Raleigh Real Estate Blog

FHA Loan Requirements: 5 Critical Facts + 17 Common FHA Questions

The FHA (Federal Housing Administration) is helping turn the American dream of homeownership into a reality. An FHA loan offers borrowers a greater opportunity at qualifying for a loan to buy a home by using a different set of requirements and guidelines that both protect lenders and give home buyers opportunity!

Table of Contents (Click each section to jump to it):

• What is an FHA Loan?
• What you Need to Know
• FHA Loan Requirements
• FHA Loan Limits
• FHA vs. Conventional
• Other Important FHA Tips
• 17 Common FHA Loan Questions Answered

Without further ado, let's dive in and discuss FHA loans in detail

What is an FHA Loan?

FHA loans are often one of the

How Roofs Work

Thank you for stopping by to learn more about your roof! Before we dive into the article on 9 signs your roof needs repair it makes sense to give a little background on how roofs work and what their purpose is.

If you'd prefer to jump right to the article, 9 signs your roof needs repair, click here.

From sun, snow, rain, hail, the wind, debris from trees, and more, your roof protects your home. The constant beating your roof takes every day makes it one of the most important pieces of your home's structure and that's why roofing costs aren't cheap. In order to better understand how roofs work, we need to break it down into layers.

First, you will need a roof deck which is often made of plywood or oriented strand board at its

Septic Tanks

Watch the video below to learn about how septic tanks work and click each bullet to jump to that section:

• Septic Tank Information
• How does a Septic Tank Work
• Pros and Cons of Septic Tanks
• Septic Tank Installation
• Septic Tank Maintenance
• Septic Tank Pumping and Cleaning
• Septic Tank Cost

Septic Tank Information

If you have lived in a house that is connected to a municipal or county sewer system the idea of having a septic tank can seem a little daunting. It needn’t be, as a septic system is very common to find in homes all across the country. Municipal and county sewer systems only make sense when there are enough homes clustered in a certain area .Once development moves further out from the more

Don't drink and blog they said, whoops... Just kidding. So we hit a local Raleigh coffee shop, which also happens to serve Trophy's Trophy Wife Pale Ale, and crafted this blog on some of the best breweries Raleigh has to offer! We also wrote an article on the best restaurants in Raleigh (if you want to read that after!)

While we our committed to helping clients find great homes for sale in Raleigh we also LOVE to produce local content. This is a fun article to write, and we hope you'll enjoy it as much as we enjoyed drinking writing it! 

With great beer comes great responsibility...

Trophy Brewing

Website and Directions

With locations on Maywood, Wilmington, and Morgan, Trophy Brewing has become a staple in the Raleigh beer scene.

When you search Google to learn more about selling your home for the first time you will find some good and not so good information. This article is written for those of you who are feeling a bit daunted about listing your home for sale and want to find comfort in what to expect throughout the process.

Without further ado....

11 tips when selling a home for the first time

1. Set an appropriate listing price
2. Ask a Realtor the best ways of preparing your home
3. Strategize the best time to sell your house
4. Interview a few agents
5. Be flexible to maximize your chances
6. Open Houses
7. Professional Marketing Photography
8. Review your listing online
9. Respond promptly to offers and be transparent
10. Let the buyers feel like they've won

It's 2017 and that means it's a GREAT time to start preparing yourself for buying a house in 2018!

A lot of the people who are currently reaching out to us about buying a home, in our local market of Raleigh, are preparing themselves for a purchase in 2018. These folks are the inspiration for this article and my hope is you will be well prepared by the end of it.

In Real Estate it's not uncommon for people to keep their eye on the market long before they become serious buyers and thus we are writing a how to guide for buying a home in 2018.

Buying a house requires preparation and the more prepared you are the more confident you will be heading in. Real Estate is one of the safest investments you can make, especially if you're buying in a

Are you preparing your home for sale and wondering what home improvements add the most value?

We put together a list of the best home improvements for resale!

There are ways in which you can force equity back into your home, and make it more appealing to buyers. Just be careful not to overdo it and improve your house outside of the neighborhood price range!

The tips we will discuss in the article are low-cost ways to net your more money on the sale of your home. If you’re preparing your home for sale you’ll want to be sure to pay attention to the tips in this article that will help you maximize the return on your investment!

Without further ado, here are…

Home Improvements to Increase Value for Resale

Cleaning your Home Before

Preparing Your Home for Real Estate Photography - 8 Tips!

Here is how your home should look when you list it for sale!

Want to make the most money on the sale of your house? Real estate photography preparation is one of the major keys. In this article, you will find home staging photography tips and a real estate checklist that is going to help you market your property. Any seller who puts the effort into reading this article and incorporating everything into your real estate photography prep list will likely make thousands of dollars more on the sale.

So how do you prepare your home for real estate photos?  

Real Estate Photography Checklist - How to Prepare your Home to Sell!

Overview: Real estate photography checklist

One of the largest investments most people will make is a home purchase. Undoubtedly, home buying is wrought with paperwork, inspections, contingencies, and that ever-looming escrow process. Each step along the way can feel like it’s dragging on into infinity. But, does buying an already existing home differ greatly from building your own home?

Buying an Existing Home: Pros and Cons

There is a definitive upside to purchasing a home that’s already built: you don’t have to wait for it to be constructed. Also, depending on if you’re interested in one of the fully constructed homes in a new neighborhood, most neighborhoods are already established. As such, you can readily see how others maintain their homes.

One nice thing about mature

There are many moving parts when it comes to buying or selling real estate. Financially speaking, most buyers will need to find a mortgage broker who can facilitate the mortgage process based on individual considerations. Use online mortgage calculators to assist you in how much house you can afford.

The first step is understanding the differences between a mortgage broker versus a mortgage lender. Quite simply, a mortgage broker matches the buyer with an appropriate lender. Meanwhile, the lender is the institution who is providing the funds for the buyer to finalize the home purchase. Mortgage brokers are not loan officers. Yet, they do work with loan officers, if need be, on your behalf.

While securing the services of a mortgage broker isn’t a