8 Great Tips You Should Never Follow

Here is an article that dispels some common household remedies and tells you what to do instead. So this article, which is worth a read, can help you save money and possibly much frustration.  Let me know what you think.

How to Save Money Around the House

FOR BUYERS: GET THE WHOLE STORY

The last thing you want right after buying your dream home is to find out you were missing crucial information. As an Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR®), I am here to make sure your home purchase is full of excitement and not surprise expenses! I have an extensive network of professionals, from inspectors to handymen to contractors from various trades to help you through this.  My inspector insures you know what you are buying.

Buyer Beware: Understanding Property Disclosures by REBAC Staff. ©2016 REBAC.net.   

Has the Spring Market Begun?

Every spring there is a noticeable uptick in the housing market. Not just in our neighborhood but across the region and the country. Each year people start looking for new homes in the spring offering increased demand but more homes come on the market which creates more competition. The question I am always asked is, what is the best time to sell? Every year is a bit different in when activity picks up but early March has been when the market seems to really take off.

This year has begun with a bang so we are anticipating a strong spring market. Homes have been moving quickly since mid January keeping inventory stable. I have had strong open house attendance since Christmas with 12, 15 or even 20 groups through. During the past few days I have received several calls from buyers who want to start looking or wish to make their search a more serious undertaking. Another reason I expect a strong upturn is that some of the homes in our neighborhood that have recently gone on the market have already received contracts. This bodes well for the spring sales market.

So to answer the question that is the title of this post, yes I believe that the spring market has begun even though it is still February. If you are thinking of selling, sooner may be better than later to get your home on the market.

Below are the stats for the past year and you can plainly see the uptick in the spring of last year. Although these stats do not include February, I have already seen that February will be better than January. If you have any questions about this chart or anything real estate related feel free to give me a call. I am here to help.

8 Cleaning Tips and Tricks to Keep Things Cleaner Longer

This article by Deirdre Sullivan  provides some tricks we all can use to help us get more free time.  Hope you enjoy and if you have any tricks, please let me know.

1. Defy Dust

Trick: You can combat dust by adjusting your home’s humidity level.

The facts: Low humidity levels cause static electricity. Not only does static attract dust, it makes it stick, so it’s difficult to remove. High humidity causes problems, too — it’s an ideal environment for dust mites. These microscopic critters are a double threat: They’re a common allergen, and they contribute to dust production. There are as many as 19,000 dust mites in half a teaspoon of house dust, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. Yuck!

Next steps: Keep your home’s humidity level between 40% to 50%. That’ll eliminate static while decreasing dust mite growth.

Related: Measure Your Home Humidity Level

Tip: Make it easy to keep your household vents dust free. Remove and wash them once a year with mild soap and water. After they’re clean and completely dry, apply a liberal coat of car wax; then buff. 

2. Keep Glass Shower Doors Crystal Clear

Trick: You can eliminate soap scum build-up by coating your glass shower doors with a rain-repellant product made for car windshields.

The facts: When applied to glass, products like these create an invisible barrier that causes water, oils, and debris (like soap suds) to bead and roll off.

Next steps: Find this product anywhere that sells basic auto supplies. You’ll know it’s time to reapply when water stops beading on shower doors. Keep in mind, windshield rain repellants were made to treat glass, not plastic.

Tip: Automatic shower cleaners claim to let you clean your shower and tub less frequently — like every 30 days. After you finish bathing, the gadget will douse your shower and tub with a cleanser that prevents soap scum build-up while combating mold and mildew. You can buy automatic shower cleaners at most big-brand retailers, like Target and Walmart.

Related:
Green Clean Your Bathroom for Pennies
5 Things You Forgot to Clean in Your Bathroom

3. Seal Your Stone Countertops

Why: Natural stone countertops, including granite and marble, are porous, so if they’re not sealed, liquids like red wine, juice, or soy sauce can stain them.

The facts: A countertop sealer repels stains by causing spills to bead instead of getting absorbed. Likely, your contractor sealed your countertop when it was installed.

Next steps: To keep your countertops in tip-top shape, re-apply sealer twice a year. To see if you need a fresh coat, pour a tiny bit of water on your natural stone countertop. If the water doesn’t bead or doesn’t stay beaded for two to three minutes, it’s time to reseal.

Tip: Shopping for stone countertops? Slabs with lots of swirls or veins tend to be more porous.

4. Protect Your Furniture and Carpets

Why: Protective furniture sprays and carpet sealants guard against inevitable spills. Some of these products also protect fabrics from fading and resist mold, mildew, and bacteria.

The facts: Protective sprays and sealants, like Scotchgard and Ultra-Guard, cause liquids to bead on the surface instead of being absorbed.

Next steps: Apply the appropriate sealer once a year after a deep upholstery and carpet cleaning.

Tip: In the future, you may not need to buy a protective furniture spray or carpet sealer thanks to a new fabric coating that repels dirt and water. It’s made by Liquipel, the company that created a water-shield substance to protect cell phones, MP3 players, and other electronic devices. The company plans to release a water-repellent clothing line next year. We bet household fabrics and materials will be next.

Rust-Oleum introduced a similar product, NeverWet, last year. But the company doesn’t recommend it for furniture, because the product “will repel liquids when applied to fabric, but will change the appearance.“

5. Give Oven-Cleaning Products the Boot

Why: Most cleaners give off noxious fumes and make a horrible mess.

The facts: The basic ingredient in many oven cleaners is lye, which can burn your eyes and your skin; it’s usually fatal if swallowed.

Next steps: Use a wet pumice stone to scrape off dirt and grease. It’s faster than oven cleaner and toxin-free.

Tip: Need to wipe your range or anything else down? You can bust filth faster by heating up a clean, damp sponge or cloth in a microwave for 30 seconds before wiping with or without a cleaning product. Put on rubber gloves before you pick up that hot sponge.

Related: Green Clean Your Kitchen to Avoid Chemicals

6. Keep Things Tidy with Quick Touch-Ups

Why: Small cleaning projects prevent filth from building up.

The facts: When you spot clean daily, you can prevent smudges from staining, banish dust bunnies, and even combat allergens.

Next steps: Create a spot-cleaning kit so you can address small, dirty situations in minutes.
Cleaning pads are great for eradicating dirty fingerprints on walls and light switches.
Damp micro-cloths can reduce airborne dander when used daily to wipe down pets.
Dry sweeper cloths can quickly pick up dust and dry dirt off floors, shelves, and electronics.

Tip: Keep stored items cleaner longer by shutting closets, cabinets, and drawers, so circulating dust and dirt can’t get in.

7. Ditch Your Outdated Low-Wattage Bulbs

Why: Good lighting can make you and your home look and feel great.

The facts: A room lit with low-wattage incandescent bulbs and compact fluorescents can look dark and dingy. “Daylight” bulbs brighten things up. These full-spectrum light bulbs mimic natural light, so they give better visual accuracy. Bonus: Like sunlight, these bulbs can boost your mood.

Next steps: When shopping for bulbs, look for those marked “daylight” that have a range between 5,000 to 6,500 kelvins.

Tip: Don’t understand the difference between warm white bulbs and daylight bulbs? Check out the video for a side-by-side comparison:



Related:
Save Energy and Feel Better with Daylighting
Did You Know that Dirty Light Bulbs Waste Energy?

8. Use a Cleaner Sweeper

Why: Brooms hold on to dirt.

The facts: You don’t want to just push dirt around when you sweep. You can use spray dusters (like the ones used on computer keyboards) to blow dust bunnies off brooms, and soapy water to get rid of the grime. But how about combing dirt off broom bristles while you’re sweeping?

Next steps: Check out the Broom Groomer. It was invented by a guy who cut his hand on broken glass when it got stuck on the bristles of his broom.

8 Tips for Adding Curb Appeal and Value to Your Home

Pat Curry from HouseLogic has put together a great little article about creating nice curb appeal. The advice is well founded. Hope you like it.

By: Pat Curry

Here are eight ways to help your home put its best face forward.

Homes with high curb appeal command higher prices and take less time to sell. We’re not talking about replacing vinyl siding with redwood siding; we’re talking about maintenance and beautifying tasks you’d like to live with anyway.

The way your house looks from the street -- attractively landscaped and well-maintained -- can add thousands to its value and cut the time it takes to sell. But which projects pump up curb appeal most? Some spit and polish goes a long way, and so does a dose of color.

Tip #1: Wash Your House’s Face

Before you scrape any paint or plant more azaleas, wash the dirt, mildew, and general grunge off the outside of your house. REALTORS® say washing a house can add $10,000 to $15,000 to the sale prices of some houses.

A bucket of soapy water and a long-handled, soft-bristled brush can remove the dust and dirt that have splashed onto your wood, vinyl, metal, stucco, brick, and fiber cement siding. Power washers (rental: $75 per day) can reveal the true color of your flagstone walkways.

Wash your windows inside and out, swipe cobwebs from eaves, and hose down downspouts. Don’t forget your garage door, which was once bright white. If you can’t spray off the dirt, scrub it off with a solution of 1/2 cup trisodium phosphate -- TSP, available at grocery stores, hardware stores, and home improvement centers -- dissolved in 1 gallon of water.

You and a friend can make your house sparkle in a few weekends. A professional cleaning crew will cost hundreds -- depending on the size of the house and number of windows -- but will finish in a couple of days.

Tip #2: Freshen the Paint Job

The most commonly offered curb appeal advice from real estate pros and appraisers is to give the exterior of your home a good paint job. Buyers will instantly notice it, and appraisers will value it.
 
Of course, painting is an expensive and time-consuming facelift. To paint a 3,000-square-foot home, figure on spending $375 to $600 on paint; $1,500 to $3,000 on labor.

Your best bet is to match the paint you already have: Scrape off a little and ask your local paint store to match it. Resist the urge to make a statement with color. An appraiser will mark down the value of a house that’s painted a wildly different color from its competition.

Tip #3: Regard the Roof

The condition of your roof is one of the first things buyers notice and appraisers assess. Missing, curled, or faded shingles add nothing to the look or value of your house. If your neighbors have maintained or replaced their roofs, yours will look especially shabby.

You can pay for roof repairs now, or pay for them later in a lower appraisal; appraisers will mark down the value by the cost of the repair. According to "Remodeling" magazine’s 2015 "Cost vs. Value Report," the average cost of a new asphalt shingle roof is about $19,500.

Some tired roofs look a lot better after you remove 25 years of dirt, moss, lichens, and algae. Don’t try cleaning your roof yourself: call a professional with the right tools and technique to clean it without damaging it. A 2,000-square-foot roof will take a day and $400 to $600 to clean professionally.

Tip #4: Neaten the Yard

A well-manicured lawn, fresh mulch, and pruned shrubs boost the curb appeal of any home.

Replace overgrown bushes with leafy plants and colorful annuals. Surround bushes and trees with dark or reddish-brown bark mulch, which gives a rich feel to the yard. Put a crisp edge on garden beds, pull weeds and invasive vines, and plant a few geraniums in pots.

Green up your grass with lawn food and water. Cover bare spots with seeds and sod, get rid of crab grass, and mow regularly.

Tip #5: Add a Color Splash

Even a little color attracts and pleases the eye of would-be buyers.

Plant a tulip border in the fall that will bloom in the spring. Dig a flowerbed by the mailbox and plant some pansies. Place a brightly colored bench or Adirondack chair on the front porch. Get a little daring, and paint the front door red or blue.

These colorful touches won’t add to the value of our house: Appraisers don’t give you extra points for a blue bench. But beautiful colors enhance curb appeal and help your house to sell faster.

Tip #6: Glam Your Mailbox

An upscale mailbox, architectural house numbers, or address plaques can make your house stand out.

High-style die cast aluminum mailboxes range from $100 to $350. You can pick up a handsome, hand-painted mailbox for about $50. If you don’t buy new, at least give your old mailbox a facelift with paint and new house numbers.

These days, your local home improvement center or hardware stores has an impressive selection of decorative numbers. Architectural address plaques, which you tack to the house or plant in the yard, typically range from $80 to $200. Brass house numbers range from $3 to $11 each, depending on size and style.

Tip #7: Fence Yourself In

A picket fence with a garden gate to frame the yard is an asset. Not only does it add visual punch to your property, appraisers will give extra value to a fence in good condition, although it has more impact in a family-oriented neighborhood than an upscale retirement community.

Expect to pay $2,000 to $3,500 for a professionally installed gated picket fence 3 feet high and 100 feet long.

If you already have a fence, make sure it’s clean and in good condition. Replace broken gates and tighten loose latches.

Tip #8: Maintenance is a Must

Nothing looks worse from the curb -- and sets off subconscious alarms -- like hanging gutters, missing bricks from the front steps, or peeling paint. Not only can these deferred maintenance items damage your home, but they can decrease the value of your house by 10%.

Here are some maintenance chores that will dramatically help the look of your house:
Refasten sagging gutters.
Repoint bricks that have lost their mortar.
Reseal cracked asphalt.
Straighten shutters.
Replace cracked windows.


Read more: http://members.houselogic.com/articles/adding-curb-appeal-value-to-home/preview/?cid=eo_em_mkt_rcrnewsletter#ixzz3h6n4pRu7

Rainwater Sitting in Your Gutters? Mosquitoes? An Easy Fix

With all the rain we have had lately it would be a good idea to check your gutter systems to make sure they are functioning properly.  It is important to make sure they drain correctly and completely and that any water is routed away from your foundation.  Water left to drain near the foundation seems to find a way to enter the basement!

Water that sits in your gutters, rather than draining away is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, so eliminate this standing water as well as any other standing water on your property.  Another major source of mosquito breeding is in the black corrugated pipe many people use to drain water away from their home.  By placing a "Mosquito Dunk" in the pipe near where the water enters, you can eliminate this problem as well.

This article, from Pat Curry of the National Association of Home Builders explains how to eliminate gutter drainage problems.

To prevent gutters from trapping stagnant pools of water, they need to be pitched toward the downspouts for proper flow. That means an incline of ¼-inch of slope for every 10 feet of gutter. Set at the correct incline, your gutters should drain completely.

Check the pitch of your gutters

Get up on a ladder and look down the run of the gutter. Long runs of gutters are deliberately high in the middle so water flows toward downspouts at each end. Look for any peaks or valleys along the way. If these are slight, correct the problem by bending a few hangers up or down. If the problem is more serious, reset your gutter.

Calculate the drop

Take these simple steps to work out the amount of incline—or “drop”—needed:

• Measure the length of the run of your gutter.

• Divide the length by 10.

• Multiply the result by .25 to get the amount of drop from one end of the gutter toward the downspout.

For example, a run of 38 feet should have a drop of about 1 inch (38 ÷ 10 = 3.8 x .25 = .95).

Reset your gutter

• Mark the fascia. At the downspout end of the gutter, measure down from the top of the fascia and mark the correct amount of drop. Remove a hanger or two and refasten them so the top of the gutter lines up with the mark.

• Straighten the gutter. Before adjusting the rest of the gutter, stretch a string taut above it as a guide for straightness. Reposition the hangers or add additional ones for any serious sags. Sight down the gutter to check your work.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to give me a call.

11 Trees You Should Never Plant in Your Yard

Here, from an article in HouseLogic, is a list of 12 trees that you should reconsider if you are thinking about planing them.

1. Silver maple (Acer saccharinum)

Big, fast-growing, and a dandy shade tree, silver maple is widespread in eastern states and the Midwest. Unfortunately, the speed at which the tree grows makes for weak, brittle wood that may break during severe storms. The shallow root system invades sewage pipes and drain fields, and is notorious for cracking driveways and walkways.

2. Ash (Fraxinus)

Sturdy and tough, the many varieties of ash that populate North America are some of our most beloved trees. Professional baseball bats are made from its wood — how American is that? But the venerable ash is threatened by the emerald ash borer, a tiny beetle that’s on track to wipe out the species. If you’re looking for a long-term tree for your yard, look elsewhere.

3. Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides)

The aspen is found in northern climes and higher elevations. Its white bark and gently vibrating leaves are attractive, but its root system is insidious, sending up dozens of suckers that relentlessly try to turn into new trees. Once established, it’s war. In fact, the largest living organism in the world is a Colorado aspen root system called Pando. It weighs 6,600 tons and is thought to be 80,000 years old. Try digging that out!

4. Lombardy Poplar (P. nigra 'Italica’)

The Lombardy poplar was once a favorite landscaping tree known for its speedy growth (up to 6 feet a year) and distinctive columnar shape. However, they’re prone to a number of diseases and bugs that turn them into raggedy eyesores, and their running roots are invasive and difficult to eradicate.

5. Willow (Salix)

With its long, slender branches that hang down like Rapunzel’s tresses, the willow is one of the most recognizable of all trees. Beautiful on the outside, yes, but the willow has an aggressive, water-hungry root system that terrorizes drain fields, sewer lines, and irrigation pipes. The wood is weak and prone to cracking, and the tree is relatively short-lived, lasting only about 30 years.

6. Eucalyptus

Imported from Australia and popularized for their speedy growth — some varieties will shoot up 10 feet in a year — the eucalyptus has a bad rap for suddenly and unexpectedly dropping big, heavy, resin-filled branches. In some areas of Australia, campers are warned not to pitch tents under eucalyptus trees. Its showy bark peels off annually and adds to seasonal maintenance chores.

7. Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryana)

The Bradford pear was imported to the U.S. from China in the early 1900s as replacement for orchard trees that were dying. With its compact shape and profusion of spring blossoms, the Bradford pear became a suburban favorite — until folks realized that it was highly prone to splitting and cracking when it reached maturity. And those blossoms? They’re on the stinky side of the fragrance scale.

8. Mountain cedar (Juniperus ashei)

Stay away from the mountain cedar in late winter. This bushy tree, native to the south central U.S., releases massive amounts of pollen during the cooler months, causing severe allergic reactions in many people. Even if you don’t have allergies, planting one in your yard may affect your neighbors.

9. Mulberry (Morus)

Big surface roots, lots of pollen, messy fruit, and shade so dense that grass refuses to grow underneath. What’s to like about the mulberry? If you’re a silkworm, the answer is: Plenty! The mulberry is the silkworm’s only source of food. Silkworm farmers should plant away! Otherwise, you’ll be happier with a different kind of tree in your yard.

10. Black walnut (Juglans nigra)

Native to North America, this well-known shade tree produces prized cabinet- and furniture-making wood. It also produces pollen and plenty of fruit that’ll drive you, well, nuts when you have to clean it all up in the fall. It’s true sinister side, however, is that it secretes growth-inhibiting toxins that kill nearby plants, wreaking havoc on flower beds and vegetable gardens.

11. Leyland cypress (Cupressocyparis leylandii)

These fast-growing evergreen trees are favored for their ability to quickly create a living privacy screen. However, they require constant upkeep and trimming to keep them healthy, and as they get taller they’re increasingly likely to uproot during storms. The center of the tree forms a mass of dried twigs and branches that are considered such a fire hazard that many communities officially caution residents against planting them.