Carey Frankel's Blog: All Categories

If you’re just not interested in the standard-issue St. Johns County property remodel and you yearn to fill your home with eclectic pieces and unexpected surprises, then you may want to consider visiting an architectural salvage yard.

A Diamond in the Rough

Visiting an architectural salvage yard, for many homeowners, is like hitting the jackpot, for many reasons. These salvage yards are filled to the brim with architectural pieces from old homes that have either been torn down or remodeled. And you know what they say about one man’s junk …

What you’ll find at an architectural salvage yard is nothing short of spectacular, particularly if you are smitten with items of historical significance. From cast-iron fire screens to claw-footed bathtubs and…

Low-voltage landscape lighting has great appeal in residential settings. Whether you’re looking to install landscape lighting for security purposes, or merely decorative purposes, it can provide you with adequate lighting for all your outdoor needs.

The popularity of low-voltage landscape lighting has taken off in the last couple years, particularly with the introduction of LED lighting. LED lighting, which produces a clean, white light that many consumers prefer, also uses much less electricity than its already-low voltage counterparts. In fact, each LED fixture can use as little as three watts of energy, compared to about 30 watts for a typical lighting fixture.

With that said, many homeowners choose landscape lighting for their Jacksonville homes…

Investing in a waterfront property is the dream of many Florida residents. A waterfront property can be an excellent investment, and is a great place to enjoy the many benefits and beauty of the water.

Before purchasing your first, waterfront Ponte Vedra Beach property, you’ll need to ask yourself a few questions to decide whether a waterfront property is right for you and your lifestyle:

• Do you want to live in a popular, tourist area, or are you searching for seclusion and privacy?
• Do you want to live in a waterfront community, or are you interested in custom building on a private piece of waterfront property?
• Do you want to live in a waterfront property that will afford you access to waterfront activities, such…

Connecting with one another is now easier than ever if you are a resident of World Golf Village.

The social media marketing program, which has just recently been launched, is designed to enable the homeowners of World Golf Village to communicate with the management, the community staff and with each other.

Just some of the aspects of the new marketing plan include a presence on many of the social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, as well as a strong presence on many of the popular real estate industry sites, such as Trulia and ActiveRain.

The overall goal of the social media marketing plan of World Golf Village is to connect current homeowners, as well as prospective homebuyers, to many of the industry professionals associated with…

Here’s a tough fact: your home can be the prettiest on the block, but if it stinks, you can turn off a slew of potential buyers.

Luckily, there are a variety of steps you can take to ensure that your Jacksonville home smells as pretty as it looks:

• Steam clean the carpets. There are loads of smells that lurk in a carpet, and the easiest way to freshen them up is by steam cleaning. You can either rent a company to do this for you, or you can rent a steam cleaning machine and get the job done yourself.  If your carpets are stained or old, you may want to consider replacing them. Everyone loves a “new carpet” smell, and your buyers will certainly appreciate a new carpet.


• Take care of the Fluffy or Fido situation. It…

These uneasy times have left many of us wondering: where do we go from here? Should we stay put or sell our home? Should we sell FSBO or use a listing agent?

When it comes down to it, the decision to move is an extremely personal one. However, the decision to sell FSBO or through a listing agent may be a direct result of the poor economy and the weak housing market. In fact, many sellers are considering selling their home FSBO because they don’t want to pay commission to a real estate agent when they must sell their home for less than they would have even a year ago.

Selling FSBO may be the right decision for your particular situation, but it pays to educate yourself fully on the process so that you understand both the pros and cons of selling FSBO.

The…

Many homeowners in today’s tough housing market have made the decision to not sell until the market begins to show signs of significant improvement. They are instead choosing to rent out their properties so that they can still move onto a new home, but also enjoy rental income to pay for their existing home’s mortgage, property taxes and maintenance.

Deciding to rent your home is a very personal decision, and it is certainly not for everyone. It may be a time-consuming, often frustrating, endeavor, but many homeowners successfully rent out their properties every day with very little inconvenience.

When you begin to consider the rental price for your Jacksonville property, don’t just account for the mortgage payment. It is important to consider all of the…

Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, first-time homebuyers (as well as those individuals who haven’t owned a home in the last three years) can qualify for a tax credit of up to $8,000.

Called the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, this credit, which is paid to the homeowners when they file their federal income tax return for 2009, is eligible to homeowners who purchase their home between January 1, 2009 and December 1, 2009.

If you’re one of the lucky ones to have scored this incredible tax credit, then you’ve probably already started to wonder what you might do with your tax credit.

• Pad your emergency fund – If you depleted your savings and emergency fund for the purchase of your Jacksonville home then you may…