How long we will be using the phrase “in the current economy”? It is a point of reference, one that calls our attention to important considerations when deciding where we want to live and how to arrange our finances to ensure our comfort extends beyond the walls of our homes, to include our wallets and [...]

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Are you an optimist or a pessimist? In today’s economy, well, let me rephrase this, in any economy, it is easy to take one stance over the other. It depends on what we hear from the media and from others and how we respond to this. Massachusetts Mortgage Broker and friend, Bill Nickerson, recently made [...]

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A popular French Canadian song goes something like this: “The nest is in the tree, the tree is by the house, the house is on the street, the street is in the town, the town is in the county,” and so on. What’s happening in our own backyard? Even long-time Vermont residents often feel like [...]

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74% of homebuyers begin their search online. 69% begin by contacting an agent directly and 22% look for yard signs as their first step. Today’s QR technology is already converting many yard sign hunters to Internet researchers. QR stands for “Quick Response”. It consists in a coded image added to the For Sale sign and [...]

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Spring, at last. I am certain there are statistics somewhere about spring fever and the sudden urge to remove clutter and refresh one’s surroundings when the winter months give way to warmer days and the evidence of new life all around us, at least here in the Northern hemisphere. According to Lending Tree, “60% of [...]

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On a weekly basis, HSH.com, a recognized and long-established publisher of mortgage and consumer loan information, collects current data from mortgage lenders coast to coast. This week’s report, published on Monday, March 7, examines the current slight fall in mortgage rates. “The drift downward in interest rates over the last few weeks, a cumulative move [...]

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The kitchen is the one room most cited in Real Estate, organizing, renovation and clutter-related Blogs and websites. There are more staging tips for the kitchen than for any other room in your house, more de-cluttering tips, more decorating tips and more selections of fabrics, surfaces, colors, windows and fixtures than for any other part [...]

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Yesterday’s spring-like weather brought to mind the idea that spring is an ideal time to sell a home. Generally, we equate spring with a rather obvious emergence of green to prevail over white. But there is significant evidence that conditions are ripe for selling now. It is time for a new set of beliefs. According [...]

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Storefronts and Inns that become traditional landmarks reveal, very clearly, the ability of entrepreneurs and businesses to sustain the trials of time and the variations in consumer behavior. More than this, such landmarks reveal an ability to capture and understand the tastes and needs of residents and visitors. The Vermont Economic-Demographic Profile is a yearly [...]

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