PARKER  REALTY ASSOCIATES

Congratulations on your new vacation property! If you bought it as an investment, and are planning to use rental income to pay your mortgage, you probably want to be sure the house stays rented, and your tenants stay happy. We bet you can’t wait to use those owner weeks and relax in your own place. But to really relax, you need to know that the house is cared for when you aren’t around. Also? If you’ve been getting weekly (or daily!) phone calls from your tenants about everyt

If you’re like most people, a lot of the work you do on your home is meant for you to enjoy--at least for a little while. But you also want to make sure you get some of that money back when it’s time to sell or refinance. So which improvements are also smart investments? Here’s what the numbers say for 2014. Stay away from... Home offices: Having your own kid/pet/clutter-free space to telecommute from seems like a no brainer, right? But what happens when your potential buyers

Your DVR is full of home improvement shows, you’ve got the soul of Bob Villa, and a masters degree from YouTube University. Now that you finally ready to buy that fixer upper home, you have an outlet for your DIY ambitions. But there’s one more checklist you need to go through before you get started. The bones and guts Have a professional check the structural integrity, electric wiring, and plumbing before you buy. You should also check to see if there’s any lead paint or asb

Selling a home has its typical challenges. Maybe the couple across the street just listed their house, which you know has an amazing kitchen (while yours is just slightly less so). Maybe values have started to drop a tad. Or maybe you're getting transferred and you have to sell - and find something new in your future city - in what seems like an impossibly short amount of time. Whatever the circumstances, you want the sale to go as smoothly, and take place as quickly, as poss

Turn on HGTV or any number of other channels almost anytime during the day or night and you're bound to find at least a couple of shows about flipping houses. Some provide a cautionary tale about overextending yourself financially or making other rookie flipping mistakes, but the vast majority end up with a profit of $30,000, $60,000, or $100,000+ in profit for a couple of months (or a couple of days, in the case of one new flipping show). Enticing, right? If you're getting r