Archive for category General Info
Vote for your Favorite Design
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on February 27, 2010
The 2010 Desgin Challenge from the National Kitchen and Bath Association (“NKBA”) offers you a chance to vote for your favorite Kitchen and Bath designs. The design challenge presents ten kitchens and ten baths and you are asked to vote online for the best design. It is interesting to see the various
Link to the 2010 Design Challenge
| 2009 Bath Finalists | 2009 Kitchen Finalists |
New DIY Management site from NAR
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on February 19, 2010
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The National Association of REALTORS® has opened their new Do-It-Yourself site, houselogic.com. According to the houselogic.com home page: “HouseLogic is a free source of information and tools that can help you make smart and timely decisions about your home. With content covering home improvement, maintenance, taxes, finance, insurance, and even ways you can get involved in and enrich your community, HouseLogic can help you increase and protect the value of your home by helping you make confident decisions.” The site looks like it could be really useful for planning and for project ideas. If you’re the DIY-type, or if you’re looking for maintenance or home improvement ideas, it’s worth taking a trip over to houselogic.com. |
Do you know ‘Green’ Real Estate?
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on February 11, 2010
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REALTOR Magazine has built an online quiz to test your knowledge of Green Real Estate. More and more people are becoming interested in energy efficiency and construction practices that are environmentally friendly. You can use this quiz to test your Green Knowledge. To take the test, click this link to the REALTOR Magazine Quiz. |
Sample Question #1:
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Six ways to ensure remodeling pays off
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on February 5, 2010
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From the CNNMoney.com website, Josh Garskof (a Money Magazine contributing writer) provides six new rules for making remodeling projects payoff. As he observes, it was not too long ago that any project done correctly and within a reasonable budget would yield a payoff for the homeowner. It may not be that simple today, and Josh provides his quick primer with these simple rules: |
If you would like to see Josh’s explanation of the rules, follow this link to the CNNMoney.com website for the full article. |
Home Trends – 12 Hot Home Ideas
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on February 3, 2010
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Really interesting article in REALTOR Magazine about the hot trends in home design and gadgets. Follow this link to the read the complete article. The top three ideas are:
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Homebuilders expect a better 2010
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on January 20, 2010
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The U.S. Commerce Department released their information about home builders, housing starts and construciton permits issued for December 2010. According to the Christian Science Monitor:
You can link to the Christian Science Montor’s complete article by clicking this link. |
Wall Street Journal – Most viewed in ‘09
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on January 3, 2010
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The Wall Street Journal consolidated their most popular “House of the Day” listings into a single slide show of the Top Ten Houses. Interesting homes including Bernie Madoff’s beach house, and a 22,000 square foot home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Take a look and read the captions. It’s really interesting information. You can click here to access the Wall Street Journal’s most popular “House of the Day” for 2009. The Wall Street Journal’s House of the Day home page can be accessed by clicking here. |
9 of 10 Use Search Today – 4 of 10 in 1999
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on January 1, 2010
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The REALTOR Magazine web site published a list of “Dramatic Developments” for the past decade. Of particular interest was the information about internet usage for real estate activity in 1999 vs. 2009. Quoting the REALTOR Magazine article: “In 1999, buyers who went online in search for a home were in the minority – only 37 percent of buyers used the Internet in their home search, according to data from the NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Today, 90 percent of buyers are searching online, and the real estate industry has responded. Sites like REALTOR.com, which attracts nearly 12 million total visits every month, have evolved to gives today’s buyers what they want – not just property listings, but multiple photos, online videos, mapping features, and comprehensive neighborhood information, as well.” Today, almost everyone (9 out of 10 people) searching for real estate is using the internet to learn more about their selection alternatives. A tech-savvy and tech-capable real estate agent seems to be a requirement in the coming year(s). Click this link to access the REALTOR Magazine complete list of Dramatic Real Estate Developments for the Past Decade. |
5 Home Remodeling Trends for the New Year
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on December 28, 2009
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REALTOR® Magazine presented a view of the coming home remodeling trends for 2010. According to the magazine, remodeling ideas will be consistent with home owners’ trend to stay in the home for the long haul. Here’s a summary of the ideas presented on their website:
You can visit REALTOR® Magazine to read the entire article. |
Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report 2009-10
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on December 17, 2009
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This year’s Remodeling Cost vs. Value Survey has been released by Hanley Wood Remodeling. On their website, www.costvsvalue.com, you can compare remodeling projects, their average cost and their value at re-sale for ~80 cities across the United States. With additional tools to analyze each city, region, or project-type year-to-year, Hanley Wood Remodeling has provided us with a great resource and really interesting tool. Of course, Cincinnati, Ohio was of particular interest. From their tool, here is a sample of a few projects from their survey years 2008-09 vs. 2009-10.
The Remodeling website has all 30 projects listed for upto 4 years, and the data is available for major metropolitan areas across the U.S. If you would like to review the report and use the analysis tools, you can link directly to the website here. |
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Great Green Houses
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on December 9, 2009
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Each month, the Greensource website offers great examples of green homes with terriffic slideshows from the homes. As this trend continues to evolve it is very interesting to see the homes that these trendsetters are creating. You can accesss the Greensource website here, or by clicking on the picture to the left. |
| Photo courtesy Dan Rockhill / Studio 804 |
Home Values Increasing (Zillow)
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info, Real Estate Data on November 17, 2009
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Zillow.com lists and tracks millions of homes all across the U.S., and the site releases information on a quarterly basis about the use of the site. The graph at the left shows the percentage of homes in the U.S. that have increased in value during the past year. As you can see, after a dramatic fall in the percent of homes increasing in value, we are now headed back to levels that are traditionally more acceptable. Remember, it has been generally accepted that homes increase in value every year, year-over-year. So, we would expect this graph to climb rapidly back to 80%-90% range. The graph comes from an interactive tool on the zillow.com site that you can access by following this link. |
10 Ways To Increase Your Home Value
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on November 11, 2009
From Yahoo! Real Estate we have an article that offers tips on increasing your home’s value during a “dour housing market.” Follow the link below to read the entire article, but they offer ten ideas from Remodeling Magazine as follows:
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Upscale Projects
Mid-Range Projects
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Follow this link to access the complete article at Yahoo! Real Estate.
Would you buy a haunted house?
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info, Home Buyers on October 30, 2009
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Just in time for Halloween, HGTV’s FrontDoor offers six “Surreal” properties — if you’re in the market for a haunted house. Locations vary, so take your pick:
Visit HGTV’s website to see the complete Surreal Estate: 6 Spooky Homes for Sale article. |
WSJ – Home re-modeling industry update
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on October 29, 2009
The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about the state of affairs in the re-modeling industry yesterday. Some of the interesting quotes include:
- “Depending on the region and the job, some homeowners are paying as much as 20% less for home-remodeling projects than they would have a few years ago.”
- “Remodeling prices are down an average 5% to 10% across the U.S. from their peak, firms say, largely due to bidding wars among contractors idled by the housing slump..”
- “In the year ended the first quarter of 2009, the most recent data available, $118.2 billion was spent on home-improvement projects, down from $146 billion in the year ended the third quarter of 2007—the national peak of remodeling activity”
You can read the entire article by clicking on the artilce title here: “Why homeowners are raising the roof”
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What is a Home Warranty?
A home warranty is a service contract, normally for one year, which helps protect home owners against the cost of unexpected covered repairs or replacement on their major systems and appliances that break down due to normal wear and tear. Coverage is for systems and appliances in good working order at the start of the contract.
What is a Short Sale?
If a home is being sold for below what the current seller owes on the property—and the seller does not have other funds to make up the difference at closing—the sale is considered a short sale. A short sale is different from a foreclosure, which is when the seller's lender has taken title of the home and is selling it directly. Homeowners often try to accomplish a short sale in order to avoid foreclosure.
