Archives for March 2012

How to Enhance the Curb Appeal of Your House

four house exteriors with dramatic upgrades

Maximize Your Home Value

It’s a back-to-basics economy, but that doesn’t mean you should let your house be anything less than a pleasure to come home to. A welcoming exterior can put a spring in your step each time you climb the stoop. Adding the right elements can increase your daily comfort, too. Fixing up a front porch to lounge on during the hot summer months or swapping a failing roof for something new that’s also maintenance-free makes your space more enjoyable—and shortens your to-do list.

Quality upgrades continue to add value. Home prices may have dropped, but the return on remodeling investments remains strong, according to the National Association of Realtors. Not surprisingly, exterior improvements still lead the pack in terms of biggest bang for the buck, with siding and windows paying you back over 75 percent of their cost upon resale.

But it isn’t only major projects that make a difference. Whether it’s investing in a good faux version of a real, and really expensive, material like wrought iron or switching in new hardware to freshen your front, the following pages are packed with small ways to spruce up your exterior on any budget. After all, there’s never a wrong time to make your home more of a haven.

Read the rest here at ThisOldHouse.com

5 Things to Look For in a Retirement Home

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The City of The Future [Interactive]

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click image to see what the future holds

New WA State Law: Carbon Monoxide Alarms Required To Sell Owner-Occupied Homes

41HBD0VB2aL._SL500_AA300_A new law regarding carbon monoxide alarms in Washington homes has created many questions about which real estate transactions it affects.  Here’s what you need to know about the requirements:

As of April 1, 2012, sellers of owner occupied single family homes, condos and mobile homes must install carbon monoxide alarms prior to closing.

  • Listing agent needs to let the seller know, at the time of listing, that they will be required to install carbon monoxide alarms.

  • Appraisers will be looking for the alarms and expecting them to be installed before closing.  To eliminate transactional challenges, this is best done prior to the appraisal.  

  • Bank Owned properties will not have to comply as the property is vacant.

  • Short Sale Sellers that are occupying the home will have to install the alarms.

  • The sale of homes built after January 1, 2011 should not be affected as they should already have the alarms installed.  Building code has required them since that date.

Housing Is ‘Awakening From Hibernation,’ Freddie Says

bear_stops_hibernatingAn improving economy is contributing to a gradual rebound in home prices across the country, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac’s 2012 Economic Outlook report, released Wednesday. But there is still a way to go in the road to recovery for the housing market, the report noted.

“The housing market is showing some signs of shaking off the depression-like conditions that have plagued it for much of the past few years,” according to the report. “As if awakening from hibernation, housing starts and home sales moved to higher levels of activity.”

In fact, the signs have prompted Freddie Mac to revise its forecast upwards for home sales and originations. One economic contributor that’s helping to stabilize housing: The drop in the unemployment rate to 8.3 percent, its lowest level in three years, according to the report.

“A variety of encouraging indicators suggest that the housing market may be feeling a nascent recovery … and more neighborhoods may see a stabilization in overall demand and housing values this spring,” says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

Median home sale prices are up, despite a slight drop in new and existing home sales, Freddie Mac reports. About a half of the increase in housing starts has been for construction of rental apartments in multi-unit buildings to meet the increasing demand, the report notes. New rental construction, at its current pace, is expected to reach its highest level since 2005.

“Housing starts continue to run below net household formations [and will allow for absorption of existing vacant homes],” according to the report.

Source: “Freddie Mac: Economic Growth Expected to Stabilize Housing Market,” Dow Jones Newswires (March 28, 2012)

Updated LinkedIn Feature Makes Connecting Easier

LinkedIn has updated the algorithm to their "People You May Know" feature, making results more streamlined, relevant, and most importantly accurate so that connections are much easier to find and make.

1x1.trans Updated LinkedIn feature makes connecting easier

Updated LinkedIn feature is a huge improvement

LinkedIn announced an update to the People You May Know feature to be rolled out to all users in the coming weeks to better connect users based on their affiliations. The company says that since their original launch, “this powerful feature has helped millions of professionals discover and grow their professional network with personalized and relevant suggestions of people you may know and should connect with.”

The interface is more streamlined and uses tiles with users’ faces and basic information, narrowed down by different parts of your professional life. LinkedIn’s goal was to make it easier to find and connect with people in your network. Our team tried it out today and was surprised at how many people were not already in our networks that should have been, indicating to us that the feature is most definitely improved.

The company said in a statement, “Behind the scenes, our algorithm identifies people you may want to connect with based on factors like your existing network, past workplaces, and where you’ve gone to school. With these changes, you’ll see more relevant results as you scroll down the page.”

These improvements will be rolled out to all users soon, but if you’re impatient like me, you can get early access to the new feature here.

Modern day dads vs. their 1965 counterparts

Since I was born in 1965, I was curious about the comparison.

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Now THIS Is A Treehouse

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Тhе design studio Paz Arquitectura frоm Guatemala сrеаtеd this sреctаculаr house in a hillside fоrеst in the Santa Rosalia аrеа оf Guatemala City.

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4 Reasons Why Our Seattle Real Estate Market Is In Good Shape

71dfvlgou0xgnej_400I was in a conversation with someone today asking about the future of real estate. There is so many horror stories that it is easy to get lost in the negative emotions, and miss the fundamentals of what constitutes a healthy real estate market.

Here’s what is going on in the greater Seattle area as it pertains to real estate. 4 reasons to have a positive outlook on our market.

  1. Inventory levels are as low as they have been in 7 years. Though there are a variety of reasons for this, the amount of homes impacts prices and consumer action.

  2. Due to the recession, there has been very little new construction over the past 5 years. Thought builders are coming back into the market, it takes time for the homes to be built. In the areas with quality new construction, builders are raising prices.

  3. Local economy is healthy and improving. Jobs (tech and others – Boeing has 32 years worth of planes to build) and migration (Washington is #5 in the Nation in migration rates) point to a pent-up demand and lack of inventory.

  4. There’s been a lot of talk about “Shadow Inventory” (homes that haven’t been foreclosed yet but will eventually be sold at auction). Lenders aren’t going to hurt their own best interests by “flooding the market”, it’s not going to happen. In most cases, the investors who purchase foreclosed properties are holding the properties as rentals. There will always be foreclosures; the smart money is on a balanced drip of homes into the marketplace.

A graph of Seattle for the past 7 years (by quarter).

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