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Erin and Ben Napier, the hosts of “Home Town,” have noticed one big problem with home renovations today: They often strip an old home of its character.

In the Season 7 episode “A Drop of Sunshine,” the Napiers help California couple Tony and Jennifer create their dream home in Laurel, MS. The couple have fallen in love with a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home listed for $140,000. But they can tell, immediately, that this 1955 house was recently flipped since it possesses very little of the structure’s original charm.

“When a house gets flipped, it’s like they go out of their way to disguise any tiny variation that would make it have character of any kind,” Erin laments.

Armed with a budget of $100,000, the Napiers work hard to add charming touches back to the architecture and fill the space with finishes that seem like they could be original to the home. Read on to learn how to spot a cheap flip—and fix it up.

Even though the extreme seller's market is in the rearview mirror, disgruntled clients have been filing more lawsuits against their agents, according to an analysis by Victor Insurance Managers.

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The numbers: U.S. existing-home sales fell 0.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4 million in January, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday.

This is the 12th straight monthly decline in existing-home sales. The 12-month losing streak is the longest since NAR began tracking sales in 1999.

Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal were expecting existing-home sales to drop to 4.2 million.

The level of sales activity was lowest since October 2010.

Total existing-home sales slid 0.7 percent between December and January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4 million, according to new data released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors.

Not everyone has $50,000 or more lying around and just begging to be invested in real estate. Here are six ways to invest without a huge upfront cost.

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Within just weeks of landing on the market, a concrete house with Pacific Ocean views has found a buyer.

The 5,616-square-foot minimalist abode in Cardiff By The Sea, CA, is listed for $8,998,000—down from its initial $10 million ask in 2022.

The home is pending sale, according to Realtor.com®.

Street view

Jared Nelson Photography

Homebuyers can potentially save $600 to $1,200 a year by applying for a mortgage with multiple lenders, according to research by Freddie Mac.

Photo illustration by Realtor.com; Photo: Getty Images

Gone are the days of going from furniture store to furniture store to sit on, scrutinize, and (ultimately) buy a sofa. Now, with online shopping, you can browse thousands of sofas from hundreds of retailers and purchase your perfect piece of furniture with the press of a button.

Online shopping has made buying furniture more convenient, especially when it comes to larger items like couches. But buying a sofa sight unseen ups the potential for you to end up with a piece of furniture you’re not happy with.

Worst-case scenario: You have to deal with the hassle of returning the item.

To avoid a massive headache, take note of these common mistakes people make when ordering a sofa online.

Photo illustration by Realtor.com; Photos: Getty Images (2)

When you’re flicking through an endless succession of listing photos for pricey homes, the leap from touring open houses to opening your very own front door can seem impossible.

Yet millions of homes are sold every year, so there’s got to be a way to get to the closing table. And it turns out, there are many ways.

We asked real homeowners to share how they snagged the perfect house and gathered the top tips on how these once-hopeful house hunters became homeowners. Here’s a breakdown of their strategies, from saving early and considering houses that need work.

‘I bought a house that needed a renovation’

One perk of buying a home that needs an upgrade is that you can roll the cost of the remodel into the mortgage.

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Finding the right house wasn’t easy during the pandemic. Neither was renovating on a tight schedule.

But finding the right house wasn’t easy during the pandemic. Neither was renovating on a tight schedule.

These diverse and talented entrepreneurs hold the greatest social influence in the entire real estate industry. And now Inman is inviting its audience to learn from them.

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Renting an apartment isn’t as easy as waltzing in and saying “I’ll take it!”—particularly in today’s competitive rental market. With many prospective tenants to choose from, landlords can be picky, and they will prioritize applicants with a track record of paying off debts and respecting their neighbors and community.

So how exactly do you prove you’re a tenant a landlord could trust? You should aim to ace your rental application—paperwork you fill out that tells a landlord (or management company) pertinent details about your life that can help size you up as a tenant.

If you’re determined to land your dream apartment, there are plenty of ways to help your rental application stand out. Here are some steps to take, based on what landlords look for and how you can prepare to make the best first impression.

1. Improve your credit score before your apartment search

Even if you’ve never rented an apartment before, landlords will want to see how responsible you are with your finances, and one of the main ways they do that is by sizing up your credit score.

Mutual of Omaha Mortgage has acquired Keller Mortgage for an undisclosed amount, according to an announcement on Monday. Keller Williams will retain an ownership stake in the company.

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Talk about a quick turnaround!

British-born actress Thandiwe Newton, best known for her work on HBO’s “Westworld,” has quickly sold her rustic Topanga, CA, home in the heart of the Santa Monica mountains. She owned it for just four months.

Purchased in September 2022 for $2,625,000, the home quickly reentered the market for the exact same price. But it was sold for $2,750,000, so the savvy actress actually made some dough from the transaction.

The three-bedroom, 1.5-bath mountain home has more than 2,300 square feet of living space. It comes with a studio guest cottage and children’s playhouse.

A two-bedroom bungalow in Los Angeles, a three-bedroom condominium in San Francisco and a 1941 cottage in Long Beach.

Courtesy of Benjamin Moore

Spring is the quintessential time for cleaning and sprucing up your space. For many homeowners, that ritual includes refreshing tired walls with new paint.

But choosing a paint color you won’t regret can be tricky. You might be torn between two (or five!) shades. Or maybe you’re just looking for something a bit out of the norm.

The following paint colors are certainly bold, but we promise this: Stepping away from ho-hum white and gray hues is guaranteed to enliven your living space.

If you’re planning to remake your walls this spring, these are the au courant colors to consider. Our experts were happy to weigh in on the paint trends they’re seeing right now.

Photo-Illustration by Realtor.com; Photos: Getty Images ((3)

If the housing market of just a year ago still seemed to be moving at quantum speed, today it’s more akin to an interminable traffic jam—with no exit ramps or HOV lanes in sight.

As higher mortgage rates have made buying a home ever more expensive, the pool of buyers who can afford to purchase real estate has dried up. Nationally, the number of existing-home sales plummeted 36% in November compared with a year earlier, according to a Realtor.com® analysis of CoreLogic data. (The data did not include sales of new-construction homes.) There were 395,000 sales in November 2021 compared with 251,000 one year later.

So home sales have declined by a third across the U.S. But where are they down the most? The data team at Realtor.com found the parts of the country with the steepest declines in transactions.

These were often the COVID-19 pandemic hot spots, particularly in the Sun Belt stretching from California to Florida where buyers flocked to over the Past few years and bid up prices to unthinkable heights. Newtonian laws of real estate ultimately prevailed: Markets that went way up ultimately fell back down to earth, hard.

In his State of the Housing Market address on Sunday, Keller Williams' co-founder Gary Keller explained how chaos will force agents to become better competitors — or be left behind.

As we celebrate Black History Month, find out how this trail-blazing family created three generations of real estate excellence. Hawaii broker-owner Joyce Wright Funk traces their impact on the industry.