Fixing Up That Older Home

So you live in an older home. I do too, mine was built in 1959 and it's a kind of Ranch Style on the outside. A few years back we wanted to do a face-lift on it, you know paint, replace the old roof, update the siding, that kind of stuff. Even the inside needed a lot of work so we bought 2 tons of magazines to get some ideas for our fix up, inside and out. I'm glad we took our time. My wife and I have always tried to do things that will last, look good and are economical. Right now in the economic environment we're in, it doesn't make a lot of sense to spend large amounts of money fixing up the house as you may not get a good return on the money. What you can do however, is make the house way more sell-able, so it does get a higher sales price and does sell quicker when placed on the market.


On the outside, we found the difference between a 30 year roof and a 40 year roof was minimal, about 300 bucks or so, maybe a little less. The price difference is in the material, not the labor. To me it was worth it, I don't even have to start worrying about the roof until I'm 90 years old, and I may just not really care by then! Plus the 40 year roof has thicker shingles so there is a more dramatic effect on the shading so it just looks so much better. Also, remember that the roof color should go with what ever color your going to paint your house. If you get a green roof, you may not want to paint the house blue, you may want to use greens or browns, see what I mean?


We had decided we were going to paint the house body yellow and the trim white, with the shutters and doors a dark green so we went with a grayer colored roofing with tan overtones, a good choice. Then the siding had to be done as well. We had old redwood ship lap and some of it was pretty badly damaged so I had called around to find milling prices to see what it would cost to have some pieces made that would match. Wow, there was like a $250.00 set up charge to even set up the saw to cut the lumber, then there would be labor and the wood it's self. We decided to look into other alternatives for the same price. I found a new product at Lowes, well it was new to home owners, it had been used for years on commercial buildings and schools and places like that. The material looked like brick, and the selection was huge. We went with what looked like a used brick, remember our house is a Ranch Style so with our color choices we felt that the used brick would look the best. This product was made a lot like wonder-board, kinda a concrete with fiber mixed in, it was tough and durable and is supposed to last like 50 years keeping it's color for that time as well. The material came in 18"x36" planks, which was a good thing because they weren't light! It was easy to install, I did it myself and it came with all the installation instructions. We hired a roof crew cause I won't do roofs, and I hired a painter I used to work for and he gave me a good price, so I saved some money on the paint job, but saved nothing on the roof and that's OK, it was a wash. I got the better roof and the discount on the paint. The siding cost about the same as the lumber would have cost so that seemed like a good deal as well because it would completely change the look of the house.

We were so happy that we were careful and took our time to pick the colors and products we used, it turned out better than we had hoped. I then did a little more work in front of the garage and put in a garden, these things are fairly cheap to do if your willing to put in the sweat equity and do most of it yourself and it does raise the value and it does help to sell your home quicker when the time comes.

At this point the background shrubs have grown in as well, and the flower border is gone, but it still looks great!

Some of the biggest savings we've found were on the inside. Paint, very cheap and easy and really adds if you choose the right colors. One of the things we did was put in lots of moldings, upgraded nice moldings around windows doors and baseboards. I have been a fan of older homes all my life, especially the Craftsman styles and Victorians. What I learned from them was with the plaster walls, they would use moldings around a room to hang pictures from, they called them Picture Molding. I always liked it and wanted to put it in my home but it never seemed quiet right to do it. Our home like most older homes and has 8 foot ceilings. The newer homes have 9 or ten, so what could I do that would make it feel like they were higher? Well, that Picture Molding came back to my mind and here's what I did. I took molding and placed it 5 inches down from the ceiling all around the rooms, I've used a couple different moldings, but they were all door casings, about 3 1/2 inched wide. I would paint all my moldings white so these were too and then I painted the ceiling white as well, all the way down to the moldings. This gives the room a "taller" feel and also makes the entire room feel larger. It looks really nice and goes with the style of our home. Also, I do try to change colors in each room. Nothing to bold, but bold enough to create warm rooms that feel cozy and you actually like to be in them. Here's a few shots of a few of the completed rooms, we're almost finished doing the whole house now, but we do 1 room at a time so we're not living in a construction site forever, oh and before i forget, I scrape all that nasty popcorn off the ceilings and respray the texture in the rooms as I go, this creates a room that looks brand new with no patches from nails or anything, like its a new house. It's easy, and it's cheap to do and it sure makes it looks so much better.

You really can do this yourself for the most part, it takes time and effort, but that saves you a ton of money, which for the most part you may not recover, but by doing it yourself you will. Yes, we have hardwood floors and I have done the refinishing on them myself, that also saved more money than we have spent on fixing up these three rooms, honestly! We have about 300 bucks into each room we've fixed up in materials and the tool rental for the sander for the floors. These three rooms would have cost between $2000 and $3000 to just do the floors! With those kinds of savings you can buy a lot of the tools you may not have and still save a bunch, that's what I did.Now when I do work, I have the tools I need to do what looks like a professional job, in fact it looks better than a lot of work I've seen professionals do in my 30 years of construction. Don't let that deter YOU from doing the work yourself, everything is on YouTube now days, you can learn in 5 minutes what took me a year to learn in the field and you have the satisfaction of knowing you did it and you saved the money and most of all you raised the value of your home without the high cost of a contractor. So, whether your getting ready to sell, flipping  an investment home, or just wanting to fix it up it's well worth the time and effort to do it yourself, and believe in the magic of color and trim. The trim alone makes so much of a difference you can hardly believe it. I hope you found this interesting and informative, and maybe you'll get the courage to do it your self! Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read this, and I hope if your thinking of selling you think of me to be your Realtor!

Easy to do kitchen fix up that YOU can do yourself!

Wow, it's been a while and I promised you all a post on a few new products I found this fall when I spruced up our 1959 kitchen. Our home was built at the end of the 50's, and the kitchen was never updated at all, in fact we had a pink Oven, stove top and dishwasher when we moved in about 23 years ago.The dishwasher never worked so it was replaced way back then, but the stove and the oven still work great today, so we haven't really found a great need to replace them. However, we did hate the pink so when i was redoing things i took them both apart and found a really good epoxy spray paint in white and painted them. They turned out looking like new, so I'm very happy with the outcome, it cost me about 8 bucks for the can of really good epoxy spray paint.

To top it off, we had pink Formica counter tops with gold flecks, really ugly, but in good shape. So I scoured the internet and found a great product to "refinish" the Formica and give them a granite look. The kit was bought on the internet and arrived a couple of days after I ordered it and for the 80 bucks that cost, it was well worth a lot more when i finished redoing the tops and saw the finished product. People, these are things you can do yourself to make things look much nicer at reasonable prices.

It was easy and it was actually fun to do as well, and you can use this in bathrooms as well. The first thing to do was clean the Formica really well with an SOS pad and rinse really well. Then tape off around the tops so i don't get paint where I didn't want it.Then, and by the way the kit came with all the paints and applicators as well, I used the black automotive primer that was provided with the finger roller that was provided and then let it dry for 8 hours. I did this at night before bed. Next was the fun part, you rip the sea sponge they give you into a few smaller pieces, 1 for each color that your going to use. You merely dab the sponge in the paint, and get most of the paint off the sponge and dab it on the black top in no particular pattern, that is critical. While it's still wet you use the next color and the next until it looks the way you want it too. You let that dry for about 8 hours as well, by the way it's an acrylic paint. Then you lightly sand it with very very fine sandpaper to get what ever little "peaks" there are to be flat and then roll on then Acrylic clear automotive paint on top, let dry 4 hours and re-coat. It's that easy and most folks who come in the kitchen thing we replaced our tops with granite.

The next new product we used was this sticky rubber like mat instead of wonderboard for the tile behind the stove top. You peal off the back side and stick it on the wall, then you peal off the plastic on the front and stick your tile to it. It's a very fast, clean, quick way to get your tile up and you can grout right after you put the tile up instead of waiting a day, and that's really nice.This product is great up to a 6 inch tile, it's not recommended for bigger tiles. I used sheets of 1 inch tiles and mixed them for our back splash, all done in 1 afternoon, this means you can do this during the day and be cooking dinner this afternoon with new tile!

Of course we washed and painted the cabinets and doors and replaced the knobs and handles, this was one of the most expensive things to do, those knobs and handles are expensive but they sure do look nice and for a quick picker upper in your kitchen it's fast and easy to do and is almost a remodel all in it's self. Our 1980's flooring had to go, another major cost, but not nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be. We used a new product and it worked great and looks even better, in fact, it worked so well and was so easy to install, I would recommend you do this your self as well. We found at home depot a new linoleum plank flooring, it's easier than Pergo and is water resistant to top it off. This means if it gets wet it won't buckle or warp like so many wood based products do and it looks so nice as well. We needed to strip off the old flooring, if yours has not rips in it you can go right over the old stuff you already have, as long as it's flat and smooth. Mt nephew came over and we laid the entire floor in one afternoon, it's that easy. AND...best of all, it cost as much as the CHEAP Pergo, so the price isn't bad at all and again this product could be used in any "wet " area like a laundry room, kitchen or bathroom.

We're loving what feels like a new kitchen for well under $1000 bucks, in fact I think it was more like $800 bucks for everything we did. Now if you own an older home and want to "fix" it up these products are great, in fact if you are an investor and need some quick fix it up ideas these are great for that as well because with minimal experience at fixing things, you can do this work your self, you don't need a contractor for this kind of stuff. If you have any question feel free to email me or call me and I'll tell you what I know. So for now, take care, and be good humans!

Setting The Record Straight On The So Called 3.8% Sales Tax On Homes In 2012

Wow. There is certainly a lot of misinformation going around about this "tax" that's going to hit homeowners in 2012. I hear about it at BBQ's, and birthday parties, get together's, and so I had to do a little research, which took all of about 5 minutes, to find out whats really going on with this. 


Misinformation, we get it everyday. I can't tell you why, unless it's political and this blog is non political. You want the truth, so I will find it and post it. Here's the links I used to research this.....


http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/realestate.asp


http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/government/a/Health-Care-Real-Estate-Tax.htm


http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/26741.html


http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/aug/23/chain-email/health-care-law-sales-tax-home-sales-no/


Please take the time to read these if your a home owner and planning on selling your home. I personally know Realtor's who are passing off bad information on this to scare clients into selling homes so they can make a commission, that's bad business people....and it's a lie. Here's the truth....


First, there is no "sales" tax on home sales in the health care bill. The bill would impose essentially a capital gains taxes on some home sales made by a limited number of taxpayers. (The health care law contains a new 3.8 percent tax on "unearned income" for high-income taxpayers. Unearned income includes capital gains.) To be hit by the 3.8 percent capital gains tax, you first have to be a married couple making more than $250,000 in adjusted gross income or $200,000 if you are single. The capital gain on the home sale must also exceed $500,000 if this is a primary home and you are a married couple ($250,000 for singles). So for example, even if you and your spouse make $300,000 in wages and you bought a home that you lived in for a while for $600,000 that you now sell it for $1 million, your capital gains tax on that home sale would be zero. Even if the home sold for $1.2 million, thereby resulting in a capital gain of $600,000, only $100,000 of that capital gain would subject to the new tax (because of the $500,000 exclusion). Now, if your an investor you will be paying this tax, because you did not live in the house for 2 years and it is nothing more than a money making investment for you. But for over 95% of all the people, this will never affect you in any way.


People, do NOT let bad information lead you to sell your home before it's time, or even keep you form buying one. Very few people will ever be affected by this "tax". By the way, this is a "medicare" tax, just like you pay on your paycheck. The reason being to help level medicare with out raising taxes on the lower and middle class. Which is 95% or more of the people.


I vow to always post the truth as well as I can find it. I will research things like this to help educate people into doing the right things for themselves and so they will not be scared into making a bad or wrong decision regarding their Real Estate investments. Thanks for dropping in, and stay tuned for my next blog. I found some great new products to help you fix up your home or investment property  and get outstanding results for less money , time and effort...stay tuned!!

Riverside Food Truck Festival

I thought I would do a little something different this week. This time I wanted to show an event that I think those of us who aren't leaving town would enjoy, a food festival. Not your normal one either, a wonderful selection of the best Food trucks in the Country! So come on out to downtown Riverside this weekend and enjoy the sunny weather, the bands and the food!

If your interested in living in that part of town with all the historical home, let me know, you can contact me here or thru my website. You can also look for homes on your own here, have a fun and safe weekend!

http://charlieadams.kwrealty.com/

Want something to do on Labor Day Weekend?

Saturday

September 3, 2011

10:00am - 4:00p

3rd Street & Market St.

(Near the Riverside Convention Center)

Following the recent success of gourmet food trucks across the country, Riverside isn’t excluding itself from this delicious phenomenon. Like the Inland Empire Food Truck Fest, 45 to 50 food trucks will park in downtown Riverside for the first Riverside food truck gathering in the area ever. In the past decade, food trucks have evolved from the rudimentary taco-touting “roach coaches,” becoming a more complicated enterprise of meals on wheels like famed fine-dining trucks Kogi BBQ and The Grilled Cheese Truck to Riverside Fest’s attendees White Rabbit and Waffles de Liege. The delectable cuisine will be topped with live music, Roller Derby girls and a Family Sports Zone. So, treat yourself to some gourmet budget food this Labor Day weekend and give your taste buds a wild ride.

Live Entertainment/Bands, Sports Celebrities, Sports Zone, and Live Roller Derby exhibition

Press Link to Purchase Tickets

$25/pp - VIP Ticket, SOLD OUT10am Entrance and Special VIP Access

$8/pp - General Admission
Online Presale - Entry at 11am

$10/pp - General Admission  At The Gate - Entry at 11am

 

What do I get as a VIP:

• Air Conditioned VIP Tent
• Goodie Bags 
• Private Bathrooms
• Free Water and Soda
• Private Patio to Watch the Concert(s)

MORTGAGE GLOSSARY

http://charlieadams.kwrealty.com/

Many people who may be looking to buy a home have no clue as to all the strange "lingo" that gets thrown around during the process. I have compiled some of the terms and definitions here for easy access. Please refer to them as often as needed. 


On my website I have made it available for you to look for homes without thinking you may get some weird  phones calls from some stranger, this is what happens to many folks who use the home locators on the internet. Some of these companies have 6,000 or more capture pages, all so they can sell your name. I won't ever do that, so use it and feel comfortable with it.

Amount Financed

Amount Financed is found on the Truth-In-Lending (TIL) disclosure. The amount financed will be less than your actual Loan Amount. It represents your Loan Amount less your Prepaid Finance Charge.

Appraisal

An appraisal is a comprehensive report compiled by an independent third party to evaluate your subject property or the collateral for your new mortgage. The appraisal report will determine the subject property's current market value and ensure your property meets the Federal, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac lending guidelines.

APR (Annual Percentage Rate)

APR is found in any mortgage rate advertisements and on the Truth-In-Lending (TIL) disclosure. APR represents your interest rate but also accounts for a marjority of the fees being paid to obtain that rate and your new mortgage. The APR is almost always slightly higher than the note rate being offered to you but does not determine your monthly mortgage payments are.

ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage)

A mortgage program in which the interest rate will adjust based on an index and a margin after a certain period of time. ARMs are popular because than start at lower rates the fixed rate mortgages making the payments lower.

Cash-Out Refinance

If a property is being refinanced and the new loan amount is significantly higher than the current primary mortgage balance the new mortgage is considered a cash-out refinance. If any other debt is being paid off at closing aside from the primary mortgage the loan is also considered a cash-out refinance. Cash-out refinances are popular for people looking to consolidate debt or use there home's equity for extra cash.

Commitment Fee

Our Lender Fee or Origination Charge is also referred to as a Commitment Fee. Our Commitment Fee covers our underwriting, processing, doc prep, flood and tax certification etc... The fee varies depending on the interest rate and mortgage program HFA is offering you. This charge is collected at closing only a can change with fluctuations in external market conditions.

Conventional Mortgage

A mortgage of less than $417,000 that conforms to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's lending guidelines.

Credit Score

A number is determined by each of the 3 the credit reporting bureaus. Your credit score gives an indication of your worthiness or how respondible you've been with their debt in the past. HFA requires a minimum credit score of 660. The score used to decide is the lowest of the middle scores of all borrowers on the loan.

Debt-to-Income (DTI) Ratio

The total amount of a borrower's documented pre-tax income divided by their total monthly debts.

Escrow Account (Impound Account)

An account established by a mortgage servicer to pay for the subject property's taxes and insurance. A borrower will pay a portion of the property tax and insurance bills with each mortgage payment to fund the account. At closing, a fully funded escrow account will have to be established.

Escrow Waiver

If a borrower opts to pay their property tax and homeowner's insurance bill on their own as they wish they will have to opt for an escrow waiver. If this is the case for you, be sure to let your Loan Originator know up front.

Fixed Rate Mortgage

A mortgage in which the interest rate and monthly payment does not change over the entire loan term.

Good Faith Estimate

A document designed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developement (HUD) that discloses the material terms of a mortgage offered by a lender.

Investment Property (Rental Property)

A property in which any rental income has been collected or in which rental income is intended to be collected at any time in the future.

LTV (Loan-to-Value) Ratio

The loan amount divided by the subject properties appraised value.

Mortgage Application (1003)

A comprehensive form used to display nearly all of the information a mortgage lender needs to know about a borrower(s) or potential borrower(s) in order to issue a mortgage.

Points (Discount Points, Origination Points)

Charges or fees assessed at closing that are based on a percentage of the Loan Amount. 0.25 PTS on a $100,000 mortgage is the equivilant of $250. HFA may assess points to offer a lower interest rate to a borrower or account for Risked Based Pricing Adjustments.

Pre-Approval Letter

A document issued by a mortgage lender that indicates that a borrower is likely to qualify for a certain loan amount based on their mortgage application. This document is very helpful to buyers and sellers of real estate.

Prepaid Interest

Mortgage payments are made in in arears (they account for the previous month). When a mortgage closes, a certain amount of interest will always be owed to the new lender from the day of funding to the end of that month. Prepaid Interest accounts for money owed to the lender in the funding month. There will be no mortgage payment due on the 1st day of the following month after a mortgage funds.

Prepaid Finance Charge

Prepaid interest is found on the Truth-In-Lending (TIL) disclosure. It is a subtotal of certain loan fees that will determined the APR.

Primary Residence

A home that is occupied by a borrower for the majority of the year and commutes to and from work from on a regular basis.

Private Mortgage Insurance

Insurance that protects conventional mortgage lenders against default on loans with higher than normal LTV (Loan-to-Value) Ratios. Generally required when the ratio is above 80%.

Rate Lock Agreement

A document given by a lender that makes material terms of a mortgage available to a borrower for a specified period of time subject to certain conditions. Until this document is issued you are subject to pricing increases of external market conditions change.

Risked Base Pricing

Adjustments in the pricing of mortgage based on certain risk factors that have been determined to increase a lender's exposer to a borrower's likelihood of default. Typically, these adjustment are in the form of points and determined by federal regulators and secondary market investors.

Second Home (Vacation Home)

A home owned by a borrower for recreational use typically located in a resort area at a reasonable distance from the primary residence. A second home will have has no rental income generated or intentions of rental income collections in the future.

Secondary Mortgage Market

The way the mortgage industry is structured, nearly all individual mortgages are bundled together in packages then sold to various entities as investments and securities. This provides liquidity in the market, lowers a lender's risk, and allows lenders to offer lower rate. This concept is know as the Secondary Mortgagage Market.

Supporting Documentation

A set of documents to be included in a borrower's loan file before closing is able to occur. Supporting documentation guidelines are stipulated by the Federal Government, State Governments, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Secondary Market Investors, and mortgagelenders themselves.

Subordination

The process by which a primary mortgage on a property is refinanced while another lien or mortgage is left standing. The secondary lien holder must agree to be placed in a secondary lien position behind the new primary mortgage holder.

Underwriting (Underwriter)

The process by which a borrower's mortgage file and supporting documentation is reviewed to ensure the loan meets federal and invstor guidelines before it closes. The member of a mortgage company responsible for this review is know as the underwriter.

Term

The amount of time if will take for a mortgage to fully amortize if the minimum monthly principal and interest payment is made each month.

Title Insurance

A type of insurance required for mortgages that ensures the lender that the borrower is the true legal owner of the home. Title history is reviewed, and title insurance is typically issued by a third party.


I hope this helps some of you, theres a lot of good information here, thanks for dropping in, and I certainly appreciate you taking your time to read my blog!

Historically Low Interest Rates and Lower Home Prices

Click here to visit my website, you can look for homes for free here with no weird people calling you afterwards.


If your thinking of buying a home, investing in rentals, or refinancing, now's the time. i wouldn't wait. True, homes MAY go down more, but will the interest rates? How does 2.625% sound? It's out there! I remember buying our first home, it was an FHA loan at about 12%, back in the 80's. Read on, this is important for those who are thinking along any of these lines.

Housing markets struggled through another tough quarter, this time during the spring buying season, the strongest time of year for home sellers.

Prices of existing homes fell 2.8% in the three months ended June 30 compared with the same period in 2010, according to a report issued Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Prices have bounced around a bit the past two years but have wound up in about the same place. The median price for all existing homes sold during the quarter was $171,900, almost matching the price level of all of 2009 -- $172,100.

Sales volume was off 5.4% compared with a quarter earlier to an annualized rate of 4.86 million units, and was down 12.7% from the second quarter of 2010.

The sales volume decline came despite some of the best buying conditions ever. 

Just when it seemed mortgage rates weren't going to get any lower, they started testing new lows.

In the tumultuous days following Standard & Poor's debt downgrades, rates on 30-year fixed mortgages fell to 4.32%, down from 4.39% last week and closed in on a record low of 4.17% set last November, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey

Rates on 15-year fixed mortgages set a new record for the second week in a row, falling to 3.5%, down from 3.54% last week.

The savings for borrowers who lock in rock-bottom rates over the length of a mortgage loan can be sizable. Take, for example, a borrower with a $200,000, 30-year loan. If their mortgage carries a 4.32% rate their monthly payment is just $992 and they make total interest payments of $157,153. However, if the rate on their 30-year fixed mortgage is 5% (ordinarily considered a low rate), they'd pay $1,074 a month and $29,357 more in interest over the 30-year period.

The low rates are sparking a rash of refinancing activity, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Last week, total mortgage borrowing, most of it refinancings, jumped nearly 22%. This week's activity could be even higher, according to Greg McBride, chief economist for Bankrate.com.

"Rates have been below 5.5% for two years," he said. "For most people who have refinanced or purchased since then, there's little benefit to refinancing. But when rates drop below 4.5%, then it's worth looking into."

Rates could go even lower

While mortgage rates do not move in lockstep with Treasury yields, they are closely correlated. The yield on the 10-year bond plunged to 2.24% Thursday from 2.56% at the end of last week.

The difference between the 30-year fixed mortgage rate and the 10-year Treasury yield is usually about 1.6 to 1.7 percentage points, so a bond rate of 2.24% should mean that mortgage rates should be at 3.84% to 3.94%.

I have a team of experts waiting to help you how ever you choose to respond, but I would act now, there's no telling what things will be like in a few weeks or months from now. 

Click here to contact me directly.

The ad's on this page are some direct links to some Mortgage Lenders, click a few to see for yourself, the rates are amazing!