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Why do I need to stage; my house will sell itself……

I hear this all time.

“I don’t think my  house needs staging.  Just get people in the door; it will sell itself” 

This kind of thinking won’t get your house sold! Why? Staging is Marketing.  I’ll say it again.  Staging is Marketing.  Staging is the EMOTIONAL hook that get’s buyers excited about your property.  

Staging is about selling a LIFESTYLE that buyers want. 

Barb Schwarz says, “You’ve got to detail your house the way you’d detail your car” and you know what? She’s right! 

I mean, what are the chances someone is going to buy your car if it’s grungy and broken down, full of  kids toys and smells like McDonalds? 

You KNOW that in order to get the best price for your car (or to sell it at all), you need to detail it. Guess what?  The same thing applies to your house.  If you want the best possible price for your house which is a MUCH bigger investment than your car…..you’ve GOT to detail it.  You’ve got to Market it. You’ve GOT TO STAGE IT.

jennifer morgan, ASP, IASHP

Foreclosure Inspections

Many Realtors and Mortgage brokers have written articles on short sales and foreclosures.  One point the haven’t touched on is what is necessary to prepare a foreclosed home for inspection.  When banks own  the home they often (usually) have them winterized and often allow propane tanks to empty.  Other utilities are usually left on.  It is understandable that they would want to protect their investment as much as possible.  Unfortunately, this protection makes it impossible to do a thorough home inspection.

When buying (or selling for you Realtors out there) a foreclosed home, it is very important to insist that the bank has the home de-winterized and has propane put in the tank.  Without these items being taken care of, the water heater, heating system and plumbing systems can not be fully evaluated.  I just returned, today, from a re-inspect of one of these homes for just the reason I’ve stated.  Not only did this slow down the process, it also cost the buyer an additional fee for me to go back out to the site ( a rural one and some distance to drive).  So please, on foreclosure sales, get those utilities back in operation!

David Helm, Bellingham home inspector

Another Potential Fire

Why do home inspectors enter attics?  There are many things for the inspector to check in the attic including ventilation, insulation, wiring, plumbing pipes, termination of bathroom vent fans, moisture levels and the picture shown below.

 

 

 

When is it time to refinance your home mortgage? or, Are the Mortgage Rates Ripe for a Refinance?

Are the mortgage interest rates near historical lows? Could today’s rates be close the lowest that any of us have ever seen? Guess what, they are. What can this mean for those of us who are worried about the economy and our own financial future? There is an opportunity for home owners and investors to save money on their mortgages. This is also an opportunity to save money on a mortgage for a new purchase. Did you know that a 1% change in rate can increase (or decrease if the rates go up) your purchasing power by 10%.

So what about a refinance? When is it time to refinance? There is the old tale of needing a 1% reduction in rate for a refinance to make sense. Could this be true? NOT! Sorry, I learned that from my kids.

There are many things that can make a refinance good or bad. The key factor is the “Recapture Period”. How long will it take to recapture the cost of the refinance through the “savings in interest rate”? This quote is very important. A sales person has the capacity to make a bad refinance look like a good one. If you look only at the reduction in monthly payment you not be getting the whole story. The re-amortization of a mortgage could save you hundreds of dollars in cash flow but not really save you any money through true savings on the new rate. Mortgages are re-amortized when they are refinanced. This means that if you are 8 years into a 30 year fixed rate the payment could be reduced significantly by the addition of another 8 years of payments without having any significant savings in interest rate.

So how can you really know if you are getting the good deal on a refinance? Can you really trust your salesperson loan officer? That is a hard question to answer. If you know the right questions to ask you will be able to find out exactly how much you are going to save on your refinance. I’ll bet you are thinking “Sure buddy, what are the questions?”. Here we go.

1. What is the recapture period of this refinance? This tells you how long it will take to recoup the upfront costs of the loan through the interest savings, not the savings in cash flow from a lower payment. This is important even if you roll all of the costs into the loan. When rolled into the loan they are still real and it is money spent. There are times when a lower payment is sufficient reason to refinance.

2. Always ask what the recapture period is with points and no points. When paying points the industry standard is 2.0%. Please remember that Origination fee, Points and Discount are all the same thing. They are fees that the borrowers pay to get a lower interest rate.

3. What is the benefit to you if you do pay points? Does it increase or decrease your recapture period? Does the payment of points put you into a higher loan to value that could increase your interest rate or mortgage insurance?

4. How long do you think you will be in the house? If you are not sure about how long you want to stay you could be throwing thousands of dollars away. I would recommend that you have a plan to stay in the home several years beyond the recapture period.

5. If everything looks good at this point it is time to look at future financial needs. A refinance is a great time to get some cheap money for projects, new vehicles or possibly a rebuild of an older vehicle. I have even seen people us this opportunity to pull some cash to max out their retirement accounts for the year. I call this forced savings as you will now have to make payments on this money that you “Saved”.

This is all great information if used. Going back to the beginning of this blog, remember the interest rates are great right now. If you are not sure where to start try your Realtor. Realtors rely on reputable lenders to help them get buyers into houses. These same lenders can help you evaluate your refinance potential. Most lenders can tell you if you are in a good position to refinance with a simple 5 minute phone call. I hope that you found this information helpful . If this saves one person from getting a bad deal I will be happy. Sincerely, Jack DeCook Sr. Home Mortgage Consultant. Please feel free to give me a call for a free recapture analysis.

“An opportunity is never lost, it is simply found by someone else” Benjamin Franklin

Fire Waiting to Happen

This post is about solid fuel burning appliances and potential chimney fires.  Solid fuel appliances are usually wood burning fireplaces or stoves, including inserts.  The chimney serving these appliances should be cleaned every year.  The picture below shows a chimney with major creosote buildup.  The very next fire in the stove could be the one to set off a chimney fire; and chimney fires often burn houses down!

 

 

Composition Siding: LP and others

There has been a lot of controversy regarding composition wood fiber siding. Many brands of this type of siding by different manufacturers are known to deteriorate and/or fail prematurely due to moisture penetration. Failure is typically visible in the form of swelling, cracking and delamination, especially at the bottom edges. Class action lawsuits have been filed or are being filed against most manufacturers of this material. 

 

The following photos show siding in the early stages of this deterioration.  These can all be treated with the “Permanizer Plus” product.  The important thing to note if you happen to won a house with this type siding is that regular maintenance is absolutely necessary.  If you are buying a house with this siding, be sure that your inspector looks long and hard at the condition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following photo shows LP siding inentification.  You have to look closely.  The knot in the pattern shows an L and  P in the creases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pittsburgh Paints, PRIMERS -THE FOUNDATION FOR A TOP QUALITY JOB
Failing LP Siding Help Page

Thanks for reading.

David Helm, Bellingham home inspector

http://www.helmhomeinspections.com  

Short Sales, What They mean to Your Credit as a Seller

Short Sales have been made to seem like a really good thing. They help the seller out of a financial bind. They enable a Buyer to get a good deal on a home. They enable Realtors to sell a home that would otherwise not be saleable. A short sale even gets a bad loan off of a bank’s books. This all sounds really good and I believe that it is. There has been something left out of the equation though.

What does this do to the seller’s credit rating? In all of the articles, blogs and press releases that I have read the subject has not come up. Why is this? I am not in a position to say. I can let you know what it does to a seller’s credit. A Short sale shows up as a foreclosure. I have been told by many that a Short sale is not as bad as a foreclosure.

This is true in a moral sense. A short sale allows a home owner to take the high road. To do the job of the banks REO department in helping to dispose of a troubled asset. As for the Sellers ability to get a loan after taking this “High Road”. They will have a foreclosure on their credit report and will have to wait a minimum of 2 years before another lender will talk to them about getting a new home mortgage. If you look you will find that there are some lenders who are making exceptions to this rule.

So why not just let it go to foreclosure? Because we are “Americans” and want to do the right thing! So how about just toughing it out by making the payments even if they hurt? I understand that many people are in positions which make this option impossible. There are many that are going the short sale route as an easy out. You can stop making payments on your home. Live there for free. Why not everyone else is? When and if the home does sell the lien holder will eat the cost of carrying the house during the sale period because the Seller is doing the right thing.

I hope that you have found this blog thought provoking. I applaud those who are genuinely trying to do the right thing by helping the owner of the mortgage loan get out with a smaller loss than they would have realized if the home where to go through a traditional foreclosure. To those of you who are in a genuine bind due to loss of income or value in your home and those who got swindled into a bad loan with increasing payments, I offer my condolences. In this case I would recommend that you talk to a Realtor who specialises in distressed properties. You will find their assistance to be quite valuable.

Sincerely, Jack

No Support!

I have done a few blogs on this site about various things that are found on home inspections.  This one is structural.  We inspectors spend a lot of time in crawl spaces, looking at many things.  One common one is caused by plumbers and HVAC technicians.  This isn’t to badmouth them.  They have their job to do and may not know about how structures are supported.

 

 

 

Insurance 101- The Learning Curve Series: Landlord Policy

You bought a property and you are going to Rent it to some Tenant. This is what we in The Industry call a non-owner occupied property.

You are now a Landlord, a Small Business Owner and need to treat the property as a Business Owner. The insurance you need for this risk if a 4 unit or less Residential Dwelling is a Landlord Insurance Policy.

You face risks just like a Home Owner for fire, and other damage, but also loss of rents if there is a covered claim. (No rent loss is paid out if a tenant skips out, that’s part of business). But if there is a fire and the tenant is forced to break the lease while you conduct repairs you may be entitled to loss of the Fair Rental Income up to the Policy Provisions.

If you have Business Personal Property such as stove, fridge, and washing machine. What if they are damaged by a covered loss?

Most Important is your Liability exposure. What if you are sued for negligence as a course of conducting Business? More information is just a call to the Insurance Agent.

Insurance 101- The Learning Curve Series: What is Insurance Anyway?

Think of Insurance as a pool of money that is available to scoop up if certain events occur. Those Events or Perils are in an agreement called the Insurance Policy. The Insurance Policy is a Ccontract that is unilateral (one sided) and is written by the Insurance Company.

You the Insured agree to this Contract and the provisions written in it, does this means you should read the policy?  YES please read your policy as that is your agreement and the obligations for both parties are spelled out in detail.

When you have questions call your agent, a good agent is an advocate for you and the Insurance Company if you have an issue of concern.

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