Dawn McClara,Realtor

07/27/2026

September is the second strongest selling window of the year. The homes that win it were prepped in July.

Inspections booked. Contractors lined up. Decluttering started. Yard work in motion. Small repairs handled. Deep clean scheduled. Strategy in place.

The sellers who hit the market in early September with a home that is ready to be seen consistently outperform the ones who list in October hoping to catch the same wave. By October, the wave is over. Buyers who needed to be in by year-end are already under contract or have given up.

If your goal is to list in September, this is the month the work starts. Not the staging. The plan.

DM me this week. We will walk through the timeline and make a plan that gets your home to market the day it should hit, not three weeks after.

07/25/2026

A $80,000 renovation can read as cheap as a $20,000 one if the details are wrong.

Mixed metal finishes that fight each other. Dropped ceilings that shrink the room. Tile that stops in the middle of a wall. Hardware that is the wrong scale. A statement piece in every room. New floors with old trim still in place. Recessed lighting installed at random.

Buyers cannot always name what is off. They feel it. And the feeling shows up in the offer.

The renovations that actually return their cost are the ones where every choice was considered, every detail was finished, and every metal in the room is having the same conversation.

DM me before your next project. The difference between a renovation that adds value and one that costs you money is usually in the choices nobody warned you about.

07/19/2026

https://mycommunityonline.com/find/elton-h-geshwiler-senior-center/bulletin/file/01-1635-20260801N.pdf -container/1/

An online directory where communities come together to connect, share, and thrive.

07/19/2026

For all of my ice cream lovers out there! Today is your day!!

https://www.facebook.com/share/1Esm1QKS1k/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Sunday is National Ice Cream Day. Plenty of shops are offering free or discounted scoops in celebration: https://fox59.com/news/national-world/national-ice-cream-day-2026-the-best-ice-cream-and-froyo-freebies-and-deals/

07/17/2026

The kitchen with the wallpaper border. The double oven nobody used. The fridge with the magnets from every state. The Formica counter that had a coffee ring stain you could not get out. The cookie jar shaped like a chicken. The dish towel that said something embroidered on it.

It is what buyers want now. Not literally. Not the chicken. But the feeling.

The kitchen that looks like someone cooks in it. Real wood. Soft light. A hutch instead of a pantry. Dishes on display because they are pretty, not because they are staged. A table in the middle that is for eating, not for Instagram. Pots hanging from a rack because they get used.

For 15 years, every kitchen was supposed to look like a hotel. White, sterile, perfect, untouched. Buyers walked through and complimented them. Then they went home to a kitchen that actually felt like a home.

The shift is real. The Pinterest searches for “vintage kitchen” are up 340 percent over the last two years. Design magazines that used to feature all-white kitchens are now featuring kitchens with patterned tile, brass, oak, and curtains.

Grandma was right.

Tell me one thing your grandma had in her kitchen that you would put in yours today.

07/14/2026

The baseboard is the most honest part of a house.

It tells the buyer how the home has been treated. Scuffs from the vacuum cleaner. Dings from the toys. Paint chips from the dog. Yellowed white that used to be bright. Caulk pulling away from the wall. Dust collected on the top edge so thick you can write your name in it.

Sellers spend $20,000 on a kitchen update and forget the trim is screaming at the buyer the second they walk in.

Buyers do not stand in your living room and look down at your baseboards on purpose. Their eye catches it anyway. It registers in the same part of the brain that decides whether a restaurant is clean before the food arrives. They cannot name what is wrong. They just know something is.

A weekend of caulk, sandpaper, and a fresh coat of white trim paint can do more for a buyer’s first impression than a $5,000 upgrade anywhere else in the house.

Walk to your front door right now. Look at the baseboards on the way. Be honest. Drop a comment with what you saw.

07/13/2026

The Airbnb investment that looked like easy money in 2021 is the property nobody wants in 2026.

Saturated mountain towns. Themed houses that aged out. Cabins on private roads that only work as short-term rentals. Cities passing permit caps and owner-occupancy laws. Self-managed properties that turned into second jobs for owners who thought they bought passive income.

The smart investors started exiting these in 2024 and 2025. The buyers stepping in right now are stepping into someone else’s exit plan.

What is working in 2026 is boring. Mid-priced single-family homes in growing metros that work as long-term rentals first. Properties with a plan B if the short-term rental math falls apart. The kind of math that does not photograph well and does not need to.

If you are thinking about buying a short-term rental, the question is not “will it cash flow.” The question is “will it still work if the rules change.”

DM me before you sign anything. The wrong rental property is not just a bad investment. It is a liability you cannot get out of.

07/10/2026

Open concept.

We all wore it for a decade. We all swore we loved it. We all defended it to anyone who suggested otherwise. And now we are quietly walking into homes with actual walls and remembering what peace feels like.

The complaints are showing up in resale data. Homes with closed-off kitchens are starting to outsell open concept homes in the same neighborhoods at the same price point. Buyers are tired of cooking smells in the living room. Tired of toy explosions visible from the front door. Tired of one messy room making the whole first floor feel chaotic.

Builders are responding. New construction is quietly bringing back the formal dining room, the butler’s pantry, and the prep kitchen tucked behind the main one. The pocket door is having a moment. So is the breakfast nook with three walls instead of one.

If you bought an open concept home in the last ten years, you are not alone. If you are looking now and feel weird saying you do not want one, the data is on your side.

Are you team open concept or team walls? Drop it in the comments.

07/09/2026

You check into a nice hotel. You walk into the room. Within 30 seconds, you feel different than you did when you walked in.

It is not the view. It is not the thread count. It is the choreography of the room.

Hotels engineer the first impression. Nothing on the nightstand except a lamp and a notepad. Nothing on the desk except a chair pushed in. No phone chargers on the floor. No tangle of cords behind the TV. No personal items competing for your attention. The room is asking nothing of you.

People are starting to bring that into their own homes. The bedroom with one lamp, one book, and a glass of water on the nightstand. The bathroom counter with three things on it instead of fifteen. The entryway with a single tray for keys and nothing else. The living room where the remote is in a drawer and the throw blanket is folded. It is not minimalism.

It is not a Pinterest aesthetic. It is the hotel principle. Surfaces are for breathing, not for storing.

Pick one surface in your house this week. Clear everything off it except one thing. See how the whole room feels different.

07/08/2026

The renovations on every “boost your home value” list are the ones with the worst returns in 2026.

Leased solar. Sport courts. Wallpaper. Whole-home audio. High-end appliances in mid-priced homes. Custom closets. Garage conversions. All of them feel like upgrades. All of them are costing sellers money at closing.

The renovations actually returning their cost right now are the ones nobody brags about. The new roof. The updated HVAC. The replaced windows. The fresh insulation. The neutral paint. Buyers do not photograph these. They do walk into the house, see them, and stop looking for problems.

If you are planning a renovation before you list, run the spend through the buyer’s eyes, not your own. The wrong project does not just fail to pay off. It actively shrinks the offers you receive.

DM me before you spend a dollar. I will come walk through your home and help you make the best decision for your family and your finances.