Real Estate Articles and Advice
It's Valentine's Day
By Chris Petry Well, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Love is in the air. Or something like that. I’ll probably just order a pizza, watch my usual double feature of My Bloody Valentine (1981) and Valentine (2001) and sob because nobody loves me. No! This is the year I finally take charge of my life and feelings. I’m all I need! Me! And pizza. This just in, my bloodwork reveals tha
Fun Facts About Real Estate
By Chris Petry Every year at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Stouffer Realty, we host an Awards Ceremony to honor the achievements of our hardworking salespersons. Of course, that means a lot of hard work on our end, staging, hosting and pulling off the event. Last year we had the idea to test our agents’ knowledge about matters of real estate and film it for both educational purposes and
What's the Deal with Modern Lighting?
By Chris Petry Can we all agree that modern lighting fixtures have gotten a little out of hand? My primary vocation sees me visiting a lot of sales offices to shoot corporate video. Usually, I end up in a conference or board room, where there’s ample space to setup studio lighting and get distance between the camera and subject for depth of field. After you slide the conference room table
Is Open Concept Living on the Way Out?
By Chris Petry Walls. Door. Outside walls are, of course, crucial. Their weight provides much needed stability to your house’s frame and, in concert with the roof and doors, they exist to insure the outside stays outside. Inside walls too have a dual purpose. First, they hide load bearing supports and second, you can hang your signed sports jersey or family photo collage on them. Yep, tha
Snowflake Science
By Chris Petry As the song goes, “If you’ve got no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.” Well, unfortunately, most of us do have places to go. Namely work. If it wasn’t for the early morning commutes, no one would hate the snow. Of this I’m convinced. So, let’s just forget about all the driving nonsense for a moment, I guess the shoveling too,
Making Snow Shoveling Easier
By Chris Petry Show of hands, who here likes shoveling snow? No one? Fine. Living in the Northeast, there’s just not an option most years. Fortunately, we live in a time where there more tools than ever to expedite the job. Better yet, there are people who know or have tested out alternative methods of snow removal who can attest to the effectiveness online. Better yet-yet, there are a nu
Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions
By Chris Petry Did you make New Year’s resolutions? Probably. While 50% or so of the American population makes New Year’s resolutions, only 25% of those people stick to them by the 30-day mark. At least according to this study from Columbia University. Just why do we make so many resolutions, knowing that we’re statistically unlikely to follow through on them? W
Important Home Safety Tips
Introduction by Chris Petry & Featured Article by Nancy Mitchell Last year, we ran this article for the first blog of 2024. Since it's Christmas this week and I know you're not racing over here to see what's going on, we figured we'd run it again. After all, it's still very relevant. This piece is from guest writer Nancy Mitchell, an RN and Contributing Writer for Ass
What's with Ginger Bread Homes?
By Chris Petry As of this writing, the Federal Reserve has enacted its third interest rate of the fiscal quarter. These rate cuts coming after two years of steep increases. While rates will fall even more in 2025, current projections indicate it will be much more gradual and deliberate. No matter what, rate decreases will almost certainly be welcomed by the home buying public. While it
Holiday Cookies by State
By Chris Petry Last month, we reviewed Google’s state by state breakdown of the most popular Thanksgiving side dishes. For the Winter Holiday season, we thought we’d see what search analytics revealed about the most popular Christmas side dishes. Well, turns out that data’s not quite in yet. However, they did analyze the most popular Christmas Cookie search for each state. Whi
