There are so many great reasons to buy your own home. Are you ready? Wondering how to get the best deal and how to make the most informed decision? Maybe it’s time to consider Buy Owner!

As the nation’s leading for-sale-by-owner marketing company, Buy Owner provides the strength of an established advertising company and the resource of thousands of for-sale properties nationwide. Buy Owner sellers are great to work with, as they’re looking to cut commissions/costs just as much as you are, in order for everyone to get the best deal.

Ready to get started?

Here’s how to buy a home with Buy Owner:

1. Go to BuyOwner.com and search!
2. Narrow down your criteria and choose which homes you’re most interested in.
3. Contact the Buy Owner sellers of those homes, and ask questions you may have.
4. Schedule private showings of the homes.
5. Make an offer on the home you want.
6. Negotiate.
7. BUY! And in the process… Save money. Enjoy being in control of your purchase. Reap the rewards for years to come.

Of course the prospect of buying a home, whether it’s your first one or not, can be daunting. But with Buy Owner, you have the comfort of knowing you’re dealing with motivated sellers and saving commission costs! That’s why using Buy Owner to buy your home makes so much sense.

What are you waiting for? Get started today!

Go to BuyOwner.com.

You hear it time and time again. As a home seller, or just as a homeowner, you need to declutter your home. Get rid of your built-up storage, reorganize and make your house look spacious, empty and clean. As with most advice, the job is easier said than done.

So how do you begin the decluttering process? There are simple steps you can take in your daily life to prevent clutter in the first place. Starting now, say no to junk mail. As soon as you pick up a piece of mail that you know is junk mail, toss it in the recycle bin without wasting your time opening it. If you want coupons from an ad, make a list and cut out the coupons immediately before tossing the rest of the ad. Don’t save the junk mail for a later date. Better yet, register with the Mail Preference Service on the Direct Marketing Association website. According to an article from the The Daily Green, you pay $1 to have your name removed from mailing lists and your junk mail decreases by 75 percent in 90 days!

When it comes to decluttering your desk with old bills and paystubs, most people are afraid they’ll either need this information in the future or that someone will get hold of a private account number or personal information. The first fear, that you’ll need the information in the future, is a difficult issue to work though. Usually, after filing income taxes and receiving your tax return, you won’t need past paystubs. Medical bills are usually safe to throw away after a year or two of keeping them. If you’re afraid of people getting a hold of personal information, invest in a paper shredder and recycle.

Another daily or weekly change you can make toward decluttering is to stop coming home from the grocery store with plastic bags and stop keeping these plastic bags as an unforeseen future necessity. Only save enough plastic bags to reuse in small bathroom and bedroom garbage cans or for reusing at the grocery store on your next visit. Better yet, opt to purchase cloth bags for shopping. Keep these cloth bags in your car and away from your kitchen. These bags keep your grocery list down in size and prevent a pantry overload of half-eaten bags of chips. For even more decluttering, buy fruits and vegetables as snacks. These items can be displayed on the counter in a bowl as a decoration and as an edible snack!

Aside from everyday changes, you can plan an annual cleanup of closets, cabinets, drawers and other closed quarters. Remove everything from the entity at hand and decide what to throw out. Because tossing clothes is one of the hardest decluttering jobs for most people, the best way to decide what to get rid of is to try everything on in your clothes closet. This method will help you realize what doesn’t fit and what isn’t acceptable in the current fashion market. To help you feel good about the process, don’t toss the garments in the garbage. Donate clothes to worthy causes, sell them on the Internet or in a garage sale, or reuse them as rags.

Another area to annually declutter is the bookshelf. Each year, after you finish reading a book, it gets placed on a bookshelf that eventually is too small to hold all the weight. Remove the books and magazines that you’ll never read again and place them in boxes. Like the clothes, donate them to a worthy cause or a local library, try to sell them or recycle them. In the future, opt to read books and magazines from the library instead of purchasing a copy of every one of your reading materials.

These steps will get you well on your way to decluttering your home!

Are you planning to sell your property and wondering how to do it? Have you heard about selling by owner and wanted to learn more? Would you like to cut commission costs to make a better profit on the sale?

Buy Owner is here to help.

As the leading for-sale-by-owner company in today’s market, Buy Owner not only offers 25 years of experience but also an unparalleled marketing scheme to help you sell.

It is the best way to sell your home on your own, and here’s why:

1. MONEY: By cutting out high commissions, home sellers with Buy Owner save thousands of dollars. If your home costs $250,000, for example, selling on your own means saving $15,000. With Buy Owner, your property is listed on the Buy Owner website until it sells!
2. PROFESSIONAL MARKETING: With Buy Owner, a skilled marketing consultant helps you design a customized advertising package, utilizing the company’s professional skills in photography, copywriting, virtual tours, mapping and more!
3. ROUND-THE-CLOCK HELP: Anytime you want to change your photos or add some more information to your text, just call 1-800-771-7777 and you will instantly be connected to the proper people who can help you. You have the final say on every aspect of your advertising package, and you can change your photos and text at any time. Buy Owner knows that many people work Monday through Friday. That is why we are also open every Saturday and Sunday… for your convenience!
4. TRUST: There’s no better assurance of quality service than satisfied customers. Buy Owner is a company you can trust. Check out testimonials of previous clients to see for yourself!

What are you still doing inside at this time of year? When the sun goes down and the light of the moon illuminates your backyard patio, that is the time to relax in the cool, fresh breeze instead of the indoor air conditioning. Whether you’re throwing a party or you’re paying bills, you can sit at your outdoor patio table. And whether you’re showing off your backyard to a friend or your showing off your backyard to a potential homebuyer, you want it to look as appealing and impressive as possible. To ensure that you spend as much time outside as your schedule allows, and to make sure your backyard looks as spiffy as it can, treat it like another room in the house. Decorate!

Decorating an outdoor patio (or deck, terrace, porch, etc.) goes beyond taking a hose and washing away tree branches and squished bugs. You want to add features that make the patio comfortable, attractive and homey. Here are some ideas to get your own decorating project going:

• Decorate your patio table like you would your dining room table. Decorate for the occasion, and have fun with it. For a tea party with neighbors, cover the table with a linen or lace tablecloth and keep it in place with a centerpiece of flowers. Fill a china bowl or wicker basket with fake or real flowers in soft, pastel tones. Place china or other types of classy dishware out at each setting. For a casual picnic with family members or friends, use a checkered tablecloth or a thin blanket. Place a basket of food items in the middle of the table, serve on paper plates with straw plates underneath to prevent them from blowing away, and place a couple pitchers of ice water or lemonade on the table. Decorate the table in a way that makes it look regularly used, and then use it!

• Create a wall of foliage. This way, you don’t need to worry about taking up space and making your patio look cluttered with pots, and the pots won’t be falling over in the wind. Also, it clusters everything together for easy watering. Purchase an abundance of cinder blocks, or unbury the ones you already have in your garage, and stack them up against the backyard fence or along one of the sides of your patio. Stack them with the holes facing upward and in opposite directions so that every other block is sticking out. Then, stick potted plants into the holes of the cinder blocks and enjoy the sights! Check out this picture of what HGTV refers to as a Living Wall for inspiration.

• Hang lights. Porch lighting just isn’t enough to create a homey ambiance that you’ll want to relax in. Unpack strands of white lights from your winter holiday boxes and wrap the lights around the pole to your table umbrella table, along the gutters on the back of your house, around the rims of your patio or around the balcony ledges of your deck. Hang oriental lampshades from your roof overhang, and consider adding stencil drawings or custom paint to the lampshades. Switch the bulbs in your porch lights to colored bulbs that correlate with an upcoming holiday. Stick tiki torches in your ground, preferably ones with citronella candles that will keep the bugs away.

Take these ideas and use them in your own backyard, or come up with decorating ideas of your own! Decorating the outdoors with weatherproof décor will surely make you more apt to spend time outdoors, and it will increase the appeal of your house as a whole. After all, who doesn’t want an outdoor oasis to enjoy during this beautiful time of year?

We’ve talked in past Green Living blogs about how important it is to purchase an energy-efficient toilet in order to save water, energy and money. Older toilet models use more than three gallons of water per flush, whereas low-flow, energy-efficient models use less than 1.5 gallons per flush. But let’s face it. We’re dealing with a tough economic time right now and some of us can’t afford to purchase improvement projects for our homes right now. Fortunately, there are DIY ways to save water, energy and money with the toilet you already have!

Flushes

One old-fashioned toilet trick that still works to save money and energy is the old “brick-in-the-tank” trick. Though, instead of a brick, an updated tip that an article from the Mother Nature Network recommends is to fill an old one-liter plastic bottle partially with sand, marbles or pebbles, and then the rest of it with water. As long as the bottle remains weighed down, it doesn’t matter what material you fill it with. Remove the label and place the bottle in the toilet tank away from moving parts. This will displace water and save you water usage and money without replacing your toilet!

Another option is to purchase a device that displaces the water for you at a consistent rate per flush. The Toilet Tummy, for example, is a bag that you fill with water and hang in your toilet tank. By doing so, your toilet saves 80 ounces of water per flush, or double if you use two. The gadget costs less than $6 too. Definitely worth the price, considering how much money it’ll save you in the long run!

Leaks

Leaking toilets are another issue that owners of old toilets have to deal with. A DIY test to see if your toilet tank is leaking is to place a colored dye in your tank and see if the color appears in your toilet bowl water. If it does, you can replace the rubber flappers that surround your tank for just a few bucks and save yourself oodles of wasted water.

Just remember, there are always ways to save energy in your home without spending a ton of money on home improvements! When you do decide to upgrade your toilet, look for a toilet with a WaterSense label to ensure energy efficiency.

An abundance of homebuyers are choosing to downsize right now. Whether it’s because they’re still trying to sell a house and can’t afford to buy a large house, they’re living more practical during this economic downturn, or they want to spend less time on housework, now is the time for owners of small houses to step up and show homebuyers why small homes are the way to go!

Because homebuyers tend to feel skeptical toward smaller homes, you’ll want to do everything in your power to make your small home look big. How do you do that? Professional home decorators have plenty of tips up their sleeves to help you out:

• Declutter. Even if you live in a castle, it won’t look large or appealing if it’s full of clutter. The most important step, always, when prepping your house to sell is to declutter. First declutter the main living areas visible to the eye, and then work on closets, cabinets and shelves. These storage areas are significant to homebuyers looking at small homes.

• Rearrange furniture. The best placement for furniture is along the walls in a room or on a diagonal. The more floor space you can see in the middle of the room, the larger the room will look, so even consider taking out rugs and just showing off the natural flooring. Opt for shorter furniture in the middle of the room, such as a coffee table or an ottoman, and place the tall objects along the walls, such as bookcases and entertainment centers. Go for fewer large pieces of furniture rather than numerous smaller pieces, which cause a room to look cluttered.

• Paint. If your rooms display dark, drab colors on the walls, repaint the rooms with light, cool colors that create an open, airy ambiance. Neutral hues on the walls, combined with soft tones of blues or greens for the furniture or window treatments, makes a room look open and bright. Or, choosing furniture in the same shade as the walls makes everything blend and look less cluttered.

• Light it up! Lighting in a small home is key. You want to allow as much natural lighting inside as possible, to prove that the house is large enough to encompass a large variety of windows and views of the outdoors. Plus, a bright room just looks larger than a dark room. Open all the blinds and pull away the curtains. After the sun goes down, turn on all the lights. Opt for track lighting or recessed lighting over lamps, which take up floor space.

• Incorporate certain materials into your household can cause rooms to appear larger. For example, replacing a shower curtain with glass doors will make the bathroom seem more open, or likewise, replacing a wooden dining room table with a glass table. Hanging mirrors, such as in the foyer or on an entire wall in a room, can cause the space to look twice its size.

There is nothing more practical and comfortable than a house sized perfectly for you and your belongings. Show off the space you’ve got, using these tips, and show homebuyers that small is beautiful!

The beauty of Independence Day, or more commonly referred to as the Fourth of July, is that it’s a holiday that every single American can celebrate. It brings all groups together to celebrate one country. It celebrates the Declaration of Independence, declaring our independence from Great Britain in 1776. It celebrates the freedom we enjoy each day that we live in this country, freedom to worship, to work, to own our own homes.

To remind us and to celebrate this milestone of our country, we shoot off fireworks, attend parades, host barbecues, take boat rides and altogether enjoy a long weekend of good food and good company. While participating in all of this festive fun, we need to remember what we’re celebrating by showing our pride for America. America needs our pride and support.

Display your appreciation and admiration of America proudly inside and outside of your home. Before you host that barbecue or pool party, fill your home with the patriotic colors of red, white and blue. It is holiday décor that everyone entering your home will relate to. Plus, it’s cheery colors that are sure to brighten any mood!

What kind of red, white and blue décor can you add? Just about anything!

• Inside, create pillow covers in red and blue, or if you’re really skilled, sew flags onto white pillow covers! Display them on your sofas, outdoor lounging chairs or dining room chairs.
• Place solid red, white and blue place settings on the dining room table, switching off colors. Or, drape a patriotic tablecloth over your table for less cleaning!
• Purchase miniature American flags from a craft shop or just about any store this time of year. Place a flag or a bouquet of flags in vases and display the vases around your house.
• Hang patriotic window stickers on the windows or glass doors.
• Use red, white and blue dishware and cups. Serve red or blue Kool-Aid or punch.
• Fill bowls in your kitchen with red, white and blue foods, such as white onions and red apples or tomatoes. Serve a fruit salad with blueberries and watermelon, or serve blue corn chips with red salsa. Decorate a cake, cookies or cupcakes with colors in the American flag!
• Create a centerpiece for your kitchen table or your patio table outside. The centerpiece can include a basket filled with baseballs and American flags, it can be a vase of red and blue flowers, or it can be a watering can filled with striped pinwheels. Get creative!
• Outside, the number one rule is to hang a full-size American flag from your house. This is something every American family used to do and should continue to do.
• After you’ve hung the flag, switch the bulbs outside of your house with blue or red bulbs.
• Place a patriotic cover over your mailbox. These can be purchased or created from scratch with a sketch drawing, painting or photograph.
• Hang white tissue lanterns from your porch after gluing green and red strips of ribbon around them.
• Fill flower pots or hanging baskets with red, blue and white flowers to flank your walkway or front door with. In the backyard, place a pot in each corner of your patio or deck.
• Use American flag beach towels to drape on your outdoor furniture or by your pool. Hang one of these towels on the side of your shed.
• Hang a patriotic greeting on your front door, such as “Stars and Stripes Forever,” “America the Beautiful,” “United We Stand” or any one of your favorite American sayings.

Happy Independence Day!

For ideas on how to decorate for the Fourth of July in green, eco-friendly ways, check out this previous Buy Owner Blog post!

For many of us, the kitchen is the center of our home. It’s where we cook and share meals, it’s where we spend our mornings and evenings, it’s where we congregate when friends come to visit.

So it makes sense to start with the kitchen when you’re looking for quick ways to implement a greener lifestyle. Think about it: if there are a few small changes you can make to improve your home’s eco-friendliness, beginning in the kitchen, why wouldn’t you?

Here are six simple ways to get started:
1. Turn your dishwasher’s water temperature to a lower setting, if possible.
2. Heat small things up with small electric pans or toaster ovens rather than your large stove or oven, and you may cut your energy consumption by two thirds!
3. Air dry your dishes.
4. Check the oven by turning the light instead of opening the door, which reduces the temp by about 25 degrees and increases cooking time.
5. Use energy-efficient lighting when you can’t just use daylight.
6. Install energy-efficient appliances. Old refrigerators alone use so much energy, they can account for 15% of a home’s consumption! Look into Energy Star options for savings.

As we’ve said before here at the Buy Owner Blog, green living is not only good for you while you live in your home, but it’s also beneficial for resale. Implement these simple tips to be on your way to a greener kitchen and therefore a greener home!

Having a hard time selling your house? Even though all you hear about these days is new ways of marketing, in a competitive market like this one, sometimes good old-fashioned advice will take you the furthest. This involves you stepping out of your comfort zone.

Hopefully you already completed the first step, which is advertising with Buy Owner. Once your advertisement is set up, you have the support of the nation’s leading for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) company at your disposal. Buy Owner will promote your listing nationwide 24/7 through BuyOwner.com, its 1-800 number and its magazine.

You should do everything you can, too. Take the initiative to “sell” your house everywhere you go.

Use techniques like these:

• Talk to strangers. Though we’re taught not to as children, networking with those around you in grocery stores, churches, libraries, coffee shops and on public transportation might score you a home buyer. You never know, these seeming strangers may be the future homeowner of your house, or they might know someone who is looking. You might as well share your story!

• Hand out flyers or business cards when those you talk to seem interested. Unless you give them a reminder, they’ll forget. On the flyer or card, include the web link to your Buy Owner advertisement and the phone number on your For Sale sign. These sources give all the information the people need. You just need people to go check them out.

• Advertise on Craigslist. Make the most of your Buy Owner advertising by copying the HTML from your Seller Tools that will reproduce your professional listing on Craigslist! Include a catchy title so that people will check it out.

What will sharing your Buy Owner web link and phone number do? It’ll show potential buyers that you’re serious about selling. You set up an advertisement with a credible company and now you’re going the extra mile to make sure that people see the ad.

What happens if you don’t go the extra mile? Buy Owner will advertise your house on social networking sites and on our website. We’ll advertise to people driving past your house when they see the bright yellow sign in your yard. We’ll go the extra mile so you don’t have to. But if your house still isn’t selling in this tough, competitive market, we’re just saying there is more you could do.

Remember, it’s U that makes the difference®!

When you Google search, notice that a lot more DIY websites are popping up? DIY, or do-it-yourself, sites provide you with directions on how to build, install, remodel, landscape and fix without hiring professionals. If you have the skills, DIY work could save you loads of money. Especially if you’re fixing something that you already have instead of replacing it.

Fixing items around the house could save you ample amounts of money while also saving the environment from access waste and toxins. Fixing items around the house used to be second nature, and now that people are pocket pinching, the method is coming back in style. According to The Daily Green, a rule of thumb to help you decide whether you should fix or replace something is to fix it if the repair costs are less than 50 percent of the original price.

• Little items around the house can easily be fixed with a little tape or glue. Snap a broken piece of picture frame back into place with a drop or two of Super Glue. If the glued spot looks shinier than the rest, camouflage it by applying a glossy finish to your frame. Glue is also helpful with dishes, clocks, laundry baskets and more.
• Larger items, like electronics, get a bit trickier. If the electronic seems broken, try switching the batteries in the remote or replacing the power cord. Oftentimes, the gadget itself isn’t broken, just a smaller part of the whole is. If you’re not sure how to repair your gadget, call the manufacturer or look up guidebooks to help you figure out how. The time you spend learning the tricks of this trade is well worth it if it comes in handy again in the future. Also, oftentimes the electronic or appliance isn’t broken, it’s just temporarily impaired. Taking apart an object to clean out the dust inside, changing a filter or replacing one small part can often fix the problem.
• You can fix outdoor items instead of replacing them too. First off, plant perennials instead of annuals. You can pull weeds, fertilize and fix up perennial gardens year after year instead of constantly replacing the flowers. If a potted plant seems to have died, try moving it to a new location, watering it more or less, and adding organic nutrients before you entirely give up on it. When it comes to surfaces, you can easily fix up holes and cracks. Fill cracks in cement with small amounts of fresh cement. If one piece of your wooden deck has rotting, replace just that piece. Sand, stain and paint surfaces to make them last as long as possible.
• Furniture is simple to fix. First off, if a piece of your furniture looks worn, simply cover it with a slipcover and it’s as good as new! Slipcovers can easily be taken off and washed too. Upholstery shops allow you to change the fabric and add cushioning so an old piece of furniture seems as good as new.
• Sealing and caulking are jobs that you should become familiar with. They can be used to your advantage all over your house. If you have a window that air gets through, seal the edges with weather-stripping. Caulk and seal your attic and basement before replacing an air-conditioning unit to see if that does the trick. Seal and caulk pipes to prevent or fix leaky faucets or toilets.

For more tips on what to repair instead of replace, read The Daily Green article here.