Whether designing new construction or renovating, choosing the right exterior color and complementary accent shades is critical to creating curb appeal. With color and architecture trends varying from city to city, it’s important to consider local design trends when selecting colors for the exterior of your home.

Determine the best color choices for your home by following these guidelines.

Location - Consider the neighborhood as a whole. Think about the next-door neighbor and the homes down the street. Regardless of the neighborhood, the streetscape - sizes and facades of homes, landscape architecture, balance of light and shade - plays a role in creating an idyllic neighborhood and affects the value of individual homes and communities overall. The natural surroundings also play a significant part in color selection. For example, a green wooded area would blend better with earth tones than a home near the blues and grays of the ocean.

Color combinations - Selecting the right combination of colors for a home varies, but a good rule of thumb is to use three to six, depending on the siding and trim of the home. A best practice is to avoid selecting more than two siding colors, one trim color and one accent color for features like doors and shutters.

Balance of color choices - A home's visual balance can be disrupted by color hues that don't mix or match. The eye is naturally drawn to light colors, so consider pairing a brighter, lighter garage door with a darker siding shade. Licensed contractors, builders or remodelers can help guide homeowners on choosing multiple siding colors and trim hues that not only create a classic look for a home, but also help it blend in with its surrounding environment.

Color performance – While the home is a reflection of the person and family in it, it's also an investment. If exterior products are both functionally and aesthetically sound, they offer a greater curb appeal, which can also help with resale value when the time comes.

With fixed rate mortgages as low as they are, most purchasers or owners wanting to refinance might not even consider an adjustable rate loan. The determining factor should be how long the person plans to be in the home and which mortgage will provide the cheapest cost of housing.

For instance, if you compare a $300,000, 30 year term mortgage with a 4.125% rate on the fixed and a 3.25% on the 5/1 adjustable, the breakeven point would be almost seven years assuming the rates adjusted the maximum that they could in each year.

Therefore, if a person is going to stay in the house less than 7 years, the ARM would provide the cheapest cost of housing. This example shows that at the end of five years, the ARM would generate almost $13,000 savings over the fixed-rate.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Saver Guide, the typical U.S. family spends at least $2,200 per year on home utility bills, and heating and cooling accounts for the biggest portion – approximately 48 percent. The DOE says that those bills could be reduced by up to 25 percent by taking steps to efficiently manage those systems. Make these minor repairs for major savings this winter:

Cover drafty windows. Use a heavy-duty, clear plastic sheet on a frame or tape clear plastic film to the inside of window frames during the cold winter months. Make sure the plastic is sealed tightly to the frame to help reduce infiltration.
Adjust the temperature. When families are home and awake, set the thermostat as low as is comfortable. When asleep or out of the house, turn the thermostat back 10 to 15 degrees for eight hours and save around 10 percent a year on heating and cooling bills.

Find and seal leaks. Seal the air leaks around utility cut-throughs for pipes (“plumbing penetrations”), gaps around chimneys and recessed lights in insulated ceilings, and unfinished spaces behind cupboards and closets. Add caulk or weather stripping to seal air leaks around leaky doors and windows.

Never mind the holiday season – if I had just one wish this holiday season, it would be that you save all your holiday spending until at least January.

There's nothing new about post-holiday sales on just about everything. But if Businessinsider.com is any predictor - and your New Year's resolution is to spruce up your home in 2015 - January and February are the best months to shop for a number of key home improvement items.

According to the site:

• The dead of winter is the best time to purchase warm-weather luxuries like pools and hot tubs, when prices are the lowest. Plus, it's smart to allow several months to regrow grass after it gets torn up during installation.
• Furniture showrooms get new floor models in February and are looking to clear out the current stock of couches, saving January shoppers up to 50 percent.
• Many linen and bedding retailers and department stores are also slashing prices on sheets and bedding in January and February to make room for all the new threads coming in the spring.

The two most common phrases I hear from agents are “nobody can do it as good as me” and “my market is different than all the others.” While it may be true that nobody can do it exactly like you, this myth that is expounded from the mouths of some exceptional agents is just not true.

When we interview and survey agents across the globe, we find one consistent issue and challenge: They feel as if there are not enough hours in a day to get it all done. They spend countless hours preparing showings, following up with leads, driving buyers around and negotiating contracts, all at the expense of their family, friends, faith and fitness.

The business of being a real estate agent can be very rewarding, but (in my humble opinion) no success in business can compensate for failure in our homes. Our responsibility is to provide for our families and make the world a better place. We do a great job as an industry in the “better place” part of that equation, but often it is at the expense of our families and other priorities.

With the recent tragedy of Arkansas broker Beverly Carter still weighing heavily over the real estate community, a recent onslaught of mysterious, threatening phone calls made to several female Fall River, Massachusetts' agents have continued to remind us that REALTOR® safety is an industry issue that needs ongoing attention.

After the tragic death of Carter, a broker with Crye-Leike, REALTORS®, the company has made REALTOR® safety a top priority, recently unveiling the Beverly Carter Safety Course, which all of their agents will be required to take before graduating from Crye-Leike College. Topics included in the course are: car parking with an escape route, surveying vacant property for suspicious activity before entering a home, and leaving office staff with details on your whereabouts. Additionally, the company no longer meets new clients at properties, but instead asks that they come into the office.

“Any approach to safety should be multi-layered,” says Crye-Leike's Executive Vice President Steve A. Brown. "As we know, an app alone is not enough. Ms. Carter's phone was taken away immediately. NAR, firms, offices, and agents should disclose all of their plans in a major venue. Unfortunately, 'bad guys' are listening and watching and can use our publicized and well-intentioned strategies to create new plans which take these things in to account,” says Brown.

Mortgage applications decreased 0.9 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending November 7, 2014.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 0.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 2 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 2 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 2 percent compared with the previous week and was 11 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The refinance share of mortgage activity remained unchanged at 63 percent of total applications from the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 7.1 percent of total applications, the lowest level since January 2014.

For those who are interested in making a profit after buying a property, flipping houses is a common practice that works to improve and update a structure before selling your home for a higher value.

Many people find that the time and effort put into the property can be a challenge, but can have a large payoff. Flipping houses is now considered a practical way to supplement an income or one can make it the primary source of income. When starting the process of flipping a house, there are a few steps to take to ensure a successful project.

Hire a Few Professionals

When flipping a house, there will be several projects that need to be completed to increase the aesthetics and functionality of the home. If you're a handyman who is skilled with carpentry or plumbing, then you'll make more of a profit without consulting the services of professionals. Do as much of the work yourself while only using contractors when necessary. Although repairs and upgrades are crucial to flipping a house, it's important to avoid too much of an investment, which can render a small profit and not add any additional value to the home.

A homeowner’s tax saving benefit is generally realized when they file their federal income tax return after the money has been spent for the interest and property taxes. Some people look forward to the refund as a means of forced savings but some people need to realize the savings during the year.

It is possible to adjust the deductions being withheld from the homeowner’s salary so they realize the benefit of the savings prior to filing their tax returns in the form of more money in their pay checks. Employees would talk to their employers about increasing their deductions stated on their W-4 form.

By increasing the exemptions or deductions, less is taken out of the check and the employee will receive more in each pay check. If a person over-estimates their exemptions and therefore, underpays their income tax, they might incur interest and would have additional tax to pay when they filed their tax return.

Buyers considering this strategy should seek tax advice and discuss it with their human relations department at work. Additional information is available on the Internal Revenue Service website about Completing Form w-4 and Worksheets.

A list of talking points can be very valuable to guide the conversation with an agent that will lead to a decision to have him or her represent you in the sale of your home. If you haven’t been through the process before or it has been a while, the answers to these questions can reveal things about the experience and where-with-all of your candidate.

Even if you only intend to interview one agent and maybe they are a trusted friend, it is appropriate to understand how different issues will be handled. Professionals should not feel challenged to discuss these important concerns.

1. Tell me about your experience and training.