The 15 Best Housing Markets For The Next Five Years | Mount Kisco Real Estate
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Staging your real estate business: de-clutter, get organized and relaunch in 2013! | Mount Kisco Real Estate
via next.inman.com
October NAHB Housing Market Index | Mt Kisco Homes
Five bargain renovations that add value | Mount Kisco NY Real Estate
Photo: Thinkstock
Do you have grand visions of gutting your dated kitchen, or maybe blowing out the bathroom walls to create a spa-like retreat? While major remodeling projects such as these can bring value to a home, budget-friendly projects can also deliver a fresh look – and real value for you and potential buyers.
“Something as simple as replacing the hardware in the kitchen can give you a whole new look,” says Paul Wyman, a regional vice president with the National Association of Realtors. Wyman is also an expert at determining if a remodeling project will add value to a home.
Curious which simple projects will give your home the most value? Keep reading to learn about a few affordable facelifts and bargain renovations that could boost your home’s value and add appeal.
Bargain Renovation #1: Reface Kitchen Cabinets
Would you believe that something as simple as replacing dated cabinetry doors could get you a higher return on investment than other major remodels? We didn’t either, until Remodeling Magazine’s 2011-2012 “Cost vs. Value Report” told us otherwise.
If the cabinets in your kitchen are well laid-out, sturdy, and plentiful but unappealing, refacing can be a cost-effective alternative to complete replacement. This process, which maintains the existing cabinetry’s frames and boxes but replaces the hardware and door and drawer fronts, can be just a quarter of the price of installing all-new cabinetry.
What does that look like in hard figures? Kitchen Solvers, a resurfacing company in La Crosse, Wisc., offers the example of a client paying $6,000 to install solid cherry doors on existing cabinetry, rather than shelling out $24,000 to install everything new. That sure sounds like a good savings to us.
Bargain Renovation #2: Install a New Kitchen Countertop
If you adore the luxurious look of a stone countertop but don’t love the high price, there are ways to achieve the high-end feel of granite or marble without breaking the bank.
You can save on granite, for example, by buying remnants from a stone yard, according to a July 2012 Consumer Reports article titled “Get the luxury look for Less.” Or, if you have your eye on marble, a slab from Vermont will cost at least 20 percent less than one from Italy, according to the report.
For a truly budget-friendly option, Consumer Reports suggests that you consider a laminate countertop.
Laminate, which is made of sheets of plastic resin and paper bonded to particle board or fiberboard, could resemble granite or marble with today’s printing technologies, notes Consumer Reports.
Bargain Renovation #3: Update the BathroomAccording to HGTV’s “Maximum Value Projects,” on FrontDoor.com, updating a bathroom is a great way to add value to your home. And it doesn’t take much to make a big difference.
In fact, HGTV says updating the sink and fixtures will yield more value than replacing the countertop, flooring, toilet, or even the tub and shower. To avoid the premium price and save “hundreds of dollars without compromising quality,” Consumer Reports’ bathroom remodeling guide recommends selecting sinks and fixtures with basic finishes.
Looking for more value-adding updates that are gentle on your wallet? Consumer Reports suggests replacing an outdated wall-to-wall mirror with individual framed mirrors over each sink, or replacing stained grout with stain-resistant grout.
Bargain Renovation #4: Boost Curb Appeal With a New Roof
Honestly, who looks at a roof? Homebuyers, evidently. Even if most of your roof isn’t visible from the street, it is still an important aesthetic and functional feature that’s in a prime position to elevate – or squash – your home’s curb appeal.
“When people buy a house, they expect it to have a roof, but if it’s recently been redone, they will really see the value in that,” Wyman says.
Fortunately, for a flashy and durable roof, you don’t have to select a costly specialty material – like slate, tile, or metal. Composite asphalt shingles is the most common material, and it fits easily in many types of budgets, according to HGTV’s “Maximum Value Home Exterior Projects: Roof.”
Composite shingles are now available in a wide range of styles and colors, according to HGTV, allowing homeowners to create a custom look that matches the home’s façade or plays up its architectural details.
Bargain Renovation #5: Add a Deck
Looking for a new living space that will add value to your home? Look no further than the square footage waiting right outside your back door.
In fact, adding a deck to your home could offer one of the highest cost-recoup opportunities, according to the cost-value report. And you don’t have to choose a high-priced composite material. The survey found that decks built with wood actually delivered a greater return at resale than those built with composite material – boasting a 70 percent return on cost, compared to 62.8 percent.
Because deck-building is a potential DIY project – depending on your familiarity with a power saw, of course – savings could be even higher.
“Any type of work you have the ability to do yourself, with quality, makes it a bigger bargain because you’re saving on labor costs,” Wyman points out.
But if your home improvement skills are a little iffy, or you would rather sit back and relax during the renovation, it’s probably best to leave this one up to the pros.
via homes.yahoo.com
FHA changes won’t impact most buyers | Mt Kisco Real Estate
A bailout for FHA? Don’t bet on it.
And what’s the practical significance of the steps the agency announced last week to avoid a meltdown? What impact will they have for homebuyers and sellers who rely on FHA for affordable financing?
Less than you might think if you read some of the dire reports on Friday’s news: FHA’s capital reserve ratio to support its single-family and reverse mortgage programs plummeted to -1.44 percent, according to an independent audit, representing a negative economic value of more than $16 billion.
You may have also read that in response, the FHA plans to raise its annual mortgage insurance premiums from 1.25 percent to 1.35 percent early next year, and revoke new borrowers’ ability to cancel their premiums once their loan balances hit the 78 percent LTV level.
The agency also is going to expand pre-purchase counseling efforts for applicants with low credit scores and minimal down payments, and step up efforts to promote short sales to seriously delinquent owners who are likely headed for foreclosure.
Taken together, the changes don’t appear to be a big deal for most buyers who opt for FHA loans. In fact, you can argue that what’s not being changed is far more noteworthy than what is:
- Minimum down payments will still be 3.5 percent. The agency resisted demands that it boost the minimum to 5 percent.
- There will be no risk-based pricing on premiums, another demand by critics. FHA will continue to its one-price-for-all system in which low-risk borrowers essentially subsidize the premiums of higher-risk borrowers.
- Underwriting will continue to be generous on key items like debt-to-income ratios.
Whereas Fannie’s and Freddie’s automated underwriting systems cut off applicants who have back-end (total debt including housing) ratios much above 45 percent, loan officers tell me FHA sometimes allows them to push through back-end DTIs in excess of 56 percent, and even front-end (housing) ratios of more than 45 percent.
None of this is changing because, in the words of Bob Ryan, a senior adviser to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, “we don’t want to overreact” to an audit report that may have exaggerated the gravity of the agency’s situation.
The audit report used house price projections that did not reflect important gains in recent months, for example, and did not take full account of revenues being generated by the agency’s high-performing, low-loss recent books of insurance business.
David H. Stevens, immediate past FHA commissioner and current CEO at the Mortgage Bankers Association, told me it’s doubtful FHA will need a cash infusion next September from the Treasury because “they (the leadership at FHA) have all next year to replenish the fund” with additional tweaks to premiums, increasing the pace and productivity of REO dispositions, and restructuring the ailing Home Equity Conversion (HECM) reverse mortgage program to cut losses.
Continuing increases in home prices will help out a lot, since depressed home values in the 2008 and 2009 vintages of FHA originations have plagued the agency and created the bulk of its current problems.
The decision to retain the 3.5 percent minimum down payment was especially key, said Stevens. FHA can raise or lower premiums anytime, “but once you raise the down payment (minimum), that would be difficult to chip back.”
More importantly, raising minimum down payments would exclude large numbers of first-time buyers with good jobs who are solid credit risks, but simply lack the cash to make the type of down payments required in the conventional marketplace.
Turning away qualified applicants because they couldn’t come up with another 1.5 percent in down payment cash would be an abandonment of FHA’s traditional mission of opening the door to homeownership for moderate-income families, especially first-time purchasers and minorities.
In some local markets, FHA finances well over half of all purchase loans. In the first three months of 2012, it held around a 32 percent market share of new purchase loans nationwide.
Another step FHA didn’t announce last week but soon will: reining in seller concessions to buyers to help pay for closing costs and lender fees.
Seller concessions, like the now-prohibited seller-funded down payment assistance programs that were commonplace in 2004-2008, can distort transactions by cutting buyers’ initial stakes in the property to zero or even negative equity, and have been linked to losses to the insurance fund.
Though FHA has proposed a tiered system that would lower maximum contributions for many sellers to 3 or 4 percent and restrict the current 6 percent maximum to low-balance loans, it has not yet published a final rule.
When I asked FHA Commissioner Carol Galante on Friday for an estimate on the timing of the final rule, she rolled her eyes, lamented the frustrations of jumping through the bureaucratic hoops required to get a new federal regulation onto the street, and said “soon.”
This month? “No.” December? “I hope so.” But even when finalized, the rules will almost certainly give real estate brokers and lenders time to adjust.
So bottom line: 6 percent seller concessions are likely to be available for purchasers into the early first quarter of 2013. After that, they’re history.
via inman.com
In Westchester, 12,600 Con Ed Customers Without Power | Mount Kisco Real Estate
From Con Edison:
NEW YORK – Con Edison, aided by utility workers from across the United States and Canada, continues to replace utility poles, string wires and install transformers to restore service to those affected by Hurricane Sandy and this week’s Nor’easter.
As of 5:30 p.m., Con Edison reported approximately 28,000 customers out of service. There were about 12,600 customers out of service in Westchester County; 8,700 in Queens; 5,100 in Brooklyn; 1,400 in the Bronx; 400 in Staten Island; and fewer than 100 in Manhattan.
Con Edison has restored service to more than 1 million customers since Hurricane Sandy, which was by far the most destructive storm in company history, struck the New York area. Crews are working around the clock to restore the remaining customer outages this weekend.
Many of the outages still left in the company’s service area involve small groups of customers.
It’s been a massive job. Crews have replaced 60 miles of electrical wiring and gone to tens of thousands of locations to make repairs or tend to emergencies.
The company is also working with the New York City Buildings Department to expedite the restoration of an additional 35,000 customers in Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens whose electrical equipment may have been damaged by flooding and cannot be safely re-energized without repairs by an electrician.
The customers requiring inside-the-premises electrical work are not listed on the Con Edison Outage Map or included in the total number of outages reported by the company. Con Edison and the New York City Buildings Department are collaborating to guide customers through the process of repairing their own equipment. For information, click here: http://www.coned.com/es/Energy-Services-Flyer.pdf.
The safety of customers and workers remained Con Edison’s highest priority, as crews responded to thousands of downed wires and hundreds of blocked roads.
Customers can report downed power lines, outages, and check service restoration status by computer or mobile device at www.conEd.com. They also can call 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633). When reporting an outage, it is helpful if customers have their Con Edison account number available, if possible, and report whether their neighbors also have lost power. Customers who report outages will be called by Con Edison with their estimated restoration times as they become available.
The company urges customers to pay close attention to reports from city and municipal officials. Important information will be posted on www.conEd.com.. For instructions on how to report an outage, click here:http://bcove.me/6sx1yox5.
Con Edison offers the following safety tips:
· Never operate a portable electric generator indoors or in an attached garage. Be sure to place the generator outside where exhaust fumes will not enter into enclosed spaces. Only operate a generator outdoors in a well-ventilated, dry area, away from air intakes to the home. The generator should be protected from direct exposure to rain and snow.
· Use extreme caution before going into a flooded basement. Know whether there are electrified services or unsanitary conditions and wear high rubber boots. Also, know how deep the water is and probe it with a wooden stick, if necessary, to gauge the depth. Keep children out of basements where there is water.
· Do not go near downed wires. Treat downed wires as if they are live. Never attempt to move or touch them with any object. Be mindful that downed wires can be hidden from view by tree limbs, leaves or water.
· Report downed wires to Con Edison and your local police department immediately. If a power line falls on your car while you’re in it, stay inside the vehicle and wait for emergency personnel.
· If your power goes out, turn off all lights and appliances to prevent overloaded circuits when power is restored.
The company is in constant communication with the New York City Office of Emergency Management and the Westchester County Department of Emergency Services and company personnel are working closely with city and municipal emergency officials. Con Edison is also getting strong assistance from numerous state and federal agencies.
Mount Kisco NY Real Estate | New home sales shoot up 5.7% in September
New single-family home sales rose 5.7% from August to September, with 389,000 homes sold last month, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
That is up from 368,000 sales in August and 27.1% above year ago levels when only 306,000 units were sold.
The median sales price of a home in September hit $242,400 while the average price hovered at $292,400.
“September’s rise in new home sales is another sign that homebuyers are becoming more willing and more able to splash out on a new home,” research firm Capital Economics said in response to the report.
The number of new homes for sale at the end of September reached 145,000, which reflects a 4.5-month supply of homes at today’s sales pace.
Econoday called the jump in home sales the best annual rate increase since mid-2010 when the market was still benefitting from homebuyer tax credits.
“September’s gain is convincing and is led, with a 16.8% jump, by the South which is far larger than all other regions combined,” Econoday said. “Supply, at 4.5 months for the lowest reading since 2005, is very tight and is limiting sales.”
via housingwire.com
Actor Scott Grimes Lists Woodland Hills Home for Sale | Mount Kisco NY Real Estate
via zillow.com
5 Tips for Using Google+ to Boost Your Marketing | Mount Kisco NY Real Estate
A Basic Visual Design Guide for the Visually Incompetent | Mount Kisco NY Real Estate
Have you ever woken up one day, looked at your blog’s header and other visual elements, and thought, “My, this is ugly!”
You need a visual redesign.
What to do?
There are two solutions to this problem: you hire a designer to work on your new visuals from scratch, or you try to do it yourself. The first solution can come at a cost, so cash-strapped bloggers can easily be tempted to try building their blog’s visual elements by themselves.
But what if, like me, you’re visually incompetent? I mean, really incompetent? You can’t draw a stick figure to save your life, and you know absolutely nothing about the basics of visual design. You’re a writer, after all, and writers are better off writing than playing around with pictures.
And yet, you can’t afford a designer, so you need to find a way, any way, to do it yourself.
In this article, I will share the lessons I have learned trying to redesign my blog visuals on my own—header, logo, and all.
Start with software that you understand
We’ve all tried to play with those complex professional photo and visual design programs. You load a picture or an empty canvas and you think “Wow, with all these great tools, I’m sure I can come up with something amazing!”
Well, not so much. After five minutes of trying to understand the functions of the program, you give up. This happened to me time and time again, until I discovered a nice little Mac app called Logoist.
Logoist is simple and has all the functions I need. I can use cliparts from its extensive library, add text, apply filters and effects and insert pictures and photos. Its interface is intuitive and it has a few tutorials to show you the ropes. It also has automatic grid lines that help align all your elements. This simplicity let me create more freely than any professional design program could.
There are a lot of apps and programs you can use for both Mac and PC. Some are free and most are reasonably priced. You don’t have to go for the $500 creative suite to get the job done.
Black and white are your friends
I’ve always worked under the principle that, when in doubt, you should take the simplest route. In visual design, black and white is a great base to start with.
A black and white design looks professional, clean, and easy to work with. You don’t have to worry about colors matching or clashing. You know your text and your visual elements will be readable on a computer screen, a tablet or a smartphone. Black and white reminds readers of printed paper, something that’s ubiquitous and familiar. It’s trustworthy.
But of course, black and white can become a little bland. To add variety, choose one (and when I say that, I really mean one) accent color for your sidebar widgets, for the picture in your logo, or for the blog title in your header.
For example, on my writer’s website, I decided to go with dark red. It’s a color I like, and I think it brings about the right amount of visual interest. On my blog, I count on the pictures inserted in my posts for a blast of color.
Play with fonts
For my blog’s header, I decided to keep everything simple and play with fonts rather than pictures or images. Each word of my title (Read, Write, Live) uses a different font that expresses something unique about that word.
“Read” is in a formal, serif type that you could find in a book or newspaper. “Write” is in a handwritten-looking font that illustrates the act of writing on paper and separates it visually the other two words. “Live” is in a bold, sans-serif font with unexpected lines. I added a small ornament (one of the cliparts in Logoist) in the middle for visual interest.
Here’s the logo version, with the first letter of each word:
Fonts are great because you can give personality to words and ideas before they are processed by the brain through reading. They leave an instant impression, and can make or break the viewer’s desire to read on.
A tool I love for choosing awesome fonts is Google Fonts. If you’re tired of Times New Roman and Comic Sans, Google Fonts has an impressive collection of independent, public domain fonts you can use.
Be yourself, be realistic
The most important thing when you’re stuck having to design your own visual elements without training is to be honest with yourself. If you don’t know how to use vector software, then don’t. There are a lot of solutions that are within your reach and your abilities.
You also need to be realistic: there is no substitute for a professional design. As much as a self-designed header and logo can fill in temporarily, as soon as you get a steady flow of readers, you’ll be expected to get some custom, professional visual design on your blog. But as a beginner or novice blogger, a handmade, simple header and minimal visual elements can go a long way
One last thing: remember to have fun. I can tell you that this kind of visual work can be absorbing and exciting when you really get into it. I didn’t know I could come up with something so attractive on my own. I was very proud of the results, and it got me compliments from readers too!
Have you ever tried to design your own visual elements? Do you have any other basic visual design tips you’d like to share with the visually incompetent among us? I’d love to hear from you!
via problogger.net