Consumer Guide: Ten Questions to ask a Buyer's Agent

For some people, cleaning is as natural as walking and breathing. But for the rest of us, it takes effort and probably some knowledge that we’re currently lacking. After all, it’s not such a big deal to clean a microwave, but for some reason it feels like it just seems to take forever. Here are a few tips and tricks for cleaning your household appliances! 

Microwave

STEP 1: Begin cleaning your microwave by placing a coffee mug or small bowl full of water and slices of lemon in the center and run the microwave on high for about three minutes, or until the liquid is turning to steam. This will help soften food splatter and the lemon smells nice. You can also use other citrus fruits or forego it entirely and use a drop of dish soap.

STEP 2: Take out the turntable and anything else that will come loose. You can toss these parts in the dishwasher or scrub them in the sink. 

STEP 3: Wipe down the walls of the microwave with a sponge, cloth or several paper towels, plus your favorite dish soap and water or all purpose cleaner. There’s not really a wrong way to clean a microwave. If you are already cleaning the inside, you might as well take some time to wipe down the outside as well! 

Garbage Disposal

STEP 1: Begin by turning on the garbage disposal while running some cold water to make sure there’s not any food left in the device.

STEP 2: If your garbage disposal has a removable baffle (the black part that’s just inside the drain) you can remove this to make the cleaning process easier. However is yours does not have a removable baffle skip this step!  

STEP 3: From this point cleaning a garbage disposal is really easy. Just clean your removable baffle and toss some citrus fruit inside. If it’s really smelly, drop some liquid dish soap inside and run the water until the bubbles stop.

Dishwasher

STEP 1: Get started by running an empty load with a measuring cup full of vinegar or bleach to start the process. These chemicals help eliminate chronic smells, you’ll be really happy you did. DO NOT USE DISH SOAP.

STEP 2: Remove the racks and anything else that comes loose, like cutlery baskets. Rinse them down in the bath tub or shower and give them a going over with soapy water and a sponge. Then go ahead and slide those bad boys back into the machine after you get them cleaned. 

STEP 3: First clean any screens that might be protecting food grinders or other moving parts. You can just wipe that out. Next you will need to clean the inside of the dishwasher. Your life will be immeasurably easier if you buy some dishwasher cleaner and use as directed to clean this inside area.

Refrigerator

STEP 1: Put food into a prepared cooler and turn the ice maker off.

STEP 2: Pull out the shelves and drawers at once and place them in or near the sink. 

STEP 3: Start with the empty fridge cavity and wipe everything down, from the top to the bottom. Warm, soapy water is fine for most residue, tough grime can be knocked out with all-surface cleaner. Next, do the door interiors. Now wash the shelves and drawers and leave them to dry. Once all of that is complete, put the fridge back together and repeat with the freezer. Change your water filter and turn the ice maker back on when you’re done. Wipe the fridge outside down last.​

With the sunny days of summer just around the corner, it’s hard to not let your thoughts turn to the cool, refreshing blue waters of a backyard pool. Maybe you’ve been considering putting a pool in for years or maybe it was just how hot it was last summer that has prompted your interest in being a pool owner. Either way there are likely aspects you’ve not considered.

A pool is hard to undo, which is why we’re going to address the top five need-to-know things about pool installation and ownership right now.

Pool Installation is Awful

Pools are really cool and fun to have! But only when you go into the whole process and future ownership with open eyes. A pool build is not for the faint of heart, for starters. Depending on the circumstances the process may literally destroy your entire back yard while the mess is being made. Grass will grow again, but in the meantime, it can seriously be the worst. While in the process of being set up there is such a mess that is created. If you can handle the stress, great. If not, your local gym or YMCA might have a pool you can use. They’ll take care of everything and it’ll spare your grass. For home buyers thinking they can save money by building their own pool rather than buying a house with one, this may be true. But this is a big project requiring a lot of dirt work, you may be happier to buy a house with a pool already installed.

The Less Obvious Points to Consider:

Digging a giant hole in your yard is clearly going to be a serious pain, but there are a few other points that aren’t as obvious. That’s what this is really about, after all. We want to be sure you’ve considered all the angles before taking the plunge.

“How much will this increase my home’s value?”

This is a question that real estate agents and appraisers get asked over and over. However, this is such a loaded question that it is really impossible to answer. How much a pool will effect the overall value of your home depends on the details. Here are just a few of the determining questions:

• What kind of pool?
• Is it in ground or above ground?
• What kind of neighborhood are you living in?
• Do a lot of homes in your market have pools?
• How long will you live in your home?
• What kind of equipment are you installing?

A pool is one of those items that you should consider to be a luxury purchase and not give a lot of care to whether or not it’ll pay for itself. A pool can simultaneously attract and terrify buyers, especially in the middle to low upper buying ranges. For a family with no small children, a pool might seem like a needed asset, but for a family with small children, it might be the single thing about your house that’s so wrong it can’t be made right.

Ask Permission, Not Forgiveness from the HOA

A lot of people go through life asking forgiveness for something they did that they knew was questionable to begin with. We’re not saying that’s you, just that this is a common practice among humans. The problem with this approach to pool building in a neighborhood with an HOA (which is most neighborhoods these days) is that if the HOA doesn’t like what you’re doing, you’ve spent a lot of money for a big muddy hole in the backyard. Find out if your HOA allows pools, even if your next door neighbor has one. The HOA rules can be changed by the membership. Learn the rules now before your end up learning a costly lesson. 

Budget Pool Buying is Worse Than No Pool

A lot goes into the decision to install a pool, including the cost of that cement pond. While you should be budget-aware, if budget is your driving factor you will not be happy with your pool. If you’re not happy with a purchase that can start around $20k and go up from there indefinitely, you might as well have not put it in. Pools are needy and have ongoing care and maintenance. They require you to constantly interact with them to keep them working properly. If budget is your first concern, the yearly costs may not figure in, either. Plus, there’s the bump in your insurance rates to consider. Having a pool is like having a sports car. Some people buy them and love them and can’t get enough. Some people want them, but realistically understand they can’t keep them in tip-top shape, so postpone the purchase. Some people buy the cheapest Porsche 911 they can find and then get frustrated that it’s constantly in the shop. Your pool priorities should begin with the purpose for the pool, the site location and appropriate equipment. Then you can start price comparing. There’s no reason to miss out on a deal, but buying the cheapest pool because it’s the only one you can fit in the budget is only going to end in disappointment.

One of the best parts of owning your own home is that you can do pretty much whatever you want when it comes to hanging things on the wall. You can let your creative side have a heyday with a hammer and a bunch of nails. For a lot of families, putting together a family picture wall is a high priority in their new homes. It can be a fun project that can be the very first of many happy memories in the new place.

Planning your family picture wall:

If you hop on Pinterest and search for “family picture wall,” you’re going to find an overwhelming number of ways to put one of these together. There’s no one way to do a family picture wall, since every family is different. There are lots of things to consider while you’re planning your wall, though. Begin by doing some real prep work to ensure that your wall turns out as special as what you have envisioned. Here are a few tips that can help:

Pick a theme - You need something concrete to get you started in the planning stage. Choosing a theme can be a good place to start, this will give you the best idea of what images to choose. A theme could be anything from “vacation photos” to “photos with the color blue in them.” The best photo walls have some kind of unifying theme, choose one before you get started.

Use technology to simulate your photo wall - There are several apps that give you the capability to not just imagine what an image or set of images will look like on your wall, it actually can virtually add those photos to the wall using augmented reality. 

Choosy kids choose cool frames - The frames you choose are just as important as the images. If you’re looking for something pretty unusual, you can search flea markets and antique shops for old frames with unique designs. If you can’t find anything that you are liking, you can get creative and use trim from your local home improvement stores to build your own frames.

Sometimes, fewer is better - Family picture walls can get pretty overwhelming fast. Instead of hanging every photo you’ve ever taken of your kids, pick the two best from now and the two best from their early childhood. Capture those moments that really meant something and remember that sometimes less is way more. 

As spring comes and the snow begins to melt another cycle of real estate begins. If you’re considering listing your home this year, it’s definitely not too late to get started. March and April can be great months for putting your house in front of prospective buyers, but the summer months are also great times to sell. Regardless of your timing, there are a few things you need to do right now to start getting ready to list. It’s not as simple as sticking a sign in the yard and waiting for the calls to roll in. Making sure that both you and your home are show ready will help turn the odds in your favor when its time to put it on the market.

Here is a quick checklist of what you are going to want to do before selling your home:

• Hire a Realtor - Selling a home is a complicated process that really demands an expert, this is why 91 percent of home sellers used a realtor in 2017. When your try selling your home without a realtor you can be facing some serious financial risks since you don't have the education in real estate law. Since realtors are very experienced when it comes to selling houses they often will be able to point out items that are big turn-offs to buyers. This will give you a head start fixing up some cosmetic stuff before your house is ready to show.
• Start decluttering - If you have to sell your home in order to buy the next, you’re going to be living in a showroom for the next few months. Take anything you don’t really need immediately and put it in a storage unit. Get it away from your house because pushing clutter around doesn’t really help anything. Declutter as much as you can bear to — it’ll make your house look bigger and more appealing to prospective buyers
• Build your homes curb appeal - How your home looks from the street is one of the first things potential buyers will see. The better the curb appeal, the more likely potential buyers will come inside and look around. The interesting thing about curb appeal is how certain elements of your house affect the whole picture. 
• Spruce up the landscaping - As you are building your curb appeal make sure that your landscaping is up to par as well. Prune any unruly plants, replace perennials that may have patchy growth, refresh your mulch, give the lawn a mow. Now that your landscape is radiating amazing curb appeal, keep it that way until your home closes. If you need to hire a landscaper, consider it an investment.
• Get copies of your utility bills - People will ask what kind of utility costs are associated with your home. Does it just burn through the natural gas? Does the electricity use seem excessive? This is another place where you can get ahead of potential buyers by putting this information together and giving it to your Realtor on the day you sign your listing agreement.
• Deep clean like you’ve never cleaned before - Painting is a quick fix to renewing your home’s interior, however deep cleaning is a less expensive alternative and can result in a better overall effect. For example, if you clean your windows, inside and out until they’re super clean, you’ll immediately notice how much more natural light penetrates the room.

Early spring is an amazing time for many gardeners, as well as those that want to be one. During this time plants are beginning to wake from their long winter's sleep. Although a lot of people sit back and wait for their plants to do whatever it is that they do in early spring, others, like you, are eager to help them be all they can be this year.

Many homeowners just let their plants come and go as they please. Due to this minimal care for plants, many varieties will start to die off from neglect. Obviously, you’re looking to do a bit more to help your plants get off to a good start. If you are consistently maintaining your landscape it will be healthier, live longer and produce more ornamental flowers than those of the neighbors who don't tend to their plants as often. 

Reduce the risk of early season fungus:

There are a variety of herbaceous that can survive the winter in many climates if they’re tucked in under a layer of organic mulch that’s two to four inches deep. While mulch protects them from drying out or freezing when it’s cold, once these types of plants start to grow in the spring, that life-saving mulch can become a real enemy. It’s vital that you pull back the mulch from your plants every few days to check for green growth above ground. Once you see it, hollow a moat out between the plant and the mulch. Make sure no mulch is touching the new growth and that the moat you’ve scooped is about two inches wide to allow for further safe development. Several opportunistic fungi will take advantage of young, green growth that’s constantly touching something moist, like that mulch. There’s a fine line here, tread carefully.

Test and amend your soil:

If you have a garden plot and failed to fertilize it in the fall, now is the time to get to it. As soon as you can work the soil, this is a great opportunity to take several samples and use a home test kit to determine the condition of the soil. This will give you some kind of idea about the condition that your soil is in, as well as an idea of what you can do to fix any problems. For example, you may find that your soil is low in nitrogen, a vital nutrient for plants that grow a lot of leaves very quickly, like your lawn. In this case, you’ll follow the instructions for feeding the type of plant you intend to place in the tested area, using a precise amount of fertilizer, so as not to encourage long, spindly growth in those eager plants. Most established perennials are fine with fertilizer that’s mixed into the top two to five inches of soil, but always check before you get too wild with it. A few species may have unusual reactions, including but not limited to developing an overall burned or wilted look due to root destruction. Never apply more fertilizer than necessary due to the risk of runoff and pollution of waterways.

Turn on those sprinklers! 

Once the nighttime temperatures are consistently above freezing, you’re ready to turn the water back on. Your plants will appreciate the long, deep drink and you’ll be happy to not have to water each one by hand. Remember, when turning irrigation systems back on after being drained, do so slowly. Opening the value too quickly can result in a high-pressure water surge that can rupture sprinkler heads or burst fittings. Be prepared to turn the system back off if a surprise freeze creeps on, but waiting as long as possible to get the irrigation started again is also a fairly safe bet.

Hot water is one of the very best things that civilization has brought to us. This is why we should all care for and protect the equipment that makes it possible! Whether it is done as a bit of regular maintenance or because you are about to leave a home unoccupied, draining your hot water heater is one of the simplest ways to keep it in great shape.

Why you should drain your hot water heater:

Many water supplies contain random minerals in all different quantities that can result in your water being considered "hard" if they build up enough. Over time, these minerals settle down in the bottom of your hot water heater. This layer of minerals will become thicker and eventually interfere with the function of the appliance. Before you reach that point, you can flush out your water heater. How often you flush depends on many factors including the size of the hot water heater and how often it is used.  A good rule of thumb is to flush your water heater every six to 12 months, whether you think it needs it or not. It’s better to wash those particles out before they become a problem. There are also other reasons that you would need to drain your hot water heater other then just for the flushing of particles. You can also drain them to prepare a home that is going to be sitting vacant for a significant period of time. Draining is also a very important step to winterizing vacant homes. 

How to drain a hot water heater: 

Draining a hot water heater is a really simple process. The hardest part is working with water hot enough to scald you. So before you get started you can grab some thick dish washing gloves or some other form of hand protection. With your skin adequately protected, draining or flushing your hot water heater is a piece of cake. Just follow these steps:

1. Turn off the water heater. If it’s electric, flip the breaker; for gas units, turn the gas off or set the unit to “pilot.”
2. Wait patiently for the water to cool a bit. The longer you give it, the safer you’ll be. (You can skip this step, but do so with caution)
3. Turn the cold water off. You can’t drain a water heater that’s constantly filling up!
4. Open some faucets. Pick a faucet or two close to the water heater and turn the hot side on and leave it on until you’re totally done with the draining portion of the show. This helps speed up the draining and prevents vacuums from forming in the pipes.
5. Attach a water hose. It’ll screw onto the brass drain valve near the bottom of the unit.
6. Pick a spot to dump the water. There’s a lot of water about to come out of that hose, so choose your disposal option carefully. Outdoors is a good place to run the hose (just not too close to the house), but if you can’t reach that far, a sump pit, floor drain or big bucket will do.
7. Open the valve! If you’re flushing the hot water heater, then let it run a few gallons at a time into a bucket so you can tell when the sediment has finished coming out of the unit.

If you’re draining your hot water heater because you’re leaving the house empty for a while, you’re essentially done with the water heater now. If you’re flushing sediment, keep going until you see the water run clear, then do all those steps in reverse for a hot water heater with shiny clean insides and hot water.

Drones are the equivalent of an unmanned aircraft that flies through the air as it communicates with a ground based controller. Making their mark in areas such as package delivery, agriculture, photography, and even in safety. It turns out drones also have many different applications in the field of real estate. For example, home inspectors have started to use them for roof inspections. This allows for not only a film that saves the current record of the roofs condition, but this also makes it a lot safe for the inspector by not requiring them to climb up onto a slippery roof. Real estate agents have also started to take advantage of this  incredible technology as well. Drones have help agents improve the overall story they're trying to tell about a property by providing very clear photos and videos of homes. Here are a few ways that drones have helped out in the field. 

• Improve the overall pictures of the property. As more buyers are searching on real estate websites to preview and eliminate homes, it becomes very important that agents provide the most complete pictures possible. Drones can be used to provide a virtual tour for potential buyers, showing them the relative size of areas around the house. Not only can they provide an indoor tour but also can allow you to see the neighborhood from a birds eye view. This overview will give viewers an idea of what is in reasonable walking distance, as well as the problematic houses in the neighborhood. Ultimately, drones are adding more ways for buyers to get a good picture of the house in question.
•  

Here is a great example of a drone videos we have had made for one of our sellers:

There are many different things that you can do to prepare your home for being placed on today's growing market. Decluttering is one of the most inexpensive and easy ways to catch the eye of potential buyers. Another advantage to decluttering is that it can help prepare you to move and even help get rid of some of the items you really don’t need anymore anyway. This can be a large project but make sure that you always start by making a plan. Making your home appear as large and functional as possible within the provided space should be your main goal when decluttering. Removing the clutter from around the house will create the more open feel that most buyers are searching for. Here are a few tips to help you stay focused:

Start by considering what your potential buyers are going to see first when they walk into your home. Of course they will first notice the outdoor aspects of your home such as the yard, driveway, and even the front door. These areas should be well maintained so that it encourages people to come inside rather than drive away. Starting this cleaning process around the exterior of your home so that you don't waste money on the interior for potential buyers to be turned off by what they see outside.

Focus on One Room at a Time It is important that for each room you make a list of what you plan to do. Lists can be made on paper or you could even download an app on your phone to help you plan for big projects like this. Break the large task into the smallest chunks possible to make it easier to accomplish. The more you check off, the better you’ll feel and the more momentum you’re going to build to keep going.

Furniture Having a living room full of furniture can be great for when the family gets together, however it can be a turn off to buyers when they enter the house because they aren't seeing a different way the space in the room could be used due to the crowding of furniture. Get as much of the furniture out of the way and leave the pieces that are the nicest or the newest for the very best first impression.

Counter Space Counter tops can very easily turn into storage space when you own a home. However, before putting your house on the market try to tidy up those counter tops because potential buyers will see this and will assume that there isn't enough storage provided. No potential buyer will be looking for a house without the proper amount of storage, the search for the right amount of storage could be the reason they're moving in the first place.

Garage and Storage Spaces These are great places to store things that you aren't quite ready to get rid of but don't know where to put it. Your potential buyers are going to be trying to picture their own belongings in that space. Installing shelves or racks can help to give an appearance of organization within the room.

After you have completed the decluttering process you will need to sort through everything you've removed from your home and decide what to do with it. Items can be resold, put into a storage unit, recycled, or even donated. We hope that these tips will help you through the process of decluttering your home and preparing it for the market.

When buying a new home there are always a few things that you would rather upgrade than keep. Flooring is typically one of those things you can live with but an upgrade would pull that room together. Whether it is your kitchen hardwood or your bedroom carpet it is typically an easy fix, especially if you have the flooring replaced before you start moving in. Although getting that new floor installed is rather easy, it is picking out the new material that can be tough.

Whether you have owned your home for a while or you are buying a new house, deciding what material to use can be pretty stressful. There are so many options available and within those an even larger variety of materials, colors, and designs.

Carpet This is the typical go to for living areas and bedrooms, wall-to-wall carpet has been a popular flooring choice for a over a century. When choosing your next carpet look for the best mid-grade carpet you can afford. Make sure to get the right carpet pad as well, this will insure that you get the longest life possible out of them both. A few of the most popular places for carpet in your home are bedrooms, offices, and living rooms.

Tile  Today’s tile comes in a huge variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, but it all has one thing in common: it’s nearly indestructible when installed properly. The two different categories of tile are wall tile and floor tile. When choosing a tile make sure that you have kept in mind how uneven your floor is. Typically smaller tiles are more forgiving of uneven floors. When a tile doesn’t make full contact with the mortar bed, it will come loose, then others will follow. A few popular spaces for tile in your home are high traffic areas such as kitchens, bathrooms, dining rooms, mudrooms and laundry rooms.

Wood Wood floors are timeless and sturdy and come in both solid wood and engineered formats. Solid wood floors give you a floor that’s completely seamless. Many people choose prefinished wood floors to make installation easier, but unfinished wood floors are still available. Engineered wood floors are made from layers of wood and plywood. Although they have the look of finished solid wood floors they are overall not as durable. Some of the most common places for wood flooring throughout the house are entryways, kitchens, living rooms, and dining rooms.

Laminate  Laminate flooring is a very durable, flexible and affordable hard surface for all sorts of homes and situations. Being very similar to engineered wood flooring, laminate flooring consists of several layers of materials. Unlike a wood floor, laminate floors are installed without glue or nails, which is why some people still refer to them as “floating floors.” Because the material is designed as tongue and groove boards, everything fits tightly as your jigsaw puzzle of a floor is constructed. When it’s done, all that’s required to hold it in place is properly installed trim. Laminate flooring is common in many places throughout your home especially kitchens and bathrooms.

It can be very easy to overlook the widows in your home, whether you have just purchased your home or you've owned it for a while now. You probably know that a lot of glass and natural light is awesome, but it comes at a cost. As windows age and homes settle, windows will slowly begin to misshape overtime. However this process happens so slowly that you don't really seem to notice until those cold winds start blowing into your home. 

When it comes to replacing the big things in your house, windows are pretty huge chore. Replacing your windows compares to the work of getting a new roof or trying to retile your kitchen floor. Eventually overtime all of these jobs will need to be done, however there are occasions where you may be able to fix stuff overtime rather than all at once! Replacing all the windows in your home can be a huge investment that won't reap the greatest return. So before you decide to go out window shopping make sure that you are confident that new windows is exactly what you need. Here are a list of questions that will help you decide if purchasing new windows is the right move after all.

1. Are your energy bills climbing or already high? If your utility bills are showing a significant rise over the last few years windows are often the culprit. This usually occurs from an increased use of power or gas from a home. In order to figure out just where this energy loss is coming from an infrared camera can come in handy! 
2. Are they tricky to open or won’t stay open without a prop? Really old windows may have a problem staying open because their corded weights have broken after decades of use and fallen into the interior space between the window and the wall. Newer windows might refuse to close because they’ve shifted ever so slightly. Either way, these are windows that are a huge pain to operate. That alone can be a good reason to replace them.
3. Do you wake up to condensation between the window glass panes? If there just happens to be a small amount of condensation this isn't anything to really worry about, however if this is a reoccurring problem and it lasts throughout the day the window pane seal has most likely been broken. Sometimes you can contact the manufacturer and order a replacement pane, although once ordered it can be difficult to install and a bit pricey, which is why many people choose new windows at this stage. Having a window with a busted seal is one that’s will cost you serious cash. 
4. Is there extensive damage? Sometimes the damage to your windows can’t really be seen until you open them up, examine moving parts closely and, when necessary, remove some trim to look for rot that’s hidden inside the wall. Small sections of damage can sometimes be repaired, but larger areas indicate that you need to fix whatever caused the damage in the first place and then replace that window with one that’s new and healthy.

If you go over the problems above and find out that your windows don't actually need to be replaced and you are just having a problem with heat loss, here are a few different things that you can do to maximize the efficiency of your windows during the cold winter months.

• Winterize your windows by going around the outside of the house and sealing any cracks that you might find. Applying a new bead of caulk around each window will also help with reducing the drafts you are feeling inside your home. 
• Put up window insulation film as a temporary fix for the winter. Window film can be installed on the cold windows in question. When installed properly, you can barely tell there’s anything between the room and the window.
• Installing heavy curtains will help reduce both heat loss and drafts.