Sunrise Homes & Renovations, Inc.

Home for the Holidays: Maximizing Your Space for Guests

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As the holiday season approaches, many of us look forward to spending quality time with family and friends. It’s a time for creating cherished memories, sharing delicious meals, and catching up with loved ones. If you’re hosting guests in your home this holiday season, it’s essential to make them feel comfortable and welcome. Here are some tips to help you maximize your space and ensure a warm and inviting atmosphere for your holiday guests.

Declutter and Organize: The first step in preparing your home for holiday guests is to declutter and organize your space. Clear away any unnecessary items to make room for your guests. Focus on common areas like the living room, dining room, and guest bedrooms.

Create a Cozy Guest Space: If you have a spare room or guest bedroom, ensure it’s ready for your guests. Make the bed with fresh linens, add extra pillows and blankets, and clear some closet space for their belongings. A bedside table with a reading lamp and a few magazines or books can make the space even more inviting.

Utilize Sleeper Sofas and Futons: If you don’t have a dedicated guest bedroom, consider investing in a comfortable sleeper sofa or futon for the living room. These multipurpose pieces of furniture can provide a cozy sleeping space for your guests while still serving as seating during the day.

Foldable Furniture: Opt for foldable or collapsible furniture in small spaces. These can be stored away when not in use, providing extra room for guests to move around. Folding chairs and tables can be a lifesaver for large holiday gatherings.

Stock Up on Essentials: Stock up on essential items your guests might need, such as toiletries, extra towels, and blankets. Consider creating a small welcome basket with these items, along with a note welcoming your guests.

Offer Space for Privacy: While you want to create a welcoming environment, it’s also important to respect your guests’ need for privacy. Provide a space where they can retreat if they need some alone time or a quiet place to relax.

Communication: Last but not least, communicate with your guests about their needs and preferences. Knowing if someone has dietary restrictions or specific room requirements will help you better prepare for their stay

By following these tips, you can maximize your space and create a welcoming environment for your holiday guests. The most important thing is to foster a sense of togetherness and ensure that your guests feel valued and cherished during their stay in your home. Wishing you a joyful and memorable holiday season!

Halloween Safety: Protecting Your Family and Home

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Halloween is a thrilling time of the year, filled with spooky costumes, delicious treats, and endless fun. It is also important to remember that safety should always come first. Whether you’re a parent, homeowner, or someone simply looking out for your community, keeping your family and home safe on Halloween is a top priority. Here are some valuable tips to ensure that the holiday remains full of treats and without any tricks.

  1. Home Security Matters: Securing your home is vital during Halloween. With increased foot traffic around your property, consider the following:
  • Ensure all doors and windows are securely locked.
  • Consider motion-activated lighting to deter unwanted visitors.
  • Test your home security system to make sure it’s functioning correctly.
  1. Safe Decorations: Get into the spirit of Halloween by decorating your home, but do so safely:
  • Use flameless LED candles instead of real ones for Jack-o’-lanterns.
  • Place decorations in safe areas to avoid tripping hazards.
  1. Costume Safety: If you or your family members are dressing up for the occasion, don’t forget about costume safety:
  • Choose flame-resistant costumes and avoid those that drag on the ground.
  • Make sure costumes and masks don’t obstruct vision or breathing.
  1. Trick-or-Treating Safety: If you have little ones excited about trick-or-treating, ensure their safety with these guidelines:
  • Accompany young children when they go trick-or-treating.
  • Teach your kids to stick to sidewalks and cross streets at designated crosswalks.
  • Bring flashlights or glow sticks to increase visibility.
  • Inspect all candy before it’s consumed. Discard any unwrapped or suspicious items.
  1. Driving Safely: If you’re driving on Halloween, remember to be extra cautious:
  • Drive slowly and carefully in residential areas, particularly where children are trick-or-treating.
  • Avoid distractions while driving and keep a keen eye out for pedestrians.
  1. Emergency Plan: Safety doesn’t always mean preventing accidents; it also means knowing how to respond when they occur. Make sure your household is prepared:
  • Teach everyone in your family how to call 911 in case of an emergency.
  • Keep a first aid kit readily available for minor injuries.
  1. Neighbor Awareness: Maintain communication with your neighbors. If you’re going out or notice any suspicious activity, it’s good to know you can rely on your community for support.
  2. Home Alone: If you have older children staying home alone, make sure they’re informed about safety measures like not opening the door to strangers.
  3. Halloween Decorations Removal: After Halloween, remove your decorations promptly. This not only prevents vandalism but also makes your home less appealing to potential pranksters.
  4. Allergies: For those distributing treats, consider offering non-food items or allergy-friendly options for children with food allergies to keep everyone safe and included.

Remember, Halloween is all about fun and celebration. By taking these precautions, you can enjoy the festivities while keeping your family and home safe. So, dress up, carve those pumpkins, and let the spooky fun begin, knowing you’ve taken the right steps to ensure a happy and safe Halloween for everyone.

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – October 30, 2023

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This week’s most significant data offered preliminary numbers for manufacturing and services PMI (Purchasing Managers Index). Both can serve as a forward indicator for the economy while providing insight into the current state of the cost of living for the service industry. While manufacturing met an expected rise for the end of October, services saw a contraction, falling to 46.6 from 49.3. Readings below 50.0 can be a sign of a downturn for the economy, particularly given the time of the year.

Mortgage Applications & Rates Indices
MBA Mortgage Applications Index saw a reduction of -1.0% in applications for the week, with rates once again increasing again week over week.

Primary Mortgage Market Survey Index

  • 15-Yr FRM rates are seeing a week-to-week increase by 0.11% with the current rate at 03%.
  • 30-Yr FRM rates are seeing a week-to-week increase by 0.16% with the current rate at 79%

MND Rate Index

  • 30-Yr FHA rates increased week to week with a -0.08% decrease for this week. Current rates at 32%
  • 30-Yr VA rates increased week to week with a -0.11% decrease for this week. Current rates at 33%

Personal Income & Spending

Personal income increased $77.8 billion (0.3 percent at a monthly rate) in September, according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (table 2 and table 3). Disposable personal income (DPI), which is personal income less personal current taxes, increased $56.1 billion (0.3 percent), and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $138.7 billion (0.7 percent).

  • The PCE price index increased 0.4 percent.
  • Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.3 percent.

Key point: Personal income increased in September and spending accordingly rose, moving into October. This increase in income and spending is expected moving into the Holiday season. This is a strong sign for the Advanced GDP numbers for the remainder of the year.

Job Claims
Those who applied for unemployment benefits last week fell to a nine-month low of 188,000, subverting expectations that layoffs would rise as the U.S. interest rates continued to increase.
Initial Claims were 210,000 compared to the expected claims of 210,000. The prior week was at 211,000.

What’s Ahead
This week’s scheduled economic reports include ISM manufacturing data, S&P U.S. Manufacturing PMI, and Job Openings. The stronger data points of U.S. non-farm payrolls are coming at the end of the week on Friday.

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – February 19th, 2019

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What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – February 19th, 2019Last week’s economic reports included readings on the Consumer Price Index, Core CPI, Retail Sales and Retail Sales excluding autos. The University of Michigan also released its Consumer Sentiment Index. Weekly readings for mortgage rates and first-time jobless claims were also released.

Retail Sales Slip in December, Inflation Holds Steady

December retail sales were 1.20 percent lower in December; analysts expected no growth as compared to November’s retail sales growth of 0.10 percent. Readings for retail sales excluding the automotive sector were also lower in December with a negative reading of -1.80 percent. Analysts expected a negative reading of -0.10 percent.

November’s reading of -0.20 percent. December’s reading for retail sales was the lowest since September 2009, which was a few months after the Great Recession ended.

Retail Sales excluding Autos also had a negative reading of -1.80 percent; Analysts expected a reading of -0.10 percent based on November’s reading of -0.20 percent. Retailers traditionally rely on December’s holiday season to cover sales shortfalls throughout the year, but the government shutdown and fears of economic slowing kept shoppers away in December. January’s retail sales reports were delayed by the shutdown according to MarketWatch.

January’s Consumer Price Index was unchanged from December’s reading of 0.00 percent; analysts predicted an increase of 0.10 percent, but inflation stayed flat. Lower gas prices were credited with keeping inflation low; the reading for the Core CPI was positive with a 0.20 percent increase that matched expectations and December’s reading. The Core CPI reading excludes volatile food and energy sectors and did not include lower gas prices.

Mortgage Rates, Lower; New Jobless Claims Rise

Freddie Mac reported the lowest mortgage rates in a year. Rates for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged four basis points lower at 4.37 percent. Rates for 15-year fixed rate mortgages averaged 3.81 percent and were three basis points lower.

The average rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage also dropped three basis points to 3.88 percent. Discount points averaged 0.40 percent for fixed-rate mortgages and 0.30 percent for 5/1 adjustable rate mortgages.

First-time jobless claims rose to 239,000 claims as compared to expectations of 225,000 new claims and the prior week’s reading of 235,000 new claims filed.

The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index rose in February rose to 95.5. Analysts expected a reading of 94.00; January’s index reading was 91.20. The increase in consumer sentiment could help boost the housing market as uncertain economic projections can sideline home buyers. Housing markets improved somewhat as supplies of homes rose and buyer demand eased.

What‘s Ahead

This week’s scheduled economic reports include the National Association of Home Builders Housing Market Index, Minutes from the most recent meeting of the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee and Existing Home Sales reported by the National Association of Realtors®.

Commerce Department reports on housing starts and building permits issued will be delayed according to MarketWatch.

Garage Organization Ideas For Your New Home

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Garage Organization Ideas For Your New HomeNow that you have a beautiful new home with a garage, the fun of organizing can begin. When your garage is well organized, everything is much easier. You can get home projects finished faster, get out the door quicker and better enjoy all your sporting activities.

Here are some tips to organize your new garage. 

Make Use Of The Walls

A lot of homeowners overlook the wall space when organizing the garage. If your garage has exposed studs, this is actually a benefit in terms of storage space. You can easily create shallow shelves in between the studs using 2 x 4 and shelf brackets. Use these shelves to store smaller items that tend to get lost on larger shelves. You can also create an effective space for hanging garden tools. Screw extra large hooks onto the outside edge of one of the 2 x 4s. Hang brooms, rakes and shovels from the hooks.

Utilize The Ceiling

You can also utilize the back area of the ceiling, beyond the area where the garage door stops when it’s raised. Install hanging systems that you can source from a local hardware store. You’ll be able to hang things like bicycles, skis, kayaks and more. Some homeowners even hang small lawnmowers and spreaders during off-season.

Invest In A Workbench

Even if you don’t do carpentry, a garage workbench is a useful part of an organized garage. This is the place where you can do small repairs on household items or add to your garage organizational systems. You’re more likely to repair an item when it’s sitting on your workbench and you have all the needed parts within reach. Install some smaller clear storage drawer units above the workbench to hold screws, nails and nuts and bolts in various sizes.

Hang A Pegboard

A pegboard provides a central place for your garage tools. Hang the pegboard on the wall within reach of your workbench. Outline the spaces on the pegboard for hammers and screwdrivers so they always get put back where they belong.

It’s never fun to have to endlessly search every time you need something from the garage. These garage organization ideas will make your new home and garage even more enjoyable.

Your trusted real estate agent is a great resource for information about organizing and staging your home in a way that will appeal to buyers. If you are interested in putting your home on the market, be sure to set up an appointment as soon as possible.

5 Simple Tips To Make Your Home Showings Easier

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5 Simple Tips To Make Your Home Showings EasierYour real estate agent will likely give you 24 hours’ notice before bringing over interested buyers to see your home. Sometimes eager buyers may request less of an advance, or even ask for a last minute showing.

Since you’re eager to be accommodating, you may agree to consider such requests. Whether you have 24 hours to prepare for a showing or 15 minutes, these tips will make showings easier for your family.

Keep The Family Pet Carrier By The Door

Real estate agents advise not leaving your family pet at home during showings. Make it easy to bring along Fido or Fluffy by keeping their carrier right by the door. You’ll be able to quickly place him in the carrier and carry him out to the car with you.

Use Under-Bed Storage

The one place homebuyers won’t look is under your bed. Equip each bedroom with a large under-bed storage container; get the kind with wheels if possible. When you receive notice of a showing, just place any loose odds and ends, clothing, magazines, etc. into the tote and hide it under the bed. 

Have Extra Laundry Baskets On Hand

Invest in two or three extra laundry baskets and keep them near the door. When you have to leave for a showing, have each family member scour the kitchen and living room for things that are out of place. Fill the baskets and just bring them with you in the car.

Stock The Kitchen With Cleanup Supplies

The kitchen is the biggest challenge with showings. It’s both the place that gets messiest and the room that can sell your home. Get it spotless in a jiffy with popup wipes. Make it a habit to clean the kitchen immediately after meals, including sweeping the floor. Consider using paper plates to dine on while your home is listed. Keep a scented jar candle in the kitchen that you can light to mask odors.

Make The Car Comfortable

Your family will likely take a drive or go to a movie while the house is being shown. Stock it with a few snacks and bottles of water as well as any medication that a family member may need.

These tips will make house showings much easier no matter how large your house is, or how many family members you have. And one day, you just might return to find that you have a great offer on your house!

Your trusted real estate agent is a key partner in your successful home sale!