Posts made by author 'Eileen Smith Voyles'

Is Sun Country Buying Too Much Home?

Do you really need a larger home? This question may seem counterintuitive coming from a real estate agent.

Here's a case for buying a less expensive home: Financial experts say a good rule of thumb is to spend about 2.5 times your gross annual salary on a home and to keep your housing payments around 25-30 percent of your monthly income. The top 20 percentile

of earners nationwide know this; they spend 29.9 percent of their monthly income on housing, while the bottom 20 percent pay almost 40 percent.

In Sun Country, which includes all townships and boroughs in Elizabethtown Area, Derry Township, Lower Dauphin, and Palmyra Area school districts, the median home sale price in 2019 wa...

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For Your Protection, Get a Home Inspection.

That's the name of a document I share with all home buyers.

Home inspections give buyers detailed information about a home prior to purchase. Inspectors take an in depth look at your potential new home to evaluate the physical condition, identify needed repairs, and estimate the remaining life of major systems and equipment.

In very few cases will you, as a buyer, want to forgo a home inspection (those cases could include new construction, highly competitive bidding situations, or personal subject knowledge). In the Pennsylvania Association of Realtor's Standard Agreement for the Sale of Real Estate, several inspections are listed for buyers to elect or waiv...

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At a recent sales meeting, our director of operations introduced a new software program to our office, saying, "Well folks, it's here. Predictive analytics and AI have officially hit the real estate world."

Artificial Intelligence – basically using computer systems to make decisions that would normally require human intelligence – is entering our lives rapidly in many forms: Google searches, SIRI, selfdriving cars, and much more. This new access to information is giving me, as a realtor, a better understanding of our overall market with its needs and trends.

I'm led to ask some sweeping questions, like: in which Sun Country municipalities do people tend to stay in their homes longest? Who is most likely...

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It's right up there with death and taxes. Odds are, someday you will be cleaning out and selling a parent's home. How you handle this situation could impact your family enormously — will you end up staying a family or will you and your siblings never speak again?

Selling a parent's home can be a 10 out of 10 on the stress gauge. One of my clients suffered through shingles as part of the process! It's fraught with land mines and requires tons of perspective and insight. I've been there personally — my siblings and I sold my parents' home of 50 years — and professionally, as a Realtor helping many families through the process. Here's what I've learned:

Write down your goals. It's an emotional time. Vision can cloud if a few over-arching goals are not penned down and worked toward as a family. Hold a meeting with your s...

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We live in a Cape Cod-style home built in 1949. A few months ago, it became evident that a bathroom remodel was imminent. I knew this could be a glass half-full situation –

A bathroom remodel can be well-invested money; various sources put it as one of the most profitable home investments, earning back anywhere from 50-110 percent of remodel costs. The National Association for the Remodel Industry reports that if a bathroom remodel is handled properly (work done well, costs kept in check), homeowners should recoup at least 50 percent of the project cost.

Here are five tips to avoid flushing money down the commode during your own project:

– Be brutally honest about your DIY skills. We are not handy; this knowledge solidified years ag...

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