If you are considering painting a room…or perhaps your entire home interior, I came across a really useful web application that can help you visualize how a particular room would look with a variety of possible wall colors. And best of all, the web app is free.

You can upload a digital photo of a room into the program. Then, selecting from the entire palette of available colors, you can digitally paint the walls of the room to see how it would look.

It’s a great little program. And it should help you avoid multiple trials and repainting while you search for just right color for each room.

Just look for the sign up box on my home page, enter your name & email address, and I’ll send you a link to this unique and valuable little tool.

http://TransformYourHouse.com

Seek simplicity, comfort, and value!

Laura

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I recently learned of another Laura Martindale out there, and it turns out this namesake is a distant relative who offers an interesting service that dovetails with mine.

As the founder and owner of Artistic i, “the other Laura” provides her creative services to a diverse residential and commercial clientele.  She paints detailed murals or simple decorative painting for nurseries, children’s rooms, daycare centers, schools, and commercial interiors. She can also do a realistic-looking Trompe L’Oeil, as well as faux finishes, hand-made portraits, or even canvas paintings of your favorite photos. Quite a talented young artist!

You can find her web site at http://myartistici.com.

Seek simplicity, comfort, and value!

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Now might be a good time to review the tax credits that are available for home purchases, move-ups, and remodeling projects. Note that a tax credit is a direct dollar-for-dollar reduction to your income tax bill, as opposed to a tax deduction, which merely reduces your taxable income.

The first-time home buyer $8,000 tax credit has been extended through April 30, 2010. (However, in cases where a binding sales contract is signed by April 30, 2010, a home purchase completed by June 30, 2010 still qualifies.) Keep in mind, “first-time” doesn’t really mean that you can’t have owned a house before. The IRS defines a first-time home buyer as someone who has not owned a principal residence during the 3-year period prior to the purchase. There are a few caveats on the tax credit:

For those who don’t qualify as “first-time” home buyers, a $6,500 credit for repeat or move-up buyers is available. You must have owned and lived in your current home for 5 consecutive years out of the last 8. All the other caveats above apply (except of course that the limit is $6,500).

For homeowners who want to remodel, the 2009 economic stimulus bill greatly upgraded the pre-existing tax credits for energy-efficient (”green“) home improvements on a principal residence, and extended them through the end of 2010. The tax credit was increased to 30% of qualifying expenses up to a maximum of $1,500. (However, the $1,500 applies to all improvements combined for the 2009-2010 period.)

Certain home improvements are considered to be so important that they are not subject to the the $1,500 limit. These include fuel cells, geothermal heat pumps, solar water heaters, solar panels, and wind energy systems. You can get a tax credit on 30% of the cost of these items, with no upper limit, for existing homes and new construction through 2016.

I’m not a tax advisor, so be sure to verify all of this before you launch into something!

Visit my full blog at http://LauraMartindale.com.

Follow me on Twitter! http://Twitter.com/LauraMartindale

Seek simplicity, comfort, and value!

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One of my blog readers sent me an email the other day with some interesting points. He started by saying, “After teaching real estate development at the MBA level for 7 years, I came away convinced that one of the most valuable lessons of the class was to treat  their personal residence as a real project and also to factor into the process the lifestyle implications of the individual purchase options….”

Of course, this is the basis underlying everything I talk about on my blog and e-book. Whether or not you plan to sell your home in the near future, you should always think in terms of resale impact–as well as personal enjoyment–whenever you are considering home improvements, remodeling, or simple home makeover projects. 

My reader and I also agree that today’s economy and depressed construction and remodeling industries are offering homeowners a real opportunity to make value-added home improvements at prices that are perhaps 25% below what they were just 2 years ago, and probably much less than they will be in 2-3 years from now.  It’s also a great time to refinance. 

So, if you have been considering launching home remodeling projects, either for increasing your home’s value or for simply updating it for your own enjoyment, now might be the opportune time. But don’t jump in willy-nilly. Take the time to prepare. Get consultations and bids from reputable contractors (your friends & neighbors might have some referrals). See what you can learn online. Use resources like my blog and e-book to help you avoid problems, gather ideas and direction, identify green ideas to incorporate, decide what you will do yourself (DIY) or contract out, and learn tips on negotiating an appropriate agreement with your contractors.

Visit my full blog at http://LauraMartindale.com.

Follow me on Twitter! http://Twitter.com/LauraMartindale

Seek simplicity, comfort, and value!

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I have written about working with contractors on home remodels in the past (e.g., http://transformyourhouse.com/blog/?p=10). Although most are honest and hard-working and indispensable when specialized knowledge or skilled craftsmanship is needed, I could create a blog dedicated entirely to contractor problems, tips, and advice on how to work with them. Here’s another brief war story.

I was in escrow to sell a house that we had remodeled extensively, and the buyer’s inspector came up with a list of minor issues to fix or bring up to code. So, we fixed some ourselves, and some we fixed by hiring a home repair contractor (basically he was a licensed handyman with one laborer).

After escrow closed and the buyer had moved in, the buyer brought out the inspector to re-check everything again, and he said that certain items still weren’t up to code, such as an exposed bundle of spliced electrical wires for some of the low-voltage landscape lighting. When the buyer called the home repair contractor we had used to come back and fix it, the contractor told her that he had done a substandard job because we had told him to do it “on the cheap.”

What we had actually told him was to do the minimum required to bring the minor items up to code, i.e., no “gold-plating.” For example, just put the spliced wires within an electrical box. But the repair contractor instead sought to explain away his substandard work by blaming us for supposedly telling him to do a substandard job, which of course made him look ridiculous. I hadn’t personally inspected all of his tasks because most items were minor, we were quite busy moving out, and I simply trusted that it was done appropriately.

But this serves to show that unless you have good reason to trust a contractor implicitly (such as a long prior history of superior work from him), you can’t be complacent in assuming that any work will be completed properly, no matter how minor it seems. There’s always the possibility that a contractor might cut corners, forget to do something, take advantage of a situation, or try to set himself up for another payday in the future, so you have to stay vigilant. In this case, the contractor ended up having to go back to perform the substandard repairs properly, but only after making himself look inept in the eyes of the buyer (who would have been a prospective new client) and burning bridges with us.

It’s not my intention to disparage all contractors, because they have done a lot of good work for me. But even the good ones can get distracted by other jobs and bigger clients. My blog is for giving ideas, advice, and cautions to homeowners, and so I’m focusing more on the occasional problems that might arise than on the good jobs contractors typically do.

Need advice on home remodeling, affordable home makeovers, home repair for resale, or home staging for putting your home up for sale? Feel free to contact me for a consultation.

Seek simplicity, comfort, and value!

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As we end another summer and start thinking about home remodeling projects or other upgrades we might make to our homes before next summer let’s talk about swimming pools. They are the subject of much disagreement and scrutiny.

I have found that most real estate agents will recommend that you do not install a pool, especially if you have any intention of selling the home in the near future. And as a rule, a pool indeed eliminates more prospective buyers than it creates, plus it requires a lot of upkeep and introduces liability.

In fact, it can be a severe detriment to the value of your home if it is too simple, uninspiring, poorly conceived, poorly designed, or poorly situated — such as if you have a basic kidney-shaped concrete & plaster pool plopped down in the middle of a small yard with a plain cool-deck and an ugly 5-foot toddler fence around it. It might work out great for you, but resale value can suffer.

However, if done tastefully and creatively — creating a soothing, clean waterscape incorporated into your indoor/outdoor living areas without overwhelming everything else — I think it works well, and perhaps even offers a substantial boost to the value of your home in the eyes of the niche buyer. Make your pool an attractive water feature to help balance your property, and ensure there are various views of it from the house. (Remember, a pool view can be quite desirable at a vacation resort, so make it the same for your home.)

If you already have an older pool, make sure it is (and looks) well-maintained, e.g., clear water and no stains or chips. If it is severely stained or if the plaster is chipped, consider an acid wash or re-plaster job.

As I have said before, you always need to think in terms of resale, even if you have no intention of selling the house anytime soon. After all, for most people their home is the largest investment they have. I know many people who don’t like to look at their home as an investment — it’s where they live, and that’s it. But particularly in high-housing-cost areas (despite the big downturn in prices), the home is usually the family’s most valuable asset. I talk a lot about this in both my free special report and my e-book. 

In high-cost areas like coastal California, a $50,000-100,000 investment in something like a decorative swimming pool/waterscape as an enhancement to your outdoor living area might be worthwhile. Shown are pools from two homes I have remodeled.

Seek simplicity, comfort and value!
 

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When it comes time to sell, many homeowners wonder, “Should I hire a full-service real estate agent to help me sell my home?” (Keep in mind, I am NOT a licensed real estate agent.)

I get asked this question a lot, but there is no simple answer. It depends on the housing market. It depends on what you feel are your capabilities. It depends on whether you have the time to manage the process. It depends on how quickly you need to sell…or whether you have to get it sold at all.

And in this tough housing market, many homeowners are trying to reduce expenses by using cut-rate agents or listing the home themselves, For Sale By Owner (FSBO). But is this effective?

Can you write marketing copy, create and place ads, get in the MLS (which is essential), take flattering digital pictures, arrange for a video “Virtual Tour,” hold open houses, produce professional flyers, negotiate a deal, and handle a comprehensive sales contract?

Although FSBO services can help quite a bit with these things, there is sometimes a perceived stigma in a buyer’s eyes, particularly with higher priced homes. And then there is the very real liability issue of legal disclosures. In my experience, even the most skilled & reputable agents sometimes can be somewhat lackadaisical about disclosures, since very rarely does a buyer try to come back after the seller for a claim. But it does happen…so be sure to over-disclose.

I have done house transactions lots of different ways. I’ve hired real estate agents. I’ve bought and sold privately with another private party. I’ve sold on my own to a buyer who was represented by an agent. And I can say that it’s always tempting to try to sell on your own to save the hefty commission, which is generally 5-6% (usually split 50/50 between buyer’s and seller’s agents).

By selling it on your own (FSBO), you can dictate how much commission you are willing to pay a buyer’s agent. However, the reality is that many buyers are uneasy about a home that is not represented by an agent, and in fact I have found that some agents won’t even show your home to their clients if there are plenty of choices of homes listed with other agents. Also, there are legal potholes, particularly regarding mandated disclosures, for which you would assume responsibility and liability. I have found, however, that most escrow agents will gladly help you (and the other party, if appropriate) navigate these potholes without the involvement of a real estate agent. I’ve done it this way a couple of times.

Alternatively, if your buyer is represented by an agent (whom you are paying a 2 or 3% commission), you might ask the buyer’s agent to handle your contractual obligations for a small additional compensation, such as 0.5%. I’ve done this before, too.

Most Realtors will tell you that it’s best to introduce your home to the market at a fair price with a big splash, generate lots of traffic and hoopla early, and try to get multiple interested buyers bidding up the price. They’ll say that if you put it on the market yourself at the wrong price and it languishes, then it becomes “stale” and will be harder to sell later. I think this is mostly true, but of course new buyers emerge all the time, so don’t let anyone scare you into doing something you really don’t want to do. I would say that if you are selling a house during a seller’s market (like we had from around 1996 through 2006), and if you feel confident in having the time, capabilities, and wherewithal to do all those necessary things, then you might want to consider FSBO or flat-fee discount listing brokers. If you have any doubts, however, then hire an agent and let them deal with the hassles. (Even in a seller’s market, your house will likely sell faster if represented.)

On the other hand, if you are trying to sell during a buyer’s market (like we are in now), you really should hire a good full-service listing agent. Although you might be tempted in a weak market to lower your price and make it up by not hiring an agent, the stark reality is that this is precisely the type of difficult market for sellers in which you really need a strong, well-connected, and well-respected Realtor to give you the best chance to get it sold.

Be sure to consider all of the pros & cons before making a final decision on whether to list with a full-service agent. To get my full take on this controversial subject, pick up a copy of my e-book:

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I’m going to take a moment today to review the underlying basis for all of my home makeovers and remodeling projects.

You always need to think in terms of resale, even if you have no intention of selling the house anytime soon. After all, for most people their home is the largest investment they have. I know many people who don’t like to look at their home as an investment — it’s where they live. But particularly in high-housing-cost areas (despite the big downturn in prices), their home is a family’s most valuable asset.

With this mind, you must think in terms of maximizing the value of your remodeling and home improvement projects. I talk a lot about this in both my free special report and my e-book. 

The overall price levels of an area will impact the amount of money and the types of upgrades you might want to pursue, depending on your goals, e.g., immediate resale, longer-term resale, or strictly personal enjoyment. For example, you wouldn’t invest $50,000 to replace all the floors with 3/4-inch hardwood, or $100,000 for a fancy swimming pool, if comparable homes in your area sell for $250,000–you simply won’t get your money back.

But in high-cost areas like coastal California, where prices for even modest homes can easily surpass $2 million, a $50,000-100,000 investment in something like a decorative swimming pool/waterscape as an enhancement to your outdoor living area might be worthwhile.

But no matter where you live, many great ideas can be carried out quite inexpensively (by any measure). In fact, some of my favorite improvements have involved, for example, a fresh coat of paint that I did myself, sandblasting and staining the front door, an antique chandelier found in the classifieds, a sofa set from Craig’s List, or Saltillo tile flooring–which is used in many of the finest Spanish, Southwestern, and Mediterranean-style homes but can be bought for as little as a buck per 12-inch tile.

My personal design credo is: Seek simplicity, comfort and value!

Simplicity means muted neutral colors, bright, open, airy, spacious, and uncluttered. Comfort means designing for function, usability, and durability rather than purely for style. And Value means cost-effective quality, i.e., always seeking good quality for a reasonable price.

If you keep this simple phrase in mind, it will go a long ways in helping you to dramatically & affordably transform your house.

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Here are a couple of pictures from a home I just staged. The house is pretty upscale, in a good neighborhood, but the rooms are somewhat small. So, I was concerned about the size of my furniture.

So, I tried a few configurations — first including two identical white slip-covered sofas across from each other, but it was like a sea of white. So, I made room for the big screen TV in the corner and brought in another sofa of mine as shown under the eye-catching zebra print, and its contrasting color and texture actually worked out much better. If you look closely, you can see my big Mexican door-turned-dining-table-turned-coffee-table. Turned out it wasn’t too big for this room after all, despite my initial concerns. (It’s a great piece — very versatile.) Overall, this is a very cozy, comfortable living space.

The dining room furniture fits the space well, too. The dark-stained wood contrasts nicely with the light pine floors. Note also the iron bar stools in the background. The picture of the dining room was taken from the living room shown above, so the credenza behind the couch provides a nice separation between the living & dining areas while preserving the open-flow of the space, including the kitchen area to the right behind the bar.

Overall, this is a really comfortable home – nicely showcased and enhanced by the “right” furniture. As I often say, furniture can make or break the presentation of a home. It might make a nice space seem cramped, cluttered, or dark, or make a small space seem open and cozy. In this case, it made a relatively small but attractive space absolutely perfect.

Seek simplicity, comfort, and value!       r7ey4k36fc

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If you’ve read my e-book on affordable home remodeling, you know that I believe you can dramatically transform a house through creative home interior decorating–and particularly attention to detail, including accent pieces, chandeliers, and fixtures. The picture on the left is a dining room in which I removed the boring brass chandelier and replaced it with an impressive wrought iron piece that I found for $75 from a garage sale, as shown in the photo on the left. (I’ve found similar things on CraigsList or the classified ads.) I first found it several years ago, and though I didn’t have a specific place for it at the time, I have saved it and carried it from house to house and various home remodels, waiting for the appropriate spot for it. I finally found that spot in this house. Again, a great accent piece, such as a wrought iron chandelier, can do wonders for a home staging, interior decorating, or remodeling project.

The picture on the right is of a simple iron candelabra that I found at a garage sale, but never found a good use for it. The other day, I let loose my artistic side and covered it in sea shells to create a special shell candelabra, which made a great accent piece for a friend’s patio setup.

Seek simplicity, comfort, and value!

http://TransformYourHouse.com

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