Prepare Your House For Sale

How To Clean Your Homes Gutter System

It is that time of year again and your house needs to have it’s gutters cleaned.  When I look at houses and find clogged or dirty gutters it tells me that there will be more water damage possible along the way.  The gutter system on a house is a very important way of getting the water away from your house.  Water is a large factor in most damage seen in houses.  Water damage from the roof line all the way to your foundation is directly linked to getting the water away from the house all together.  I advise clients on this all the time as it is a easy way to keep your largest investment in good shape, just by keeping your gutters clean.

Ok, Now I have told you why you must do it, lets get to the tips on how to get it done and safely.  The following items will be needed:

1. Ladder with wide steps and rubber tread on steps is preferred and obviously 
   long enough to reach your gutters.

2. A water supply hose long enough to reach the gutters.

3. Rubber gloves or small hand tool to remove large clumps of debris.

4. Rubber bottom shoes or boots to give better traction in wet conditions.

5. Extra person to help with hose and ladder placement. (Always Safety First)

The above items will have you prepared to clean your gutters.  Start at the farthest end from the down spout.  The gutters as long as they were installed correctly will pitch or slant down towards the down spout.  Flush the debris towards the down spout removing large mounds of debris as you go and throwing them on the ground for clean up later. Remember safety first, this is why you throw it on the ground. Trying to hold a hose, small removal tool and you all on top of a ladder is enough already, let alone now trying to put it all into a bag at the same time.  Inspect the gutter system for leaks or needed anchoring repairs at this time also.

Watching your down spout drain and flow will give you a indication on how full of debris your down spout itself is.  The more turns or elbows the more clogged it can become.  Now that you have reached the end of the gutter and the down spout connection hole, take your hose and put about two inches or more into the hole.  Even if the down spout is filled, the water pressure will build and force the remaining debris out.  You can use your hose almost like a plumbers snake to help with the clogs.  Turn the water pressure up also to give a larger volume of water behind clogs.  You can also do this in reverse as you can take the hose and feed it up from the ground inside the down spout if the clog is close to the bottom. 

You will want to give a verbal cue to your helper when you are going to throw down the debris,  because otherwise you might not have a helper for very long.  Safety is always the main concern when ever on ladders and using tools. The debris piles can easily be picked up by your helper or you once you are done cleaning out the gutters. 

So, there you have it.  Clean gutters!

Now,  there are attachments that have a u-shaped head on them that can be attached to a hose or even pressure washer attachments that can make the whole job faster, easier and safer.      

How To Repair/Repalce A Window Screen

How to repair/replace a window screen is really easy now days. Start by measuring your old screen frame. They carry rolls of screening materials in metal or fiber-mesh screening at most hardware and home improvement supply stores. The old way to repair a hole in a screen was to apply a patch over the small hole. Now there was a good reason for this. The older style screen windows were made from wood frames and you would have to take the frame apart to get the whole screen out and they were a heavy gage metal screen which is harder to work with. A task most would not under take. Just a little history of the screen window. I have been rehabbing houses for years so I have become familiar with the old and new styles out there. Also if you still have the older wood frame and metal screens you will have to use the patch type repair method or take the wood frame apart.

Now, once you have your screen size, you can purchase the roll of screening that matches the rest of your house. The new frames hold the screen in place with what is called a ribbing/cord that slips into a u-shaped channel on the outside edge of your screen. This ribbing/cord can become brittle with age and can be replaced at the same time. The ribbing/cord can be found with the screening material at the store also. Make sure you either look closely at what you have or just cut off a small piece and take it with you. It does come in different sizes, so make sure to get the correct size. It is easy to match up with old. The cord can be re-used sometimes, but it is just easier to replace it with new. None of these materials cost much at all. Sometimes they have a little tool for screen installation in the same area, the tool is inexpensive and works well.

It is now time to remove the old screen and ribbing/cord from the frame. Take the new screen and lay it over the frame. There should be a 1 inch over hang on all sides. Take the ribbing/cord and start to push it back into the u-shape channel. This will draw the screen in and hold it in place. Start at either the top or bottom of the frame and pulling the screen taught so it will not sag in the frame. The tool has a roller on it that is concave and pushes the ribbing/cord right into place. You can use a screw driver or a flat edge to push it in also. Be careful not to slip and put a new hole in the new screen if you use a screw driver or flat edge to put the ribbing/cord in. I learned this the hard way as I did not see the screen installation tool years back and spent way more time then what was needed. The excess screen just needs to be trimmed off. This can be done with a utility knife or razor knife.

There your Done!

Now, if your still not up for this simple repair and you have newer windows with fiber-mesh screens and metal frames, you can find the whole screen replacement window in many sizes at your local home improvement supply store

Updated Tub/Shower Inserts

Bath tub/shower liners are a material (plastic/fiberglass) that is put right over the top of your existing bath tub/shower area. These units are highly simplistic for a seller/installer of the companies that make these units. I will not insult anyones intelligence here, but if a company can send one guy out and within a few hours have your overlay in, you know who’s making the money here. I am not sold on these as what happens when moisture gets trapped in between the two layers. You know how everyone keeps hearing about entire houses not being livable because of mold. Also, who is doing the work, if you have a bad wall to begin with and they just go over it, you still have a bad wall underneath it. Right?

Now, It is just like anything else you get what you pay for. If you can find someone in your area and check up on their work and you can’t go the whole bath room remodel give this a try. These have become more popular, mainly because of the fact the costs are lower. Check around, there are more good people, doing high end work for alot cheaper then you think.

How To Install A Bi-folding Door

How to install a Bi-fold door and tools needed.

Now, we will work with the idea that you have your doors and have measured the opening of the area you wish to place the doors in. Most doors come in standard sizes, 24″,32″,36″ and so forth. If you have a odd sized opening make sure you buy a door that states it can be changed to fit, other wise you will be making lots of trips back and forth. The old saying measure twice and cut once, stands true in all areas of home improvements and building.

Normally your will need the following tools:
-Cordless drill or corded
-Hack Saw (Most of the time the track these doors are supported by and move on are metal)
-drill bit(can be optional)
-Standard screw driver
-Phillips screw driver
-Tape Measure
-Pencil

Now, make sure the opening you want to put this door in is free from cluter and regular obstructions as these doors pull out towards and over to the side. If you already have not done so, remove the old door and all of its hardware. Now, if you are replacing a damaged Bi-folding door to begin with, here is your chance to save time. If you can find the same door the track will probably be the same, so then all you would have to do is apply the roller hardware to the top of the new doors and insert them. That would be it and your done.

For those who are not as fortunate take out your tape and measure the top of the opening. Remember measure twice and cut once. The track needs to fit the opening from side to side. You can be alittle short or have a small gap in each side as this will not hurt anything. Now, a small gap is about the thickness of a quarter or coin. Now, before you cut your track look at the mounting holes on the track. Try to make sure you have holes close to each end of the track, some times this will require a small cut made on each end to get your holes and length right. The door can sag if the track is not supported close enough to the edges.

Take the track and hold it in the opening to make sure it fits. Mark the holes in the top support of the opening. You can now take and pre-drill the holes for the mounting screws. Make sure the drill bit is smaller then the mounting screws. If you don’t have a drill bit just take your time and have someone hold the track up and put the screws in with the cordless drill or hand held screw driver. The track should be centered from front to back in the opening. Be careful as to not have the drill set to high and spin out your screws or break them. Also, make sure according to the door company or hardware as you look at and see if it has to be in the track before you screw it in.

Depending on when you have to hang the doors, place the hardware on the top of the doors at the edges or sides of each door. Once these are installed, mount the pull handle in the center of either the left or right door on the inner edge where the two doors meet. Remember, these doors pull out towards you and slide to the side on the track. Also the above is when the the two doors that make a bi-folding door are attached to each other by hinges. If not install hinges now. Most will have one hinge mounted in the center of each door on the inside. Now, if the doors need to be placed in the track at this point, get the help of another if you can and angle the door out towards you and slip the top hardware into the track.

There, you know have installed a bi-folding door.

Big Demand For Curb Appeal

So, You want curb appeal. Right? Every house needs to have curb appeal, but for what reason, pride of ownership or trying to sell your home. I have consulted people on this topic for a few years now. There is a large difference between the two. Lets be honest here, you could hire a consultant and a high end landscaper who has actual names to the styles of curb appeal that he does, I can tell you right now most people could care less what you call it except, beautiful. Now, the real deal we all know is money. Consultants and high end landscapers take lots of it, if you have lots of money just burning a hole in your pocket then take look in the phone book theres a ton of over priced landscapers who will call your curb appeal by a style name and charge you a fortune.

I will take the approach that I give 80% of my clients and that is one of beauty and budget. Lets forget about the fancy named styles and landscapers trying to sell this to you. First you need to walk out to the front of your house right now. Thats right, leave me here and walk out front. Go ahead, do it. Ok, what did you see? Write it down and look at it. Now you have your layout in your mind, next step is for what reason do you want the curb appeal? Need to help to sell your house or are you just like I said earlier, pride of ownership. I will lean more towards the side of selling your house. As this is the area that I normally consult in. This is also the area where the money part comes in. People planning on staying in their house will want to spend far more then the person trying to sell.

The start is this, what is your reason? Whats the budget? Now, here is where I usually take over for my clients. I consult them on what to do next, for me and many others this is a fine line. I consult and I provide the required services, so you can see a high trust factor going on here. I take an approach of, the best bang for the buck. You can never go wrong this way. I have clients that have a considerable amount of money and I end up talking them out of spending lots more. I firmly believe in making a honest living and not taking advantage of people and a persons home is a emotional aspect for them. Lots of contractors and landscapers take the opposite approach and try to sell you on the most expensive style and this takes the most labor, think you can figure out the rest. I have recently started to provide free consulting through my own website in a effort to help people out, as I am tired of watching big landscaping companies with big fancy trucks and crews who you know are getting paid next to nothing to do the work on your home.

So, enough about that, did you think about that budget yet? You can also take the approach of laying out everything you want to do and then costing it out and then pick and chose what you want. Lets, start at the curb. If your mail box is on your side of the street spruce it up. Don’t have a rusted up pile of junk on a stick, buy a new one, even if you only replace the mail box top. Now days most people have the all in one plastic style. Now, the ground around it can be removed and mulch can be put down and flowers, remember flowers need water, dead flowers take away from curb appeal. Theres one thing already done. Make sure the lawn is in some what good shape, not weeds and dead patches every where. Buy some spray on fertilizer and grass mulch blend in a bag and get the yard in shape. Trim the edges of side walks and drives. This gives a nice clean look and costs not a dime, that is if you do it yourself.

Take a look around the yard, don’t have to many things out or two many lawn decorations, and just so you know if you still have the pink birds in the front lawn, put them away. If you have shrubs or bushes around the house trim them back, don’t allow them to be over grown or hang over drives or walks. Take or remove any dead plant life. Over all you want a clean open feel to the front of the house. If you have lots of trees, cut back really low branches. If you have large trees that have large dead sections, call in a person and get these removed. This may cost alittle more, but will be well worth. Look around theres alot of tree trimmers out there. Now you could already decide to stop there and have done enough to get people to slow down and look at your house. Like I said earlier, been doing this for a few years and if you don’t have curb appeal, most people will never make it inside. I could write a book on this one topic, so I will stop here for now as this article is getting longer by the minute.

I hope this article is helpful to all. I try to write in a very straight forward and simple style. You don’t need all the fluff and no stuff, when your trying to improve upon one of the biggest investments of your life. Lastly your home is just that your home, beauty still can be in the eye of the beholder, won’t always help you to sell, but it makes you happy. Right?

Daily Tips To Help You Sell Your House

So, You want to sell your home. I would to start off by saying this a area where people need to start simple and not get frustrated. You will normally have the help of the listing agent, that is if you hire pro to sell your house. The trend and the housing bubble have created many do-it-yourself home sales. These are great for the home investors making their money off of buying and selling houses. These over night sell your house companies can leave you really short when it comes to getting your home ready and even looked at. I know this as, I have been what we call a Rehab Consultant for about 2 years now. This is only one aspect of my business. We than can help people after a consult to get thing prepared on their homes before they go on the market. Some people say this can be a conflict of interest, if you are providing a true and honest consult you do what your clients want and need. Not as the old saying goes “Sell them whats left over from the last job in the back of the truck”.

I spent over 6 months consulting and preparing 2 homes last year that never would had people even slow down and look before we did the consulting and repairs for them. This market is 5x worse then last year towards the end of the selling season. One house took 3 months to get it ready. This house starting from the curb looked like it came out of a horror movie. You know what I am talking about the house that all the kids on block think is haunted. It took me 2.5 hours to just go over what needed to be done to the house inside and out before we thought about putting it on the market.I have established high levels of respect and trust with my clients, with out this in this type of consulting, everyone would just figure your just selling them on what makes you the most money. This is why you don’t see Rehab Consultants all over.

Now I am not saying that everyone needs to hire a consultant to tell them what to fix and fix it for them. There are many different levels of service that can be given to people. We just provide people with what they need. If you do hire some one to help you sell your home, don’t let them talk you into high level repairs or up dates and they do all the work, this is nothing more than a contractor and whats in the back of the truck. I again have to stress there is a fine line between finding a actual person that is looking out for your interests, even when you are paying good money to sell your house, there are people out there only looking to line their pockets with your money. We get most of this type of work by word of mouth. So, this is one tip on how to sell your house.

There are many ways to help promote your house without ever hiring anyone to help you. There are many people out there that have lots of knowledge and are writing articles like this one, which can give people lots of help without costing them a penny. Really how much better does it get. You the home seller just have to take the time to find the articles. Again their are just alot of people trying to get you to buy something from them. I have found tons of these out there. Like this article if I was just writing it for this reason I would have told you to go to my site and buy my book how to sell your house from me. NO I don’t have a book for sale. Although not a bad idea, just kidding. These types of people is why people don’t like to hire people to help them, again this where your level of trust is needed and also could be used against you.

I spend more time talking to people on how to sell their homes and don’t get a dime then when I do. I guess its a good thing I don’t make my house payments on just consulting. We offer a full range of services that help home owners even ones keeping their houses. Again as I said before if I was just trying to sell you on something I would be giving plugs for my services or books right now. Here again this not why I am here, its because I find helping people to solve their housing problems rewarding and interesting. Just Ask my wife, she will tell you, I must be the cheapest guy in town and need to raise my rates.

Start right now by going out and looking at your house from the curb. This again is where it all starts. Take your mail box, take the grass out around it and put down a weed barrier and some mulch. Now this was simple and economical. The faster way yet, put some potted plants out, if there is not time to do the above. Ohh, I know we all want to think we live in a great safe area and all kids have halos, bring the plants back up to the house after a showing. This can save the time and money of cleaning up broken pots and dirt. Well heres a simple little tip with more to come. Hope this helps and that I can find the time to write more.

Your Home And Curb Appeal

Ok People lets start the day here.  Ohh yes, if you are viewing this article on my blog the time on here is wrong.  Using WP for publishing and it states just change the time zone in general area,  not that easy.  So, for me it is 8:51 am.

So, back to curb appeal.  Did anyone  go out a look at the front of their house from the curb yet?  Alright,  if not still give it try.  Your house has to look like it worth stopping for.

Start like stated in previous post get rid of clutter.  Give some color but lets open up the area.   Even if you have a condo with a small entreeway you can still give it color.  Just add one pot with different colored flowers in it.  Now,  If you have a whole yard start at the street and your drive and work your way in.  These tips don’t have to take alot of time or money.  For example,  if your mail box is at the start of your drive,  start with it.  Take and remove a section of grass around it, put down some weed barrier and add a mulch that would be neutral yet, eye catching.  Simple but very.  effective.

So, there the early day tip.  Not to many meeting today,  so maybe a few more posts to keep everyone checking back. 

Home Selling Is Tough

Just a thought before the end the night here.  I stated about curb appeal.  I cannot stress it enough how important it really is people.  You need to get out to that curb and take a hard look.  Better yet have a friend,  tell that friend you want a honest answer and thats what you really want.    

Now,  we will go from there,  hopefully someone is reading,  people actually pay good money for this same info.  Again I can talk alot faster than I type so they get their monies worth.  Thanks everyone for looking.     

Building A Home Site To Help People Sell

Hello All,

Again I don’t have any idea right now if my articles are reaching anyone.  I thought I had a great handle on the whole web/blog build thing,  guessed wrong, takes more time and things do not just plug in as easily as what the book writers say.

I have been slowing down lately with alot quotes for people and a whole lot of no work.  People are not sure out there what to do.  I really built this blog to help people to fix and sell their homes, well at least give peopel more of a chance in a rough housing market.  I have been talking to alot more peopel in the trades and unless you are a company sticking $1000 and $1000 into advertising poeple are not seeing you. 

See the whole housing market is in a slump,  which causes a circle slump for all others tied into the market.  The people that work on houses to the people selling the same house are finding it hard to get work out there right now.  Some people think that summer is almost over and people will start looking a their houses and what they want done before winter sets in.

The seasons play such a big role in the housing market and not only where it gets totally cold and shuts down the market for the winter.  Even southern states have the slow winter monthes even when its 75 and sunny.  People start gearing up for holidays and start seeing where their money is going and how far their dollar will go.  See people need to fix their house up for sale at one point and then sell at another.

There are some things that can be done fast and easy.  Tip: don’t clutter the walk ways of your house when you don’t have much room to begin with.  People feel traped in the area and may even think they are going to trip and fall.  You may like the feel of walking up to your oun private jungle entrance others find it confining and uneasy to be closed in.  Move some planters away from the area and open it up, still giving a green natural look, but not stopping people from coming in.    

You want to sell your house and it starts from the curb.  I have people who call me and they want a walk thru on their house,  I tell them to meet me at the curb,  this is where it starts.  My wife and I many years back looking for a new home drove by many a house and if it looked dumpy from the curb we never even slowed down,  let alone to make a appt. to see the house inside.

Well people here are some tips for the day.  I will keep working on seeing how to get people to the site to help them.

Slow Housing Market

Hello,  Everyone

Well still working on figuring out this blog setup stuff.  I am not sure if anyone is even seeing any of this or not.

I have been trying to see if people have seen the blog, but just really don’t know.

Well back to the slow housing market.  If you think I am going to tell you the housing market is going to trun around tomorrow and just wait, that would not be true.  First people most realize their gold mine house prices of a few years ago are gone.  People are getting foreclosed on now days because that market has changed.  The loans people got into are not stable like they were lead to believe.

You need to have time to sell your house in this market.  If you don’t well you better suck it up butter cup,  cause the houses just are not moving.  I know a realitor that is at the top of his game and he is dusting his office now days waiting for calls. 

People your house needs to be perfect before its on the housing market, not after.  People are not showing up on open house day starting bidding wars with each other,  sounds funny now, but this was going on a few years back only.  Home owners with fat pocket books just stood back and watched all their dreams and hopes fulfilled.  Doors falling off, no paint on the house, holes in all the screens,  these houses would actual sell before.  Not no more.  You better have the house spotless and those cookies baking or just a air spray to make the house fresh  and then you might have some stay longer then five seconds.

People are actually hiring actors to act as the perfect family in the perfect house.  WOW!  Now is this over the top or what?

Well,  need to help some people to sell their house and have them pay me, opposed to this free site.  Mind you they get alittle more than what I offer here.

Take care all,  and I hope someone finally see this!