How to Save the Trees in Your Yard

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Pruning your trees is very important if you want to avoid unnecessary diseases. There’s nothing worse than having to cut down trees on your property, as you lose some of the natural beauty they provide, and it can cost up to $2,000.

Using an electric chainsaw is the best way to prune the trees in your yard. In order to keep your trees healthy and looking nice, go out and look for dead limbs on your trees and cut them down! Pruning is a great way to make sure you can avoid some serious problems with the tree in your yard.

If you’re not comfortable pruning your trees yourself, we do a lot of work with a great company called Arbor Masters. They’ll come out to your property and take care of your trees for you!

If you have any questions about how to take care of the trees on your property, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to hear from you!

Why Can’t You Trust Zillow to Find Your Home’s Value?

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The idea behind Zillow’s Zestimate feature is to give you an estimate of your home’s value. While we truly believe that Zillow is generally a great real estate resource, we recommend being careful about the Zestimate feature in particular.

The Zestimate gives you a very vague idea of what your home is actually worth. In most areas, they are only within 10% of the actual value 50% of the time. So, if you have a $500,000 house, half the time Zillow will tell you it’s worth somewhere between $450,000 and $550,000. That’s a huge range, and half the time Zillow will not even put your home value inside it!

If you want an accurate idea of how much your home is worth, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to provide you with a free market analysis so you can get a clear picture of what your home is really worth! Give us a call or shoot us an email at any time. We would love to hear from you!

How to Keep Your Foundation from Cracking

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Today I’m relaxing poolside at one of my client’s houses that we’ve sold, and not worrying about the foundation at all - no different than what most people are doing during the summertime. Worrying about things like water infiltration and keeping the proper grading around your foundation so it doesn’t seep in is something people usually do in the springtime. I will tell you, however, that this is a mistake.

What I mean by that is if it’s a really dry summer and the soil around your foundation doesn’t get the proper moisture, it will shrink. When the dirt shrinks, small gaps in the ground can emerge that can move your foundation and generate cracks and other damage that can be expensive to repair.

Just because it’s summer and there’s not a lot of water doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything to be worried about. It only takes a teeny bit of shrinkage for a foundation to move and give way to a hairline fracture. Make sure the soil around your house stays moist. If we get two or three weeks without rain, put your sprinklers on the ground and drag the hose around. Adding a little water to the dirt so your foundation can't move will be money well spent.

To prevent cracks in the foundation, make sure the soil around it stays moist.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you!

Now Is a Great Time to Buy in Kansas City

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Interest rates are down, and they have been for a while. Everyone was expecting rates to go up, but they actually dipped further the other day in the wake of the Brexit! What does that mean for you?

It’s a great time to buy a home. Even though the market is still pretty hot, it has started to slow down a bit, and you won’t see rates this low again for a long time. If you’re trying to get into your first house, buy an investment property, or upgrade, it's a great time to lock down these low rates.

Typically, rates tend to jump up after elections. They should remain low for the next couple of months, but by next year we will definitely see rates in the 4% range. Now you can still get a home with a 3.5% interest rate. You can even get an investment property to generate a little passive income each month.

If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!