How to Heat Up the Value of Your Fireplace

Winter is coming and many homebuyers would pay more for a house with a fireplace, as much as $1,400. Here are great ways to enhance your fireplace gestalt.

Devoting some space to firewood storage near your hearth adds ambiance — and helps keep a supply of dry wood on hand. It also saves you from having to trek outside on chilly nights to retrieve wood. Burning dry firewood helps reduce creosote build-up in your chimney, lessening the risk of flue fires. Need help with ideas? Contact:

David Demangos
www.AwesomeSanDiegoRealEstate.com
Our Team goes to Extremes to Fulfill your Real Estate Dreams!
10 Star Service in a 5 Star World

Top 5 Reasons to buy a home during the holidays

Did you know home buyer optimism is way up? Watch the top 5 reasons to buy a home during the holidays!

Who do you know looking to buy or sell? Contact:

David Demangos
David@AwesomeSanDiegoRealEstate.com
www.AwesomeSanDiegoRealEstate.com
Our Team goes to Extremes to Fulfill your Real Estate Dreams!
10 Star Service in a 5 Star World

Are You an Anxious First-Time Home Buyer?

Anxiety is an autonomic nervous system response that is hard-wired into every human being. It’s part of our instinctive reaction to sensing a danger or threat in the wild - and the wild world of real estate is no exception. Buying a home doesn’t involve an actual, physical threat like the lions or tigers or bears, and yet during the home buying process, it’s not bizarre to feel like your dream home, your precious financial resources, your vision of your family’s future or your best interests are being threatened. 

If you’re experiencing low-grade anxiety around your first home purchase, that’s probably a sign that you take it seriously and that you understand the importance of the matter. But if your anxiety is rising to the level that it causes panic or paralysis, those reactions actually pose a bigger threat to your smart decision-making than any actual threat you’ll encounter in the wilds of the real estate market. 

Here is a short list of truths about real estate that can soothe your first-time buyer anxiety down to a level at which it won’t foul up your decisions or your vision.

1. It’s only takes one. House hunting is daunting, just think of the sheer magnitude of the numbers involved: all the specs and characteristics of a home, all the decisions you have to make, all the documents you have to provide just to get pre-approved, all the homes on the market, and all the buyers you might have to bid against.

But here’s a soothing number you can focus on: one. You only need to find one house that fits with your family, your future and your finances. And millions and millions of homebuyers before you have been able to do just that. The challenge ahead of you is the highly do-able task of narrowing down all of those numbers to the one, the just right fit. If you find a home you love, but the sellers want dramatically more for it than you can afford or it turns out to have some fatal flaw, it’s not a panic-worthy disaster: it’s just not the one.

David Demangos Just Sold 4S Ranch San Diego

Just SOLD! Another happy 1st time home buyer couple are moving into their brand new Del Sur home here in San Diego. This home compliments their active lifestyle. Now they get to enjoy expansive amenities including swimming pools, children's parks, hilly trails and community events.

Know anybody looking to buy, sell or invest? Call:

David Demangos
858.232.8410
David@AwesomeSanDiegoRealEstate.com
www.AwesomeSanDiegoRealEstate.com
Our Team goes to Extremes to Fulfill your Real Estate Dreams!

Fun Facts About Halloween

Did You Know?

1. Because the movie Halloween (1978) was on such a tight budget, they had to use the cheapest mask they could find for the character Michael Meyers, which turned out to be a William Shatner Star Trek mask. Shatner initially didn’t know the mask was in his likeness, but when he found out years later, he said he was honored.

2. The first Jack O’Lanterns were actually made from turnips.

3. Halloween is the second highest grossing commercial holiday after Christmas. 

Frightful Halloween Decor

Decorating your home for Halloween doesn’t have to be scary (unless, of course, you want it to be). Here are some great tips from Realtor.com

Front Yard

Pumpkins and mums add a classic seasonal touch with minimal effort. They can welcome guests at the foot of a driveway, line a walkway to the front door or gather around a tree. The tree itself could sport eyes, cut from felt and held aloft with environmentally friendly adhesives.

Front Door

Classy or ghastly? The options run amok. Amazon sells bloody on paper, but why not make your own? A roll of kids’ mural paper from any craft store, some red acrylic paint, a bit of soap for those dirty feet afterward, and before you can say “wrap the body in a rug,” there are telltale prints leading to your door.

Or stick with simple. Hang a witch’s hat on the front door as you would a wreath. Sit the kids down with scissors, black felt and a stencil, and create a colony of bats. Paint Chinese paper lanterns like jack-o’-lanterns and hang them from the eaves — no scooping innards or tossing rotting (gourd) flesh.

Living Room

Tossing a sheet with eye holes over a kid’s head and calling them a ghost may be a cliched holiday cop-out, but the same idea can feel almost fresh on furniture. White sheets covering the furniture can lend an air of mystery to a room, as guests (or inhabitants) ponder what goes on underneath. And don’t underestimate the power of low light. If your circuits are on dimmers, you’re ahead of the game, but even candlelight or a well-placed dim bulb can throw unexpectedly fun shadows.

Fireplace

Burn the evidence — but not all of it. Dirt piled where the logs go can host fake bones peeking through. Perhaps there’s mulch left from summer planting? Put it to good use. While it is possible to make your own plaster bone mold and how about a handful of red glass votives in the fireplace can add a ghoulish air.

Dining Room

For a creeptastic look, think red and black. Yard-sale candlesticks, the more dented the better, covered in high-gloss black spray paint can hold red candles. They’ll give off an eerie glow atop a red tablecloth. Sprinkle plastic bugs around the plates and drape gauze or cheesecloth between the candles and across the table. Watch your guests shudder.

David Demangos

David@AwesomeSanDiegoRealEstate.com

www.AwesomeSanDiegoRealEstate.com

Our Team goes to Extremes to Fulfill your Real Estate Dreams!

10 Star Service in a 5 Star World...

Most People Open to Buying a Haunted House

More than half of home buyers are open to buying a haunted house, according to realtor.com’s 2013 Haunted Housing Report. Also, 35 percent of the nearly 1,400 people who took the survey say they have lived in a haunted home. 

Today realtor.com released the results of its Haunted Housing Report, which ran on realtor.com from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1 and explored consumer sentiments around haunted real estate. Survey results reveal consumer thresholds for purchasing haunted houses for sale, past experiences with spooky homes, popular “warning signs” of a haunted home, expected discounts when buying haunted houses for sale and intolerable scary occurrences.

“When purchasing a home, buyers want to know what they are getting into and that includes anything potentially spooky,” said Alison Schwartz, vice president of corporate communications for Move Inc., which operates realtor.com. “Our data reveals that while the majority of consumers are open to purchasing a haunted home, many buyers conduct research on a home’s history to be aware of any weird incidences. Additionally, realtor.com data finds that while some respondents are willing to purchase a haunted home at a discounted price, many say levitating objects, ghost sightings and objects moving from one place to another would deter them from purchasing a home.”

Who do you know looking for a haunted house, I'm not scared! Contact:

David Demangos
858.232.8410

www.AwesomeSanDiegoRealEstate.com
Our Team goes to Extremes to Fulfill your Real Estate Dreams!