house — Blog — Live Oak Real Estate

Couples dream of buying a home together, leisurely enjoying a latte while dropping by open houses to look at remodeled kitchens and manicured backyards. Today’s market is quite different. Desirable homes are snapped up the moment they hit the market, often with multiple offers. Homebuyers in this climate must move quickly. This may require jumping on an opportunity without both partners adding their input.

Adding more complexity to a heated real estate market is job mobility. The US is experiencing an unprecedented job market. More employees than ever before are offering remote work environments. This business climate not only offers flexibility in living location but also the opportunity to make a career move. Making a change in location, regardless of the reason, often means one partner can travel for house hunting.

So, how can you trust your partner to find the right house?

Before starting the home search, it’s important to work together to identify what features are essential to the new home:

• Size

• Yard

• Bedrooms/bathrooms

• Schools

• Commute

• Community amenities

• Local services; shopping, restaurants, entertainment, gyms, parks, etc.

All these and more should be discussed and expectations set. Fortunately, we also have extensive virtual tools to use in the home search. Not only virtual tours, video, and drones, but a simple cell phone can easily take the absent partner on the house tour in real-time.

Can you trust your partner to choose the right house? With some honest conversation, careful planning, and technology – yes, you can!

Top Trends for Your Outdoor Living Space

Summer is here and you’re spending more time outdoors. For most of us, this still means primarily in our own backyards. Personal outdoor space has never been more popular and if yours could use a little sprucing up, here are the hottest trends for 2021.

Outdoor Kitchens – This trend is going nowhere. Ever since the first built-in BBQ showed up, homeowners have loved cooking outdoors. Choose from a simple pizza oven to a full chef’s set-up with multiple ovens, refrigerators, cooking spaces, and bar.
Edible Gardens – While home gardeners have enjoyed seasonal tomatoes and herb pots for decades, the rise of sustainability trends have increased the attention on home-grown, organic fruits and vegetables. Any small space can be transformed to grow your favorites.
Privacy Structures – Creating some private outdoor space is relatively easy. Simple strategies, such as a large, well-placed umbrella or planter containing tall grasses, can carve out some private outdoor space. Another trend is using larger furniture, such as covered daybeds or gazebos have made a strong return to the pages of design magazines.
Front Yards – With the lockdowns and restrictions of the past year, front yards have made a comeback. As people have enjoyed the ability to socialize with neighbors and friends as they pass by, not only have front porches become more popular but adding a patio or sitting area in the front yard has topped the garden trends this year.
The warm weather is back. This is a great time to explore the many ways to enjoy your outdoor space. From simple weekend projects to large-scale remodels, the trend toward using the outdoors to supplement indoor living space is here to stay.