How many hours do you lose each day scrolling through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter? Why not spend some of that time toward cutting costs on something we all spend probably too much money on each month: groceries? These seven tips can help get you started on a couponing journey.

 1. Start a stockpile
Extreme couponers have a stockpile of stuff in their garage or closet. The reason for having a stockpile is not to become a hoarder, but it allows you to buy stuff only when it’s on sale. 

2. Secure a coupon source
Find out which Sunday paper has the best coupons and subscribe to it! Set aside time with your scissors and sift through the paper each week to find the most beneficial coupons for your needs.

3. Compile your clips
Cutting coupons means

Back-to-school season is here, and school supply lists have taken over almost every store in town. Seeing those lists remind us that it’s also time to start thinking about morning routines, packing lunches, paperwork, practice schedules...you know the drill. There might be a lot to plan for, but don’t stress. These five simple tips will help make your life easier and get your kids off to a great start!

1. Clean out kids’ closets
   
   • Before you even think about back-to-school shopping…Know what you need to buy and what not to. Start three piles: trash, donate, keep. Throw away the worn-out clothes, and donate the ones that don’t fit anymore.
2. Enforce earlier bedtimes
• Start putting kids to bed earlier before school even starts, so the

Are you moving soon? Maintain a sense of order, and help keep track of important tasks with this moving checklist.

4 Weeks Out

• Contact and hire a trusted moving company
• Transfer school transcripts, medical, dental and other important records (if needed)
• Schedule the transfer of your home and auto insurance
• Send out change-of-address cards

2 Weeks Out

• Cancel and order utilities (gas, electric, water, telephone, cable/internet)
• Close or transfer bank accounts (if needed)
• Transfer newspaper and magazine subscriptions
• Arrange for transfer of vehicle and driver’s license(s)

Move Week

• Keep money, valuables and important documents with you
• On closing day, the home purchase documents will be recorded
• Move

Finding your dream home has certainly evolved over the years. It started with word-of-mouth between family members, neighbors, or friends. Maybe, one of them knew someone that knew someone who was “selling the cutest little house”. Next, came newspaper ads which made it possible for many more people to find out about homes for sale, but they were limited by small photos and short descriptions.

The internet brought considerable advancements to home searches. It made it possible to search limitlessly for homes – of any kind, in ay area  –  right from your keyboard. It was the cutting edge of home search technology…It was, until now.

Alexa, open Kansas City Homes”.

When you tell your Amazon smart speaker those five words, it activates the

We may be a little biased, but we hold our agents and brokers in very high regard. We see the excellent work they do and amazing customer service they provide and believe it is the very best in the region, if not the country. But again, maybe we are a little biased because of how close we are to the situation.

Fortunately, our feelings on the matter were recently confirmed and thus our fears of excellence tunnel vision were put to rest.

On Wednesday, December 6, the Kansas City Regional Association of the REALTORS® held their Holiday Party, Awards & Installation event where they recognized the very best among Kansas City area REALTORS® for the year of 2017. As the official association for real estate professionals in the Kansas City area, KCRAR

Something special starts to happen when the days get shorter and the temps get colder. You can practically smell it in the air…yep, it’s Kansas City during the holidays. Sure, there are bigger and more well-known locales for celebrating the season, like New York with the Rockefeller Center tree, and 5th Avenue window displays, or Chicago’s “Nutcracker” Ballet or shopping on Michigan Ave., but for our money, you just can’t beat the merry Midwest!

Whether you live around town or are just visiting family and friends in KC, you’re sure to fall in love with this city and its surrounding areas when you experience these five holiday-time treasures.

Holiday Lights (and not just at the Plaza)

You know the holiday season in Kansas City has officially

As a lifestyle real estate company affiliated with the Better Homes and Gardens brand, we understand and relish in the fact that we are about much more than buying and selling homes. Our association with something so ingrained and influential in the American culture as Better Homes and Gardens is always on our collective minds, but sometimes even we have to be reminded of just how connected and synergistic our relationship to it is. The latest example of this happened when one of our Plaza/Kansas City office agents, Jessica Thomas, showing homes to her client.

One of those homes, on East 79th Street in KCMO had quite a unique history that made for an interesting and interwoven connection to our company and our brand. Jessica recalls that as she was

Homestead is a new housing development in the thriving Kansas City suburb of Liberty, MO that’s been 180 years in the making.  This new home community offers reverse ranch, 1.5 and 2-story homes with spacious layouts and amazing amenities, on some of Liberty’s oldest, family-owned land.

Homestead is in southern Liberty at 1671 Homestead Place, just east of I-35. It’s secluded enough to make you feel like you’re living on wide-open farmland, but close enough to the city center to keep you connected to many of Liberty’s amenities and attractions, as well as one of the state’s top school districts. You can take a short drive up the street to MO-152, where you’ll find an abundance of dining options, and shopping destinations, which include national chains,

What a great night for a ball game!

Last night was BHGRE Night at the Royals. We had a great turn out of agents and staff as we kicked things off with a delicious tailgate party courtesy of Security 1st Title, the Sloan Agency, First State Bank Mortgage, and Old Republic Home Warranty.

After feasting on BBQ and a few cocktails, the group headed to the stands to watch our boys in blue take on the Minnesota Twins. Even though the Royals couldn’t pull out the “W”, the big winners of the night were us and Veterans Community Project thanks to the many people who came by to tour the tiny house the excellent media coverage we got.

The Washington Post recently featured a story entitled “It’s Prime time for 18-hour cities” that talked about “smaller” big-cities and their drawing power to millennials. Among the experts they interviewed about what so appealing about these cities was our own Christian Zarif (College Blvd.). Her own words, Kansas City “offers everything you can get in some of the bigger cities without the big-city headaches”. Read complete article.

Source: Washington Post, September 2017