Celebrate Spring and enter to win HGTV’s Green Home on FrontDoor!

HGTV's Green Home 2011 is in the neighborhood of Stapleton in Denver, CO.

Happy Spring everyone! I took some time off to have my baby boy Alexander and am back in time to share some exciting things happening at HGTV’s FrontDoor.

HGTV’s Green Home Giveaway is underway! Now through June 2, enter to win a fabulous eco-friendly home in the premier sustainable community of Stapleton in Denver, CO. Enter the sweepstakes and explore the neighborhood >>

Spring is in full swing and we’ve got some great home buying tips and home improvement projects inspired by our favorite season.
Find fresh ideas for spring >>

As the weather gets warmer, you’ll want to prepare your home for outdoor entertaining. Learn about waterfront living and transform your deck or patio into a social hotspot. Take your home improvement projects outside >>

Neighborhood Snapshot: Upper West Side in New York City

In New York City, where space is scarce, homeowners have to be creative when customizing their living space. Native New Yorker Arlyn Gajilan set out to turn her Manhattan studio into a peaceful, eco-friendly oasis in an urban jungle.

See how a well-planned, “green” renovation can increase home value and learn more about theĀ Upper West Side, a suburban-like, family-friendly neighborhood with the benefits of a big city lifestyle.

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Extra, Extra: FrontDoor is coming to a town near you!

Our FrontDoor family is growing! Now readers of some of the biggest newspapers in the country — the Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Denver Post and more — will get FrontDoor’s valuable expert tips, advice and videos and browse our 4 million listings.

FrontDoor.com is partnering with 250 newspapers across the country to enhance their Web sites, allowing homebuyers and sellers to browse local listings and real estate content.

In fact, the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate.com just launched this enhanced content, while the FrontDoor team attends Inman News‘ Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco this week. We hope all you Bay Area folks enjoy it!

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Partners include Cox Newspapers, Freedom Newspapers, Journal Register Co. and Southern Newspaper Group.

If you recall, we announced a similar partnership with local television stations to enhance their Web content.

So look out for FrontDoor in a local newspaper near you!

Frustrated with your real estate agent? Try these 10 strategies to find the right one for you

I hear so many real estate agent horror stories from homebuyers and sellers (and have experienced my own nightmare situations) that you’d think “agent bashing” is some sort of national pastime.

While there are some bad apples out there (as there are in any profession), that shouldn’t reflect poorly on the industry as a whole. In fact, I know many people who rave about their real estate agents and consider them part of the family.

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Finding an agent is easy. In any given area, hundreds of professionals are vying for your business. Finding the right agent for you is the hard part.

You’re trusting someone to help through one of the biggest purchases in your life, so it’s important to do your research.

Check out FrontDoor’s Top 10 Strategies for Choosing the Right Real Estate Agent.

Vlog: Sellers need a reality check to help housing market recover

It’s tough not to think about how much your home value has fallen since the peak of the real estate boom. But as financial expert Barry Ritholtz points out, falling prices don’t affect you unless you really have to sell.

Furthermore, delusional sellers are blocking the road to the housing recovery. Until they wake up to the reality of today’s market and price aggressively, they’ll need a dose of HGTV’s “Real Estate Intervention.”

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Vlog: Inside a condo for sale in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood

Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are a great resource for journalists like me, especially when you’re on deadline in a city where you don’t have very many contacts. Case in point — before a recent trip to Chicago, I wanted to connect with a local Realtor and film a home tour for FrontDoor’s vlog. The catch — I had a two-hour block in which to film.

Rather than google Chicago-area Realtors and filter through hundreds of agent profiles, I put a call out to our more than 1,000 fans on Facebook. Et voila! Scott Curcio of Coldwell Banker posted a reply saying he would be happy to help.

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Next month, I’ll be in LA, San Francisco, Boston and Seattle. If you have a great real estate story, share it with our Facebook community! I may even feature it in our vlog.

FrontDoor, Facebook and Twitter fans: Get a virtual backstage pass to HGTV’s “Real Estate Intervention” this Sunday!

hgtv-real-estate-intervention-mike-aubreyEver wonder what really happens behind the scenes of an HGTV show? Now’s your chance to find out!

FrontDoor.com is giving you a virtual backstage pass to the new series “Real Estate Intervention,” through Twitter and Facebook.

During a special episode this Sunday, July 26, HGTV real estate expert Mike Aubrey will give you the inside scoop on his show LIVE through tweets and status updates. Tune in at 8:30 p.m. Eastern (7:30 p.m. Central).

But the best part is that you can join the conversation too!

Maybe you have a suggestion for the seller. Or you didn’t agree with Mike’s advice. Tweet and post your opinions and share them with other viewers. No more talking to the TV set alone! I’ll be adding my two cents too.

To join the interactive fun, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/HGTVFrontDoor or fan us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FrontDoor.

You can also follow along through the Facebook and Twitter streams on FrontDoor.com.

Don’t you just love social media?

How media is changing the way we “experience” real estate

frontdoor-on-twitterI’m looking for a home to buy in New York City. I learn about local market trends through TV and the Web, search for homes for sale online, use my BlackBerry to get listing information in the field (still haven’t bought an iPhone yet), and share my real estate adventures with my social media universe, i.e. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Like many of today’s savvy buyers, I expect the real estate agents I work with to understand the ways I “consume” and “experience” real estate.

Let’s face it — why work with an agent who isn’t taking advantage of all the platforms available to market my house? Advertising on Craigslist is great, but it’s standard practice now. The question these days is — what added value does this agent provide?

On Aug. 5-7, many of the big players in the real estate industry will convene in San Francisco for Inman News’ Real Estate Connect, a conference focused on the convergence of real estate and technology.

On Friday, Aug. 7, at 9 a.m., Scripps Networks Digital president Deanna Brown will host a presentation called “How TV, The Web, Your Phone and the Social Universe are Colliding (In A Good Way).”

Brown will talk about what’s happening in real estate with the use of social media, video, TV, etc. and how this is changing the way people are searching for properties.

The entire team of HGTV’s FrontDoor.com, along with yours truly, will be at the conference, so please say hello if you’re going!

You can register for the conference here: http://www.inman.com/events/real-estate-connect-san-francisco-2009/register

HGTV’s FrontDoor.com welcomes new homebuyers and sellers from 60+ local markets

frontdoor-on-milwaukee-wisn-abc-tvHere at FrontDoor.com, nuestra casa es su casa.

And today, we’re happy to welcome millions of new members to the FrontDoor family — more than 60 local TV station affiliates throughout the country and their viewers!

Now you can get real estate listings and valuable homebuying and selling tips and advice from HGTV’s FrontDoor.com on some of your favorite local stations’ Web sites. This is just another example of how FrontDoor is reaching out to consumers in their local markets.

So, for example, Atlantans who tune in to WSB-TV and Denverites who watch KMGH, the Denver Channel can go to these stations’ Web sites and search for homes in the area and get great articles and videos from FrontDoor.com.

We’re bringing the tools you need for your home search and sale at a hyperlocal level. How awesome is that! Pretty awesome.

For more details, check out the news release.

Behind the scenes of the Drama-Free Real Estate Guide media tour

With so much drama in the world, there’s no better time than now to step back and take a breath. It’s easy to get caught up with the stress and emotion of buying and selling a home. That’s why FrontDoor Insider Tara-Nicholle Nelson is sharing her solutions and strategies to deal with today’s frustrating real estate situations, like getting rejected for a mortgage or facing foreclosure after losing a job. It’s all in Tara’s Drama-Free Real Estate Guide at www.frontdoor.com/dramafree.

To spread the word about these great tips and advice, Tara and the FrontDoor team took it to the media — with the important message that now is not the time for consumers to panic (and it’s easy to with all the negative headlines), but rather they should be proactive.

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