By: G. M. Filisko When you buy a fixer-upper house, you can save a ton of money, or get yourself in a financial fix. Trying to decide whether to buy a fixer-upper house? Follow these seven steps, and you’ll know how much you can afford, how much to offer, and whether a fixer-upper house is right for you. 1.  Decide what you can do yourself. TV remodeling shows make home improvement work look like a snap. In the real world, attempting a difficult remodeling job that you don’t know how to do will take longer than you think and can lead to less-than-professional results that won’t increase the value of your fixer-upper house. Do you really have the skills to do it? Some tasks, like stripping wallpaper and painting, are relatively easy. Others, like electrical work, can be dangerous when done by amateurs. Do you really have the time and desire to do it? Can you take time off work to renovate your fixer-upper house? If not, will you be stressed out by living in a work zone for months while you complete projects on the weekends? 2.  Price the cost of repairs and remodeling before you make an offer. Get your contractor into the house to do a walk-through, so he can give you a written cost estimate on the tasks he’s going to do. If you’re doing the work yourself, price the supplies. Either way, tack on 10% to 20% to cover unforeseen problems that often arise with a fixer-upper house. 3.  Check permit costs. Ask local officials if the work you’re going to do requires a permit and how much that permit costs. Doing work without a permit may save money, but it’ll cause problems when you resell your home. Decide if you want to get the permits yourself or have the contractor arrange for them. Getting permits can be time-consuming and frustrating. Inspectors may force you to do additional work, or change the way you want to do a project, before they give you the permit. Factor the time and aggravation of permits into your plans. 4.  Doublecheck pricing on structural work. If your fixer-upper home needs major structural work, hire a structural engineer for $500 to $700 to inspect the home before you put in an offer so you can be confident you’ve uncovered and conservatively budgeted for the full extent of the problems. Get written estimates for repairs before you commit to buying a home with structural issues. Don’t purchase a home that needs major structural work unless: You’re getting it at a steep discount You’re sure you’ve uncovered the extent of the problem You know the problem can be fixed You have...

Submitted by HowMuch.net Maintaining and increasing your home’s value can pay off in major ways. Not only does helping your home hold value help it sell for its full amount, it can also help your home sell more quickly, help maintain your neighbor’s home values, and ensure that you’re not overpaying in property taxes. These 10 projects are listed from least to most expensive, and may help you increase your home’s value. Best part: None of these projects cost more than $2,000, so you don’t have to break the bank to take on these projects either. —-Low Cost: Budget under $500—- LAWN FERTILIZING Fertilizing your lawn may not seem as though it’s doing much for your home’s value, but a well-maintained lawn plays a major role in your home’s curb appeal. Curb appeal is how well your property looks from the road, and has a major impact on your home’s value and resale. Fertilizing a dry, brown, or otherwise patchy lawn can help boost your home’s curb appeal, and in turn its value. Cost: The average cost of lawn fertilizing is around $.03 a square foot assuming a 6,000 square foot lawn, for a total of $180. Total costs range from $.02 a square foot for a DIY job to $.04 a square foot during peak season. Money Saving Tips If you are able to tackle this job DIY, you can save a lot of money (which you can then use to plant shrubs or trees to further increase your home’s curb appeal). Tackle this job at the beginning of the season to avoid paying peak prices. INSTALL AN ATTIC FAN The attic is one of the most overlooked areas of the home when it comes to the impact on the rest of the home. Attics that are not properly insulated can become superheated, which can overheat the roof, cause ice dams, and raise your energy bills. Installing an attic fan can help protect your roof, lower your energy bills, and improve your home values. Cost: The average cost to install a gable mount electric attic fan is around $275 for spaces up to 2,500. Total costs range from $39 for a wind-powered vent to $321 for an electric fan to cool up to 3,000 feet. Money Saving Tips Look into getting a solar-powered fan, which will not only run when you need it, but will also lower your monthly energy costs to run it as well. PAINT A ROOM IN YOUR HOME Dingy, old, or out of fashion paint can really hurt the resale of your home. By giving a room in your home a fresh coat of paint, you can help remedy this problem. Choose neutral paints...

By Justin M. Riordan, Spade and Archer Design Agency Design trends are just that: trendy. They change from day to day, year to year, and decade to decade. The ones that are popular now won’t be soon. The ones that were popular years ago aren’t now and the ones that were popular decades ago are already back again. Interior design trends tend to follow fashion trends about three years later. As colors gain popularity in fashion, they follow shortly thereafter in interior design.  The trick is being able to see what are trends and what is classic.  The difference is that classic will never go out of style, whereas trends always eventually go out of style. Here are some major trends from our recent past that are turning people away from houses:  1.   Carpet in the master bathroom. The 1990’s brought us so many fine trends, carpet in bathrooms was one of them. The thought was that cold tile on your bare feet was unpleasant. You know what else is unpleasant? Mold in your carpet pad. 2.   Plantation shutters. They are expensive, I know. Every single one of my clients who has them tells me over and over how expensive they are. Plantation shutters were designed for plantations. Hot, muggy places. The shutters were designed to block light and still allow a breeze to come into the house. The issue today is that they still block light, over 50 percent of the light that would have come through a window is blocked by plantation shutters. The fact of the matter is that nobody wants to buy a dark house. If the shutters aren’t there, they won’t miss them. 3.   Curtains over closets. The odds of the next buyer having the same taste in curtains as you is slim. Curtains over closets scream “YOU HAVE WORK TO DO” to your potential buyers.  Do yourself and the buyer a favor, take the curtains down and put the doors back up. 4.   Family, Friendship, Love, Laugh, Dance… BARF! Word art inevitably tells a story of the seller’s life and is distracting to the buyer.  Nobody cares how deep your family roots run, or that this is Emma’s crib. Take it down. 5.  Accent walls. The term “accent walls” is a misnomer, they should instead be called focal walls as they tend to provide a focus point for the room. Unfortunately, as the focal point of a room, they tend to dictate how a room should be set up and what the color scheme should be for the room. If you have a purple accent wall and all of your buyer’s furniture is red, they are going to have to work to remove that...

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR(R) Magazine A favorite real estate tip: When prepping a home for a showing, whip up some chocolate chip cookies to fill the home with that rich, inviting, tasty smell. Who wouldn’t want to sit back and stay awhile? Well, you may want to put down the mixing bowl and turn off the oven. Research now says that chocolate chip cookies are one of the worst scents to have in a real estate open house. Researchers used a sample size of 402 people in a home decor store in Switzerland to find out which scents were the most pleasing to customers. The researchers say the findings could provide some insights into the most pleasing smells during open houses too. One of the author’s of the study, Eric Spangenberg, dean of the college of business at Washington State University, recently told The Wall Street Journal that baked goods are a complex scent that can distract potential home buyers, even if the scent is pleasant. Buyers will subconsciously devote time to trying to figure out the scent, instead of devoting the time to determining if this is a place they really want to live. (Or maybe it’s really that they devote time and energy to finding where in the world you stashed all those cookies!) Other distracting complex smells that researchers also suggest could distract customers: Potpourri, gourmet foods, and baked goods. So if you want an inviting smell to fill a home for your open house, what home scents should you reach for? Simple scents — like pine, lemon, cedar, and vanilla — all which can be easier for buyers to process and less distracting, Spangenberg says. For example, Chris McDonnell, a real estate professional with Coldwell Banker Distinctive Properties in Vail, Colo., told The Wall Street Journal he’ll prep a home for an open house by cutting fresh pine branches or picking fresh lavender and mint from his herb garden — scents that mimic the outdoor lifestyle he’s also trying to...

By BobVila.com on 7 Jul 2016 Originally posted on http://www.zillow.com/blog/5-projects-finish-staycation-201050/ Balance R&R with a little DIY for total staycation satisfaction. With the return of summer Fridays and a stockpile of unused vacation days, you might be ready to jet off to anywhere but home. But before you pack your bags, consider the long-term benefits of a staycation. Twelve, 24, or 48 hours of extra free time in a long weekend provides all you need to reenergize, refuel, and recommit to that straggler project on your to-do list. In fact, devoting your time off to tackling a highly anticipated home upgrade or a lengthier maintenance project can pay off all summer long. Squeeze any of these five summer projects into your time off, and every weekend to come will feel more relaxing. Painting interior trim While the weather is nice enough to air out paint fumes through open windows, breathe life into spaces that have grown stale with fresh color. One way to get a whole-room update for a fraction of the effort: Zero in on the trim. Painting baseboards, chair rail, window trim, and crown molding in either complementary or contrasting tones to your walls really wakes up ordinary rooms and hallways. Before you brush on your new color, cut the sheen of the old enamel with a liquid sanding product so that the new paint adheres well. Apply two or three light coats of interior latex enamel paint, allowing a full day of drying time between each. For an ultra-smooth finish, buff lightly with micro-grit sandpaper and follow with tack cloth before each successive coat. Building a backyard fire pit A landscaping addition that extends outdoor hours by offering light and heat well into the evening is one you won’t regret — especially when it’s too easy to skip. Your backyard fire pit doesn’t have to be a large, lavish model picked from a catalog to be entertaining. In fact, you can assemble an attractive one in just a day from a kit with no-cut blocks from your home improvement store. Courtesy of Zillow Digs. Set the blocks end-to-end to form a perfect circle, then stack them two or three high and slip on an iron fire pit ring. All that’s left to do is check your s’mores kit and round up spare seating. Ensure every guest gets a front-row spot by placing chairs a minimum of four feet away from the pit. Resurfacing the concrete driveway Concrete driveways are known for their durability, but years of use and exposure to the elements can leave them looking worse for all that wear. If your driveway flakes or shows fine cracks, one sunny, 80-degree weekend spent resurfacing may help you avoid...

By Brendon DeSimone on 4 Jul 2016 Originally posted on http://www.zillow.com/blog/weird-things-home-shopping-200991/ Ugly paint colors? Treadmill in the kitchen? Creepy family portraits in every room? Don’t let it bug you. In 15 years of real estate, I can honestly say that I’ve seen it all. Toilet seats up in listing photos, shag carpet covered with dog hair, bedrooms doubling as marijuana growing centers, and avocado green appliances from the ’70s. Sellers aren’t required to get their homes in their best condition before showing them — let alone cleaning their home before listing. But one seller’s laziness can spell a giant upside for the right buyer. Here are three sights that may be off-putting when you’re shopping for a home, but shouldn’t stop you from considering making an offer — particularly if you love the home, layout or location. Odd wallpaper and dirty carpet Today’s buyers generally prefer a home that’s turn-key or move-in ready. They’re too busy with their day-to-day lives to take on a renovation — and this is especially true for the continuously connected, mobile-ready millennial home buyer. But painting walls and replacing carpets isn’t always time-consuming or expensive, and you can do these projects before moving in. If a seller won’t replace their shag carpet or paint the interior a neutral color, they’re shooting themselves in the foot. A fresh coat of paint and finished floors or new carpet won’t break the bank or take more than a week, and the end product will be a like-new home for you to move into. Rooms being strangely used It’s not uncommon to see a home’s dining room transformed into a full-fledged office. Some homeowners even have a bedroom doubling as a walk-in closet. I once saw a first-floor bedroom turned into a wine-tasting room. Just because the homeowner uses these spaces in a way that suits them, doesn’t mean you have to. These rooms might stand out as odd to you, but try to forget that the seller lives there. Once they’ve moved out, the dining room will be a space that just needs a great light fixture and table. The walk-in closet can be turned back into a bedroom in less than a day. A too-strong seller presence It’s difficult for a buyer to imagine themselves in a home if it’s full of the seller’s photos, diplomas and other personal belongings. The best homes for buyers are those that are neutral and lacking any items specific to the owner. What’s worse is when the seller is present at a showing. It makes everyone uncomfortable. The buyers feel like they need to be on their best behavior and can’t explore the house, dig deep into closets or cabinets, or feel free to talk out loud about what they see. A home that is too personalized or where the seller is always...