As Community Home Week comes to a close for 2019 and we celebrate the 51st anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, it is important to recognize the value of home ownership. While a home is the place where you can do a lot of living, it also represents an investment that you can keep on ...

Joe Biden hugged my younger daughter when she was 13 years old. She won’t be having a press conference, telling the sordid details of her traumatic experience, but it’s an incident that cost me thousands of dollars. The cost wasn’t for therapy to learn to cope with the horror; it was ...

It’s a great time to buy a home, and buyers are starting their annual spring tour of homes. This weekend kicks off our Community Home Week Celebration. This weekend is a prime time for sellers to get their homes in tip-top shape. Curbside appeal is very often the determining factor that ...

Springtime is finally here, and this is the time of year homeowners begin to think about putting their house on the market to sell. Here are some helpful tips of things you can do that will help in the presentation of your home, contract negotiation and for getting the best price for your ...

Daylight saving time began at 2 a.m. today when it was once again time to “spring forward” by setting clocks ahead one hour. The time change, which costs you an hour of sleep, can impact your circadian rhythm, causing you to be sleepier on your Monday morning commute, and thus, affect road ...

What is a title search? What is title insurance? The custom in our market area, the Mahoning Valley, and the counties it encompasses, is that a seller will guarantee his/ her respective title to the real estate he / she will be conveying to a new buyer is free and clear of liens and ...

The majority of Trumbull County households are on septic systems, believe it or not. Septic systems must be kept in proper working order as they are a functioning system with components. Because they are outside and underground, the majority of the system, and as the old addage says “out of ...

Now that you have an accepted offer to purchase your dream home, what’s the next step? Ordering a general home inspection is the logical choice. A general home inspection will offer you some assurance and peace of mind that this major purchase is the one you actually “dreamed ...

I sat in Judge Andrew Logan’s courtroom as Claudia Hoerig received her sentence of 28 years to life. I was overwhelmed with emotion. That February day meant so much to us all. The outcome so many hoped for now is written in stone. Justice prevailed, but the only ‘life sentence’ I observed ...

One of the great things that Realtors assist in is advocacy. The National Association of Realtors, Ohio Realtors and our local Warren Area Board of Realtors constantly monitor matters and issues that may adversely affect homeownership and / or private property rights. It could be local ...

Let’s talk about mortgages. When starting the home purchase process, start first by talking to a lender about getting pre-approved. A lender can discuss mortgage options that fit your specific personal needs, they will assist you in verifying what price range of home to look at in your ...

What does the word “Realtor” mean? It is used frequently and in general for all those individuals who hold a salesperson license issued by the Division of Real Estate. However, only licensed salespeople who belong to the National Association of Realtors, Ohio Realtors, and their local ...

This past summer, my wife and I were blessed to visit Atlanta, Georgia. It was our goal to see the sights referring to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We were blessed to go to his birth house where we heard stories of how he did not like to take his piano lessons. We visited his eternal flame and ...

If you are the mother or father of a high school athlete here in Ohio, this message is primarily for you. When you attend an athletic event that involves your son or daughter, cheer to your heart’s content, enjoy the camaraderie that high school sports offer and have fun. But when it comes ...

Just like any other industry, business, hobby, etc. we use acronyms, abbreviations and slang to discuss aspects specific to those industries, businesses and hobbies. We assume, which we should not do, that everyone understands what we are talking about. So, during my year as president of the ...

Over 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy identified mental illness as one of America’s “most critical health problems.” The result was the Community Mental Health Act of 1963, one of the final pieces of legislation he signed before his death that year. We have made much progress ...

Happy New Year to everyone. It seems like a short 40 years ago I obtained my real estate license. I have to say how blessed I have been and what a wonderful career choice it was. All of us who live in this Valley have seen the good, the ups and the downs that have occurred here. We comprise ...

During the past 12 to 18 months, much has happened concerning our local military assets. Both Camp Garfield (formerly Camp Ravenna) and the Youngstown Air Reserve Station (YARS) have had, arguably, their best year in more than a decade. To that end, the community as a whole, our state ...

In what has become commonplace in corporate America, General Motors once again, undeniably, demonstrated it will always put corporate interests and executive bonuses over the stability of our community and the families who have served it for decades. Shortly before Christmas, GM CEO Mary ...

After a year writing about homeownership and its benefits, the premise of this article may seem a little odd. Follow along and maybe you will understand what I mean. America and the right of all to own real property was a novel concept in the 1700s. Most countries did not allow anyone except ...