During winter, power outages are more common, and searching for supplies in the dark is never fun. Creating a dedicated space for your emergency items helps your family stay calm and ready. A labeled bin, a wicker basket near the pantry, or a simple plastic tote tucked into a closet works perfectly.

Essential Winter Emergency Items

Make sure your seasonal emergency kit includes:

• Flashlights or headlamps for each family member
• Extra batteries
• Matches or a lighter
• A basic first aid kit
• Candles with safe holders
• A battery-powered or hand-crank radio
• Warm blankets or throws
• A pocketknife or multipurpose tool

Winter outages can happen after snowstorms, ice buildup, or strong winds—so having lighting and warmth easily accessible is especially important this time of year.

Deluxe Winter Preparation

For added comfort and safety during the holidays, consider enhancing your kit with:

• Bottled water (at least three days per person)
• Canned foods, snacks, and a manual can opener
• Extra winter blankets or thermal emergency blankets
• A small generator or power bank for charging phones
• A supply of pet food if you have animals
• Battery-powered candles for safer holiday lighting during outages

These additional items help your family stay warm, fed, and connected even if the weather takes a turn.

Seasonal Maintenance Checklist

Because winter storms can bring longer outages, review your emergency supplies before the holidays begin:

• Replace old batteries and expired food
• Check that flashlights and radios are working
• Rotate water storage
• Make sure supplies haven’t been used or misplaced
• Restock blankets, mittens, or hand warmers in your kit

A little preparation now ensures you’re not caught off guard during Christmas gatherings—or worse, on a freezing night during a winter storm.

Stay Safe, Stay Cozy

The Christmas season is about comfort, celebration, and peace. Keeping your emergency supplies organized and updated is one simple way to protect your home and the people you love during this busy time of year.

What Is Standby Power?

Standby power refers to the electricity consumed by appliances and devices even when they’re turned off. Your computer, television, DVR, phone chargers, and many other electronics continue drawing power from your outlets 24 hours a day, seven days a week—whether you’re using them or not.

The Real Cost of Vampire Power

While the impact of each individual device may seem small, the cumulative effect is significant. Standby power accounts for approximately 5% of total residential electricity use in the United States, resulting in roughly $4 billion in wasted energy annually nationwide.

For the average household, this can translate to nearly $100 per year in unnecessary electricity costs.

How to Identify Energy Vampires in Your Home

There are two simple ways to detect if your devices are drawing standby power:

Visual Check: If an appliance displays a lit screen, clock, or indicator light when switched off, it’s consuming vampire power. This commonly occurs with televisions, computer monitors, DVRs, and phone chargers.

Touch Test: Place your hand on a device when it’s turned off. If it feels warm, it’s drawing electricity and converting it to waste heat.

Common Culprits and Their Annual Costs

Based on research from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (assuming electricity costs of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour), here are typical annual standby power costs for common household devices:

High-Impact Devices:

• Digital cable box with DVR: $43.01
• DVR: $36.63
• Satellite box with DVR: $27.52
• Digital cable box: $17.65
• Satellite cable box: $15.50

Moderate-Impact Devices:

• Laptop computer: $8.81
• Multifunction printer: $5.21
• CD player: $4.99
• VCR: $4.38
• Desktop computer: $3.96
• Microwave oven: $3.05
• LCD or Plasma TV: $2.97

Lower-Impact Devices:

• Answering machine: $1.99
• Printer: $1.98
• Cordless phone: $1.98
• Electric toothbrush: $1.98
• Coffee maker: $1.12
• Video game console: $1.00
• Cell phone charger (when not charging): $0.26

Practical Solutions to Reduce Standby Power

Here are effective strategies to minimize vampire power in your home:

Daily Habits:

• Unplug all battery chargers when not actively charging devices
• Use power strips to control clusters of electronics, making it easy to switch off multiple devices at once
• Unplug infrequently used appliances, especially those in guest rooms

When Away from Home:

• Before leaving for vacation, unplug as many devices and appliances as practical

Smart Purchasing:

• When buying new electronics, look for products with low standby energy consumption
• Check for ENERGY STAR certification, which includes standards for standby power

Long-Term Solutions:

• Consider using programmable timers for devices that don’t need constant power
• Install smart power strips that automatically cut power to peripheral devices when the main device is turned off

Taking Action

Reducing vampire power is one of the easiest ways to lower your electricity bills while also reducing your home’s environmental impact. By implementing even a few of these strategies, you can begin reclaiming that wasted energy and putting money back in your pocket.

If you have questions about energy efficiency or would like recommendations during your next home inspection, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

When water freezes, it expands by about 9%. This expansion can exert over 100,000 psi of force, which can easily rupture your faucet or pipes and potentially cause flooding inside your home.

Steps to Drain Your Outdoor Water Faucets:

1. Close the Inside Valve: Locate the valve inside your home that controls the water flow to your outdoor faucet. This valve is usually positioned closest to the wall where the pipe exits your home.
2. Drain the Inside Valve: Place a small bucket under the valve. Unscrew the small drain plug on the side of this valve to allow any trapped water to drain out.
3. Disconnect the Garden Hose: Remove any garden hose attached to the outdoor faucet.
4. Open the Outdoor Valve: Open the outdoor faucet to let any remaining water drain out. Once drained, close the outdoor faucet.
5. Replace the Drain Plug: Reattach the drain plug on the inside valve.

After winter, to use your outdoor faucet again, simply reopen the inside valve. Before doing so, ensure that the outdoor faucet is closed to avoid any potential leaks or flooding.

Additional Considerations:

• Uncover the Inside Valve: Make sure the inside valve is not covered by boxes, blankets, or other items. Covering this valve can insulate it and prevent warm air from circulating, which can lead to freezing and potential damage.
• Frost-Free Faucets: Many modern homes are equipped with frost-free faucets designed to prevent freezing. These faucets are typically a foot long and have a mechanism that keeps the valve beyond the wall, away from the cold. However, if these faucets are not installed correctly, they can still freeze. Therefore, it’s still a good idea to drain them as a precaution.
• Insulated Covers: While insulated covers can help retain some warmth, they should not replace the draining process. In extremely cold conditions or when the faucet is exposed to strong winds, insulated covers alone may not be sufficient.
• Garden Hose Removal: Always disconnect your garden hose from the outdoor faucet. Water left in the hose can freeze and expand, potentially causing damage. If you need to leave the hose outside, ensure it is fully drained or use a compressor to remove all water.

Summary

By following these simple steps to drain your outdoor water faucets, you can avoid the risk of freezing and potential flooding during the winter months.

How Long Does It Take to Build a House, On Average?

Of course, in order to figure out how long it will take to build a home, there are many factors you’ll need to consider. Some properties will take far longer to construct than others, depending on their size, layout, location, and more.

On average, a home will take around seven months to build. This doesn’t account for the amount of time it takes to plan and design the structure, however – that can take one to four additional months, typically. You’ll also need to consider the amount of time it’ll take to have the project authorized. This will often add another month to the project timeline.

Build Time and Home Type: Which Is Fastest?

From the day you begin planning to the final day of construction, it’s reasonable to expect the process to take around a year. Still, this is only an average. Certain types of properties will take longer to build than others.

Custom-built properties are usually going to be slower to construct than built-for-sale properties. Owner-built properties tend to come with the longest build-times, averaging at around a year. On the other hand, contractor-built properties are often a bit faster to construct. These will take approximately nine months to complete, from start to finish.

The fastest properties to build are often built-for-sale homes. Built-for-sale properties are a form of non-custom construction, which speeds up the building process. Generally, one of these houses will be ready to sell in around six months.

Before getting to work on your home building project, make sure you’ve created a realistic timeline for the process. Whenever you’re embarking on a project of this scale, it’s in your best interest to have realistic expectations from the get-go. For more information on building a home, get in touch with us today.

What Does It Mean to Give a Lowball Offer?

When you’re providing a seller or their agent with a lowball offer, you’re offering far less than the asking price.

Some buyers may assume that, in the worst-case scenario, the seller rejects the offer and they continue to negotiate. But this isn’t the only risk that comes with giving lowball offers. Sometimes, lowballing can do serious damage and cause you to lose out on a property.

One of the most notable reasons for this is simple: When you offer far beneath the value of a property, you’re demonstrating that you’re not a serious buyer. If you’re not seriously interested in the home, then why should the current owner continue to negotiate with you? Some homeowners or agents might even consider lowball offers to be disrespectful, which can damage their perception of you, as a potential buyer.

Should You Still Negotiate on a Property?

Even if lowball offers are rarely accepted by home sellers, that doesn’t mean that buyers need to give up on negotiating, altogether. It’s still a good idea to negotiate the price of a home, if you’re doing so responsibly and aren’t giving offers that are far below the asking price.

If you’re looking to negotiate, make sure that you have an experienced real estate agent on your side. Your agent has the skills and knowledge to negotiate effectively on your behalf, even if you don’t have any experience doing so.

Your realtor will be able to do in-depth research on the property you’re interested in, allowing them to determine how motivated the seller truly is. They could even compromise and give an offer that’s on the lower side, while also offering to take the property “as-is.” In any case, your agent can determine the more effective negotiation technique for a specific home.

Home-buying can be difficult, especially if you’re going about the process on your own. For more information on negotiation, hiring an agent, and more, reach out today.

Even if you’re new to the industry, you’ve probably heard more than your fair share of tips about marketing for real estate professionals. By now, you probably have an idea of the basics—set up a website, advertise yourself, and establish a presence on social media platforms. However, the truth is that there’s much more to marketing in the world of real estate.

If you’d like to take a more creative approach to market yourself as an agent, here are two unique ideas to get you started. These strategies can be effective to begin generating leads and building brand recognition.

Create a Personally Branded Magazine

Creating and distributing your own personally branded magazine is a creative way to stay in touch with past clients. You’ll also find that you can generate new leads in the area. Of course, this magazine shouldn’t be made entirely of advertising and fluff. To make a high-quality publication, you’ll need to give the reader something of value.

Your magazine should feature your business name, image, logo, and contact information. Along with these fundamentals, the magazine should offer useful and entertaining information—some regarding real estate and some regarding interesting features of the area. When regularly distributed, magazines have improved staying power over other kinds of mail, which are more likely to be thrown in the trash after they’re received.

Provide Clients with a Branded Moving Truck

Although it’s a bit of an investment on your part, including your brand information on a moving truck is a great way to earn the respect of current clients, as well as the interest of potential clients. Since it’s a business expense, you can claim the expense as soon as tax time comes.

You’ll need to purchase a truck first. Then, you can get to work on creating the design. It’s a good idea to work with an experienced graphic designer to create a truck that features eye-catching imagery to advertise your brand. Just remember that if you use this idea, you’ll also need to purchase comprehensive, liability, and collision insurance. You’ll also need to have the correct legal paperwork prepared.

Ask us about how you can become a master at marketing yourself as a real estate agent

So, why should you contact an agent? Here are some key reasons.

Real Estate Takes Knowledge and Expertise

Buying or selling a property isn’t always a straightforward process. In fact, there are many complexities you’ll encounter during the process. For example, the real estate buying and selling processes are packed full of acronyms and other types of technical jargon. If you can’t speak the language, the process can be difficult to navigate. A real estate agent can be at your side to clarify everything with ease.

As you buy or sell a home, you’ll encounter dozens of reports, forms, disclosures, and other types of documents. To steer clear of mistakes—and the inevitable delays they’ll cause—you need an agent to guide you through it all.

Real Estate Agents Know How to Negotiate

If you don’t have any negotiation experience, you could end up losing out on the home of your dreams. The modern housing market can be competitive, and negotiations have been known to grow heated. Not only will your realtor’s negotiation abilities help control how much money you’re netting or spending, but your agent can also draw up a purchase agreement to allow for contingencies, inspections, and more.

Your Real Estate Agent Has More Resources

On the internet, it can seem like everything you need is at your fingertips, including real estate listings. However, you aren’t seeing all the available options if you don’t have an agent.

A real estate agent has access to listings and resources that the public can’t view. If an available property isn’t being actively advertised, your agent can still ensure that you don’t miss out on it. In this way, your agent can direct you to many hidden gems you may have otherwise overlooked.

Want to know more about why it’s so important to hire a real estate agent? Start a conversation with us today.

It’s far more difficult—and costly—to acquire new clients than it is to keep your past clients around. Client trust is one of the most useful assets any realtor can develop. If a client trusts in your abilities and knows you care about their needs, they’re more likely to hire you again in the future.

If you fail to leave a great impression on your clients, they’ll likely hire a different agent the next time they’re selling or buying a property. If you’d like to boost your chances of repeat business, make sure you’re keeping two key tips in mind.

Follow Up with Your Past Clients

Even if a past client had a positive experience working with you, they can’t hire you again if they forget you exist. Therefore, failing to follow up is one of the top reasons agents are unable to acquire repeat business. For optimal customer retention, make sure your clients stay aware of your presence in the market.

There are many ways you can accomplish this. For example, you could periodically follow up with past clients via email, or you could send clients real estate postcards in the mail. Whatever tactic you choose, it should keep you firmly situated in the client’s mind long after they close.

Avoid Overpromising

If you’re struggling, it might seem like a good idea to boost the client’s spirits and make big promises. However, if you know that they aren’t promises you can keep or pose a high risk of failure, those promises will inevitably lead to dashed hopes and dissatisfied clients.

You can appear confident in your abilities while staying realistic. Steer clear of too-bold or unrealistic promises. Continuously overpromising can cause you to lose client trust, meaning that they almost certainly won’t return to your business later.

There is much to learn about growing a real estate business and improving your client retention. For more assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out.

How Can I Tell If My Home Has High Radon?

Of course, before you decide how to combat high radon levels, you’ll need to find out if this element is abundant in your home. The process of testing for radon is surprisingly straightforward.

The maximum amount of radon someone can safely live with in their home is unknown. Obviously, the goal should be to have the lowest possible radon levels achievable in your area. If your home’s radon level lies between 2 pCi/L and 4 pCi/L, it’s a good idea to begin a mitigation strategy.

Many people choose to test the radon levels in their homes by purchasing a radon testing kit. After you’ve followed the instructions provided, you can send the test to the address provided and wait for your results. However, many people prefer to get immediate results by hiring a trained professional to test the house for radon.

Reducing Radon Levels

If the radon levels in your home are within or above the suggested risk levels, you should take steps to address the contamination. To do so, there are a few possibilities.

The best option is to hire a trained contractor to install a radon reduction system, sometimes known as a radon mitigation system. This method is recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A radon mitigation system can address radon in an existing home.

If you’re testing because you’re in the market for a new property, you can ask about radon-resistant home features. A house that has radon-resistant features can prevent the radioactive gas from entering the structure or at least minimize the amount of radon that seeps inside. If a home has radon-resistant features, it could save you money later on, as installing a radon reduction system can be a costly investment.

Are you interested in learning more about keeping your property safe from toxins, including radon? For more information, contact with us today.

Of course, that’s easier said than done. As a realtor, where should you begin when it comes to social media?

What Social Media Platforms Are Real Estate Agents Using?

Depending on the kind of presence you’re looking to build and the posts you’re looking to make, you may consider using a particular platform, or two. Some of the most popular social media platforms for realtors are currently Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Facebook for Realtors

If you’re a realtor, your Facebook posts should include attention-getting visuals and images, as these are the kinds of posts that perform best on the platform. On Facebook, you should be trying your best to engage with your audience. Posts with high engagement will perform better than those that receive a limited response, and you’ll get views from people looking to find a realtor. Facebook is also a great place to curate a sense of community or build personal connections with clients. It’s easy to ask questions or speak directly with your followers on this platform.

Instagram for Realtors

Although Facebook posts do better when they include compelling visuals, images and videos are the central focus of your Instagram account. You can use the caption to provide details about the image or video, but the visual element is at the center of any viewer’s attention. If you need to show off some high-quality photos of a listing, Instagram is the best place to attract image-focused users.

LinkedIn for Realtors

The reason you should consider using LinkedIn is different from the primary reason you may be posting on Facebook or Instagram. While you’ll be interacting with potential clients on Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn is the best place to make professional connections.

On LinkedIn, it’s simple to network with your fellow real estate agents and real estate brokerages. Despite the prioritizing of professional connections, you may be able to connect with your current clients.

Want more information on using social media as a real estate agent? Get in touch with us for more advice.