The broadcaster and author’s brief to her designer was simple: ‘Imagine if Josephine Baker lived in Harlem today. That’s what I want this apartment to look like.’

Photo courtesy of Debi Treloar / Ryland Peters & Small | CICO Books via Houzz

Your parents and grandparents collected whole suites of brown furniture and gilded framed art for their living and dining rooms—and now a lot of it seems to be coming your way.

Sure, you’d like to acknowledge their thoughtful gifts. But clinging to a family heirloom in your decor just because your grandmother wanted a rustic blanket chest can sink a look you’re trying to create.

So take a breath, and realize it’s perfectly OK to donate items you don’t actually like. But if you want to update your pieces, check out these six innovative ways to integrate fusty, old decor into your space without looking like you’re living in the past.

Paint it bright

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Sellers are sitting in the driver’s seat of today’s idling housing market. So why are they stalled behind the wheel?

Typically, as winter turns to spring, the housing market thaws. Sellers prepare their homes for showings and scrutiny, and buyers review their wish lists and budgets. But with home prices falling from their peaks in many areas, mortgage interest rates around 7%, and tons of economic uncertainty, many prospective sellers are still sitting on the sidelines. New home listings, the lifeblood of the real estate market, are down by double-digit percentages over last year.

For some home sellers, apprehension is leading to paralysis. They have plenty of questions: Will buyers show up ready to bid high despite the financial challenges they’re facing? How much should owners be spending on repairs and cosmetic touches to make their homes more appealing? And has the best moment to sell already passed?

While it’s still a seller’s market, the days when a homeowner could list a property that needs renovations, hasn’t been staged (or even cleaned), and receives 25 offers well over the asking price within a weekend are mostly over. Many buyers can’t afford the high prices and rates, so bidding wars have died down, as have offers coming in well over list prices. These days, many sellers are accepting lower offers as their homes languish on the market for months.

Investing in rental properties is one of the most dependable methods of building wealth. You give yourself the best chance of success when you know exactly what you’re getting into.

Want to do more than write a sonnet with the latest AI tools? Here’s how to put them to work on your content, and the platforms you need now.

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Calling all Disney princess fans! A regal setting featured in one of your favorite film franchises has begun its reign on the market in San Francisco, CA.

The neoclassical Mediterranean mansion featured in “The Princess Diaries,” starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, is now available for $8.9 million.

The home’s Beaux Arts exterior served as the setting of the fictional school that Princess Mia (Hathaway) attended before her true identity was revealed.

In addition to the grand double-curved staircase out front, the century-old home has an array of other camera-friendly highlights.

Realtor.com

Constructed from steel, concrete, and glass to withstand the elements, a new Malibu, CA, listing clocks in as the fourth-highest-priced home for sale in this tony beach community.

Perched on the Pacific Coast Highway, it’s on the market for the first time. It’s co-listed by Madison Hildebrand and Jennifer Chrisman of Compass for $68,800,000.

The seller bought the property for $2.1 million in 2003 and tapped Malibu architect Edward Niles, known as “the master of glass,” to build the modern masterpiece.

Totaling 8,206 square feet, the main house (with four bedrooms and 5.5 baths) and the detached guesthouse (one bedroom and one bath) were completed in 2010. The bedrooms are all en suite and feature ocean views.

Engel & Völkers' luxury agents poured into Miami this week for the company's 10th annual conference, where Americas CEO Anthony Hitt revealed the brokerage's "Refined" brand refresh.

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Wondering how to water a lawn? Sadly, it’s not quite as simple as just turning on the sprinklers and walking away. The number of times you water your lawn throughout the year and how much water you give the grass matter—so if you’re foggy on the details, allow this latest installment of our Lawn Lover’s Guide to show you the ropes!

Read on to learn how to water a lawn, and when, how often your grass needs water, and a whole lot more to amp up your lawn care.

Why you should water your lawn

Grass may not be as difficult to maintain as a vegetable garden, but if you want to keep your yard looking green and gorgeous, you can’t just treat it with benign neglect. Aerating, seeding, and watering your lawn are all part of keeping your curb appeal intact.

“When you don’t give your lawn enough water, it grows with shallow roots,” explains Don Botts, the president of Quality All-Care Services, in Bonner Springs, KS. “This can stunt the growth of your grass and make it harder for your lawn to survive severe temperatures or disease.”

Transaction sides fell 18.2 percent year over year for a total of $472.9 billion in sales in 2022, a 12.5 percent decline, according to a full-year earnings report released Monday afternoon by the Texas-based brokerage.

Realtor.com

Mobile homes have come a long way. Despite their reputation as a last resort for desperate homebuyers who can’t afford a “traditional” home, these prefabricated structures are not all depressing metal boxes. They can be stylish, well designed, and extremely affordable options for a buyer looking to either downsize or get a foot in the housing market.

Today, mobile homes have interiors that are sometimes truly extraordinary. If you don’t believe us, check out this mobile home in the Hamptons that was recently sold for a record price of $3.75 million.

Spurred by that big buy, we perused listings nationwide to find seven stylish mobile homes on the market that might just completely upend your expectations.

138 Pali Dr, Palm Springs, CA

Price: $275,000
Mobile magic: This affordable and adorable home offers million-dollar mountain views within a cozy 630 square feet of living space.

Bank failures and a slowdown in wage growth have forecasters thinking the Fed will back off from an aggressive rate hike campaign next week.

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Learning how to aerate your lawn is a must for homeowners who want to keep their yard looking lush. So if your greenery is looking a little thin or (yikes) has a bald patch here and there, you’ve come to the right place!

Welcome to our Lawn Lover’s Guide—a series of articles that will help guide you through all the maintenance tasks you’ll need to know for a gorgeous yard and maximum curb appeal this summer. First up? How to aerate your lawn—an oft overlooked chore that can easily revive your grass, no reseeding or fertilizer required.

Why is aerating important?

Between hot sun, harsh weather, and weekly mowings, thatch (dead grass, roots, and other organic material) can build up on the ground. This can prevent oxygen, water, and the other nutrients your grass needs from reaching the roots, says Brad Leahy, owner of Blades of Green in Harwood, MD.

“Aeration is the process of punching through those layers of thatch and compaction in your lawn,” Leahy explains.

A home with a gorgeous yard isn’t just easy on the eyes: Well-landscaped homes also sell for 5.5% to 12.7% more, according to research at Virginia Tech. Only problem is, professional landscaping costs an average of $3,219, according to HomeAdvisor.com. But pros aren’t the only way to go. Here’s proof: seven cheap landscaping ideas that provide all the lush greenery you need without your gushing greenbacks.

1. Show your lawn a little TLC

While overgrown plants and weeds can make a home look run-down, a well-manicured lawn signals to prospective home buyers that the house is maintained well inside as well. So start by cutting the grass, trimming shrubs, and pruning hedges.

Buried in weeds? Cherie Lowe, blogger and author of “Slaying the Debt Dragon,” recommends a homemade weed killer: Mix white vinegar, 1 to 2 cups of salt (table or Epsom), and a small squeeze of dish detergent.

“It takes one to two days for it to activate, killing off unwanted weeds, and costs a fraction of the price,” Lowe says.

2. Install drought-tolerant plants

One-third of all household water use typically goes to landscaping, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s no surprise, then, that sustainable design (i.e., yards that require low maintenance and less water) is one of the hottest trends in residential landscaping, according to a recent survey by the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The deal marks a new record price for the market of Palm Beach where the priciest deal previously went to hedge funder Ken Griffin's purchase of four parcels for $129.6 million in 2013.

HGTV

On HGTV’s “Home Town,” Erin and Ben Napier have renovated some small spaces, but the latest episode shows just how small they can go.

In the Season 7 episode “Second Chances,” the Napiers help Mike and Cornise renovate their guesthouse. However, the residence is only 250 square feet, so there’s not much to work with.

“This wins the award for the smallest house we have ever worked on,” Erin says. “I can’t imagine we’ll ever work on anything smaller.”

Still, Ben knows that the key to this project is making smart choices.

Signature was the largest commercial real estate lender in New York City by transaction volume and third-largest by volume since January 2020, according to PincusCo, which tracks real estate transactions.

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Knowing when to fertilize a lawn—and how—is a big part of keeping your yard lush and amping up that all-important curb appeal. Fertilizing, after all, is a way to give your grass the extra nutrients it needs to flourish.

Only how do you fertilize a lawn, and how often, and what is the best fertilizer to buy? For this second installment of our Lawn Lover’s Guide, we talked to experts to help you figure out everything you need to know to keep your lawn looking gorgeous all summer long.

When to fertilize your lawn

Fertilizing your lawn is a critical part of helping the grass grow, kind of like giving your yard a multivitamin. But unlike the One a Days that people take, a good fertilization game plan only needs to be done a few times a year, says Kevin Shanks, manager of retail training at Scotts Miracle-Gro.

In the North, where cool-season grass types like Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, and fescues dominate, Shanks says you’ll want to feed your lawn twice in the spring and twice again in the fall.

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The backyard landscaping ideas you choose aren’t just about keeping the neighbors from complaining about the mess. Your backyard should be an oasis, a place where you want to spend time. But while most homeowners pine for a green patch of land to call their own, once they’ve got it, they very rarely visit the place.

While outdoor living spaces topped the 2015 Home Design Trends survey by the American Institute of Architects, UCLA’s “Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century” study showed that adults spent less than 15 minutes per week out in their yards (even kids log in just 40 minutes).

Perhaps the reason you aren’t in your yard isn’t due to laziness; it might merely be because you have nothing to do there. That’s where an infusion of backyard landscaping ideas could help.

Backyard landscaping ideas

“You need a legitimate reason to go out there,” says Chad Bostick, a Huntsville, AL, landscape architect and member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. So before you start putting your backyard landscaping ideas into action, take stock of how you like to spend your free time. If growing green things is your passion, then your yard should be filled with vegetable and flower gardens. If listening to lapping water soothes you, then a water feature is a must. If you can’t take the sun, plant shade trees. If kicking a soccer ball around with your kids is your “together time,” create a level lawn where you can play. Build a purpose into your yard and suddenly you’ll be out there. All. The. Time.

The eight-person team, established by agent Elaine Bannigan, will now work out of Douglas Elliman's new office in Wellesley, Massachusetts, the company exclusively told Inman.