Weekend Round-up: Tire Check, Rug Giveaway, BH&G Contest

Another weekend is here. And I thought I’d put together a few things that I’ve come across recently that are worth checking out.

Tire Check

I’ve seen a few posts recently reminding people to check their tire pressure. It’s important that all your tires are set to manufacturers’ specifications. Low pressure causes poor gas mileage and noone wants to pay more for gas these days. Setting your pressure too high is also a bad idea. Aside from potentially blowing-out a tire, friction is what keeps you on the road. I went over to a local Shell station this morning. They have a free air station equipped with a pressure gauge. I check the recommended psi on my tires and pumped them up accordingly. It could be in my head, but my car definitely seemed to be moving around better.

Rug Giveaway

Another blog I frequent is hosting a rug giveaway. This caught my eye because when the hardwoods are installed we’ll need to cover a few spaces with area rugs. And winning a rug is much more fun than buying a rug. Check out all the details at Aimee’s blog here.

Better Homes & Gardens Contest

Better Homes & Gardens has a full page ad about an annual contest. It reads, “Considering a home improvement project? Now is the time to put those plans into action and enter to win”. The grand prize winner will receive $40,000 cash and their project featured in BH&G. They have several categories like kitchen, bath, renovation, green improvement, and many more. Each category winner will also receive a cash prize. For more info check it out here.

Well that’s all for this week. Hope your projects are going well. Adios!

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

—-

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

Image by BookMama.

U.S. Memorial Day – Putting Home Improvement In Perspective

For the last 5 months, the four of us here at OPC have been working on (and writing about) our home improvements and community activites.  Each day we work & write, we take for granted the safe homes and community we live in, the amazing U.S. infrastructure that provides us food, water, and power, and the awesome blessing it is to live in a free society where we’re afforded the many rights we enjoy.

Two days a year, Veterans Day and Memorial Day, we in the U.S. have an oppportunity as communities and a nation to take a step back and remember that all that we enjoy is not free.  It is paid for by others… those who give up the pursuit of happiness to pursue happiness for the rest of us.

We’d like to take time out today to thank each of you who are serving or have served in our unformed services.  We’d also like to thank those family members who have carried the burden of deceased or severly wounded loved ones.  You have given selflessly so that the rest of us can go about our lives, often without a thought of the price that has been paid.  You are to be commended for your service.

If anyone out there today is thinking of how you might give back, consider donating to an organization that serves American Veterans and their families.  This year, we’ve decided to support AMVETS.  (You can make an online donation to AMVETS here).  You can also Google “American Veteran Charities” and find other organizations to support.  Also, remember to thank veterans and their families for their service.  A word of appreciation goes a long way – especially if it comes from many of us.

Finally, as I was penning this post I ran across this letter from Abraham Lincoln to a woman whose five sons were killed during the Civil War.  I found his words to be very powerful and appropos to today’s celebration of the accomplishments of those who have gone before us.

God Bless!

Photo by StuSeeger.

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?

Malibu Solar Lamp Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to Anne S. who was the 114 entry into the Malibu Solar Lamp Giveaway Contest. Anne wins a set of 2 premium solar accent lights! (For those interested, we decided to pick this winner using an online random number generator. Anne’s number was the first pulled).

We’re going to run another giveaway next week for a gift card to Home Depot. The contest rules will favor regular readers & commenters, so that even if a few online sites pick up the contest, our blog friends and regular readers have the best shot at winning!

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?

Next Page »