Sherri Mercurio Blog

I think my calling was to be a grandparent. I enjoy kids, as long as they are someone else's. I'm happy to spend time with them and enjoy hearing their perspective on the world (which is almost always adorable!). I'm just happy I don't have to deal with them once their behavior inevitably implodes. As a parent, you know that you need to keep your family in mind when you're home shopping. After chatting with a few parent-friends of mine, I picked up a few pointers they wished they had known before they hit the closing table. Let's review a few of those and perhaps save you the same missteps when evaluating a new home.

First and foremost, especially for toddlers and under, is bedroom placement. My good friends just moved to New Hampshire and just had their first child. At the time, it did...

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Growing up, my brother and I rarely "gathered any moss" as the saying goes. Between soccer, after-school jobs, marching band, jazz band and, of course, skateboarding till the cows came home, we were very busy and always on the go. From my parents' perspective it was simply a matter of throwing some food our way between trips out the door and trying to maintain their sanity. It wasn't always that hectic, but convenience was certainly at the top of the priority list when it came to feeding time. Enter the eat-in kitchen.

We had a simple Cape Cod style home in a friendly neighborhood in southern Maine. As you walked off the porch and through the side-door (our main entrance) you landed right in the kitchen and at the 4-person bar where we ate nearly every meal. Like many homes today, the "formal" dining roo...

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It was a sunny 4^th of July and another gorgeous summer day. My friend waited for his 2 young daughters to finish up in their upstairs bathroom and the family of four exited the house and walked across the street for a neighborhood barbeque. What better way to spend a holiday than with friends, food and fun. When they returned home, the fun immediately stopped. While they were enjoying the neighbor's Slip-N-Slide in the back yard, they had their very own being created down the main stairs of the house. 

It was a simple little thing. After the toilet flushed, something went askew with the inner workings and something got plugged. The second my friend and his family walked out the door, the water began over-flowing and continued to do so for the entire day while they were a mere 50 y...

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In general the tone of these articles is about buying and selling real estate. We touch on remodeling, staging, updates and most anything else loosely related to real estate transactions. One of the most amazing feelings I have ever experienced was spending that first night in my newly built home over in Lincoln. For a brief moment (because I knew I was destined to sell the place) I felt like the master of my domain. The room sizes, floor layout, wall color, basement size and even the direction the home faced (towards Franconia Ridge) were all decisions I had made. There really is no greater feeling for a first-time homeowner.

So, this week I want to explore that feeling a bit more. We are going to run under the assumption that your home is yours and there is no intention of selling. We're not worried...

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I just read an article about the Texas real estate agent who sold (Are you sitting down?) 4,700 homes worth over 1.9 billion dollars in 2017. I think we all understand he didn't do that all by himself, but the point is the guy knows how to sell homes. As real estate professionals (I was one in a former life) we gain a decent amount of knowledge over the years. With clients coming from every walk of life, we see homes in widely (wildly!) varying conditions and states of (dis)array. From a seller's agent perspective, this tends to be one of the more challenging parts of the job.

It is no secret that everyone wants the highest price for their home and buyers are itching to get the best deal they can. I was taught at an early age that the value of something is directly related to how much YOU are willing to...

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