How many times have you driven past a fixer-upper and said to yourself, “I bet I could get that place cheap! And then I could slap a coat of paint on it, do some repairs, and have a real nice house?” I do it all the time. I like the thought of turning a so-so [...]

Last week, two of my friends closed on their first home. It’s a beautiful house, great neighborhood, big yard. It’s everything they could ask for, but that perfect home is coming at quite a price.
My friends decided that now was the ideal time to buy, because home prices have dropped significantly in our area. Their [...]

Zillow.com’s big selling point for house hunters is its real estate search function. Type in an address or a zip code and you can get information on houses — sale prices, number of bathrooms, and a slew of other tidbits. You can also get a good overall idea of how much homes are going for [...]

Many first-time home buyers go shopping for a home thinking that they’ll find the perfect house and live in it happily ever after. It just doesn’t work that way. Even if a member of your family doesn’t get a job halfway across the country, it’s likely that you may want to change school districts, find [...]