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The day I planned to close on an acre lot where I hoped to build a brand-new house, my real estate agent turned up a deed restriction that limited the number of garages I could construct. I had intended to build three, but according to the deed, I could have only two.

This seems like the ultimate First World problem, I know. But it was the first deed restriction I, as a new developer, had encountered, and I didn’t understand why this rule had come out of nowhere to block my progress on land I was paying good money for.

As it turned out, the restriction was more than 50 years old and created by a neighborhood association that had long ago ceased to exist—and therefore couldn’t enforce it. I ended up closing the deal, but I had to consider all the dreamy-eyed buyers who longed to build their own home and were thwarted by rules—archaic or not.

And here’s the rub: Deed restrictions and deed-restricted communities affect more than would-be home builders. Homeowners can be restricted by anything from the number of bedrooms in a house to the types of vehicles in the driveway. It’s best to know about deed restrictions before you buy, so let’s take a look at what they’re all about.

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Magnetic paint will not magically make your wall as sticky as your refrigerator door, but it can create a cool design effect throughout your home if you use it right. It might sound as easy as slapping on some paint and instantly having a magnetic surface, but proceed with caution.

Creating a magnetic surface that will successfully hold up papers requires some know-how, a lot of paint, and the right magnets.

Ready to transform a corner of your home into a nail-free, magnetic gallery wall? Here’s what you need to know.

The science of magnetic paint

Before you go out and buy a quart or two, you should have some understanding of how the paint actually works.

Realtor.com

A decidedly un-Florida-looking house in Florida has hit the market for $16.9 million.

The eye-popping property’s unusual aesthetic really stands out among the palm trees.

That’s probably because the Gothic Revival home’s architectural details originated in a different place entirely.

“They came from a New York church, and it’s very, very unique to Naples, FL,” says listing agent Paul Arpin, with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty. “It’s situated on one of the nicer pieces of waterfront [property].”

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The housing market today remains in a hazy no man’s land, with neither buyer nor seller willing to surrender what little control they have.

Buyers face the dual enemies of high home prices and mortgage rates, which have been bouncing between 6% and 7% this year and ticked up this week to 6.5%, according to Freddie Mac.

Sellers bear their own hardships: a glut of competition. As buyers sit on the sidelines, homes for sale linger on the market, gathering dust and dashing sellers’ hopes of bidding wars and over-asking offers.

But there is some inkling of a power shift in the buyers vs. sellers battle, and it’s in favor of the team willing to take some action: buyers.

HGTV

Former “Teen Mom” star Chelsea DeBoer is gaining fame—or is it infamy?—for her signature design style on her new HGTV show, “Down Home Fab.” She describes it on the premiere as “South Dakota glam. I love cowhides, painting things black, anything a little bit different.”

Suffice it to say, her makeovers—along with some help from husband Cole—have been sending shock waves throughout her sleepy hometown of Sioux Falls, SD. And so far at least, her clients appear delighted.

But what happens when Chelsea meets clients who are, as she puts it (cue the thunder), “a little bit more reserved with their style”?

In the episode “Farmhouse Fab,” Chelsea and Cole meet Beth and Ryan, who make it clear to the DeBoers that they don’t want anything trendy or odd that they’ll get tired of looking at after a year or two (like skull wallpaper on the ceiling, perhaps). They’re more into classic and traditional decor.

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As the new year kicked off, the wild run-ups in rental prices that terrorized tenants last year appear to have leveled off.

January was the 12th month in row where rent growth slowed, according to the Realtor.com® monthly rental report. Monthly rents were down $80 from the peak in August, but they were still up 2.9% year over year, to hit a median $1,726 a month in the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas.

(Realtor.com looked at rents for studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, condos, townhomes, and single-family homes in the 50 largest metros. Metros include the main city and surrounding towns, suburbs, and smaller urban areas.)

“The biggest takeaway is while the rental growth is slowing, the affordability concerns continue,” says Realtor.com Senior Economist Jiayi Xu.

Realtor.com

A former whaler’s house in Swainton, NJ, is the oldest property to hit the market this week on Realtor.com®.

The waterfront property boasts more than 15 acres of wooded privacy. Inside, the home has lots of charm and character with many period details still remaining.

Other vintage homes to hit the market this week include an updated Colonial in Massachusetts, a waterfront stone home in Pennsylvania, and a farmhouse on 60 acres in Vermont.

Scroll down for a full look at this week’s 10 oldest homes.

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The numbers: Mortgage rates are up sharply, putting pressure on the housing market once again.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.5% as of February 23, according to data released by Freddie Mac on Thursday.

That’s up 18 basis points from the previous week. One basis point is equal to one one-hundredth of a percentage point.

The 30-year rate was last at this level in November 2022.

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Former big leaguer Ryan Klesko is selling four bungalows on his private island in Florida’s panhandle region. The former slugger owns the island with an anonymous business partner.

Black’s Island, as it’s known, is on the Gulf Coast and was discovered by Captain James Black nearly 200 years ago. The island is said to have a storied pirate history.

Today, the seven-acre island near Port St. Joe, FL, is accessible only by a short boat or helicopter ride. It features 26 cozy bungalows along the waters of Saint Joseph Bay.

Amenities for island residents include a clubhouse, cabana, and spa-style pool. There will soon be on-island dining and access to the Mainland Black’s Hotel, which will be completed in late 2023.

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By now you know that your credit score can have a big impact on your life—like when you want to finance a big purchase such as a house, or when you’re looking for a new rental. You can expect your potential landlord to run a credit check and, as a general rule, you will need a score of 620 or higher to rent an apartment.

But credit reports can, on occasion, contain errors—and those errors can derail your apartment search when a landlord gives you a hard pass as a tenant.

“Credit report errors are actually common,” says David Bitton, co-founder of and chief marketing officer of DoorLoop, a property management software. “In fact, at least 1 in 5 people can encounter an error in any of their credit reports.”

Apartment hunting is hard enough, especially if you live in an area where desirable properties get snatched up at a moment’s notice. The last thing you need is to lose out on a rental because of errors on your credit report. But knowing what to look out for can get you back on level playing field. Read on for more information about credit score errors.

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While winter is generally a slow time for real estate as homebuyers hunker down and wait for spring, certain cities—and in fact, one entire state—are defying those odds.

The Realtor.com® Hottest Markets List for January has ranked Manchester, NH (a more affordable alternative to Boston, about an hour away), No. 1 for the 18th time in the past two years. Coming in second was Rochester, NY, on the shores of Lake Ontario. Neither of these metros is much of a surprise, given they’ve lingered near the top of this list many times in the past.

But the No. 3 hottest market—Columbus, OH—is where things get interesting. Why? Because it’s just one of five cities in Ohio that made January’s top 20. That’s a whole lot of Buckeye State property people are snapping up!

(The rankings factor in a combination of demand—measured by the number of unique views per home listing—and how quickly homes are selling in that market.)

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Oprah is not in the house.

Some homebuyers connected to Georgia’s booming film industry will be moving into a home Ms. Winfrey began building but never completed.

An offer is pending on the very large, unfinished mansion in Conyers, GA. The list price was $3.5 million.

“When you’re in the house, you feel so microscopic,” says listing agent Ashley Cook, with Maximum One Realtor Partners. “You’re just like, ‘Whoa.’ I’m so excited to see it done.”

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Every dollar counts, especially when you’re living on a fixed income. That’s why senior discounts rank among the best perks of aging—aside from wisdom, of course!

Discounts on dining, movie tickets, travel, groceries, and property taxes are yours just for reaching a certain age.

Wait, property taxes?

That’s right, older homeowners could qualify for senior property tax exemptions that could significantly reduce their tax bills. Here’s what you need to know and how to determine if you qualify.

Photo. courtesy of Crosby Land Company

The South Carolina hunting lodge where a scandal-plagued lawyer’s wife and son were shot to death and a housekeeper mysteriously died is about to make its way out of legal purgatory as the blockbuster trial against Alex Murdaugh continues.

Netflix will drop its three-part series “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal” on Wednesday, about the prominent attorney accused of stealing millions from his clients and the mysterious deaths swirling around his family. The series is expected to generate renewed interest in the $3.9 million sale of the family’s nearly 1,800-acre hunting farm, which is expected to close next month.

Alex Murdaugh is currently on trial for the murder of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and son Paul Murdaugh, 22, on June 7, 2021. He is also accused of swindling millions of dollars from his clients to help fund a drug addiction and hiring a hit man to kill him so his surviving son, Richard “Buster” Murdaugh, could collect a $10 million life insurance policy.

Alex faces more than 100 charges ranging from the murder of his wife and son to tax evasion and could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.

HGTV

While HGTV designers each have their own signature style, there are certain trends they all seem to love. On the latest “Fixer to Fabulous,” Dave and Jenny Marrs show they’re birds of a feather with Christina Hall and former “Teen Mom” star Chelsea DeBoer.

In the episode “Small House to Cozy Casita,” the Marrses meet Denise and Pepe Estrada, who spent five years living in Pepe’s native Peru. These empty nesters have recently purchased a 1,317-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath home. They hope the space can comfortably accommodate family and friends when they come to visit.

Dave and Jenny have a budget of $180,000 to remodel the entire house. In the process, they arrange for the Estradas to be empty nesters no more.

Find out how the Marrses pull this off and learn plenty of lessons you might be inspired to try on your own abode—including one renovation that’s all the rage (among reality TV stars and others) that can actually save you money each morning you sit down for breakfast.

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Mortgage rates are back up, hitting a fresh high for the year.

The average on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.87% as of Tuesday afternoon, while the 15-year was at 6.07%, according to Mortgage News Daily.

Rates are officially at the highest level for the year. But to be clear, rates have been higher—they surpassed the 7% threshold, and reached 7.37% back in October, per MND’s data.

The jump in rates “has significant impact on payments and affordability, so you have to assume that means fewer buyers in the market,” Mike Simonsen, founder of Altos Research, said in a recent YouTube video.

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Fox News Host Jesse Watters has moved out of his Manhattan rental and purchased a home in Bernardsville, NJ, for a cool $2.8 million.

The stately, five-bedroom mansion boasts 10,296 square feet—significantly larger than the cozy, 1,853-square-foot New York City condo he rented with wife Emma.

The political pundit has been busy with real estate transactions lately.

Last October, the host of “Jesse Watters Primetime” listed his vacation home on the Jersey shore for $1,999,000. The the 2,044-square-foot, four-bedroom, oceanfront abode in Beach Haven, NJ, was recently updated.

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Modern life is deeply dependent on major appliances. Whether they’re keeping your wardrobe clean or ensuring your food is edible, these machines help us out a lot more than we realize.

A day without a dishwasher, washing machine, air conditioner, or refrigerator is, for many, almost unimaginable. So when one breaks down, or you move into a home without one or more of these domestic MVPs, it is hard not to panic.

None of these essential appliances comes cheap, but there are ways to plan ahead so you can buy one at a discount. Grab your calendar, and make note of the following best times to buy major appliances.

Mark your shopping calendar for September, October, and January

Manufacturers typically roll out new appliances during two major times: early fall and at the beginning of a new year. Retailers often slash prices on last year’s inventory to make room for the fresh models. The exception to this rule is refrigerators; Manufacturers introduce new models in the spring.

Dan McDonald

Dan and Marissa McDonald were in their mid-20s, paying $2,000 a month for an old, outdated apartment in Boston when they started thinking about buying their first home.

“I was sick of paying such high rent,” Dan recalls. “I wanted to really jump into actually having an asset to my name beyond my 401(k).”

While many couples in their shoes might have begun searching for a single-family home, Dan was intrigued by a trend called “house hacking,” which involves renting out rooms or parts of a house to help cover the cost of a monthly mortgage, and perhaps even make a profit.

“I have always been interested in real estate investing, but I didn’t really ever think it was possible, being young and not having a lot of money to put down,” Dan admits. But through house hacking, he had learned that buying more space—and renting it out—could end up costing less than simply buying their own place.

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Price is one of the most critical factors in buying a home. But there’s something else you need to consider when budgeting for a new house: property taxes.

When scrolling listings for your dream home, you’ll typically see property tax estimates listed. But that doesn’t mean the current tax will be your effective tax rate as the new property owner.

Instead, when a home changes owners, the property taxes sometimes will be higher than what the current owner pays.

This could have some bearing on whether you can afford a certain home. For instance, when you’re qualifying for a home loan, you have to show you can handle paying the property taxes and the principal and interest of your mortgage.