Whether you just moved in or have lived in your home for 50 years, it’s common to wonder how long you should stay in your home before you sell it. According to the National Association of Realtors®, ten years is the average amount of time that a homeowner will stay in their home before deciding to sell it.  If you’re under ten years and itching to sell, many experts say you should follow the“five-year rule” and stay in the same home for at least five years before selling. This may sound like a long time and you may think you are ready to sell now, but before you make any rash decisions, we put together a few of the most important factors that you should be aware of. 1. Your Mortgage One of the first and foremost factors you must consider when you decide to sell your home is your mortgage payment. If you want to make money when you sell your home, then your sale price must be greater than what’s left of your mortgage. When you first buy your home and begin to pay your mortgage, the first few years will go towards interest rather than the principal amount. This typically means that it’s more difficult to make money off your sale under 5 years. However, if you put a larger downpayment on your house, then your interest rate and mortgage will probably be smaller, making it possible to make money in a shorter amount of time. 2. Equity Building home equity is important. You’ll want to have a lot of equity built up when you decide to sell. The amount of home equity you’ve obtained depends on any remodeling or renovations you’ve made, as well as your mortgage. If the home you bought was already in tip-top shape, then it may be difficult to build equity. If you’ve remodeled the kitchen, bathroom, redone the flooring, or made other renovations around the house, then you have most likely gained home equity. You can also increase your home equity by paying off more of the principal on your mortgage. For a checklist of ways to add equity to your home, visit our Equity Builder page HERE! 3. Market Conditions  One of the more common reasons you’re eager to sell your home is to make money on your property. There are a few things to look out for when deciding if it’s a seller’s market and whether or not it’s time to make your move. If you notice the price per square foot in your area is increasing, chances are that homes stay on the market for a shorter time. You should also take note of homes near you that are selling. It might seem time-consuming, but don’t worry! We always keep track of recent home sales in the area and can send you over an up-to-date market report. Request A Market Report We have exclusive access to past sales close to your home and we know what the market currently looks like. Get Your Free Report   4. You’re Out Of Space Maybe this was the first house you bought when you were expecting your first child and there were only three of you, but now with three kids and two dogs, there isn’t much space. Although it may be sad to move out of the home where you started your family, the happiness of your family may be greater than the cost of selling your home and buying a new one. Other life situations like divorce, illness, or even the need to downsize may also lead you to sell sooner than you originally planned. 5. Capital Gains Tax If you don’t qualify to avoid paying capital gains taxes on the sale of your home, you may not want to sell your home yet. To avoid capital gains taxes, you should make an effort to stay in your home for at least two to five years. Making a sale before two years could be a huge mistake, and could ultimately leave you without much equity, especially if you have to pay capital gains tax. 6. Closing Costs Closing costs are often overlooked but play an important part when it comes to selling your home. On average, real estate agents have a commission rate of 6% when you sell your home. You are also likely to pay a closing cost when buying a home, which can be between 3%-6% of the purchase price of the home. Keeping closing costs in mind before you sell allows you to budget this into your expenses and avoid surprises when it comes to closing. So, Is It Time To Sell? If you’ve already taken these factors into consideration and decided that it’s time to sell, take the first step and get your home’s value. If not, no worries! We’re here for you when you’re ready.

The decision to sell your home isn’t an easy one. In fact, research has ranked selling a home as second to relationship breakups for the most stressful experience in a person’s life. The same survey said Americans are more stressed out about selling their home than planning a wedding, getting fired or even becoming a parent. In other words, it’s perfectly normal to have strong emotions. The good news? Though the experience can feel overwhelming and inspire doubts, it doesn’t have to get in the way of a successful home sale, and there’s always a bright side. Here are three stories from homeowners that prove it. The Story: Last Minute Memories Nostalgia seems to unexpectedly hit many sellers like a ton of bricks once they see their home empty and ready for its next owner. Getting caught up in the chaos of moving can only keep your mind busy for so long before you realize what you are about to leave behind. Oftentimes sellers feel the rush towards the end of the process. That’s exactly what happened to Erin, author of The Sunny Side Up Blog. She says, “I walked around room to room. I could see my baby girls running around in dress-ups. I could see our evening routine – giving them a bath and putting them in matching PJs. I could see so many sweet moments between my kids and how fast they grew right in front of my eyes in that house.” “It’s not hard to say good-bye to a house. It’s hard to say good-bye to special memories and to the end of an era. A really happy era that I will tuck away and treasure in my heart forever.” The Bright Side ☀️ “We feel so blessed to be in our new home, we are definitely going through a bit of a transition.  I know it will just take time. I also know that someday, much sooner than I can imagine, I will be walking through the rooms of our new house feeling the exact same way.” The Story: An Empty-Nester’s Adult Kid Confronts The End of An Era In a story from The Atlantic on navigating how empty-nesters navigated the sale of a family home, the story of Alene Bouranova stands out. Bouranova grew up in Kirkland, Washington. She was at school in Boston, Massachusetts when she got the news that her parents had sold her childhood home.  “I started crying in the dining hall, just crying all over my plate of pasta,” Bouranova says. “I was not pleased at all. That was my home.” The Bright Side ☀️ Although Bouranova was initially emotional about the sale of her childhood home, she came to terms with the decision and understood the reason behind her parent’s decision.   “It’s my parents, and as sad as I was originally, it’s their lives and they can do what they want,” Bouranova says. “I just want them to be happy.” The Story: Moments Of Doubt Despite being a Realtor who has guided many clients through the home-selling process, Nancy Perkins was surprised by how emotional she felt when selling her family’s home of 19 years. In an essay for The Alexandria Times, she writes how she and her husband began to doubt themselves throughout the process after realizing the attachment they had not just to the home itself but to the neighbors and neighborhood.  “We started to doubt ourselves. Why did we need to make any changes when this house worked well for us? While we were ready for a new house, we were attached to our home, to our garden and to our neighbors.” The Bright Side ☀️ “Like many of my clients, these thoughts kept me up at night. My fears were alleviated, however, with multiple offers, happy buyers and a quick sale, thanks to smart renovations, good staging and fair pricing.” The Bottom Line There’s no doubt that you won’t ever forget the memories you made in your home, but looking forward to the new memories you’ll create in the future and getting excited for what’s to come can put your mind at ease.  No matter if you’ve lived there a couple years or many decades, selling your home can inspire a deep emotional response. Selling your home is hard.Selling without an agent iseven harder. Even if you’re not planning on selling soon,preparing you (and your home) to sell will help with thestress and anxiety that are sure to come.

We’ve all heard of Goodwill and Salvation Army, but this non-profit design house isflipping the script on clothing donation nonprofits. When you drop off your unwanted clothing at their brick and mortar shop (908 Live Oak, Houston TX 77003), the team over at Magpies and Peacocks takes those pieces and creates a whole new work of art.Not only do they accept clothing but they often get donations of textiles and scrap pieces of material as well. With all of these materials, they’re able to create new pieces and collections and save literal tons of waste from hitting landfills.“What we try to do is up-cycle to where you will wear it, use it 20, 40, 50 times. We’rereally trying to eliminate it going to landfills. We don’t do the trash to flash thing. Wedon’t make dresses out of garbage bags because you really can’t wear that,” saidExecutive Vice President Ahshia Berry. “We’ve diverted 110 tons, which is the equivalent of 220,000 plus pounds of textiles, whether it’s the clothing we have on, scraps, whatever, from landfills and we’ve up-cycled about 6,000 products.” It all started when Founder and CEO Sarah-Jayne Smith invited friends and colleagues to offer up any articles of clothing that they no longer used or loved but maybe no longer fit into them. “What can we do that’s more honorable, how can we transform these into living things again so that people can love them and we can keep them out of the landfill,” said Sarah-Jayne.  This sparked the concept for Magpies and Peacocks, which at the time was a completely innovative approach to fashion retail. Not many people were aware of the amount of waste that the fashion industry produced each year. “The first few years really we won hearts and minds just on being honorable with your things, just because it was the right thing to do,” said Sarah-Jayne. “At that point, nobody was very lit up about a presence with the fashion industry. The fashion industry was so low on the totem pole, people were still obsessing about plastic and glass, cardboard. Fashion was not really an issue.” After the collapse of a Bangladeshi sweatshop at Rana Plaza in 2013 made national news here in the U.S., many people finally began paying attention to the unregulated systems of the industry. It was with this story that the team at Magpies and Peacocks was able to help consumers understand the true mission of the brand. “People got a better understanding that not only were they being more honorable with their stuff but it was a more environmentally friendly thing to do and that they could look upon this as not just a tax deductible thing to do but something that would benefit them in the long term,” said Sarah-Jayne. Since its establishment, the non-profit has been educating consumers on the benefits of recycling and upcycling. And getting the community involved by hosting clothes swapping events and open houses allowing consumers to visit the store and understand the process of upcycling. And if you’re wondering about where the name Magpies and Peacocks comes from, a magpie is a type of bird who collects all things shiny.  “Magpies collect shiny objects so that seemed like a logical beginning to the story of anything. It sees the beauty regardless of what the object is.” To learn more about Magpies & Peacocks, visit their Facebook page or website at http://magpiesandpeacocks.org