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The question comes up more than you might think. Vinyl siding is a wildly popular exterior covering for a home for good reason: It’s inexpensive and durable, often coming with a lifetime warranty. So, vinyl siding lasts and lasts and lasts. Does this mean that you’re going to be stuck with the original siding color for the entire time you own your home? Vinyl siding comes in all sorts of colors—but what if you decide you want a different hue?

Relax. There’s no need to replace the exterior; painting the vinyl siding is a great alternative to installing new siding. You just need to know how to do it the right way. Here are the steps for painting vinyl.

Step 1: Pick the right paint

In the past, painting vinyl siding wasn’t possible because the paint wouldn’t fully adhere to the siding; even if some did, the vinyl would eventually crack and flake as the siding expanded and contracted because of weather changes. But no more.

  Today, there are plenty of acrylic latex paints (specifically, those containing urethane) deemed “vinyl safe,” so be sure to home in on this variety for your painting project and your vinyl siding should be in the clear.

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That twice-annual clothing swap is upon us! And sometimes it’s a dreaded chore.

Hauling apparel from one spot to another is something we often put off until the last possible minute—and when it occurs in the fall or early winter, you’re left literally shivering as you dig through your woolens.

However, swapping out your closet as the temperature changes is a smart move, organizationally speaking, says Katie McCann, a professional home and office organizer at Haven.

It can streamline your mornings. By having the correct clothing front and center, you won’t have to paw through lightweight summer items to find your suede jacket and faux fur muffler.

Publicly traded real estate company The Real Brokerage (Real), has expanded its footprint in Canada with the acquisition of the 90-agent Redline Real Estate Group.

Real estate companies including Compass, Offerpad and Opendoor saw share prices hit all-time lows Monday. The rout suggests investors may have deep concerns about the real estate industry.

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A secretary desk may seem old fashioned—with its fold-down writing surface and numerous cubbies—but it’s making a stealthy comeback.

“You’d think this clunky piece would be going out of style, but I’m seeing it more and more lately,” says Jamie Novak, author of “Keep This Toss That.” The reason? That fold-up front lets you hide the mess and keep your look streamlined, plus it offers varied storage in a single piece.

With more sleek laptops in today’s home offices, and fewer towers and megaprinters, a secretary can easily house your tech and paper needs. It’s pretty, to boot, sometimes made with inlays, carvings, and adorable drawers and cubbies for secret treasures.

If you’re thinking of adding a secretary to your decor, here’s what you need to know about its history—and where in your home it looks best.

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The sprawling mansion where the reality TV show “Being Bobby Brown” was filmed is on the market in Alpharetta, GA, for $1.9 million.

Singers Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston purchased the 7,734-square-foot home in 2003 for $1.39 million. In 2007, the celebrity couple sold the designer five-bedroom home to the Chevalier family for $1.19 million.

“When we bought the house, we were looking for a home in the Country Club of the South,” says homeowner Danielle Chevalier. The gated country club community boasts 745 homes and a golf course, among other residential amenities.

“At the time, Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown’s house was on the market—and we thought it had really good bones,” adds Chevalier.

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On their new series “Fixer Upper: The Castle,” Chip and Joanna Gaines are nearly done renovating a 1913 stone mansion in Waco, TX. And while it’s looking magnificent so far, the devil’s clearly in the finishing details: How can Chip and Joanna strike that perfect balance of making this home feel historic, but in a modern, updated way?

In the episode “Old Is New Again,” they repurpose a lot of older materials to give the building an authentically aged feel. They also incorporate modern touches with clever hacks to make them feel original. Last but not least, they must hide one very modern eyesore in a way that looks natural, as if it were always part of the house.

Do they pull it off? Check out these photos and lessons that could apply to any home, even your own—old, new, or anywhere in between.

Bring in flooring materials with history

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Only 16 percent of those surveyed by Fannie Mae in October said it was a good time to buy a home, and the percentage who said it's a good time to sell also fell, according to new data released Monday.

Homebuyers searching for price cuts on search portals are sure to get lucky if they check on this specific day of the week and check back again after 3 weeks, according to a new analysis by Zillow.

Real estate platforms were a hot topic a few years ago, but for even some of the biggest companies, sprawling enterprise has been the quickest way to failure, Inman founder Brad Inman writes.

Homebuyers and sellers are struggling to keep up with the rapidly shifting market, according to a Zillow survey of real estate agents, which found many believe home prices will fall steeply in 2023.

Exactly one year ago, Zillow Offers was in a similar position to the one that Opendoor now finds itself in and shut down its operations. Mike DelPrete offers insight into the path forward for Opendoor and why it might be different this time around.

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Reese Witherspoon has not only phenomenal acting chops (ahem, she’s an Oscar winner), but also a savvy head for real estate.

Witness her latest home sale, which made her a sweet profit of $3.5 million, according to Dirt.

Yup—this Nashville, TN, abode recently traded hands in an off-market deal for $7.3 million, which is almost double the $3.7 million that Witherspoon paid in 2018.

The palatial, Colonial-style estate is located in the upscale neighborhood of Belle Meade, has six bedrooms and eight baths, and extends over nearly 8,400 square feet.

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For people looking to interact online with their neighbors, one of the most popular platforms is Nextdoor. The neighborhood networking app allows people who live in the same area to post local updates, share business recommendations, and buy and sell goods. Since its founding in 2008, Nextdoor has evolved into a sort of hybrid app: part Facebook, part Yelp, part Craigslist. In the U.S., a staggering 1 in 3 households uses it.

But Nextdoor isn’t all business reviews and neighborhood cheer, though. Like many other social networking platforms, Nextdoor has attracted a subset of users who live to broadcast their opinions and insights within the online community—whether the community wants them or not.

The company says it’s committed to curtailing toxic content and even created an algorithm that prompts users with a “kindness reminder” if their post reads overly argumentative. Today, Nextdoor reports that less than 1.5% of content on the site can be considered “harmful and hurtful.”

So while a majority of the posts on Nextdoor are harmless, the platform is notorious for being a digital bulletin board for hilariously awkward content posted by passionate citizens with a propensity to overshare. Whether they’re reporting a noise disturbance, posting about a local election, or asking their neighbors to help identify a swarm of bugs inside their home (yes, this is an actual post we’ve seen), here are the most common types of users you’ll meet on Nextdoor.

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In the simplest terms, it’s a graphic depiction of a property, much like a map, outlining its legal boundaries and other features. While land surveys typically aren’t required during real estate transactions, they’re extremely useful tools that can clear up a whole lot of confusion. Here’s what you need to know about land surveys and how they can come in handy.

How are land surveys made?

Surveyors lay out the exact dimensions of a property by using your home’s deed, which should include a description or map of your property line. Unfortunately, these descriptions can be hazy and might use outdated landmarks such as trees that have long since disappeared. For that reason, a surveyor will physically measure the land as well.

“GPS is one of the possible tools we use when completing a survey,” says Robert Sandlin, a land surveyor in Missouri and Kansas with Shafer, Kline & Warren. But the individual survey will dictate the appropriate tool. An altimeter, for instance, would be used to measure a property’s elevation.

Once the property’s boundaries are determined, each state has a minimum standard for so-called monumentation that a surveyor is required to follow.

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Since home prices shot into the stratosphere, many first-time buyers have prayed for them to fall so that they could afford to become homeowners. Their wishes appear to have been granted—and yet, they’re caught in a paradox: Even as prices have begun to dip, the cost of purchasing a home has risen. A lot.

The reason for the contradiction: soaring mortgage interest rates.

Most folks are still laser-focused on a property’s price tag. In fact, this kind of list price obsession is deeply ingrained in the American psyche. But, of course, purchasing a home is very different from buying products from a brick-and-mortar store or shopping online. Unless home shoppers are buying with all cash, they will be taking out a long-term loan to fund their purchase. And there’s a hefty cost to borrow that money—which increases when mortgage rates go up.

Nationally, the median mortgage payment is now about 77% higher* than a year ago. The bulk of that increase is due to the higher rates, which shot up from the low 3% range to hover around 7% for 30-year fixed-rate loans. And that has entirely upended the affordability equation.

Does your current brokerage still give you the value you need to succeed at a higher level? If not, writes Missy Yost, you need to evaluate and determine whether it's time to make a move.

A 1920 bungalow in Los Angeles, a 1909 Craftsman-style house in Oakland and a two-bedroom cottage in Redondo Beach.

There was subletting, apartment-sharing, couch-surfing, roommates, cockroaches and a guest bedroom. The story also includes a sunny one-bedroom in Brooklyn.

Real estate investors have a different perspective, and a different set of priorities, from traditional buyers and sellers, according to Clever's Luke Babich. These 10 essential skills will help you cultivate and build successful relationships with real estate investors.