Housing Chatter delivers the news you need to know about current events in the housing market in simple terms. We have no political or institutional affiliations so you can be confident that our content and commentary is unbiased. Housing Chatter is brought to you by your professional Realtor®.

Housing Market 2013 for Homebuyers: Its a Balancing Act

Talk to any Realtor these days and you'll likely get an earful about "limited inventories." That's a big departure from the past few years, when home sellers were eager, for a variety of reasons, to pound those "for sale" signs into their front lawns. While existing home sales eased in December, the number is 12.8 percent higher than in December 2011, accord ... Read More »

Tax Planning for Selling Your Home

If you are selling your primary home, the tax law allows you a very generous exclusion for the profit you have made. In fact, most home sales escape taxation altogether. So when you sell your home, you'll probably find packing up and unpacking in your new home to be a much harder task than calculating your income-tax bill from the sale. There's a good chance ... Read More »

Topic 509 - Business Use of Home

Whether you are self-employed or are an employee, you may be able to deduct certain expenses for the part of your home you use for business despite the general denial of business expense deductions for the home. To deduct expenses for business use of the home, part of your home must be used as one of the following: Exclusively and regularly as your pri ... Read More »

Learn the Top 8 Best Methods to Hardwood Floor Cleaning

I get a lot of questions about how to clean and maintain a hardwood floor from two groups of people. The first group is lucky. To begin, they have a new floor finish. This new floor finish will be either on a new prefinished floor, or a sand-on-site floor, or on a recently resanded and refinished existing wood floor. Mostly what these folks are missing is ... Read More »

Ink Stain Removal - How to Remove Ink Stains

Whether you are a school going kid, college going youngster or an office going executive - one thing that is experienced at some point in time by everyone is getting those highly noticeable blotches of ink stains on your clothing. Tablecloths and carpets at home too are susceptible to ink spilling from someone overfilling his fountain pen, or a leaking ball ... Read More »

Rat Mouse Control Removal

How To Get Rid of Rats: There is a great deal of wrong information and ignorance regarding rat control. Many extermination companies and people resort to poison use for rat control, and this is a big mistake. For a list of many reasons why, read my rat poison page. In short, poison does not solve the problem and creates many additional problems. The proper ... Read More »

How To Get Rid Of Tack Holes

Are you tired of how your house looks like? Do you want to modify your interior design? If you want to keep your house in style, you might need to redo your house layout and before you can transfer wall decorations and other furnishing from one place to another, you have to deal with tack holes first. Tack holes, nail holes and other holes in your wall are n ... Read More »

The Secret to Cleaning Grout in Tile Floors

Q: DEAR TIM: Cleaning a tile floor is my next big project. The grout lines are filthy, and I haven't discovered an easy way to restore the tile. Is there a magic product that will clean floor tile? Once the grout is clean, what's the easiest way to keep it that way? Should I invest in a cleaning machine? -- Michelle S., Corvallis, Ore. A: DEAR MICHELLE: We ... Read More »

How to Clean Your Toilet

Cleaning the toilet is one of those chores that you want to get through as quickly as possible. Many toilet-bowl cleaners and deodorizers claim that they'll help you do this. Some products are truly helpful, some are not. Toilet bowls and tanks are usually made of vitreous china, which is nonporous and easy to clean. Before you clean your toilet, read the l ... Read More »

How To Clean Shower Curtains and Bath Mats

You've been working in the yard all day, and you're dirty and sweaty. The problem is, your shower stall or bathtub is grimier than you are. It's imperative that you keep this part of your bathroom as sanitary as possible. Shower Stalls Shower enclosures are a chore to keep clean -- but they can be less of a problem if you follow these guidelines: Keep ... Read More »