What Do Active TC and Backup Status Mean on the MLS?

We don’t all speak Realtor-ese, much to our chagrin. Let me help you with some basic understanding on the MLS (multiple listing service) with a few terms that might not make sense. If you are looking at a home that says backup, it means that the seller has already accepted an offer on their home,

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How to Search Homes for the Most Accurate Information

Most of us are familiar with websites like Redfin, Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, etc. While these might be fun to browse, if you are actually intent on purchasing a home, you don’t want to use these sites. Why? Because they are all syndicate sites. That means that their information comes from another site and they don’t

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The Fed Fund Rate is Zero! What does that Mean?

You may have heard that the fed fund rate has been dropped to zero- and you may wonder what that means! I’ll say that it may sound better than it actually is! The fed fund rate is basically the rate at which banks and lenders lend money to each other. So, your bank may be

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Million Dollar Homes

Just for fun, I wanted to share a bit of the rabbit hole I found myself in this morning as I delved into some million dollar homes sales in our area (For our discussion, million dollar homes are any homes that have sold for more than a million dollars). Utah county has sold 100 million

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Should I Sell my House in the Spring?

The answer to this one depends on your home!If you live in a home that is valued at less than $400,000 or else is a condo, then your potential buyer is much less likely to have school aged children, and thereby not controlled by the school calendar. This means that your buyer most likely be

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Pay your Mortgage if you Can

In these uncertain times, there is a lot of speculation about mortgages and what legislation might be passed to help those who are in need during this COVID-19 breakout. With this speculation comes the poor advice to just skip payments on your mortgage, which is just that: poor advice. If you have income or other

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How to Show Off the Special Features in your Home when Selling

If you could personally walk each potential buyer through your home, you could point out special features or unique parts of your house. However, as this is not possible (or even advisable, as buyers want to imagine themselves in the home without someone watching over their shoulder), technology has offered us an amazing alternative. You

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Should you Refinance your Home?

With all the federal changes that have happened recently, most of you have heard that interest rates have dropped, dropped, and dropped some more. With that, many people have begun thinking about refinancing their home. Should you?The answer depends on what your plans are. When you refinance your home, it restarts your amortization, which means

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Are Real Estate Taxes Deductible?

Nearing tax time, many of us sit down, either with the computer or an accountant, and try to figure out what, if anything, we can deduct from our taxes. Luckily for those that own their home or rental properties, property taxes can be written off! If you a home owner, you can write off the

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Did you Know you Don’t Need 20% Down to Buy a Home?

Many people think they need 20% down to buy a home. Others realize they can put down less than 20%, but want to avoid the mortgage insurance that accompanies those loans. If you own less than 20% of your home, lenders know you’re more likely to foreclose and they’re more likely to lose money. To

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