Design Trends Everywhere in 2021
Get cozy on your sunken-in couch cushion—you know, the one you’ve barely left since March 14—and join along for some inspiration as we prepare for the new year.
Category: For Sellers
20 Items to Check BEFORE a Home Inspection
Explaining Closing Costs
What To Expect in 2021’s Housing Market
Few will be reluctant to say goodbye to 2020. With vaccines rolling out, the days of the deadly pandemic that bludgeoned the nation’s economy seem to be numbered. Good riddance! But the soaring home prices that became a hallmark of the COVID-19 crisis may be here to stay.
Realtor.com®’s 2021 housing forecast predicts record-high prices will continue rising in 2021, delivering a blow to first-time buyers and those on a budget. Mortgage interest rates, which hit historic lows this year and helped fuel the go-go growth in U.S. housing markets, are also expected to tick up again, making monthly housing payments ever more expensive.
10 Drastically Different Design Trends for 2021
Many of us have never felt more desperate for a fresh start and a new beginning. And since it’s not like we’re leaving the house anytime soon, it makes perfect sense that the first place to start anew would be at home. (Plus, decorating and home renovation projects are a pretty good distraction from ever-present existential dread, if we do say so ourselves.)
If you’re looking to do a design overhaul, you’re probably also looking for some inspiration—so we asked real estate and design experts to weigh in on what they anticipate will be the biggest home trends of 2021. It turns out, with all the stress that 2020 brought to our lives, it also influenced some defining changes in the way we decorate, design, and live in our homes.
The Open Floor Plan Is Not Dead
Remember when everyone was obsessed with the open floor plan? Over the past decade or so we’ve seen home shoppers with budgets large and small coveting a layout with a seamless flow among the kitchen, dining, and living spaces.
But the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many of us to stay home, made us think very differently about our interiors. With working and schooling from home as the new normal, people are placing a higher premium on floor plans that offer privacy. That’s why, for the past year, homeowners living in an open floor plan have started second-guessing their layout.
But our desire for delineated spaces doesn’t necessarily mean the open floor plan is dead.
Our Home Buyer Wasn’t Approved for a Loan
If you’re selling a home, it’s always exciting when a buyer makes an offer that you accept. Although this is a major milestone on the march toward closing, there are many points where this deal can go off the rails—like if you find out your home buyer wasn’t approved for a mortgage.
What now?
If you find yourself in this situation, you could be thinking all hope is lost. But it turns out there are a few paths you can still take. Here’s what the experts say is likely to happen, and what you can do if you want to salvage the deal.
Can a Home Seller Under Contract Still Accept a Higher Offer?
Congratulations, you sold your house! The buyers fell in love and made an offer, and you let out a great, big sigh of relief when the contract was signed.
Then it happens—another offer comes in, and a better one at that. What now? Can you take the highest bid? Here’s what home sellers need to know.
What Happens When Your Real Estate Agreement Expires?
If your home has been on the market for a while and you haven’t been able to sell it, you’re bound to start checking your paperwork to see when your contract with your real estate agent is up. And you’re probably also wondering just what happens when your real estate agreement does, in fact, expire.
Home Selling Checklist
