GREEN TIP: Packing Materials

Styrofoam packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and foam are useful during a move, but not for the environment. 

To go green on your next move, try using old newspapers to wrap fragile items, and then recycle the paper when you unpack. Wrap pieces of furniture and art with blankets to ensure they do not get damaged during the move instead of packing them in foam. If you must use non-biodegradable packing materials, ask around to see if anyone has any from a past move to give you. 


Reusing is always better than buying new––for the environment AND your wallet.

TIP: Home Improvements That Pay Off

Dian Hymer is a nationally syndicated real estate columnist, and author.

The temptation is strong: Clean up the yard, declutter the house, and put it on the market without spending time and money sprucing the place up for sale. This is especially the case if you anticipate losing money on the sale.

Some real estate agents recommend you do little if anything to get your home ready for sale. This could work if you price the listing to look like a bargain. However, most buyers in today's market are nervous and picky. They aren't in a hurry and they want a house that's move-in ready.

An agent who is looking for a fast sale might steer his or her clients away from doing any fix-up work. It takes a lot of time and coordination, not to mention money, to get a home properly prepared for sale in today's market. Some agents don't want to take on the effort, or haven't the vision to see the home's potential. This could cost you on the sale.

One agent told his clients that they needn't do anything to get their house ready for sale. True, the house had inherent charm and good bones. But, the seller's furniture was much too big to show the rooms off to advantage. The dogs had damaged the hardwood floor and the beautiful garden was overgrown.

The house didn't sell until the sellers found another agent who recommended a laundry list of items to take care of before selling, including moving most of the seller's furniture out and having the house staged.

Unfortunately, market values declined between the first and second times the home was listed. Even though the house sold quickly with multiple offers the second time it was listed, it sold for less than it would have if it had showed well the first time it hit the market.

HOUSE HUNTING TIP: Choose an agent to work with who has experience helping sellers prepare their homes for the market. Ask an agent you're thinking about hiring for references. Call past sellers and ask them how effectively the agent helped them get their home sold and whether they made back the money they invested getting the home ready for sale.

A good agent should be able to supply you with a list of tradespeople who can help you paint, change outdated floor coverings and light fixtures, etc., at reasonable prices. And your agent ought to be able to provide access to the home for the people you select to help with the fix-up if you are out of town or at work.

Ideally, you should work with your agent who will help you prioritize the things that should be done to bring about a timely sale. For example, an outdated kitchen can usually be improved considerably by painting, changing light fixtures, refinishing or replacing a worn floor, and changing cabinet pulls.

It might make sense to change extremely old appliances and counters. However, it's not a good idea to gut the kitchen and completely remodel it for sale. You won't get that money back when you sell. The aim is to make cost-effective improvements that make your home appealing to the broadest number of buyers possible.

Painting is the least expensive improvement you can make that is likely to return more than you invest, provided you select the right colors. One seller repainted the exterior of his home before he selected a real estate agent. He painted it the same dowdy colors that adorned the house for decades. The first thing the buyers wanted to change was the exterior paint color.
THE CLOSING: For the best result, talk to a color consultant before you paint.


TIP: Contact Comet Realty's team of professionals. They have the local knowledge, expertise, feng shui certifications and staging experience to help you decide what to do to get YOUR house ready to put on the market. 


805.546.9925, Info@CometRealty.com

Four Ways On-line Real Estate Valuations FAIL

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is an author and the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com.


Q: Knowing that I would be selling my home, I have been following price ranges for comparable properties to my home on a couple of major real estate websites. Now that I am ready to list, all the agents I've talked to say that the websites are so out of line that their recommendations are worthless. What a shock!

A: Real estate websites have transformed the whole experience consumers have of home buying or selling -- they have made public what used to be private and difficult to get to -- namely, listing and sales data about homes across the country.
Several of these sites offer nearby recent sales, with the promise that savvy sellers like yourself can simply go online, input your address and find out what specific homes in your neighborhood have sold for lately -- some even go so far as to take the leap from what those homes have sold for to placing an estimated value on your home.

These sites try hard to do a lot of the work for you -- surfacing the homes they see as comparable to yours.

However, these are, at bottom, computer programs.

So, what's involved is a computer taking the description of your home from the public records (which usually reside at the county recorder's office and in their databases) or from a recent listing (if your home has been sold in the past few years), in terms of the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet, primarily, and pulling out the closest homes to yours that have sold recently that have similar data on record.

However, the computer can't necessarily distinguish nuances in a property's condition or aesthetics, nor does it always correct for whether the house two blocks over was a short sale or a foreclosure.

Depending on where you live, how similar homes are to each other in your area, the level of sales activity near your home and the level of accuracy found in the public records for your house and nearby homes, these sites can offer very comparable "comps" -- or comparables that aren't really comparable at all.

If you live in a fairly cookie-cutter subdivision where several homes just like yours have sold very recently, you're likely to get a good set of comparables, and a value estimate that's at least in the ballpark. But in many areas, lots of fairly common scenarios can come between you and a good set of automated comps:
• if your home is older and has had a lot of improvements and even additions that are not in the county records, you're likely to get bad comps;
• if homes in your area are very different from each other, you might get bad comps;
• if you live in a neighborhood very nearby another neighborhood where homes have a much higher or lower value than your area's (say, because they belong in a better school district or even on the other side of the city limits), you're prone to getting bad comps;
• if your home is in an area where homes are dense, the algorithm might jump over many very nearby properties to get to a relatively dissimilar one even a half-mile away, and that can give you bad comps.

The listings provided by the sites can be very useful for homeowners trying to stay on top of what homes around theirs are selling for -- not listed for, but actually selling for. They are less useful, in my opinion, at placing values on properties; the sites that do this usually have their accuracy rates listed somewhere on the site, and I haven't yet seen one that's impressive.

But when it's time to actually list your home, or figure out what it is worth, no computer -- no algorithm -- is as accurate as a living, breathing local real estate professional who sees and sells all the different specimens of homes in your neighborhood and sees firsthand what ready, willing, qualified buyers actually pay for them, day in and day out.

I think it's important for sellers interviewing listing agents to discuss the online comparables with prospective listing agents, but not as a counterargument to what the listing agents recommend you list your home at.
Rather, it's a smart way to see what the agents know -- and what you can learn -- about the other properties in your area.

If you are considering selling your home, or just want to see what your home would be worth in today's market, please call one of Comet Realty's professionals at 805.546.9925. 

TIMING IS EVERYTHING!

Timing is everything…

Spring forward, fall back! This weekend is Daylight Savings Time (unless you live in Hawaii, or Arizona - two states who don’t need that extra hour of sunshine!) Beginning this Sunday, most of us get an extra hour of daylight added to our day. 

I give my house a tune-up on DST weekend. I challenge you to spend one of your extra hours of sunlight making your home healthier for you and your loved ones. The cost of these few items is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

SMOKE ALARMS

The batteries in your smoke alarm should be tested, and/or replaced. Your detector may take 9-volt, AA or AAA batteries. Be sure to check before you head to the hardware store. 

CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR

It is always good to protect yourself against the unseen. If you don’t have one in your home, now might be a good time to pick one up. You can find them at your local hardware store, or on Amazon.com. Some models plug into an outlet, but I like ones that have a battery, or a battery back-up. First Alert and Kidde both make a combination smoke alarm/carbon monoxide detector. 

FILTERS

Clean or replace them.

Since you’re already going to the hardware store for batteries, pick up a filter for your furnace, unless yours is re-usable and can be cleaned with a hose (check your manufacturers directions to find out).

Replace your kitchen exhaust air filter, and clean the exhaust hood. Also dust/vaccuum your heating/cooling registers.

FIRE EXTINGUISHER

When was the last time you picked up a new fire extinguisher? If you can’t remember, it’s probably time to get a new one! You can usually find them in packages of two. I like to have one in the kitchen, one near the barbecue, and one in each of the cars. 

Tip: Don’t store the fire extinguisher over the stove. If something on the stovetop needs the extinguisher, you do not want to have to reach over flames. 

HOT WATER HEATERS

You don’t think about it until it stops working. Visit DIYnetwork.com to find out how draining your hot water heater annually can add years onto its life. 

CLOCKS

Of course, don’t forget to change all your clocks–in the house (living room, bedrooms, microwave, VCR and other electronic equipment), garage, office, cars and watches–spring forward one hour this weekend. 

I’m sure you can think of other items you can attend to, since you have that extra hour of daylight. I’d love to know what you have on your list, in case I need to add it to mine too.

Enjoy your longer days! 

WINTER 2011 ENERGY & COST $AVING TIPS

1. Turn down the dial.Set your thermostat to 68 degrees. With each degree you lower, you can save 2-5% on heating costs. Layer warm weather clothing while at home and you won’t even notice the difference. At night or when leaving the home for an extended period of time, lower the thermostat to 55-60 degrees. An automatic thermostat will make this even easier! Just program the temperatures based on your daily schedule. Doing this will knock off 5-20% on your heating bill.

2. Don’t overreact to a cold home. When you come home after a day of work to a frigid home, or are home in the middle of the day when your thermostat is programmed to 55, don’t overreact and crank the heat up to 75. You only need to heat to 68 degrees and setting the thermostat to 75 won’t heat the home any faster than if it’s set to 68. If you are home before the furnace has turned on, you can simply override your thermostat to 68. Be patient and throw on a sweater. You may not realize when the thermostat reaches 68, and before you know it you’ve been heating your house at 7 degrees higher than you need – or want – to pay for!

3. A clean furnace is an efficient furnace.Replace or clean furnace filters once a month. Dirty filters restrict air flow and increase energy use.

4.    Hot water can still be hot and save you money! Set your water heater to the normal setting or 120 degrees. You can save up to 11% on heating costs!

5.    Go green with ENERGY STAR®.Consider replacing old gas appliances with ENERGY STAR® qualified products or add HWA’s GreenPlus to your plan. If your appliances are more than 12 years old, you should consider the upgrade. The Consumer Energy Center recommends replacing your old gas appliances with ENERGY STAR® qualified products. Gas water heaters are labeled with an EF number the higher the EF, the more energy efficient the appliance will be.

6.    Beat the cold weather dryness.Use a humidifier to add moisture to the dry winter air in your home. Moister air feels warmer, so by using a humidifier, you will be more comfortable in your home even when the thermostat is set to a lower temperature.

7.    If you don’t use it, don’t heat it.Close off unused rooms such as spare bedrooms. When the room is not in use, close the floor or wall registers and keep the doors closed. If you have guests coming to visit, you can re-open everything and the room will warm up in just a couple hours.

8.    Let the sunshine in. Open south or east facing window curtains and blinds in the morning and during the day to take advantage of sunny days. At night, close window coverings to keep the heat in.

9.    Let your radiators and heating vents do their job. Don’t block your radiators or vents with furniture or draperies. Keep them free of dirt and dust and position your furniture so the heat can fill the room.

10. Cold water can do it better. Cold water does more for your disposal. Run cold water when you are using your garbage disposal and it will work even better. Hot water uses energy to warm the water. Cold water saves energy, plus it solidifies grease, moving it more easily through the garbage disposal and pipes.

11. Cook small.Prepare meals with small appliances rather than firing up the range. A microwave, toaster oven, electric skillet and slow cooker use much less energy than the range. Plus, the smaller appliances heat up much quicker. You can reduce cooking energy by as much as 80% when using your microwave for small portions. So when you’re preparing smaller recipes or just need a quick warm-up, the smaller appliances are perfect!