Posted By susanne On February 23, 2012 @ 4:07 pm

Article by Trulia: http://www.trulia.com/guide/home_selling/before_selling/using_the_power_of_pre_inspection/

Imagine finally finding a buyer for your home, negotiating the offer, opening up escrow and beginning to pack your prized spoon collection when disaster strikes. The home buyer’s pest and dry rot inspection has revealed issues that have caused the buyer to panic. Your sale is now in danger of failing!

While most states require that sellers disclose all known defects to a buyer, it’s the unknown issues that inspectors are hired to find. These paid consultants have the tough job of crawling into the nooks and crannies of your home, the places most of us rarely if ever visit, to identify problems that can haunt the home buyer if not addressed prior to closing.

So how can you avoid a nasty surprise? One popular way is to consider the power of pre-inspections. A pre-inspection simply means you have your home inspected before you receive an offer from a buyer. The advantage to this approach is that if your home does have some challenges you can fix them before you receive an offer. Also by having a pre-inspection you may be able to outflank your competition by advertising the fact that your home has a “clean” bill of health which will potentially help you sell faster and for more money.

So what kinds of pre-inspections might you consider? There are a wide range of inspections that can be performed on any home and choices vary by region, which is why it is always best to consult with a local agent before deciding on which pre-inspections are right for your home. All of that being said, some of the most popular inspections include:

Whole home inspections - A top to bottom review of your home from the foundation to the roof. These inspections are often very extensive and include detailed reports on all of the systems of the home including plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling, and structural components.

Pest and dry rot inspections - These inspections are focused on identifying evidence of active (and inactive) wood destroying organisms like carpenter ants and termites and the damage they may have caused. In addition inspectors will identify issues that can cause rot in a home like leaking water pipes, poor ventilation, earth to wood contact, and moisture problems.

Well and septic inspections - In rural areas many homes use well and septic systems for drinking water and sanitation. Inspections of wells focus on gallons per minute production and the safety of the drinking water while septic inspections focus on making sure the tanks and lines moving the waste water away from the home are functioning properly.

Pool inspections - In areas of the country where pools are popular it is common for buyers to request a pool inspection. These inspections often review the area around the pool for safety including the pool itself, the pool deck, pool liner, lighting, heating and pump systems, and filtration systems.

Roof inspections - A roof inspection will evaluate the current state of the roof system identifying problem areas such as missing tiles, valleys and flashing which may need repair, gutter systems, downspouts, and the estimated life span of the current materials.

Foundation inspections - Often a foundation inspection may be called for if a home is built on a soil type or area that has a history of slippage, or if the foundation is showing signs of fractures. In addition many buyers order a foundation inspection if a home is older or if the home has beams which are sagging due to a lack of support.

One word of caution: anything you learn as a result of a pre-inspection will no doubt need to be disclosed to a potential buyer (even if you don’t fix it) because of disclosure laws. Check with a local agent or attorney for details in your state.

So where can you find a reliable inspector? One source is the American Society of Home Inspectors, the oldest trade group in the nation specializing in overall home inspections. In addition you may be able to find a trust-worthy inspector simply by asking for a referral from your friends, neighbors, or a local agent.

Shabby-chic Cabbagetown underwent a slow transformation over the years, morphing from a downtrodden mill town brimming with dilapidated shanties to a lovingly restored artists’ community — one that still retains its ramshackle charm. Neighboring Reynoldstown is right on the heels of Cabbagetown’s restoration; young urbanites are setting up shop in R-town’s bungalows and shotgun homes alongside old-timers who’ve been there for generations.

RESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE
“Cabbagetown is unbeatable because of its strong sense of neighborhood, fascinating history, unique architecture and great vibe. It’s an authentic, close-knit village within this enormous city.
— Dave Knox, 49, Cabbagetown artist/photographer

UPSIDES
Because of its history as a refuge for young, artsy types, Cabbagetown and Reynoldstown boast a strong sense of community and support for nonprofit organizations like WonderRoot, Trees Atlanta and the recently relocated Eyedrum.

Rentals are pretty reasonable for a neighborhood so close to the city center, too.

DOWNSIDES
Buying a home here can be pricey, and crime can be dicey.

HIDDEN GEM
Lang-Carson Park, sneakily tucked off Wylie Street, has a covered basketball court, a ball field and nifty little picnic area replete with a built-in brick grill.

WILD CARD: A whopping nine points for being quirky, authentic, creative, adorable and distinct — and for being home to the ever-evolving graffiti artist playground that is the Krog Street tunnel.

CRIME
Average total crimes per 1,000 residents: 92.53
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents: 3.8
Property crimes per 1,000 residents: 88.74

HOME PRICES
Median home price: $168,400
Originally built for mill workers, then embraced by artists and musicians, Cabbagetown’s older houses are small and cute, but have few extras.

Average rental is $800.

EDUCATION
Grade: D. As its name suggests, Tech High charter school specializes in engineering, communications and IT classes.

GREENSPACE
Cabbagetown Park, home to the annual Chomp & Stomp chili cook-off (the hipster see-and-be-seen event of the year), sits smack-dab in the middle of the neighborhood and features a playground and, in keeping with the area’s adorability factor, a tree swing. 701 Kirkwood Ave.

DIVERSITY
Cabbagetown is mostly white, but has about 25 percent African-American residents. Reynoldstown is the opposite: mostly black, with about 35 percent white residents.

Full article:  http://www.metrobrokers.com/featured/buyer-seller/Whats-the-Magic-Color-for-Selling-Your-House

Color plays a big part in selling a house. How you decide to dress your walls can convince a buyer that your home is move-in ready or leave them looking elsewhere. If the goal is to see the sparkle of “love at first sight,” consider picking the right paint palette to suit a range of buyer tastes.

Proper Preparation

When you paint your walls, make sure you prepare the walls properly. Before you start, use a pre-made crack filler or drywall compound to fill in minor cracks and old picture hook holes. Lightly sanding baseboards, window frames and doors is also a great way to ensure that your paint will adhere to the surfaces properly. Make sure you are using the same base paint that currently exists on the surface you are repainting. Latex on latex, and oil base on oil base.

Picking The Magical Colors

Color choices are plentiful, as are the types of paints. When selecting interior colors, consider how you use each room or the feeling that you want to create for the space. White is a great accent, but for walls it is a harsh and cold color. Instead of white, choose warm, inviting and neutral paint colors such as yellows, warm beige and olive tones.

The best rule of thumb for home remodeling is to stick to a color palette that isn’t too bland but also isn’t too bold. For smaller spaces, such as bathrooms, choose colors that make the room look bigger such as warmer whites. For the bigger rooms, select a paint that is a couple shades darker to create a cozy atmosphere. For bedrooms, calming paint colors work best.

Make sure the palette you create flows from room to room. At paint stores, purchase a smaller can of paint and test it on the walls before committing to the color for the entire room.

Wallpaper Can Be A “Turnoff”

Potential homebuyers don’t always like wallpaper or at least the wallpaper you may have chosen 15 years ago. They want simple, clean, warm and inviting rooms and not the potential headache of steam cleaners and wallpaper removal. It is a good idea to consider removing wallpaper or at the very least painting over it where necessary in order to open the space and make the room feel fresh and clean.

Don’t Forget To Look Up

Potential buyers notice water stains and old-fashioned ceilings. If you have a home with a stucco ceiling, it can date your home to a buyer. Before you show your home, consider painting the ceiling with flat white paint. If you have crown molding, make sure you use the same ceiling paint for a consistent professional look.

Learn From The Experts

Choosing a wall color can be overwhelming. If you don’t know or are unsure, ask the professionals. A Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Metro Brokers sales associate can help you make some of these decisions. Additionally, the mega hardware and home decorating locations have experts who are ready to help you with your decorating dilemmas. When reading magazines, tear out photos of rooms that look appealing and inviting and match the wall colors at the store. Paint color can help you sell a house faster. A fresh coat of paint makes the walls fresh and clean to create an inviting environment for a homebuyer.

Full Article by Yahoo Real Estate:  http://realestate.yahoo.com/info/guides/best-times-to-buy;_ylt=AsiSole6ns_K1KQq2WJRLNjW4JF4

A Conventional wisdom says that you need to stay in a home a minimum of five years to ensure that you recoup your purchasing costs. But with some markets soaring, this advice doesn’t always apply.

It’s All About the Market

Market conditions play a huge part in any decision about when to buy. Housing market values have varied widely from region to region in recent years. While the Florida market has seen meteoric rises in home values, Ohio has seen its real estate prices go into negative territory in the last year.

Do not buy high and sell low – if your market is softening or has hit its peak and is heading south, you may want to wait on your purchase.

The magazine Smart Money has created a worksheet to compare the costs of renting vs. buying using market appreciation calculations to determine at what point you come out ahead. Plugging in the price, down payment, your income bracket, interest rate, and current market appreciation rates, the worksheet will break out what you will gain.

For example, say you were to buy a $400,000 house in Boulder, Colorado and you estimate the market will soften from the current 11% appreciation to about 9 percent annually. If you stayed in the house three years, you would recover $88,750 in equity at the end of that period; if you stayed five years, you’d realize $120,360.

It’s All About You

The top three reasons people file for bankruptcy are change of job status, divorce, and unforeseen health expenses. If you face any of these challenges and don’t have a financial cushion, this may negatively impact your ability to pay a mortgage. Big life events dictate your readiness to buy now or to wait for a little more stability.

Signs you should not buy right now:

• Will you be moving within the next five years?
• Will you be having kids soon?
• Will you be making a job change?
• Have you recently filed for bankruptcy or is your credit score below 630?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, or you are experiencing other life-changing events like illness, marriage, divorce, or breakup, you may want to wait.

Your Financial Future

Aside from life events contributing to your decision, getting your financial house in order before you begin your home search is key. Even with all the programs available for buyers with a low-or-no down payment, if your debts are growing steadily and you don’t foresee an increase in your income, you are putting yourself in greater financial risk by taking on a mortgage.

With only a few exceptions, many loans for people who are still repairing their credit or recovering from bankruptcy carry higher rates than those available once your credit is in better shape. So the question comes down to this: Do you buy now, before prices appreciate higher than you can afford, but do so with an expensive loan? Or do you wait and repair your credit, then get a favorable loan, and pay more for your home?

That’s the sort of analysis you need to go over with a financial counselor or mortgage broker before you start hitting open houses.

Ways to Cushion the Blow

On the other hand, if you are willing to buy a home that needs a bit of work and, over time, you can afford to get it done, your home could appreciate faster, strengthening your financial position. If you are willing to take on a roommate or renter, you can also soften the expense of a mortgage, which almost always costs more than rent. Buying a home is a risk, and it’s worth asking yourself hard questions about what you’re willing to do to protect yourself from getting in over your head.

If you answered “no” the life-change questions, and have the down payment or equity from your current home, you still need to look at interest rates and at how buying affects your taxes. You can’t time the stock market, but you can time interest rate hikes, as they are a little easier to predict. If they are going up fast, you can jump in before they rise too far; if they are already high, you will have to calculate how refinancing in the future affects your budget.

What to Do First

If you are anxious to get moving, be patient. You have a few things to do first:

• Go to open houses – get the lay of the land
• Talk to a mortgage broker to get pre-approved
• Interview agents (You may want to find an agent at the same time as you look for a mortgage broker – a good agent can recommend reputable brokers and help you make sense of the terms of the loan)
• Review credit report and scores with mortgage broker to determine if any repairs are needed
• Use Zillow.com to find info on neighborhoods that interest you and then use the Home QandA feature to ask current homeowners

When it comes to remodeling, exterior replacement projects have routinely rewarded home owners with more bang for their buck. This year is no different: REALTORS® recently rated many exterior improvements as among the most valuable home investment projects as part of the 2011-12 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report.

HouseLogic.com, NAR’s consumer Web site, includes dozens of remodeling projects, from kitchens and baths to siding replacements, which indicate the recouped value of the project based on a national average. According to the Cost vs. Value, seven of the top 10 most cost-effective projects nationally in terms of value recouped are exterior replacement projects. REALTORS® judged an upscale fiber-cement siding replacement as the project expected to return the most money, with an estimated 78 percent of costs recouped upon resale.

Two additional siding replacement projects were in the top 10, including foam-backed vinyl siding, expected to return 69.6 percent of costs, and upscale vinyl siding, expected to recoup 69.5 percent of costs. Three door replacements were also among the top exterior replacement projects. The steel entry door replacement is the least expensive project in the report, costing little more than $1,200 on average and expected to recoup 73 percent of costs.

The upscale garage door replacement jumped seven spots to number six this year, primarily due to the average cost of the project declining more than 15 percent nationally. The upscale and midrange garage door replacement projects are expected to return more than 71 percent of costs. One window replacement project – upscale vinyl – rounded out the last exterior replacement project in the top 10, expected to recoup 69.1 percent of costs.

The 2011-12 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report compares construction costs with resale values for 35 midrange and upscale remodeling projects comprising additions, remodels, and replacements in 80 markets across the country. Data are grouped in nine U.S. regions, following the divisions established by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the 14th consecutive year that the report, which is produced by Remodeling magazine publisher Hanley Wood LLC, was completed in cooperation with NAR.

Published: January 3, 2012

By Carl Willis

DECATUR, Ga. —

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” does not apply when it comes to selling a house. In real estate, first impressions can make all the difference, and nothing makes a first impression like the entrance to your home.  Luckily transforming a lackluster entrance can sometimes be as simple as applying a fresh coat of paint, so if your home’s front door currently says “go away,” have no fear.  The guidelines below will help you have your entrance say, “come on in and stay a while,” in no time.

Choose a Theme

Your front door serves as an introduction to your home, so it should reflect what visitors can expect to find inside. It’s also important to take into consideration your neighborhood. With these things in mind, you might choose a modern theme with clean lines, silver or chrome accessories, and matte colors. Or you could go for something more traditional, with deeper hues and brass or antique-white fixtures, complete with features like shutters and flowerboxes.

Add a Splash of Color

A bright purple door can certainly make your house the block’s stand out, but think carefully before you select your paint. In some instances, as with a stone house in the mountains perhaps, a deep raisin with undertones of gray and brown could be the perfect choice. The front door offers a great opportunity to add a splash of originality and warmth to an otherwise buttoned-up exterior.

In general, however, it’s a good idea to steer clear from extremes in your choice of front door paint. Instead, choose a distinctive shade that still promises universal appeal. Steely blues, deep reds, or a sunny yellow – chosen to complement the house itself and any other trim – all make good choices. But don’t overlook classic white as an option either. For some homes – traditional brick, for example – a clean white treatment for the front door helps add welcome contrast while freshening and updating the house as a whole.

Accessorize!

From door knockers to mailboxes, this is your chance to have some fun. Remember your theme and select accessories that fit it. For a modern look, choose sleek metal and modern glass. Want something more traditional? How about wrought iron or brass? If yours is a casual bungalow, unfinished wood planters and simple pewter accessories might be just the thing.

If necessary, replace the house number, too, so that it accentuates the house’s overall look. Do your visitors and delivery people a favor by selecting a style and size for numbers that is clear and large enough to easily be read from the street.

For finishing touches, add fresh flowers in a flowerbox or a seasonal wreath on the door. A stylish doormat that plays off the color of the door can complete the front door facelift.

Shine a Light on It

In your front entrance remake, be sure to remember lighting. Choose a lighting fixture that fits with your theme and adequately illuminates the front door and house number for easy visibility at night. An antique lantern could illuminate the beautiful brass hardware on a traditional entrance beautifully. Or, for a more modern look, try a fixture with straight lines and angles in etched glass. Some designers recommend installing identical light fixtures on either side of the door to provide a sense of balance, a technique that also serves to make your entrance appear larger.

Select energy-efficient light bulbs intended for exterior use, and remember that brighter is not always better. Too much light can create glare and make surrounding areas appear dark and unappealing. Low-wattage bulbs (around 40W) cast a warm, inviting glow while still illuminating the entrance adequately and safely. Compact fluorescent bulbs (around 15W) make an even better choice, because they can last up to 10 times longer and use only a third as much energy as incandescent bulbs to produce a comparable amount of light.

Decatur/Oakhurst/Avondale Estates

Full Creative Loafing Article: http://clatl.com/atlanta/NeighborhoodGuide?neighborhood=1287067