Use PODS to Stage a Home for Sale

Staging homes for sale has become all the rage in the last two years.  With the real estate market in the tank, sellers are considering every option to make their houses sell quickly without taking a huge hit to their bottom line.

By now, you probably know what staging is.  For those who don’t, it’s making your house more appealing to buyers by removing personal items, making the house look less “lived in”, and dressing it up with the latest styles.  In most cases, staging is limited to minor repair/refresh work (painting & flooring), and furniture replacement.  In the past, this has been accomplished by the seller renting furniture until a sale is complete.  More recently, however, Realtors have been purchasing and storing their own staging furniture to use on their most valuable clients’ homes.  (This differentiates the agent from the sea of other Realtors scrambling for the relatively small amount of remaining business, and it fattens their commission checks when the home sells).  According to Kippinger.com, a survey in 2007 revealed that staged homes sold far faster than their competition, and netted on average $26,000 more than expected.

If you’re considering staging your home, one of the first things you’ll have to contend with is where to put all the extra clutter you’ve amassed over the years.  After all, your kids’ Imaginarium train table that doubles as your coffee table isn’t going to help potential buyers visualize their stuff in your space.  Likewise, that dusty home gym and cross country ski machine hiding out in the spare bedroom won’t put any extra greenbacks in your wallet.  You need to get rid of them–but not forever– just long enough to get the place sold.

PODS offers a great solution for your situation.  For about $185 / month, you can have a POD dropped off in the front of your house, loaded up, and taken away to PODS’ secure storage facility.  Then, after you settle on your new place, the nice PODS folks will ship your stuff to your new home where you can unload right into your front door.  While PODS are more expensive than traditional self-storage (by about a factor of 2 in this area), they offer the convenience of loading and unloading at your front door.  If your staging effort goes well, you should only need the POD for about 2 months.  If you’re half as successful as the average person was in Kipplingers’ survey, you’ll still net more than $12,500 from the effort.

What do you think? Have you decluttered your home to stage it for moving?  Have you had a good/bad experience with PODS?

(Photo: jblyberg)

Black Eyed Susans, Dwarf Coreopsis, Limerock Ruby Coreopsis

Jocie, a large part of Jocie’s family, and I gathered in North Carolina for Memorial Day. Her Grammy owns a great house right on Lake Gaston which is fun for all ages. After coming back home, we found an awesome surprise. Amy had filled out our flower beds. She planted several different perennials. She is quite the green thumb. Thanks Amy! I am a curious person and wanted to know more about each (hopefully it will help keep them alive too).

Dwarf Coreopsis

Dwarf Coreopsis is a full sun perennial that does best in well drained soil. It has a bright daisy like, yellow bloom that can be expected in late spring to mid summer. Deadhead these to extend the flowering season. Dwarf Coreopsis can grow to about a foot tall and about a foot wide. Slugs are a potential pest to keep away

Black Eyed Susan

Black Eyed Susans are a short lived perennial native to the east coast. It’s the Maryland state flower (shout-out for Maryland) but has become common throughout North America. It has a brown center with bright yellow petals. Black Eyed Susans do well in many soil types with full sun. They grow 2 – 3 feet tall and bloom between June and August.

Limerock Ruby Coreopsis

Just like the name says, this plant has a bright ruby red bloom. This plant prefers average soil moisture and does well in many soil types with full sunlight. It forms a bushy green mound about 1 foot wide with masses of bright red daisies. And it is supposed to attract butterflies!

What does Deadhead Mean?

I had no idea what this meant until this post. It basically means pruning away old blossoms to prevent seedpods from forming. Without seedpods, some plants will bloom again in an effort to create more. That’s how it can extend the flowering season.

What do you think? What plants did you just put in?

Malibu SolarSELECT Accent Lighting Review

Malibu’s PR company recently sent us two sets of Malibu SolarSELECT accent landscape lamps, one to giveaway to our readers, and another to review.

We’d like to thank Malibu for sponsoring a giveaway on this site (something I forgot to do in our winner announcement).  With 450 entrants to the contest and thousands of viewers, we think their investment was well spent; we hope they do too.

Ok, without further ado…

Our Review

Out of the box: We received both sets of solar lamps in a tightly packed standard cardbox shipping box. Unfortunately, one of the lamps in the set we chose for the review was broken upon arrival.  As you can see in the picture on the left, the white lens had dropped down into the black casing about 2 inches.  For the life of us, we couldn’t get the lens to slide up into place.  We ended up removing the bottom component from the lamp, sliding the lens further down into the casing, and then back up into place.

Ultimately, this activity broke a critical plastic tab on the lens so that it would no longer stay in place.  Had we bought this at the local home improvement store, at this point we would have taken it back for an exchange.  Given the circumstances, we decided to try and fix it.  We repositioned the lens, and used hot glue to hold it in place.  The result was good.  You cannot tell we ever had a problem.

We reported the issue to Malibu’s PR company who passed along the information to Malibu.  Of course, it could have been caused by rough handling during shipping.  I’m sure if Malibu gets enough complaints on it, they’ll take care of it.  Perhaps this was an anomaly.

Installation: Other than our problem with the lens, installation of these lamps was a cinch.  They come fully assembled except for the large stake that ultimately holds them in place.  We drove the stakes into the ground first, and then attached the lamps to the stakes.  They both felt VERY solid after installation.  (The picture to the right shows the whole assembly, which we put together just to take the shot).

Light Quality: These lamps each have two true-white LED bulbs.  Malibu claims they are as much as 300% brighter than their other solar accent lighting.  So, we put them up to an informal challenge:  three other homes in our community have accent lighting.  Two of those homes have solar lighting; the third has a wired system.  While Malibu’s lamps were slightly brighter than the competition’s solar lighting, they did not appear to be anywhere near 300% brighter.  As expected, the electric system was much brighter.  Perhaps Malibu’s other solar lamps (that are 300% dimmer) are, in fact, very dim.

Style: I’m a fan of the modern style of these lamps.  I’ve gotten similar comments from others.  One friend said the lamps looked a bit “90s.”  I’m no style expert, but I guess I like the 90s.

Charge Time / Battery Life: We haven’t done scientific testing, and certainly this isn’t a long-term experiment.  But right now in the late Spring, these lamps are performing great.  They run all night at consistent brightness and fully recharge the internal NiCd battery during the day.  They also feature a brightness switch that can be set to dim their output from late Autumn to early Spring to ensure consistent lighting when the sun is up for much less time during the day.

Overall Evaluation: Overall, we’re very happy with the lamps.  Other than the minor glitch with the lens in the beginning, these lamps were easy to install and are operating perfectly.  We’d definitely recommend them  to anyone looking to highlight their landscaping, driveway, sidewalk, or garden.

What do you think? Want to know anything else about these lamps?  Have you had a good experience with Malibu or another brand?

How to Market / Advertise a Rental Property

So you’ve finally put the finishing touches on your investment property and you’re ready for the rental applications to start pouring in, preferably from dozens of over-qualified prospective tenants.  In the right market, a simple front yard ”for rent” sign and an on-market price tag will attract more than enough applicants to give you the pick of the litter.   In moderate and difficult markets, a little extra legwork is required to attract the quality applicants your property deserves (and your investment demands).

If you’re an old timer at this rental thing, you can skip down to the longer list of property promotion tips below.  If this is your first time leasing a property, and thus your first time finding tenants, I have two words of advice up front:

1. Don’t get discouraged. Independent landlords have been renting properties since property ownership began.  It isn’t that hard to do, and you don’t even have to be that smart.  You just have to put in the time.  The list below will give you some good places to start.
2. Never accept a tenant just to get the place rented. Bad tenants can cost you 10 times more than the rent you’ll collect from them.  They will miss payments, damage the property, and could ruin your reputation in the neighborhood.   If you aren’t getting quality candidates, you need to cast a wider net.

Finally, before I move on to the list, recognize that this article isn’t about screening out prospects once they’re interested.  This article is about generating that interest in the first place.  If you can’t get applicants, you’ll never have to worry with screening techniques.

14 Rental Property Promotion Tips

Where to Advertise

1. Craigslist and other online free listing sites. With free, long-length classifieds with pictures, it only makes sense to publish your listing on Craigslist first.  Craigslist has over 9,000,000 visitors a month.  That’s pretty good odds that someone stopping by will be interested in what you’re selling.   Unfortunately, all of your competition also knows about Craigslist.  Today in the Baltimore area alone, there were 200 new listings.  But, there are things you can do to make your property stand out (see how to advertise below).  Don’t bother with online “pay” sites.  If your Craigslist listing isn’t getting traction, either your price is too high, or you aren’t including the right selling features of your property.

2. The nearest metropolitan paper. This tried and true method of publicizing your property still works.  Most large papers will run classifieds for $20-$100 for some run period which usually lasts for at least 2 weeks.  Run your ad in the weekend paper.  Weekday issues don’t perform as well.  If the paper offers online listings, see if they’ll throw in a listing there for cheap or free.  If not, stick with free online services, don’t pay the paper much to use their web site.

3. Local, community, and free papers. If you live in a heavily-populated area, there may be 3-4 local papers in surrounding communities that are good targets for your listing.  You should advertise in the paper that serves your area as well as in papers in surrounding towns/counties.   Free papers that are distributed to every home in an area (e.g. PennySaver) are excellent targets for advertising, since people don’t have to make extra effort to pick them up.

4. Military installations & churches. Contact your local military base and ask if they keep a listing of available properties for incoming service personnel and their families (most do).  Military personnel present much lower payment and damage risk than the general public.  Local churches may have missionaries coming back from overseas, or local parishoners who are looking for a place to live.  Many churches have a public bulliten board within them where rental notices may be placed with permission.

5. Large companies & government agencies. Many large companies and Government agencies have public bulliten boards where staff can place ads.  You probably have friends working in these companies.  Ask them if they’re willing to put a flyer up for you.

6. Grocery stores and other public centers. Grocery stores often have public bulliten board space where you can place your ad.  Make sure there’s no fee to place an add before you pin yours up.

7.  College campuses. While college kids are often stereotyped as extremely destructive, this isn’t always the case.  Many times, kids’ parents are paying for their housing, and they can afford the payments of a nicer place.  Most college kids won’t have established credit or income streams, so their parents will co-sign.  If you’re concerned about damage to the property, consider raising the security deposit to a level that reduces your risk.  Also, make it clear what is and is not acceptable in the home.

How to Advertise

8. Make a Rental Advertising Flyer. The simplest flyer should include every feature of the property that sells well.  You should also include call back information, and a map to the community.  Do NOT list the address of the property on the flyer.  It signals to would-be vandals that the house is  vacant.  If you use MS Word, Microsoft offers several real estate flyer templates online for free.

9. When ad space is limited, highlight the essentials & best features first. If you only have 80 characters of text, make sure you highlight the most important things first.  Critical information (in order of importance, not listing order) are:  call back number, location (city, town), house type (SF, TH, EUTH, APT), is fully furnished? (only if yes), price per month, # bedrooms, # baths (only if good selling point), central AC (only if yes), non-essential appliances (washer, dryer, dishwasher), pets welcome? (only if yes), property characteristics (fenced yard, pool, etc), security deposit requirements, credit check requirements, school districts (only if good).

10. List ONLY the features and benefits that SELL. Remember, you are selling your property, not just describing it.  If you’re property lacks central AC and most of your competition has this, don’t describe the great window fans you’ve installed.  That only reminds your prospects that your property doesn’t have this coveted feature.  You don’t need to tell tenants about the lack of central AC.  If it’s important to them, they’ll ask.

11. Use pictures whenever possible. The old adage is true: a picture is worth a thousand words.  Just make sure the pictures convey the right 1000 words.  Use pictures that make the space seem large and inviting.  Look at your competition’s photos online (you can see hundreds on Craigslist); make sure yours are as good or better.  Include pictures of the community, including any benefits like tennis courts, pools, etc.

12.  Tell prospects that you have credit and income requirements. When you have the space (e.g. on a flyer), it is good to disclose that credit checks and/or income verification are part of your application process.  You can add that applicants who don’t meet the requirements may have a co-signer back their agreement.   Remember, prospective tenants who shy away from credit / income checks are not worth renting to.  A solid applicant will have no problem with you checking these stats.

How to Engage

13. Be confident in your property and yourself. When a call comes in, set a time to meet potential candidates and ask to confirm with them 30 minutes prior to the showing (offer to call them, or have them call you).   Dress nicely for your meeting, but not too formally.  People like to work with real people; a suit would identify you as a salesperson.

Offer to show people around the house.  If they prefer to walk around alone, let them.  If they ask for a tour, highlight positive features in every room you enter.  If a prospective renter highlights a negative feature, don’t disagree with them.  Simply continue your tour and point out other benefits of the home.  Remember, never act offended if the prospect doesn’t appear to like your property.  It might not be what they expected (after all, your flyer only included positive traits).  If they decide the property isn’t for them, ask them what the primary drawbacks were so that if they are correctable, you have an opportunity to do so.

14. Finally, be persistent. Renting a property takes time and diligence.  If one tactic isn’t working for you, try another.  Don’t move immediately to reducing your price (unless you realize you’re way out of market).  Don’t take the feedback from one visitor and assume everyone who sees the property will feel the same way.  Continue believing in the property and yourself.  If you’re confident and persistent, you’ll have tenants in no time

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What do you think? Was this article helpful to you?  Are there any tips you would add?

Image by BookMama.

Before and After: Add Drywall to Fill the Gap

This weeks “Before and After” comes to you from Virginia. My brother-in-law (S) and his wife (L) recently purchased a beautiful home in a suburb of Richmond. Jocie and I made the drive to help them move and get a few projects done. The ladies painted the nursery. And the guys worked on some drywall.

Adding Drywall

Their new house had a great spot to for a TV above the fireplace. Not wanting to dampen the decor, S and L decided to hide the TV when it was not in use. The only problem was finding a way to mount some doors. And so we went about the process of adding drywall to frame out the space.

We took a trip to the local big orange to pick up supplies. This was our shopping list: drywall, 2 X 4′s, joint compound, corner bead, screws and drywall tape. S and I began by framing out the new area. We located the studs and screwed in the 2 x 4′s. Next, we cut our drywall to fit and screwed that in with drywall screws. We took care to sink the screws just below the surface. We taped all inside corners and secured the corner bead on the outside corner. We got the first layer of joint compound on and had to wrap up for the night.

S finished up several more layers of joint compound on his own. When he was satisfied, he sanded it smooth, primed and painted. Check out the pictures!

And now it’s your turn! What project are you working on? Link in your “Before and After” post then leave a comment.

HOA Removes Fallen Tree

Many of the homes in my community share a pleasant wooded area. It’s nice to look out back and see trees rather than more houses. Plus, there is a trail great for walking. But with all the recent rain and high winds a few trees have come down or are leaning very precariously. I began to wonder how much the HOA actually does to maintain that area. I was able to find out through a neighbor.

This neighbor lives a few houses down in another row of townhouses. She relayed that a tree recently fell and just missed her deck. Branches were strewn across her back yard and deck. She said it sounded like her roof had just caved in. Fortunately, nothing was really damaged. Soon after she contacted the HOA president and they are going to handle all of the clean up. Check out the pictures.

Jocie and I walk the trail fairly often. We’ve noticed a few large trees have been removed. My unconfirmed suspicion is that the HOA removed these trees before they fell over causing real problems. A major benefit for the homeowners living under these trees.

I thought I’d write this post to congratulate the HOA for all their efforts. It’s easy to grumble about dues or think that HOA’s are too strict. But they work hard to keep the neighborhood in good shape. Thanks HOA.

What do you think? Does your HOA work for you? Ever think about taking up a position in your HOA?

How To Run Romex Wiring on Stud & Joist Framing

We recently finished running romex wiring to 20 receptacles and 4 radiant heating zones in the basement. The job required about 500 ft. of 14 guage, 2-wire Romex for the outlets, and 50 ft. of 12 guage, 2-wire Romex for the heating zones. I’m not an electrician, so I asked a relative who is a licensed electrician in our county to supervise and check my work. In addition to supervising, he makes the final connections to the main electrical box.

Most of the work installing new circuits is spent between two activities: running and securing the romex throughout the framing structure, and wiring the receptacles and fixtures at the electrical box endpoints. This post is focused on the running and securing part of the job.

Through the whole process, I found Stanley’s Home Wiring Guide to be extremely helpful in ensuring I got everything right. Here’s a few quick tips from my experience that will likely be helpful to another do-it-yourself electrician who’s framing their basement. Remember, electrical codes vary by locale. You should always consult with a licensed professional before undertaking an electrical project.

1. Measure twice, cut once. This old adage is crucial to saving money on electric work. Copper prices at all-time-highs – a cut wire that’s too short to connect to the proper location in the main panel and the target electrical box renders the Romex wire unusable for that run. If you make this mistake, hopefully you can use the mis-cut for other areas.  Of course, mis-cuts usually add up to many small, unusable pieces of romex that are only good to a recycler.
2. Don’t Splice Wires in Walls. Spliced wires outside of electrical boxes are dangerous. They can pull apart while you’re running the wire, or later when the electrical work is being serviced.
3. All Electrical Boxes Must be Surface Accessible. You cannot install a box “somewhere in the wall” that isn’t easily accessible from the finished room. All electrical boxes must be accessible from a faceplate in the finished room.
4. Secure Wires Every 24″ or less. Always use fasteners that are approved for the guage and number of wires you are securing. Multiple wires can be secured together using a large nail-in staple. If a wire is cut or knicked by a fastener, you MUST re-run the segment. A knicked wire will cause the wire to heat up at the thinnest point. Running the wire through holes in studs/joists counts as securing the wire for that segment.
5. Keep Wires Atleast 1.25″ Away from the Surface of Studs/Joists. Cutting holes in joists to run wire is fine as long as it doesn’t effect the structual integrity of the building. Remember, a standard 2×4 stud is 3.5″ wide. You should drill holes in the middle 1″ of the 2×4 to avoid requiring nail plates.
6. Add Nail Plates Where Wire is Close to the Surface. If you can’t avoid running Romex close to the surface, you must protect the surface with an approved nailplate. Since nail plates can cause drywall to stick out over the framing member, you may want to counter-sink the nail plate by slightly grinding/sanding out the stud or joist where the nail plate will be used.

What do you think? Did I miss something in my list? Was this post helpful to you?

Green Tips to use at Home

There is plenty of information out there about ways to lead a “greener” lifestyle. It’s a trend that I hope continues. I still get excited when I see people and companies taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

5 Great Green Tips for Around the House

Vinegar. In my home we use vinegar as a cleaning solution. The acidity kills most mold, bacteria and germs. It’s also great for wood surfaces. I’ve read Pledge can dry out wood causing a lot of damage. We typically use 3 tablespoons vinegar, diluted in a 24 ounce spray bottle. Vinegar is cheap, safe to use around children and environmentally friendly (non-toxic).

Appliances. A good habit to form is unpluging appliances when they are not in use. This tip is more for things like a television or computer that still use power even when 0ff or in standby mode. Newer appliances are often much more efficient than older appliances. Look for the Energy Star seal of approval. Check out their site here.

Programmable Thermostat. Turning your thermostat a few degrees higher in the summer and a few degrees lower in the winter can really make a difference. A programmable thermostat can take care of that and make adjustments when your not even home.

Reusable Shopping Bags. It took a little time, but we slowly moved away from using plastic bags. Jocie wrote a great post about plastic bags. The key for us was to keep the bags close at hand. Jocie and I both keep a few in our cars.

Buy local. Purchasing items produced or grown locally is a great way to be “green”. Local items don’t need to be shipped long distances reducing emissions. It’s also great for the community. Purchasing locally supports businesses around you keeping them afloat. It also encourages better prices and better products.

What do you think? What is your favorite “green” tip?

Image courtesy of Gaetan Lee

Concrete Patch on a Brick Exterior

Brick exteriors and brick veneers need to be repaired as age takes its toll on them. The pass through point for air conditioner hoses and other vent systems can deteriorate even faster than the rest of the structure. Check out this picture of my friend’s home. He was beginning to worry that bees were using this hole to set up a new hive.

It’s important to address small gaps in the wall before they get too large. If you repair a cracked joint early, it will reduce the likelihood of it growing larger as moisture seeps into the joint and expands.

You can find easy solutions like Great Stuff, a spray-in product that will expand to fill the gap. This will block the opening but won’t look good after long. Great Stuff turns brown over time (after which it doesn’t look so “great” anymore). A better solution is to using a concrete or masonry patch.

How to Apply Concrete Patch

First, clean out the area you working with. Dirt and debris create a poor application surface. An old paint brush will usually do the trick.

Spray a little water into the area to be patched. You want the surface moist but not pooling water. This step helps prevent your patch from drying too quickly, which would result in a weak patch.

Add water to the concrete patch powder and mix until you get a nice thick paste. It should be the consistency of heavy mashed potatoes. If it’s too soupy, it won’t stay on your wall; if it’s too thick, it will be hard to worth with and won’t adhere and harden to the underlying surface. Add more powder/water until your reach a thick, pasty consistency.

Work the patch around, filling all gaps. And smooth it out as it begins to set. Be sure to check the instructions for what size gaps you can patch and how long it takes to completely cure. This picture was taken just after the job was finished.

What do you think? What have you used to patch your brick or masonry? What tips do you want to pass along?

PODS Moving & Storage Review: Worth Price Charged

This Saturday we had our first experience with one of those fancy new moving PODS (Portable On-Demand Storage).  Yeah, I know, we’re a little late to the game on this one; PODS have been around for a while, but this was our first chance to use one.

Our good friends, Mary and Eric, just bought a foreclosure in a neighboring county and are moving out of their townhome into a 4 bedroom fixer-upper (good fodder for a houseblog).  Instead of going with the traditional moving truck, Mary and Eric chose PODS.  They had two PODS delivered to their house over the course of several weeks;  we helped them load the second on Saturday morning.  They chose large-size PODS (8x8x16) for their move.  PODS also offers two smaller sizes, 8x8x12 and 7x7x8.

PODS Review

PODS are great.  They can be dropped off at your house the night before you plan to pack them.  You can take as long as you want (or as long as your neighbors will tolerate them in your parking spaces) to fill them up.  Then, when you’ve finished packing, the nice PODS folks will take them back to the secure storage facility until you’re ready to have the POD delivered to it’s destination.

How do they get the POD on and off the POD truck?  One word: PODzilla.

You can see the PODzilla video here.

How Much Do PODS Cost?

POD pricing varies based on how long you’ll need the POD, how far you’ll need the POD transported, and whether you use a PODS secure storage facility.  For local moves in the Maryland area, PODS charges $229 to deliver the POD to your current home, pick it up at a later date, and drop it off at the new home.  They charge an additional $39 fee to remove the POD from your location after the move is complete.  You’ll want to finish your move in less than a month, or PODS gets another $179 per month until they retrieve their POD from your premises.  While the pricing is reasonable, a 24′ budget rental truck will hold nearly as much as 2 PODS for around $200/day.  Of course, with the Budget Truck, you must complete the move in 1 day, where PODS will let you pack and unpack at your leisure.

How Much POD Do I Need?

At 8x8x16, a large POD holds 1024 cubic feet or about 38 cubic yards.  In plain English, I estimate it takes about 2 large PODS to move a moderately-furnished, medium-sized, 2 story, 3-bedroom townhome if you can also make a few runs with a truck/van.  If you aren’t moving locally and EVERYTHING has to fit in the POD, you’ll want to disassemble as many things as you can and pack them in boxes.   You’ll probably still need a third POD to move all the odd-shaped stuff leftover (think lamps, large kids toys, odd-shaped furniture, etc).

We managed to cram a lot of stuff in this POD.  I didn’t take an inventory, but here’s some of the items that fit into the second POD:

• 2 full size couches
• 1 queen bed (headboard, footboard, rails), mattress, boxspring
• 1 set bunkbeds w/ 2 mattresses
• 1 trundle bed frame
• 1 womens dresser
• 1 mens dresser
• 1 toy chest
• 1 large entertainment center
• 1 bookshelf
• 15+ medium-sized boxes
• 1 large TV.  1 small TV

The Bottom Line

PODS is a great alternative to the traditional moving truck if you’re willing to shell out a few more greenbacks to move at your leisure. For more information, check out our SAM vs. PODS Comparison.

What do you think? Have you moved with PODS?  What kind of experience did you have?

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