(and if you don't have ten bucks, five that are free)
By Lloyd Alter
Wed Jan 21, 2009 17:08
Free. Nothing. Nada.
Things you can do that will make a real difference for no money at all.
1.Lower water heater temperature to 120°F
2.Decrease Thermostat temperature by 3°F
3.Wash clothes in cold water
4.Air dry clothes during summer
5.Turn off unneeded lights
Under Ten Bucks
Save Heat
1.Seal your windows with strippable caulk
This is the clear stuff that is designed to peel off when it is time to open the windows again, and seals the gaps that occur at any moving part of a window. This is particularly important if you have old windows where the seals have loosened up a bit.
2.Shrink-wrap your windows
Get the plastic films that tape around your windows and then shrink tight under the heat from a hair dryer. They cut heat loss and are almost invisible. Not suitable for houses with cats, as we found out the hard way.
3.Weatherstrip your doors
A surprising amount of air leaks around them. Just be sure that the door will still close properly; I have added weatherstrip and then had to remove it again as the door just wouldn't close properly with the added foam.
4.Get a snake
Or make your own—a door snake stops draughts from under a door where it is hard to weatherstrip.
5.Get some cheap slippers
Or a hoodie. The easiest way to feel warmer and save energy is to wear more clothing. It also keeps your house cleaner and warmer.
6.Change your furnace filter
The furnace has to work harder to push through all the schmutz that gets caught in your filter if it is doing its job.
Save Water
7.Lose the drips
A dripping faucet can waste 20 gallons of water a day. A leaking toilet can use 90,000 gallons of water in a month. Get out the wrench and change the washers on your sinks and showers, or get new washerless faucets. Keeping your existing equipment well maintained is probably the easiest and cheapest way to start saving water.
8.Add a faucet aerator
Mixing in the air reduces the water consumed. Some aerators have an on/off lever so that you can stop most of the water flow without affecting the temperature, saving even more water.
Save Electricity
9.Get a switched power bar
Plug all your wall-warts into the power strip so that it is easy to turn things off when you are not using them. You can't get them for ten bucks, but there are some very slick power bars out there now.
10.Change a light bulb
Still have any incandescent bulbs lighting your home? Time to change them; they have better color, faster starts and less mercury than ever. Just be sure to recycle them properly!
Original article: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/green-home-ten-dollars.html
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Community Profile: Historic Downtown Savannah
Savannah's founder, General James Oglethorpe, had already planned the layout of Downtown Savannah when he arrived here in 1733. His progressive ideology involved an interactive mix of architecture and green space with the intent of blending peoples from all walks of life.
Per his plans, Historic Downtown Savannah is a blend of stately homes and townhouses along with a stock of commercial spaces all centered around the original squares. The famous squares of downtown Savannah are lush green spaces shaded by magnificent live oaks dripping Spanish moss. Benches set beneath the trees allow visitors and residents alike to witness the blur of activity. From horse drawn carriage tours to darting bicycle messengers modern day Downtown Savannah is a unique microcosm that serves to confirm its founder's original intent as a vibrant urban melting pot.
Per his plans, Historic Downtown Savannah is a blend of stately homes and townhouses along with a stock of commercial spaces all centered around the original squares. The famous squares of downtown Savannah are lush green spaces shaded by magnificent live oaks dripping Spanish moss. Benches set beneath the trees allow visitors and residents alike to witness the blur of activity. From horse drawn carriage tours to darting bicycle messengers modern day Downtown Savannah is a unique microcosm that serves to confirm its founder's original intent as a vibrant urban melting pot.
Perhaps ironically, Georgia's First City is also home to the most cutting-edge art school in America, Savannah College of Art and Design. It has called downtown Savannah home for 30 years and has grown in prestige from oddball upstart status to international acclaim, all along keeping its feet firmly planted in the heart of the city.
-- Savannah College of Art and Design
-- Streetscape
-- Squares
-- Unique old structures
-- Boutiques, restaurants and galleries
-- Forsyth Park
Monday, September 27, 2010
Three Tips for Selling
Check out this short video from Keller Williams Realty: "3 Tips for Selling." Be sure to visit the Sellers Page of DonCallahan.com for additional resources.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
7 Reasons to BUY NOW
Check out Keller Williams Realty's newest e-book "7 Reasons Why Now is a Great Time to Buy a Home!" This guide provides excellent examples as to why now is the best time to buy a house. (Also available on the Buyers page of www.DonCallahan.com) Mortgage rates have never been lower, home prices are excellent, and the inventory is full. If you are ready to buy now, contact us today at don@doncallahan.com.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Drama-Free Real Estate: Seller Tip #8
By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, FrontDoor.com Published: 4/14/2009
#8: Get a real estate market reality check. (And kiss fantasyland goodbye.)Walk a mile in the shoes of a prospective buyer for your home. They are out there. And they are well-educated. Today's qualified homebuyers have every piece of data about home prices and sales trends in your neighborhood. They are willing to pay a fair price, but they know how to formulate a fair offer to a degree that previous generations of buyers have never had the ability to do. All the info is just a few keystrokes away! And they have an incredible level of house hunting stamina from having seen so many foreclosed homes with abandoned remodeling projects and ripped out plumbing.
Clueless is as clueless does. So, a buyer is doing their nightly obsessive scouring of the Web listings of homes for sale in their price range in your town, and your listing comes up. What will their first response be? Do they think it's a serious prospect they should mull over? Do they instantly autodial their Realtor to set a first-thing-in-the-morning appointment to see your place? Or do they grab their sides as they roll on the floor in hysterical laughter, wondering what planet the seller is from to think someone would pay that for that place?
Long story short: clueless is a very bad look for a home seller. It's the easiest route to getting lowball offers or no offers at all. In a market like this, you might wish desperately that your home was worth more than it actually is. But check yourself -- wishing it were so doesn't make it so. If you're selling now, you probably really want or need to, so get over yourself and get clued into the realities of your market if you want to get it sold.
When on the Web, do as Web buyers do. Before you ever list your home with a Realtor, spend some time on FrontDoor.com perusing MLS listings the way a prospective buyer would. Check out the other listings in your neighborhood, and do an honest mental comparison of their homes to yours. This will start to give you a reality check on prices and price ranges. Then visit a site like Cyberhomes.com and type in your address to get an estimated value. It will show you the actual sales prices from nearby similar homes that have closed escrow, so you can begin to appreciate the difference between list price and sales price in your area.
Experience the competition, live and in person. Once you are familiar with recent sales prices and you've hired a Realtor, get up close and personal with your competition. Stroll through a few open houses and see what your house is up against, in terms of condition and staging. Then ask your Realtor to analyze the competing listings on the basis of how many days the active, pending and recently sold MLS listings in your area have been on the market. That way, you'll know up front which price points get quick buyer interest and about how long you should wait for an offer before you reduce your price.
Now, get real! Remember that the same buyers who come to see your place will have seen the other active listings too. So price or prep your place to be more attractive than the others. You will eliminate the clueless factor and get buyers to take you seriously when you get a real estate reality check, and let the data drive a fact-based pricing and property preparation strategy.
#8: Get a real estate market reality check. (And kiss fantasyland goodbye.)Walk a mile in the shoes of a prospective buyer for your home. They are out there. And they are well-educated. Today's qualified homebuyers have every piece of data about home prices and sales trends in your neighborhood. They are willing to pay a fair price, but they know how to formulate a fair offer to a degree that previous generations of buyers have never had the ability to do. All the info is just a few keystrokes away! And they have an incredible level of house hunting stamina from having seen so many foreclosed homes with abandoned remodeling projects and ripped out plumbing.
Clueless is as clueless does. So, a buyer is doing their nightly obsessive scouring of the Web listings of homes for sale in their price range in your town, and your listing comes up. What will their first response be? Do they think it's a serious prospect they should mull over? Do they instantly autodial their Realtor to set a first-thing-in-the-morning appointment to see your place? Or do they grab their sides as they roll on the floor in hysterical laughter, wondering what planet the seller is from to think someone would pay that for that place?
Long story short: clueless is a very bad look for a home seller. It's the easiest route to getting lowball offers or no offers at all. In a market like this, you might wish desperately that your home was worth more than it actually is. But check yourself -- wishing it were so doesn't make it so. If you're selling now, you probably really want or need to, so get over yourself and get clued into the realities of your market if you want to get it sold.
When on the Web, do as Web buyers do. Before you ever list your home with a Realtor, spend some time on FrontDoor.com perusing MLS listings the way a prospective buyer would. Check out the other listings in your neighborhood, and do an honest mental comparison of their homes to yours. This will start to give you a reality check on prices and price ranges. Then visit a site like Cyberhomes.com and type in your address to get an estimated value. It will show you the actual sales prices from nearby similar homes that have closed escrow, so you can begin to appreciate the difference between list price and sales price in your area.
Experience the competition, live and in person. Once you are familiar with recent sales prices and you've hired a Realtor, get up close and personal with your competition. Stroll through a few open houses and see what your house is up against, in terms of condition and staging. Then ask your Realtor to analyze the competing listings on the basis of how many days the active, pending and recently sold MLS listings in your area have been on the market. That way, you'll know up front which price points get quick buyer interest and about how long you should wait for an offer before you reduce your price.
Now, get real! Remember that the same buyers who come to see your place will have seen the other active listings too. So price or prep your place to be more attractive than the others. You will eliminate the clueless factor and get buyers to take you seriously when you get a real estate reality check, and let the data drive a fact-based pricing and property preparation strategy.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Do You Know a Homeowner Facing Foreclosure? Here’s A Way Out.
Headlines today are filled with stories about homeowners in financial distress—people who face a lender’s foreclosure on their home.
Millions of American home owners are wondering what to do.
Like most crises, this one has produced its share of rumors and misinformation. One of the biggest ones is “just let it happen." Why fight back, this line of thinking goes. It’s too emotionally draining, and the government’s loan modifications aren’t helping many people. Well, that’s only partly true.
While government loan modification programs have fallen short of the mark so far, there is another solid, sensible option for homeowners. It’s called a short sale—a sale to a buyer where the seller’s lender agrees to accept less than the full amount owned.
Why not be foreclosed? Why sell short? Agents who have closed hundreds of these transactions provide this list of reasons:
• Avoid the foreclosure stigma – Homeowners will always have to disclose that they had a foreclosure on any mortgage application and (many job applications) that they submit in the future. This can have an adverse affect on their future mortgage rates. Foreclosure is asked about specifically in credit inquiries. There is no seven-year time limit on this item.
• Protect credit score – Credit scores will be lowered by 300-plus points (per loan) by foreclosure. The impact of a short sale—about half that much.
• Improve eligibility for a government insured loan – The homeowner will be ineligible for a government insured loan for 5-7 years (only two years in a short sale). A foreclosure is the one credit report item that is almost impossible to have repaired.
• Avoid a deficiency judgment – Lenders can seek a deficiency judgment against the homeowner and collect any amount they do not recover at sale.
• Protect employment prospects – Many employers run credit checks on prospective employees. Foreclosure is one of the top items that will put a potential new hire, or even current employment, in jeopardy.
These are the top reasons, but there are more. An expert short sale specialist agent can give a full picture of the options.
One more tip. Don’t believe everything you read about how long short sales take and how few get finalized. Short sale timelines, while still longer than normal, are shrinking as lenders get their paperwork act together. I am a top short sale agents in your market. I know where to find buyers, and how to negotiate the buyer’s offer effectively with lenders and get the deal closed—so the homeowner can move on with life and recover.
Millions of American home owners are wondering what to do.
Like most crises, this one has produced its share of rumors and misinformation. One of the biggest ones is “just let it happen." Why fight back, this line of thinking goes. It’s too emotionally draining, and the government’s loan modifications aren’t helping many people. Well, that’s only partly true.
While government loan modification programs have fallen short of the mark so far, there is another solid, sensible option for homeowners. It’s called a short sale—a sale to a buyer where the seller’s lender agrees to accept less than the full amount owned.
Why not be foreclosed? Why sell short? Agents who have closed hundreds of these transactions provide this list of reasons:
• Avoid the foreclosure stigma – Homeowners will always have to disclose that they had a foreclosure on any mortgage application and (many job applications) that they submit in the future. This can have an adverse affect on their future mortgage rates. Foreclosure is asked about specifically in credit inquiries. There is no seven-year time limit on this item.
• Protect credit score – Credit scores will be lowered by 300-plus points (per loan) by foreclosure. The impact of a short sale—about half that much.
• Improve eligibility for a government insured loan – The homeowner will be ineligible for a government insured loan for 5-7 years (only two years in a short sale). A foreclosure is the one credit report item that is almost impossible to have repaired.
• Avoid a deficiency judgment – Lenders can seek a deficiency judgment against the homeowner and collect any amount they do not recover at sale.
• Protect employment prospects – Many employers run credit checks on prospective employees. Foreclosure is one of the top items that will put a potential new hire, or even current employment, in jeopardy.
These are the top reasons, but there are more. An expert short sale specialist agent can give a full picture of the options.
One more tip. Don’t believe everything you read about how long short sales take and how few get finalized. Short sale timelines, while still longer than normal, are shrinking as lenders get their paperwork act together. I am a top short sale agents in your market. I know where to find buyers, and how to negotiate the buyer’s offer effectively with lenders and get the deal closed—so the homeowner can move on with life and recover.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Drama-Free Real Estate: Seller Tip #9
By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, FrontDoor.com
#9: Differentiate your home from the competition.
Between the short sale next door and the foreclosure down the street, it's very tough to demand top dollar for your home when buyers have so many bargains to choose from.
Let's get one thing straight -- this is a competition. When a buyer sees your home, they are choosing between your house and the others on the market in their price range. The home they choose is the winner.
So, how can you spank your home's competition, real estate-style?
Make your house the place to be. Short sales and foreclosures are notorious for skimping on the marketing. So go all out to get neighbors and buyers into your home and talking about it by having an Open House party that highlights the best lifestyle features of your property. If your home has ocean views, throw a twilight cocktail party. If it's a great family home in the best school district in town, have hot dogs, a bounce house and face-painting. Be a little over-the-top, and have your Realtor invite the neighbors and the local buyers' brokers.
Take your staging to the next level. When I show foreclosures to my clients, I generally keep a vat of hand sanitizer in the car and pass it around between properties; that's just how filthy they can be. You can set your house totally apart from the bargain-basement priced competition by making sure it is only shown in immaculate condition. Bathrooms, kitchens, walls and floors should be pristine, and if you can swing new chic paint and flooring choices, that's even better. Stage it with tasteful furnishings and decor that depict the uncluttered, space-maximizing life every buyer wishes they could live, even if it means you have to move out in the meantime!
Use incentives to buy some house hunter love. Any expensive lifestyle amenities that you can leave behind, especially house hunter faves like stainless steel appliances and fireplace-mounted plasma TVs, make good buyer incentives your Realtor can tout in your home's marketing. I've even seen sellers offer to park a new Prius in the garage at closing, you know, so that the new buyer can save on gas to afford their new mortgage! (Do check with your Realtor regarding incentive strategies; some items might not be allowed by the buyer's bank.)
Make your place easier to buy than a short sale or foreclosure. Every homebuyer on the market today knows that doing a deal with the bank can be, how shall we say, less than fun and less than fast. Okay, it can be slow and painful. So, your home's marketing should let the world know that buying your place will be a smooth, easy deal. If you are in the position to offer any seller-financing or other creative deal structures, like a lease-purchase option, even better -- you've just expanded the pool of folks who can qualify to buy your home!
For more drama-free real estate from FrontDoor.com visit http://www.frontdoor.com/sell/Drama-Free-Real-Estate-Guide-Tips-and-Advice-for-Savvy-Home-Buying-Selling-and-Financing-Without-the-Stress/55034
#9: Differentiate your home from the competition.
Between the short sale next door and the foreclosure down the street, it's very tough to demand top dollar for your home when buyers have so many bargains to choose from.
Let's get one thing straight -- this is a competition. When a buyer sees your home, they are choosing between your house and the others on the market in their price range. The home they choose is the winner.
So, how can you spank your home's competition, real estate-style?
Make your house the place to be. Short sales and foreclosures are notorious for skimping on the marketing. So go all out to get neighbors and buyers into your home and talking about it by having an Open House party that highlights the best lifestyle features of your property. If your home has ocean views, throw a twilight cocktail party. If it's a great family home in the best school district in town, have hot dogs, a bounce house and face-painting. Be a little over-the-top, and have your Realtor invite the neighbors and the local buyers' brokers.
Take your staging to the next level. When I show foreclosures to my clients, I generally keep a vat of hand sanitizer in the car and pass it around between properties; that's just how filthy they can be. You can set your house totally apart from the bargain-basement priced competition by making sure it is only shown in immaculate condition. Bathrooms, kitchens, walls and floors should be pristine, and if you can swing new chic paint and flooring choices, that's even better. Stage it with tasteful furnishings and decor that depict the uncluttered, space-maximizing life every buyer wishes they could live, even if it means you have to move out in the meantime!
Use incentives to buy some house hunter love. Any expensive lifestyle amenities that you can leave behind, especially house hunter faves like stainless steel appliances and fireplace-mounted plasma TVs, make good buyer incentives your Realtor can tout in your home's marketing. I've even seen sellers offer to park a new Prius in the garage at closing, you know, so that the new buyer can save on gas to afford their new mortgage! (Do check with your Realtor regarding incentive strategies; some items might not be allowed by the buyer's bank.)
Make your place easier to buy than a short sale or foreclosure. Every homebuyer on the market today knows that doing a deal with the bank can be, how shall we say, less than fun and less than fast. Okay, it can be slow and painful. So, your home's marketing should let the world know that buying your place will be a smooth, easy deal. If you are in the position to offer any seller-financing or other creative deal structures, like a lease-purchase option, even better -- you've just expanded the pool of folks who can qualify to buy your home!
For more drama-free real estate from FrontDoor.com visit http://www.frontdoor.com/sell/Drama-Free-Real-Estate-Guide-Tips-and-Advice-for-Savvy-Home-Buying-Selling-and-Financing-Without-the-Stress/55034
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Drama-Free Real Estate: Seller Tip #10
By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, FrontDoor.com
#10: Know your power. Understand what you can do to get your home sold, fast and at top dollar.
So much of the drama of selling a home is the sense of helplessness. It can feel like you're at the whim of the market, prospective buyers and even your local force of Realtors!
Not so -- in fact, you have a huge amount of power to control the outcome of your home selling experience. You actually make the decisions that have the most impact on whether your home sells, how fast it sells and what price you get for it.
It's all about the Benjamins. You and only you get to set the price, and the price is the single most important determinant of how fast and for how much your home sells. Now, look -- you know good and darn well from your own shopping experience -- both real estate and retail -- that a bargain-priced product catches your eye much more quickly than a regular priced product. Everyone wants a deal, so if you want your home to sell quickly, either price it lower than the similar houses on the market or make sure it is tricked out in features that buyers care about to warrant a premium price. The more buyers you lure into your house, statistically-speaking, the higher the price you'll get for it. If you price your home low, you'll get more buyers in it and maybe even get multiple offers. Yep, it happens -- even in this market, but it usually happens to great homes listed at low prices.
Conditional love. You get to choose what you are putting on the market: a contractor's special, a cosmetic fixer or a Pottery Barn-chic casa in move-in condition. If your home is in really bad shape, it's probably not cost- or time-effective to fix it for sale. But if it has one major issue that you can afford to fix, like replacing the roof or trading out the rotten windows with dual-paned, it might just be worth the effort. Talk to your Realtor first about how the repair might get you more money or help you get the place sold at all!
If your home has lots of little handyman projects that need to be fixed -- a hinky bathroom exhaust fan that sounds like a lawnmower; scuff-marked walls; or grungy, old-school cabinet hardware -- get them done! Homes that are almost "there" are the easiest ones to get some big upside out of a good sprucing up. But do interface with your Realtor on this, and coordinate your spruce up with her staging strategy.
To market, to market. You control how your home is marketed, because you pick your listing agent! Be smart and pick one with a strong marketing plan that has demonstrated success attracting buyers in your area. And don't ever mentally check out of the marketing process. Until your home is sold, go online periodically and have a look-see at how your home is being presented to web-surfing house hunters. If you don't like what you see, take it up with your Realtor. They aim to please and will usually work with you to tweak your home's marketing pieces till they reflect your home in as good a light as possible without using pics of someone else's house!
See, you have a lot more power over the sale of your home than you thought. Wield it wisely!
#10: Know your power. Understand what you can do to get your home sold, fast and at top dollar.
So much of the drama of selling a home is the sense of helplessness. It can feel like you're at the whim of the market, prospective buyers and even your local force of Realtors!
Not so -- in fact, you have a huge amount of power to control the outcome of your home selling experience. You actually make the decisions that have the most impact on whether your home sells, how fast it sells and what price you get for it.
It's all about the Benjamins. You and only you get to set the price, and the price is the single most important determinant of how fast and for how much your home sells. Now, look -- you know good and darn well from your own shopping experience -- both real estate and retail -- that a bargain-priced product catches your eye much more quickly than a regular priced product. Everyone wants a deal, so if you want your home to sell quickly, either price it lower than the similar houses on the market or make sure it is tricked out in features that buyers care about to warrant a premium price. The more buyers you lure into your house, statistically-speaking, the higher the price you'll get for it. If you price your home low, you'll get more buyers in it and maybe even get multiple offers. Yep, it happens -- even in this market, but it usually happens to great homes listed at low prices.
Conditional love. You get to choose what you are putting on the market: a contractor's special, a cosmetic fixer or a Pottery Barn-chic casa in move-in condition. If your home is in really bad shape, it's probably not cost- or time-effective to fix it for sale. But if it has one major issue that you can afford to fix, like replacing the roof or trading out the rotten windows with dual-paned, it might just be worth the effort. Talk to your Realtor first about how the repair might get you more money or help you get the place sold at all!
If your home has lots of little handyman projects that need to be fixed -- a hinky bathroom exhaust fan that sounds like a lawnmower; scuff-marked walls; or grungy, old-school cabinet hardware -- get them done! Homes that are almost "there" are the easiest ones to get some big upside out of a good sprucing up. But do interface with your Realtor on this, and coordinate your spruce up with her staging strategy.
To market, to market. You control how your home is marketed, because you pick your listing agent! Be smart and pick one with a strong marketing plan that has demonstrated success attracting buyers in your area. And don't ever mentally check out of the marketing process. Until your home is sold, go online periodically and have a look-see at how your home is being presented to web-surfing house hunters. If you don't like what you see, take it up with your Realtor. They aim to please and will usually work with you to tweak your home's marketing pieces till they reflect your home in as good a light as possible without using pics of someone else's house!
See, you have a lot more power over the sale of your home than you thought. Wield it wisely!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)