6 Cheap Christmas Decorations for the Home for Under $5 (or Free!)
By Kimberly Dawn Neumann | Nov 30, 2016 The holidays are fun for sure, but they’re also a huge drain of cash—so if buying gifts has depleted your bank account, there may not be much left over for a huge Christmas tree or major light show out front. But hey, no one said holiday decorations need to cost an arm and a kidney. Just check out these cheap Christmas decorations for the home that cost under $5—or, better yet, nothing at all! Bonus: They’re not only easy on your wallet but on your time, too, so you aren’t running around like mad trying to pretty your place up. “When the holidays sneak up on you, decorating can seem overwhelming—like another expense and mandatory project instead of fun,” says Angela DeYoung, founder of Designs by DeYoung. “The good news is that there are lots of ways you can repurpose or ‘dress up’ things you already own to make your home seem seasonal without spending a fortune. A little creativity goes a long way!” With that in mind, here are some budget-but-still-beautiful tips from top designers to bring some holiday cheer to your house. Frame a festive card “When you receive a card that has special meaning to you, or an especially beautiful image, trim it to fit inside a standard-size frame and use it as tabletop decor,” suggests Jill Hosking-Cartland, owner and principal designer for Hosking Interiors. “Shop the existing frames in your home before purchasing a new one. Changing out photography or art in existing frames is a great way to get a fresh look without spending a thing.” Borrow from your yard For holiday decor, “don’t overlook the most budget-friendly decor source there is: your backyard,” says Hosking-Cartland. “Clip green branches from a tree or large bush, place in a pretty vase or garden urn you already own, and add color and texture with faux or real berries or other natural material.” Also, DeYoung suggests a bowl or arrangement of pine cones. For a little more flair, top it off with an ornament. Pin a little costume jewelry to a stocking for extra pizzazz. Nothing says “the holidays” like a bit of sparkle, and what better way to use your glittery jewelry collection than to deck out your home? “Up-cycle vintage jewelry for some added bling to fur stockings and other household items,” suggests DeYoung. Try draping sparkly necklaces around vases, pinning brooches to pillows, or hanging crystal bracelets where the light will catch them. Cost is free if you own the jewelry already; if not, check out places like Claire’s or Michaels for inexpensive accessories. Tie it up with a bow Packages shouldn’t be the only thing tied up this holiday! Adding big, beautiful bows everywhere instantly makes your whole home feel like a present. Put them on lamps, doors, plants, or anywhere that needs a little cheer. Odds are you have some ribbons lying around, or else they’re easily bought for a song at crafts stores. “Most crafts stores will make beautiful bows for you. … All you need to do is buy the ribbon and pay the fee to have it made,” says DeYoung. Hit the books “Using holiday-themed books you already own or can pick up at a discount store is a great way to help add color, texture, and height to...
read more4 Tips to Determine How Much Mortgage You Can Afford
By knowing how much mortgage you can handle, you can ensure that homeownership will fit in your budget. Homeownership should make you feel safe and secure, and that includes financially. Be sure you can afford your home by calculating how much of a mortgage you can safely fit into your budget. Why not just take out the biggest mortgage a lender says you can have? Because your lender bases that number on a formula that doesn’t consider your current and future financial and personal goals. Think ahead to major life events and consider how those might influence your budget. Do you want to return to school for an advanced degree? Will a new child add day care to your monthly expenses? Does a relative plan to eventually live with you and contribute to the mortgage? Consider those lifestyle issues as you check out these four methods for estimating the amount of mortgage you can afford. 1. Prepare a Detailed Budget The oldest rule of thumb says you can typically afford a home priced two to three times your gross income. So, if you earn $100,000, you can typically afford a home between $200,000 and $300,000. But that’s not the best method because it doesn’t take into account your monthly expenses and debts. Those costs greatly influence how much you can afford. Let’s say you earn $100,000 a year but have $1,000 in monthly payments for student debt, car loans, and credit card minimum payments. You don’t have as much money to pay your mortgage as someone earning the same income with no debts. Better option: Prepare a family budget that tallies your ongoing monthly bills for everything — credit cards, car and student loans, lunch at work, day care, date night, vacations, and savings. See what’s left over to spend on homeownership costs, like your mortgage, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, and community association fees, if applicable. 2. Factor in Your Downpayment How much money do you have for a downpayment? The higher your downpayment, the lower your monthly payments will be. If you put down at least 20% of the home’s cost, you may not have to get private mortgage insurance, which protects the lender if you default and costs hundreds each month. That leaves more money for your mortgage payment. The lower your downpayment, the higher the loan amount you’ll need to qualify for and the higher your monthly mortgage payment. But, if interest rates and/or home prices are rising and you wait to buy until you accumulate a bigger downpayment, you may end up paying more for your home. 3. Consider Your Overall Debt Lenders generally follow the 43% rule. Your monthly mortgage payments covering your home loan principal, interest, taxes and insurance, plus all your other bills, like car loans, utilities, and credit cards, shouldn’t exceed 43% of your gross annual income. Here’s an example of how the 43% calculation works for a homebuyer making $100,000 a year before taxes: Your gross annual income is $100,000. Multiply $100,000 by 43% to get $43,000 in annual income. Divide $43,000 by 12 months to convert the annual 43% limit into a monthly upper limit of $3,583. All your monthly bills including your potential mortgage can’t go above $3,583 per month. You might find a lender willing to...
read moreKeep Your Home Purchase on Track
You’ve found your dream home. Make sure missteps don’t prevent a successful closing. A home purchase isn’t complete until you make it to the closing. Until then, the transaction can fall apart for many reasons. Here are five tips for avoiding mistakes that cause a home sale to crater. 1. Be truthful on your mortgage application. You may think fudging your income a little or omitting debts when applying for a mortgage will go unnoticed. Not true. Lenders have become more diligent in verifying information on mortgage applications. If you fib, expect to be found out and denied the loan you need to fund your home purchase. Plus, intentionally lying on a mortgage application is a crime. 2. Hold off on big purchases. Lenders double-check buyers’ credit right before the closing to be sure their financial condition hasn’t weakened. If you’ve opened new credit cards, significantly increased the balance on existing cards, taken out new loans, or depleted your savings, your credit score may have dropped enough to make your lender change its mind on funding your home loan. Although it’s tempting to purchase new furniture and other items for your new home, or even a new car, wait until after the closing. 3. Keep your job. The lender may refuse to fund your loan if you quit or change jobs before you close the purchase. The time to take either step is after a home closing, not before. 4. Meet contingencies. If your contract requires you to do something before the sale, do it. If you’re required to secure financing, promptly provide all the information the lender requires. If you must deposit additional funds into escrow, don’t stall. If you have 10 days to get a home inspection, call the inspector immediately. 5. Consider deadlines immovable. Get your funds together a week or so before the closing, so you don’t have to ask for a delay. If you’ll need to bring a certified check to closing, get it from the bank the day before, not the day of, your closing. Treat deadlines as sacrosanct. G.M. Filisko is an attorney and award-winning writer who wanted a successful closing on a Wisconsin property so bad that she probably made her agent rethink going into real estate. A frequent contributor to many national publications including Bankrate.com, REALTOR® Magazine, and the American Bar Association Journal, she specializes in real estate, business, personal finance, and legal...
read moreLearn the True Costs Behind Rehabbing a Fixer Upper
By: G. M. Filisko When you buy a fixer-upper house, you can save a ton of money, or get yourself in a financial fix. Trying to decide whether to buy a fixer-upper house? Follow these seven steps, and you’ll know how much you can afford, how much to offer, and whether a fixer-upper house is right for you. 1. Decide what you can do yourself. TV remodeling shows make home improvement work look like a snap. In the real world, attempting a difficult remodeling job that you don’t know how to do will take longer than you think and can lead to less-than-professional results that won’t increase the value of your fixer-upper house. Do you really have the skills to do it? Some tasks, like stripping wallpaper and painting, are relatively easy. Others, like electrical work, can be dangerous when done by amateurs. Do you really have the time and desire to do it? Can you take time off work to renovate your fixer-upper house? If not, will you be stressed out by living in a work zone for months while you complete projects on the weekends? 2. Price the cost of repairs and remodeling before you make an offer. Get your contractor into the house to do a walk-through, so he can give you a written cost estimate on the tasks he’s going to do. If you’re doing the work yourself, price the supplies. Either way, tack on 10% to 20% to cover unforeseen problems that often arise with a fixer-upper house. 3. Check permit costs. Ask local officials if the work you’re going to do requires a permit and how much that permit costs. Doing work without a permit may save money, but it’ll cause problems when you resell your home. Decide if you want to get the permits yourself or have the contractor arrange for them. Getting permits can be time-consuming and frustrating. Inspectors may force you to do additional work, or change the way you want to do a project, before they give you the permit. Factor the time and aggravation of permits into your plans. 4. Doublecheck pricing on structural work. If your fixer-upper home needs major structural work, hire a structural engineer for $500 to $700 to inspect the home before you put in an offer so you can be confident you’ve uncovered and conservatively budgeted for the full extent of the problems. Get written estimates for repairs before you commit to buying a home with structural issues. Don’t purchase a home that needs major structural work unless: You’re getting it at a steep discount You’re sure you’ve uncovered the extent of the problem You know the problem can be fixed You have a binding written estimate for the repairs 5. Check the cost of financing. Be sure you have enough money for a downpayment, closing costs, and repairs without draining your savings. If you’re planning to fund the repairs with a home equity or home improvement loan: Get yourself pre-approved for both loans before you make an offer. Make the deal contingent on getting both the purchase money loan and the renovation money loan, so you’re not forced to close the sale when you have no loan to fix the house. Consider the Federal Housing Administration’s Section 203(k) program, which is designed...
read moreStaged for Success: The Case for Hiring a Home Stager
Before listing your home, tap into the talents of a home stager. You may sell your home faster and at a bigger profit Karen Egly-Thompson Houzz Contributor Home staging has become an increasingly formidable force in helping people sell their homes more quickly and for more money. Its overall goal is to help prospective home buyers emotionally connect with a space, hopefully leading to an offer to buy. Home staging isn’t limited to just high-end properties. It has become a norm for homes at all price points. While staging may seem like an additional hassle and expense, the investment can pay off. Here’s a guide to home staging, including the benefits, process and reasons to stage your home if you’re considering a move. Who Hires Home Stagers? Anyone selling or buying property may benefit from home staging. Homeowners selling single-family homes, condos and townhouses make up the greatest percentage of those hiring home stagers. However, property developers selling new construction, and real estate agents, also are in the mix. While home staging was created primarily to benefit the seller, seeing prospective properties in their best light also can be advantageous to buyers because it can cut down on their search time. Benefits of Staging a Home Most people have trouble visualizing a space’s potential, whether that’s figuring out how to lay out an empty room or trying to ignore oddly arranged furniture, clutter or decor that’s not their style. The majority of home buyers can’t easily look past what’s in front of them to appreciate a room’s potential. Staging helps eliminate the buyer’s guesswork. “The key is to set the stage for potential buyers to imagine themselves living there,” says home stager Robin DeCapua of Madison Modern Home. A 2015 study by the National Association of Realtors confirmed that more than 81 percent of home buyers find it easier to visualize the property as their future home when it’s staged. Had the staged living room seen here been empty, many people might have found the large space intimidating and possibly off-putting. Instead, Audrey Gourguechon of Staging North Shore in Chicago created multiple seating zones to highlight it as an inviting living and entertaining space to potential buyers. Prelisted staged homes spend 90 percent less time on the market than their nonstaged competition, according to a 2016 report by the Real Estate Staging Association. Considering the monthly carrying costs — mortgage, taxes and utilities — that translates into a lot of saved cash if the home spends less time on the market. Shopping for many things these days is done online, and real estate is no exception. “Today, buyers look at the online photos before deciding to come in and view the homes in person,” says Shirin Sarikhani of Seattle Staged to Sell and Design. Web surfing is the first step in the buying process, and if your home doesn’t grab their attention, it will likely be passed by. “If you want to get ahead of your competitors, be proactive, Gourguechon says. “Chances are your next-door neighbor has their home staged.” Buyers decide whether they like the home or not in the first few minutes after entering. There’s only one opportunity to make a first impression, so you don’t want to be the seller who skipped out on staging, especially if...
read more4 Ways to Help a Home Seller Tackle Clutter
By Tori Toth One of the most cost-effective ways to prepare a home for sale is to organize it, but I know for many home sellers it’s no easy task. It’s important to contain and, in fact, erase clutter for three reasons: Gain more square footage. Showcase the positive features in the home. Buyers can visualize living in the space. Clutter comes in all different forms and it lingers in most homes. So if you see piles of paperwork, clothes on the floor, stuffed closets — it’s time to declutter! Here are some tips: 1. Start small. Organizing is an evolving process that changes as the needs of a home owner change. Start small: One room, one closet, one corner. Just start somewhere! To make it count, tackle the first cluttered area a home buyer would see as they walk into the home. 2. Schedule it. Many times a home owner never starts the decluttering process because of time constraints. Schedule blocks of time (2-4 hours) or even just 15 minutes a day depending on what needs to be organized to make your goal a reality. 3. Find a home. One reason why clutter can build up in a home is if an item is homeless. Creating a place for each item in your home is a crucial part to obtaining an organized home. Of course, keeping the space in order only happens when you return an item back to it’s home after use. 4. Adopt “good habits.” By always returning an item home, you’re building in a maintenance system in your organizing process. Another good habit to adopt is to take 5-10 minutes every night and put items away. This way when you wake up in the morning, the house is ready to show off. For more tips on how to organize a home, view: “Lose the Clutter: Habits That Could Make or Break Your Home Organizing Goals.”...
read more10 Ways to Boost Your Home’s Value on a $200 to $2K Budget
Submitted by HowMuch.net Maintaining and increasing your home’s value can pay off in major ways. Not only does helping your home hold value help it sell for its full amount, it can also help your home sell more quickly, help maintain your neighbor’s home values, and ensure that you’re not overpaying in property taxes. These 10 projects are listed from least to most expensive, and may help you increase your home’s value. Best part: None of these projects cost more than $2,000, so you don’t have to break the bank to take on these projects either. —-Low Cost: Budget under $500—- LAWN FERTILIZING Fertilizing your lawn may not seem as though it’s doing much for your home’s value, but a well-maintained lawn plays a major role in your home’s curb appeal. Curb appeal is how well your property looks from the road, and has a major impact on your home’s value and resale. Fertilizing a dry, brown, or otherwise patchy lawn can help boost your home’s curb appeal, and in turn its value. Cost: The average cost of lawn fertilizing is around $.03 a square foot assuming a 6,000 square foot lawn, for a total of $180. Total costs range from $.02 a square foot for a DIY job to $.04 a square foot during peak season. Money Saving Tips If you are able to tackle this job DIY, you can save a lot of money (which you can then use to plant shrubs or trees to further increase your home’s curb appeal). Tackle this job at the beginning of the season to avoid paying peak prices. INSTALL AN ATTIC FAN The attic is one of the most overlooked areas of the home when it comes to the impact on the rest of the home. Attics that are not properly insulated can become superheated, which can overheat the roof, cause ice dams, and raise your energy bills. Installing an attic fan can help protect your roof, lower your energy bills, and improve your home values. Cost: The average cost to install a gable mount electric attic fan is around $275 for spaces up to 2,500. Total costs range from $39 for a wind-powered vent to $321 for an electric fan to cool up to 3,000 feet. Money Saving Tips Look into getting a solar-powered fan, which will not only run when you need it, but will also lower your monthly energy costs to run it as well. PAINT A ROOM IN YOUR HOME Dingy, old, or out of fashion paint can really hurt the resale of your home. By giving a room in your home a fresh coat of paint, you can help remedy this problem. Choose neutral paints in light colors to get the most universal appeal, particularly if the rooms are small or dark, as these colors will help open them up and make them feel larger. Cost: The average cost to paint a 200-square-foot room is around $378, with a full range between $162 for DIY to $459 for rooms that need more than one coat of paint on the walls. Money Saving Tips If you are able to tackle this job DIY, you can save a significant amount of money, allowing you to do more than one room. Choose a color that is close to...
read moreThe True Costs vs. Resale Value of Popular Home Renovations
Posted by eReplace Staff on February 23, 2016 Whether you’re an avid fan of home improvement shows or not, you likely have an inkling that fresh updates and renovations can entice homebuyers. But how much will a certain remodel run you? And perhaps more importantly, will it really help you come resale time? The Remodeling 2016 Cost vs. Value Report, produced by Remodeling, details estimated costs for 30 home-improvement projects. The report also includes an estimated value homeowners can expect to recover from a specific renovation or addition when they sell their home. With the help of the report, we break down the cost and resale value of some of the most popular renovations—from kitchens and bathrooms to decks and basements. The figures are organized by region as well as the national average. To learn more and view all 36 project cost and value estimates, check out www.costvsvalue.com, where you can download the report in its entirety for free. © 2016 Hanley Wood, LLC....
read moreDesign Trends That Make People say … ‘No!’
By Justin M. Riordan, Spade and Archer Design Agency Design trends are just that: trendy. They change from day to day, year to year, and decade to decade. The ones that are popular now won’t be soon. The ones that were popular years ago aren’t now and the ones that were popular decades ago are already back again. Interior design trends tend to follow fashion trends about three years later. As colors gain popularity in fashion, they follow shortly thereafter in interior design. The trick is being able to see what are trends and what is classic. The difference is that classic will never go out of style, whereas trends always eventually go out of style. Here are some major trends from our recent past that are turning people away from houses: 1. Carpet in the master bathroom. The 1990’s brought us so many fine trends, carpet in bathrooms was one of them. The thought was that cold tile on your bare feet was unpleasant. You know what else is unpleasant? Mold in your carpet pad. 2. Plantation shutters. They are expensive, I know. Every single one of my clients who has them tells me over and over how expensive they are. Plantation shutters were designed for plantations. Hot, muggy places. The shutters were designed to block light and still allow a breeze to come into the house. The issue today is that they still block light, over 50 percent of the light that would have come through a window is blocked by plantation shutters. The fact of the matter is that nobody wants to buy a dark house. If the shutters aren’t there, they won’t miss them. 3. Curtains over closets. The odds of the next buyer having the same taste in curtains as you is slim. Curtains over closets scream “YOU HAVE WORK TO DO” to your potential buyers. Do yourself and the buyer a favor, take the curtains down and put the doors back up. 4. Family, Friendship, Love, Laugh, Dance… BARF! Word art inevitably tells a story of the seller’s life and is distracting to the buyer. Nobody cares how deep your family roots run, or that this is Emma’s crib. Take it down. 5. Accent walls. The term “accent walls” is a misnomer, they should instead be called focal walls as they tend to provide a focus point for the room. Unfortunately, as the focal point of a room, they tend to dictate how a room should be set up and what the color scheme should be for the room. If you have a purple accent wall and all of your buyer’s furniture is red, they are going to have to work to remove that paint or more than likely just buy some other house. 6. “Faux” is french for fake. No matter what language you translate it to faux paint is fake and is as out of style as pleats on men’s dress pants. The overwhelming commonality of all of cultural trends is truth — people want real food made by real people in real time. The time of fake and fast is over. Faux painting will send your buyer away faster than you can say “marbleized”! 7. Wallpaper. Wallpaper is hard to take down and, again, the chances of them having the...
read moreOn Second Thought, Don’t Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies for the Open House!
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR(R) Magazine A favorite real estate tip: When prepping a home for a showing, whip up some chocolate chip cookies to fill the home with that rich, inviting, tasty smell. Who wouldn’t want to sit back and stay awhile? Well, you may want to put down the mixing bowl and turn off the oven. Research now says that chocolate chip cookies are one of the worst scents to have in a real estate open house. Researchers used a sample size of 402 people in a home decor store in Switzerland to find out which scents were the most pleasing to customers. The researchers say the findings could provide some insights into the most pleasing smells during open houses too. One of the author’s of the study, Eric Spangenberg, dean of the college of business at Washington State University, recently told The Wall Street Journal that baked goods are a complex scent that can distract potential home buyers, even if the scent is pleasant. Buyers will subconsciously devote time to trying to figure out the scent, instead of devoting the time to determining if this is a place they really want to live. (Or maybe it’s really that they devote time and energy to finding where in the world you stashed all those cookies!) Other distracting complex smells that researchers also suggest could distract customers: Potpourri, gourmet foods, and baked goods. So if you want an inviting smell to fill a home for your open house, what home scents should you reach for? Simple scents — like pine, lemon, cedar, and vanilla — all which can be easier for buyers to process and less distracting, Spangenberg says. For example, Chris McDonnell, a real estate professional with Coldwell Banker Distinctive Properties in Vail, Colo., told The Wall Street Journal he’ll prep a home for an open house by cutting fresh pine branches or picking fresh lavender and mint from his herb garden — scents that mimic the outdoor lifestyle he’s also trying to...
read more
Recent Comments