| Are you a first time buyer who wants to buy a castle, | | | | paint them to match the shutters. Grow plants in the |
| but can only afford a drawbridge? When your real | | | | window box that will still bloom in winter, like silver ferns |
| estate agent takes you to see tiny houses that you | | | | or yellow-leafed evergreen and make sure you have |
| can only just afford, do you say that it's too much like | | | | an ivy trailing down from each box. |
| the one that your great-grandpa lived in? | | | | When you have finished painting it all up and are ready |
| Then, do you go all glassy-eyed and point to the | | | | to sell it, plant pansies in the boxes. A little old baby |
| two-story custom built home with the double garage | | | | boomer couple will fall in love with it and they only |
| across the road and look wistfully at the hot tub? | | | | wanted two bedrooms anyway! (Baby boomers |
| Yes, well......Remember when you passed your driving | | | | reach 65 and start to retire in 2011.) |
| test and you saved up to buy your first car? You | | | | If you want to make even more profit and you are |
| wanted a candy-apple red Corvette that was a | | | | handy with an electric saw, you could build a garage or |
| standard with black leather seats. However, you | | | | order a modular kit and make one. There are many |
| settled for a beaten up old Volkswagen that needed a | | | | inexpensive ways to add profit to a home. Some of |
| paint job AND it was an automatic. Are you still driving | | | | them include painting it inside and out, adding a |
| that car now? No. | | | | greenhouse, building a deck, and making an outdoor |
| Get the picture? | | | | eating area. |
| A small home gets you a piece of realty in the | | | | You can give the kitchen a lift by replacing cabinet |
| coveted property market of which you are currently | | | | doors for as little as $20 each. If you paint your home, |
| NOT a member. The little house will escalate at the | | | | keep it all white, cream, or very pale, to give it a |
| same rate (more or less) as the gorgeous house. This | | | | spacious look. |
| means the gorgeous house that you are aiming for will | | | | House prices are at their cheapest for years, and |
| never escalate further out of your reach because you | | | | mortgage interest rates are very low. Get |
| have an escalating house yourself. | | | | pre-approved for fixed rate financing so that your |
| If the house is really small, just play up to its cuteness. | | | | monthly payments won't go up. Choose a house now |
| You can hang fairy-tale shutters on the front windows, | | | | and you will have it renovated in time for the next |
| and buy some wavy edged wooden trim for the | | | | boom! |
| eaves of the roof. | | | | Then you can buy the Corvette. |
| Buy cobblestones and wind a little path up to the front | | | | Maryland's first "EcoBroker" designated Realtor, |
| door; attach window boxes under the windows and | | | | Branden Schroeder. |