty decision, turning their garages into master suites, home gyms, playrooms and home offices, not considering the long term ramifications. Then, after dumping thousands of dollars into the project, they find out that it’s extremely difficult to resell their home.

No matter how professionally the conversion was done (and some are done very well), the buyer says to themselves, “Where am I going to stash my lawnmower?” Even if the yard’s a postage stamp, it’s a valid question.

Buyers come into a transaction with a certain set of expectations and, frankly, when they’re looking at houses in certain areas or certain prices that typically come with garages, it sort of breaks their brains to find one that doesn’t quite fit the model. That’s the beginning of the price chopping spiral. Eventually you’ll discount the house much more than you ever intended or just give up on selling and rent it out or not move at all.

#2. Tearing Down (Some) Walls

This one is actually not a hard and fast rule. There are sometimes walls that should come out. But don’t make this call without consulting with an architect or a general contractor because there are several things to consider, including the structural integrity and flow of the home.

The walls that you definitely should never tear out are the ones that reduce bathroom or bedroom number, unless you have something like five or more beds and three or more baths. At that point, you have a little wiggle room. As long as you maintain the American standard of a three bedroom, two bath home (or whatever is standard in your neighborhood), you’re probably ok.

However, turning a three bedroom home into a two bedroom home because you wanted to expand a bedroom is a value killer. If you think about it from a market perspective, it might make a bit more sense. A larger, or more mature, family is most likely to buy a three bedroom home. They’re going to have a bigger budget because there are two incomes, they need more partitioned spaces because there are possibly teenagers involved.

The same house with the same square footage, but with two bedrooms, is more likely to be shown to young families with small children, possibly only one income while one parent stays home to raise the toddlers, or even single people. Their budgets are smaller, which means that the two bedroom market simply doesn’t support the higher prices of the three bedroom market.

When your home is appraised, your appraiser will be pulling comparable homes based on things like neighborhood, square footage and numbers of bedrooms and baths. So, if the other two bedroom homes are selling for $30k less than three bedrooms, that means yours is going to appraise somewhere well below where you might expect, maybe even below what you paid for it.

Bottom line: Don’t knock out walls without professional consultations with your Realtor and an architect or general contractor at minimum so you can understand the full impact of this decision.

#1. Unprofessional DIY Repairs

There are two kinds of DIYers: those with significant trade experience and those without. If your main qualifications involve eighth grade shop class, you probably should not try to handle any big jobs on your own. Start small and work your way up, watch lots of YouTube videos, practice on test materials that don’t affect your home and for the sake of your house and your financial future, recognize and accept when you’re in over your head.

A home pro is often less expensive than you might imagine if you just call them in first. When they’re asked to clean up a bad repair and still make the original correction, it can cost a lot extra.

Finding these sorts of obvious DIY repairs in a home is a terrifying prospect for potential buyers. When they see them, they wonder what else you’ve tried to repair on your own. Did you rewire the electrical box? Is the house going to burn down in the night because you did something to the HVAC?

Because they don’t know you or your level of competency, they just see that one botched repair and hyperfocus on it until they either run away or submit an offer significantly lower than what you were expecting.

Protecting Your Home’s Value is Simple

It’s really quite simple to protect your home’s value, despite how this blog may make it sound. Just ask yourself two simple questions: “Can I really do this myself?” and “Is this decision one that will stand the test of time? If not, is it easy to undo?” When you’re not sure, just open HomeKeepr and find a pro who can help.

It’s always better to go into projects with your eyes wide open, even if the answer you get isn’t one you like. One simple click could save you tens of thousands of dollars down the line by preventing you from making a terrible decision that would have hurt your home’s value for years, or decades, to come.

Your Friends in Real Estate,

Steve, Jack & Kylie