Give your house a tuneup!

Your home's spring tuneup essentials!

As the weather warms and flowers are blooming, some homeowners are finalizing their spring-cleaning checklists. And even if you don’t plan to scrub every nook and cranny in your home, there are some tasks you shouldn't skip! As spring comes to a close, and we all get busy with summer activities and vacations, things can slip by the wayside. Make sure you have done a thorough inspection of your home to ensure everything is in good condition. While you’re washing windows and organizing closets, don’t forget to give your home a maintenance walk-through and take a few steps to keep it running smoothly and efficiently!

"Houses don't last when people don't take care of the obvious, and a small problem becomes a big problem," says David Lupberger, home-improvement expert for ServiceMagic and past president of the Master Builder Group, a design/build remodeling company.

There is always plenty of work to do, but you don't want to dedicate every beautiful spring weekend to working around the house. We've put together a list of what home-maintenance experts deem the essentials for spring. It will only take a couple of hours to evaluate your home with this checklist and determine what you'll need to do. If maintenance is needed, dedicate a few hours each weekend and you'll be done in no time.

As Lupberger suggests, let's "start high and work our way down."

Roof: Your first stop is the roof. If you want to tackle this task yourself, make sure you know what you're doing and are comfortable using a ladder and walking on an often-steep incline. You'll want to check the shingles for any curling, warping or cupping, and for any granule loss or cracking, advises Joan Crowe of the National Roofing Contractors Association. Also check the flashing, those metal pieces that serve as a transition from the roof to a vertical surface like a chimney.

"Do a visual inspection and see if anything is loose," Crowe says. "Make sure everything is secure. Circle around the house and take a looksee."

But Crowe strongly recommends that homeowners don't climb up there themselves.
"Hiring a professional is always the best way to go," she says.

When hiring a contractor to inspect your roof or make repairs, make sure you check their credentials and references. Ask for proof of insurance and get information about the materials they'll be using and any warranty that comes with them. When hiring any contractor to do work in and around your home, it's a good idea to use a company such as Home Solutions Connection (http://www.homesolutionsconnection.com/). They can eliminate the guesswork for you as they will have already vetted any contractor they recommend.

Attic: You often can find a problem with your roof by hunting around in the attic for leaks and moisture. If there is a moisture problem, Lupberger says you'll typically be able to smell it. Keep an eye out for any black mold or green algae, which can be killed using a mild solution of bleach and water. Crowe recommends hiring someone to handle this task, since full eradication can be difficult.

While you're up in your attic, look around for potential animal nests. Sometimes there are small openings that critters can creep through.

Another attic task: Check your insulation. Make sure it's not covering intake vents, Crowe says. And be sure you have enough. Lupberger says the recommendation for homes is R-38, which is 12 inches of blown-in insulation; if you have any less than that, your home isn't running efficiently. Unless a homeowner is experienced in installing insulation, Lupberger would recommend hiring a pro to handle any augmentation.

"As you move into summer, it'll keep your home cooler and you'll use less electricity for your air conditioner," Lupberger says.

Gutters: You may have dutifully cleaned your gutters in the fall, but a spring check is even more important. Many homeowners would be surprised to learn that more water damage happens to gutters in the spring.

The freeze-and-thaw cycles of winter, and the snow loads, may shorten the life of your gutters and downspouts," rendering them inadequate to handle heavy spring rains, says Tony Cobb, president of the National Rain Gutter Contractors Association.

As you're clearing debris from the gutters, be sure to check a few other things:

Make sure the back of the gutter is secured and that no water is leaking behind the gutter.

Make sure your downspouts are secured to your home and that there is no blockage. You can check for blockage with a leaf blower (listen for the sound of resistance inside) or by tapping on the downspout and listening for a hollow sound.

Make sure water is diverting at least 3 feet away from your home's foundation. Check for any low spots next to the foundation. Keeping water away from your foundation is the most important job of gutters and downspouts.

Cobb reminds homeowners that cleaning the gutters is a dangerous job that kills and seriously injures hundreds of people every year. Hiring a seasoned professional who is comfortable climbing a ladder is the best way to ensure safety.

Air conditioning: After a chilly winter, you may not be thinking about the hot summer ahead. But acting early to service your air conditioner may get you a discount on service costs and will ensure that you have a cool place to go during that first heat wave while your neighbors are scrambling.

Donald Prather with the Air Conditioning Contractors of America recommends getting an air-conditioning system checked twice a year: before winter and before summer.

"That way you know entering seasonal changes that the equipment has been serviced for the specific season you are entering," he says.

Regular maintenance by homeowners and professionals can save money by lowering energy bills and repair costs, Prather says.

Take a walk outside: Do a complete circle of your house's exterior, checking for peeling paint or siding. Recaulk as needed and touch up any paint. "The only purpose of paint is to seal wood surfaces and protect the wood from the elements," Lupberger says. He says touch-ups can extend the life of your home's paint job by two or three years, which translates into huge savings. "Fix it now and you're not repainting next year," he says.

If you have a deck, check for loose boards and see if you need to do any resealing. You should also get your deck cleaned thoroughly at least every other year with a pressure washer. Homeowners can do this themselves, but only if they are experienced in the proper use of a pressure washer, Lupberger says. "With several hundred pounds of water pressure, you don't want to spray yourself or any other living thing by accident," he says. And, because the force of the water takes everything off the deck, the power-washing should be followed up with application of a deck sealant. This washing and sealing process will extend the life of the deck.

Do some general cleanup in your yard, too. Trim any bushes and trees so they're several feet away from your home. If you have a sprinkler system, you can get it checked by a professional, who will make sure there aren't any leaks before you turn it on for the season. Rake up any excess leaves, which can suffocate your lawn and keep it from growing.

Start small: Pick an easy task to start. Checking one thing off your list will give you a sense of accomplishment – and the momentum you need to keep going.

"Your house lets you know when something is wrong," Lupberger says. "If you handle these things regularly, it doesn’t turn into a huge project; it’s just a variety of small ones."


(Some tips provided Leah L. Culler of MSN)

Avoid Real Estate Deal-Breakers!

Some things may seem like roadblocks, but they don’t have to come between you and your dream home!

Purchasing a home is a stressful experience, both because it’s a huge monetary investment and because the buying process can be complicated and confusing. Buyers must be well-informed and have a good understanding of a property's underlying value before making a decision to purchase.

Once buyers select a residence that meets their personal and financial criteria, it is important to remain diligent until the property closes. Buyers should not let the home of their dreams escape over minor differences during the buying and negotiating processes. Here are some of the minor roadblocks you should recognize to keep them from ruining your dream-home purchase.

Aesthetics - Prospective buyers should not let minor aesthetic differences hinder their big-picture view of their dream house. If appliances or the decorative theme are not up to your expectations, keep in mind that most of these things can be easily modified. Instead of focusing on the way the home’s interior is decorated, check for overall structural soundness and try to focus on potential. How do you do this? A good strategy is to secure a licensed home inspector prior to closing on your deal. The inspector will provide a detailed analysis and cost breakdown on actual required repairs. Depending upon which state you reside in, the home inspection can be part of the actual contract. The home inspector will assess every aspect of the home's interior and exterior. The inspection findings may be used as legal leverage in the homebuying process.

If the cost of repairs exceeds a preset dollar amount, the contract can be revoked if that is explicitly stated in your contract. For example, if the home inspection requires $8,000 worth of repairs for "structural soundness," but your contract states that you will not purchase the home unless repairs are below $1,000, you have legal recourse for getting out of the deal. Typically, you are responsible for the nonrefundable cost of the inspection, but most people are willing to incur that cost in order to save thousands of dollars down the road. The idea here is to focus more on the integrity of the home itself as a first step rather than your distaste for the current interior design or décor.

Sweat equity - Buyers should not get discouraged if a potential dream home requires some old-fashioned manual labor to get it up to their standards. Real-estate professionals refer to this as sweat equity: a time investment by the buyer to clean, redo and repair the property once the purchase is complete. Rarely are homes purchased that require no effort on your part. New construction is perhaps an exception, but a poor real-estate market can be littered with short sales and foreclosures, many of which are neglected, vacant properties. Also, many purchases are older properties with excellent construction characteristics that need some elbow grease.
Similar to the aesthetic differences mentioned above, taking advantage of resources such as a licensed real-estate agent or family and friends is a good first step. Agents are likely to point out things that can be accomplished by the typical homebuyer versus those things that would be better served with professional assistance or advice.

Financial differences of $5,000 - Although $5,000 is not a trivial amount of money, it’s an amount that should not interfere with purchasing your dream home. You and your real-estate agent have done your due diligence and research and put together a market analysis of the property you are interested in. You have done your part to minimize your price risk, but now that it’s time to make a deal, there is not an agreed-upon price.

So, where can you find anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000 to make your transaction successful? Here are some considerations: Look into government incentives for homebuyers. Such incentives may be used for down-payment assistance, which could essentially cover your price difference. Asking for a little wiggle room on commissions isn't a bad idea, as all involved in the deal have a vested interest in the sale coming to fruition. Sometimes you may need to be creative. Asking the seller to buy down your mortgage points is also a viable option. Check with your mortgage broker and get a quote on how much a buydown of one point would cost. It will likely not be enough to cover a $5,000 to $10,000 deficit immediately, but over a 30-year period will save thousands of dollars.

Remember that purchasing a home is a long-term investment. Remain patient and diligent and don’t let minor repairs or a squabble over a small price difference ruin your experience.

(Thank you to Stephan Abraham of Investopedia for some great tips.)

8 signs of a real-estate rebound

Confused about whether the housing market is coming back? Look for these 8 indicators to determine whether there's good news ahead.

Is the housing market on the verge of recovering? Is it recovering already? If you're not sure whether you believe the economists and pundits who think they can see the future, here are some tools that will help you make up your own mind.

1. Pending home sales: According to the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales, or the number of homes that are under contract and in the process of selling, rose by 8.2% in February (the most recent month for which data are available). The index is also an encouraging 17.3% over what it was a year ago.

Pending home sales are considered a leading indicator, meaning that they can forecast the direction in which the economy is headed. Leading indicators cannot truly predict the future, though, so they should be taken with a grain of salt. The increase in pending home sales could be less indicative of a genuine improvement in the housing market, however, and more indicative of the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit, which required homes to be under contract by April 30.

2. Housing starts: Housing starts are an important leading indicator of not just the housing market, but the economy as a whole, because people are more likely to start residential construction projects when things are looking good. Housing starts don't look too promising right now; the U.S. Census Bureau reported that privately owned housing starts in February were 5.9% below January and 0.2% above February 2009. But here's hoping that spring helps to kick those housing starts upward!

3. New and existing-home sales: New home sales reached a record low of 308,000 in February, according to the National Association of Home Builders. In 2005, 1.28 million new homes were sold per month on average. The good news is that new home sales increased by 20.8% in the West, one of the regions hardest hit by the housing crisis. More good news comes from statistics on existing-home sales. About 5 million existing homes were sold in February, up from about 4.7 million a year ago.

4. Home inventory: Home inventory is another leading economic indicator. A greater supply of homes for sale indicates weak market conditions. The NAHB reported that as of February, 236,000 new homes were on the market, a 9.2-month supply and the worst number since May 2009. There was also an 8.6-month supply of existing homes on the market, the worst number since August 2009. However, these numbers are better than those from a year ago, when the supply was 11.1 months for new homes and 9.7 months for existing homes.

5. Housing affordability: The National Association of Realtors reports that in February, the median price of an existing home in the United States was $164,300 and the average mortgage rate was 4.99%. With median family income at $60,498, a family's housing payment would be only 14.2% of its income, well below the 25% cap that many financial experts recommend for keeping the monthly budget under control. Compare these figures to 2007 averages, when a house cost $217,900, mortgage rates were 6.52% and median incomes were about the same at $61,173. While falling home prices aren't good, improved home affordability could help the recovery by putting homeownership within reach for more families, especially the first-time buyers who have historically helped end housing slumps.

However, credit is still difficult to obtain, and unlike investors, most families can't buy homes without a mortgage. What's more, despite how far prices have fallen, plenty of people in high-cost-of-living cities still can't afford to buy anything.

6. Mortgage applications: The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey reports on the number of people applying to borrow money to buy a house. For the week ending April 9, mortgage applications declined by 9.6% over the previous week. The four-week moving average, which is helpful in smoothing out the ups and downs of the weekly figures, was down 6.2%. The MBA stated that an increase in mortgage insurance premiums for Federal Housing Administration loans, which are attractive to buyers because of their low down-payment requirements, may have contributed to this decline.

7. Mortgage interest rates: For the week ending April 9, the MBA reported that the average contract rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 5.17%. Mortgage rates have been at historic lows for months, wavering between 5% and 6%. Low mortgage rates help entice buyers, but they can't fix a bad housing market on their own. The Consumer Confidence Index, a survey of how optimistic or pessimistic people feel about the economy, has been up and down in 2010, and consumers still feel pessimistic about the job market. The thousands of Americans who are unemployed couldn't get a mortgage even if rates were 1%.

8. Real-estate mutual funds: According to Morningstar, real-estate mutual funds returned 9.4% in the first quarter of 2010, one of the highest returns of any mutual fund category. Over the last year, they have also led all mutual funds, with a gain of 105.3%. Shares of Vanguard's REIT ETF (VNQ), which invests in a wide range of real-estate companies, gained 10% in the first quarter of 2010 and more than 69% in the last year. These returns show investor confidence in the overall real-estate market.

Mixed signals? Major indicators are giving mixed signals about how the housing market is doing. High unemployment rates, the continued difficulty of obtaining credit and the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit make it hard to tell where the housing market is headed. But there are positive signs, and certainly things are looking up. Do your part by staying informed, and if you need any real estate guidance, you know who to call! Barnes Real Estate is always happy to be of assistance with regard to all of your real estate needs.

(Thank you to Amy Fontinelle of Investopedia)