Cindy's Blog

Wow- all the talk of recession has gotten everyone in such a dither that the Fed has (as I'm sure you've heard!) dropped interest rates by 75 basis points. If you were on the fence about buying a home in this market, now is the jump! There is still a fair amount of inventory of homes on the market in the Richmond area. but despite the talk of recession, I have definitely seen a bit of a spark recently in activity. It really is, at the risk of repeating myself, a great time to buy a home!

If you think that you want to check out what's out there, and see what you can buy, call me today! I can help get you on the road to finding that "perfect" place to call home!

Are you looking to make your home a little greener, but can't buy a new house, or  totally retrofit an older home? What can you do??

Most people aren't aware that air leakage amounts to 30-40% of a home's heating and cooling bills. Stopping air leakage is important not only for energy savings, but also for protecting your home from the damaging effects of moisture. Air, leaking into walls from the interior of the home, carries humidity with it. This moisture hits a cold surface and condenses, causing the insulation and surrounding wood to get wet. Eventually, the air leakage can lead to mold growth and wood rot.

It is a common misconception that the majority of a home's air leakage comes through windows and doors, but in actuality, only 10-15% of air leakage is through windows and doors. That is why window replacement is seldom a cost-effective means to save energy. There are lots of ways to greatly improve the efficiency of windows without replacing them.

The use of a blower door can make locating and sealing air leaks much easier. A blower door is simply a large door with a fan in it that allows you to pressurize a home so you can use smoke sticks to find air leaks.

Estimated Cost Savings:
Properly sealing your home can save you 30-40% of your heating and cooling costs.

Issues:
Sealing up the outside of your home without sealing up the inside, traps moisture in your walls and can lead to mold growth and wood rot. Sealing up your home without providing outside air for combustion in gas furnaces, water heaters, and wood burning fireplaces can lead to air quality problems and could even allow carbon monoxide to build up in the home.

Installation (Getting It Done):
Most people think that tightening up the home means caulking around the outside of the home. This prevents rain water from getting into your walls and that's important, but does very little to stop air from leaking into your home. Tightening up an existing home begins on the inside. The greatest areas of air leakage in a home are around the top of the foundation and around penetrations into the attic. You can seal the top of the foundation (rim joist) with caulk or expanding foam. To seal the penetrations into the attic, the easiest way is to push back the insulation, and seal the holes around wiring and plumbing stacks and caulk along to tops of interior walls. To seal the inside of the house, use a clear caulk around the window frames where the trim meets the wall and all cracks in the window that aren't operable.  Add weatherstripping to the windows if necessary. Install foam gaskets on outlets and switches on exterior walls. Use clear caulk along the basement where it meets the floor. Seal around all ceiling fixtures, heat registers, medicine cabinets, bath tubs, kitchen cabinets, drain and water pipes where they enter the wall in kitchen and bath and any other interior wall penetrations. There are many things you can do to reduce air leakage in your home. However, keep in mind that professional with the proper training and equipment is best suited to pinpoint air leakage and to identify and deal with combustion safety problems.

IowaENERGY.org:  Home Energy Checklist
Complete checklist of what you can do to save energy in your home and the order that you should do it in.

Energy Star: Home Sealing

Iowa Energy Center: Home Tightening, Insulation, and Ventilation

The constant barrage of news regarding a possible recession sure doesn't seem like it will do anything to help the market. At the risk of sounding overly optimistic, virtually everyone that I've spoken to in the Richmond market is seeing a bit, at least, of an upswing in the market.

Regardless of the market that the year has in store, things do always tend to pick up in the spring, and this year looks to be no different, although perhaps on a bit of a smaller scale.

If you are renting now, I cannot stress enough how much of a great time this is to buy! Rates are at unbelievable lows- lower, in fact, than we thought they would go anytime again since they ticked up a while back. There is a good amount of inventory on the market and prices have obviously come back to earth (while some are even lower than that!).

It's easy to think that perhaps home prices will go lower, that maybe getting into the market, or taking on home ownership, is not the right thing to do now. I really am not just saying this because I'm a realtor, because I make my living selling houses, but because it really is true.

Over the past 30 years, home prices, on average, have risen over 6 percent annually, and you have to pay to live somewhere (in most cases!) anyway. What better place to put that money than back in your own pocket??

As I said in another post, real estate is local, not national. So, while our market is surely not in a great place right now, we are not in California, Colorado, or some of the other markets that are considerably more grim. Homes in our area are certainly seeing more price reductions, and the average days on market (not so long ago quite short) is now easily over 60 days, often closer to 90. However, homes are still selling, and I still think that if a few people would just take the leap, the market would loosen up. There are still an amazing number of folks who say, "I would write an offer today, but I don't know if my house would sell." That says to me that the issue is more one of perception, than anything else...

Baby it's cold outside....For the first time in what seems like forever, it really feels like winter!! If you're wishing that you had done anything to your home to update or upgrade recently, you are probably wishing now that it had something to do with heat- or perhaps windows, etc. (If you're not wishing that now, you will be when your oil/ gas/ electric bill comes!)

If you're wondering what you might do to remedy a chilly or drafty house in the winter, or to help keep a warm house cool in the summer, but also be able to recoup your investment, at least mostly, there are a few things you should know.

First of all, one really terrific thing that you can do is have an energy audit performed on your home. The audit can really capture where your heating and cooling losses are, as well as tell you where there are areas that "bad air" is getting into your home from areas like unconditioned crawl spaces, chimneyways, etc. Not only can they tell you what you already know, but they can show you where you need to make the changes. Often they, or someone they can recommend, can make the changes needed to save you sometimes up to 30% on your power bills!

This is definitely worth standing up and taking notice of! When we had an audit done on our home, we discovered that the vents in our basement were leaking like a sieve! The heat that was being pushed through there was leaking at a rate of about 1/2. The repairs only cost about $2000, but will make a huge difference in our energy consumption once completed.

We have already done the window "thing"- that is probably the most obvious, and best place to spend your money and get most of it back. It's not only a financially beneficial move (especially if you have or can use double hung vs. casement windows- they are much more economical, but don't always work for homes that have crank out casements). It is no joke when people say that the they have seen a huge difference in their bills and in their comfort level in the house. It is true- they really do what they are supposed to do. If they're installed correctly, they can keep the breeze from ruffling your hair while you're sitting at the computer, and keep you from feeling like you need to put a spaceheater in your kids' rooms so they don't freeze at night even though the heat is running full blast.

From a resale perspective, these things are huge, as well. As more and more more homes have them installed, the ones that do become vastly preferable to the same house that doesn't have the windows. While I always tell people that you typically don't get 100% compensation on things like that, sometimes the real difference is in time on the market, and ease of pricing.

In a market like the one that we're in, things like that can make a real difference, as they make you more competitive.

If you don't want to spend the money to do the windows- sometimes quite a large cost (ours cost over 10k!) and certainly if you're getting ready to sell your house in the next couple of months, you may not want to spend the money, since you are not going to see the rewards. The audit, thenm, may be the solution for you. If you have an auditor come in, the changes recommended (if you do them) could be enough to show that the house is higher on the efficiency scale, even if you don't have the much vaunted windows.