Community • August 20, 2024

2024 Football & Hockey Schedules, Recipes, & Tips

by Windermere MI

Seattle fans, it's go time. Here's your fall sports playbook.

Football is almost here and hockey is coming in hot behind it! Scroll down for printable schedules, tailgating hacks (including how to pack the perfect cooler!), and favorite gameday recipes. Fans of all ages will also love our printable football and hockey bingo sheets.

Need to brush up on your sports lingo? Check out Wikipedia’s handy football and hockey glossaries. You can say impressive things like, “Are they running a 3-4 defense?” and “It’s not icing unless the puck passes the goal line…”

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Real Estate • March 15, 2023

7 Ways to Make Life Easier When Selling Your Home

by Windermere MI

When it’s time to sell a home, we all dream of a flawlessly executed transaction where everything goes smoothly and ends with a win-win for you and the buyer. Here are seven tips to help make that happen—and avoid surprise expenses along the way…

1. Repair Your Home First

Making repairs to your home before you sell not only makes it more appealing to buyers, but it can also help you avoid the additional costs that can result from the buyer’s inspection. Disclosing any repairs that still need to be made will help you move smoothly to closing and avoid problems that could otherwise kill the deal. Consider conducting a pre-listing inspection to make sure everything is out in the open before you sell.

2. Make Sure Your Price is Right

The key to selling your home quickly is to find the right buyers. To find the right buyers, your home must be correctly priced. I use a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)—a thorough, data-backed examination of your home and how it compares to other listings in your area—to accurately price your home. Without an agent’s CMA, it’s easy for your home to be listed at the wrong price.

- Avoid Overpricing: Overpricing your home will attract the wrong buyers because you will force your home into competition with other listings that are fundamentally superior or have more to offer. When comparing other homes to yours, buyers will focus on the discrepancies and the features your home lacks. Overpricing will often cause homes to sit on the market for extended periods of time and become less appealing to buyers.

- Avoid Underpricing: Under competitive market conditions, intentionally underpricing a home is a common strategy to attract buyer attention with the goal of starting a bidding war to drive the price of the home up. However, several things must go correctly for this to happen. In all other cases, underpricing your home reflects a lack of knowledge about where its market value fits into the fabric of current local market conditions and can leave you, the seller, unsatisfied with the price your home ultimately fetches.

3. Invest In Staging & Professional Photography

First impressions matter when selling a home. The vast majority of buyers are searching online and taking virtual tours of homes they’re interested in. As such, it’s well worth the time and money to hire a high-quality photographer and I always provide this for my sellers. The right photography can make all the difference in the minds of buyers.

Home staging is also a critical element for getting the most value for a home and selling it quickly. You can even DIY if you have the time and modern decor. It’s also the perfect time to inspect your home for any minor or cosmetic repairs that can be addressed quickly. An aesthetically pleasing home will attract more eyes, and any edge you can give your home over competing listings may be just the ticket to getting it sold.

4. Keep Your Emotions in Check

Selling your home is an act of learning how to let it go. Once you know you’re ready to sell, you’ll need to be able to look at it with an objective eye. This will allow you to approach decisions from a neutral standpoint and work towards what is best for the sale of the home. Having clear judgement will also help you get through the negotiating process and steer yourself toward a smooth closing. Stepping back can be tough, but a good agent will always be happy to give you guidance and help you keep perspective.

5. Wait Until You’re Ready

It may be tempting to rush your listing to take advantage of local market conditions, but waiting until you have all your ducks in a row will make life so much easier. Knowing when to sell your home is a mixture of being financially prepared, having the right agent, and understanding how your home fits into the current local market landscape. Once you’re ready, here are some tips on timing the market.

6. Use an Agent

…and I’m not just saying it because I’m an agent! Selling a home “For Sale By Owner” (FSBO) can save on commission fees, but is a complex and risky process that can easily lead to serious costs. An agent will help you front marketing costs, provide sound advice to help you avoid legal trouble, and ultimately shoulder some of the liability for the transaction. Being represented by an experienced professional will help you avoid mistakes during the offer process, negotiations, and closing that could otherwise be costly or jeopardize the sale. It’s no wonder that a vast majority of sellers choose to work with an agent.

7. Be Willing to Negotiate

Approaching buyers’ offers with an open mind will ensure you don’t miss any opportunities. Before the offers start to come in, it’s important to work with your agent to understand your expectations and strategize which terms and contingencies you’re willing to negotiate on. That way, you can quickly identify the right offer when it comes along. Showing a willingness to work with buyers will also keep them engaged and make sure you don’t leave potential deals on the table.

Adapted from articles that originally appeared on the Windermere blog, November 22, 2021 & April 7, 2021, by Sandy Dodge.

Trends & Living • June 13, 2022

10 Tips for Sustainable Gardening

by Windermere MI

Sunny days are finally here, the flowers are in bloom, and the timing is perfect to give your garden some love. Having a healthy garden is one of the best ways to create a sustainable home and reduce your household’s carbon footprint. Below are some eco-friendly tips that will help to make your garden even more sustainable…

1. Compost Your Waste

Composting, which puts your natural waste to good use, is the cornerstone of any sustainable garden. All grass clippings, dead leaves, plants, flowers, and the like are rich in nutrients. By composting, you provide your garden with a natural fertilizer, free of contaminants. Not only will this provide nourishment, but it will also help to produce healthier and tastier food. Here’s how to do it.

2. Try Mulching

If having a sustainable garden is your goal, it’s important to treat your soil with care. Laying down a couple of inches of mulch in mid- to late spring (think: grass clippings, wood chips or chopped leaves) enriches the soil and ensures it’s as healthy as can be. Mulch also conserves soil moisture, reduces weed growth and naturally moderates the temperature of the soil. You can cover either bare dirt or freshly planted food and flowers. Find more tips here.

3. Optimize Your Garden Design

It’s natural to want to accentuate the beauty of your garden when designing it, but the sustainable gardener will prioritize giving plants what they need. Take into consideration which plants need direct access to sunlight, which need the most space in the garden, and any special requirements a plant may need to inhabit optimal growing conditions.

Companion planting (choosing plants that benefit each other) will attract pollinators and deter pests. For example, peas & beans feed the soil with nitrogen, and nasturtiums can lure aphids away from other plants. Plant basil and tomatoes together, too–basil boosts the flavor of the tomatoes while scaring away pests.

4. Use Natural Weed Killers

One of the pillars of organic gardening is to reduce the use of chemicals whenever and wherever possible. Preventing weeds naturally by using landscape cloth, mulch or corn gluten meal is a great way to start. You can also make your own DIY weed killer from household items like vinegar or even boiling water as an effective substitute for harmful, chemical-based weed killers. Whichever method you choose, it’s important to weed by hand often.

5. Water Wisely

Substantial watering is critical to keeping your garden healthy, but overwatering is a common practice and leads to an unsustainable garden. Research the amount of water your plants and flowers need to make sure you aren’t overwatering. In our rainy climate, rain barrels are a useful tool as their function is to catch and conserve the water from your downspouts. Here’s a charming Canadian video on how to make and install a rain barrel.

6. Repurpose Poop

It’s time to get down and dirty. For a more sustainable garden and even healthier soil, consider adding animal manure. Chicken, sheep, and cow manure are all popular choices. Rich in nutrients, it can be used both as a fertilizer and as a soil conditioner. Make sure the manure you purchase is free of pathogens and ask about the recommended window of time from application to harvest before you begin using it.

7. Go Local

Planting natively is a fast ticket to sustainable gardening. Native plants are innately acclimated to local climate conditions, making them easier to grow and maintain. Native plants often require less water to grow due to their familiarity with the soil and rainfall in your region, which cuts down on your garden’s total water intake.

8. Collect Dried Seeds

YES, you can save your seeds and sow them next year. Wait until the seed is fully ripe before you collect it. It’s important to gather seeds when the weather is dry and to store them in a dry place. To produce healthy plants in the future, the seed must be completely dry. Here are some great tips on collecting & storing seeds.

9. Stop Garden Slugs

Slugs love wreaking havoc on gardens, eating through leaves and fruit, leaving a trail of destruction. Fortunately, there are also many things they hate…coffee grounds, for example. Chickens. Rosemary. Fennel. Drowning in beer traps. Check out these awesome tricks for making eco-friendly slug repellant…you can use these to replace traditional slug baits, which contain chemicals that are highly toxic to other animals.

10. Replace Your Gas Mower

How else can you reduce your garden’s carbon footprint? Replace your gas mower with a more sustainable alternative. Electric mowers and push mowers are functional and more eco-friendly replacements. They’re also quieter and you never have to mess with those stinky gas cans again. For added sustainability, consider replacing your other gas-powered equipment, such as trimmers and leaf blowers.

Pssst…Need a bigger yard for the garden of your dreams? I can help with that.

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