Holiday decorating is in full swing, and as homeowners deck their halls, they may want to use the festivities as an excuse to survey several areas of their home.

To make sure your business powers through the housing downturn, make it a priority to prepare and track progress on your goals.

Master these fundamental skills to best serve your clients and advance your career.

Adding your most successful ad sales people to pre-pitch marketing meetings and ensuring decks tell relevant, solutions-centered success stories mean more work but yield more yeses, writes Dave DeFranco. DeFranco offers a four-step formula for "situationally contextual sales presentations" that "frame your customers as the heroes of an epic tale" where your product or service helps them overcome their challenges.

Leaders who show accountability in everything they say and do tend to inspire their team members to do the same, leading to improved productivity and a positive work environment, writes Martin Zwilling, CEO of Startup Professionals. Aside from accepting responsibility for outcomes, leaders should also remember to give credit where it's due and keep providing constructive feedback.

In many areas of the country, the weather has cooled, the leaves have fallen and the trees are now bare. Arborists say now is the perfect time to go outside and check the health of a property's plants.

Assumable mortgages, a loan provision no longer widely used, helped home buyers obtain financing in the early 1980s when mortgage rates exceeded 18%. Rate lock-ins incentivize sellers to stay in their homes as interest rates rise.

Redfin data from August to October shows that home buyers are increasingly willing to look outside their city, with more than 24% of prospective buyers willing to relocate. Many are looking to Florida for deals.

Clearwater, Fla., is working with the local Habitat for Humanity and partners to advance a project to build two dozen affordable townhouses on property owned by the city. The project will be funded in part by federal Community Development Block Grants.

Inflation doesn't appear to be declining, says Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, adding: "To the extent we need to keep rates higher longer, that's going to narrow the path to a soft landing." Meanwhile, November's job numbers show continued employment growth and higher-than-expected wage increases, and Conference Board data shows that consumers are less confident in the economy, especially when looking at current and near-term market conditions, and are less likely to make big purchases.