Rehoboth Beach Real Estate Blog - lewes

Looking at homes in Lewes? These summer events may just sweeten the deal!

The real allure of living in Coastal Delaware is that you get to live in Coastal Delaware. It's gorgeous, most especially homes in Lewes, and there's just few places we'd rather be.  We at Mann & Sons are always on the lookout, though, for special events to make the move here all the better. With summer in full swing, we have our eye on a number of annual events to look forward to.

To get a good idea of the true beauty of the area, we're going to start with the 23rd Annual Lewes Garden Tour, taking place on June 15th. This tour gives you a chance to look at some marvelous "hidden gardens," selected for their variety in styles and types. Along with several within walking distance of Zwaanendael Park, you'll also get a chance to see the Children's…

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Fixing Up An Historic Home: The Three Rs

If you enjoy both history and fixing things, then you may have trouble driving by historic homes for sale in Lewes without feeling the urge to buy and fix one up.

Before you do, however, you should know the three R's of fixing historic homes -- Restoration, Renovation, and Repair.

Restoration
"Restoration" is the process of returning a home to its original state. Restoring historic homes often requires city and state permission. It's essential that you check to see whether your home is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP); or, whether it's located in a historic district. If either is true, there may be a specific set of rules to follow while renovating.

Restoration can be an expensive endeavor. For a home to keep its historic…

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Right Answers for Avoiding Wrong Contractors

Lately, as national home values have continued to rise, area homeowners have had reason to feel a lot more comfortable with the part of their portfolio that Lewes home values represent. You didn’t have to be thinking of buying or selling to welcome the turnaround.

Of course, homeowners don’t need to feel like helpless prisoners of overall trends when it comes to their own home values. Home improvement projects can significantly raise those values. Yet the opposite is possible -- although it rarely happens, in the worst cases, projects gone wrong can actually damage underlying home values!

Here are some important areas to bear in mind when you are evaluating potential contractors. If you make them a part of your interviewing process, the candidates…

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Making the Most of Lewes Home Walkthroughs

Everyone brings their own priorities to the table when checking out the Lewes homes for sale. Some folks drive street-by-street through their favored neighborhoods, eliminating or accepting through that first curb-appeal impression. Others trawl through the web listings, prioritizing by price, or lot size, or by number of bedrooms. Regardless of how they determine which Delaware resort homes for sale get a second look, savvy buyers eventually compare the amount of repair work each will need. They try to think like an inspector. 

This is not to suggest that anyone except an experienced professional will be able to complete a thorough inspection – you need a pro for that. Nevertheless, while you are first comparing properties, putting on your inspector’s…

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Foreclosure Price Rise Signals Market Move

In August, the number of new foreclosures listed nationally barely crept upward -- even as average sale prices leapt dramatically. Realtytrac compiles the numbers, and they show a sizeable 10%+ jump in foreclosure sales prices from July to August. Of course, homes listed as foreclosures and short sales still close at prices markedly lower than homes sold in traditional transactions, but that rise in price seems to say that more buyers are feeling confident that a home purchased now will look like a wise move in the future.

If you have been looking at the distressed property market in the Delaware Resort area, these numbers suggest that the short sale and foreclosure possibilities are still being created -- and that the value they represent is getting a…

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Lewes ‘For Sale by Owner Signs’ Aren’t Enough

The For Sale by Owner (FSBO) method of selling a home has remained at pretty much the same level of popularity. According the NAR’s most recent survey, just 10% of sales came directly from a previous owner. Since that very includes a bunch of transactions between family members, it looks as if the population of Lewes For Sale by Owner signs continues to be in something of a slump (down from the cyclical peak of 18% back in 1997).

Still, if you are a Lewes homeowner who wants to buck the trend and head down the FSBO route, you will need to do more than just stick a For Sale by Owner sign in the lawn. Of key importance is the newspaper and Internet advertising you will need to create. Here are some ‘how to’ elements that can help in that effort:

1.…

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