Happy Fall!! If you are like my daughter, this is your favorite time of the year-football, cooler temperatures, colors galore, fun Fall activities, and pumpkin-spiced everything! We hope you, too are enjoying the Fall colors and everything that goes along with it. One of the things families with children look forward to is Fall Break! If you fall into this category, where are you headed this year, or are you staying local?
Our family is headed to Florida to see Brigid’s family for a bit and then she and I head to the Keys for a few days and then Brigid and Ana head to the Carolina area to do some college tours-Wake Forest, UNC-Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Clemson and maybe a couple of others. We cannot believe how fast the time has flown and in a couple of short years, Ana will be at college.
Ana also has her Learner’s Permit and is doing a good job at driving with us. She continues to be an instructor at Gold Fish Swim School in Carmel and will be picking up more shifts as soccer season ends on October 2nd for her team. She has loved playing soccer for Guerin, but had a concussion for a couple of weeks and missed a couple of games. She will also pick back up with Master Chorale, which is the high school group for The Indianapolis Children’s Choir (ICC). She also volunteers helping the little kids in an ICC group in Carmel and loves spending time with them. She will be inducted into the National Honor Society next month as well, so we are very proud of her!
Tali continues to enjoy 6th grade and her competitive cheer season is getting closer. Her team is working on their routine now and she loves time in the gym.
Brigid still enjoys working for Merck and continues to pursue more advancement opportunities. In her spare time, she has been converting our screened porch into a 4-season sun room. I have been helping her, but this is all her planning and leading. It will really look amazing when it is finished in a couple of weeks…hopefully. The only thing we aren’t doing ourselves is the electrical. We always leave that to the professionals!!! Framing, siding, doors, windows, insulation, trim, flooring is all being done by us. We have learned a LOT!!
Thea is nearing the end of her wedding season. She and Michael have been extremely busy traveling, mostly to Cleveland for family and friends’ weddings and other family events. She is enjoying a slight break from the breakneck pace this spring and summer, but is still staying busy.
Patti and Ron took 2-weeks off to spend time on the beach in Florida. While we really missed her, we are happy they were able to spend some good downtime together.
Kylie is neck-deep in school for the kids and keeping things humming around the office. We are so fortunate to have such a great team to help our clients!!
We hope you were able to attend our September Happy Hour on the 16th. We had beautiful weather and a nice turnout. Thank you to Chris Odle for sponsoring Happy Hour. Chris is a client of ours and is a successful financial planner. Please contact him if you would like to talk about how he can assist with your financial planning-317-842-8200. Please join us for our October Happy Hour on Thursday, October 21st from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s. We would love to see you and drinks and food are on us!!!
Are you or someone you care about thinking of moving in the next year or two, but haven’t moved in a long time? Come to our next workshop on October 12th from 7-8pm titled The Top 5 Mistakes Smart People Make When Preparing Their Home for Sale. We will cover the preparation process, how to get the most money for your house, what improvements will net you the highest return and what NOT to do prior to a sale. We will also talk about current and projected market conditions and what you can expect. Call Steve at 317-573-1880 in order to register.
We will be doing our Thanksgiving Pie Giveaway again this year on Tuesday, November 23rd all day at our office. Formal invites are forthcoming, but mark your calendars now. We will be getting our pies again from No Label at The Table in Carmel and will also be donating pies to Student Impact in Westfield to underprivileged families. Hope you can drop by and pick up a pie!!
Look for more information coming shortly on our final prize giveaway of the year. This will be a pampering day to relieve stress as you prepare for the hectic pace of the holidays. Call in to register to win!!!! You won’t want to miss it!!!
Our real estate coach has challenged us to get more online presence and we accepted!! We agreed to post 100 videos in 100 days!!! So, what would you like to see us post?? What would you like to learn more about? One thing you can do right now to help us besides some ideas for future episodes, is go to our page and Like and Subscribe. It can be found at www.Youtube.com/SteveRupp Thank you, in advance!
If you are in business and would like to grow your business, learn new ideas, and meet other business professionals, call me at 317-573-1880 and I will put you on the list for a networking gathering at Woodland Bowl Putt-Putt course on October 14th from 5:30-7:30pm. Food and drink are provided as well as the fun times and new connections.
The market continues to be hot, even though it has cooled off a bit. Below are some stats comparing August 2021 to August 2020 courtesy of MIBOR. FYI-interest rates are climbing and are around 3.125% as of today. If you are thinking of buying now is the time to do so and there isn’t nearly as much competition as there was earlier this year.
Median Sales Price-$252,500-UP 10.7%
Closed Sales-3,796 units-UP 1.1%
New Listings-4,187 units-UP 7.4%
Pending Sales-4,222 units-UP 8.8%
Days on Market-17 days-DOWN 41.4%
Price/s.f.-$147-UP 14.0%
% of Ask Received-101.0%-UP 2.0%
Active Inventory-2,493 units-DOWN 16.4%
Absorption Rate-0.7 months-DOWN 12.5%
Thank you for reading this far!!! We hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter full of fun articles, stories, facts, and tidbits. Enjoy your Fall!!!
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Patti, and Thea
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!
Click here to read our October newsletter
Showing posts with label Indianapolis Homes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indianapolis Homes. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Sunday, June 27, 2021
July 2021 newsletter
Welcome officially to summer…and Happy Father’s Day to all of you dads!! This year, both events fell on the same day, June 21st. We hope you enjoyed summer solstice celebrating dad. For us, it was pretty relaxing and was enjoyed by having the family around and also Jack and Mary Anne stopped by for a little celebration as well.
The week prior, we were on our trip to Jackson Hole, WY. We had great weather and really loved being in nature. That is truly God’s country. We saw elk, deer, bald eagles, bison, moose, and bears to name a few. Weather ranged from snow flurries to 90-degrees! Whitewater rafting, swimming, hiking, dirt buggying, ropes courses, and Alpine slides to name a few were enjoyed over the week.
The BIG part of this past month was getting to celebrate Thea’s wedding last year with her reception last week. While delayed a year, we had a grand evening at The Scottish Rite Cathedral eating, drinking and dancing the night away, with both a DJ and Greek musicians. It was a LOT of fun and our team was so incredibly excited to finally celebrate with Thea. She even had a fun open house at her ‘new home’ the next day full of Greek food. Congratulations, again, Thea and Michael!!! We are so incredibly happy for you both!
Summer is here and school is out, so social activities are in full swing. Our kids are enjoying spending more time with friends and relaxing. School will be here before we know it and back to the school year grind we go! Ana is already in soccer practice getting ready for the fall season with Guerin. Tali moved up a level in competitive cheer and is practicing throughout the summer. It never seems to stop.
We truly hope you are able to take some time off this summer to relax and enjoy some downtime. That is truly important.
We had another amazing turnout at our June Happy Hour. Thank you to Shellie Law with Wheaton Van Lines (shellie.Law@WheatonMoving.com) for sponsoring this month and also to Scott Hodgin for winning her drawing for an Amazon gift card! We hope you will join us in July on Thursday, July 16th from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s again. FREE food and drinks! Feel free to bring a friend.
Thank you to everyone who called in for our FUN quarterly prize package, which was laps at the IMS in a race car and a day of fun at SIK. Look for our 3rd quarter prize giveaway in the coming weeks!
Are you or someone you know thinking about buying, selling, or building a new home? Now, more than ever is critically important to talk with a real estate expert who can guide, lead, and protect you in this absolutely CRAZY market. We have proven tactics, systems and processes to help you navigate these dangerous waters. Call us today!
The real estate market continues to be white-hot. Our inventory shrank again and we only have 0.5 months (two weeks) of inventory! We are starting to see listings stay on the market a little longer and many have had price reductions as well. Is this a sign the market is finally showing signs of a shift back to a buyers’ market? Too soon to tell, but most real estate experts are still predicting a strong sellers’ market until 2023. Below are the most recent stats from MIBOR comparing May 2021 to April 2021.
Median Sales Price-UP 7.2% to $255,000
Closed Sales-UP 9.7% to 3,386 units
New Listings-DOWN 4.4% to 3,889 units
Pending Sales-UP 11.5% to 4,061 units
Days on Market-DOWN 16.7% to 15 days
Price per s.f.-UP 4.3% to $146
% of Ask Received-UP 0.9% to 101.5%
Active inventory-DOWN 8.3% to 1,704 units
Absorption Rate-DOWN 16.7% to 0.5 months (2-weeks)
As you can see, our market keeps getting tighter and tighter. We are seeing lumber prices finally coming down, which will hopefully and eventually ease pressure from out-of-control builder pricing. The summer usually sees a bit of a pull-back in buyer demand as buyers take a break from house-hunting and go on vacations. We will see if that holds true this year or not.
Don’t forget to check out this month’s newsletter which has some interesting articles on Hershey, how to protect your pet, what Sesame Street can teach you about public speaking, and some interesting stats on high school seniors. Please tell us what you think and share your thoughts.
Click here to read our July newsletter
Click here to access coupons and discounts at stores you shop every day
Click here to read what our clients are saying about us
Click here to download the best real estate app available
Your friends in real estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Patti
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!
The week prior, we were on our trip to Jackson Hole, WY. We had great weather and really loved being in nature. That is truly God’s country. We saw elk, deer, bald eagles, bison, moose, and bears to name a few. Weather ranged from snow flurries to 90-degrees! Whitewater rafting, swimming, hiking, dirt buggying, ropes courses, and Alpine slides to name a few were enjoyed over the week.
The BIG part of this past month was getting to celebrate Thea’s wedding last year with her reception last week. While delayed a year, we had a grand evening at The Scottish Rite Cathedral eating, drinking and dancing the night away, with both a DJ and Greek musicians. It was a LOT of fun and our team was so incredibly excited to finally celebrate with Thea. She even had a fun open house at her ‘new home’ the next day full of Greek food. Congratulations, again, Thea and Michael!!! We are so incredibly happy for you both!
Summer is here and school is out, so social activities are in full swing. Our kids are enjoying spending more time with friends and relaxing. School will be here before we know it and back to the school year grind we go! Ana is already in soccer practice getting ready for the fall season with Guerin. Tali moved up a level in competitive cheer and is practicing throughout the summer. It never seems to stop.
We truly hope you are able to take some time off this summer to relax and enjoy some downtime. That is truly important.
We had another amazing turnout at our June Happy Hour. Thank you to Shellie Law with Wheaton Van Lines (shellie.Law@WheatonMoving.com) for sponsoring this month and also to Scott Hodgin for winning her drawing for an Amazon gift card! We hope you will join us in July on Thursday, July 16th from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s again. FREE food and drinks! Feel free to bring a friend.
Thank you to everyone who called in for our FUN quarterly prize package, which was laps at the IMS in a race car and a day of fun at SIK. Look for our 3rd quarter prize giveaway in the coming weeks!
Are you or someone you know thinking about buying, selling, or building a new home? Now, more than ever is critically important to talk with a real estate expert who can guide, lead, and protect you in this absolutely CRAZY market. We have proven tactics, systems and processes to help you navigate these dangerous waters. Call us today!
The real estate market continues to be white-hot. Our inventory shrank again and we only have 0.5 months (two weeks) of inventory! We are starting to see listings stay on the market a little longer and many have had price reductions as well. Is this a sign the market is finally showing signs of a shift back to a buyers’ market? Too soon to tell, but most real estate experts are still predicting a strong sellers’ market until 2023. Below are the most recent stats from MIBOR comparing May 2021 to April 2021.
Median Sales Price-UP 7.2% to $255,000
Closed Sales-UP 9.7% to 3,386 units
New Listings-DOWN 4.4% to 3,889 units
Pending Sales-UP 11.5% to 4,061 units
Days on Market-DOWN 16.7% to 15 days
Price per s.f.-UP 4.3% to $146
% of Ask Received-UP 0.9% to 101.5%
Active inventory-DOWN 8.3% to 1,704 units
Absorption Rate-DOWN 16.7% to 0.5 months (2-weeks)
As you can see, our market keeps getting tighter and tighter. We are seeing lumber prices finally coming down, which will hopefully and eventually ease pressure from out-of-control builder pricing. The summer usually sees a bit of a pull-back in buyer demand as buyers take a break from house-hunting and go on vacations. We will see if that holds true this year or not.
Don’t forget to check out this month’s newsletter which has some interesting articles on Hershey, how to protect your pet, what Sesame Street can teach you about public speaking, and some interesting stats on high school seniors. Please tell us what you think and share your thoughts.
Click here to read our July newsletter
Click here to access coupons and discounts at stores you shop every day
Click here to read what our clients are saying about us
Click here to download the best real estate app available
Your friends in real estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Patti
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
December 2020 Steve & Jack's Home News
December is finally here and we are in full swing of the holidays. Regardless of what holiday you celebrate, we hope this time is full of hope, excitement and new beginnings! We could all use a little of that right now! I don’t know about you, but I have seen holiday lights up earlier than ever before this year. Could it be because people are ready for some holiday spirit to brighten this strange and in many cases difficult year? I would like to think so. Our lights were put up a couple of weeks ago when the weather was over 70-degrees. It was glorious!
Where do I start?? We have had so many client events this past month and are grateful to each of you who took part as we have loved seeing you and saying thank you!! Happy Hour last week was extremely well-attended and looked a little different than usual with social distancing guidelines in place for safety. Thank you, again to our sponsor Jeff Lazar with Lazar Insurance-317-867-1303. We appreciate the support. If you are thinking about making a change of insurance or just want a second opinion, we can’t recommend Jeff and his team highly enough!! They do a great job and really take care of their clients. If you would like to sponsor an upcoming Happy Hour next year, please give Patti a call at 463-999-3949. We are looking for May and later right now. No Happy Hour in December, but we will pick back up again in January on the 21st.
Our very first North Pole Experience at our office was a huge hit! Thank you to so many families who attended and received their ‘Nice List’ certificate, some pre-wrapped treats, a goodie bag, writing letters to Santa (a response should be coming in the next couple of weeks or so) and the amazing family photos (we will send those to you when we receive them from the professional photographer, hopefully next week). We hope you had as good of a time as we did seeing you!
Finally, another first-our Thanksgiving Pie pick-up exceeded even our most optimistic expectations!!! Over 115 of you ordered a pie from No Label at The Table and hopefully you have enjoyed it with family by now. No Label at The Table is a very small, family-owned bakery in Carmel that employs young adults on the autism spectrum and teaches them job and life skills. They also sell items via several micro businesses in the store and are a gluten- and dairy-free company. They were SO grateful of the support during this really difficult time. Please visit them for future needs and they are so easy to work with and also are grateful for your support. We also donated 45 pies to Student Impact of Westfield so 45 families could enjoy a Thanksgiving meal that they otherwise would’t have had. This was a success on so many levels and we certainly hope you felt the love. Thank you for participating and we hope to see you again next year!!!
Patti did such an amazing job organizing all three of these events that happened in six short days!! We are grateful for everything she did to pull these events off. Look for more fun events next year!!! Patti, enjoy some much-deserved down-time!
Thea and Michael will be headed to Cleveland to be with family this holiday and are loving their new home. We look forward to her hosting our team holiday party in December and enjoy her amazing cooking!
Kylie is staying near home to spend time with family as well and is in the middle of some house projects, too.
Steve and his family are staying home for the holidays. Thanksgiving dinner will be made by Brigid and driven to Jack and Mary Anne as well as his sister Michelle and then back home so they can eat dinner together via Zoom. Christmas will be at home as well this year and they will enjoy some relaxation.
Make no mistake, however that our team IS working through the holidays, so if you or someone you care about are thinking of making a move, give us a call and we are happy to help. Holidays can be a busy time for us and our clients for real estate, so don’t feel shy about calling.
As for the housing market, it is still hot. We need inventory BADLY! We are still at less than a month of supply and things aren’t going to get better any time soon. With record-low interest rates well below 3% and house prices higher than ever, this is a great time to buy/sell/build a new home. Here are some stats from MIBOR comparing October 2020 to September 2020:
Median sales price-DOWN 1.8% to $221,000
Closed sales-DOWN 0.7% to 3,689 units
New listings-DOWN 9.6% to 3,746 units
Pending sales-DOWN 1.5% to 3,638 units
Days on market-no change at 25 days
Price per s.f.-no change at $129
% of asking price received-DOWN 0.2% to 98.8%
Active inventory-UP 2.7% to 3,259 units
Absorption rate-no change at 0.9 months
As you can see the market is softening a LITTLE bit, but this is expected prior to a presidential election and going into winter. We expect the market to tighten up again as we get past the election and head toward spring. NAR is predicting 2021 to be even stronger than 2020, so buckle up and get ready for another wild ride!!!
Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays from our family to yours. Thank you for being such an important part of our lives. We appreciate you!!!
Click here to watch an intro video from Steve
Click here to read the December newsletter
Click here to download the most powerful real estate app available
Click here to get coupons and discounts at places you shop every day
Click here to watch a 1-minute video about this month in real estate
Click here to see what our clients have to say about us
Your friends in real estate, Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Patti
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret.
Where do I start?? We have had so many client events this past month and are grateful to each of you who took part as we have loved seeing you and saying thank you!! Happy Hour last week was extremely well-attended and looked a little different than usual with social distancing guidelines in place for safety. Thank you, again to our sponsor Jeff Lazar with Lazar Insurance-317-867-1303. We appreciate the support. If you are thinking about making a change of insurance or just want a second opinion, we can’t recommend Jeff and his team highly enough!! They do a great job and really take care of their clients. If you would like to sponsor an upcoming Happy Hour next year, please give Patti a call at 463-999-3949. We are looking for May and later right now. No Happy Hour in December, but we will pick back up again in January on the 21st.
Our very first North Pole Experience at our office was a huge hit! Thank you to so many families who attended and received their ‘Nice List’ certificate, some pre-wrapped treats, a goodie bag, writing letters to Santa (a response should be coming in the next couple of weeks or so) and the amazing family photos (we will send those to you when we receive them from the professional photographer, hopefully next week). We hope you had as good of a time as we did seeing you!
Finally, another first-our Thanksgiving Pie pick-up exceeded even our most optimistic expectations!!! Over 115 of you ordered a pie from No Label at The Table and hopefully you have enjoyed it with family by now. No Label at The Table is a very small, family-owned bakery in Carmel that employs young adults on the autism spectrum and teaches them job and life skills. They also sell items via several micro businesses in the store and are a gluten- and dairy-free company. They were SO grateful of the support during this really difficult time. Please visit them for future needs and they are so easy to work with and also are grateful for your support. We also donated 45 pies to Student Impact of Westfield so 45 families could enjoy a Thanksgiving meal that they otherwise would’t have had. This was a success on so many levels and we certainly hope you felt the love. Thank you for participating and we hope to see you again next year!!!
Patti did such an amazing job organizing all three of these events that happened in six short days!! We are grateful for everything she did to pull these events off. Look for more fun events next year!!! Patti, enjoy some much-deserved down-time!
Thea and Michael will be headed to Cleveland to be with family this holiday and are loving their new home. We look forward to her hosting our team holiday party in December and enjoy her amazing cooking!
Kylie is staying near home to spend time with family as well and is in the middle of some house projects, too.
Steve and his family are staying home for the holidays. Thanksgiving dinner will be made by Brigid and driven to Jack and Mary Anne as well as his sister Michelle and then back home so they can eat dinner together via Zoom. Christmas will be at home as well this year and they will enjoy some relaxation.
Make no mistake, however that our team IS working through the holidays, so if you or someone you care about are thinking of making a move, give us a call and we are happy to help. Holidays can be a busy time for us and our clients for real estate, so don’t feel shy about calling.
As for the housing market, it is still hot. We need inventory BADLY! We are still at less than a month of supply and things aren’t going to get better any time soon. With record-low interest rates well below 3% and house prices higher than ever, this is a great time to buy/sell/build a new home. Here are some stats from MIBOR comparing October 2020 to September 2020:
Median sales price-DOWN 1.8% to $221,000
Closed sales-DOWN 0.7% to 3,689 units
New listings-DOWN 9.6% to 3,746 units
Pending sales-DOWN 1.5% to 3,638 units
Days on market-no change at 25 days
Price per s.f.-no change at $129
% of asking price received-DOWN 0.2% to 98.8%
Active inventory-UP 2.7% to 3,259 units
Absorption rate-no change at 0.9 months
As you can see the market is softening a LITTLE bit, but this is expected prior to a presidential election and going into winter. We expect the market to tighten up again as we get past the election and head toward spring. NAR is predicting 2021 to be even stronger than 2020, so buckle up and get ready for another wild ride!!!
Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays from our family to yours. Thank you for being such an important part of our lives. We appreciate you!!!
Click here to watch an intro video from Steve
Click here to read the December newsletter
Click here to download the most powerful real estate app available
Click here to get coupons and discounts at places you shop every day
Click here to watch a 1-minute video about this month in real estate
Click here to see what our clients have to say about us
Your friends in real estate, Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Patti
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret.
Monday, May 11, 2020
DIY Painting Tips
There are a lot of people tackling DIY projects at the moment. Some of these are necessary projects that people are doing themselves to avoid bringing strangers into their homes. Others are simply a way to pass the time and shake off some boredom. Regardless of the reason, you might find yourself considering some interior painting.
This can be a great idea, especially if you find yourself going a bit stir-crazy while you wait for everything to reopen. That said, it’s important that you don’t rush into a DIY painting project since that can lead to results that are less than optimal. Here are a few things to think about to help ensure that your painting project turns out well.
Measure First
A can of paint only goes so far, so it’s important to know just how much paint you need before you buy it. Since most paint colors are mixed, there’s no guarantee that paint mixed at different times will look exactly the same even if it’s all supposed to be the same color. A can of paint covers an average of 400 square feet, though this can differ based on the paint type and other factors. To begin, measure the width and height of each wall and multiply to get their area. Be sure add the area of any ceilings if you’re painting them as well. Once you know exactly how much surface area you need to cover, you can check the coverage of the specific paint you’re getting and buy accordingly.
Make a Single Trip
Even though some areas are opening things up again, that doesn’t mean you can stop respecting social distancing rules. Figure out exactly what you need and make a list so that you can buy it in a single trip. Wear a mask, avoid getting too close to anyone else and go get your supplies at a time when the store isn’t crowded.
Prep Your Rooms
Don’t underestimate the importance of prepping your rooms. Fill any holes, sand rough surfaces and take the time to clean everything. If possible, wash the surfaces you’re going to paint with soap and water a day or two before you plan to start painting. Even if you aren’t painting them, you should also clean the ceiling, baseboards and any other surfaces so that any cobwebs, dust and dirt on them doesn’t mess up your freshly painted surfaces. Remove any outlet covers, light switch panels and anything else that’s attached to the walls. Once the room is ready, be sure and use an appropriate primer to coat everything you’re going to paint before you start painting.
Paint in the Proper Order
You might be tempted to jump right in and start working on the walls. Doing so can actually make things more difficult in the long run, though. If you’re painting your baseboards, start with them first. Move on to window and door frames, then the ceiling. Once these are all painted, give them plenty of time to dry, then put easy-release painter’s tape over the painted surfaces. After everything is taped up, you can then paint the walls and not have to worry about getting paint on those areas you’ve already painted. Any paint that got on the walls while you were painting your trim and ceilings will be painted over with your wall paint.
Working With Tape
Putting down painter’s tape is easy but pulling it up can be very frustrating. A lot of people don’t think about the fact that paint from the walls will overlap onto the tape, so pulling the tape off can take paint with it, leaving an uneven edge on the paint. Before pulling, take a utility knife and cut the paint right at the edge of your trim or taped surface. Pull the tape at a 45-degree angle behind where you’re cutting, ensuring a nice crisp edge to your painting. Just make sure that the paint has dried for at least a day so that it’s not still soft or gummy.
Give Yourself Time
When you start painting, allow yourself at least a few days per room. You’ll need time to prep the surfaces you’re going to paint, time for the primer to dry and then additional time for the paint itself to dry. If you’re doing multiple coats, that time will be even longer. It will all pay off in the end, though, with the extra time resulting in a more professional look with even coverage and nice clean edges. Once everything’s dried you can start replacing anything you removed, but give yourself at least a few more days before trying to clean the newly-painted surfaces.
This can be a great idea, especially if you find yourself going a bit stir-crazy while you wait for everything to reopen. That said, it’s important that you don’t rush into a DIY painting project since that can lead to results that are less than optimal. Here are a few things to think about to help ensure that your painting project turns out well.
Measure First
A can of paint only goes so far, so it’s important to know just how much paint you need before you buy it. Since most paint colors are mixed, there’s no guarantee that paint mixed at different times will look exactly the same even if it’s all supposed to be the same color. A can of paint covers an average of 400 square feet, though this can differ based on the paint type and other factors. To begin, measure the width and height of each wall and multiply to get their area. Be sure add the area of any ceilings if you’re painting them as well. Once you know exactly how much surface area you need to cover, you can check the coverage of the specific paint you’re getting and buy accordingly.
Make a Single Trip
Even though some areas are opening things up again, that doesn’t mean you can stop respecting social distancing rules. Figure out exactly what you need and make a list so that you can buy it in a single trip. Wear a mask, avoid getting too close to anyone else and go get your supplies at a time when the store isn’t crowded.
Prep Your Rooms
Don’t underestimate the importance of prepping your rooms. Fill any holes, sand rough surfaces and take the time to clean everything. If possible, wash the surfaces you’re going to paint with soap and water a day or two before you plan to start painting. Even if you aren’t painting them, you should also clean the ceiling, baseboards and any other surfaces so that any cobwebs, dust and dirt on them doesn’t mess up your freshly painted surfaces. Remove any outlet covers, light switch panels and anything else that’s attached to the walls. Once the room is ready, be sure and use an appropriate primer to coat everything you’re going to paint before you start painting.
Paint in the Proper Order
You might be tempted to jump right in and start working on the walls. Doing so can actually make things more difficult in the long run, though. If you’re painting your baseboards, start with them first. Move on to window and door frames, then the ceiling. Once these are all painted, give them plenty of time to dry, then put easy-release painter’s tape over the painted surfaces. After everything is taped up, you can then paint the walls and not have to worry about getting paint on those areas you’ve already painted. Any paint that got on the walls while you were painting your trim and ceilings will be painted over with your wall paint.
Working With Tape
Putting down painter’s tape is easy but pulling it up can be very frustrating. A lot of people don’t think about the fact that paint from the walls will overlap onto the tape, so pulling the tape off can take paint with it, leaving an uneven edge on the paint. Before pulling, take a utility knife and cut the paint right at the edge of your trim or taped surface. Pull the tape at a 45-degree angle behind where you’re cutting, ensuring a nice crisp edge to your painting. Just make sure that the paint has dried for at least a day so that it’s not still soft or gummy.
Give Yourself Time
When you start painting, allow yourself at least a few days per room. You’ll need time to prep the surfaces you’re going to paint, time for the primer to dry and then additional time for the paint itself to dry. If you’re doing multiple coats, that time will be even longer. It will all pay off in the end, though, with the extra time resulting in a more professional look with even coverage and nice clean edges. Once everything’s dried you can start replacing anything you removed, but give yourself at least a few more days before trying to clean the newly-painted surfaces.
Monday, November 18, 2019
Millennials and their home-buying trends
Though there are a number of stereotypes surrounding Millennials, they actually make up a fairly significant part of the economy. More importantly, their economic strength as a group seems to be growing by the day. As of 2019, Millennials make up approximately 37 percent of home buyers… that’s a bigger share than any other generation, including Baby Boomers! So what exactly are these Millennials buying, and what trends are growing along with their increasing representation in the market? Let’s take a closer look and find out.
First-Time Buyers
Approximately 52 percent of Millennials who are buying homes are first-time home buyers. This makes sense for younger Millennials, but even older Millennials who were born in the 80s still see a significant number of first-time buyers. Before buying, a large number of these Millennials were renting homes. By buying homes, they can enjoy the benefits of ownership and build equity for similar amounts (or in some cases, less) than they were paying each month in rent previously.
Family Homes
The majority of home-buying Millennials are buying single-family homes. This is in part because over 50 percent of them are either married or in long-term relationships; in fact, in 2018 there were more married couples among home-buying Millennials than there were in any other generational group that was in the market for a house. A significant number of Millennials also have children under the age of 18 living at home, further increasing the need for a family-friendly home.
Motivation to Buy
The majority of Millennials who have bought homes within the last year did so simply because they wanted to own a home of their own. Some wanted to own a larger home, be closer to friends and family or were moving due to job relocation, but the general desire to own a home was listed as a reason for buying by as many Millennials as ones that gave all other reasons combined. A lot of this came down to the opportunities that were present as well; over 50 percent of Millennials report that it was “just the right time” to buy a home, while the second most common reason (that they didn’t have much choice and had to buy when they did) was only reported by around 10 to 15 percent of Millennials.
Back to the Suburbs
One big trend among Millennial home buyers is that they were buying homes in the suburbs. This wasn’t restricted only to Millennials, either; 51 percent of all homes purchased in 2018 were located in suburban areas or subdivisions. The Millennials fell pretty close to this statistic, with small towns being the second most common location. A vast majority of these homes were previously owned; though there have been a number of new subdivisions built around the country in recent years, only a small percentage of Millennials are buying into them.
Biggest Factors
There are a number of factors that affected the purchasing decisions of Millennials. The presence of public transit or proximity to work was one major factor, with many Millennials trying to minimize commuting costs. Heating and cooling efficiency also played an important role. In general, Millennials were more willing to compromise on price than on a home’s condition, but only around 20 percent were willing to compromise on the distance of their new home from work.
Home Shopping Trends
By far, the majority of Millennials started their home search by looking online to try and find properties for sale. Around 15 percent spent even more time online than that, starting their search by researching the ins and outs of the home buying process before even starting to look at properties. Beyond online sources, Millennials trusted real estate agents and Realtors the most for information about homes for sale. The entire process took about 10 weeks on average before finding the home they wanted to buy, though a real estate agent was involved for the last 7 or so weeks of the search.
In the Market?
Are you a Millennial in the market for a new home? You’re in luck, because HomeKeepr can connect you with a mortgage expert to help you get into the home of your dreams. Sign up for free today to take that first step toward home ownership.
First-Time Buyers
Approximately 52 percent of Millennials who are buying homes are first-time home buyers. This makes sense for younger Millennials, but even older Millennials who were born in the 80s still see a significant number of first-time buyers. Before buying, a large number of these Millennials were renting homes. By buying homes, they can enjoy the benefits of ownership and build equity for similar amounts (or in some cases, less) than they were paying each month in rent previously.
Family Homes
The majority of home-buying Millennials are buying single-family homes. This is in part because over 50 percent of them are either married or in long-term relationships; in fact, in 2018 there were more married couples among home-buying Millennials than there were in any other generational group that was in the market for a house. A significant number of Millennials also have children under the age of 18 living at home, further increasing the need for a family-friendly home.
Motivation to Buy
The majority of Millennials who have bought homes within the last year did so simply because they wanted to own a home of their own. Some wanted to own a larger home, be closer to friends and family or were moving due to job relocation, but the general desire to own a home was listed as a reason for buying by as many Millennials as ones that gave all other reasons combined. A lot of this came down to the opportunities that were present as well; over 50 percent of Millennials report that it was “just the right time” to buy a home, while the second most common reason (that they didn’t have much choice and had to buy when they did) was only reported by around 10 to 15 percent of Millennials.
Back to the Suburbs
One big trend among Millennial home buyers is that they were buying homes in the suburbs. This wasn’t restricted only to Millennials, either; 51 percent of all homes purchased in 2018 were located in suburban areas or subdivisions. The Millennials fell pretty close to this statistic, with small towns being the second most common location. A vast majority of these homes were previously owned; though there have been a number of new subdivisions built around the country in recent years, only a small percentage of Millennials are buying into them.
Biggest Factors
There are a number of factors that affected the purchasing decisions of Millennials. The presence of public transit or proximity to work was one major factor, with many Millennials trying to minimize commuting costs. Heating and cooling efficiency also played an important role. In general, Millennials were more willing to compromise on price than on a home’s condition, but only around 20 percent were willing to compromise on the distance of their new home from work.
Home Shopping Trends
By far, the majority of Millennials started their home search by looking online to try and find properties for sale. Around 15 percent spent even more time online than that, starting their search by researching the ins and outs of the home buying process before even starting to look at properties. Beyond online sources, Millennials trusted real estate agents and Realtors the most for information about homes for sale. The entire process took about 10 weeks on average before finding the home they wanted to buy, though a real estate agent was involved for the last 7 or so weeks of the search.
In the Market?
Are you a Millennial in the market for a new home? You’re in luck, because HomeKeepr can connect you with a mortgage expert to help you get into the home of your dreams. Sign up for free today to take that first step toward home ownership.
Friday, November 01, 2019
November 2019 Steve & Jack's Home News
Happy November!! It is hard to believe Thanksgiving is only 27-days away and that last night was Halloween. Being one of the parents who was out with my daughter Trick-or-Treating, I can attest that it was miserable. I think we only had 8 groups of kids come to our door and while walking around, we saw very few people out. It was a shame that the kiddos weren't able to enjoy the evening more as they look forward to it so much (at least mine does!).
Our BIG news is that our teammate Patti got married last Friday!!! Patti and Ron tied the knot in Brown County under a backdrop of beautiful Fall colors. It was a lovely ceremony followed by a delicious dinner under a tent. The entire team was able to attend and celebrate with Ron & Patti. Thea made all of the cakes and cupcakes and they were amazing! Congratulations, Patti!!!
Thea is doing such a great job and clients love working with her. She has learned so much in such a short amount of time and we are excited to see her continue to grow and excel.
Kylie has been doing an amazing job, as usual as we continue to add systems to our business to continually improve the level of service we provide to our clients. If you have had the pleasure of working with her, you know what I mean.
Jack and Mary Anne were able to go on Fall Break with Michelle and her family to The Smokies where they hiked, relaxed, swam and had a great time together. They are staying home for the foreseeable future and are looking forward to that!
Steve and his family enjoyed Fall Break in Boston for a few days seeing their new niece, Elsie. She is the daughter of Brigid's brother Jim. Ana & Tali loved spending time holding her and loving on her. We then went to Stowe, VT to see the Fall foliage, stop by Bragg Sugarhouse for some amazing Vermont Maple Syrup, Vermont Cold Hollow Cider Mill for some amazing cider and apple cinnamon donuts, Cabot Creamery for their delicious cheese, and Ben & Jerry's for their factory tour and ice cream sampling-YUMMY!
As for the market, it is pretty robust for this time of the year. We have quite a few buyers and new sellers we are helping right now. From July 1-September 15, the market really cooled down all over the city, so seeing a hotter-than-usual Fall market is welcome by agents, lenders, title companies, buyers, and sellers. Since Thanksgiving is so late this year, it gives us an extra week of Fall market. Inventory is still down considerably, but it bumped up from 1.7 months in August to 2.1 months in September. Activity, in general is down a bit as well, so we are seeing the usual seasonal slow down this time of year always brings. With interest rates still so low along with housing inventory (there were 10,000 listings on the market in September 2016 and there are only 6,300 in September 2019) and lots of buyers still in the market, this is a great time to have your house on the market. Well-priced houses in good condition and location with an acceptable floor plan are selling. Call us TODAY to talk about your specific situation if you or someone you know is thinking of buying, selling, or building a new home. Our job is to GUIDE, LEAD, & PROTECT.
Here are the September 2019 vs. September 2018 numbers courtesy of MIBOR:
Median Sales Price-$189,900-UP 5.5%
Closed Sales-3,048 units-UP 1.8%
New Listings-3,569 units-UP 0.5%
Pending Sales-3,243-UP 18.7%
Days on Market-40-No change
Price per s.f.-$113-UP 5.6%
% of Ask Received-97.5%-DOWN 0.1%
Active Inventory-6,341 units-DOWN 7.4%
Absorption Rate-2.1 months-DOWN 8.7%
************************************************************************************************************
~Thank you to everyone who attended our Happy Hour last week!!! We had a great time and saw quite a few new faces this month. Welcome!!! We hope to see you again. Our next Happy Hour (and final one of 2019 as we do not host one in December) will be on Thursday, November 21st from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's. Appetizers and drinks are on us! Stop by to say hello!
~Pictures with Santa is BACK! Stop by our office at 11550 N. Meridian Street in the main level conference room from 11AM-2PM on Sunday, November 24th for FREE photos with Santa and some fun arts and crafts for the kiddos. All are welcome! Please RSVP by November 22nd to Patti@Welcome2Indy.com.
~You should have received a Save The Date postcard a few weeks ago and your official invite this week for our 7th Annual Client Appreciation Event. It is on Saturday, December 7th from 8:30AM-11AM at Hamilton Town Center movie theater. We will be showing the newly-released Frozen 2 as well as FREE caricatures (get there early as there was a long line last year), photo opps, and food. So many of our clients have made this a holiday tradition and we are always so happy to see you and your beautiful families!! Please RSVP at VIPMovieEvent2019.eventbrite.com by Friday, November 29.
LOTS of fun events coming up in the next 30 days. Please consider joining us as we celebrate you.
Click here to read our November Newsletter
Click here to watch a 1-minute video on This Month in Real Estate
Click here to access coupons and discounts at places you shop every day
Click here to read what clients have to say about us
Click here to download the most powerful real estate app available
Click here to read about our Senior Real Estate Advantage Program
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Jack, Kylie, Thea, & Patti
Our BIG news is that our teammate Patti got married last Friday!!! Patti and Ron tied the knot in Brown County under a backdrop of beautiful Fall colors. It was a lovely ceremony followed by a delicious dinner under a tent. The entire team was able to attend and celebrate with Ron & Patti. Thea made all of the cakes and cupcakes and they were amazing! Congratulations, Patti!!!
Thea is doing such a great job and clients love working with her. She has learned so much in such a short amount of time and we are excited to see her continue to grow and excel.
Kylie has been doing an amazing job, as usual as we continue to add systems to our business to continually improve the level of service we provide to our clients. If you have had the pleasure of working with her, you know what I mean.
Jack and Mary Anne were able to go on Fall Break with Michelle and her family to The Smokies where they hiked, relaxed, swam and had a great time together. They are staying home for the foreseeable future and are looking forward to that!
Steve and his family enjoyed Fall Break in Boston for a few days seeing their new niece, Elsie. She is the daughter of Brigid's brother Jim. Ana & Tali loved spending time holding her and loving on her. We then went to Stowe, VT to see the Fall foliage, stop by Bragg Sugarhouse for some amazing Vermont Maple Syrup, Vermont Cold Hollow Cider Mill for some amazing cider and apple cinnamon donuts, Cabot Creamery for their delicious cheese, and Ben & Jerry's for their factory tour and ice cream sampling-YUMMY!
As for the market, it is pretty robust for this time of the year. We have quite a few buyers and new sellers we are helping right now. From July 1-September 15, the market really cooled down all over the city, so seeing a hotter-than-usual Fall market is welcome by agents, lenders, title companies, buyers, and sellers. Since Thanksgiving is so late this year, it gives us an extra week of Fall market. Inventory is still down considerably, but it bumped up from 1.7 months in August to 2.1 months in September. Activity, in general is down a bit as well, so we are seeing the usual seasonal slow down this time of year always brings. With interest rates still so low along with housing inventory (there were 10,000 listings on the market in September 2016 and there are only 6,300 in September 2019) and lots of buyers still in the market, this is a great time to have your house on the market. Well-priced houses in good condition and location with an acceptable floor plan are selling. Call us TODAY to talk about your specific situation if you or someone you know is thinking of buying, selling, or building a new home. Our job is to GUIDE, LEAD, & PROTECT.
Here are the September 2019 vs. September 2018 numbers courtesy of MIBOR:
Median Sales Price-$189,900-UP 5.5%
Closed Sales-3,048 units-UP 1.8%
New Listings-3,569 units-UP 0.5%
Pending Sales-3,243-UP 18.7%
Days on Market-40-No change
Price per s.f.-$113-UP 5.6%
% of Ask Received-97.5%-DOWN 0.1%
Active Inventory-6,341 units-DOWN 7.4%
Absorption Rate-2.1 months-DOWN 8.7%
************************************************************************************************************
~Thank you to everyone who attended our Happy Hour last week!!! We had a great time and saw quite a few new faces this month. Welcome!!! We hope to see you again. Our next Happy Hour (and final one of 2019 as we do not host one in December) will be on Thursday, November 21st from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's. Appetizers and drinks are on us! Stop by to say hello!
~Pictures with Santa is BACK! Stop by our office at 11550 N. Meridian Street in the main level conference room from 11AM-2PM on Sunday, November 24th for FREE photos with Santa and some fun arts and crafts for the kiddos. All are welcome! Please RSVP by November 22nd to Patti@Welcome2Indy.com.
~You should have received a Save The Date postcard a few weeks ago and your official invite this week for our 7th Annual Client Appreciation Event. It is on Saturday, December 7th from 8:30AM-11AM at Hamilton Town Center movie theater. We will be showing the newly-released Frozen 2 as well as FREE caricatures (get there early as there was a long line last year), photo opps, and food. So many of our clients have made this a holiday tradition and we are always so happy to see you and your beautiful families!! Please RSVP at VIPMovieEvent2019.eventbrite.com by Friday, November 29.
LOTS of fun events coming up in the next 30 days. Please consider joining us as we celebrate you.
Click here to read our November Newsletter
Click here to watch a 1-minute video on This Month in Real Estate
Click here to access coupons and discounts at places you shop every day
Click here to read what clients have to say about us
Click here to download the most powerful real estate app available
Click here to read about our Senior Real Estate Advantage Program
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Jack, Kylie, Thea, & Patti
Friday, September 20, 2019
Non-Occupying Co-Borrowers
If you’re worried about whether you can get a loan on your own, having a co-borrower can take a lot of the stress off. Because there are two people applying for the loan, the lender has a lot more potential assets to consider and two different credit scores. In most cases, the co-borrower on a mortgage loan will live at the same address as the primary borrower (such as the residence being purchased.) Depending on circumstances, though, it is possible to have a co-borrower who doesn’t live at the same address.
Non-Occupying Co-Borrowers
As the name implies, a non-occupying co-borrower (also called a non-occupant co-borrower, or NOCB) is another person who is willing to take responsibility for a mortgage loan but who won’t be living in the purchased house. In most cases this is a family member such as a parent, sibling or spouse, though the exact restrictions will depend on the loan program you use. The co-borrower’s income is added in with the primary borrower’s for the purpose of qualifying for the loan, allowing the primary borrower to get the loan even if they couldn’t qualify on their own.
Both the income and the liabilities of the co-borrower are considered along with the income and liabilities of the primary borrower. The total income and total liabilities of both are calculated and then used to determine the overall debt-to-income ratio of the two borrowers; provided that it’s favorable enough, they’ll then qualify for the loan. Because they are co-borrowers on the loan, both the primary borrower and the NOCB are equally responsible for the loan payments.
Advantages and Disadvantages
There are a few distinct advantages of using a non-occupying co-borrower for a mortgage:
Can qualify you for a loan that you might not get otherwise
May earn you a better interest rate or more favorable loan terms
Provides you with someone else to help ensure that payments are made on time
May be able to refinance without the NOCB later as your credit score improves
Unfortunately, there are a few disadvantages as well:
Can strain relationships between you and the NOCB
Both borrowers are held liable in case of loan default
Not all co-borrowers will help you qualify for a loan
Not all co-borrowers will be eligible under the terms of your lender
Some lenders don’t allow NOCBs on loans, especially with first-time borrowers
Because non-occupant co-borrower loans are not cut and dried, it can take a bit of research to figure out whether you can even make use of one of these loans.
Should You Use a NOCB?
Assuming that you and your non-occupant co-borrower qualify for an NOCB loan through your preferred lender, the question remains of whether you should even try to add a co-borrower to your loan. There isn’t necessarily an easy answer to this question. The answer relies so much on your specific situation that it’s difficult to give a definitive answer, though there are a few things you can consider to try to find the right answer for you.
Take a moment and ask yourself the following questions: What are the rules concerning non-occupying co-borrowers from your lender? If they’re allowed, how likely is it that the co-borrower you have in mind will actually help your application? Is the co-borrower someone you can trust with this, or will the experience likely be stressful? Consider how reliable your co-borrower is, how it will affect your loan terms and how much this will actually help your case. The more thought you put into it, the closer you’ll be to finding the right answer for you.
Get Some Professional Advice
If you’re still not sure, try discussing your situation with a loan specialist. Here at HomeKeepr, we can help you find the professional to answer all of your questions. Sign up for a free account today and start looking for the specialist that’s right for you and your needs.
Non-Occupying Co-Borrowers
As the name implies, a non-occupying co-borrower (also called a non-occupant co-borrower, or NOCB) is another person who is willing to take responsibility for a mortgage loan but who won’t be living in the purchased house. In most cases this is a family member such as a parent, sibling or spouse, though the exact restrictions will depend on the loan program you use. The co-borrower’s income is added in with the primary borrower’s for the purpose of qualifying for the loan, allowing the primary borrower to get the loan even if they couldn’t qualify on their own.
Both the income and the liabilities of the co-borrower are considered along with the income and liabilities of the primary borrower. The total income and total liabilities of both are calculated and then used to determine the overall debt-to-income ratio of the two borrowers; provided that it’s favorable enough, they’ll then qualify for the loan. Because they are co-borrowers on the loan, both the primary borrower and the NOCB are equally responsible for the loan payments.
Advantages and Disadvantages
There are a few distinct advantages of using a non-occupying co-borrower for a mortgage:
Can qualify you for a loan that you might not get otherwise
May earn you a better interest rate or more favorable loan terms
Provides you with someone else to help ensure that payments are made on time
May be able to refinance without the NOCB later as your credit score improves
Unfortunately, there are a few disadvantages as well:
Can strain relationships between you and the NOCB
Both borrowers are held liable in case of loan default
Not all co-borrowers will help you qualify for a loan
Not all co-borrowers will be eligible under the terms of your lender
Some lenders don’t allow NOCBs on loans, especially with first-time borrowers
Because non-occupant co-borrower loans are not cut and dried, it can take a bit of research to figure out whether you can even make use of one of these loans.
Should You Use a NOCB?
Assuming that you and your non-occupant co-borrower qualify for an NOCB loan through your preferred lender, the question remains of whether you should even try to add a co-borrower to your loan. There isn’t necessarily an easy answer to this question. The answer relies so much on your specific situation that it’s difficult to give a definitive answer, though there are a few things you can consider to try to find the right answer for you.
Take a moment and ask yourself the following questions: What are the rules concerning non-occupying co-borrowers from your lender? If they’re allowed, how likely is it that the co-borrower you have in mind will actually help your application? Is the co-borrower someone you can trust with this, or will the experience likely be stressful? Consider how reliable your co-borrower is, how it will affect your loan terms and how much this will actually help your case. The more thought you put into it, the closer you’ll be to finding the right answer for you.
Get Some Professional Advice
If you’re still not sure, try discussing your situation with a loan specialist. Here at HomeKeepr, we can help you find the professional to answer all of your questions. Sign up for a free account today and start looking for the specialist that’s right for you and your needs.
Monday, August 19, 2019
Should you pre-pay your mortgage?
A mortgage is one of the biggest single debts you’re likely to willingly take on. As such, being able to properly manage your mortgage is very important. With so many options when it comes to loans, repayment and refinancing, it can all get a bit confusing. One point in particular that you might hear a lot of talk about is prepaying your mortgage.
Should you prepay your mortgage? Should you focus on other things first? Before rushing into prepayment, make sure you have all of the information first. We’ll start by looking at exactly what mortgage prepayment is and how it works.
What Is Mortgage Prepayment?
As the name suggests, mortgage prepayment is the act of paying some or all of your mortgage principal before it’s actually due. This can take a number of forms, from paying a higher amount than the actual payment that’s due each month to making additional payments in months where you have money to spare. Some homeowners even make a single large additional payment every year after getting a tax return. Regardless of the specific form that prepayment takes, the end result is the same: More of your outstanding mortgage balance gets paid off, resulting in a decrease in both the amount that you still owe and the amount that interest can be applied to.
What Are the Benefits of Prepaying?
There are several benefits to prepaying your mortgage, regardless of how often the payments are made. Consider the following and how they might apply to your mortgage situation:
Faster repayment of the mortgage loan
Decreased cost of the mortgage over time
Equity is accrued at a faster rate
Prepayment reduces principal, making it easier to qualify for refinancing
Essentially, prepayment gives you more control over your loan and helps you to save money, build equity and pay off the loan faster. Because you’re paying it down at a faster rate, you’ll likely have an easier time refinancing for a better interest rate and loan terms down the road as well. And since the prepayment is optional, you can always skip prepayments and simply pay the monthly payment due if money is tight. Because of this, many people choose to incorporate prepayment plans into their overall preparations for retirement.
Are There Any Downsides?
While there are definitely benefits to prepaying your mortgage, there are potential downsides as well. Some mortgages, especially those with adjustable rates, are designed to not allow prepayments; if you attempt to prepay on the mortgage, this can trigger a penalty fee. Additionally, some lenders only accept prepayments in certain forms and will apply any other money received as simply an early payment against the next month (which means that the money will go toward interest and principal and not just your principal loan balance.) Attempting to prepay when you have significant debt elsewhere or don’t have a safety net built up for yourself isn’t a good idea, either; your mortgage likely has a lower interest rate than most if not all of your other debts, so you may be better off paying them off and building up savings and retirement funds first before you start worrying about prepaying a mortgage.
Should You Prepay Your Mortgage?
Whether or not you should prepay your mortgage depends on a number of factors. You should consider the type of mortgage you have, how much your monthly mortgage payments are and what your interest rate looks like. You should also take a look at your overall finances and how well prepared you are for emergencies and retirement; it’s possible that your money would be better off going elsewhere at the moment. Even if prepayments seem feasible and affordable, make sure that your lender accepts prepayments without penalty and that you know how they prefer to receive prepayments. Those extra payments won’t do much good if your lender simply applies them against interest or charges you a penalty fee because prepayments aren’t allowed by your loan.
Making the Right Decision
Deciding whether or not to prepay your mortgage is a big decision. If you’re not comfortable making it alone, let HomeKeepr help you find a mortgage expert who’ll assist you in weighing all of the pros and cons. Sign up today and find the advisor you need based on recommendations from the people you trust.
Should you prepay your mortgage? Should you focus on other things first? Before rushing into prepayment, make sure you have all of the information first. We’ll start by looking at exactly what mortgage prepayment is and how it works.
What Is Mortgage Prepayment?
As the name suggests, mortgage prepayment is the act of paying some or all of your mortgage principal before it’s actually due. This can take a number of forms, from paying a higher amount than the actual payment that’s due each month to making additional payments in months where you have money to spare. Some homeowners even make a single large additional payment every year after getting a tax return. Regardless of the specific form that prepayment takes, the end result is the same: More of your outstanding mortgage balance gets paid off, resulting in a decrease in both the amount that you still owe and the amount that interest can be applied to.
What Are the Benefits of Prepaying?
There are several benefits to prepaying your mortgage, regardless of how often the payments are made. Consider the following and how they might apply to your mortgage situation:
Faster repayment of the mortgage loan
Decreased cost of the mortgage over time
Equity is accrued at a faster rate
Prepayment reduces principal, making it easier to qualify for refinancing
Essentially, prepayment gives you more control over your loan and helps you to save money, build equity and pay off the loan faster. Because you’re paying it down at a faster rate, you’ll likely have an easier time refinancing for a better interest rate and loan terms down the road as well. And since the prepayment is optional, you can always skip prepayments and simply pay the monthly payment due if money is tight. Because of this, many people choose to incorporate prepayment plans into their overall preparations for retirement.
Are There Any Downsides?
While there are definitely benefits to prepaying your mortgage, there are potential downsides as well. Some mortgages, especially those with adjustable rates, are designed to not allow prepayments; if you attempt to prepay on the mortgage, this can trigger a penalty fee. Additionally, some lenders only accept prepayments in certain forms and will apply any other money received as simply an early payment against the next month (which means that the money will go toward interest and principal and not just your principal loan balance.) Attempting to prepay when you have significant debt elsewhere or don’t have a safety net built up for yourself isn’t a good idea, either; your mortgage likely has a lower interest rate than most if not all of your other debts, so you may be better off paying them off and building up savings and retirement funds first before you start worrying about prepaying a mortgage.
Should You Prepay Your Mortgage?
Whether or not you should prepay your mortgage depends on a number of factors. You should consider the type of mortgage you have, how much your monthly mortgage payments are and what your interest rate looks like. You should also take a look at your overall finances and how well prepared you are for emergencies and retirement; it’s possible that your money would be better off going elsewhere at the moment. Even if prepayments seem feasible and affordable, make sure that your lender accepts prepayments without penalty and that you know how they prefer to receive prepayments. Those extra payments won’t do much good if your lender simply applies them against interest or charges you a penalty fee because prepayments aren’t allowed by your loan.
Making the Right Decision
Deciding whether or not to prepay your mortgage is a big decision. If you’re not comfortable making it alone, let HomeKeepr help you find a mortgage expert who’ll assist you in weighing all of the pros and cons. Sign up today and find the advisor you need based on recommendations from the people you trust.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Short sales 101
One of the greatest myths in the world of real estate is that buying a home that’s in a pre-foreclosure state, or one that has already been foreclosed upon, will get you the very best deal possible. This is inaccurate for a number of reasons, though if you know what you’re looking at you can sometimes snag a bargain. There are a few things you need to know before making that leap the first time.
What is a Short Sale?
Short sales happen because a homeowner is in big trouble financially and needs to unload their house. They may be in a negative equity position (underwater) or simply lack the equity to sell their home. There was a time when homeowners had to miss a few payments before lenders would consider a short sale, but today there are conditions, like a sudden loss of income, that can make a short sale possible faster.
Short sales save the homeowner from a long and potentially credit damaging foreclosure. They save the bank from having to get lawyers involved to collect the home that’s collateral for the mortgage that’s in default. They don’t do anything for a buyer by design (that’s not to say that you can’t benefit from them, they just didn’t really consider buyers when creating this out for homeowners in trouble).
Buying a Short Sale Home: The Basics
To successfully navigate a short sale, you’re going to need a few things:
An experienced real estate agent. Writing a contract for a short sale is not like writing a contract for a standard home. There are usually a variety of clauses that must be included, as well as knowledge of what will and won’t be accepted in said contract to consider. Your interests have to be protected, which can really bloat a standard purchase agreement with a lot of extra verbiage.
A really good home inspector. When people ask their banks for permission to sell short, they’re not doing it because they’ve been spending all their extra money fixing up the place. Often, these homes are in some amount of disrepair due to neglect. When finances are tight enough to get a short sale approved, you can bet home improvements are far from the current owner’s mind.
Patience. It can take a very long time to get a short sale approved. If you’re looking to buy one as an investment, that wait might not matter, but if you want a place to call home, it’s going to be frustratingly long. This is because not only does the homeowner approve the contract, the bank has to, as well. If there are two or more banks involved, so much more the trouble. Buckle in, because it can take six weeks – six months — to close.
Liquid or liquidatable assets. Depending on the state of the home, you will likely have to put some money into it right away. A leaky roof and HVAC with issues aren’t cheap to fix.
It is highly recommended that you use a real estate agent to purchase a short sale. This point cannot be stressed enough. Short sales are not always deals, as stated above, because banks know what their property is worth — they’re not going to let you steal that house for a song. The banks involved are also unlikely to make repairs or give you any sort of concessions.
How Can Banks Afford to Do This?
The next time someone tells you that mortgage insurance is a waste and does nothing for anyone but the bank, remind them that MI is what makes short sales possible and often prevent long-term credit damage during a foreclosure. When a home qualifies to be a short sale, the bank is using proceeds from a claim against the mortgage insurance to make up the difference between what the sellers owe and what a buyer is giving.
MI can help prevent something known as a “bleeding foreclosure.” This is a foreclosure (or short sale) that has sold, but has a balance remaining that cannot be forgiven. Not all homes sold short will “bleed,” but it’s a potential in many states, especially if you’re not carrying MI on your mortgage. So, rather than pay extra every month for MI, you’ll be paying monthly for the outstanding balance on a house you no longer own.
Ready to Shop for Short Sale Homes?
Check out your local service providers in the HomeKeepr community. Not only can you find the best home inspectors, but you can be connected to electricians, HVAC installers, roofers, even bankers. You’ll know they’re good by the recommendations that your and other real estate agents have provided. Get your short sale team ready today at HomeKeepr!
What is a Short Sale?
Short sales happen because a homeowner is in big trouble financially and needs to unload their house. They may be in a negative equity position (underwater) or simply lack the equity to sell their home. There was a time when homeowners had to miss a few payments before lenders would consider a short sale, but today there are conditions, like a sudden loss of income, that can make a short sale possible faster.
Short sales save the homeowner from a long and potentially credit damaging foreclosure. They save the bank from having to get lawyers involved to collect the home that’s collateral for the mortgage that’s in default. They don’t do anything for a buyer by design (that’s not to say that you can’t benefit from them, they just didn’t really consider buyers when creating this out for homeowners in trouble).
Buying a Short Sale Home: The Basics
To successfully navigate a short sale, you’re going to need a few things:
An experienced real estate agent. Writing a contract for a short sale is not like writing a contract for a standard home. There are usually a variety of clauses that must be included, as well as knowledge of what will and won’t be accepted in said contract to consider. Your interests have to be protected, which can really bloat a standard purchase agreement with a lot of extra verbiage.
A really good home inspector. When people ask their banks for permission to sell short, they’re not doing it because they’ve been spending all their extra money fixing up the place. Often, these homes are in some amount of disrepair due to neglect. When finances are tight enough to get a short sale approved, you can bet home improvements are far from the current owner’s mind.
Patience. It can take a very long time to get a short sale approved. If you’re looking to buy one as an investment, that wait might not matter, but if you want a place to call home, it’s going to be frustratingly long. This is because not only does the homeowner approve the contract, the bank has to, as well. If there are two or more banks involved, so much more the trouble. Buckle in, because it can take six weeks – six months — to close.
Liquid or liquidatable assets. Depending on the state of the home, you will likely have to put some money into it right away. A leaky roof and HVAC with issues aren’t cheap to fix.
It is highly recommended that you use a real estate agent to purchase a short sale. This point cannot be stressed enough. Short sales are not always deals, as stated above, because banks know what their property is worth — they’re not going to let you steal that house for a song. The banks involved are also unlikely to make repairs or give you any sort of concessions.
How Can Banks Afford to Do This?
The next time someone tells you that mortgage insurance is a waste and does nothing for anyone but the bank, remind them that MI is what makes short sales possible and often prevent long-term credit damage during a foreclosure. When a home qualifies to be a short sale, the bank is using proceeds from a claim against the mortgage insurance to make up the difference between what the sellers owe and what a buyer is giving.
MI can help prevent something known as a “bleeding foreclosure.” This is a foreclosure (or short sale) that has sold, but has a balance remaining that cannot be forgiven. Not all homes sold short will “bleed,” but it’s a potential in many states, especially if you’re not carrying MI on your mortgage. So, rather than pay extra every month for MI, you’ll be paying monthly for the outstanding balance on a house you no longer own.
Ready to Shop for Short Sale Homes?
Check out your local service providers in the HomeKeepr community. Not only can you find the best home inspectors, but you can be connected to electricians, HVAC installers, roofers, even bankers. You’ll know they’re good by the recommendations that your and other real estate agents have provided. Get your short sale team ready today at HomeKeepr!
Thursday, February 14, 2019
How to Drain Your Water Heater
Of all the things that civilization has brought us, including sliced bread, hot water may be the very best. It’s certainly up there, without a doubt. So, it would follow that if you really value that hot water, you’d want to care for and protect the equipment that makes it possible.
Whether you’re doing it as a bit of regular maintenance or because you’re leaving a vacation or rental home unoccupied, draining said water heater is one of the easiest things you can do to keep that particular appliance in tip-top shape.
Why You Should Drain Your Hot Water Heater
Most water supplies contain lots of random minerals in various quantities. Get enough of them together and you get “hard” water, which really just means it has a lot of minerals in suspension. Over time, these minerals settle out and land in the bottom of your hot water heater. Given enough time, a layer thick enough to interfere with the function of the appliance will develop.
Before you reach that point, a maintenance flush is in order. How often you flush depends on a lot of factors, including the size of the hot water heater and how often it’s used. A good rule of thumb is to flush your water heater every six to 12 months, whether you think it needs it or not. It’s better to wash those particles out before they become a problem.
Of course, draining your water heater isn’t just about flushing particles. If you’re going to leave a house sitting empty for a significant period of time, you should empty the hot water tank. Draining the hot water heater is an important part of winterizing vacant homes, it helps to protect the heater itself from damage due to low temperatures. When the water lines are also drained, emptying them completely keeps them from freezing and bursting.
How to Drain a Water Heater
Draining a hot water heater is a really simple process. In fact, the hardest part is working with water hot enough to scald you. Before you even get started, snagging some thick dishwashing gloves or other heavy, insulated and very importantly, non-absorbent, form of hand protection.If you’re wearing thick cotton gloves, for example, they’ll just hold that extremely hot water against your skin.
With your skin adequately protected, draining or flushing your hot water heater is a piece of cake. Just follow these steps:
Turn off the water heater. If it’s electric, flip the breaker; for gas units, turn the gas off or set the unit to “pilot.”
Wait patiently for the water to cool a bit. The longer you give it, the safer you’ll be. (You can skip this step, but do so with caution)
Turn the cold water off. You can’t drain a water heater that’s constantly filling up!
Open some faucets. Pick a faucet or two close to the water heater and turn the hot side on and leave it on until you’re totally done with the draining portion of the show. This helps speed up the draining and prevents vacuums from forming in the pipes.
Attach a water hose. It’ll screw onto the brass drain valve near the bottom of the unit.
Pick a spot to dump the water. There’s a lot of water about to come out of that hose, so choose your disposal option carefully. Outdoors is a good place to run the hose (just not too close to the house), but if you can’t reach that far, a sump pit, floor drain or big bucket will do.
Open the valve! This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Open the value (you may need a screwdriver). If you’re flushing the hot water heater, then let it run a few gallons at a time into a bucket so you can tell when the sediment has finished coming out of the unit.
If you’re draining your hot water heater because you’re leaving the house empty for a while, you’re essentially done with the water heater now (winterizing a home is a whole different blog). If you’re flushing sediment, keep going until you see the water run clear, then do all those steps in reverse for a hot water heater with shiny clean insides and hot water.
Hot Water is Pretty Cool, But Flushing the Heater Safely Can Be Tricky…
When you’ve given draining your hot water heater a lot of consideration and decided you’re not ready to DIY it, you don’t have to start calling random plumbers for help. Just log in to your HomeKeepr community and select from the recommended plumbers in your area. Other pros are staking their reputations on the quality of work they do, so you know every recommended listing is for a company you can count on.
Whether you’re doing it as a bit of regular maintenance or because you’re leaving a vacation or rental home unoccupied, draining said water heater is one of the easiest things you can do to keep that particular appliance in tip-top shape.
Why You Should Drain Your Hot Water Heater
Most water supplies contain lots of random minerals in various quantities. Get enough of them together and you get “hard” water, which really just means it has a lot of minerals in suspension. Over time, these minerals settle out and land in the bottom of your hot water heater. Given enough time, a layer thick enough to interfere with the function of the appliance will develop.
Before you reach that point, a maintenance flush is in order. How often you flush depends on a lot of factors, including the size of the hot water heater and how often it’s used. A good rule of thumb is to flush your water heater every six to 12 months, whether you think it needs it or not. It’s better to wash those particles out before they become a problem.
Of course, draining your water heater isn’t just about flushing particles. If you’re going to leave a house sitting empty for a significant period of time, you should empty the hot water tank. Draining the hot water heater is an important part of winterizing vacant homes, it helps to protect the heater itself from damage due to low temperatures. When the water lines are also drained, emptying them completely keeps them from freezing and bursting.
How to Drain a Water Heater
Draining a hot water heater is a really simple process. In fact, the hardest part is working with water hot enough to scald you. Before you even get started, snagging some thick dishwashing gloves or other heavy, insulated and very importantly, non-absorbent, form of hand protection.If you’re wearing thick cotton gloves, for example, they’ll just hold that extremely hot water against your skin.
With your skin adequately protected, draining or flushing your hot water heater is a piece of cake. Just follow these steps:
Turn off the water heater. If it’s electric, flip the breaker; for gas units, turn the gas off or set the unit to “pilot.”
Wait patiently for the water to cool a bit. The longer you give it, the safer you’ll be. (You can skip this step, but do so with caution)
Turn the cold water off. You can’t drain a water heater that’s constantly filling up!
Open some faucets. Pick a faucet or two close to the water heater and turn the hot side on and leave it on until you’re totally done with the draining portion of the show. This helps speed up the draining and prevents vacuums from forming in the pipes.
Attach a water hose. It’ll screw onto the brass drain valve near the bottom of the unit.
Pick a spot to dump the water. There’s a lot of water about to come out of that hose, so choose your disposal option carefully. Outdoors is a good place to run the hose (just not too close to the house), but if you can’t reach that far, a sump pit, floor drain or big bucket will do.
Open the valve! This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Open the value (you may need a screwdriver). If you’re flushing the hot water heater, then let it run a few gallons at a time into a bucket so you can tell when the sediment has finished coming out of the unit.
If you’re draining your hot water heater because you’re leaving the house empty for a while, you’re essentially done with the water heater now (winterizing a home is a whole different blog). If you’re flushing sediment, keep going until you see the water run clear, then do all those steps in reverse for a hot water heater with shiny clean insides and hot water.
Hot Water is Pretty Cool, But Flushing the Heater Safely Can Be Tricky…
When you’ve given draining your hot water heater a lot of consideration and decided you’re not ready to DIY it, you don’t have to start calling random plumbers for help. Just log in to your HomeKeepr community and select from the recommended plumbers in your area. Other pros are staking their reputations on the quality of work they do, so you know every recommended listing is for a company you can count on.
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Is it time for new windows?
Whether you just bought your home or you’ve owned it a while, it can be easy to overlook the windows that open it up to the world, as if they didn’t even exist. Even if you don’t, you probably know that a lot of glass and natural light is awesome, but it comes at a cost. As windows age and homes settle, windows can distort ever slow slightly. It’s not enough that you’d notice, at least until the first cold blasts of Arctic air are blowing into your home.
Short of waiting for a major blowing snowstorm, how can you if it’s time for new windows? And what do you do if it is? We’ll walk you through it. Read on, reader!
Signs Your Windows are Giving Up the Ghost
When it comes to the big things in your house, windows are pretty huge. On the hassle scale, replacing windows is up there with a new roof or trying to retile the busiest room in your home. Unfortunately, these are all jobs that you’ll eventually need to tackle, but sometimes you can make repairs rather than start a replacement project that will eat up your money, your time and turn your home into a construction zone.
Starting at a few hundred dollars each, a house full of windows can be a huge investment that you’re unlikely to get back. Before you go window hunting, check this list to see if buying new windows is the right move after all:
Are your energy bills climbing or already high? A significant rise in your utility bills over the last year, or even five years, that comes from an increased use of power or gas and not simply a rate hike means you’re leaking somewhere. Windows are often the culprit. If you can borrow an infrared camera, you can track exactly where the energy loss is coming from. If you don’t have a friend with such fun toys, many home pros offer this service. Check HomeKeepr for a referral.
Are they tricky to open or won’t stay open without a prop? Really old windows may have a problem staying open because their corded weights have broken after decades of use and fallen into the interior space between the window and the wall. Newer windows might refuse to close because they’ve shifted ever so slightly. Either way, these are windows that are a huge pain to operate. That alone can be a good reason to replace them.
Can you hear your neighbors when you’re indoors? Cars, kids and pets, they’re all part of living in most communities, but they also make a lot of noise. Good quality windows will help reduce the volume, though none can block noise entirely. If you can hear your neighbor’s car like it’s in your own driveway, you definitely need to consider a window replacement.
Do you wake up to condensation between the window glass panes? A small amount of condensation isn’t really anything to worry about, but when it’s widespread or happens every day and hangs around for most of it, your window pane seal has probably been compromised. Sometimes you can contact the manufacturer or the reseller where the window came from and order a replacement pane, but they can be difficult to install and costly, which is why many people choose new windows at this stage. A window with a busted seal is one that’s costing you serious cash. The air trapped between those two (or three) panes of glass act as insulation, reducing the rate at which the window cools.
Is there extensive damage? Sometimes the damage to your windows can’t really be seen until you open them up, examine moving parts closely and, when necessary, remove some trim to look for rot that’s hidden inside the wall. Small sections of damage can sometimes be repaired, but larger areas indicate that you need to fix whatever cause the damage in the first place and then replace that window with one that’s new and healthy.
What if My Windows aren’t Damaged?
If your windows are in great shape and the only problem you’re having is heat loss, you can do a few different things to maximize your efficiency when the cold wind blows. Those include:
Winterizing. Go around the house and seal up all the nooks, crannies and cracks you might find. A new bead of caulk around each window and door and along all the trim will help reduce drafts.
Sticking up window insulation film. For a temporary fix this winter, you can install window insulation film on the cold windows in question. When installed properly, you can barely tell there’s anything between the room and the window.
Installing heavy curtains. Like a warm blanket on a cold night, a thick insulating curtain can help reduce both heat loss and drafts. The only catch is that you have to keep them closed, which can make your cabin fever burn this winter.
Do You Know Who to Call for New Windows?
When it’s time to put new windows in your house, you don’t have to look any further than your HomeKeepr community for a window installer that you can trust. After all, your real estate agent recommended their favorite subcontractors, people they know will do a professional job each and every time.
Short of waiting for a major blowing snowstorm, how can you if it’s time for new windows? And what do you do if it is? We’ll walk you through it. Read on, reader!
Signs Your Windows are Giving Up the Ghost
When it comes to the big things in your house, windows are pretty huge. On the hassle scale, replacing windows is up there with a new roof or trying to retile the busiest room in your home. Unfortunately, these are all jobs that you’ll eventually need to tackle, but sometimes you can make repairs rather than start a replacement project that will eat up your money, your time and turn your home into a construction zone.
Starting at a few hundred dollars each, a house full of windows can be a huge investment that you’re unlikely to get back. Before you go window hunting, check this list to see if buying new windows is the right move after all:
Are your energy bills climbing or already high? A significant rise in your utility bills over the last year, or even five years, that comes from an increased use of power or gas and not simply a rate hike means you’re leaking somewhere. Windows are often the culprit. If you can borrow an infrared camera, you can track exactly where the energy loss is coming from. If you don’t have a friend with such fun toys, many home pros offer this service. Check HomeKeepr for a referral.
Are they tricky to open or won’t stay open without a prop? Really old windows may have a problem staying open because their corded weights have broken after decades of use and fallen into the interior space between the window and the wall. Newer windows might refuse to close because they’ve shifted ever so slightly. Either way, these are windows that are a huge pain to operate. That alone can be a good reason to replace them.
Can you hear your neighbors when you’re indoors? Cars, kids and pets, they’re all part of living in most communities, but they also make a lot of noise. Good quality windows will help reduce the volume, though none can block noise entirely. If you can hear your neighbor’s car like it’s in your own driveway, you definitely need to consider a window replacement.
Do you wake up to condensation between the window glass panes? A small amount of condensation isn’t really anything to worry about, but when it’s widespread or happens every day and hangs around for most of it, your window pane seal has probably been compromised. Sometimes you can contact the manufacturer or the reseller where the window came from and order a replacement pane, but they can be difficult to install and costly, which is why many people choose new windows at this stage. A window with a busted seal is one that’s costing you serious cash. The air trapped between those two (or three) panes of glass act as insulation, reducing the rate at which the window cools.
Is there extensive damage? Sometimes the damage to your windows can’t really be seen until you open them up, examine moving parts closely and, when necessary, remove some trim to look for rot that’s hidden inside the wall. Small sections of damage can sometimes be repaired, but larger areas indicate that you need to fix whatever cause the damage in the first place and then replace that window with one that’s new and healthy.
What if My Windows aren’t Damaged?
If your windows are in great shape and the only problem you’re having is heat loss, you can do a few different things to maximize your efficiency when the cold wind blows. Those include:
Winterizing. Go around the house and seal up all the nooks, crannies and cracks you might find. A new bead of caulk around each window and door and along all the trim will help reduce drafts.
Sticking up window insulation film. For a temporary fix this winter, you can install window insulation film on the cold windows in question. When installed properly, you can barely tell there’s anything between the room and the window.
Installing heavy curtains. Like a warm blanket on a cold night, a thick insulating curtain can help reduce both heat loss and drafts. The only catch is that you have to keep them closed, which can make your cabin fever burn this winter.
Do You Know Who to Call for New Windows?
When it’s time to put new windows in your house, you don’t have to look any further than your HomeKeepr community for a window installer that you can trust. After all, your real estate agent recommended their favorite subcontractors, people they know will do a professional job each and every time.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
8 reasons why you need a real estate agent when buying a home
If you’re shopping for a house, or even just considering buying one, there’s one person that you absolutely need on your side: a Realtor. Potential buyers often think they can go it alone, but there are a number of things they may not be considering.
What is a Buyer’s Agent and How are They Compensated?
A Buyer’s Agent is your representative throughout the transaction. When you choose a Buyer’s Agent to represent you, they’re going to keep your best outcome in mind. They’re not only legally bound to protect you throughout a real estate transaction, many Buyer’s Agents are also naturally protective of their clients.
Many people are nervous about choosing a Buyer’s Agent because they’re under the impression that they may have to pay an extra fee for their services. However, the fees that the real estate agent and their company earn are set long before you walk in the door. Buyers don’t typically pay their agent directly since the brokerage commission is figured into the price of the house. So cost is not typically an issue for a buyer.
Buyer’s Agents Make Everything Easier for You
Furthermore, your Buyer’s Agent is a lot more than a pencil pusher. They can help make your purchase so much easier in a million ways. Here are just eight of them:
Knowing the market inside and out. There’s only so much you can learn about your housing market from looking at houses online. A Buyer’s Agent can tell you what part of town is poppin’ and which areas are not as popular. Getting in on a little-known up and coming neighborhood can mean a very happy long term financial forecast. Remember, typically Realtors are long time members of the community(s) they service.
Wanting you in the right house, not just any house. Good Realtors will understand their clients wants and needs. Your Buyer’s Agent is going to pound the pavement looking at houses for you while you’re off working or having a life. Then they’ll make a shortlist, saving you time and effort by eliminating houses you’d never buy, and take you shopping! Most will keep at it until the right house appears, no matter how long it takes.
Being a shoulder during the stressful buying process. There’s no better way to say it, buying a house is emotionally draining. It becomes exponentially harder when you add a spouse or partner in the equation. Your Buyer’s Agent has walked lots of people from home shopping to the closing table and will be there for you when you start to panic or the stress is just too much.
Giving you advice on creating a reasonable offer. Your Buyer’s Agent has typically written lots of offers, some that were accepted, some that were not. You can take advantage of their professional experience and ask for help creating an offer that will stick. After all, if you offer too little, the seller may not even respond and if you offer too much, you might kick yourself later.
Protecting you and your rights throughout the buying process. Your Buyer’s Agent is basically a human shield that stands between you and all the worst things in the market. They’re the ones who will point out shoddy workmanship in homes you’re considering, as well as recommending home pros who can fix it. They also go to bat when it’s time to negotiate repairs after your home inspection. With every step, your best interest is their first priority.
Fighting for you if a contract goes south. Hiring a Buyer’s Agent (or a Seller’s Agent when you’re selling, for that matter) is a little like taking out an insurance policy. They help you write your contract and walk you through the buying process, but they also have another vital role to play. If things go sour, they’re going to help you fix it. Buyer’s Agents are the ones helping you weave your way through messy issues, like who should be getting the fridge or whether or not certain items remain with the home.
Spotting value you may not see. You’ve decided on a budget and certain specs you want in your home. Well, maybe you can achieve those goals by knocking down a wall or converting an attic into a bedroom. Oftentimes it is very hard for buyers, especially first time buyers, to see beyond the listed specs of a home. Good Realtors have seen and experienced all kinds of renovation projects, conversions, purchases and sales — and can add a perspective you may not be considering on a home that may not check every box you initially thought you needed.
Serving you even after closing. Buyer’s Agents don’t just drop you once they’ve cashed their checks. They’re around for you no matter what it is that you need help with, real estate-wise. Need the name of a good painter? A place to buy architectural salvage? Your Buyer’s Agent can set you up.
There’s a Lot to Know About Owning a Home…
But even after closing, you don’t have to worry. Not only is your Buyer’s Agent going to be there to help with questions, your HomeKeepr community is waiting with the doors wide open. Here, your real estate agent can recommend home pros from all kinds of specialties. You won’t ever have to worry about the quality of the workmanship they will provide. What a relief!
What is a Buyer’s Agent and How are They Compensated?
A Buyer’s Agent is your representative throughout the transaction. When you choose a Buyer’s Agent to represent you, they’re going to keep your best outcome in mind. They’re not only legally bound to protect you throughout a real estate transaction, many Buyer’s Agents are also naturally protective of their clients.
Many people are nervous about choosing a Buyer’s Agent because they’re under the impression that they may have to pay an extra fee for their services. However, the fees that the real estate agent and their company earn are set long before you walk in the door. Buyers don’t typically pay their agent directly since the brokerage commission is figured into the price of the house. So cost is not typically an issue for a buyer.
Buyer’s Agents Make Everything Easier for You
Furthermore, your Buyer’s Agent is a lot more than a pencil pusher. They can help make your purchase so much easier in a million ways. Here are just eight of them:
Knowing the market inside and out. There’s only so much you can learn about your housing market from looking at houses online. A Buyer’s Agent can tell you what part of town is poppin’ and which areas are not as popular. Getting in on a little-known up and coming neighborhood can mean a very happy long term financial forecast. Remember, typically Realtors are long time members of the community(s) they service.
Wanting you in the right house, not just any house. Good Realtors will understand their clients wants and needs. Your Buyer’s Agent is going to pound the pavement looking at houses for you while you’re off working or having a life. Then they’ll make a shortlist, saving you time and effort by eliminating houses you’d never buy, and take you shopping! Most will keep at it until the right house appears, no matter how long it takes.
Being a shoulder during the stressful buying process. There’s no better way to say it, buying a house is emotionally draining. It becomes exponentially harder when you add a spouse or partner in the equation. Your Buyer’s Agent has walked lots of people from home shopping to the closing table and will be there for you when you start to panic or the stress is just too much.
Giving you advice on creating a reasonable offer. Your Buyer’s Agent has typically written lots of offers, some that were accepted, some that were not. You can take advantage of their professional experience and ask for help creating an offer that will stick. After all, if you offer too little, the seller may not even respond and if you offer too much, you might kick yourself later.
Protecting you and your rights throughout the buying process. Your Buyer’s Agent is basically a human shield that stands between you and all the worst things in the market. They’re the ones who will point out shoddy workmanship in homes you’re considering, as well as recommending home pros who can fix it. They also go to bat when it’s time to negotiate repairs after your home inspection. With every step, your best interest is their first priority.
Fighting for you if a contract goes south. Hiring a Buyer’s Agent (or a Seller’s Agent when you’re selling, for that matter) is a little like taking out an insurance policy. They help you write your contract and walk you through the buying process, but they also have another vital role to play. If things go sour, they’re going to help you fix it. Buyer’s Agents are the ones helping you weave your way through messy issues, like who should be getting the fridge or whether or not certain items remain with the home.
Spotting value you may not see. You’ve decided on a budget and certain specs you want in your home. Well, maybe you can achieve those goals by knocking down a wall or converting an attic into a bedroom. Oftentimes it is very hard for buyers, especially first time buyers, to see beyond the listed specs of a home. Good Realtors have seen and experienced all kinds of renovation projects, conversions, purchases and sales — and can add a perspective you may not be considering on a home that may not check every box you initially thought you needed.
Serving you even after closing. Buyer’s Agents don’t just drop you once they’ve cashed their checks. They’re around for you no matter what it is that you need help with, real estate-wise. Need the name of a good painter? A place to buy architectural salvage? Your Buyer’s Agent can set you up.
There’s a Lot to Know About Owning a Home…
But even after closing, you don’t have to worry. Not only is your Buyer’s Agent going to be there to help with questions, your HomeKeepr community is waiting with the doors wide open. Here, your real estate agent can recommend home pros from all kinds of specialties. You won’t ever have to worry about the quality of the workmanship they will provide. What a relief!
Monday, December 31, 2018
5 things to consider before listing your house as a rental
As the march into winter gets underway, a lot of people are already starting to plan their spring and summer vacations. Oh, they’ll go somewhere sunny, or to a fantastic resort or maybe, if you’re lucky, your house.
They might as well, you’re going to be going on that fantastic cruise after all. Besides, you’ve heard such good things about being an AirBnB host. Your guests will end up paying for most of your trip, it’s totally win-win.
Isn’t it?
Short Term Rentals and You: The Tip of the Iceberg
Using your personal home, in whole or in part, as a short-term rental can certainly help pay the bills, but the truth is that short-term rentals also have huge issues you have to consider. It’s not as easy as listing on AirBnB and hoping for the best. You’ll need to do considerable legwork before getting started, otherwise you may find yourself in a lot of trouble and with expensive problems that eat all your profit.
Still, it can be a solution for some homeowners. Before you list, make sure you’ve considered these five things that might complicate your situation:
Does your mortgage allow you to rent the property without penalty? Many loan programs that help people buy with a low downpayments have restrictions on renting the building. If the short-term rental you’re offering was purchased with you as an owner-occupant, there is likely language in your agreement that spells out what constitutes a breach by turning your house into an “investment property.” Generally, if you rent your property for more than 14 days in a year, you risk having to face the music.
Despite what many websites may say about a lack of punishment for using your home as a rental when it goes against your mortgage agreement, breaching this agreement is serious business. Your mortgage likely has an acceleration clause that explains under what conditions your loan will essentially be revoked, with the entire balance due immediately. If you can’t cough up those hundreds of thousands of dollars, your bank will foreclose.
Find this paperwork, then scour it (and have a friend or three take a look, too) before you move any further. You should have gotten a copy at closing, check the packet the closing company sent you home with.
Do you have the right Insurance coverage? Even if your mortgage lender is ok with your using your place as a vacation rental, you’re still going to need the blessing of your insurance company. Although places like AirBnB claim to offer insurance, the word on the street is that it’s very hard to convince to pay out on claims.
Don’t risk it, talk to your agent about the best way to cover your home and property. You may want to add a comprehensive insurance policy that will cover pretty much anything, including slips and falls, or your agent may advise you simply increase your current coverage.
What do your neighbors think? The number of articles that have been written about neighbors pushed beyond the brink by AirBnB and other short-term rental guests is staggering. Even if your homeowners association and zoning allows for short-term rentals (check with your HOA and planning and zoning), if your neighbors are becoming perturbed because your guests are real jerks, you may have bigger problems on your hands.
Check your zoning, then talk to your neighbors about your goals with the short-term rental, including the timeframe in which you intend to have guests and for how long they’re likely to stay. Starting a conversation with your neighbors about your vacation rental plans before things turn into a dumpster fire can make having an AirBnB-listed property less of a dramatic situation.
It’s also important to check with your municipality about how long a guest can stay before they become a bonafide renter. In many areas, a “guest” automatically turns into a renter if they occupy the property for 30 consecutive days. You’re then assumed to have a month-to-month rental agreement, which means that you will have to actually evict them if they refuse to go quietly.
Can you refinance your property? This is a tricky question, especially with rates on the rise. Still, you may need to refinance at some point, even if it’s not today. The bad news is that many lenders won’t count the AirBnB income you’ve generated when calculating your debt to income ratios.
Luckily, there are a few banks that are capable of dealing with AirBnB income properties. Even if your lender is open to a refinance, you may be forced into a commercial loan because you rent your property out too often, effectively making it an investment property in the eyes of the bank. If you purchased using a loan eligible for a streamline refinance, you may not have to explain the AirBnB stuff at all.
Do you really want a rental? There are so many people out there that believe owning investment property is key to a better retirement, increased wealth and easy peasy income.
Owning rentals, especially short-term rentals, is a lot of hard work. From stocking consumables like soap and toilet paper to keeping things in good repair, doing background checks on applicants and keeping your taxes straight, it’s not a low-stress investment. This is why so many property owners rely on property managers to handle the day-to-day stuff.
At the end of the day, even if your PM is doing everything right, you’ll have a decent work load of your own. If you’re not all in on owning a rental, don’t do it.
AirBnB Team, Assemble!
Getting all your AirBnB ducks in a row should also include finding home pros to help in case there’s an emergency. Don’t stress, you can assemble your whole team, from a commercial insurance agent to plumbers and property management, in just a few clicks. Log into your HomeKeepr community to find the very best, most recommended experts in your area. They’ll help you ensure that your short-term vacation rental experience goes smoothly.
They might as well, you’re going to be going on that fantastic cruise after all. Besides, you’ve heard such good things about being an AirBnB host. Your guests will end up paying for most of your trip, it’s totally win-win.
Isn’t it?
Short Term Rentals and You: The Tip of the Iceberg
Using your personal home, in whole or in part, as a short-term rental can certainly help pay the bills, but the truth is that short-term rentals also have huge issues you have to consider. It’s not as easy as listing on AirBnB and hoping for the best. You’ll need to do considerable legwork before getting started, otherwise you may find yourself in a lot of trouble and with expensive problems that eat all your profit.
Still, it can be a solution for some homeowners. Before you list, make sure you’ve considered these five things that might complicate your situation:
Does your mortgage allow you to rent the property without penalty? Many loan programs that help people buy with a low downpayments have restrictions on renting the building. If the short-term rental you’re offering was purchased with you as an owner-occupant, there is likely language in your agreement that spells out what constitutes a breach by turning your house into an “investment property.” Generally, if you rent your property for more than 14 days in a year, you risk having to face the music.
Despite what many websites may say about a lack of punishment for using your home as a rental when it goes against your mortgage agreement, breaching this agreement is serious business. Your mortgage likely has an acceleration clause that explains under what conditions your loan will essentially be revoked, with the entire balance due immediately. If you can’t cough up those hundreds of thousands of dollars, your bank will foreclose.
Find this paperwork, then scour it (and have a friend or three take a look, too) before you move any further. You should have gotten a copy at closing, check the packet the closing company sent you home with.
Do you have the right Insurance coverage? Even if your mortgage lender is ok with your using your place as a vacation rental, you’re still going to need the blessing of your insurance company. Although places like AirBnB claim to offer insurance, the word on the street is that it’s very hard to convince to pay out on claims.
Don’t risk it, talk to your agent about the best way to cover your home and property. You may want to add a comprehensive insurance policy that will cover pretty much anything, including slips and falls, or your agent may advise you simply increase your current coverage.
What do your neighbors think? The number of articles that have been written about neighbors pushed beyond the brink by AirBnB and other short-term rental guests is staggering. Even if your homeowners association and zoning allows for short-term rentals (check with your HOA and planning and zoning), if your neighbors are becoming perturbed because your guests are real jerks, you may have bigger problems on your hands.
Check your zoning, then talk to your neighbors about your goals with the short-term rental, including the timeframe in which you intend to have guests and for how long they’re likely to stay. Starting a conversation with your neighbors about your vacation rental plans before things turn into a dumpster fire can make having an AirBnB-listed property less of a dramatic situation.
It’s also important to check with your municipality about how long a guest can stay before they become a bonafide renter. In many areas, a “guest” automatically turns into a renter if they occupy the property for 30 consecutive days. You’re then assumed to have a month-to-month rental agreement, which means that you will have to actually evict them if they refuse to go quietly.
Can you refinance your property? This is a tricky question, especially with rates on the rise. Still, you may need to refinance at some point, even if it’s not today. The bad news is that many lenders won’t count the AirBnB income you’ve generated when calculating your debt to income ratios.
Luckily, there are a few banks that are capable of dealing with AirBnB income properties. Even if your lender is open to a refinance, you may be forced into a commercial loan because you rent your property out too often, effectively making it an investment property in the eyes of the bank. If you purchased using a loan eligible for a streamline refinance, you may not have to explain the AirBnB stuff at all.
Do you really want a rental? There are so many people out there that believe owning investment property is key to a better retirement, increased wealth and easy peasy income.
Owning rentals, especially short-term rentals, is a lot of hard work. From stocking consumables like soap and toilet paper to keeping things in good repair, doing background checks on applicants and keeping your taxes straight, it’s not a low-stress investment. This is why so many property owners rely on property managers to handle the day-to-day stuff.
At the end of the day, even if your PM is doing everything right, you’ll have a decent work load of your own. If you’re not all in on owning a rental, don’t do it.
AirBnB Team, Assemble!
Getting all your AirBnB ducks in a row should also include finding home pros to help in case there’s an emergency. Don’t stress, you can assemble your whole team, from a commercial insurance agent to plumbers and property management, in just a few clicks. Log into your HomeKeepr community to find the very best, most recommended experts in your area. They’ll help you ensure that your short-term vacation rental experience goes smoothly.
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Smart plugs and outlets
If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the world of smart homes and home automation, then the fact that smart switches and smart lights exist could not have escaped your notice. But if you’re like a lot of homeowners, you may still be scratching your head trying to figure out how these devices fit into your voice assistant-powered world.
Consider this your introduction to smart plugs, switches and lights.
What Are These Devices For?
Smart plugs, switches and lights are all small players in the greater plan of home automation. For people who come home after dark or even those that leave home overnight for business on the regular, smart automated lighting can deter burglars and make it look like someone is rattling around your place.
Then there’s the other neat trick smart plugs, switches and lights can do: they help people with disabilities live more independently. Although this was not necessarily part of the original intent, as it turns out, smart homes in general are — top to bottom — able to be specifically adapted for each person and their particular disability..
Despite their gadgety nature, smart plugs, switches and lights can literally change the lives of people from every walk of life and every ability level.
Breaking it Down: Plugs, Switches and Lights
Having voice-responsive or WiFi connected plugs, switches and lights may seem like you’ve basically got a set of things that all perform the same function. If you walk around in your house, smart or dumb, and note what sort of items you have plugged in versus what’s on a switch, you can start to see the subtle differences. But, let’s talk pros and cons:
Plugs. Smart plugs are the most flexible of this smart triad. You can plug in a lamp, or a crockpot or even a radio — you can plug anything into a smart plug and when the plug is switched on, the device (if left with the switch on) will power up.
Smart plugs are easy for anyone to install since they generally just plug right into your regular outlets. You don’t need to wire anything or make a mess. Definitely an A+ for ease of use. Many also monitor your energy use, another handy feature. However, many are so big that they take two outlets and turn them into a single smart plug — if you have a lot of things to plug in or a limited number of outlets, this is something to seriously consider before jumping in.
Switches. A smart switch can give you control over a lot of dumb bulbs and command them with one touch (or click). For people with disabilities, this can make it easier to deal with switches that might be across the room or too high for them to be easily reached from a seated position. Smart switches can also be programmed into complex routines for voice assistants like Alexa. You might have a routine that tells Alexa to turn the switch in the kitchen on, kick on the coffee pot and play some mood music in the morning, for example.
As great as smart switches can be for people with disabilities and gadget lovers alike, they can be a challenge to install since they will actually replace existing light switches. If your home wiring lacks a neutral wire, you’ll have to either have an electrician out to run the right lines or hunt down special switches that can run without one. These switches can have major limitations, since they often need specific bulbs in order to work.
Lights. Smart lights, the last on the list but hardly the least, give more people more options, especially when it comes to older homes. There’s no rewiring required, all you have to do is pop the bulb into a socket and poof! Instant smart lighting. Some even have bluetooth speakers built in to create a little extra ambience. What’s not to love?
Well, as it turns out, smart bulbs are only as smart as the people living in the house. If you, say, switch the fixture full of smarts off, suddenly your smart bulb is a regular bulb. You no longer have any control over it, the bulb has been rendered very dumb. And even when switches are left in the “on” position, there can be significant lag between command and execution since most are controlled through another device, like Amazon’s Echo or Google’s Home Assistant.
The Bottom Line for Basic Smart Home Equipment
Although smart plugs, switches and lights still have significant limitations, they’re still worlds ahead of their old-fashioned counterparts when it comes to ease of access and remote control. There will certainly be updated versions that deal with many of the current problems, but until those are released commercially, a homeowner who wants to try out these bits of smart tech should absolutely do so.
How else will you turn on the mixer at precisely 6 AM, kicking off a Rube Goldberg machine that makes breakfast while you shower?
When You Need Help Making Your House Smarter…
Drop in on your HomeKeepr family! The smart home experts in your area have already signed up and are just waiting for your call. Since your Real Estate Pro has recommended the best of them to you, all you have to do is click or call to get your home automation project started.
Consider this your introduction to smart plugs, switches and lights.
What Are These Devices For?
Smart plugs, switches and lights are all small players in the greater plan of home automation. For people who come home after dark or even those that leave home overnight for business on the regular, smart automated lighting can deter burglars and make it look like someone is rattling around your place.
Then there’s the other neat trick smart plugs, switches and lights can do: they help people with disabilities live more independently. Although this was not necessarily part of the original intent, as it turns out, smart homes in general are — top to bottom — able to be specifically adapted for each person and their particular disability..
Despite their gadgety nature, smart plugs, switches and lights can literally change the lives of people from every walk of life and every ability level.
Breaking it Down: Plugs, Switches and Lights
Having voice-responsive or WiFi connected plugs, switches and lights may seem like you’ve basically got a set of things that all perform the same function. If you walk around in your house, smart or dumb, and note what sort of items you have plugged in versus what’s on a switch, you can start to see the subtle differences. But, let’s talk pros and cons:
Plugs. Smart plugs are the most flexible of this smart triad. You can plug in a lamp, or a crockpot or even a radio — you can plug anything into a smart plug and when the plug is switched on, the device (if left with the switch on) will power up.
Smart plugs are easy for anyone to install since they generally just plug right into your regular outlets. You don’t need to wire anything or make a mess. Definitely an A+ for ease of use. Many also monitor your energy use, another handy feature. However, many are so big that they take two outlets and turn them into a single smart plug — if you have a lot of things to plug in or a limited number of outlets, this is something to seriously consider before jumping in.
Switches. A smart switch can give you control over a lot of dumb bulbs and command them with one touch (or click). For people with disabilities, this can make it easier to deal with switches that might be across the room or too high for them to be easily reached from a seated position. Smart switches can also be programmed into complex routines for voice assistants like Alexa. You might have a routine that tells Alexa to turn the switch in the kitchen on, kick on the coffee pot and play some mood music in the morning, for example.
As great as smart switches can be for people with disabilities and gadget lovers alike, they can be a challenge to install since they will actually replace existing light switches. If your home wiring lacks a neutral wire, you’ll have to either have an electrician out to run the right lines or hunt down special switches that can run without one. These switches can have major limitations, since they often need specific bulbs in order to work.
Lights. Smart lights, the last on the list but hardly the least, give more people more options, especially when it comes to older homes. There’s no rewiring required, all you have to do is pop the bulb into a socket and poof! Instant smart lighting. Some even have bluetooth speakers built in to create a little extra ambience. What’s not to love?
Well, as it turns out, smart bulbs are only as smart as the people living in the house. If you, say, switch the fixture full of smarts off, suddenly your smart bulb is a regular bulb. You no longer have any control over it, the bulb has been rendered very dumb. And even when switches are left in the “on” position, there can be significant lag between command and execution since most are controlled through another device, like Amazon’s Echo or Google’s Home Assistant.
The Bottom Line for Basic Smart Home Equipment
Although smart plugs, switches and lights still have significant limitations, they’re still worlds ahead of their old-fashioned counterparts when it comes to ease of access and remote control. There will certainly be updated versions that deal with many of the current problems, but until those are released commercially, a homeowner who wants to try out these bits of smart tech should absolutely do so.
How else will you turn on the mixer at precisely 6 AM, kicking off a Rube Goldberg machine that makes breakfast while you shower?
When You Need Help Making Your House Smarter…
Drop in on your HomeKeepr family! The smart home experts in your area have already signed up and are just waiting for your call. Since your Real Estate Pro has recommended the best of them to you, all you have to do is click or call to get your home automation project started.
Saturday, December 22, 2018
January 2019 Steve & Jack's Home News
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
We hope you and your family are able to enjoy some time away from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season to spend together and reflect on the blessings you have. With the new year comes new beginnings. While we look back and reflect on 2018, we look forward to the new opportunities 2019 will bring.
The Rupps all stayed in town for the holidays and family came to us, which is nice. Steve's sister Michelle started a new job as an activities director for an assisted living community here in Indy and had to work around Christmas. Her husband Steve is an RN and had to work Christmas Eve night and New Year's Eve night. He and Michelle are both really enjoying their jobs.
Thank you to everyone who attended our 6th Annual VIP Client Appreciation Event at the movies on December 1st!!! New this year was our caricature artist who was a big hit!! Thank you for all of your support over the years and we hope that you enjoyed being pampered a bit. We hope to see you again next year for our next movie event.
We also hope to see you at our first Happy Hour of the new year from 5-6:30PM on Wednesday, January 16th at Matt The Miller's. See you there!!!
Kylie and Julia are enjoying some much-needed time off during the holidays and Julia celebrated her birthday on 12/21.
The housing market has taken its customary 'breather' during the holiday season and we expect it to pick back up again in the spring, as we edge closer to a contraction in the market. Mortgage interest rates have held fairly steady recently, but are certainly up from 12-months ago. If you or someone you care about is thinking of buying, selling, or building, please give us a call so we can consult with them about their options and help them make the very best decision for their specific situation.
Here are the latest stats from MIBOR comparing November 2017 to November 2018:
New Listings-UP 4.2% to 2,702 units
Pending Sales-UP 4.8% to 2,491 units
Closed Sales-UP 0.4% to 2,828 units
Median Sales Price-UP 8.6% to $179,000
Average Sales Price-UP 9.3% to $219,288
Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale-UP 0.1% to 94.9%
Total Active Listings Available at Month End-DOWN 5.7% to 7,841 units
Months Supply of Inventory-DOWN 7.4% to 2.5 months
Enjoy this month's January newsletter with some pretty interesting articles you are sure to love. Read it here.
Click here for the most powerful real estate app available
Click here for coupons and discounts at places you shop every day (why not save money?)
Click here for a 1-minute market update video
Click here to read some client testimonials
Click here to learn about our Senior Real Estate Program
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Jack, Kylie, & Julia
We hope you and your family are able to enjoy some time away from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season to spend together and reflect on the blessings you have. With the new year comes new beginnings. While we look back and reflect on 2018, we look forward to the new opportunities 2019 will bring.
The Rupps all stayed in town for the holidays and family came to us, which is nice. Steve's sister Michelle started a new job as an activities director for an assisted living community here in Indy and had to work around Christmas. Her husband Steve is an RN and had to work Christmas Eve night and New Year's Eve night. He and Michelle are both really enjoying their jobs.
Thank you to everyone who attended our 6th Annual VIP Client Appreciation Event at the movies on December 1st!!! New this year was our caricature artist who was a big hit!! Thank you for all of your support over the years and we hope that you enjoyed being pampered a bit. We hope to see you again next year for our next movie event.
We also hope to see you at our first Happy Hour of the new year from 5-6:30PM on Wednesday, January 16th at Matt The Miller's. See you there!!!
Kylie and Julia are enjoying some much-needed time off during the holidays and Julia celebrated her birthday on 12/21.
The housing market has taken its customary 'breather' during the holiday season and we expect it to pick back up again in the spring, as we edge closer to a contraction in the market. Mortgage interest rates have held fairly steady recently, but are certainly up from 12-months ago. If you or someone you care about is thinking of buying, selling, or building, please give us a call so we can consult with them about their options and help them make the very best decision for their specific situation.
Here are the latest stats from MIBOR comparing November 2017 to November 2018:
New Listings-UP 4.2% to 2,702 units
Pending Sales-UP 4.8% to 2,491 units
Closed Sales-UP 0.4% to 2,828 units
Median Sales Price-UP 8.6% to $179,000
Average Sales Price-UP 9.3% to $219,288
Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale-UP 0.1% to 94.9%
Total Active Listings Available at Month End-DOWN 5.7% to 7,841 units
Months Supply of Inventory-DOWN 7.4% to 2.5 months
Enjoy this month's January newsletter with some pretty interesting articles you are sure to love. Read it here.
Click here for the most powerful real estate app available
Click here for coupons and discounts at places you shop every day (why not save money?)
Click here for a 1-minute market update video
Click here to read some client testimonials
Click here to learn about our Senior Real Estate Program
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Jack, Kylie, & Julia
Thursday, December 20, 2018
7 things to consider when considering new windows
The first few years of owning your home mean discovering lots of things about it. Every house is different and some almost seem like they have a personality of their own — which isn’t too surprising since they have literally thousands of individual parts that can combine their own quirks in nearly endless ways. Although plenty of these combos create something beautiful, it’s never a guarantee.
Take your windows, for example. As your home shifts and ages, your windows can end up being a huge source of drafts and thermal loss. Sure, you can weatherstrip them and recapture some of that warmth, but ultimately, window technology will leave you behind if you put off replacing those windows for too long.
Windows: Here’s What You Need to Know
Shopping for windows is kind of like shopping for a car. It’s a big investment, you may not know a whole lot about what you’re buying, but you absolutely know that you need to replace your old one(s). You don’t have to go it alone, though. You can take this list of seven things to consider and consult it before pulling out your Visa or Mastercard.
Window configuration and features. Not only do windows come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, they also come with lots of different features. Simply matching the new windows to those of your existing ones is generally a good bet, but features that newer windows offer, like double hung windows with tilt-in glass sections, can give you added functionality inside the original framework.
Frame materials. Depending on your window budget, you may have a pretty wide selection of materials to choose between. Vinyl and composite windows tend to be popular choices since they neither sweat nor require a lot of maintenance throughout their lifetimes, but other materials like aluminum and wood are commonly used in frames, too.
U-Factor: The U-Factor tells you just how well the window insulates by reducing the rate of heat transfer. You’ll find windows with U-Factors from about 0.25 to 1.25 Btu/h-ft²-°F.. Choose the lowest value that fits reasonably into your budget because the lower the value, the better it’ll insulate.
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC): Like the U-Factor, the SHGC is a measurement of how well a window insulates. But this time, we’re talking about how hot the sun makes the window and then how much of that transfers into your home. SHGC, in short, is how well the window blocks incoming heat. Interestingly enough, both ends of this figure can be of use to different kinds of homeowners. If you own a house that uses passive solar heat, you’re going to want to take advantage of this property and go for the highest number you can find (on a scale of 0 to 1). Homeowners with more traditional setups will want the lowest number their money will buy.
Air Leakage (AL). Those drafty drafts are often caused by a property known as air leakage. Windows are tested for just how much air passes through the joints while in the factory. The less air leakage, the better, obviously. Industry standards require an AL at or below 0.3 cf-m/ft².
Visible Transmittance (VT). Because windows are full of neat and precise measures these days, it’s possible to have a window that blocks outside heat without blocking all that precious light. The visible transmittance is the figure that tells you just how bright your room will be after this window goes in. A higher number (on a 0 to 1 scale) means more light.
Condensation Resistance. Although it’s a much smaller concern than the four performance ratings above, condensation resistance should be taken into consideration before you pony up the window dough. Measured on a scale of 0 to 100, the highest figures resist condensation better than those lower down.
What Do Windows Cost?
Of all the possible non-answers to this question there could be, this might be the worst. Windows cost varies widely by size, material, insulating factor and number needed for your home. As aggravating an answer as that may be, a quick flip through your favorite home improvement store catalog will back it up.
A joint report from the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of the Remodeling Industry estimates that replacing old windows with new vinyl windows will run a homeowner around $18,975 or about $35,000 for wood windows.
Since this report is more about return on investment, though, the additional data provided indicates that your money is well-spent: 79 percent of the cost is recovered at the sale for vinyl windows and 57 percent of the cost of wooden windows comes back to your pocket.
Need Help Choosing and Installing Those New Windows?
Don’t worry, your HomeKeepr family has it covered. Just log in and check out the window installers that your Real Estate Pro has recommended for you! You know you can trust them because your Real Estate Pro has already built a solid relationship on your behalf. They’ll even help you pick your new windows if you can’t decide which to buy.
Take your windows, for example. As your home shifts and ages, your windows can end up being a huge source of drafts and thermal loss. Sure, you can weatherstrip them and recapture some of that warmth, but ultimately, window technology will leave you behind if you put off replacing those windows for too long.
Windows: Here’s What You Need to Know
Shopping for windows is kind of like shopping for a car. It’s a big investment, you may not know a whole lot about what you’re buying, but you absolutely know that you need to replace your old one(s). You don’t have to go it alone, though. You can take this list of seven things to consider and consult it before pulling out your Visa or Mastercard.
Window configuration and features. Not only do windows come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, they also come with lots of different features. Simply matching the new windows to those of your existing ones is generally a good bet, but features that newer windows offer, like double hung windows with tilt-in glass sections, can give you added functionality inside the original framework.
Frame materials. Depending on your window budget, you may have a pretty wide selection of materials to choose between. Vinyl and composite windows tend to be popular choices since they neither sweat nor require a lot of maintenance throughout their lifetimes, but other materials like aluminum and wood are commonly used in frames, too.
U-Factor: The U-Factor tells you just how well the window insulates by reducing the rate of heat transfer. You’ll find windows with U-Factors from about 0.25 to 1.25 Btu/h-ft²-°F.. Choose the lowest value that fits reasonably into your budget because the lower the value, the better it’ll insulate.
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC): Like the U-Factor, the SHGC is a measurement of how well a window insulates. But this time, we’re talking about how hot the sun makes the window and then how much of that transfers into your home. SHGC, in short, is how well the window blocks incoming heat. Interestingly enough, both ends of this figure can be of use to different kinds of homeowners. If you own a house that uses passive solar heat, you’re going to want to take advantage of this property and go for the highest number you can find (on a scale of 0 to 1). Homeowners with more traditional setups will want the lowest number their money will buy.
Air Leakage (AL). Those drafty drafts are often caused by a property known as air leakage. Windows are tested for just how much air passes through the joints while in the factory. The less air leakage, the better, obviously. Industry standards require an AL at or below 0.3 cf-m/ft².
Visible Transmittance (VT). Because windows are full of neat and precise measures these days, it’s possible to have a window that blocks outside heat without blocking all that precious light. The visible transmittance is the figure that tells you just how bright your room will be after this window goes in. A higher number (on a 0 to 1 scale) means more light.
Condensation Resistance. Although it’s a much smaller concern than the four performance ratings above, condensation resistance should be taken into consideration before you pony up the window dough. Measured on a scale of 0 to 100, the highest figures resist condensation better than those lower down.
What Do Windows Cost?
Of all the possible non-answers to this question there could be, this might be the worst. Windows cost varies widely by size, material, insulating factor and number needed for your home. As aggravating an answer as that may be, a quick flip through your favorite home improvement store catalog will back it up.
A joint report from the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of the Remodeling Industry estimates that replacing old windows with new vinyl windows will run a homeowner around $18,975 or about $35,000 for wood windows.
Since this report is more about return on investment, though, the additional data provided indicates that your money is well-spent: 79 percent of the cost is recovered at the sale for vinyl windows and 57 percent of the cost of wooden windows comes back to your pocket.
Need Help Choosing and Installing Those New Windows?
Don’t worry, your HomeKeepr family has it covered. Just log in and check out the window installers that your Real Estate Pro has recommended for you! You know you can trust them because your Real Estate Pro has already built a solid relationship on your behalf. They’ll even help you pick your new windows if you can’t decide which to buy.
Monday, December 17, 2018
Sewer line repair for homeowners
Your basic household drain pipe is a fairly simple device. It has one job: to take liquids away to the sewer, where water treatment experts somehow magically turn those contaminated fluids into clean ones again. The circle of inside plumbing is really kind of magical. Until, of course, something causes the system to grind to a halt.
If your sewer isn’t sewering, you’ve got big problems.
Signs Your Sewer Line Needs Attention
When your sewer line is working, you barely notice it. But when things start to go wrong, well, life gets pretty interesting. A failing sewer line can be a huge mess and a big expense that just gets worse the longer you ignore it. This isn’t a problem you can handle yourself, you will need an expert to help.
Watch for these signs if you suspect there may be a problem with the sewer line:
Gurgling noises in your pipes
Water backing up in the lowest drain in your home.
Slower drainage house-wide.
Water from one drain backing up into others.
If these things happen occasionally, you may not have a real problem, but it’s still a good idea to call a plumber to check out the sewer line to ensure that any issues are addressed before they become nightmares.
Causes of Sewer Line Failure
Sewer lines fail for many different reasons, often depending heavily on where your property is located. For example, you’d be more likely to have sewer problems due to ground shifting in an area prone to earthquakes. That’s just one cause of line failure, though. Here are some others:
Material Failure. Although there are some clay sewer lines from Ancient Rome still intact and theoretically functional, your sewer lines are probably going to reach a tipping point where the materials begin to erode, corrode or weaken until they fail entirely. Modern materials like PVC may be able to outlive older pipes made of cast iron or bituminized fiber, but even PVC can and will fail eventually.
Tree Roots. If you have trees and you have a sewer line, you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Large trees often have a very wide root zone that can eventually penetrate anything in the way. Roots in sewer lines is a very common issue in areas hospitable to large trees. If this is the heart of the matter, you may find that you only have intermittent problems with the line backing up. You still need to call a plumber.
Shifting Earth. As previously mentioned, earthquakes and other natural events that cause the ground to shift can also cause your sewer line to shift. Even very heavy rains could result in pipe shifting, depending on your local soil makeup. A pipe that has shifted may end up with too little slope to carry water reliably to the sewer.
Crushed Pipes. Although it’s uncommon, you can actually crush a sewer pipe that’s installed and actively functioning. Again, the soil makeup matters here, but you should never drive heavy machinery over your sewer lines — that extra weight is felt below the surface, too.
These are the most common causes for sewer line failure. Other very rare situations do occur and ultimately, the only way to be sure what’s going on with your sewer line is to send a camera inside to look around.
Replacing Your Sewer Line is a Big Deal
If your plumber determines that your sewer line has failed, it’s going to be a big deal. There’s no sugar coating this. Depending on what type of solution you and your plumber decide on, you may have deep trenches dug across your yard and a lot of chaos until the work is complete. However, at the end of the process, you’ll know your sewer line is in working order, so you’ve got that going for you.
There are two main methods that are used to repair sewer lines: total replacement of the old line (or the part that has failed) and relining.
Total Replacement: The Scorched Earth Approach
Having a brand new sewer pipe is worth a lot of agony, especially when you consider that most plumbers have the equipment to dig up your old sewer line, inspect it and replace the damaged bits. This is generally a less expensive method of sewer line repair, but it comes with a lot of hassle and mess.
Relining the Pipe
When your sewer line issues are minimal and involve cracked or root-invaded sections of pipe, it’s possible to reline the pipe using one of several methods, including cure-in-place and pull-in-place pipes. Essentially, what your plumber will do is recoat the inside of your sewer line with a stabilizing material. Digging is minimal, but the price is often substantially higher and not every plumber has the training and equipment to perform this task.
Paying the Plumbing Bill
Many homeowners are under the impression that the sewer line coming from their homes is the municipality’s responsibility. Those people get a very rude awakening when they learn that they are actually footing the bill. The city will absolutely fix anything going wrong in the main, a larger sewer pipe that your whole neighborhood drains into. But any drain lines from your house to the junction of your sewer line and the main sewer line is on you.
It’s a big purchase, no matter how you slice it. Right now, the national average cost for repairing a sewer line is about $2,570, with a typical range running from $1,071 to $4,078. What you’ll actually pay is based on how much work it takes to get to your sewer line, as well as the remedy you choose, from partial replacement to cast-in-place pipe.
Where Do I Find a Plumber I Can Trust?
It can be difficult to know if the plumber you’ve put your faith in is as good as they claim. But, when a friend recommends a plumber because of their experience working with them, you know that’s a person you can believe in. This is the philosophy behind everything we do at HomeKeepr. Just log in, ask your community who to call for the type of sewer repair you want to have done and before you know it, that failed line is brand spanking new and flowing like a champ!
If your sewer isn’t sewering, you’ve got big problems.
Signs Your Sewer Line Needs Attention
When your sewer line is working, you barely notice it. But when things start to go wrong, well, life gets pretty interesting. A failing sewer line can be a huge mess and a big expense that just gets worse the longer you ignore it. This isn’t a problem you can handle yourself, you will need an expert to help.
Watch for these signs if you suspect there may be a problem with the sewer line:
Gurgling noises in your pipes
Water backing up in the lowest drain in your home.
Slower drainage house-wide.
Water from one drain backing up into others.
If these things happen occasionally, you may not have a real problem, but it’s still a good idea to call a plumber to check out the sewer line to ensure that any issues are addressed before they become nightmares.
Causes of Sewer Line Failure
Sewer lines fail for many different reasons, often depending heavily on where your property is located. For example, you’d be more likely to have sewer problems due to ground shifting in an area prone to earthquakes. That’s just one cause of line failure, though. Here are some others:
Material Failure. Although there are some clay sewer lines from Ancient Rome still intact and theoretically functional, your sewer lines are probably going to reach a tipping point where the materials begin to erode, corrode or weaken until they fail entirely. Modern materials like PVC may be able to outlive older pipes made of cast iron or bituminized fiber, but even PVC can and will fail eventually.
Tree Roots. If you have trees and you have a sewer line, you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Large trees often have a very wide root zone that can eventually penetrate anything in the way. Roots in sewer lines is a very common issue in areas hospitable to large trees. If this is the heart of the matter, you may find that you only have intermittent problems with the line backing up. You still need to call a plumber.
Shifting Earth. As previously mentioned, earthquakes and other natural events that cause the ground to shift can also cause your sewer line to shift. Even very heavy rains could result in pipe shifting, depending on your local soil makeup. A pipe that has shifted may end up with too little slope to carry water reliably to the sewer.
Crushed Pipes. Although it’s uncommon, you can actually crush a sewer pipe that’s installed and actively functioning. Again, the soil makeup matters here, but you should never drive heavy machinery over your sewer lines — that extra weight is felt below the surface, too.
These are the most common causes for sewer line failure. Other very rare situations do occur and ultimately, the only way to be sure what’s going on with your sewer line is to send a camera inside to look around.
Replacing Your Sewer Line is a Big Deal
If your plumber determines that your sewer line has failed, it’s going to be a big deal. There’s no sugar coating this. Depending on what type of solution you and your plumber decide on, you may have deep trenches dug across your yard and a lot of chaos until the work is complete. However, at the end of the process, you’ll know your sewer line is in working order, so you’ve got that going for you.
There are two main methods that are used to repair sewer lines: total replacement of the old line (or the part that has failed) and relining.
Total Replacement: The Scorched Earth Approach
Having a brand new sewer pipe is worth a lot of agony, especially when you consider that most plumbers have the equipment to dig up your old sewer line, inspect it and replace the damaged bits. This is generally a less expensive method of sewer line repair, but it comes with a lot of hassle and mess.
Relining the Pipe
When your sewer line issues are minimal and involve cracked or root-invaded sections of pipe, it’s possible to reline the pipe using one of several methods, including cure-in-place and pull-in-place pipes. Essentially, what your plumber will do is recoat the inside of your sewer line with a stabilizing material. Digging is minimal, but the price is often substantially higher and not every plumber has the training and equipment to perform this task.
Paying the Plumbing Bill
Many homeowners are under the impression that the sewer line coming from their homes is the municipality’s responsibility. Those people get a very rude awakening when they learn that they are actually footing the bill. The city will absolutely fix anything going wrong in the main, a larger sewer pipe that your whole neighborhood drains into. But any drain lines from your house to the junction of your sewer line and the main sewer line is on you.
It’s a big purchase, no matter how you slice it. Right now, the national average cost for repairing a sewer line is about $2,570, with a typical range running from $1,071 to $4,078. What you’ll actually pay is based on how much work it takes to get to your sewer line, as well as the remedy you choose, from partial replacement to cast-in-place pipe.
Where Do I Find a Plumber I Can Trust?
It can be difficult to know if the plumber you’ve put your faith in is as good as they claim. But, when a friend recommends a plumber because of their experience working with them, you know that’s a person you can believe in. This is the philosophy behind everything we do at HomeKeepr. Just log in, ask your community who to call for the type of sewer repair you want to have done and before you know it, that failed line is brand spanking new and flowing like a champ!
Friday, November 30, 2018
December Steve & Jack's Home News
Happy Holidays!!
We hope that you had a fun and restful Thanksgiving spent with friends and family and are looking forward to more time with friends and family this Christmas season. While this can be a hectic and stressful time, to be sure, it also can be one of time spent reconnecting with friends and family and, hopefully, enjoying some much-needed time away from work.
Hopefully, you received our calendar in the mail over the past week or two and will enjoy it throughout 2019. If you didn't receive one and would like to be on our list for next year, please let us know and we will add you to our list.
For Thanksgiving this year, Steve and his family had Jack and Mary Anne over for dinner and they enjoyed being able to relax and Mary Anne enjoyed not having to cook a big dinner. Michelle and her family enjoyed Thanksgiving at family in Louisville. Kylie and Julia both enjoyed Thanksgiving with family here in Indy. We hope you were able to enjoy some time with family and friends as well.
Our family will be staying in Indy for Christmas and Brigid's family will be coming into to town to celebrate with us. Ana & Tali are looking forward to seeing everyone and taking a break from studying for a few weeks. Tali starts her gymnastics competition season mid-December and will be competing a level up from last week. We are anxious to see how this year goes competing at a higher level. Ana is in her busy season with performances with her school's show choir and many performances with The Indianapolis Children's Choir. If you haven't ever attended their Angels' Sing performance, consider making time to attend. It is nothing short of remarkable and will absolutely put you in the spirit of the season!
Due to the holidays, don't forget that we will NOT be having a December Happy Hour. We will pick back up again in January on the 16th from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's. Look for your evite to confirm your attendance. If you aren't on our evite list, please let us know and we would be happy to add you!
Finally, we hope we will see you TOMORROW for our 6th Annual VIP Client Appreciation Event at the movies. We have rented a theater at Hamilton Town Center again and will be showing Wreck It Ralph 2. We have a FEW seats remaining, so if you would like to attend, please e-mail Kylie at Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com. The fun starts at 8:30AM and the movie starts promptly at 9:30AM. We will have a photo op stop, a caricature artist, food, and fun. We hope to see you there!!!
As for the market, it has definitely cooled off from a few months ago. It is still very strong, but houses are sitting on the market much longer, some for more than 90-days due to very weak buyer activity. We expect the market to pick back up again in the spring (around March 1st or so) for another strong year. Here are some recent housing stats from MIBOR comparing October 2018 to October 2017:
New listings-UP 13.4% to 3,707 units
Pending sales-UP 9.4% to 3,017 units
Closed sales-UP 1.7% to 3,196 units
Median sales price-UP 6.4% to $174,500
Average sales price-UP 2.7% to $206,681
Percent of original list price received at sale-UP 0.3% to 95.4%
Total active listings available at month end-DOWN 8.0% to 8,339 units
Months supply of inventory-DOWN 10.0% to 2.7 months
Please enjoy this month's newsletter, which can be found here
Click here to watch a 1-minute video on a real estate update
Click here to read a few testimonials from happy clients
Click here to download the most powerful real estate app available
Click here for coupons and discount at places you shop every day. Why not save a few $$$?
We are honored to announce that we were recently profiled in Top Agent Magazine! You can read the article here.
Steve, Jack, Kylie, & Julia all say 'thank you!' for inviting us to help you and those about whom you care! Without you, we couldn't do what we love. We look forward to helping you again next year! Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!!
Your friends in real estate,
Steve, Jack, Kylie, & Julia
We hope that you had a fun and restful Thanksgiving spent with friends and family and are looking forward to more time with friends and family this Christmas season. While this can be a hectic and stressful time, to be sure, it also can be one of time spent reconnecting with friends and family and, hopefully, enjoying some much-needed time away from work.
Hopefully, you received our calendar in the mail over the past week or two and will enjoy it throughout 2019. If you didn't receive one and would like to be on our list for next year, please let us know and we will add you to our list.
For Thanksgiving this year, Steve and his family had Jack and Mary Anne over for dinner and they enjoyed being able to relax and Mary Anne enjoyed not having to cook a big dinner. Michelle and her family enjoyed Thanksgiving at family in Louisville. Kylie and Julia both enjoyed Thanksgiving with family here in Indy. We hope you were able to enjoy some time with family and friends as well.
Our family will be staying in Indy for Christmas and Brigid's family will be coming into to town to celebrate with us. Ana & Tali are looking forward to seeing everyone and taking a break from studying for a few weeks. Tali starts her gymnastics competition season mid-December and will be competing a level up from last week. We are anxious to see how this year goes competing at a higher level. Ana is in her busy season with performances with her school's show choir and many performances with The Indianapolis Children's Choir. If you haven't ever attended their Angels' Sing performance, consider making time to attend. It is nothing short of remarkable and will absolutely put you in the spirit of the season!
Due to the holidays, don't forget that we will NOT be having a December Happy Hour. We will pick back up again in January on the 16th from 5-6:30PM at Matt The Miller's. Look for your evite to confirm your attendance. If you aren't on our evite list, please let us know and we would be happy to add you!
Finally, we hope we will see you TOMORROW for our 6th Annual VIP Client Appreciation Event at the movies. We have rented a theater at Hamilton Town Center again and will be showing Wreck It Ralph 2. We have a FEW seats remaining, so if you would like to attend, please e-mail Kylie at Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com. The fun starts at 8:30AM and the movie starts promptly at 9:30AM. We will have a photo op stop, a caricature artist, food, and fun. We hope to see you there!!!
As for the market, it has definitely cooled off from a few months ago. It is still very strong, but houses are sitting on the market much longer, some for more than 90-days due to very weak buyer activity. We expect the market to pick back up again in the spring (around March 1st or so) for another strong year. Here are some recent housing stats from MIBOR comparing October 2018 to October 2017:
New listings-UP 13.4% to 3,707 units
Pending sales-UP 9.4% to 3,017 units
Closed sales-UP 1.7% to 3,196 units
Median sales price-UP 6.4% to $174,500
Average sales price-UP 2.7% to $206,681
Percent of original list price received at sale-UP 0.3% to 95.4%
Total active listings available at month end-DOWN 8.0% to 8,339 units
Months supply of inventory-DOWN 10.0% to 2.7 months
Please enjoy this month's newsletter, which can be found here
Click here to watch a 1-minute video on a real estate update
Click here to read a few testimonials from happy clients
Click here to download the most powerful real estate app available
Click here for coupons and discount at places you shop every day. Why not save a few $$$?
We are honored to announce that we were recently profiled in Top Agent Magazine! You can read the article here.
Steve, Jack, Kylie, & Julia all say 'thank you!' for inviting us to help you and those about whom you care! Without you, we couldn't do what we love. We look forward to helping you again next year! Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!!
Your friends in real estate,
Steve, Jack, Kylie, & Julia
Thursday, November 29, 2018
7 Things to Do to Your Home Before Winter
Along with the provocative spending and lavish feasts that are hallmarks of the holiday season also comes the cold, the ice and the snow. Like those extra three helpings of stuffing at Aunt Linda’s have just derailed your diet, the coming weather is capable of causing significant damage (and swelling) to your home if you aren’t prepared.
Winterizing means a lot of different things to people in different locations. For example, in New Jersey, you really need to go full bore and ensure anything that might be holding water is emptied, heated or insulated. In Texas, though, you might not even realize winter has come. With that in mind, take a long look at these seven things and check them all before the first freeze comes (or do it right now if it’s already freezing!)
The Big Seven Winter-Ready Checkboxes
Winter comes with a myriad of hazards, from black ice and deep snow to blowing winds in the negative digits. Please make sure that you’re wearing proper winter weather gear before you attempt to get your house ready for the cold. After all, you’re not going to be able to get through the list if you freeze to the ground.
#1. Protect Plants, Trim Trees and Empty Sprinklers
Even if your plants are hearty as they can be, it’s nice for them to have a fresh pile of mulch to hunker down in during the cold season. Apply two to four inches of an organic mulch over the roots and at the base of any plants that are still above ground, then pull it slightly away from the plants themselves so there’s a little moat in between. Herbaceous plants that die back and the pop up in the spring should be covered with just as much mulch to keep them from freezing.
While you’re out there, trim any overhanging branches from your trees so that accumulating ice and strong winds won’t bring them down onto your house, car or garage. If you have a sprinkler system and haven’t emptied it yet, now is the time to disconnect the water and blow it out according to your system’s design.
#2. Check Your Gutters (Again).
When the autumn leaves finished falling, you cleaned your gutters out (you did, right?), but as really frigid weather settles in, you need to check them one last time. Gutters are one of the big causes of ice dams, which can cause water to back up into your attic. This is all bad stuff if it happens over and over, so to be safe, check those gutters again and clean out anything you missed or that has accumulated since your last round of cleaning.
#3. Cover Your Outside Faucets
Pop into the nearest home improvement store and grab a styrofoam cover for each of your outdoor faucets, even if they’re frost free. You should have already removed any hoses as soon as the nighttime temperatures started to dip, so now it’s just a matter of putting a little hat on them. Some people wrap their faucets with pipe insulation, but for the long run, the styrofoam caps can’t be beat. They’re easy to install, hold tight all winter and are easy to store until the next year.
#4. Wrap Your Pipes
Homes with crawl spaces are especially susceptible to frozen pipes during the winter. First, make sure your foundation vents are closed to keep cold wind from blowing into the space, then get a little more hands on with the pipes. Anything on an outside wall should be wrapped with pipe insulation (the more popular types look like small diameter pool noodles), pipes with chronic freezing problems should have heat tape installed. Frozen pipes are no fun for you from a convenience angle, but when they go a bit further and burst it’s kind of a big deal.
#5. Caulk and Weatherstrip Doors and Windows
Go around your windows and doors with a caulk knife and remove any caulk that’s loose or dried up, then grab the caulk gun and go like mad, making sure to push the new caulk into the opening as you dispense it. You should angle the tip so you can move across a section of trim with a single motion to create an uninterrupted bead.
This is also the right time to check your weatherstripping. Whether it’s between a door and the jamb or helping the windows to seal properly, these are major entry points for cold air and drafty drafts. When you’re replacing weatherstripping, take a sample of the type you need with you to the hardware store because the options are pretty impressive.
#6. Have You Had That Chimney Checked?
Some websites will advocate for you to check your own chimney before using it in the fall or winter, but that’s not the kind of advice to give to a person. Sure, you can do your own chimney inspection. You can also do your own root canals, but it’s really a bad idea. A quick check by a chimney sweep is an affordable alternative to a chimney fire. The thing is that what you can see from the hearth isn’t much, a lot of chimney fires start further up — you might not even know you’ve had one.
If you have a wood stove with a double or triple walled flue, you may have better access to the entire length of the chimney, but don’t ever take a chance on anything that burns as hot as a wood stove or fireplace. This is one item in your house that can have disastrous results if you don’t treat it with respect.
#7. Your Second Home
If you own another house, even if it’s in a warmer climate, this is a good time to give it a lot of thought. It’s going to need similar care — location appropriate, of course. Winterizing the plumbing in a house is a DIY trick you can pull yourself, or you can hire it done and know that you didn’t forget to do something important. When DIYing, make sure to test all the shut-off valves as you go. This is a good time to replace them since you’ll also be turning the water off at the main.
Winter is Coming….
It doesn’t matter if you’re not ready for winter, it’s coming anyway. So this weekend, get out there and prep your property for the cold, sharp winds, sheets of ice that seem to come out of nowhere and all the snow. Then again, you can also call a home pro or two in to help out with your winter laundry list — just log into HomeKeepr and you’ll find chimney sweeps, plumbers, landscapers and plenty of other experts ready and willing to help. Your Realtor recommended them just for you, so you know they have to be good!
Winterizing means a lot of different things to people in different locations. For example, in New Jersey, you really need to go full bore and ensure anything that might be holding water is emptied, heated or insulated. In Texas, though, you might not even realize winter has come. With that in mind, take a long look at these seven things and check them all before the first freeze comes (or do it right now if it’s already freezing!)
The Big Seven Winter-Ready Checkboxes
Winter comes with a myriad of hazards, from black ice and deep snow to blowing winds in the negative digits. Please make sure that you’re wearing proper winter weather gear before you attempt to get your house ready for the cold. After all, you’re not going to be able to get through the list if you freeze to the ground.
#1. Protect Plants, Trim Trees and Empty Sprinklers
Even if your plants are hearty as they can be, it’s nice for them to have a fresh pile of mulch to hunker down in during the cold season. Apply two to four inches of an organic mulch over the roots and at the base of any plants that are still above ground, then pull it slightly away from the plants themselves so there’s a little moat in between. Herbaceous plants that die back and the pop up in the spring should be covered with just as much mulch to keep them from freezing.
While you’re out there, trim any overhanging branches from your trees so that accumulating ice and strong winds won’t bring them down onto your house, car or garage. If you have a sprinkler system and haven’t emptied it yet, now is the time to disconnect the water and blow it out according to your system’s design.
#2. Check Your Gutters (Again).
When the autumn leaves finished falling, you cleaned your gutters out (you did, right?), but as really frigid weather settles in, you need to check them one last time. Gutters are one of the big causes of ice dams, which can cause water to back up into your attic. This is all bad stuff if it happens over and over, so to be safe, check those gutters again and clean out anything you missed or that has accumulated since your last round of cleaning.
#3. Cover Your Outside Faucets
Pop into the nearest home improvement store and grab a styrofoam cover for each of your outdoor faucets, even if they’re frost free. You should have already removed any hoses as soon as the nighttime temperatures started to dip, so now it’s just a matter of putting a little hat on them. Some people wrap their faucets with pipe insulation, but for the long run, the styrofoam caps can’t be beat. They’re easy to install, hold tight all winter and are easy to store until the next year.
#4. Wrap Your Pipes
Homes with crawl spaces are especially susceptible to frozen pipes during the winter. First, make sure your foundation vents are closed to keep cold wind from blowing into the space, then get a little more hands on with the pipes. Anything on an outside wall should be wrapped with pipe insulation (the more popular types look like small diameter pool noodles), pipes with chronic freezing problems should have heat tape installed. Frozen pipes are no fun for you from a convenience angle, but when they go a bit further and burst it’s kind of a big deal.
#5. Caulk and Weatherstrip Doors and Windows
Go around your windows and doors with a caulk knife and remove any caulk that’s loose or dried up, then grab the caulk gun and go like mad, making sure to push the new caulk into the opening as you dispense it. You should angle the tip so you can move across a section of trim with a single motion to create an uninterrupted bead.
This is also the right time to check your weatherstripping. Whether it’s between a door and the jamb or helping the windows to seal properly, these are major entry points for cold air and drafty drafts. When you’re replacing weatherstripping, take a sample of the type you need with you to the hardware store because the options are pretty impressive.
#6. Have You Had That Chimney Checked?
Some websites will advocate for you to check your own chimney before using it in the fall or winter, but that’s not the kind of advice to give to a person. Sure, you can do your own chimney inspection. You can also do your own root canals, but it’s really a bad idea. A quick check by a chimney sweep is an affordable alternative to a chimney fire. The thing is that what you can see from the hearth isn’t much, a lot of chimney fires start further up — you might not even know you’ve had one.
If you have a wood stove with a double or triple walled flue, you may have better access to the entire length of the chimney, but don’t ever take a chance on anything that burns as hot as a wood stove or fireplace. This is one item in your house that can have disastrous results if you don’t treat it with respect.
#7. Your Second Home
If you own another house, even if it’s in a warmer climate, this is a good time to give it a lot of thought. It’s going to need similar care — location appropriate, of course. Winterizing the plumbing in a house is a DIY trick you can pull yourself, or you can hire it done and know that you didn’t forget to do something important. When DIYing, make sure to test all the shut-off valves as you go. This is a good time to replace them since you’ll also be turning the water off at the main.
Winter is Coming….
It doesn’t matter if you’re not ready for winter, it’s coming anyway. So this weekend, get out there and prep your property for the cold, sharp winds, sheets of ice that seem to come out of nowhere and all the snow. Then again, you can also call a home pro or two in to help out with your winter laundry list — just log into HomeKeepr and you’ll find chimney sweeps, plumbers, landscapers and plenty of other experts ready and willing to help. Your Realtor recommended them just for you, so you know they have to be good!
Monday, November 26, 2018
Table saw safety tips
Interestingly enough, if you’re looking for images of table saws in any of the places where you get that sort of thing, you’ll see a lot of things that scream “hold my beer!” Although some are certainly stock photos being stock photos, there are people every day making the same kind of mistakes as the people in these stock photos. Here’s an example:
Almost certainly, plenty of corresponding people in real life have said one of these two things: “I’ve done it like this for the last 20 years and never had an issue.” or “OUCH! There went my finger.”
For your own safety, and the safety of those around you, it’s time for a talk about table saws and how to use them correctly. They can be really dangerous, they can be really useful — you just have to know what you’re doing and how to do it safely.
What is a Table Saw Made For?
Beginning DIYers often assume that a saw is a saw and a hammer is a hammer. The truth is a little less simple. Sure, you can cut anything you want with a table saw, but you may not like the results. Or, you may be ok with the results, but your methodology is going to earn you a nickname like “Stubs.” And, Stubs, that’s not a thing you want.
Table saws are at their best when they’re ripping or crosscutting.
Ripping is when you take a board and you feed it through the saw the long way, so that you get a board with a custom width. For example, you have a two-by-four and want it to be more of a one-and-a-half-by-four. You’d set the fence, set the blade height, turn on the saw and slowly and carefully feed the lumber through until you reached the end. (Please note, always feed material into a table saw using a push stick or other device that will keep your hands as far away from danger as possible)
Crosscutting means taking that same board, but cutting the length down (feed it in the short way). You’ll want to use a miter gauge for this move. In this situation, you’re removing two feet from an eight foot long stud, or what have you. It’s really tempting to push these through by hand, but don’t do it!! The aftermath could be pretty horrifying.
Additional tools can be added to a table saw to allow it to cut different kinds of joints and angles, like what you might need for crown molding, but there are also more specific and less dangerous tools that can do the same job. Bottom line? A table saw is not to be trusted, else it nips off your fingernails.
Safety First with Table Saws
The most common injuries caused by table saws, a whopping 85 percent, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health, are to the fingers and thumbs. Most frequently, those are cuts, but 10 to 15 percent of the sampled population had digits amputated by their favorite tool. That blade rotates at around 4,000 RPM, it would go through a finger like a hot knife through butter.
Now, that being said, safety, safety, safety. Below are tips you should not ignore:
1. The safety guard is there for your safety. It’s not a perfect solution and it won’t protect you if you feed your hand straight into the blade, but the safety guard is there to help minimize the danger to you from your table saw. Many, many, many homeowners take the blade guard off because it’s easy to get a lot of dust up inside of it, making it hard to see what’s going on at the blade level. Instead of taking it off and leaving it off, though, remove the blade guard and clean it when you’re done using the machine. If it’s plastic (which most are), just hose it out and leave it to dry for your next project.
2. Goggles can save your eyeballs. Although less common injuries than those to fingers, hands and arms, your table saw can hurt your eyes, too. Always wear goggles when using a table saw, even if it has a dust collector attached. You never know when wood will do something squirrely and end up being sort of flung into your eye. You’re closer to the blade than you think.
3. Always use push sticks and other material feeding tools. Collect up your push sticks and miter gauges now and know where they are at all times. Never ever feed material into the blade with your bare hands (or even gloved ones, really). This makes it far too easy for the blade to cut the board and the the operator, which would be you. This is why the photo at the top of this article is so incredibly dangerous. Stubs didn’t think it was a big deal, though. Not until after, anyway.
4. Watch for kickbacks. Material fed improperly into a table saw will kick like a mule. A great big angry one. If you’re standing directly behind the blade and the material when that happens, it’s not going to be a great day for you. Instead, stand just off to one side of the material and feed it into an already turning blade, advancing slowly. Cutting boards isn’t a race, except on reality TV.
Oh, and Don’t Forget…
Whether you need your table saw repaired or simply are seeking the help of an expert for a very special project, the pros you need are only a few clicks away in your HomeKeepr community. Open it up, check it out and find recommended pros in your area. They can help you buy the tools to build your dreams or just do the building part while you sit in a lawn chair, sipping iced tea. Recommendations are better than reviews. Find out why at HomeKeepr.
Almost certainly, plenty of corresponding people in real life have said one of these two things: “I’ve done it like this for the last 20 years and never had an issue.” or “OUCH! There went my finger.”
For your own safety, and the safety of those around you, it’s time for a talk about table saws and how to use them correctly. They can be really dangerous, they can be really useful — you just have to know what you’re doing and how to do it safely.
What is a Table Saw Made For?
Beginning DIYers often assume that a saw is a saw and a hammer is a hammer. The truth is a little less simple. Sure, you can cut anything you want with a table saw, but you may not like the results. Or, you may be ok with the results, but your methodology is going to earn you a nickname like “Stubs.” And, Stubs, that’s not a thing you want.
Table saws are at their best when they’re ripping or crosscutting.
Ripping is when you take a board and you feed it through the saw the long way, so that you get a board with a custom width. For example, you have a two-by-four and want it to be more of a one-and-a-half-by-four. You’d set the fence, set the blade height, turn on the saw and slowly and carefully feed the lumber through until you reached the end. (Please note, always feed material into a table saw using a push stick or other device that will keep your hands as far away from danger as possible)
Crosscutting means taking that same board, but cutting the length down (feed it in the short way). You’ll want to use a miter gauge for this move. In this situation, you’re removing two feet from an eight foot long stud, or what have you. It’s really tempting to push these through by hand, but don’t do it!! The aftermath could be pretty horrifying.
Additional tools can be added to a table saw to allow it to cut different kinds of joints and angles, like what you might need for crown molding, but there are also more specific and less dangerous tools that can do the same job. Bottom line? A table saw is not to be trusted, else it nips off your fingernails.
Safety First with Table Saws
The most common injuries caused by table saws, a whopping 85 percent, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health, are to the fingers and thumbs. Most frequently, those are cuts, but 10 to 15 percent of the sampled population had digits amputated by their favorite tool. That blade rotates at around 4,000 RPM, it would go through a finger like a hot knife through butter.
Now, that being said, safety, safety, safety. Below are tips you should not ignore:
1. The safety guard is there for your safety. It’s not a perfect solution and it won’t protect you if you feed your hand straight into the blade, but the safety guard is there to help minimize the danger to you from your table saw. Many, many, many homeowners take the blade guard off because it’s easy to get a lot of dust up inside of it, making it hard to see what’s going on at the blade level. Instead of taking it off and leaving it off, though, remove the blade guard and clean it when you’re done using the machine. If it’s plastic (which most are), just hose it out and leave it to dry for your next project.
2. Goggles can save your eyeballs. Although less common injuries than those to fingers, hands and arms, your table saw can hurt your eyes, too. Always wear goggles when using a table saw, even if it has a dust collector attached. You never know when wood will do something squirrely and end up being sort of flung into your eye. You’re closer to the blade than you think.
3. Always use push sticks and other material feeding tools. Collect up your push sticks and miter gauges now and know where they are at all times. Never ever feed material into the blade with your bare hands (or even gloved ones, really). This makes it far too easy for the blade to cut the board and the the operator, which would be you. This is why the photo at the top of this article is so incredibly dangerous. Stubs didn’t think it was a big deal, though. Not until after, anyway.
4. Watch for kickbacks. Material fed improperly into a table saw will kick like a mule. A great big angry one. If you’re standing directly behind the blade and the material when that happens, it’s not going to be a great day for you. Instead, stand just off to one side of the material and feed it into an already turning blade, advancing slowly. Cutting boards isn’t a race, except on reality TV.
Oh, and Don’t Forget…
Whether you need your table saw repaired or simply are seeking the help of an expert for a very special project, the pros you need are only a few clicks away in your HomeKeepr community. Open it up, check it out and find recommended pros in your area. They can help you buy the tools to build your dreams or just do the building part while you sit in a lawn chair, sipping iced tea. Recommendations are better than reviews. Find out why at HomeKeepr.
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