Purchasing your own home may be the largest purchase you can make. The median monthly mortgage payment in the U.S. is $1,100, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau — and this doesn’t include other costs related to homeowners insurance and property taxes. 

If you want to save thousands on your home purchase, there are multiple ways to reduce your total cost. Read on and discover four ways to save money on your home purchase.

Expand Your Search Area & Criteria

If you’re searching for a house in the city center or a specific area, but you now realize it’s very much out of your budget, you may want to try broadening your search area. By re-prioritizing, the items on your wish list can give you opportunities you didn’t even think about, which

With energy prices on the rise and the number of dangerously hot days increasing each summer, we’re all looking for ways to keep our homes cooler. Today, in our guide to home window tinting, we’re doing a deep dive on this affordable, energy-saving, privacy-boosting approach to preventing summer from scorching your home’s interior.

Why Window Tinting?

Window tinting is installed as an adhesive layer. We recommend it to enhance curb appeal, protect artwork and home furnishings from damaging UV rays, reduce your need for sunscreen indoors, improve your view of your home’s surroundings, reduce your AC costs, and shield your family and belongings from prying eyes.

Window Tinting Will Not Make your Home Colder in the Winter

In Middle

As a renter, you weren’t responsible for performing routine home maintenance, let alone dealing with repairs and emergencies. As a homeowner, however, it’s essential that you are financially prepared to handle each of these unavoidable events. While facing repairs and emergency expenses will still be stressful, being prepared for them will ensure that your financial position isn’t threatened by the unexpected.

As you read through our recommendations, keep in mind that they are developed with the average expenses faced by a homeowner in the US. If you have purchased a new home, your repair fund will not need to be as large. If you’ve purchased a home that is over 30 years old, plan for roof, plumbing, window, HVAC, and electrical issues that are

Many homeowners are busy preparing their homes for sale. Are you among them? Selling now certainly makes sense. The housing market continues to favor sellers, with most listings pulling in plenty of competing offers.

Even with the persisting seller’s market, in order to maximize the sale price of your home, you’ll want to eliminate or fix anything that could potentially hurt your home appraisal. A high appraisal will ensure that you can earn top dollar for your home, while a low appraisal can cost you tens of thousands at closing.

Keep in mind that not all home renovation projects will yield a healthy ROI. It’s vital that you consult with your real estate agent to learn more about which recommended upgrades and repairs will be most likely to net

Hardly a day goes by without news outlets throughout the world reporting the effects of climate change. Now, even regions previously thought to be decades away from any impactful fallout have been rocked by events like floods, wildfires, and hurricanes.

The science surrounding climate change is complex and often overwhelming for a layperson to analyze. What we do know is that the only way to prevent catastrophic eventualities is for humanity around the world, from billionaires to hard-working blue-collar folks to pull together and keep Earth’s temperature increase under 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Today, we’d like to share seven ways to reduce your home’s carbon footprint. Overall, an individual’s carbon footprint is nearly impossible to accurately

The interior design of your home will have a powerful impact on your day-to-day experience of living in it. Over time, a poor design can wear you down, making your dream home feel more like a tedious chore to work around. The good news is, there are practical steps you can take to overhaul your home’s interior design and help you fall in love with your home all over again. Today, we’re sharing our favorite keys to a well-functioning home.

Express Yourself Through Design

It’s easy to be influenced by the trends we see on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. While there’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from designs we love, it’s also important that your final design express your own personality, interests, and preferences. Trends come

At first glance, a small living room can present a true design challenge. If yours feels cramped and crowded, you’re less likely to kick back and relax in it, let alone use it to entertain your friends and family. The good news is, there are elegant design strategies to suit living rooms of any size. You’ll need to plan ahead, employ some clever styling, and be prepared to think outside the traditional oversized American box, but keep at it: the results will speak for themselves!

The following 12 tips are our recommendations on how to decorate a small living room without skimping on style!

1.) Skip the Sofa

While the image that springs to mind when we think of a living room usually features a sofa as a main feature, anything bulkier than a

Your home’s front entryway has a big job. As soon as visitors cross the threshold, they’ve already begun formulating their first impressions of your home’s interior. Additionally, your home’s main entry also greets you each time you return from a long day away.

Because there are already a multitude of fantastic design ideas for traditional foyers and mudrooms, today we’re focusing on homes without a delineated entryway. We’ve seen countless homeowners struggle to create front entryway alternatives for homes, condos, apartments, and tiny houses that either don’t have entryways at all or have spaces that are not clearly defined.

If you’re dealing with how to make an atypical space feel more like an entryway, keep reading. Today on the Parks Realty

Powering your home with solar energy, whether fully or in part, is certainly eco-friendly. Most of us are looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint, and switching to solar power will help you achieve great strides toward your goal.

Let’s go over a few pros and cons you may wish to consider as you determine whether converting to solar power is right for you.

Pros

1.) Solar is Sustainable

When compared to consuming non-renewable fuels, it’s clear that solar power is infinitely more sustainable. Long after we’ve ceased powering our civilizations with fossil fuels and other combustibles, we will have access to solar, wind, and water power. By switching your home to solar now, you’re helping to move your community toward

When one shares a home with children, it can be tricky to strike a balance between an adult-centric and kid-friendly design aesthetic. It’s important not to fill the home with precious things; otherwise, we’re likely to become tense and frustrated when items are damaged or ruined. On the other hand, most of us don’t want to live in a home that feels like a daycare center, either!

Here are our top 10 tips for creating a kid-friendly home:

1.) Choose Easy-Care, Patterned Rugs

Rugs add comfort and style to hard flooring, but they’re also magnets for mud and stains. Because staring at dirty, stained rugs is a recipe for a gloomy mood, choosing the right kind of rug for your home is essential.

Choose an easy-care, patterned rug. In between