You’ve found the perfect home, closed escrow and just finished moving in. As you happily fall asleep, all seems well in the world. An hour later, you bolt up in bed to an ear splitting sound. All is no longer well in the world.

An Unholy Racket

If you saw the movie "My Cousin Vinny", you know what I’m talking about. For those that haven’t, the movie centers on a lawyer, Vinny, who comes to the south to defend his nephew against criminal charges. Every evening, Vinny goes to sleep only to be awoken by some blasting noisy. When house hunting, you need to make sure you don’t get "Vinny’d."

When you find an area or home you like, make absolutely sure you drive the area looking for any potential noise producers. Roll down the window, turn off the radio and just listen. You might be surprised at what you hear.

If you run across railroad tracks, you better figure out how close they are to your prospective home. Make sure you are near the house when a train goes by, so you can get the full effect. While trains and plains are obvious sources of noise, you also need to consider more subtle situations.

Weekend vs. Week Days

Many homebuyers look at houses early on Saturday and Sundays. This makes sense since you have to work for a living, but it can result in some nasty surprises. The characteristics of a neighborhood on weekends are entirely different than during week days. Make absolutely sure you check out the property during both time periods. To guard against "partying" neighbors, make sure you check the area during evenings as well.

They say home ownership brings peace of mind. Check your neighborhood to make sure this clich

When buying a home, it can be easy to overlook year-around weather issues. You may think you are purchasing a home in a sunny area, but come to find there is always a heavy cloud cover. This is just one of a number of weather issues to consider when selecting your dream home.

Clouds?Rain?Floods

If you must have a sun deck as part of your new home, you better make sure it is going to be sunny! Just because a general geographic area has a lot of sun doesn’t mean your home will. Things to look for include fog and heavy cloud cover for a home in a valley. If the home is located on the side of a hill or valley, make sure you know when it will get sun and shade. Temperatures can be radically different depending upon the amount of sun you get.

When it rains, it really pours! One potential nasty surprise for new homeowners can be the condition of a neighborhood after it rains. In San Diego, for instance, the total rainfall averages roughly 12 inches a year. Despite this low total, there are certain beach communities that grind to a halt because of flooding issues. Even an inch of rain can flood streets to the point that you can’t drive at all. Make sure you stop by a gas station or local store to ask about flooding problems in the area.

I have been known to enjoy a good boating trip and perhaps you have as well. I am pretty sure neither of us would enjoy it in our house. Still, millions of people a year buy homes in flood plains without even knowing it. Eventually, this can lead to a disaster when heavy rains come and you find out the reason they call it a flood plain.

Unlike streets with bad drainage, floods are much more damaging. When a river overflows, flood levels are typically measured in feet. Can you image the effect on your home of a flood that reaches five feet in depth? Well, you probably always wanted to renovate the first floor of your home.

Mother nature has a way of doing whatever she wants. Make sure you avoid her grumpy spells by looking into the effect of weather on your prospective dream home.

Raynor James is with http://www.fsboamerica.org – providing homes for sale by owner, “FSBO”, properties. Are you thinking, “Should I sell my home?” Visit http://www.fsboamerica.org/seller.cfm to sell your home sale for free for one month.

Buying A Home ? Rain, Sun, and Weather Issues

Why property, some people ask when looking for an investment. Well, as far as I am concerned, property investment is, and always has been, the most powerful type of investment for building wealth. It has been said that over 90% of the world’s millionaires got there by owning property. The reason property is such a powerful way to build wealth is due to one key concept: leverage.

Once I realised this, I didn’t look back. Now if you are an experienced investor this may be obvious, but for the benefit of those who haven’t seen the light, let me explain … Leverage is your ability to magnify your returns by using other peoples’ money (in this case, it’s usually the bank’s money).

To give a clear example, say you have

Location, location, location – known as the 3 most important factors when buying a property, and it is easy to see why. The location of your property dictates how much yield you get, and how much capital growth, which ultimately decides how well you do.

And yet people still get it wrong…

Most investors only consider location within the area they live … rather than asking themselves where else they may gain even better and higher returns. It may seem to make sense to invest in a location near to you – you can pop in to check on it, help fix any problems, and keep eye on local market better.

However, this approach to property investment could be costing you thousands, or even tens of thousands of pounds, euros or dollars in lost opportunities in the long term.

Compare this to professional property investors, who own property all around the country they live in, or even all around the world.

By asking themselves “Where can I buy property that will give me a great return?” instead of asking “What’s available down the road?”, they stack the odds in their favour.

Investing in property is all about the numbers, this is something I realised very early on – forget about whether you would like to live there or whether the property is down the street from you.

Instead, what I pay attention to is:

The likely return – yield, and capital growth

Buying costs and selling costs, including taxes

Cost to borrow money, ie interest rates

How attractive the property will be for likely tenants/buyers

So how do you recognise a great location?

To build wealth through investment property, you need a location where there will be capital growth ie where the property will rise in value, which builds wealth, which can ultimately allow you to purchase additional properties, and build up a portfolio.

Factors that suggest growth include:

1. Growing, developing economy eg Countries entering EU, regenerated towns

2. Demand outstripping supply ie more people want property than can be supplied, usually due to increased numbers arriving which could be due to higher birth rate, high numbers of jobs created, lower prices than similar properties else where, immigration laws being relaxed.

3. Low cost of borrowing – if interest rates are very low, people are more likely to buy, in particular for buy to let, as they will be confident can cover all costs and make good yield. It is for the above reasons that UK investors have started to look overseas recently, and why international investors target developing countries, and growing cities when deciding where to invest.

It is for the above reasons, why UK investors have been looking overseas over the last year or so, and why international investors target developing countries, and growing cities when choosing where to invest. Remember the location of your investment will dictate how well your investment performs.

Alan Forsyth is a full time property investor and developer with 10 years experience in UK and overseas. He is managing director of http://www.property-investment-tips.com which offers free independent advice and tips on property investment, courses, countries, strategies, mortgages and much more – with a free newsletter every 3 weeks giving latest tips and offers to over 500 investors. Sign up today at the site for free independent advice!

Location, Location, Location

Whether you list with an agent or sell on your own, you can ensure a quick sale by proactively preparing your house to be a highly marketable and attractive commodity.

Paradigm Shift

Don’t wait for the sold sign to get started with packing. Packing away items that are used infrequently has multiple benefits:

It’s a head start for you when you do have the house sold; It removes the clutter that might impact negatively on prospective buyers; and It creates a more spacious atmosphere making rooms appear larger.

Be the Buyer

To determine what improvements should be tackled first, view your house as though you were the buyer. If you have a difficult time with objectivity, ask a friend, neighbour or relative to help.

Exterior View

Begin with driving or walking on your street. Does your house stand out as less attractive than those around it? Does your landscaping match up? If not:

Make sure your lawn is well trimmed and free of any bald or brown spots. Plant mature bushes and flowers to add volume and colour. Avoid any plants or trees that will take time to mature. You are going for immediate appeal, over long-term results. Clear away any lawn furniture that mainly provided function over aesthetic appeal (i.e. resin chairs). Clear away the kids bikes and toys from the lawn and driveway. The path from your curb to the door should be unobstructed and clean. Rent a power washer and clean the walkway, if needed. Tighten any loose banisters or steps that lead to your door. If you have personalized items on the door and mailbox remove them. Add a clean mat at the door (this is a purchase that can be taken with you when you move). If your doorknob, street number, mailbox, or light fixtures are dull or rusty, polish or replace them. Clean Doors and windows at the front entrance.

The Entry Way

You’ve made it past the curb and are in the door. When you enter the house, the first thing that will grab you is not going to be visual. If your house does not have a pleasant odor, it probably won’t matter how beautiful it is visually.

Avoid sprays that cover up odor. Although it is better than an initial unpleasant scent, Buyers will pick up on it and feel tricked. Instead, try ‘lightly’ scented candles, potpourri, or a pot on the stove with vanilla and water. If you are very ambitious, bake a pie.

Remove odor at the source:

Smoke – For those who have smokers in the family, it would be wise to restrict smoking to outdoors until the house sells. Purchase an ozone spray which eliminates odor rather than covering it up

Pets – Clean kitty litter daily and add baking soda. Keep dogs outdoors as much as possible and make use of carpet freshener on a frequent basis.

Cooking – Use the overhead exhaust while cooking and clean up immediately after you are finished. Lingering food odors are not noticeable while you are in the house but are very apparent when stepping in from outdoors.

Interior

The most expensive renovations are the kitchen and bathroom. If these rooms are not appealing to a Buyer, it might be very difficult to sell your property’s other assets.

Kitchen and Bathroom

Living/Family Room

The most lived in room tends to be the most cluttered. If the room appears small, remove extra furniture and all clutter items such as papers, remotes, videos, etc.

If you have a lot of personalized items, such as family portraits, trophy’s, collectibles, pack them away. Personalized items tend to alienate potential buyers.

Bedrooms

Make the beds and remove clutter from under the bed. As with the kitchen cupboards, clear out the clutter so they appear larger. If you have teens or themed rooms, replace bedding and curtains with a more neutral alternative. Patterned bedding will detract from buyers viewing the room and its features. Take down any posters that may be on the walls. Fill holes left behind or hang framed artwork in their place.

Converted Rooms

Finally, if you have converted any rooms in your house, you should convert them back to the house’s original design. For example, a bedroom converted to a den or home office should be changed back to a bedroom, especially if it is one of the rooms that you have included in your listing as 3 bedroom home.

Conclusion

The decision as to the amount of improvements you are willing or able to make will always be your own and there is definitely quite a bit of effort involved with implementing some of the suggestions above. It would make sense to think that buyers should look beyond the personal items that will be removed after a sale and, although there are some buyers who will be able to do that, most buyers won’t. The suggestions made above are for ensuring a quick sale by targeting the majority of buyers rather than those rare ones that can see beyond these items.

Most Sellers set their initial asking price at an amount somewhat higher than they are actually willing to accept, fully expecting a buyer to open the bidding with a lesser amount.

While price is the most frequently negotiated item in any home sale, you may be able to creatively provide financial value to your buyer – without lowering the price alone.

major appliances such as your stove, fridge, dishwasher and microwave offer good negotiating power – while you’ll likely be including some of them in your asking price, consider excluding some from the listing (the washer and dryer perhaps) to use as a future bargaining chip;

window treatments, air conditioners, central vac, and ceiling fans are other extras that might entice your buyer and can be easily included later on in a counter-offer;

study your buyers’ personal situation and think of ingenious ways to sweeten the offer that makes sense for both of you – if they’re first time buyers and you are moving to a condo, include the lawn mower and gardening tools (or other items you may be planning to dispose of) in your next counter-offer;

if your existing mortgage rate is lower than current market rates and your mortgage is assumable, consider offering it to your buyers for savings they can count on after the closing – they’ll enjoy monthly savings over the remainder of the mortgage term;

If you are serious about selling, don’t price yourself out of the market. Overpricing is, by far, the most common error sellers make. Although you might think of it as “leaving room for negotiation”, you might only scare off potential buyers who could pass over it for more reasonably priced homes.

They can’t buy it if they don’t see it, so get them in the door. Better to stand firm on a lower asking price than risk discouraging buyers and creating a stale selling environment.

To help you determine your asking price, contact a CRA (Certified Residential Appraiser) for a full market analysis and property appraisal and then set your asking price accordingly.

When preparing to sell a house, you should always consider the options of selling a home privately or listing with a real estate agent. Of course, the most cost effective option would be to sell your home privately, but what about the number of Home Buyers in the market who are not willing to consider a private sale listing?

I am a firm believer that people should be able to sell a home privately but, like a lot of people, was not the kind of person who would be comfortable buying from a Private Home Seller. What would happen if I made an appointment to view a Private Sale listing and then disliked the home? I would then be face to face with the Home Seller. I would be reluctant to say what I was really thinking. “I hate it…I’m wasting your time…You are wasting my time…You want how much for this?"

More frightening than that scenario, would be the problem of viewing the for sale by owner home and loving it. Negotiating an offer of this magnitude with the Home Seller, directly, could be intimidating and stressful. How could I be absolutely sure that I could trust a person whom I had never met before and, who obviously just wants me to buy their house? Once it was sold and I moved in, where would they be, if any pre-existing problems were discovered?

This is why I created the Virtual Agent?, which provides a For Sale by Owner solution, which facilitates an agent between the Home Buyer and Home Seller in the private sale process. With XstreamRealty.com’s Real Estate Listings, I, as a home buyer, can now drive by a beautiful for sale by owner home and, instead of calling the home seller for an appointment, I can first access the real estate web listing from the comfort and privacy of my home and be able to:

• Find out the Home Seller’s asking price;
• View the entire interior and exterior of the property for sale with a complete 360

First, lets start with what it is. Curb appeal is quite simply the rate of attractiveness your home projects to viewers from the street. Why is this important? As the definition states, it is the ultimate first impression. You may have an immaculate, luxurious interior but without high curb appeal, few will bother to step inside to see it. This is even more important when selling on your own because you don’t have a realtor to hype the interior as worth a viewing.

Is it worth the trouble to invest, if you don’t have good curb appeal? The payback value on exterior upgrades to your property range from 49% for landscaping improvements to 62% for exterior home improvements, such as painting. Next to the kitchen and bath, these are the highest payback ratios for home improvements and are well worth the initial investment.

In the order of highest payback value, we have provided some tips to help you achieve higher curb appeal for your home:

Exterior Painting

Painting the exterior may appear daunting and not worth the effort, but research shows that it results in the greatest return on time and money for exterior improvements.

As a guideline, when choosing color, a long and low house looks most appealing with colours that emphasize vertical elements such as doors and shutters, while taller more narrow homes should contrast its horizontal elements likes fascias and gutters. Window boxes are a nice touch as well.

If painting is out of the questions, the bare minimum improvements should be to:

Wash the full exterior to clear it from dirt and cobwebs. Renting a high pressure washer is best. Fix any loose, missing, or damaged shutters. Clean, paint, or replace mailbox, doorknobs, and street numbers. Windows

Especially with a freshly painted or washed exterior, dirty windows will stand out like a sore thumb, and will date them past their true age.

Tips for cleaning windows – Do not clean windows while they are in direct sunlight. Your cleaning solution will dry too fast.

Using a 100% cotton cleaning cloth, dip the cloth in cleaning solution and wring out excess before wiping the window to loosen dirt.

Using a squeegee, start each stroke in a dry spot, and squeegee in a pattern from top to bottom or side to side. If you are cleaning the outside and inside of the window, alternate the pattern on each side (i.e. top to bottom on the inside and side to side on the outside). This will make it easier to identify which side any streaks are on.

Keep your squeegee blade dry by wiping it with a cleaning cloth between strokes.

Nicks in the squeegee blade will cause streaks. Replace when needed. If you do not have a squeegee, newspaper will dry freshly washed windows, whereas papertowel or cotton will leave lint behind.

Cool clear water is the choice of solution by most professional window washers. For very dirty windows, add 2 tablespoons of vinegar per gallon of water.

Landscaping

Homeowners should plant colorful flowers along walkway leading to the door, prune existing trees, shrubs and bushes, and add fresh mulch. Clean out dead plants and weeds from flower beds and refresh with colorful plants and annuals.

Taller plants at the corners of your house will help anchor it with the landscape. Shorter plants near your home’s entry bring attention to your front door. However, this could have a negative impact if the front door is in need of repair (another reason to rethink the exterior improvements noted previously).

Last but most definitely not least and probably most important, ensure your lawn is trimmed and green. If you have a lawn in need of attention, you may want to consult a landscaper for advice before trying to repair on your own.

Overall Appeal

Some further touches that will go along way to increasing the appeal of your home from curbside are:

Outdoor lighting – Exterior lighting in your garden, walkway or entrance area add a warmth and welcome feeling that will make a viewer want to see more.

Indoor lighting – While your house is on the market, leave lamps on in 1 or 2 front rooms. It brings the home to life and, again, provides the same warmth and welcome feeling as the exterior lighting. Exterior lighting alone will not provide the appearance of a well loved, lived in home, like the combination of exterior and interior lighting can.

Furniture – As long as the chairs are well kept and not cluttered looking within the space, two chairs on a front porch provides a tremendous visual appeal from the street. Buyers view the exterior as an extension of the home and will want to view more.

The best advice for creating great curb appeal, is to take a walk through your favourite neighbourhood. Analyze what works really well and what doesn’t. Then determine why and incorporate those items to fit your own exterior. Most of all enjoy the outdoors and don’t get too overwhelmed by the work at hand.

For single family homes, there are two basic methods used in real estate appraisal. They are replacement cost analysis, and using comparable sales. A third appraisal method, based on capitalization, is used for income properties, and is covered in another article.

In figuring replacement cost the question is: What would it cost to buy this land and put this house on it? If the land (improved) would cost $40,000, and the house could be built for $150,000, the value indicated would be around $190,000 – if the house is fairly new. If it has used up 10% of its useful life, you can deduct $15,000 for depreciation.

Replacement cost is not really a very useful measurement. It is difficult to say what the land is worth in a city center where none is left for sale, for example, and tough to gauge depreciation. It is used as a secondary method, and for unique homes that can’t be compared easily with others. The primary method of real estate appraisal used for homes is a market analysis using comparable sales.

Real Estate Appraisal 101

To get a good idea of what a home should sell for, you need to compare it to homes that have sold. Find at least three similar homes in the same area that have sold within the last year, preferably within the last six months. This information is available in the county records, or from a real estate agent with access to the MLS (multiple listing service).

Now the confusing part. You start with the selling price of each of your comparables. If your subject home has a second bathroom, and the a comparable doesn’t, you add the value of the bathroom to the sales price of the comparable. If a comparable home has a blacktop driveway, and the subject home doesn’t, you take the value away.

You are rectifying differences, to see what comparable homes would have sold for if they were like yours. So if a comparable sold for $140,000, and a bathroom is worth $15,000 in your area (ask a real estate agent for help with these figures), you ADD $15,000 for the bathroom it doesn’t have. Then you subtract, say $4,000, for the paved driveway it does have. This gives you a comparable sales price of $151,000.

You do this with all differences between the subject home and each comparable. When done, you average the three comparable prices. So if the three comparables have adjusted sales prices of $151,000, 162,000, and 149,000, you add the three figures and divide by three. The indicated value of the home is $154,000.

Of course all appraisal is an inexact science. If you can only find comparables sold over a year ago, you have to estimate appreciation in the area. If one sold with seller financing, you have to decide how this affected the price. For all of it’s flaws, however, for single family homes, this is the most accurate method of real estate appraisal.

Steve Gillman has invested real estate for years. To learn more, and to see a photo of a beautiful house he and his wife bought for $17,500, visit http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com

Real Estate Appraisal – Do It Yourself

So you are looking for an apartment to rent or a house to purchase. One of the most important steps is researching the neighborhood to decide if you really like to live in that area. The best way to do this is driving around that area to see if you really like that neighborhood. You should pay attention to traffic, available stores, available transportation, noise level etc. Also, you should try visiting the neighborhood during different times of the day.

Do you know you can get help from the Internet for your apartment or house hunting?

You can view interactive maps on the Internet. The best tools I’ve seen so far are Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) and MSN Virtual Earth (http://virtualearth.msn.com). With these online tools, you type in the address of the place you are interested in and a map centered at that address will show up. You can zoom in, zoom out and drag around the map to see what other streets are close and how close this place is to the highway, etc.

You can view satellite images on the Internet. This new service is available at Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth. After you type in an address, you can choose to view a satellite image of that place. Just like maps, you can zoom to different levels and move around using your mouse. This might give you a more direct feeling on what this neighborhood look like than looking at the map alone.

You can find out what business/services are available around a place on the Internet. With Google Maps, MSN Virtual Earth and Yahoo! Maps (http://maps.yahoo.com), after you get a map or satellite image of an address, you can do a local search in that neighborhood. For example, you can search for “Pizza” and all nearby pizza restaurants will show up on the map. This way you can get a feeling if it’d be convenient for dining, shopping or entertainment in that area.

You can get driving directions on the Internet. Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps and other online map sites provide driving direction services. You type in the starting and destination addresses and they will show you a detailed driving direction with map, total mileage and estimated driving time. This way you can estimate how easy would be for you to drive to other places (such as to work or school) from that neighborhood.

Although this Internet tools are pretty cool, it’s still important to go check out the neighborhood in person by yourself. Happy hunting!

Brian Walker is a freelance writer who has written many self-help articles, including http://www.101apartmentforrent.com and http://www.mortgage4house.com/ etc.

How to Use the Internet to Help Your Apartment or House Hunting