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Save Money On Your House 3rd Edition

Save Money On Your House 3rd Edition

Well, we left off in the 2nd edition with looking at large contractors and their big fancy ads and trucks. Now again, I don’t see why people don’t see through this. Many of them do low quality work on your house and charge high prices. The same thing can happen on the opposite side also. The small contractor provides poor quality work on your house, because their too cheap on the quote, but still need to pay their bills. This leads you into the, who do I hire to work on my house? The answer is the right one. Just kidding. I am not a 3-10 quote person for getting work done. I am a contractors favorite to deal with as I do my research on my own to see what things should cost for the work on my house and if I think they are fair I will hire them on the spot. You can do the same for the work on your house. Now, your saying to yourself thats what a quote does. No, a quote tells you what the contractors wants to charge you for their services on your house. You need to jump on the Internet in your free time and look around. Their are forums for just about everything and anything. There is a forum which only deals with hydro-seeding, for those who don’t know this is a process for installing a lawn on your house. which, by the way is one of the best ways to get a new lawn installed.You find a forum and see who is having work done on their house and what they paid. be careful as different parts of the country can have very different rates. Remodeling in the great-lakes area or Wisconsin costs 10-30% more due to the age of the houses and the extra work which must be done to remodel houses there. Talk with people on the forums or even self help sites. Find out what it would cost to do the project yourself. There use to be a rule of thumb, materials cost and then double it for labor, then take the two and add them. The total is what you expect to pay. Now, windows is a hard area as the bigger the company the more they normally charge when looking at windows.

Let’s take your house and say you want a new bay window. The window is 5 ft. x 4.5ft. high. This window depending on how big the window company is will cost them depending on all materials $950-$3,000 for their cost for the windows. The numbers are only for example as there are to many ways to determine the actual cost of a window, because of all its possible features. So, your house needs one bay window we will say. They come out and measure you up and give you the big sales pitch on why their window is the best. You tell them thanks I am getting some other quotes. They tell you $4,500 which by the way would be a good price for a fully installed bay window.

The $4,500 can be divided in half, the window cost them $2,250 their cost for the window. Remember, the bigger the company the bigger their discount for your windows for your house. It may just cost them $1,550 and then they don’t pass their wholesale discount on to you. That is their discount for the volume of windows they do. So, now they mark the window cost up to $2,250. They then take that number and take a percentage as labor. As a contractor you would take 50% markup and that was your labor costs. The booming remodeling, window replacement market blew the pricing off the charts. You can pay $5,500 on a bay window easily now days.

The break down would be their cost $1,550 window, labor/crew $300 if they are paying their people well. So, their cost $1,850 plus tax. Your house and your cost $4,500 plus tax. Remember, the $2,250 is after they mark up the window. Then multiply by 2 and you get your final number without tax. This was the easy way for contractors to come up with the final quote for your house. The 50% was the most popular for many years the 100% is now becoming the norm. So, one more look. You have a $12,000 window quote for your house, this in turn would be $8,000 materials and then $4,000 for the labor. Which is a very reasonable quote for your house windows. I have heard of people replacing 10-15 windows and costing $20,0000 plus! You can see why so many wanted to get into the window replacement market. Now, if you have a scammer company as I call them, they send out cheap illegal labor at $5.00 per hour to put your windows in. You see what I am talking about, guess who is laughing all the way to the bank. The problem is this is becoming more and more the norm. Large companies using cheap or cheap and illegal labor. Really all they are doing is exploiting these poor people for their personal gain.

The landscaping and yard work has just burst with companies using cheap and illegal help. Don’t bother to ask who is going to be working on your house. They are not going to tell you some cheap and Illegal labor so I can make more profit help. You can ask before you sign your house contract who does the work and how much experience do they have. This will only help you later after it’s to late when your already in court because the cheap help could not read the installation instructions. It is very hard to watch out for this tactic, you can protect yourself by not always going with the cheapest quote. This is one way. The ones who use the cheap and illegal help to do work on your house will normally be the cheapest because they are paying nothing for labor. This year has been a big year for this type of thing to happen. The housing market down these companies were doing anything and everything to get the chance to work on your house.

Many people did hire these companies as they are the cheapest. What they don’t realize this is why they get poor quality work. The pay structure does not reflect a quality rate for educated and quality workers. This is also why you see it in landscaping so much. You can’t screw up mulch or rocks to much. They can put it were you don’t want it. It’s not like building the foundation of your house, you don’t see the volume of cheap and illegal help in the strong trade areas. They might me a helper or a clean up person. Just be careful as this type of labor can cost you big when things turn out bad or missing! I really don’t see why people think its alright to break the laws to have work done on their house by illegal help. It is breaking the law to rob a bank also, they wouldn’t do that. These contractors obviously find it no problem breaking the law. If they use cheap illegal help, hence the illegal part, that means it is against the law. What is going to happen next? Which laws are people going to follow? Only the ones they like! I am a law bidding citizen who believes in our country and its laws.

When the laws are finally enforced you will see the quality level of work on your house go up. The rates will actually go down also. More people won’t be getting scammed, placing more money into our great economy allowing people more expendable cash flow to do the work. You can ask people what level of quality they got and were they happy with the contractor they used. The whole reference game is not always the best as they are not going to give you the name and number for a customer who filed a complaint against them. Asking around and doing some research on your own can save your house and you thousands of dollars every year.

I am sure someone will have the nerve to say they did like this edition as I stated I don’t believe in breaking the countries laws and using cheap and illegal help. Many people have fought and died to be part and a legal citizen of this country. This is a large problem and is why you pay so much to have your house worked on. If you think not look at how much in tax you pay every day. If illegal labor collects funds from Social security fund but never pay in, where is the money coming from? Thats right you the law bidding tax paying citizen of this country.

Well, your house is saving already by you reading this, because you will not get scammed if you are educated about the scammers. Education for all will save us all money in the end.

Remember always safety first.

Houses Not Selling

The word out there is, the houses are not going to move this year.  The largest home builder releases that they are down 44% on new builds.  The market has shown that it is not going any fast right now.  If you follow this trend you don’t need anyone to tell you this.   This is they type of market that is going to put the start up home improvement and other related small business out of business this year.  The small company that has large overhead with new equipment and start up costs in this housing market is not going to make.

This is leading into my tips for how to sell your house.  The market now needs a seller who must be motivated to sell.  If your not in the position where you have to sell then don’t.  Also this applies to buying a house at this time.  Most people are being told to not move right now.  You need to sit still until next year if you can.  Now again if you can not sit you need to make your house as nice as possible to your potential buyers.  You need to follow all tips and guides on how to sell your house if you want half a chance to sell.  My start is start at the outside and work your way in.  My style is outside in, because if no one slows down to look they will never make it inside, now will they?

Take a look at my series of articles that deals with this on this site prepareyourhouseforsale.biz/blog and “Houses To Go” at prepareyourhouseforsale.biz/blog1.  These site combine many articles that deal with how to sell your house.  I cannot stress it enough that they housing wars of years gone by is over.  No one is starting bidding wars on open house day anymore, in fact no one is showing up on open house day like they did before either.  I know a agent that never did open houses at all who is now doing it all the time with not very much positive out come either.

The market will start up next year in or around June.  The home owner has to lower the prices they  are willing to take for their houses,  if not they will just sit, that’s it.  So, think about and plan out what you want to do.

Please keep sending me any questions or comments.

Check Your House Today

The walk will be well worth it.  Is this not what all the doctors are telling people now days to get into better shape and live longer.  Well your walk today is going to be around your house.

Start at your front door,  What do you see?  If you start listing items with no end in sight, stop already.  You need to de-clutter as I like to say it.  The space must be opened up.  People want to see where they can put their favorite chair and TV and so on.  If the room is so full  of items they will see it as not working for them. The room may very well be large enough for them, but they cannot see it.  Get down to the bare basics in the room.  It can be hard, but well worth it if you really want to sell your house.

Next, lets talk a walk into the kitchen and see what is in here now.  a big oversized table in a small galley style kitchen will send a buyer with a family off screaming.  People with families want space to get their family in there. Now, if they ever really sit down and have a meal as a family is not your problem, but you have to aleast allow them the chance to think so.  If it is a family table that has been handed down, put it in storage.  I think you can see a trend here?

The kitchen counter top is another big area where people like to see wide open space.  Most people have a hard enough time seeing how things will layout in there mind already, don’t hinder it. Clean of the 12 piece family sized toaster, it does not have the same appeal to all.  The five feet of space it takes is no good either.  Obvious, a little humor, or at least hope this is not a toaster out there takes up this much space as everthing is jumbo sized now days.

We have now covered the two rooms slightly to get you going.  I don’t want to over load you with to much at once.  This will people feel fraustrated and stop before they start.

I will try to put out a book coming the future that will show how-to set your whole house including the yard up to sell your house quickly.

For now I will keep on giving quick little ideas to keep everyone busy.  Take pictures and ask others to give there ideas.  Send them to me I can help.

Remember safety first.

House Staging Second Edition

Ok,  We were at the front of your  house getting a picture from the curb.  We need to see these pictures in order to see what needs to be done.  You must start at the out side, you will hear me say this all the time.  If you get someone who tells you it is all about how the inside looks,  get rid of them now.

We will cover this now,  think about it.  When you go looking or when driving in a area you like you look at the houses that stand out.  This can be for good and bad.  The really bad houses you are never going to want to see inside are you?The really nice house with lots of curb of appeal you may even slow down and look at a house thats not even for sale.  So,  I think with this said you can see why you must start on the outside.

The yard should have a good looking lawn.  I am not talking about a country club golf course or anything, but should look nice.    When you know your house is going up for sale in advance it pays to have some weed and feed applications done.  You can even do it yourself as they have bottles that connect to your hose.  Trim the edges around walk ways and sidewalks.  This give a clean well kept look.

The trees should be trimmed of all dead and over hanging branches.  If the lot is to full you may even need a professional to open up your tree tops to get more sun light into the yard and house.  The next is your bushes, they also need to be removed if dead, sounds funny, you should see how many houses are for sale with dead brown bushes right up against the house.  Trim back and shape,  do not allow to overhang sidewalks. 

I have written about these above steps before, but they are so important when staging curb appeal they can not be repeated enough.  Side walks most be clean and uncluttered. Power wash them if they are dirty.  Again sounds funny it not.  People look at all these things.  We just take it for granted.  Don’t have 15-20 planters of flowers all over the steps.  First of all they are a tripping hazard and second they will make a mess with dead leaves and such.  Which is more cleaning you will have to do.

The front door of the house should be in very good shape.  All screens and glass should be fucntioning and look good.  The paint on the doors should be in good shape also, leaning towards a new style look.  If they need paint,  paint them, if they need replacement, replace them.  Even if you don’t buy the high end doors and storm doors it is better to replace then look bad.    

I will keep updating this same article.  The theme will stay the same and will have more tips added.   I do repeat things over again to remind clients to do what we talked about and in case new people are just reading this edition.  I will keep writing as my home improvement clients are always asking for more. 

Always remember, safety first.              

House Staging / Home For Sale

Well,  I did not realize it but, what I have been doing for a little more than a year now is what everyone calls home staging.  I guess I take it to the full extent.  The reason I say this as I started at the outside of the property and work my way in.

You see, you can set up everything inside just fine, but if the outside is a clutter and not tidy yard or house,  well just forget about it.  Now,  I am in WI and people here are not like other parts,  people here are big time conservatives when it come to spending money.  I had two large clients last year that needed complete house staging.  I just called it Rehab consulting and did not get the new coined phrase “House Staging”.  I was able to help sell a clients house in seven days.  Now,  sometimes this is not always the case.  My rates well lets just say inexpensive is a understatement.  I just read a article where the house stagers are charging a commission on what the house sells for. 

I did not do that.  I did not charge any consulting fees if they hired us to do the up grades that were needed to the house. Yes, I only charged what the going rates for the area were, for the improvements done.  So,  in the end I staged the whole house for free.  Silly me.   Now, this whole craze of house staging is going on and I once again have been left behind.

We have doing are normal home improvement and hydro-seeding this year instead.  If some of you don’t know hydro-seeding is, is the newer way lawns are put in.  Most people in Wisconsin don’t even know what it is.  People down south have seen the trucks with tanks spraying green slurry for a bunch of years already.

People here get talked into straw/seed applications all the time and pay big money for it.  I just don’t get it.  Remember,  house staging starts outside and then goes in.  I don’t care what anyone else is saying.  If a buyers car does not ever slow down to look because the outside is so bad,  they never make it inside.

Well,  here I have been calling my tips to help sell your home,  should have been “how to stage your home for sale.”

Now, if people would just start seeing my blog,  I could really help some people out.  The house staging tip of the day is,  walk out take some pics of your house and see what you think.  Then ask others,  tell them you want their likes or dislikes and to be honest.

Or just send them to me and let me tell you.  I am just a home improvement specailist and lucky for all, I also like to write.

I will start a daily tip if there is enough response.             

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

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.