Mark Daya's Real Estate Blog

You can learn your home’s water footprint at the H2O Conserve Web site (www.h2oconserve.org).

For more green real-estate-related tips and discussion, visit C.A.R.’s green blog (http://www.car.org/blogs/) and C.A.R.’s Green Web site (http://green.car.org/).

Curb appeal, the first impression your home conveys to prospective buyers, should create an emotional desire to own the home and enjoy the lifestyle and status it represents.

Putting the best face on your home also should give a lasting impression that motivates buyers to cross the threshold and take that first step toward closing the deal.

Experts advise, more like a home improvement or exterior staging job than a cosmetic makeover, curb appeal that sings is particularly crucial now that more and more buyers are calling the shots.

Give your house model home level curb appeal for that “new” look and feel and buyers will beat a path to your door. That’s because there’s nothing like moving into a home that’s ready to go, free of the need for initial touch ups and free of the ghosts of owners past.

So how do you put a new face on your old home? With lots of attention to detail, in not one, but all the components that make your home stand out on the block.

New paint. There’s nothing like a fresh coat of paint to begin to give your home that “newly built” look, provided you don’t rush the job. Choose a contemporary color scheme that doesn’t clash with the neighborhood, but sets your home apart. Don’t just slather on a new coat over the old. Remove built up layers of paint before applying a new one. If you don’t need to remove existing paint, you do need to prepare the surface.

Exterior surfaces attract dirt and grime from dust and pollutants in the air and that will prevent new layers from adhering properly and cause peeling.

New landscaping. Well-manicured landscaping is the frame for your home’s curb appeal. The approach should be tidy, simple, healthy landscaping that’s proportional to your home. Know how your landscaping will appear once it’s matured.

From a practical sense, the plants and trees provide shade and passive cooling as they control erosion and pollution. They also provide privacy, especially if it’s a single-level home adjacent to two-story houses.

New roof. Some real estate agents advise against adding a new roof when sales are brisk, but topping off a complete curb appeal remodeling job, mandates a new roof, gutters and downspouts.

Today’s roofs can add contrasting color and textures to your home’s look. Affordability comes with multi-dimensional composition asphalt shingles in decorator colors. For something cheaper than the real thing, but just as unique, try simulated slate shingles to turn a bland tract home into a more appealing abode.

New paving. New sidewalks, driveways and other non-landscaped surfaces help pave the way to curb appeal. The choices are endless and inexpensive — concrete stamped with the impressions of cobblestones, interlocking concrete paving bricks, and more.

New doors, windows. Purposeful portals should make visitors feel welcome. New double doors, new energy-efficient windows framed with shutters, sectional garage doors with half moon or other interesting windows, all add the final curb appeal touches.

Written by Broderick Perkins

There are several factors that affect the real estate market as a whole. These factors can make the national market swing upward or downward. One is the employment expansion/shrinkage in the job market; secondly, is the availability of money to consumers; thirdly, is the size of the real estate inventory. When all of these come into alignment, you have a killer market that nothing can stop.

When one gets out of kilter, it can make the market stall, shrink or halt no matter how strong the other two. It’s a three-legged table, as it were. This is why even though you’ll hear the stories nationally about real estate, it’s not a national phenomenon. In the past year, 13 states have seen home sales price appreciation of more than 5 percent (National Association of Home Builders), as well as the number of home sales beating out the year before.

Real estate, like politics, is local. So before you get excited or scared about a particular housing market, look and analyze what’s going on locally to make a decision. With that said, there is a factor in preparing for a home purchase that both buyers and sellers have complete control over. Nothing about interest rates, inventory or employment will affect this factor — it’s called personal control.

There are more and more stories these days of buyers who have come forward to invest in their personal dwelling, but blow their own financial status because of a few missteps.

Just like a point man in a platoon who is plotting out the path for his team, when he comes up to a threatening position, he puts up his hand to signal for everyone to freeze in place. This is the position a buyer should take once s/he has put in a contract on a house and it’s been ratified, and the loan application is in position — pre-approved and ready to go forward.

Don’t move. Don’t switch your credit cards to another cheaper, no payment until next year offer. Don’t open new lines of credit in preparation for remodeling your new purchase. Don’t buy a new car, truck, van, motorcycle, RV, go-cart, etc.

Once your application for a mortgage has been approved and the lender has agreed to finance your purchase — your financial situation is in the middle of a balancing act. Don’t tip it. Even if you think it’s a good move — don’t do it. Even if what might make sense for you personally, financially, the move could cause a financial traffic jam.

A case occured last week where a buyer thought he would offer a larger down payment amount to make his application stronger — a few days before settlement. Not a bad idea, is it? Put another $10K down, save a $100 per month — that’s $1,200 per year. Huh-uh. No. Don’t do it. Once the earlier loan was canceled and the new loan opened, the backup halted seven closings that were waiting for the first purchase to go to settlement and start the domino effect.

That little financial move, as harmless as it may have sounded, made seven more people a little upset.

Then there was the purchaser who decided to get ready to redecorate her new condo by opening lines of credit for decorating, home improvement, etc. You guessed it; those little lines of credit tipped the scale just enough to delay her home purchase for several months.

The mortgage purification we’ve recently experienced has been good for real estate. At least we know now that when a buyer walks in with a pre-approval, they really do qualify. Just don’t be one of those who has a good income, great credit, but a hair-brained idea that could possibly ruin your deal.

Written by M. Anthony Carr

One way to prepare for the costs of owning a home beyond the mortgage payment, insurance and taxes, is to know the expected life expectancy of your home’s components.

Such knowledge doesn’t supersede the use of a home inspector when buying a home, new or old, but it can help you develop a savings plan so you are prepared for the inevitable.

Sooner or later you’ll have to repair or replace many of your home’s parts — inside and out.

Knowledge of components’ life expectancies is what homeowner associations use, in part, to build a reserve fund designed to spread, over time, the cost of the inevitable.

When the roof goes, the appliances conk out, or the paint begins to fade, it’s a lot easier to come up with the cash if you’ve already got some socked away for just this kind of rainy day.

Last year, the National Association of Home Builders, along with the Bank of America developed the “NAHB/BoA Home Equity Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components” to help you take the guess work out of preparing for the worst.

The report suggests you use the timelines as a general guideline. Local weather conditions, use habits, regular maintenance — or the lack of it — can all affect the life expectancy of many components.

Personal tastes for contemporary upgrades, remodeling needs and other factors may also dictate replacing parts before their useful life time is up.

In any event based on a comprehensive telephone survey of manufacturers, trade associations and researchers NAHB developed information about the longevity of housing components.

From the foundation to the rooftop, here’s a quick look at how long, on a national average, some of the most common home components are expected to last.

The U.S. Treasury Dept. announced yesterday it is providing additional funding to a California program to help homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments due to unemployment.  The program, administered through the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) will assist struggling borrowers make up to six months of mortgage payments.  Lenders will be asked to match the government contribution.

MAKING SENSE OF THE STORY FOR CONSUMERS

• The program aims to help 19,000 unemployed borrowers in California between its November launch and next July.  An additional 23,000 borrowers will receive help over the next two years, according to CalHFA estimates.

• To qualify for the program, borrowers must be unemployed and eligible for unemployment benefits, and live in the home tied to the mortgage.  Borrowers must be fewer than 90 days behind on mortgage payments and meet low- and moderate-income guidelines.  Income requirements can be found at http://keepyourhomecalifornia.com/income.pdf.

• CalHFA is focusing on providing aid to unemployed borrowers struggling with purchase loans, excluding refinanced loans.  According to CalHFA officials, it is too difficult to decide who “cashed out for a good reason and who didn’t.”

• More information about the CalHFA program, including eligibility, program summary, income requirements, and frequently asked questions, can be found at http://keepyourhomecalifornia.com.

To read the full story, please click here.