High Country Realty NC

  FIVE FALL MAINTENANCE TIPS These simple maintenance tasks can save you from expensive repairs and big headaches over the next few months.   1. Take care of hoses and faucets:  Disconnect your hoses before the freezing temperatures arrive, because they can cause water to back up in your faucets—and eventually cause the plumbing to crack. Then, if possible, shut off the valves for your exterior faucets.   2. Winterize the lawn mower:  Either run the mower dry, or use a fuel stabilizer to prevent the gas in your mower from degrading and damaging the engine.   3. Clean the gutters:  Twigs and leaves will build up in your gutters throughout the fall. Make sure to clean the gutters before there’s heavy snow, because the weight of both the leaves and the melting snow could cause the gutters to break away from the house.   4. Get the furnace ready:  Your best bet is to call in a professional to give the furnace a tune up, but at the very least you should change the filters.   5.

HOW AN AGENT CAN HELP ALLEVIATE STRESS Purchasing a home can be a stressful experience, whether you’re a first-time buyer or you’ve been through the process before. But that’s one of the reasons that working with a real estate professional is so worthwhile. With your agent’s guidance, buying a home should be enjoyable, rather than stressful. Here are some of the more unique circumstances where your agent can make your life much easier. Out-of-town buyers: If you’re looking for vacation homes or moving to a job in a new city, there’s a good chance that viewing homes will be difficult—you could be a long drive or even a plane ride away. With today’s video messaging apps like Skype or Facetime, your agent can walk you through a property virtually. It’s not the same as walking through in person, but it will at least give you an idea about whether a property is worth pursuing further. When life is just too crazy: If you’re just getting too busy with everything else going on in your