Top 10 Skills You Need To Fix Common Household Problems (steps 4-7)

On the heels of President Obamas State Of The Union address it seems like we all are going to have to fend for ourselves for a while. It's up to us to save money here is a continuation of my real estate blog from yesterday on skills every home owner needs to fix common household problems

4. Remove a stripped screw

A hand screwdriver appropriate for the screw and a double dose of elbow grease to fix this unfortunate bit of handiwork. Gently hammer the screwdriver into the head. Then use as much downward force as you can while you slowly back out the screw.

5. Hardwire a light fixture

Anything powered by electricity requires that the current make a full circuit to and from the main box. All the wiring in a house has two lines: one that brings in the electricity (the hot wire) and one that carries it back (the neutral wire). Connect hot wires to each other and neutrals to each other. And make sure you don't become the conduit in between.  The hot is usually black and the neutral white. But if yours look different, use a circuit tester. With the electricity on, touch one node of the tester to the wire and the other to something metal that is not touching you. If the light goes on, that's your hot wire.
Turn off the electricity and connect the black ("hot") wire to the black wire or the brass screw on your fixture and the white (neutral) to white wire or silver screw. If your fixture has two like-colored wires, the grooved one always goes to the neutral connection. Be sure to connect the copper grounding wire from the cable to the green grounding screw in the junction box, then to the grounding wire coming from the fixture, if there is one. View Image Below

 

 

 

 

6. Know which breaker to turn off

When you finally get around to putting in that dimmer switch, you won't want to be stumped by a poorly labeled breaker box. Ditch the pencil and paper chart — you're not changing your wiring any time soon. Instead, write directly on the metal next to each switch with a fine permanent marker. Have a friend plug lamps into all the sockets in a room and tell you via cellphone which ones go dark when you flip a switch. Be specific ("sofa and window walls only" or "kitchen minus fridge") when you jot it down.

7. Use a fire extinguisher

Work fast — the typical extinguisher has as little as eight seconds of life, so know in advance how yours works. Make sure to stow it near an exit so you can back out as you fight the flames. Then remember the acronym "PASS": 1) Pull the pin. 2) Aim the nozzle at the base of the flames. 3) Squeeze the trigger. 4) Sweep the spray from side to side. Don't assume the fire is out just because the flames are gone. Call 911 and wait for the fire department to give you the high sign.


Steps 8-10 tomorrow

Top 10 Skills You Need To Fix Common Household Problems (steps 1-3)

Too bad a house doesn't come with an owner's manual,  the keys to the castle come with no troubleshooting guide :(  At some point, you're going to have to know how to change out a light fixture, or paint a double-hung window, or stem the flood when the toilet overflows, and you're probably going to want to do things right the first time. So consider these 10 tips a crash course in homeowner self-confidence. Study them well, owning a house means you're going to have questions. Luckily for you, I've got answers.

1. Fix a leaky faucet

This particular type of issue is likely due to a failed washer inside a handle, the faucet is just the messenger.  To replace the washer, turn off the water supply valve under the sink. Stuff a rag in the drain so you don't lose parts, then take the handle apart. Pop the screw cover on top, remove the screw and pull off the handle. Use a wrench to disassemble the stem and line the parts up on the counter in the order they came off, so you know how it goes back together. Examine rubber parts or plastic cartridges for cracks, and take the offending piece to the hardware store for an exact replacement. Reassemble the parts you've laid out, in reverse. Then enjoy the piece and quiet of no more drips :)

2. Locate a stud

Say you want to hang a shelf, knocking on the wall can pinpoint a stud, but to improve the odds when your electronic stud finder has gone missing, use deductive reasoning. Most studs are placed at 16-inch intervals; once you know where one is, you can usually find the rest. Start at a corner, where there's always a stud, or take the cover plate off an electrical outlet and find out on which side it's mounted to the stud. From there, measure 16, 32, 48 inches and you should hit a stud at each go. Eliminate all guesswork by using a thin bit to drill a test hole at the top of the base molding, which you can easily repair with a dab of caulk.

3. Unclog a sink

"Chemicals rarely clear a stoppage — they only make a small hole," says Richard Trethewey, This Old House's plumbing and heating expert.  A full stoppage requires mechanical clearing, remove the stopper and block off overflow holes. With water in the bowl, the water puts more pressure on the clog, plunge with a flat-faced plunger. If that's not enough, get under the sink and take off the trap to see if that's where the clog is lodged. If the blockage is deeper, rent a hand snake. Slowly push the coil down the drain, carefully twisting, pulling and pushing when you hit the blockage. If the snake fails, call a drain-clearing service to get things flowing.

Steps 4-7 Tomorrow

Home Sales: 5 Tips To Get Your Home Ready To Put On The Market

Many buyers today want move-in-ready homes and will quickly eliminate an otherwise great home by focusing on a few visible flaws. Unless your home shines, you may endure showing after showing and open house after open house—and end up with a lower sales price. Before the first prospect walks through your door, consider some smart options for casting your home in its best light.

1. Have a home inspection

Be proactive by arranging for a pre-sale home inspection. For $250 to $400, an inspector will warn you about troubles that could make potential buyers balk. Make repairs before putting your home on the market. In some states, you may have to disclose what the inspection turns up.

2. Get replacement estimates

If your home inspection uncovers necessary repairs you can’t fund, get estimates for the work. The figures will help buyers determine if they can afford the home and the repairs. Also hunt down warranties, guarantees, and user manuals for your furnace, washer and dryer, dishwasher, and any other items you expect to remain with the house.

3. Make minor repairs

Not every repair costs a bundle. Fix as many small problems—sticky doors, torn screens, cracked caulking, dripping faucets—as you can. These may seem trivial, but they’ll give buyers the impression your house isn’t well maintained.

4. Clear the clutter

Clear your kitchen counters of just about everything. Clean your closets by packing up little-used items like out-of-season clothes and old toys. Install closet organizers to maximize space. Put at least one-third of your furniture in storage, especially large pieces, such as entertainment centers and big televisions. Pack up family photos, knickknacks, and wall hangings to depersonalize your home. Store the items you’ve packed offsite or in boxes neatly arranged in your garage or basement.

5. Do a thorough cleaning

A clean house makes a strong first impression that your home has been well cared for. If you can afford it, consider hiring a cleaning service.
If not, wash windows and leave them open to air out your rooms. Clean carpeting and drapes to eliminate cooking odors, smoke, and pet smells. Wash light fixtures and baseboards, mop and wax floors, and give your stove and refrigerator a thorough once-over.
Pay attention to details, too. Wash fingerprints from light switch plates, clean inside the cabinets, and polish doorknobs. Don’t forget to clean your garage, too.

Josh Schwab
Broker Associate
Keller Williams Executives
200 West Plaza Dr #200
Highlands Ranch, Co 80129
303-324-1112
Jschwab@yourdenveragent.com
Facebook
Twitter

Winter Real Estate It's Not As Cold As It Looks

Not everyone out there is watching the amazing run Tim Tebow is having some people are looking for houses.  The fall home-selling season is a lot like the college football season — both normally end around Thanksgiving, but a smaller postseason keeps going long after that.  It used to be that spring and summer were the hot times to buy or sell houses, but people are much more mobile now. If you want to sell your house these days, you don't necessarily have to wait until spring to put it on the market.  True, most would-be homebuyers and sellers in colder climates still call it quits from late November until late February or so.

• But how can a would-be seller attract a buyer when there's ice on a home's walkway, snow covering the flower beds and little natural light to make a place look bright?  Here are five things homeowners must do if they want to heat up the chances of selling a property this winter:

1. Set a realistic price
House hunters expect discount prices in the winter, because they know that any homeowner who lists a property during the period really needs to sell. So sellers should list their homes at realistic prices to begin with.  We've been in a buyers market for so long now in most of the country that buyers are trained to lowball.
2. Advertise with snow-free pictures
If possible, you or your agent should try taking photos before it snows. If that's not feasible, take photos the first time the snow melts — even if it's just a brief winter thaw.
3. Maximize curb appeal
You always want your home to have good "curb appeal" — a nice appearance that's apparent from the moment a would-be buyer pulls up to the curb — but winter snow and gloom make that tough. To make the most of your home's wintertime look make sure all autumn leaves and any dead tree branches are gone. Keep your home's driveway and paths free of snow and ice and put a nice, clean doormat in front.
4. 'Stage' the interior for winter
A good real-estate agent or professional home stager can help you make your home's interior look warm and friendly no matter how dreary it is outside. Baking cookies or an apple pie shortly before house hunters arrive. This will give your home an inviting smell when would-be buyers come in from the cold.
5. Have good interior lighting
You always want your home to look as bright as possible to potential buyers, but sparse winter sunlight can make that a real challenge. Maximize all available lighting by having your home's windows professionally cleaned — inside and out — before you put your place on the market. Don't forget the storm windows.  Also consider replacing 40-watt bulbs with 75- or 100-watt versions — and put all lights on before every showing.

Dropping That Real Estate Agent Like A Bad Habit

Between listing and sale, some home sellers find that the relationship with their real-estate agent sours. As much as they'd like to, homeowners can't just walk away from an agent with whom they no longer want to work. They usually must negotiate their way out.
Here are tips that sellers can use for dismissing their agent.

Talk it over
Typically, relationships between agents and their clients turn south because of poor communication.  Did you know 70% of dissatisfied sellers blame their agents for a "lack of communication."  When listing a house for sale, a homeowner does two things. First, the seller enters a legal agreement with the broker or the broker's real-estate firm. Second, the seller starts a business relationship with the broker.  Most agents know when the seller doesn't like them or doesn't want to deal with them any longer as their real-estate agent, so if the seller asked nicely and explained the reasons why they want to cancel the listing contract, most real-estate agents would honor their request. It's a good idea to cancel the agreement in writing to avoid any misunderstandings when, and if, the seller eventually finds a buyer.

Breaching the contract
Breach of contract usually isn't the best way for a homeowner to end the relationship. That kind of dispute can quickly escalate into a lawsuit if the seller sells the house and refuses to pay commission to the fired broker.
You can make the case for a breach if the agent is not doing their job sufficiently, but breach does not mean being able to move a listing in a reasonable amount of time because the property is so overpriced. Breach is more likely if the agent hasn't met simple service requirements such as responsiveness, taking photos of the property, showing the home, executing the proposed marketing plan or honoring their fiduciary responsibility to the homeowner.


Consider the agent's costs
Keep in mind agents spend considerable money upfront to market listings, in that case, there may be more hesitance to allow a seller to cancel a listing in a short amount of time without finding some way for the agent to recoup their costs. Photos, labor and a few advertisements can easily cost $1,000 or more right off the bat,  if the broker can't sell the home by the end of the contractual period, then most brokers understand that those costs are unrecoverable. But if the seller tries to terminate the agreement soon after listing, many brokers are likely to feel duped.

Just know there are good agents out there so if you aren't liking the Realtor you have remember that this your your home so you should be happy with whomever you have chosen

Buyers and Sellers worst enemy...themselves

One challenge facing prospective homebuyers is the difficulty of finding a house in a good neighborhood in good condition.  Prices continue to decline, but so does the number of homes for sale.
 New research gives us one reason why: Buyers may think it's a good time to buy, but sellers don't think it's a good time to sell.  A recent study I was just reading about found that nearly 80% of Americans think it's a good time to buy, but only 7.6% think it's a good time to sell.  The feelings of homebuyers are the same as in previous recessions, but the sentiments of sellers are different this time.
      Nearly two-thirds of those who expressed negative selling sentiment listed "difficulty of finding a buyer" as the reason. What this mean is the difficulty of finding a buyer at the price they want.

• Buyers' and sellers' worst enemy? Themselves
   
  Real-estate agents have to educate sellers on what price their home is really likely to fetch now. If sellers really want to sell, they adjust their expectations to the changed realities.

• See what's for sale in your neighborhood

If the sellers won't face reality, the agents sometimes decline the listing rather than waste time marketing a home that won't sell at the desired price.

Some agents are writing price-reduction clauses into contracts with sellers, which authorize automatic price reductions if no action occurs in the first few weeks.

Are sellers refusing to face reality? Or are they smart to keep their homes off the market now?

10 Remodeling Projects To Bring Value To Your Home

Top 10 projects

Here are Remodeling's top 10 projects. You'll notice that these are not ambitious, vanity jobs. All are projects that replace worn or aged home components, bring parts of the home up-to-date or add living space without expanding the home's footprint:

1. Replacing exterior siding with upscale fiber cement. Siding pays back a whopping 78%, on average, of the $13,461 average cost. The most cost-effective thing you can do to your home this year is to replace old siding with new, higher-end fiber cement.
2. Replacing an entry door with a midlevel 20-gauge steel door is an inexpensive upgrade at $1,238 on average, but it pays back 73% and greatly improves curb appeal.
3. A midrange attic bedroom remodel involves popping out a dormer for a 5-by-7-foot bathroom with shower, insulating and finishing the walls and ceiling, adding four windows, extending the heating and air conditioning and improving wiring and lighting. The payback is 72.5% on the $50,148 expenditure. More living space is being sought as adult children are driven back to their parents' homes by the shaky economy and as older parents join the households of their adult children. An attic remodel is the cheapest way to add space and a bathroom within the house. A basement remodel is the next most cost-efficient way to add living space, although code requirements for headroom and exterior doors make that project more complicated and more expensive
4. A midrange minor kitchen remodel paid back 72.1% of the $19,588 investment. Included are new laminate countertops and new sink, faucets and appliances. The floor is untouched and cabinets are kept in place but refaced with new hardware added. In today's tough times, kitchen and bath remodels are pale imitations of the lavish vanity projects from the housing boom. Most consumers are shunning the expensive spa baths and chef's kitchens that involve moving electrical services, plumbing and walls.
5. A midrange garage door replacement may not be high on many wish lists; it's one of those jobs that you do because it's needed. But it adds curb appeal and function, and it pays back 71.9%, on average, of the $1,512 average cost.
6. A high-end garage door replacement recoups almost as much: 71.1% of the $2,994 average cost.
7. A new wood deck earns back 70.1%, on average, of its $10,350 cost at resale this year.
8. New foam-backed vinyl siding replacement keeps the house warm and pays back 69.6% of its $14,274 average cost. The average project involves 1,250 square feet of siding, including trim.
9. New midrange replacement vinyl siding upgrades the look of the home and pays back 69.5% of the $11,729 average price.
10. Upscale vinyl replacement windows have a 69.1% payback on the $14,328 cost. The project involves replacing 10 double-hung 3-by-5 windows. The new windows are low-emissivity glass and are insulated with simulated wood-grain trim.