5 New Year Resolutions for Your Home

by | Jan 14, 2016

Snowy Mountain Home

January is full of resolutions, so why not make a few for your home? There are plenty of ways to create a fresh start in your home and make it cleaner, more efficient and a generally happier place to be.

1. Increase Energy Efficiency/Reduce your Carbon Footprint

Have the ductwork throughout your home properly inspected to minimize any warm or cool air leaks that might occur through holes or loose connections. Ducts tend to be hidden in your walls, ceilings, attics or crawlspaces, making it a challenging DIY task. To hire a pro you can expect to spend about $1,000 or more depending on the size of your home and accessibility of your ducts. However, by sealing and insulating ductwork you could see hundreds of dollars in savings each year.

Other ways you could reduce your energy usage include:

  • Install solar panels on your roof
  • Install compact fluorescent bulbs
  • Use low-flow showerheads
  • Hang your clothes to dry
  • Only run the dishwasher or washing machine when full
  • Turn off your power strips and/or set your home computer to revert to sleep mode when not in use
  • Use drought-tolerant landscaping and reduce the necessity to water

Your commitment to energy efficiency could also land you helpful rebates and incentives. Check out this site to see if there is a program that could help you: http://www.dsireusa.org

2. Clear the Clutter

A simple way to clean your home and make it feel more fresh and inviting is to clear the clutter. It is easy to let things accumulate throughout the year, making the things we love harder to find and spaces to appear smaller and smaller.

Commit to going room by room and donating anything that remains unused, unworn or unloved- giving it a second chance to be appreciated by someone else and freeing up some space. Then, think twice about bringing in anything new that won’t effectively add to your life in some way.

Stash useful but not necessarily pretty items such as shoes, DVDs, mail, etc. in baskets and decorative bins to keep them from overwhelming your space. Shred any unnecessary documents and recycle those odds and ends that tend to collect in everyone’s favorite “junk” drawers.

Clearing your space will help you breathe a little easier and also leave room for the important things.

3. Keep it Safe and Sound

The New Year is the perfect time to do a safety audit of your home including:

  • Changing the batteries in the smoke detectors
  • Ensuring you have at least one carbon monoxide detector on each floor of your home
  • Checking your home for radon- you can find test kits at your local hardware store for around $20
  • Cleaning out your dryer lint trap in your machine and any ducts and vents leading to the machine. The material that collects can be highly combustible and present a fire risk

4. Inject New Life in Your Home by Exercising your DIY Skills

It is a beautiful Pinterest kind of world and there are plenty of DIY projects to help you refresh your home. Here are some collections of ideas that you can use to reinvent your space:

5. Make Your Home More Inviting for Guests

Even if you only have the occasional dinner party or overnight visitor, it is nice to keep your high traffic areas looking fresh and inviting. Once you’ve cleared the areas of clutter, showcase items that stimulate conversation or provide comfort (think soft fabrics and plush sofas/pillows) where guests can kick back and feel at home. An inexpensive way to make your home seem polished and put together is to have window coverings like curtains versus just blinds or shutters. They have a way of pulling together décor and creating a warm and soft environment.

 

*Photo courtesy of Flickr user Amber Case

Going at it Alone vs Having Realtor Representation

by | May 22, 2015

With the hot market these days some of you might be thinking of taking care of your real estate needs on your own. I want to share why having a realtor representation is a benefit to you whether you are thinking of buying or selling and let me tell you why.
In a market with short supply and many buyers needing housing it takes a knowledgeable expert to navigate you through it. When selling, you may receive multiple offers, which is great but knowing which of these offers to accept is the key. Buyers can blow a lot smoke up your *#*# to make themselves appear better than the others even when they aren’t really capable of buying. Knowing the right questions to ask to make sure you have a bonafide buyer who can go the distance and close is key. For example, if you are planning on buying a new home and it’s important that your current one closes so you can buy your next home  otherwise the sellers are going to sell it to someone else who is in line right behind you who is just hoping your deal falls through. What if the offers are coming in way higher than recent sales. How is the appraisal condition handled and so forth. There are a lot of details that go into the process of  bringing the transaction to completion. Knowing the right nuances to look for that make a difference in a transaction is important.
When you’re the buyer the same thing goes. Having an expert guide you in knowing what to include in your offer to make it stand out above the rest will help your odds at being the offer that gets accepted. There are a lot of factors besides price that go into getting your offer accepted.  During the process it’s beneficial to have a realtor to assist with handling expectations throughout the transaction and keeping it moving forward. Also buying and selling real estate can get emotional and it can be a relief to have a Realtor as a go between that has the experience to keep the focus off the emotions and just on the transaction to navigate you through to a successful sale.
Scenario of FSBO- ing your home/property and having Realtor’s bring you a buyer where you’re Co-oping to pay the fee for a Buyers Agent to bring you a ready, willing & able buyer. Unless you’re skilled and knowledgeable in real estate transactions you might really put yourself at a disadvantage. This can be the result of many factors that come up in a property sale.
Another scenario as far as being a Buyer is “I found the property I want to buy on the internet and instead of using a Buyer’s Agent I’m going to see if I can get a “deal” by going direct to the Listing Agent or Seller.” The listing agent represents the Seller and not you so as a direct Buyer, unless you know what you are doing, you don’t have anyone to advise you. Also as far as getting a “Deal” whatever terms that have been decided upon as far as the Fee goes for a direct Buyer or paying a Buyer’s agent to bring a Buyer have already been negotiated in the Listing Contract.

Real Estate Trends in Boulder County

by | Nov 29, 2014

2014 has seen a continued increase in demand for Boulder County real estate. With low interest rates, local companies continuing to hire, and the influx of out of state buyers, condominiums, town homes and single family homes have been in high demand. Subsequently there is a low supply of properties for sale which is benefiting sellers with an increase in their sales price from previous years. If a home is properly priced a seller has a good chance of getting full asking price and in some cases even more when there are multiple offers and a bidding war ensues. We’re at a fascinating cross roads for buyers having great purchasing power by having access to historically low interest rates, and for sellers taking advantage of the strong demand. It will be interesting to follow this trend and see how it tracks into the future.

For more information on market statistics from the Boulder Area Realtors Association:
November 2014 Boulder County Statistics