I'm a speaker and writer and social media queen. Married to my best friend for 38 years, we have two amazing men children, two gorgeous daughters-in-love, a precious glambaby, and a cute boy dog, Frankie Bolwahnn.
In honor of National Book Lovers Day, I’m bringing you a review of the last, most awesome, book I read. It’s called “Lies Like Wildfire” by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez.
It’s no secret I like to read YA (young adult) fiction. I like the stories that are bubbly and fun and end up in a happy ending. They are quick reads, a nice diversion from every day life. But this book is not that. I started reading it and I was all, oh holy cow, I don’t want to read about a wildfire but, y’all, this is an awesome book! I was on the edge of my chair the whole time I was reading it and I finished it in a day.
The story is about five kids who have grown up together. When they were young, they all volunteered to be monsters in a local production and, over the years, the group becomes known as The Monsters. They are all seniors in high school when they go into the forest where there is a deep, deep lake called The Gap. They are horsing around on their last summer before they all go their separate ways in college when one of the boys, Luke, decides to smoke some weed. Hannah, who is the daughter of the local sheriff, slaps the pipe out of his hand and that’s how the fire starts. It becomes bigger than anything they could have ever imagined and with one lie, you see the friendship and their loyalty put to the test.
It’s a really great book and I can’t recommend it more. I always hate finishing a book I love this much because I’m afraid the next one won’t measure up. Are you a book lover? What are you reading today?
My house hunting super power ⚡️ Spotting the hidden potential
You’ve seen the shows on HGTV where they buy the ugliest house ever and 30 minutes later it’s straight out of West Elm and you’re like “I think I could do this!”
What happens is, sometimes that potential is hard to spot.
When you’re looking at multiple homes, you start comparing the ones filled with oak cabinets, funky kitchen layouts and overgrown backyards to the ones that are updated and decorated with furniture from Crate & Barrel.
That can make it difficult to favor the ones that need the elbow grease and paint jobs, you know?
But the ones that look like they’re straight out of Instagram might have a higher price tag and cause you to sacrifice some of the features that were initially most important to you.
This is where I come in! I want to help you keep your top priorities in mind when looking at homes and work around what you might not love about a house!
So maybe you find a house in the perfect location. It has a great layout and the yard you’ve dreamed about, but inside you’re already making a list of all the changes you’d have to make.
What we can do is sit down and make a good ol’ pros and cons list of the changes vs the positive features and see what makes most sense.
Maybe just a few simple updates could give the space a makeover that you’d be really happy with.
A fresh coat of white paint, new rugs, swapping out the pendant lights and adding new cabinet hardware in the kitchen could make the space look entirely different and wouldn’t require taking the kitchen down to its studs or starting from scratch!
What is one home feature or design style you could not look past? I want to try and spot the hidden potential.
The home buying process will be so much smoother if you hire an agent who you trust to work alongside you rather than randomly contacting agents via signs, real estate websites and open houses you pop by.
Here are 3 ways you could be agent hopping without knowing it:
1. If you happen to be checking out houses online in your free time and come across a house that didn’t come through your home search – email YOUR AGENT. Ask them to find out information on this home or if it’s still available.
What you need to know: There is likely an agent listed next to that house online. That isn’t necessarily the listing agent of that home, but rather someone who is paying to have their contact information pop up there.
2. You just went to the farmer’s market on a Saturday morning, have a fresh cup of coffee in hand, driving with the windows down and pass an Open House Sign pointing right. You put your blinker on and follow the signs until you find the house that’s for sale.
There is an agent holding that house open for the day and you introduce yourself and start talking.
What you need to know: They aren’t necessarily the listing agent of this house. If they are, they are representing the sellers. Make sure you let them know you’re already working with an agent if they offer to send you another listing or show you a home. Give them your agent’s business card if you have it on hand and thank them for any information they shared.
If you’re interested in that house you walked through, call and let your agent know.
3. You get a postcard in the mail and OMG IT’S YOUR DREAM HOUSE!
There’s an agent’s picture and phone number on the postcard for you to call to get more information – YAY!
What you need to know: If you’ve been working with an agent already, make sure you contact them. The person’s information on the postcard is the listing agent’s but your agent can show you any house on the market.
Why do you want to buy a house? Or maybe for you, it’s a new house..
I want all of my home buyers to answer this question at the start of their journey because it’s something you can continuously come back to throughout the process to make sure you’re buying the house that’s right for your needs.
Here are a few examples that might help spark your why:
👨👦👦 👩👩👧👧 👨👨👧👦 👩👧👦👨👩👦
To raise your family
🖼 To have a space to make your Pinterest boards come to life and paint the walls whatever color you want
🐶 To have a yard for your dog to run around in
💵 To make a good financial investment
💰 To invest in a rental property that will provide you with some extra income
🌅 To buy a home for retirement
🌊 To have a place to get away and hear the ocean waves as you sip your coffee every morning
🛋 To finally design your space to look like it’s straight out of Studio McGee’s Dream Home Makeover and have those dreamy parties around the massive kitchen island
There are so many reasons for owning a home, but what is YOUR reason? Ready to buy? Give me a call!
School is BACK IN SESSION (soon) & I’m here to share not only your August Home to do list but also what else I have up my sleeve for the last month of Summer!
The kids are going back to school, but so is my blog!
Throughout the month of August I’ll be sharing all the home buying and selling basics – the things to know before getting started, your credit score breakdown, how to find an agent – all things real estate “school”! So grab your notebooks, sharpen your pencils, get ready for class to start and make sure to contact me with all your real estate questions!
I really love reading YA (young adult) books. At least some of them. I don’t really go for the fantasy and vampire books but the ones that are about kids in high school are usually pretty fun and Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Love is no exception. I also love to read about different cultures so this book also satisfied that requirement.
Radha is a very talented Kathak dancer with a very involved (overly involved?) dance mom. At a large international dance competition, she over hears other dancers talking about her and she is horrified and leaves the competition without dancing.
Radha moves to New Jersey where she is given a second chance at finding the “dance joy” that’s been eluding her but she’s unable to perform without having anxiety attacks. At her new school, she meets Jai, the leader of the Bollywood Beats dance group. They are minus one choreographer and have no dance for their winter competition at which scouts will attend and future dance opportunities can be achieved.
Jai and Radha like each other and Radha agrees to choreograph the dance for the group as it will also allow her to graduate without having to be onstage.
During this time, Radha also rekindles her relationship with her father in Chicago. He is a chef in his own restaurant and gives her a notebook of recipes that belongs to her grandfather. She starts learning how to cook the Indian food her grandfather and father cook and discovers a new passion.
I loved reading about the dance competition, the relationship between Radha and Jai, and reading the Indian recipes a lot. This was a fun book and I highly recommend it! In the past I have read My So Called Bollywood Life by this same author, Nisha Sharma, and loved it as well!
HGTV makes selling your home look easy peezy, lemon squeezy. Now that we’re talking about lemons, pour yourself an ice cold glass of lemonade and let me reveal what your real estate agent does that HGTV doesn’t show you!
A good agent will:
Create massive demand through digital marketing strategies.
Price your home appropriately to net you the most money possible because they know the market.
Negotiate the contracts to make sure you’re not leaving money on the table.
Get you the most eyeballs o your home and increase exposure.
Help you prepare your house for market because they know what buyers want.
With a background in digital marketing and a sincere desire to help you get top dollar on the sale of your home, the items above are things I excel in.
Request my free 5 page guide, Home Seller Bootcamp, created just for sellers who want to get a leg up on the competition before starting the selling process.
I AM DOING THE 75 HARD CHALLENGE! I just finished my seventh day and I wanted to make my experience public for accountability as much as anything else.
The rules for 75 hard are fairly simple to remember:
Drink 1 gallon of water a day
Take a daily progress photo
Work out twice for 45 minutes each, one workout must be outside.
Read 10 pages of a book
Follow a diet
No alcohol or cheat meals
I learned about 75 Hard a year or so ago and thought it sounded interesting. I tried it for the first time in April. I lasted two days.
In 2016 I broke my ankle and haven’t been too active since then. Prior to the break, I was a powerlifter so I tried to do kettlebells and weight training for my first workout and I tried to walk for my second workout. Walking on rural roads with animals, etc. was sort of dangerous. You can’t easily go from nothing to two 45 minute workouts a day. My ankle hurt and I stopped.
Last week I had a really bad week in real estate. I am not one of those people who have bad days. I’m happy and positive and to get slammed with a whole bad week was a tough experience. I decided I needed mental toughness and the next morning I started 75 Hard.
The water is a simple one for me. Drinking it, that is. As a realtor in rural Arkansas it can be difficult to find a place to use the restroom but so far I’m doing it.
The daily photo is easy to remember. I got the app which makes it all easy to remember and I usually take my photo after my first workout session in the morning.
I got my personal trainer certification in 1999 and I remembered that there was a woman who had walking workouts you could do in your home: Leslie Sansone. I looked for her videos and found one I liked that was long enough and I started doing that. Then I found one I like ever better by Up to the Beat Fit. It’s more dancy and fun and it goes by super fast. This program is definitely scalable to your level of fitness, you just need to give it some thought.
Reading is super easy for me. I’m always reading at least three or four books at a time so the reading part is not a problem at all.
Books I’m currently reading that I totally recommend:
You must follow a diet and it’s a diet of your choice. I have been flirting with the carnivore diet for over a year, I’d guess. I feel best when eating that way so that’s what I chose. In the past, sweet things and wine have always pulled me off a strict carnivore diet and so I’m excited to finally do it fully for at least 75 days to see how it really feels when doing it all the way.
The last rule is that you can’t have alcohol or cheat meals. The two things that were throwing me off a great diet plan.
You must do all of these things, daily, for 75 days. If you miss any of the steps, you must start over again at Day 1. I’m not starting over this time!
Because here I am, seven days later, down nine pounds and feeling great! I’ve been sleeping well and I have loads of energy. I feel so excited that I’m actually going to complete is this time.
I used the hashtag #75HardOver60 for the very first time! No one else had ever used it. 🙂
I was in a class last week where the instructor told us that we have to keep the promises we make to ourselves. That hit me right upside the head. I would never in a million years not keep my promise to you but keeping promises to myself have be lacking. I’m excited to be keeping this promise to myself.
After a week, I feel confident enough to put it out into the public view that I’m doing this challenge. I’m a winner and not a quitter. A surprising thing is, the first couple days my ankle was super sore but now? It feels better than it did since I broke it! I’m not sure if I had to work through some scar tissue or what but those are the facts. I used to wonder how people who broke their ankles could go back to running and such. Now I get that I probably needed to push through those couple of sore days instead of being afraid of the soreness.
Thank you, Andy Frisella for creating 75 Hard. Friends, welcome to my journey to mental toughness!
Did you know that June is National Homeownership Month? I feel so grateful to have been able to make the dream of homeownership a reality for so many great people.
Every step of the journey to homeownership is so special. From the first meeting where I walk new buyers through what to expect, to setting up their home search with their unique wants and needs (fenced in backyard for the pup – check), to writing an offer and anxiously waiting to hear if the sellers accepted and then of course the day the buyers actually get the keys and become homeowners – it gives me all the feels. I’m always so happy to be making the Hugs and Kisses Marshmallows that I make each buyer and give them at closing.
And then I thought about what happens AFTER closing day. Because that’s the part where you actually are living the dream of homeownership. I sat down one morning to brainstorm what I wanted to do to celebrate homeownership this month and I decided to run a Homeowner Challenge! Don’t worry – it doesn’t require demolition! But I decided to show up every day on my Instagram stories with a fun “Homeowner” to do! From simple Summer home maintenance tasks to fun activities to do this month at home. If you want in on the fun, make sure you’re following me over at Instagram and see what I have for you each day!
Can I ask you one favor? Can you comment below and tell me your favorite thing about your home or about homeownership? I’d love to collect everyone’s answers and share them on social media!
Here is my best advice for starting the home buying process in a competitive market?
These 2 things are CRUCIAL to locking in that new home:
1. PATIENCE – The market might be competitive but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. I will help you get the keys to your new home but it’s going to take an extra dose of patience.
Trust in the process, trust in your agent and remind yourself of WHY you’re doing this in the first place!
2. GRATITUDE – Maybe you’re in the thick of house hunting with no luck right now. Or maybe you’re feeling discouraged because of all the hype the “crazy market” is getting.
Well I’m here to be your real estate bestie! We can get fries and sip milkshakes and talk about the complete A-Z blueprint to getting in that new house and what hurdles you’re most worried about.
But with that, I want you to remember your why and start your home search with gratitude. Be grateful you get to start your search for your dream home or your first home. It may feel like a sprint but at the end of the day it’s truly a journey and I want you to enjoy it!
HOMEOWNER CHECKLIST
To help you make your home as fresh as the feel of Summer, I’ve rounded up the top things to add to your list to get your home Summer ready!
☀️ Schedule Outdoor Projects 🐝 Plant Bee friendly flowers 🎨 Paint something a pop of color 💦 Power wash your deck and patio furniture ☕️ Make iced coffee at home and sip it on the deck 🚿 Service your sprinklers 🥶 Replace your air conditioner filter 🧽 Clean between your windows and screens 🍔 Clean your grill grates 🗒 Create a summer must do list 🍋 Make homemade lemonade or a fun summer cocktail 🧺 Corral summer necessities in a basket or bowl 🚪 Install screen doors 👗 Hang a clothesline for drying towels and swimsuits 💛 Lighten up decor – breezy curtains, light colors 🐞 Make or buy bug repellent jars for your backyard 🏡 CELEBRATE HOMEOWNERSHIP
I combined all 12 months of homeowner checklists into a double sided guide that you can print out and hang on your fridge! Click here for a copy.
Today, I’m diving into an important topic that could make a big difference in the amount of money you net from your home sale.
The market is hot. There are more buyers who need houses than houses for sale. That means your home is in demand and it’s not even listed yet! What I’m seeing happen is a lot of sellers are thinking… Hmm maybe we should just put a sign up in the front yard and see what happens. Before you do that, hear me out!
The worst thing you can do as a seller in a hot market is to do it alone. Before you head to the local hardware store for the “For Sale By Owner” sign, finish reading this post!
I know you’re doing the math and figuring out how much selling your home on your own could potentially save you… but I wanted to shed some light on a few important things to consider before you decide to go that route.
If you’re looking to the internet to determine what price to list your home at, you could be losing a lot of money.
Online home values aren’t always entirely accurate which means basing your list price on that could leave a lot of money on the table.
Contracts and Negotiations can feel like a foreign language if you’re not a real estate professional. Not understanding how to navigate these or have someone work in your best interest could result in sticky situations and money lost.
Demand – when you’re in a hot market, one of the greatest benefits to the seller is that they’re typically in the driver’s seat. When there are more buyers than listings for sale, your house can spark a bidding war when it hits the market. However, without an agent helping you prep your home for the market, price it strategically, market it with modern methods and really get it out there, you’re missing out on that demand. You might have a buyer or two but that isn’t going to drive the price up like it would if you had someone working for you.
My best advice of all is before you make the decision to go it alone, do some research and find an agent who has good reviews, comes highly recommended and who you can learn something about before reaching out. What does their experience look like? What are their clients saying? Then schedule a consultation with them to see how they can help you net the most money possible from your home sale.
