Treat the teacher in your life with these thoughtful, hand-selected gifts. Better Homes & Gardens / Kristin Kempa Teachers deserve the world for dedicating their lives to molding the minds of our children, but since that’s not easy to wrap, we’ve come up with a few more ideas to consider when gift shopping.Whether you’re searching for inexpensive—yet thoughtful—tokens to show your...

Keep your salad safe by following these pointers from the Test Kitchen and a food safety expert. Blaine Moats True, the produce aisle is home to some of the most nutritious food in the supermarket. Fruits and vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber, and are key to help keep your gut healthy and immune system strong. But by their very nature as plants (that are often grown outside)...

Find out if wood ash is good for the garden and how to use it effectively to fertilize plants. Helin Loik-Tomson / Getty Images While the ash from wildfires can help nourish new growth, is wood ash good for the garden? Yes, the ashes from your wood-burning fireplace can help improve your garden soil. Wood ash has nutrients plants need, like potassium and phosphorus, so it can be a way to feed...

Miami-based World Property Data, a newly formed division of World Property Ventures, has recently acquired full ownership of the real estate data startup PROPSIG and its associated project, PROPERTY ONTOLOGY. Set to launch in the coming year, PROPSIG (also known as PROPERTY SIGNALS) is currently developing a global platform that focuses on real-time property markets' data, analytics, signals intelligence,...

The country’s largest wholesale lender, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), has launched a broker training program that will teach individuals to become licensed mortgage originators.  Dubbed “BrokerX,” the five-week program will provide existing brokers with a “streamlined solution” for training and licensing new talent without the use of their own training team. UWM announced the move Saturday...

Like all of the other settlements so far, plaintiffs’ attorneys in the ongoing real estate agent commission lawsuits have asked a court for one-third of the settlement amounts agreed to by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and HomeServices of America. In a filing in the Sitzer/Burnett suit on Friday, the class counsel notified the court that it wants one-third of the $679.275 million...

At the end of August, Guild Mortgage announced a suite of products under the name “Flex Payment Mortgage,” which includes Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) reverse mortgage products alongside refinances, proprietary jumbo options and HECM for Purchase (H4P) loans. Jim Cory, managing director of Guild’s reverse division, previously spoke with HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) about...

The James Dwiggins-helmed firm NextHome is the newest real estate brokerage to settle the commission lawsuits. The firm notified the court of its settlement agreement on Tuesday in the consolidated Gibson and Umpa suits suits via a brief filed last week. The filing does not note how much NextHome has agreed to pay or what, if any, business practice changes it will implement. Additionally, there was...

Keller Williams‘ legal worries just got a little lighter. On Friday, the real estate franchisee and the plaintiffs’ counsel in the Mcfarlane suit reached a settlement agreement for the lawsuit related to the firm’s recently abandoned changes to its profit-sharing program. In an email, Keller Williams confirmed that this agreement settles all of the breach-of-contract lawsuits filed against it by...

In the wealthy beach city of Encinitas in Southern California, a newly listed oceanfront mansion is making waves. Priced at a hefty $24,850,000, the property at 1230 Neptune Ave is by far the most expensive home in the affluent San Diego suburb — and for good reason. The recently completed, 7,089-square-foot home represents the last opportunity of its kind for an oceanfront residence on the...