This is Alek Lisefski’s tiny home, which was built on a 8-by-12-foot flatbed trailer and inspired by his desire to live a simpler, more sustainable lifestyle. The home measures 13 feet and 4 inches tall, 8 feet and 6 inches wide, and 20 feet long, and can be pulled behind a car
read more…
http://realestate.msn.com/how-to-build-a-tiny-house-for-dollar30000
[Photo of Demi Moore via Getty]
Actress Demi Moore is looking to sell her home in the celeb-favored San Remo for a whopping $75 million. According to the Post, the price tag—which makes the home a contender for the most expensive co-op sale ever—include’s Moore’s “stunning” triplex, along with a ground-floor two-bedroom. Sadly, there is no official listing, and the Post has zero details about what the apartment looks like. The A-lister has listed in the Upper West Side building for awhile, and last year, the co-op was in the news because Moore wanted ex-husband Ashton Kutcher to pay her for renovations to the unit, which was reportedly valued at $25 million.
Over the years, the building has housed dozens of celebrities, including Donna Karan, Steven Spielberg, Glenn Close, Tiger Woods, Diane Keaton, the late Steve Jobs, and Dustin Hoffman, who sold his triplex for $21 million earlier this year. Moore is asking more than three times that (yes, yes, her asking price does include a second unit), so we’re very curious to see what, if anything, makes it worth that much dough
read more….
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/05/08/demi_moore_wants_to_sell_her_san_remo_triplex_for_75m.php
Pinha lamp
To create its customizable Pinha lamp, the London studio Raw-Edges took advantage of cork’s unique properties. As an insulator with low heat conductivity, it’s safe to wrap around virtually any bare lightbulb without the risk of burning the whole house down. And the fact that it makes a great pincushion gave the duo the idea for its shape: Four tiers provide the perfect platforms for tacking on a shade of your choosing, from graph paper to vintage maps.
read more…
Let’s be honest: Video listings are a great real estate marketing tool, but sometimes you need more than a basic walk-through. Value-added features can be the key to making a standout video and boosting the selling power of a property. Voice-over.
Especially if you read the voice-over yourself, this is usually the least expensive way to add value. A voice-over allows you to point out the property’s best features or communicate any special information. For instance, if you’re selling a newly renovated home, you might describe the updates completed by the seller.
One tip: Work from a script. It makes the process more efficient and, by extension, more affordable. Pre-roll or “agent on camera.” Pre-roll is footage inserted before the main listing video. “Agent on camera” is a guided tour of the property.
Both options help personalize the video and allow you to point out what’s special about the property. For example, you might highlight a state-of-the-art media room or newly remodeled kitchen.
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/next/4-ways-enhanced-listing-videos-can-boost-properties-selling-power/?utm_source=20140416&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.kTJn4pa5.dpuf
Here are five of the biggest events coming up in Westchester.
1. Aoife O’Donovan at Katonah’s Caramoor, Saturday, April 12 at 8 p.m.
Aoife O’Donovan is widely known as the lead singer of alt-bluegrass/string band Crooked Still, as a member of the folk noir trio Sometymes Why, and as the vocalist on the GRAMMY winning album The Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer and Stuart Duncan. She will be visiting the Caramoor for a special solo acoustic performance. $15, $35, $45, $55. 149 Girdle Ridge Road.
2. Greenburgh Nature Center’s Spring Celebration and Egg Hunt, Sunday, April 13 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the Greenburgh Nature Center barnyard to meet their furry and feathered friends. Families will be able to take a tour with a naturalist to discover signs of spring from the forest to the pond to the Great Lawn, make seasonal crafts, and search for eggs in an egg hunt. Egg hunts and other fun activities will run continuously throughout the day. 99 Dromore Road.
3. Les Ballets Trockadero at Harrison’s SUNY Purchase, Saturday, April 12 at 8 p.m.
This all-male corps de ballet defies convention and cliché of classical ballet and proves that men can dance en pointe without hurting themselves too badly. These men are among the finest, classically trained dancers. Enjoy the beauty of ballet, and the proof that classical ballet can be totally hilarious. $49.50 – 70. 735 Anderson Hill Road.
4. Grow Your Own Bitters at Mount Pleasant’s Stone Barns Center, Saturday, April 12 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Master the art of bitters-making with expert Brad Thomas Parsons, author of Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All. Parsons will be taking seasonal crops, fresh from local farms, and turning them into bitters. He’ll also be sharing cocktail ideas and sending you home with your own batch of farm-fresh bitters. Ages 21 and up. $22.50 – $25. 630 Bedford Road.
5. One Night Only: The National Comedy Theatre at the White Plains Performing Art Center, Saturday, April 12, 8 p.m.
The National Comedy Theatre, New York’s acclaimed improvisational comedy show, is coming to the WPPAC for one night. Similar in style to “Whose Line is it Anyway,” the comedians will be performing a series of games and scenes all based on audience suggestions. $25. 11 City Place.
http://armonk.dailyvoice.com/events/five-westchester-events-youll-want-attend-2
Westchester County will enjoy more sun and spring warmth on Thursday as high temperatures push toward the 60-degree mark, the National Weather Service said.
But rain and cold is likely late Thursday night, mainly after 2 a.m. as temperatures drop into the mid- to upper 30s, the weather service said.
Rain and drizzle are likely, mainly in the afternoon on Friday. Skies will be cloudy and high temperatures will be much cooler, in the 40s. The chance of precipitation is 60 percent.
Rain with areas of fog will continue Friday night as temperatures plunge again into the 30s. The chance of precipitation is 80 percent overnight.
Sprinkles are likely to continue Saturday, mainly before 8 a.m. It will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high in the 50s. Stronger west winds of 6 to 14 mph will develop, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Saturday night will be clear with a low dropping into the upper 20s.
It will spring-like again Sunday, with sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s.
http://chappaqua.dailyvoice.com/news/westchester-will-enjoy-sunny-skies-rain-cold-moves-friday
How many home sales are taking place outside of the multiple listing service in your market? Clareity Consulting’s Matt Cohen says MLS executives around the country are showing an interest in getting to the bottom of that question, and he’s written a blog post explaining how to do just that.
Pocket listings are not new, but recent inventory shortages in many markets could be creating conditions — lots of buyers competing for scarce listings — that are ripe for real estate brokers and agents to close deals outside of the MLS.
A study by Silicon Valley-based MLSListings Inc. suggests that pocket listings constitute a significant and growing chunk of home sales. That study found that pocket listings made up 26 percent of home sales in five Northern California counties in the first quarter of 2013, up from 15 percent in 2012.
A wider, but still limited, study of four large U.S. counties from CoreLogic earlier this month suggested that MLSs played little or no role in nearly half of home sales in 2013, offering more insight into a topic which has generated plenty of rhetoric, but not a lot of hard data, in the industry.
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/03/19/mls-execs-get-guidance-on-how-to-figure-out-share-of-pocket-listings-in-their-market/?utm_source=20140319&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.6fhNlCSz.dpuf
Even if you’re not planning to sell your home anytime soon, it’s an inevitable question when you consider remodeling: How much will this improvement add to the value of my home?
Surprisingly, much of the time the answer is not as much value as it costs to actually make the improvement.
But some home renovations bring you more bang for your buck than others.
The top-ranking home improvement? A new front door, which on average adds 96.6 percent of the amount you spent to the value to your home, according to Remodeling magazine’s annual Cost vs. Value Report for 2014.
But “it has to be the right front door,” says Steven Aaron, owner of the Steve Aaron Realtor Group at Keller Williams Beverly Hills and one of the protagonists of the HGTV series “Selling LA.” Keep in mind that sometimes painting the existing front door provides the same payoff.
All 35 projects included in the Cost vs. Value report added more value this year than last year, and this is the second consecutive year of increases after several years of decline.
http://news.yahoo.com/home-remodeling-projects-worth-money-155500763.html
A third of the houses on Britain’s second most expensive street are lying vacant, many abandoned for decades and left to rot.
Behind the padlocked gates and long driveways, up to 20 mansions stand empty on London’s The Bishops Avenue, despite a reported combined value of around £350 million ($582 million).
Dubbed “Billionaires’ Row,” the road’s average house costs over £6 million ($9.98 million), but many have been deserted by their wealthy owners.
Despite their dilapidated condition, the houses remain a safe place for wealthy foreigners to park their money because of London’s rocketing property prices, which rose 11% last year, and because of the road’s reputation as a magnet for the rich and famous.
Anil Varma, a property developer appointed by a hedge fund owner to manage six of the vacant homes, calls it one of “the most expensive wastelands in Europe.”
He’s hoping to get permission to convert decaying mansion The Towers into luxury apartments. Bought 25 years ago by a prominent Middle Eastern family but never lived in because of planning permission complications, the once-magnificent mansion was abandoned and has fallen into disrepair.
Varma showed CNN through the property, revealing animal skeletons lying on moss-covered floors, paint ripped off the damp-soaked ceilings and stairs which have partially collapsed.
Jersey House, 200 meters up the road, is on sale for £40 million ($67 million) and estate agent Trevor Abrahmsohn says investors aren’t put off by the numerous abandoned homes on the road because The Bishops Avenue “is an iconic road, like Rodeo Drive or Wall Street.”
Buying a house here “is a statement of wealth… a statement that you’ve arrived,” he told CNN. The street has long been a landing pad for wealthy investors in developing countries undergoing geopolitical chaos: Iranians after the 1979 revolution, eastern Europeans after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and most recently, Chinese oligarchs, he said.
But, as Britain faces a housing shortage and soaring property prices, The Bishops Avenue’s empty mansions are likely to add to debate over taxes payable by overseas property buyers — particularly if they remain empty.
However, Richard Cornelius, who heads the local government branch of Barnet Council, told CNN he “would rather spend public money bringing family houses back into use than getting involved in battles with the lawyers of billionaires.”
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/24/business/the-derelict-mansions-on-britains-billionaires-row/index.html
Home sales on the East End have skyrocketed last year compared to 2012 and 2011, according to a report released Monday by Suffolk Research Service Inc.
The research service’s president, George Simpson, described the East End market as “booming.”
His numbers show Suffolk County’s five eastern towns have seen a 61 percent increase in sales since 2011, with the median price for single family houses on the East End rising by 4 percent from 2012 to 2013.
Looking at 2013’s fourth quarter numbers, which the service just released, 116 housing units were sold in Riverhead Town, compared with 74 in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 60 during the same period in 2011.
Southold Town saw 159 houses sold in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared with 86 during that same three-month stretch of 2012.
Marie Beninati, owner of Beninati Associates in Southold, said the trend of a dwindling housing stock and rising home prices has been going on for about “six months or so,” from her experience — and has been about a year and a half in the making.
“I haven’t really done the numbers, but if you sell two houses, maybe one comes on the market,” she said, adding that rising prices isn’t ideal, but it is a natural thing to see a pendulum swing toward more of a seller’s market.
According to a Long Island Decade Survey of Residential Sales report for 2013 compiled by The Douglas Elliman Report series, there were 12,801 homes for sale on Long Island in 2013 as opposed to 14,574 in 2012 — a decrease of 12.2 percent.
http://riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com/2014/02/51132/report-east-end-real-estate-market-booming/