Hope Leitner, Realtor®, CRS

  Information is brought to you by Hope Leitner Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties According to leading home designers, bathrooms today should be more than utilitarian spaces. They are increasingly treated as cozy oases intended to comfort and pamper. If that’s your goal, here are a few good ideas for transforming your bathroom: Enlarge it if you can.  A good contractor can steal space you didn’t know you had, taking it from an adjoining room or a seldom-used closet and adding it to your bathroom space. Use reclaimed materials.  Old is new again as homeowners choose recycled materials. Incorporate reclaimed timber into vanities or opt for recycled glass countertops for a sustainable bathroom style. Choose clean lines.  Modernize the look with the clean lines of a vessel sink and a freestanding European tub. If the budget allows, make it a spa tub to make the most of your idle hours. Add a rainfall showerhead.  Relax your back and soothe your s...

  Information is brought to you by Hope Leitner Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties Retro Colors Make a Comeback: What's Hot in Decor Right Now Everything old is new again, and that goes for decorating with color. While the last decade in home décor has largely been defined by white and varying shades of beige and gray, today’s designers are harking back to yesteryear with paint colors, furniture and even kitchen appliances. Part art deco, part ‘50s suburban and part ‘60s mod, these awesome retro colors are fresh and refreshed to fit today’s tastes, say the color mavens at Sherwin Williams, whose wall color faves this year include shades of pink, aqua and pale or mustard yellows with accents of slate or peppery coral—great ways to set off the stark white of baseboards, crown moldings and door frames. Big Chill, a retro appliance company launched in 2001, is finding huge success with its growing line of refrigerators, stoves and dishwashers in pink, aqua, yellow an...

National homeowner equity grew in the fourth quarter of 2020 by $1.5 Trillion or 16.2% year-over-year based on a CoreLogic analysis.  The study was done on the six out of ten homeowners who have mortgages on their home. The fourth quarter of 2020 also saw the number of mortgaged residential homes with negative equity decrease by 8% from the third quarter.  Compared to the same quarter in 2019, negative equity decreased by 21%. Equity is defined as the value of the home less the mortgage owed.  Negative equity means that the homeowner's debt is more than the value of the home.  Appreciation is the dynamic that is moving homeowner's equity to the positive position. On a national basis, according to National Association of REALTORS®, annual price growth for the last ten years has been 6.4%.  In the last five years, it has grown at 7.3% annually.  According to the CoreLogic Home Price Index, home prices in December 2020 were up 9.2% from the year befo...

  Hope Leitner Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties How to Organize Your Attic An attic can be an ideal storage space, but if it’s not organized, it can turn into a total mess. If you’ve lived in your house for several years, chances are your attic has gotten cluttered and could use some organizing. Get Help If the job is too big for you to handle yourself, ask family or friends to help. Talk about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of and discuss ways to organize the space. You’ll need to make more decisions as you go through the cleaning process, but setting guidelines at the beginning will help you avoid misunderstandings and arguments. Decide What Stays and What Goes As you go through items, sort things you want to keep into piles. You can put clothing in one area, sports equipment in another, photo albums in another, etc. You can further separate items by person, season, or any other category that makes sense. Attics tend to accumulate a lot of...

For generations, people have begun their homeowner experience with a "starter" home.  Part of the  logic may be that by beginning with a smaller home, they can learn what it takes to run the home and discover some of the unexpected costs that come along with it.   A slightly longer view into the future could suggest a different strategy. As of March 4, 2021, the average 30-year mortgage rate according to Freddie Mac was 3.02%; up .37% from the week of January 7th this year.    At the same time, in 2020, the rate was 3.29% and in 2019, it was 4.41%.   That is a difference of 28 and 139 basis points. The principal and interest payment on a $300,000 mortgage would have been $236 higher two-years ago and $44 more one-year ago.   Today's low mortgage rates are saving buyers lots of interest especially when you factor in the median tenure for sellers is approximately ten years.   Even though prices have increased over the last two years, some people...

  Information is brought to you by Hope Leitner Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties 9 Sneaky Storage Tricks for Tiny Bathrooms Small bathrooms with limited storage space make it tough to stow all the stuff you use daily and still keep the space looking tidy. Check these smart solutions discovered by Good Housekeeping Magazine: Expand cabinet space.  If your under-sink cabinet is stuffed to the gills, invest in an over-the-door storage basket that can hold your hair dryer, curling iron, and more. Use the corners.  Suction cups keep a tower of small storage spaces—as many as you’d like—firmly tucked into a corner of the shower. Narrow organizers fit anywhere.  Three-tiered organizers less than 5 inches deep fit into any space, even between the wall and a sink with no vanity. Slim storage carts can hold your toilet paper and lots of other stuff.  Outlet shelf.  This ingenious little “power perch” creates a shelf over your electrical outlet to...

One of the silver linings to filing your income tax return is finding out that you are going to receive a refund that could literally open the door to owning a home.   If you happen to be one of these fortunate taxpayers, your next decision is what to do with it.   With the average tax refund near $3,000, it could be the ticket to buying a home sooner rather than later.   Regardless of the size of your refund, it can be used toward the down payment or closing costs of the home. Most people think it takes 10% or more down payment to purchase a home, but actually, it is much less because of several low down payment mortgages .   There are VA and USDA mortgages that allow for no down payment for qualified buyers.   FHA has a 3.5% down payment program and FNMA and Freddie Mac have 3% down payment mortgages for qualified creditors as well as 5% down programs. Closing costs for originating new mortgages can easily range from two to three percent of the purchase ...