There are some who are calling for a decrease in home prices should mortgage interest rates begin to rise rapidly. Intuitively, this makes sense as the cost of a home is determined by the price of the home, plus the cost of financing that home. If mortgage interest rates increase, fewer people will be able to buy, and logic says prices will fall if demand decreases.

However, history shows us that this has not been the case the last four times mortgage interest rates dramatically increased.

Here is a graph showing what actually happened:

Last week, in an article titled “Higher Rates Don’t Mean Lower House Prices After All,”the Wall Street Journal revealed that a recent study by John Burns Real Estate Consulting Inc. found that:

“[P]rices weren’t especially sensitive to rising rates, particularly in the presence of other positive economic factors, such as strong job growth, rising wages and improving consumer confidence.”

Last week’s jobs report was strong and the Conference Board just reported that the Consumer Confidence Index was back to pre-recession levels.

Bottom Line

We will have to wait and see what happens as we move forward, but a decrease in home prices should rates go up is anything but guaranteed.

by The KCM Crew

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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It is almost time for the seasons to change once again as we move from fall slowly into winter.  As the seasons change many people find that they like to get things around their home organized to make the transition seem smoother.  Organizing your home can be made simple with a few of the following tips.

1. One way to organize your home is to get rid of “junk drawers” throughout the house. Many times folks tend to throw things they don’t know what to do with into a drawer that soon becomes a drawer full of junk. While these drawers DO keep the junk out of the eye of those that come to visit, you just never know when someone may open one of them looking for utensils or other useful items and you may be embarrassed by them. Simple fix…..throw out the junk once and for all and have no more junk drawers in your home!
2. Another great and simple way to organize your home  is to organize and de-clutter your pantry.  Typically there are items in your pantry that you haven’t used in years and they end up just sitting there taking up space.  This is very true for old canned food items that tend to have a shelf life of forever.   Once you get this simple organizing of your pantry complete, be sure not to let it get messy again by throwing away things you don’t use periodically.
3. Yet another simple way to organize your home is to use all of your closet space for things you will actually use instead of just getting things out of the way.   If you have a lot of games for example why not make a game closet just for the purpose of storing all of your family games.  This type of closet will make it more likely that your family may have a game night once a week because you will know exactly where to go to find the games.
4. Keeping all of the books in the house in one spot is another great organization tip. If you have various bookshelves in your home, you can utilize them for other purposes and keep one for only books.  Organize each shelf for books from each family member if you have a lot of books.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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While purchasing a home can be a wonderful thing, if you don’t do your due diligence when it comes to checking things out beforehand you may find yourself in a bit of a mess.  Below you will find a few things that you should look for before you purchase a home. 

1. If you go to look at a home and the house seems smaller than the listed square footage you may want to get someone to check it for you. It isn’t likely that a seller of a home will out and out lie about the square footage of their home but they might include things that shouldn’t be included in the total such as attic space or garage areas.
2. Another thing you should check out before you purchase a home  is crime in that particular area.  You can do this by looking online at such sights as Trulia but you can also call the local police department in that area and ask point blank what the crime rate is there.  You can also check for registered sex offenders to see if any might live nearby.  Once you find out these things it may change whether or not you actually want to purchase that home.
3. If the home you are looking at is in a neighborhood that has an HOA you need to check into all the details surrounding the home owner’s association. These details might make or break the deal for you.
4. Be sure not to pass up the pest inspection before you purchase a home. Sometimes folks will skip this part of the inspection to hurry up the process of home buying.  This is a very important step in home buying  that can potentially cause you to be sorry you bought the house in the first place if you don’t have it done.
5. Lastly be sure to talk to those who know the house or live near the house and ask them if there are any weird stories about it such as a death in the home or rumors of ghosts. While this may seem silly, it is my guess that no one wants to purchase a home with either of these issues.

If you do your best to get the answers to all of your questions about a particular house before you buy it, you will likely be happy with your purchase.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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Many times folks hear about a reverse mortgage on the television and they think it sounds like the best thing since sliced bread.  There are a few things you need to know about reverse mortgages before you decide to move forward with one and below we have listed a few tips on how to avoid a reverse mortgage nightmare.

1. One way to avoid even thinking about doing a reverse mortgage  is to not wait until you simply don’t have any other option.  Do not go into something like a reverse mortgage without counseling with a HUD-certified housing counselor.  If you make huge decisions such as getting involved with a reverse mortgage during a time of financial stress, you will likely end up worse off than you started.
2. Another tip for avoiding a reverse mortgage nightmare is to search around for all that is offered. You don’t have to settle for a reverse mortgage just because you think it’s the only thing you can do.  Talk to a financial counselor and find out what all of your options might be and then make an informed decision based off of the facts and not just what you think the facts might be.
3. If the lender you have chosen to move forward with suddenly starts telling you that your home needs a ton of repairs, be sure to find a new lender as quickly as possible. HUD insures over 95% of reverse mortgages and they only require that the home be safe and functional.  Any small issues that your home might have shouldn’t even come into play during a reverse mortgage consultation.
4. If you feel pressured at all to sign on the dotted line to receive a reverse mortgage, do your part and do not sign the papers. You don’t want to end up in a reverse mortgage nightmare just because you felt like you were being pressured into signing the papers.  Again, get up and leave the room if you feel any kind of pressure to sign on the dotted line for a reverse mortgage.
5. Be sure to show up for the closing if you do decide to do a reverse mortgage. If you are not present things may go astray and you might end up with a raw deal in the end.

These are just a few tips to avoiding a reverse mortgage nightmare.  Do your part to pay close attention to detail so that you don’t end up living in the middle of a real nightmare.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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Although buying a new home may be a happy time in your life, if you do not do your due diligence in a few areas of home buying you may find yourself a bit frightened by the outcome.  Below is a list of a few frightening home buying regrets you should try to avoid at all costs.

1. One of the number one regrets of folks who are in the market for a new home is putting off house hunting until the last minute.  If your family has already gotten too big for your current house you may cause yourself undue stress by not starting your new home search as quickly as possible.  Also if you have already sold your home but you still haven’t quite found the home of your dreams you may be in for a bit of stress trying to move out quickly at the last minute.
2. Another frightening home buying regret to avoid is not paying attention to the schools that border your new home. Even if you don’t have children yet you need to pay attention to the school systems in your new area before you purchase.   You may not think you are going to live in the new home long enough for it to affect your future children but you just never know where life may take you and you don’t want to end up sending your children to a less than stellar school system.
3. Buying too much of a house for your budget is another big issue that can become very frightening to you and your loved ones. The first month in a new home is typically pretty peaceful but once the mortgage bill comes around and its more than you can handle, it isn’t so pretty anymore.  Figure out your budget before you go house hunting and do your best not to go beyond that budget and you should be fine.
4. If there are things in the house you plan to buy that you do not like the looks of, do not figure you will just fix them once you move in, make a few demands of the seller and see what you can get before you have to throw a ton of money on top of the purchase price to make repairs. You don’t know what the seller might be willing to do unless you ask.

Now that you have a few ideas on home buying regrets to avoid, you will be able to make the best and right decision on buying a home for your family.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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The bathroom is one place that you need to be able to get away to and feel relaxed.  If your bathroom is unorganized you may feel anything but relaxed upon entering it.  Below are a few tips and ideas for organizing your bathroom so that it might be a room in which you enjoy visiting as well as being a room in which everything is easy to find.

1. One way to organize your bathroom in your home is to take everything out of the cabinets and drawers and start from scratch. If you are like most folks, you have a lot of products that get half used and then shoved back into a drawer or a cabinet in the chance that you might use it again someday.  Most of the time however someday never comes and you end up with more and more junk cluttering your bathroom making it a very unorganized space.  Once you get everything out of the cabinets, go through it all and throw out anything you haven’t used in the last week.  Then replace the items you do use into the cabinets and drawers in an organized fashion.
2. Another way to organize your bathroom is make more storage by using such things as baskets and drawer organizers. An easy drawer organizer to use for your toothpaste and brushes is the same thing you use for your kitchen utensils.  You will be surprised at how easy it is to get little things organized by just using this one simple tool.
3. You can always organize your bathroom by simply changing all of the towels to one color.  This doesn’t really organize but it does make your bathroom feel more “zen” so to speak.  All white is a great color for towels and wash cloths because it can make your bathroom feel more like a spa and in turn make it become a more relaxing room to spend time in.
4. Organizing your shower is another way to get things situated in your bathroom as well.  A good way to do this is by buying a shower caddy that hangs from the side of the shower wall.  Be sure to get one that is large enough to hold all of your shampoos and soaps etc, without being in your way while you are getting a shower.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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The kitchen is a place in the home where many hours are spent preparing meals and spending time with family.  If the kitchen is boring and not ecstatically pleasing to you or your family, no one is going to want to spend any time there.  Below is a list of a few ways in which you can spruce up your boring kitchen and make it a place where you really love to be.

1. One of the first ways you might think about to spruce up a boring kitchen is buying new appliances. The typical type of appliance these days is stainless steel.  Another type of appliance that folks are using these days are the ones that look just like cabinets.  Whatever type of appliance you decide to buy, you will be helping your kitchen look as good as it possibly can.
2. Another way to spruce up your kitchen is by changing the paint color. If your kitchen is older, it is possible that the paint has gotten worn over the years and adding a pop of color with new paint can make all the difference in the world.
3. Yet another good way to spruce up a boring kitchen is by changing the cabinets.  You can choose to have all new cabinets put in or you could just change the way they look by painting them.  Antiquing is a popular way to refinish and spruce up furniture.  Antiqued cabinets are very beautiful and can make a kitchen look really nice.
4. Buying some new lighting for your kitchen is an easy way to spruce it up. You can get as crazy as you want with lighting when it comes to making your kitchen an exciting place to be.  Go to your local hardware or lighting store to see what all is available for you to choose from.
5. New flooring in the kitchen is another way to make it look updated. If you currently have laminate you may want to change it to tile, or you could choose to extend the hardwoods from the family room or whatever room adjoins the kitchen into the kitchen.

These are just a few ideas for sprucing up a boring kitchen.  Hopefully they will get you started in the right direction for making your kitchen a room that everyone wants to congregate in.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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Owning a home is a wonderful thing, but you should always be really careful to make the best choices if you make changes to the outside of your home and this includes putting up a fence of any kind.  There are a few tips for adding a fence to your property that you might want to take into consideration before doing so and some of those are listed below.

1. Before putting up a fence on your property be sure to talk with your neighbors about it.  You need to keep in mind that you are not only putting up a fence in your backyard but you are also adding a fence to your neighbors land as well.  Talk with the neighbors that your fence will directly affect and discuss such things as property lines and types of fencing etc.
2. Another thing to consider when adding a fence on your property is the color of the fence and also the style.  Will the color and style of your fence match your home?  If you need ideas of what style fence will look good with your house consider looking online at some ideas.
3. You may want to consider planting trees to use as a fence if you decide you can’t find a style of fencing that will look good with your homes style. Cypress and pines are great for this type of privacy fencing and they never go out of style.
4. If you decide to add a wooden fence, be sure that you know you will have to take care of it and paint or stain it every so often. If you want something that has less maintenance than that you may want to purchase a vinyl fence.
5. You may want to consider cost as well when deciding what type of material you want your new fence made out of. Keeping within your budget is always a good idea when adding to your home.
6. Longevity of the fence material is another thing to keep in mind when choosing fencing for your property. You don’t want to purchase a material that will need to be replaced sooner than you wish for it to.

These are just a few tips for adding a fence of any kind to your property.  Once you have gone over these tips you should be able to choose more wisely than you would have without them.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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Some Highlights:

• Interest Rates are still below historic numbers.
• 88% of property managers raised their rent in the last 12 months!
• Credit score requirements to be approved for a mortgage continue to fall.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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The summer storm season is here and there are things that you may need to do to prepare your home for them. In this blog post today we will give you a few tips on how to prepare your home for the upcoming storm season.

• First, fix any damage the past winter has done to your roof. You may need to replace a few shingles or you may even have to replace the entire roof. Hire a professional if you don’t know much about how to fix your own roof. You don’t want storms coming if you have damage to your roof because you may end up with damage on the inside of your house as a result.
• Check to make sure your gutters are not full of debris and leaves.   During the winter months gutters tend to go un-checked. If your gutters are full, the first summer storm that comes your way will most likely cause you and anyone who enters your home to get a hat full of rain water. Take care of things like this before storm season arrives and you will be glad you did.
• Have a professional come out and check to make sure your trees are secure. Make sure the professionals cut down all trees that may have issues and get rid of any loose limbs. You don’t want tree limbs flying through the air during a summer storm.
• If you have a sump pump, make sure it is working and perhaps even get a battery powered back-up so that your pump will continue to work in the event the power goes out.
• Have a plan in place for you and your family in case of a bad storm. You may live in an area where there aren’t many bad storms but you never know when one may come about.
• Make sure that your windows are good and secure and that there are no areas in which water can get inside them. If your windows are older you may consider replacing them.

Hopefully these tips have given you a head start on getting your home ready for the storm season. You can never be too prepared.

Information provided by Orlando Real Estate Expert Teri Isner.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently. You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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