E-Newsletter Archive

August 2004

Making Kindling I'm sure you've been working on your wood for the upcoming colder season, right? Don't forget about the next step, making kindling. Here's a tip that will save your fingers from accidentally being chopped off. Once the wood is split, use a long pair of sturdy kitchen tongs to grasp the wood. I like using cedar. You'll find you can wield the hand axe more comfortably and you can keep a safer distance from your fingers. You should still wear eye protection and steel-tipped toe boots.

Should sellers repair defects before selling? After years of living in a home, it's easy to fall into a habit of overlooking home maintenance chores. If there's no urgency, many homeowners procrastinate. Often problems don't get fixed until a major disaster occurs like a roof leak in the middle of a monsoon. more How to keep wildfires at bay With summer’s heat in the air, wildfires become a threat to all of us. more When the house comes to you What do you do if you find a home to buy before you're ready? more

Should sellers repair defects before selling?

After years of living in a home, it's easy to fall into a habit of overlooking home maintenance chores. If there's no urgency, many homeowners procrastinate. Often problems don't get fixed until a major disaster occurs like a roof leak in the middle of a monsoon.

Deferred home maintenance can become a problem, however, when you decide to sell. Most buyers want to buy homes they can move right into without having to make a lot of repairs. Sellers need to decide before they put their home on the market whether to fix deferred repairs or leave the work for a future buyer to do.

Usually sellers who have the time, money and inclination will do better on the sale of their home if they fix problems before they list their home for sale. A home that is in move-in condition is one that appeals to a broad audience of prospective homebuyers. First-time homebuyers, and buyers with busy lifestyles, often won't consider buying a home that needs a lot of work. They haven't the time or experience to deal with the problems.

The listings that are in the best condition are in the highest demand. They can attract serious attention from more than one buyer. If multiple offers occur, the price sometimes gets bid up. Regardless of whether there are multiple offers, a house that is in good condition will usually sell more quickly than one that needs work. And a quick sale often results in a selling price that is close to the list price.

Sellers who don't make needed repairs before putting their homes on the market may have difficulty selling, depending on how much work is needed. Because "fixer-upper" homebuyers make up a small portion of the homebuyer market, there will be less overall interest in the property than there would be in a similar property that is fixed up. If your home needs a lot of work, it could take a long time to sell and it might sell for considerably less than it would fixed-up. Usually the longer a listing sits on the market unsold, the lower the ultimate selling price.

Selling a home that needs a lot of work could delay the closing if the buyer's lender requires that the work be completed as a condition of granting the mortgage.

One homeowner sold a home that needed about $25,000 of termite and dry rot repair. The buyer's lender said the work had to be completed by close. The buyer and seller both wanted a quick close. But the job was so extensive, and combined with intermittent delays due to rain, it took about two months to complete the work.

FIRST-TIME TIP: Most sellers can't afford to fix everything that's wrong with their home before listing it for sale. It's important to prioritize to make sure that your money is spent on repairs that will have the most positive impact on prospective buyers.

Call a knowledgeable real estate agent in your area for a consultation. Complete a walk-through of your home with the agent, with pen and pad in hand. List all the improvements the agent suggests you complete before selling. Then ask him or her to order the list in terms of most and least important. Then ask how much difference it will make in terms of selling price if you complete none, some or all of the recommended repairs.

THE CLOSING: The amount of time and money you have usually determines how much work gets done.

Dian Hymer is author of "Starting Out, The Complete Home Buyer's Guide," Chronicle Books, Revised 1998.

Copyright 1998 Dian Hymer

Distributed by Inman News Features

How to keep wildfires at bay

With summer’s heat in the air, wildfires become a threat to all of us.

From rural acreage to crowded suburbs, living anywhere on the edge of our country’s natural beauty can put you and your home at risk for hot, fast-moving wildfires – a risk that grows steadily as summer moves on and the landscape continues to dry. To minimize that risk, firefighting professionals encourage homeowners to take some simple precautions.

CREATE A NON-COMBUSTIBLE ZONE

One of the most important things you can do to protect your home is to create a non-combustible zone around it, extending out for at least 30 feet in all directions. A non-combustible zone, as the name implies, is a well-planned, well-maintained area that is as free as possible of combustible materials that could support the spread of a wildfire.

This doesn’t mean you need to strip the land of any vegetation and cover it with concrete. Here are a few easy and common-sense suggestions.

• Use fire-resistant landscaping. Within the 30-foot zone, use fire-resistant landscaping such as lawns, moist ground-cover plantings and low shrubbery.
• Trim trees. Any trees within the zone should be thinned so that they’re no less than 10 feet apart, which helps prevent the spread of a fire from tree to tree, and dead trees should be removed as well. All remaining trees need to be limbed to a height of at least 6 feet, which helps prevent a ground fire from spreading up into them.
• Move combustibles. Another important element of the non-combustible zone is to move combustible materials away from the house. This includes firewood, scrap lumber, flammable liquids such as gas cans and propane bottles, and other materials that could potentially feed a fire.
• Use fire-safe roofing. In a wildfire situation, the single most vulnerable part of your home is the roof. Wind-blown embers landing on a dry wood roof can ignite it in seconds, and spread quickly. Whether you’re building a new home or reroofing your existing one, make use of fire-resistant or fire-treated roofing materials, and consider doing the same with your siding.

MAINTAIN THE ZONE

Once you’ve established your non-combustible zone, you need to maintain it. Keep your lawn watered, and mow it regularly – a low, moist lawn is extremely difficult to ignite, and offers excellent protection against the spread of a fire. Keep weeds to a minimum, especially in areas without a lot of water where dense weeds can quickly become tinder-dry.

Don’t allow yard debris to accumulate, including grass clippings, tree limbs, plant prunings and other materials that might otherwise pile up near the house and then dry out and become a fire hazard. Consider starting a compost pile, or hauling your yard debris to a landfill for recycling.

Fire-resistant or not, another important task is to keep your roof and gutters free of dead leaves and pine needles. Check the roof regularly during the summer, and remove any accumulation of dry material immediately. Trim overhanging branches to minimize future accumulation (to also to protect the roof in winter storms). And remember that just sweeping it off the roof isn’t enough – you need to get it outside the zone.

HELP EMERGENCY CREWS

Now take a moment to look at your home from the eye of a firefighter or other emergency crew that needs to get to you.

• Is your address clearly marked and clearly visible from a distance?
• Can fire trucks and emergency vehicles easily access your property?
• Do you have valuable papers and irreplaceable family items like photo albums in a convenient location so as to minimize your time and risk in the event you need to evacuate your home?
• Do you and your family have an evacuation plan? All family members should know what to do and where to assemble in the event of an evacuation, including rounding up and caring for pets.

It may seem like a remote possibility, but it pays to be prepared. Take a little time this weekend to look around the inside and the outside of your house, and make plans now to turn your home into a safe and fire-resistant zone.

When the house comes to you

Dian Hymer

What do you do if you find a home to buy before you're ready?

Joe and Chris rented a house for a couple of years. In fact, they had discussed buying it from the current out-of-area owner should she ever decide to sell.

On short notice, from the tenant's standpoint, the landlord called to inform Joe and Chris that she needed to sell the house, quickly for personal reasons. Knowing that Joe and Chris where fond of the home, the landlord offered the tenants the first right to buy the home before she listed it on the open market.

This news was met with mixed-blessings by Joe and Chris who had actually been thinking of making a home purchase in about a year when they felt financially more secure. Chris had just finished graduate school and was beginning a new career. Joe had a longer job history, but savings were a bit skimpy considering the price of the home and the various costs associated with buying a home (typically called "closing costs").

Buying a home usually requires a cash down payment of about 3 to 20 percent of the purchase price plus closing costs, which can include such items as loan origination fees, homeowner's insurance, interest charges, transfer taxes (where they apply), and title and settlement charges (some of which may be paid by the sellers, depending on the location).

Getting the cash together was a scramble. But it was accomplished by combining gift money from parents and borrowing against Joe's 401K retirement plan.

FIRST-TIME TIP: A major issue for Joe and Chris was whether or not the seller's asking price was reasonable for the market. As much as the tenants liked the house, they didn't want to overpay for it. So they enlisted the aid of a couple of agents who gave them a tour of homes listed for sale in the area. Joe and Chris looked at homes within the immediate area as well as homes in other areas that might suit their needs. They also considered homes that were less expensive which would have made the purchase more affordable.

After reviewing the available inventory, they decided that they would be willing to pay more for location, even though there weren't many comparable sales in the neighborhood of homes exactly like the one they were considering buying. For extra protection, they included a provision in the purchase agreement that required the home to appraise for the purchase price. The home did appraise, but if it hadn't, Joe and Chris could have pulled out of the deal, probably without losing their deposit money.

To add to their comfort level, Joe and Chris used due diligence in selecting inspectors to examine the house for them to make sure that they were aware of the property condition. As tenants, they did have the benefit of living in the home for a time so they were aware of some problems that needed correcting.

But, as is often the case, unanticipated defects were discovered during the inspection process. The chimney was cracked at the roofline and there were several areas of water penetration through the exterior, which had created dry-rot problems. And the exterior needed sealing and painting.

THE CLOSING: The buyers and seller were able to work out an amiable resolution to these property problems. The seller agreed to complete some repair work before the closing. In addition, she credited a sum of money to the buyers at closing so that they would have the cash necessary to fix some of the other defects after closing.