Decorate the Deck

It's easy to create the allusion of an outside room with small changes that are not expensive.

Start with an all season table and four chairs. Place them on top of a weather resistent rug. You can find one at Bed Bath and Beyond. If the deck is low and has no side railings, put four large pots of flowers on the four corners of the deck as long as you don't obstruct passage ways. With railings, get window boxes that hang on the railings. You can get them at Gardener Supply. Over plant the flower boxes and pots so they are colorful immediately. If your deck is large, just keep adding pots of plants, grouping them together.

On an adjacent wall, place an arrangement of weatherproof art such as wrought iron or resin designs that look like wrough iron. Try Home Goods.

If you want lights on the deck, try inexpensive solar lights that normally stick in the ground. Instead, fill children's pails with sand and put the lights in the sand. You can put them anywhere around the deck to create lit activity areas. They cost about $2 each and you can get them at Home Depot and Lowe's.

This idea is especially good when you have a small condo and need to give buyers the feeling of having more space.

Multiple Offers

If a property is unique, in great condition, is in the perfect location and the right price, it will get many showings as soon as it hits the market. Buyers are bored with stale listings and are salivating for the next new home, hoping it's the perfect one for them.

If more than one buyer finds the house perfect, and they both (or more than two parties) put in offers, they find themselves in a multiple offer situation. What should you do if you are facing this?

Every situation is slightly different. Rely on your REALTOR to guide you. Generally speaking, you will need to "pull out the stops" as best you can, keeping to your comfort level. Put in as few contingencies as you feel comfortable -- most sellers expect a property inspection and I do not recommend removing that contingency. Unless you are paying cash, you have to have a finance contingency. But how can you streamline your offer? Again, rely on the guidance of your agent. They have been in this situation before.

The most important aspect of a multiple offer is price, although terms and conditions of the sale are important also. The seller wants to see what his bottom line will be. They will also check to see if you have to sell a home in order to buy. A seller might take a lower offer if the buyer does not have to sell first. You never know.

Sometimes in a multiple offer situation the one that gets the contract will offer over the asking price -- yes, even in a buyers' market, this is happening. If you want the home, don't let a couple of thousand dollars cause you to lose the house of your dreams!

Recently we were representing buyers in a multiple offer. They knew there were three offers but they would not give the asking price because they were sure none of the offers would be full price. I told them I was 99.9% sure there would be one full price and that possibly someone would go over the price. They lost the contract. The house came back on the market following a faulty inspection that couldn't be resolved. Again, a multiple offer situation and again, I could not talk them into going full price. They lost it again. Lesson learned.

Your REALTOR has been through multiple offers and can guide you. It is always your choice what you offer, but be sure you feel 100% content with your offer -- whether you give full asking price, more or less, this is your decision -- just make it an informed one.

Small Changes Make a Difference

I showed a house recently that had a great open floor plan. The kitchen was huge and opened into a family room. There was plenty of space to socialize, lots of storage areas and a large lot. Many of the floors were hardwood. The carpet was neutral and in good shape.

But I feel there are a few easy changes that the sellers could make that would help them sell their house faster and for more money. First, neutralize the wall colors with earth colors. There was sponge painting and ragged walls in three rooms. While they were done well, ragged walls are an individual taste and not appreciated by all buyers. It would be better to paint over them or at least better not to have so many ragged walls.

Second, the kitchen had two appliances that were brushed nickel and two that were not. It is better to have matching appliances. The brushed nickel choice is great, but it is better to buy all of the appliances with the same surfaces.

Lastly, the knobs on the kitchen cabinets needed simple modernizing. It would be inexpensive to unscrew the porcelain knobs and replace with brushed nickel.

It's amazing what simple changes can be made and can make a difference.
Cost:
Paint, about $50
Knobs for the kitchen, approximately $2/each, so less than $100
New stove and microwave: Depends on the brand and the bells and whistles, and these items would be the biggest investment, probably about $800 for both.

So, all these changes would be less than $1,000. If you can't afford them, consider buying at Lowe's or Home Depot and charge with their program that offers 12 to 18 months to repay. Then when your house closes, pay off the bill. I really feel this investment would help you get a higher sales price for your house and pay back your investment.

Preapproval Letters

In order to be taken seriously by a seller, buyers need preapproval letters to show their ability to buy a house. The process is easy and painless.

I suggest starting with the banking institution that you currently do business with. They can easily access all your financial information.Make an appointment to sit down with a loan officer but find out ahead of time what information they will want you to bring. Often they want a recent pay check and your most recent tax return in addition to three months of bank statements. You will need to give permission for the loan officer to run credit, so they will need your social security number.

There are many great lenders in the area. We are happy to give you names of companies we have worked with. You also might want to ask a friend who recently purchased a home and liked working with his or her mortgage company. Referrals are a great way to find a good loan officer.

Some lenders will do a preapproval over the phone, taking your information about your salary verbally. They still will need to run a credit check and will verify your salary and banking information later.

The best thing for you to do is to get preapproved before you start looking for new homes. That way you know what you can afford, are comfortable with the monthly payment and you won't look for houses that are out of your price range. Doing that will be disappointing to you and a waste of many people's time, including your own.

So, get preapproved, call us and we'll sit down with you and find out what you are looking for. We'll ask you for your "wish list" and "must haves" and then we'll go out to look at houses or condos. Getting preapproved is a good example of doing "first things first."

Looking at Future Needs When Buying

We've been showing houses to many different age groups and noticing that buyers are doing a good job looking at their future needs before choosing a house. The house might be perfect for where they are in their lives now, but they have to reject the house because it doesn't offer what they know they will need in the future.

Take the case of a recent buyer in her mid-fifties. She wants her next purchase to be her last home. While she is very able bodied now and kayaks, walks, and does yoga, she is looking to a time when as she ages, she might not be able to climb stairs. She is also thinking that her mother may need to live with her some day and wants to accommodate her if that day comes. Thinking further into the future, if one of them ever needs to be in a wheelchair, the doors have to be wide enough for a wheelchair to fit through or the doors will need to be retro-fitted.

The house therefore must be on one level. The bathroom should have a low threshold shower, if possible. And if the door is not wide enough, there has to be a way to widen it.

We found the exact house for her although it took looking at about 20 first -- because it's not just about future, but it's about present needs too. It's a balance. And she also had location requirements. The price obviously has to work also! Oh, and she did not want to have to put in a ton of money to fix it up, so condition had to be satisfactory.

I surfed the MLS for listings one day and the perfect house came on while I was on the computer. Just popped right up! I called her, we saw it within the hour, wrote the offer and got it accepted!

One level, wide doors and hallways, great condition, right price, and the perfect location!

Space Heaters

Many condominiums and some houses are heated by space heaters. You might be thinking about the portable electric kind that you carry from room to room. No, the space heaters I refer to are permanently fixed to a wall and heat a large space.

The fuels that fire these space heaters vary from natural gas, propane (LP), or kerosene. The source is either piped directly to the unit in the case of natural gas, or is stored in a large bottle-like structure that stores about 100 gallons in the case of LP gas. The storage tank is always outside. If the source is kerosene, it is stored in a tank outside. Regular heating oil cannot be stored outside but kerosene can.

The heaters are made from different manufacturers, of course, and come in different shapes and sizes. The most common ones we see are made by Rinnai or Monitor and take up the space of a large, thin suitcase! They sit against the wall in the living room, usually, and heat the air. They have economy settings or full blast heat. They can be set up to come on and off with a timer or set with a thermostat.

Often, these space heaters can heat the downstairs of a two story condo, but the upstairs is heated with electric baseboard. The entire condo would have had electric at one point and the space heater was an upgrade.

Sometimes condos will be heated with a gas stove that has a decorative front and fake logs. I think these are great as they look nice and heat a large space.

No matter what kind of space heater is used, make sure a certified specialist installs the unit or if it is already in place, make sure a specialist inspects it to make sure it is vented properly.

It is a state law that upon sale for single family homes that there is a Photo-electric type smoke detector on every living level and a carbon monoxide detector outside bedrooms. Condominiums have similar regulations and many more. Attorneys are requiring fire and safety inspections of condos to be to the Vermont code prior to closing. But why wait? All homes should have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors up to safety standards. Check out this site to be safe! http://firesafety.vermont.gov/

Space heaters are a good substitute for electric baseboard heat although with the cost of some fuels these days, I've been wondering how electric heat compares! Never store anything on top of the heater nor cover it at any time. And space heaters are a great source of heat if you build a small addition and want to save the expense of adding onto your central heat system.

Knob and Tube Wiring

You might see what is called "knob-and-tube" wiring in an old house. Typically, you'll see it in the basement or attic space. It is an antiquated system that will need to be updated at what could be a major expense.

The way to notice it is if you see surface mounted individual conductors held in place with round white ceramic insulators. Sometimes you will see this set up, say in a basement, running along the floor joists. But with close examination, it looks like the system is no longer active -- it might have been cut and disconnected, but the materials are still there. A qualified inspector or electrician can tell you if the knob-and-tube wiring is still active.

We had some knob-and-tube at our duplex in St. Albans when we bought it. Updating the wiring was our #1 priority. Dave was an insurance agent at the time and knew we would have trouble getting a standard insurance policy with active knob-and-tube wiring. He said whatever policy we could get if the old wiring was in place would be very expensive unless we replaced the wiring. In our case, the cost was $5,000 in 2005.

We looked at a multi-family in Burlington the other day that had knob-and-tube wiring. In order for the building to get a certificate of compliance, the city required that the owners "Provide written documentation to this office from licensed electrician (sic) that the wiring is not overloaded and that the condition of the conductors and insulators is sound and substantially without defect or hazard." Many cities and towns are working hard to make sure multi-family dwellings are safe for their occupants.

For that reason, we decided to get rid of our knob and tube in our duplex -- an upgrade we were happy to make.