A Florida broker recalls an incident in which a home inspector fell through the floor of an attic and landed on the real estate agent—and the property owner’s Porsche—in the garage below. What does the owner do when he hears about this? "He says, 'I'm going to get a gun.'" Listen to "Drive With NAR: The Safety Series" to hear what happened next.

Boosting an entire home's sustainability quotient can feel like an impossible task. So, why not take it room by room? Interior designer Brooke Moore of California-based presale renovation company Freemodel offers advice on making the living room more eco-friendly.

Adam Rossow, co-founder of Group RFZ, explores how influencer marketing is evolving, outlining three trends for marketers this year: how creators are shaping product development, their involvement in the election and their emergence in health care marketing. While proper vetting and onboarding still is needed for influencers for pharmaceutical and health care campaigns, "influencers present an exciting new marketing avenue. ... because they've proven to be extremely successful at relaying personal stories, getting specific messages across and sparking action," Rossow writes.

From backyard pickleball courts to "wildscaping," find out how homeowners are sprucing up their yard.

Interior designer Amanda Jacobs highlights the rise of maximalism as a vibrant alternative to minimalism's predictability, emphasizing its celebration of individuality and bold self-expression through unique, nonrepetitive design choices.

Office deals involving distressed sellers have been relatively rare so far, accounting for just 3.5% of transactions last year and 2.7% in January, according to MSCI Real Assets. The relatively strong economy could help explain the trend, and multiple investors are pursuing opportunities for distressed real estate lending. Still, CBRE projects that office landlords will have to deal with a $72.7 billion refinancing shortfall through the end of 2025.

Successful use of new cookie-free data collection and usage strategies requires departments such as IT, marketing and legal to collaborate more than they ever did before, writes Agile Marketing Alliance co-founder Melissa Reeve. Reeve notes the potential advantages of organizing cross-functional teams around areas where the company provides value.

Mathematicians use calculus to study continuously changing values to see how small things integrate or how they change, something leaders should model as they seek to "harness divergent thinking styles to produce a coherent, aspirational vision alongside a roadmap for turning that vision into reality," writes Yonason Goldson, an author and podcast host. Goldson offers a few questions meant to bring those thinking styles together to examine products, services, customers and strategies.

The cost of living, encompassing both rent and mortgages, has skyrocketed, becoming a widespread grievance echoed by countless social media users, some of whom are taking aim at investment firms that "are buying up single-family homes and housing units with cash." This financial strain is particularly acute for Black Americans.

With recent inflation data coming in hotter than expected, investors will be watching the outcome of the Federal Reserve meeting this week to see whether officials are expecting three interest-rate cuts in 2024. The strength of the economy has led some observers to doubt whether the Fed has done enough to cool inflation, but there is also reason to think that the robust 3.1% growth recorded in 2023 might not reflect how restrictive monetary policy really is.