You’ve seen it on those home buying shows on television – a couple finds their dream home and it looks perfect until the home inspector comes up a list of problems.
That doesn’t just happen on television so it’s critical that you invest in a home inspection before you buy a Lutz Florida home.
A home inspection is an impartial analysis of a home’s construction and its systems. The inspection will locate any part of a home that is not operating at its peak and also determine items that are beyond their lifespan or are dangerous.
Home inspections consist of thoroughly reviewing the home’s interior and exterior such examining the foundation to the roof. If areas of concern are located, the home inspector can suggest an expert in that area.
A home inspection is not a warranty but a warranty can be purchased for an additional price.
While the home inspection and the home inspection warranty may seem like an additional expense when you’re trying to cut costs to buy a home, it is not wasted money.
Since buying a home is the biggest purchase you make, it’s critical that you find out everything there is to know about the home.
Even if you already own your home, a home inspection isn’t a bad idea. It’s like giving your home a check-up the same way you have your car maintained, as well as your body with regular examinations. Just as people are living with conditions that need to be treated, many homeowners are living in homes that require treatment. If issues are identified and repaired in a timely manner, your wallet will take a lighter hit.
Not only should potential home owners and current home owners have a home inspection but also people who are interested in selling their home.
Home sellers can uncover trouble that a buyer will discover during their own home inspection. Then the seller can rest assured knowing that another home inspection will not find anything that will lower the cost of the home.
Lutz Real Estate – You’ve seen the staging experts turn even the most drab and unappealing home into a showpiece.
Now you can hire a professional Home Stager to sell your home thanks to the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA). The organization even has its own Home Staging Program that will certify and train you to work in the field.
RESA is a member governed trade association for Home Stagers. RESA was formed in order to support all professional real estate stagers inNorth America. RESA is a portal to the home staging industry and is a source of education and business tools focusing on the needs of Home Stagers.
Real estate staging is the act of preparing and showcasing residential or commercial property for sale. It is a systematic and coordinated methodology in which knowledge of real estate, home renovations and creative design principles are applied to attract a buyer.
Preparing property involves cleaning, de-cluttering, updating and repairing, while showcasing is the process of arranging furniture, accessories, art and light.
Whether the property is owner-occupied, or vacant, staging is recommended before listing a property. It can be equally effective after a property has been on the market for an extended period unsold.
Overall, professional stagers agree that staging a property prior to going on the market benefits everyone involved with the sale and purchase of the property. Professional stagers recommend repairs and upgrades that are needed to get the property in market ready condition.
Staging also shows buyers the property’s true potential.
Buyers often do not have the funds to purchase a home and pay more money to address repairs, panting, etc. Buyers realize and appreciate the benefits of purchasing a professionally staged property.
RESA lists 10 reasons to professionally have your home staged, they are (1) the home will look better than others on the market; (2) it will sell faster; (3) it will typically sell for more money; (4) it will look better in print and Internet ads; (5) it will receive more foot traffic; (6) it will end up on a buyer’s “must see” list; (7) are viewed by buyers as “well maintained”; (8) are viewed by appraisers as “well maintained”; (9) are often appraised at a higher value; and (10) are “move in” ready.
To find the home of your choice in Lutz FL you can go to the site Lutz FL Homes
Lutz FL Real Estate – If your home or business is not using compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), it should.
CFLs are energy efficient and cost effective lighting alternative to regular incandescent light bulbs. CFLs fit regular electrical sockets or can be used in small lighting fixtures.
CFLs are becoming more and more widely used in businesses and homes. They use 75 percent less energy than incandescent light bulbs and last as much as 75 percent longer. And each CFL can save more than 400 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from impacting the atmosphere.
CFLs are an excellent source of energy either at home or a business because they use less energy to supply the same amount of light. In fact using an ENERGY STAR qualified CFL can save roughly $30 or more in electricity costs throughout its lifetime.
While CFLs are saving money when used in a home or business, more importantly they are saving the environment.
CFLs usage reduces the release of mercury and greenhouse gases from coal-burning power plants. If every American home replaced just one incandescent light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified CFL, it would save enough energy to light more than three million homes.
Some people have balked at the idea of purchasing CFLs for their homes or businesses due to their components but one major retailer has stepped up to the plate to eliminate the one drawback of CFLs.
The Home Depot re-affirmed its commitment to the environment when it launched a national in-store, consumer CFL bulb recycling program at all of its locations years ago. The free service is the first of its kind and provides consumers with a choice to make an environmentally conscious decision from purchase to disposal.
Consumers are encouraged to bring in used, unbroken CFL bulbs, place them in a plastic bag and place them in the collection unit. The bulbs are managed by an environmental management company, which coordinates CFL packaging, transportation and recycling to ensure safety and environmental compliance.
The CFL recycling program is an extension of The Home Depot’s Eco Options program. Eco Options, launched in April 2007, is a classification that allows customers to easily identify products that have less of an impact on the environment.
Major retailers are making changes to encourage consumers to be more environmentally friendly in their places of businesses, as well as homes. If your Lutz FL home needs help, you know what to do.
Curb appeal is an important aspect of buying or selling Lutz FL homes.
Sometimes when you’re buying a house an advertisement or photos from the inside may make it look like the home of your dreams but when you pull up outside the house, it looks more like a nightmare.
An important part of selling Lutz FL real estate is curb appeal. You want potential buyers to know you have invested just as much time on the outside appearance of the home as you have with the inside.
Curb appeal will go a long way with potential buyers because it tells them you care about all of the real estate and not just the inside the home.
Curb appeal is more than planting flowers.
Brandon Cornett, editor of the Home Buying Institute, defines curb appeal as a strategy to remove, improve and colorize the outside real estate area. He said creating curb appeal involves landscaping, lawn care, painting and cleaning.
When tackling the subject of curb appeal, the first step is lawn care. In the article on curb appeal tips, Cornett said lawn care should be the first priority because it takes the longest to get under control.
Taking a lawn from unsightly to aesthetically pleasing can be chore, as well as time consuming, that’s why Cornett recommends tackling it first. If the lawn is in dire condition, Cornett said there’s no shame in seeking professional help from a landscaping service. Often a landscaping service can evaluate, diagnose and correct a problem lawn quicker than you can perform online research and find yourself wandering around the lawn and garden section at a home improvement store.
Once the lawn situation is under control, Cornett says the next step of establishing dynamic curb appeal is sprucing up bushes or hedges by giving them a trim or even shaping them into squares or spheres using s hedge trimmer which can either be electric or manual.
Whatever you use you definitely don’t want is one giant unshaped bush that resembles a blob of some sort. When you are done and admiring your handy work, don’t forget to remove excess/discarded branches. You don’t want anything to take away from your hard work, that defeats the purpose of trying to create ideal curb appeal.
Hedges or shrubbery that is dead or in the process of dying should be removed if they can’t be revived in a timely manner.
Another situation where hedges or shrubbery should be removed or relocated is when the greenery is blocking a door or window, Cornett says this gives makes the house seem closed in or small.
A small and inexpensive thing you can do to add color and contrast to beef up curb appeal is planting flowers and plants.
Cornett suggests removing dead or dying flowers and plants, just as you did with the bushes and shrubbery. He also advocates placing potted flowers of the same kind on either side of the front door.
If you have other areas of flowers or plants, make sure they are neat with fresh mulch added where needed.
While adding flowers or plants may be an easy task to handle, trees are a different subject.
Trees are also a part of curb appeal but they can’t be moved or replaced without enormous cost. Cornett suggests watering trees that are in full leaf. He said watering a tree is different than watering grass or plants.
Trees require a longer period of watering at a steady pace. There are unique devices you can use with a garden hose that allow trees to be watered in a proper way. Trees will revitalize after a few hours of having the proper amount of water. It is important to water trees when a home is on the market to ensure they always look their best.
On the first of the month I gather up the data from the previous month and see how it looks. I’ve just put together the numbers from Lutz FL home sales for November 2011. This is just the single family homes as I feel this is the core of the sales numbers. The sales for November were 35, this is up 46% from the sales a year ago. And with 281 single family homes on the market, that puts our inventory at on 8.0 months.
This inventory level is as good as it was in the early summer of 2006. Remember summer of 2006? Everyone was pretty happy with real estate sales then. The volume is less, but the inventory now is good compared to the number of homes sold, so i don’t think there’s much room to complain.
To search the all the homes available on the Tampa MLS Tampa Real Estate
And to see my other Tampa Real Estate blog
The Senate is up to it again. This time they are discussing a new plan to save those who have been making their payments on their mortgages but are underwater on the amount they owe. This one would let them refi their current mortgage or mortgages to current lower rates. This will give them more money to spend each month and thereby stimulating the economy. Lutz real estate has been affect by this considerably, but we are at least half way through the process now. I think this might help the economy but it’s just another way to stab the big nasty banks in the side. They very banks who were forced by the govt to make the loans in the first place.
My other blog is at Tampa Real Estate market
Search all the homes for sale in Tampa FL here – Tampa Homes
I guess I didn’t just find it, we’ve been going there for years. It’s Lake Park and it’s just south of Van Dyke Rd on Dale Mabry in Lutz FL. It’s a great place to take the kid and wear them out. There’s 2 BMX tracks, one for pros and one for anyone to practice on. For a small fee you can join the club and ride on the pro track Wed and Fri nights. We usually at least once a week. They do offer other activities like canoeing, RC car racing, archery and a horse area. On the weekends the covered picnic areas get booked fast so you need to reserve in advance. One last thing, you are surrounded by woods and lakes, so bring your bug spray. To see more of my blogs on Lutz Real Estate and other topics click HERE.
Around the the Lutz FL area you would think the demand for new homes in Lutz was coming back. There are signs everywhere for new developments and communities. Actually what’s happening is the values are being reset. The developers that went bankrupt over the past few years have now be bought up at lower prices and are able to compete today. So new homes in Tampa FL aren’t coming back anytime soon, but the choices are.
Being a Lutz Florida Realtor I spend a good amount of time mailing out postcards. The post office has recently increased rates by 3 cents, but on a $0.29 stamp, that more than 10%. And when a business measures costs we see 10% not 3 pennies. See the rest of my story here
One area that has really seen a hit in the real estate market iss luxury homes over $1,000,000. Some $4 million dollar homes (in 2006) are now less than $1 million. Mamy are at all time lows because they are bank owned and the banks are looking to get them off of their books. Realtors, mortgage brokers, builders and other suppliers were making good money and putting it into their homes. Once the market crashed so did their income, then their homes. The supply has been shrinking but still there are many deals out there. Eventually time will pass and things will get back to normal. Sales have been firming and, it will happen.
lutzrealestate 