Monthly Archives: September 2011

Are You Purchasing Your First Home as a Couple?

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You have decided to purchase your first home – together. This is a very exciting time, but it is not without pitfalls. Communication is the key. What do you need from your home? What do you want in your new home? How much can you afford to pay? Are you going to use a realtor? Where do you want the new house to be located? Where can you find furnishings for your new place? These are all important questions you should discuss prior to looking for a new home.

Wants vs. needs

The decision is made that a new home is to be bought, but what features are wants and which ones are needs? How many bathrooms do you need? Are you planning to stay in the house for 30 years or only 5 years? Will you need room for your family to grow? Will your new house have a pool? How about a hot tub? Do you need a large yard or a small yard? The number of bedrooms and bathrooms is an important consideration.

Obviously, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms greatly influence the amount the final price will be, but if you will be enlarging your family, make sure you buy as much house as you can afford. As you tour the various houses, it is important to also envision your furniture or your prospective furniture to ensure there is plenty of space. Make sure you talk about closet space, furniture placement, color for the walls, and future renovations. Dream together and paint the picture of your future. Remember, this can be more fun that exasperating.

Home Furniture: Colors and Their Meaning

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Colors are the most expressive elements of art. The colors of your living room reveal something about your personality and give various impressions on your guests. However, you may find out that no matter how appealing the color is to you, it does not actually suit your personality. Colors can even influence your way of thinking and the way you feel about things. This is why you must be extra cautious when choosing the color theme of your living room in order to feel good about yourself and your home.

Check the different colors and their meanings as listed below.

Blue is the color of peace and serenity. Giving you tranquility and peace of mind, you will find that the color blue is actually helpful to your health. Blue makes you feel relax and cool so it helps you to slow down your breathing, lowers blood pressure and heartbeat. The feeling that you get in a blue-themed room is similar to that of the sensations you get when out in the beach. It is like you are standing on the seashore where you can hear nothing but the gentle splashing of waves, the soft caress of the wind, and the soft feeling of the sands on your feet. Blue helps you achieve optimism in life and make you feel cool and stable.

The color of nature, Green represents life. It gives you a relaxing feeling and makes you feel comfortable. Tired eyes can easily be relaxed from strain when focused on green objects. Green represents tranquility, accordance, and life in Feng Shui. Green is not only good for living rooms but for the bedroom as well especially for a couple’s bedroom. It enhances their capacity and drive to be productive and to procreate. Being associated with money, green is also good for offices. Do not have green colors in the home if you have a family member with cancer though. It is not good for them and for people with associated complications.

Yellow is bright and glowing. It is like the rays of the sun that is continually shining on you and giving you warmth and energy. It makes you feel happy and optimistic like the color blue. It makes you feel lively and alert. It is also helpful to your health and social skills. It makes the family to interrelate and to be more open with one another. Yellow accelerates the high sensations of a person. Therefore, the usual tired, lifeless and weak people can get a sudden boost of energy; something they never knew they have. However, too much yellow colors can make children and toddlers irritated and to throw tantrums probably because of the surge of emotions that yellow can bring.

Red is the color for boldness, passion, and courage. It is a very happy and modest color. For bedrooms, red can both be a destructive and sensual color. It is good for couples as it evokes much passion in them but it can also cause feelings of anger. For offices, red is good for enhancing the drive to succeed and be on the top. Light red shades are perfect for a more appetizing feeling in the dining area. Red is also a symbol of luxury and wealth. It will make you look more elegant and smart. Red is the color of love, success and sanguinity.

Light orange colors are said to contribute to the tight bonds of the family in Feng Shui. For business enterprises, orange characterizes low prices and for the living room, it gives a warm and homely feeling. It is much like the yellow color which gives energy, enthusiasm, and will power.

White signifies peace, transparency, and purity. For small living rooms, white is the best option because it will enhance the size of the room and make it look bigger. You will not have a hard time choosing ornaments and decorations in white as it blends with any color and design. In contrast with the effect of green to couples, white gives off vibes of barrenness. You may notice how grave some hospitals look because of the color white. Pair it with vibrant colors to attain balance and to highlight the pure effects of white in the living room.

Brown is a natural color which is associated with tree trunks and the fresh earth soil. With this, brown represents fertility and wealth. It is also good to have this color if you want to feel contentment, closeness, and affability. It is both elegant and first-class.

Royalty is projected in the Purple color. It also helps in therapeutic endeavors. It is great for kids as it can help them to be more artistic and determined. Blend grey with lavender to make your office bounce off with feelings of ingenuity and new ideas.

Black may be dark but it is also mystifying which makes you want to know more about the owner of the home. Be careful when you want to have a black in your room as this might give a different impression to some individuals. The combination of black, white and dark blue colors will create a country look. For offices, black gives the impression of hard work and commitment.

Finding Your Dream Home Step 4: Offer Accepted, Now What?

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Finding Your Dream Home

Step 4: Offer Accepted, Now What?

As with all of our Dream Home articles the scenarios are based off of Illinois law. There will often be small variations from state to state.  In “Step Three: Making an Offer” we discussed how to make an offer on your Dream Home.  Now that your offer has been accepted and the contract and all riders and addenda have been signed by both parties you have what is now commonly referred to as an Executed Contract.  At this point you begin the “Attorney Review.”  The next week or so is going to be a busy one.  The length of the attorney review period is determined in your contract.  Typically a week will suffice and extensions are easily negotiated.  If you have not already selected an attorney we recommend getting a referral from a trusted source such as your Realtor or a family member or friend who has had a great experience.  Response time from your attorney is tantamount to their reputation.  You want someone who will answer your phone calls or get back to you same day as you will most likely have a lot of questions and they may also have many for you coming from the sellers’ attorney.  Having a consistent dialog with your attorney helps the process run smoothly and when making a purchase this large, that is the only way you want it!

Attorney Review period for a Conventional Purchase

In case you did not read our last entry in the Dream Home Series, we define a “Conventional Purchase” as a purchase/sale that does not involve a Short Sale or Foreclosed home.  During the attorney review period of this type of sale a few things take place.

•    You hire an inspector to inspect the place.  This is very important to do ASAP because anything that they find, they ALWAYS find something, will need to be addressed during the attorney review period.  A good home inspector will give you a detailed report of everything they find, good and bad, as well as typically walk you through the home after their inspection is complete and actually demonstrate the defects they find as well as give you helpful tips on things you may not know about such as which switch resets your whole house, etc.  Excluding very minor things such as loose cabinet doors, anything they find that costs money to repair is now another thing that may need to be negotiated with the seller. Most often any defects are paid for by the seller or a credit (in the form of a price reduction or closing cost compensation) is given which makes the process run very smoothly. There are other instances such as the seller is selling for less than they owe and need to come to closing with every penny in their bank account, when the seller will simply not be able to cover any costs for things found in the inspection.  It is then up to you, the Buyer, to decide what to do.  There is also that rare occasion that the seller feels that they have already given such a low price that they are unwilling to throw more money into a place that they are selling.  The good news is if you do not agree with the outcome of the inspection, you get your earnest money back and are free to walk from the deal.  Rest assured, most often this part of the process does run smoothly, the attorneys from both sides draft up a letter stating what will be done about any necessary repairs and that is that.