Birmingham remains one of the most well-known suburbs of Southeastern Michigan and a quick tour of the community shows a major update of so many roads and its downtown infrastructure. Birmingham is only about 25 miles away from downtown Detroit and you can sense the excitement of how the Motor City’s Renaissance is impacting the nearby suburbs like Birmingham. "July was extremely busy on the home sale front..." said Birmingham office manager, Don Amalfitano, "...the housing market started slowly this yea... read more

Smell is one of our most important senses. Psychologically speaking, it’s the sense that is most closely linked with memory, meaning that good smells can evoke happy memories and experiences while bad smells can do just the opposite. Smell is also highly emotive; different fragrances can convey a vast array of emotions and feelings. So, it’s no surprise that smell can come into play when you’re trying to sell your home. There’s a reason why real estate agents always think about the ... read more

If only selling your home was as simple as snapping your fingers. Unfortunately, reality is rarely that kind. Instead, there are a thousand little details that go into selling your home from hiring a real estate agent to home staging and curb appeal enhancements. But if you’ve focused mostly on finding the right realtor and too little on curb appeal, you could be putting yourself at a disadvantage. Never underestimate the power of a great first impression, which starts with the outside of your home. When... read more

Our local housing market continues to lean in favor of sellers and shows no sign of letting up anytime soon. The lack of inventory is causing people to hold out on putting their home on the market causing there to be more buyers than homes available. However, this could change, as interest rates head toward 4.8%. The housing market in west Michigan is cooling off slightly, but it’s still red-hot for sellers because there aren’t many homes on the market. Homes that are for sale in Grand Rapids are selli... read more

Each month the National Association of Realtors (NAR) provides an Existing-Home Sales Report, which gives us a detailed look at the state of the housing market across the United States. While the Existing-Home Sales report is closely watched by economists and the media, its broad overview is rarely a help to buyers and sellers here in our neck of the woods (Michigan). So, that’s where Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel (CBWM) can help by comparing and contrasting what the NAR report says with our CBWM Real Estate Up... read more