Houses To Go

You And Your House

I will keep writing about you and your house and someone is going to find out that this site really has alot info. that will save you lots of money on your house. I have offered to you here, help for free in any area of your house for you. This costs you nothing and saves you $1000s. I know I have seen what people have been charging for years. I can’t believe the prices people pay to have consulting or repairs/remodeling done to their house. I can help in all areas of your house. What do you want to know? Just ask about your house and you will receive. This site is about helping each other out. I own a company which I have yet to tell anyone, what the name of that company is. I do give examples to show what I know about and how I can help you and your house. I cannot say it enough, just ask a question. I know people are coming to the site. Please let me know if you have tried to leave a question or comment and I did not see it.There are so many people out there that need help. I know if I ran an ad that said “remodel your house for free” my phone would never stop ringing! This is kinda like that, I am offering consulting or how-to guides for your house with not a single cost to you. This site is already just filled with free how-to articles and they have high viewings on other sites so I know people find them a value. Some, I have even been paid to write. Take advantage of this.

I have started this site because of the need to help people from getting ripped off by many bad contractors out there. You think of your house as your safe zone, so when someone cons or scams you on work done or repairs it has a long lasting affect on you and your house. Every person with a pick up truck or van and a hammer is not a home improvement contractor! Many are con people trying to make a easy buck at your expense. What I really hate is when I see good contractors not get a job and then see a large contractor get it, because they used price slashing tactics to squeeze out the small guy.

People are playing a dangerous game of who can give me the cheapest price for my house repairs. There is also the opposite that happens, happens mostly with the really big name companies with all the ads and promotional items to win over business for their company. people fall for all this high sales pressure and fancy truck and uniform stuff and pay way more because of it. Who do you think pays for all those hig priced ads, trucks and more, thats right you and your house!

I had a individual come to my house many years back to price out replacement windows. I knew I would be doing it myself if I could find the time to squeeze my own work in. I will not mention the name of the window company who is a large company with the fancy tv,radio and newspaper ads like crazy. Side note, who do you think really pays for those big fancy ads, you got it you! So, he comes in and sits down at my kitchen table with my wife and I. We asked when we booked the estimate about the $189.00 installed window. This is what happened next. “yes thats the ad we are running right now What size windows do you need again? I state slide by style you see on the house right now. He then say ohh, those are not covered in that promotion. I asked you that when I booked you! Well yes we have them, but they won’t work for what you want.

Well to say the least I was done right there. I knew I had invited a con man into my house. I still wanted to see what he would charge for my windows, slide by, lowE, gas filled, double pane, vinyl frame and wood look interior. Well the numbers started flying. He was adding and adding and adding. Well, he says, “we have a great deal for you as these are slide by and lowE that window in our replacement style window will cost you $1,000 dollars per window installed. I say what did you say. It is a 3′ x 5′ window so you know it is not a great big picture window. I then said, thanks but that to high. Well, how much did you think it will cost. I said around $450.00 which was still a high profit level for him, he did not know I knew this. I tried to stop the deal 5-6 times before he would finally leave. It did not even stop there, he just turned up the high pressure sales tactics from there.

You really most hear the rest of this, which I will provide to you in a series on you and your house improvements as this is number one in the series.

Remember Always Safety First.

How To Get A Great Lawn Installed Second Edition

The on going problems for home owners in the Midwest will not end until people are educated on what hydro-seeding is. The Hydro-seeding process is the mixture of a high blend of grass seed shade/sun mix for starters. This is a very important part of your new lawn even when not using the hydro-seeding process. People think that their grass is just all the same. It is not. The landscapers don’t tell you that their grades of grass cost different prices for them. The straw/seed scammer use a low quality seed as they just don’t care how it grows to begin with. See they don’t bother telling their customers about the seed because the straw/seed lawn application is so cheap they figure the customer will never ask about the quality seed, which most of the time they are right. They don’t want there customers to know the grades of seed will make the grow in rate faster and give a much higher quality lawn. The cheap seed does not come in and allows for more weeds to grow and take over the lawn. You see many also offer fertilizer services and will tell you this normal and with lots of applications of their high priced fertilizer service you will have a great lawn in two years! They will tell you this is the only way and there is nothing they can do about it.

The hydro-seeding lawn application will not grow the weeds or require the fertilizer to get the same lawn that costs the home $1,000s more to get the same end results. You see the home owner never finds this out until it is way to late. Some of the home owners never figure this out as they keep using the same landscaper they trusted to give them their services and advice on their lawn, so the scammer just keep laughing all the way to the bank on the same customers for many years to come. The new lawn straw/seed installation process is the scammer landscapers best money pit they could ever as for. They know if they can get that straw/seed lawn job they will have continued source of money for years to come just due to the low quality lawn they have installed.

The seeds that are general or low quality cost the scammer landscapers next to nothing per bag. In fact they don’t even get the blend sometimes. This is how cheap this process is. It is not cheap to the home owner who choose the straw/seed lawn installation over the quality process of hydro-seeding lawn installation. Not to says a hydro-seeder can’t use cheap seed, but even if they did the straw being eliminated in itself makes it 10x better then the straw/seed new lawn installation. This article is dealing with just seed side of things as far as new lawn installation is concerned.

You see the blends and quality level can make the difference of grass or no grass. You see shade seed can grow in direct sun, but sun seed will not grow in highly shaded areas. The scammer landscaper is not going to tell you this. They will tell you it was your fault for not giving your new lawn proper care. They will be more than happy to charge you again and give you another lawn application at their full installation rates. They really rip off and scam they customers in this situation as you can see. They will just keep telling you it is not their and there is nothing they can do about. You hear about this kinda of thing all the time when people get scammed into the using straw and seed type grass installation. The problem in the end is the customer has no idea that they have been scammed to begin with. It really is a shame.

What really is a shame is in the great-lakes area people are brain washed that straw and seed is the only way to install a new lawn besides sod. They can’t even get close to worrying about the quality of their grass seed as the whole process of straw and seed is so out dated but, these poor people don’t even know the high quality hydro-seeding new lawn installation process is available to them. I know how can a large group of people be taken advantage of so much! The problem is the scammer landscape company owner are not about to tell them about it! How you could think that a 1800s process of installing a new lawn is still the only process is beyond me. It is not the home owners fault, it is the under handed people not informing them of the fact there are much higher quality ways to get a lawn installed besides using the low quality straw and seed application process. Even they scammer cannot defend the straw and seed application and say it grows in fast with limited weeds. because it won’t do it and it can’t do it.

If you still choose to use the straw and seed application make sure they at least use the highest quality seed possible with out charging you any more then what they were going to begin with. Now, really there is no reason to use the straw and seed process unless you are going to install your lawn yourself. Don’t hire someone to do this process and charge you $1,000 when it costs them pennies. Any one can take hand fulls of grass seed and straw and throw it up in the air and then call it a new lawn. So, if your going to use this process of straw and seed just make sure you ask for high quality grass seed and lots of fertilizer. You will at least save the scammer landscaper fees this way, again anyone can jump around throwing seed and straw.

The worst part of all, if the home owner just added up the time and money spent they could have got a yard hydro-seeded for the same cost range when taking into consideration the time and money spent on fertilizer applications.

This addition just deals with the seed and the quality levels and types to allow home owners to make a educated decision. To many home owners have been treated like mushrooms for far to long, that is, kept in the dark and fed alot of cow poo.

Please remember safety first in all home projects.

How To Get A New Lawn Installed

Hello Everyone,

I am getting ready for a whole series on lawns and hydro-seeding the new way and the only way a new lawn should be put in, if you want a great price and great looking lawn.  Now,  if you want to have a really bad looking lawn for one to two years then use straw and seed.  This grows 50% weeds and 50% grass.  Now,  the scammer landscaping outfits are not going to tell you this at all.  In fact in the Midwest and great-lakes area they think there is not any thing else available except for straw/seed or sod.  This is because the scammers large and small landscaping companies don’t want to pay the big dollars for the machines.  You see they charge just as much for straw/seed applications and their customers are scammed very easily because they are not going to tell them that hydro-seeding is available.

The machines are so costly to the landscaping companies and cheap illegal help costs them pennies,  Exploiting these poor people for their own large, large personal gains.  This is one of the reasons I started this series as I am so sick and tired of these landscaping companies scamming their customers and running their own form of slave labor,  it just so shocking to think this going on.  People don’t even realize it when their own homes are being worked on.  Think about it for just one minute how much do you think it costs for one bail of straw and one bag of seed?  You got it, next to nothing. Now lets look at 3-5 guys show up throw this stuff all around your yard and now call this your lawn.  So,  now you paid $1,000s and $1,000s for a bail of straw and some guys to throw it all around your yard.  Who do you think is laughing all the way to the bank.  Education people is the key to success.  People need people to take the time to be told about other ways of doing things that are much better for the customer and everyone else involved!  It really is sickening watching these poor people slaving away when the scammer landscaping company owner is sitting in his air conditioned lake home costing millions off the back aches and sweat of these poor people.

The new hydro-seeding method takes less people to do it and gives sod like results in 4 weeks,  that right,  sod in 4 weeks in the right heat and watering you have a weed free lawn in 4 weeks.  These hydro-seeding machines, like I said earlier cost a lot of money and don’t last forever, so why would these straw/seed scammers want anyone else to know how they are just exploiting their customers and their labor staff while laughing all the way to the bank.   The best part the hydro-seeding is a green process and is friendly to all.  Thats right, going green,  with green.   This process is the best thing for everyone its just the people who have the means to give to their customers the correct information, just choose to lie to them and make the huge amounts of money for themselves.  I don’t even see how some of these people can even look at themselves in a mirror each and everyday knowing how poorly they are treating everyone.   What I have not had the chance to tell you the weeds you get from the straw and seed application is from the use of straw and no additives to prevent weeds.  You see, the weed preventive additive would cost the landscaping company more for materials,  lowering their profit.

The poor individuals in the great-lakes areas are suffering the most.  These people have not ever even heard of hydro-seeding at all.  So,  you can see the scammers in that area are building their own 3rd and 4th vacation homes off the profits they are getting in that area.  I am sure when the landscaping scammers out their see this article exposing them for ripping off people left and right they will not be to happy.  It really is a shame,  they cannot just be honest with people and tell them you have multiple ways to install their new lawns.  They can sell them sod,  which is, what most of them really want as it is the most expensive way to put in a new lawn. You see it takes a lot of labor,  again remember they are paying next to nothing to their labor, but telling you the customers something different.  Just ask someone who has put sod in.  You can start at $10,000 and go up from there, depending on the yard size.   It costs them no where near this but this is like buying gold in the scammers eyes.  Don’t miss understand sod is the best, they just take advantage of this.  Again the biggest exploitation of all is still the straw/seed application,  benefits no one except for the landscaping companies owner.  Unless you like weeds instead of grass for your children to play on.   The thing that bothers me the most is they lie to these people and tell them there is no way to avoid the weeds,  you just have to keep using expensive fertilizers, which some of them even have no shame at all and sign you up for next years weed control application.  This kind of tactics just makes me sick!  You don’t have to have weeds in your new lawn,  hydro-seeding gives you this advantage, as not a single blade of straw is ever used in a jet spray green mulch slurry.   Therefore no weeds! 

Just ask a sales person that your dealing with when looking into putting in a new lawn, what types of lawn installation methods they use,  if they say,  straw and seed only, run away and quickly.   Because you and your money will be the next thing to be separated otherwise.  Now if you want to throw your money away just invite the sales person in and tell them money is no problem.   I like to keep mine.  The sales scam on this is the front end cost,  remember it costs them what for straw and seed?  Thats right next to nothing.  They don’t charge next nothing to put it in.   I hate to be so blunt, but I have just seen to many people get ripped off like this.  The next trick is offering high price retaining walls and other very expensive services and saying the lawn is highly reduced or free!  Its not free, its just another scammer tactic. 

The series will keep going to educate people.  Not, all landscapers are scammers,  some are just not educated  themselves,  ignorance is still really not an excuse.  When looking at putting in a new lawn look at all the individual costs for each item.  This will help you see where they are trying to scam you.  It is so sad that people have to be so careful when hiring contractors and landscapers.  Consumer protection is just not there to protect people in these areas before its already to late.  Once a lawn is in, its all done,  except continuing to open your purse up to keep paying to make it look nice and get rid of the weeds through many applications of very expensive fertilizer.  Guess who wants to put the fertilizer on your grass?  Thats right the same one that said, straw and seed application is the only way!

I know the scammers out there will be very upset that I have blown the whistle on them.  As for everyone else just ask questions and answers will be given.  There are a few good contractors and landscapers out there,  the best ones are willing to break the work up, for example if they don’t hydro-seed they allow someone else to do it and perform the services that they are good at.  Ask,  if you don’t have a hydro-seeding machine are you  willing to find someone who does?  Again if they say no, their just out to get as much money from you as they can.  Good landscapers and contractors are not afraid to break up a job when it benefits their customers.    

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.

How To Replace A Door Knob

The door knob is a very needed item in your home.  Think about it, if you did not have any?  Ok, a little humor here today.  The style is up to you.  What do you need the new door knob for?  All new remodel or just a broken handle in your house.  The style should stay the same through out the house.  It gives the look of good clean lines with all matching,  non-matching can be viewed poorly by many people.

The door knob is a standard size for the most part.  If you get into a designer knob make sure you have the correct size opening to put it in.  If you don’t you will need what is called a hole cutting saw.  Now that you have your door knob lets take the old one out. 

The following tools will be helpful.

-standard screw driver

-Philips head screw driver

-wood chisels

-hammer

The above tools may not all be needed.  There are normally two screws on each side of the handle on the inside of the door. remove these screws.  Once screws are out of the handle, it should just pull apart from each side. The striker or plunger is held in the center of the door by two screws one on the top and bottom.  These are seated well most times and need some  work to get them out.  There should  be nothing left in the holes.  Slide your new  striker or plunger in and then take the handle and slide it in from each side.  Make sure if it is locking type that the lock switch is on the inside of the room side of the door.  Tighten up the screws on the plunger now.  You can then tighten the screws on the door handle now also.

That should complete your installation of the door knob.  The only way this would not be done is if you needed to chisel the around the striker / plunger to make the new one fit.  This is normally not needed.  Which you would have seen this when you attempted to slide it in.

The tools above can be narrowed down to one cordless screw driver and a standard/Philips head bit can do the whole door knob installation.

So, there you have it.  Now step back and look at your new door knob.

Remember safety first.

House Staging 3rd Edition

Well,  hope all have had enough time to try the few things I suggested.  We left everyone in their kitchens and looking around.  The counters need to be cleared off.  Only keep a few items on the counter.  This will give the appearance of more space and open the area up.  People want to see where their coffee maker is going to go.  Make sure the area is very clean and open,  not having the breakfast plates with egg stuck all over is not a great selling option.  Now,  if your was being viewed at mid morning the smell of fresh coffee and bacon could be very appealing to a person.

Don’t have a personal collect of Elvis plates covering 80% of the wall space.  Get these all down and packed away.  Which leads me to nail holes.  Make sure the room is free of holes and has a fresh coat of paint.  Neutral colors only, you can live without your plum crazy custom kitchen color for at least a little while. You need to have every item in its place and the place clean and new looking.  This is a very popular room for most people so they look at it harder then others.  I am not saying you need to go out and buy all new cabinets and counter tops as you would have to spend more money then needed.  You also cannot have cabinets falling off the walls either.  They most be clean and functional.  Make sure the faucet is not leaking or broken in any way.  Same goes for any drain leaks or broken or poor running garbage disposals. These are very important items.  If the counter tops are so bad have someone come in a just replace the counter with a inexpensive new one.  Make sure all lights are working and no bulbs need to be replaced.

These above items are not done so many times.  People just think there not important or over look things since they have lived with the counter top corners half broken off for 5 years any way.  So, you can see where I am coming from on these items.

The items above are a few more things to move on in the right direction.  Keep going,  you will get it done if you just keep doing it in smaller sections.

Remember, safety first. 

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.

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 gives 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

The Foreclosure Market Gone Wild

The bubble has burst. There is no secret that the home sales bubble has burst. Sure there are people still living in their towers and saying there is nothing wrong. The banking industry knows all to well that the money trees of yesterday are all picked bare and no one has planted any new trees. The lending business is going bust and has created their own foreclosure monster. The loan officers giddy child like happiness has turned into nightmares in the middle of the day. When the country has one of the largest home mortgage lenders go bust, you cannot deny the foreclosure problems that are currently here.

We entered into the foreclosure market 3 years back, looking at property investment opportunities. The banks at this time were riding so high then, you would see them buy back their own foreclosed properties and list with agents who were willing to make a deal. They would take the house and have the agents get the home listed and would only lower the full retail value slightly, when the houses were in total need of rehab and solid cash flow in for repairs. They did not care, the rates were so low and a loan was given to anyone who could walk, crawl or stumble through their doors. People would buy these run down foreclosure properties for only slight discounts. These where not the house flippers that everyone was hearing about. These were people who wanted their own home and thought they would get it through sweat equity. The only problem, materials still cost more than what people think and their skill levels were not as high as what they thought. This then going full circle back to a home foreclosure once again.

These houses are now all hitting the markets again and the banks can’t give them away now. The house flippers self employment and easy fast cash days, has turned into nightmares also of the foreclosure monster. The come lately flippers and a few experienced ones have become trapped in their own webs they weaved. These last houses where hitting on bad housing market times with high price tags in areas where the general person could not afford the bill. The smaller flippers just cutting the loss and running away from their mortgages, leaving the banks with the same houses they held the pricing to high before on was now their’s again. The same house this time has no one waiting with a pocket full of cash to buy it. The larger flippers are trying to hold on and use profits of yesterday to weather the foreclosure storm of today. Many going to “turn key” and “land Contract” deals, still finding out they are still left holding the home leans in the end also. Many have become landlords, not by choice.

The market will now have to correct itself by lowering the inflated home prices back down to respectable levels once again. See, this too causes great problems, before it can ever help. Remember the poor people who got talked in large low interest rate loans and ran from the banks pockets over flowing with cash? These are same people that paid the inflated prices on the home that is now worth less at full retail in todays housing market. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that having a home loan that exceeds what your house is worth can be a very bad thing. When the foreclosure monster comes a knock en, the little home owner is left no choice, but to go a running. This is a prime example of how the lending industry has created their own problems and now want the government to bail them out with tax dollars. When they were making millions I didn’t see them just giving taxpayers money then for nothing. Many banks made risky loans and know have to deal with it.

Now, if you walk into a bank today and tell them you would like a loan for property rehab investment they will say no faster, then they get you back in your car and off their lot. The banks are not going to be able to sit on their mountains of foreclosed properties for ever, they will also have to start pricing these houses to move again. This in turn will start a whole new wave of house flippers. These flippers will have to come to the table with considerable amounts out of pocket cash and know the timing is right.

The foreclosure monster grows each and everyday with no current end insight. The investor big and small will once again make millions on the market, only those who wait and save now, will be the ones to reap the benefits of tomorrows market.

Homes To Go

I will just tell everyone again.  I have been trained in programing and IT fromally years back,  but trying to get the whole blog lay out and things you want on a page is difficult.

If there is a person out there that has set up blogs with ads and everything and needs help with house problems, drop me a line. 

So,  everyone still building here,  can’t seem to find my site on any listings.  Will just keep looking.