Nenita Dasalla- Single Family Residence Real Estate Sales Consultant

A new study reveals home owners want their kitchen, not the home office or the game room, to be the digital nerve center of the home, as well as a social hub.

The finding was discovered after the Internet Home Alliance commissioned research and consulting firm Zanthus to determine how home owners wanted to customize their kitchens.

The pollster put a host of questions to 602 home owners responsible for making household purchasing decisions about kitchen appliances and consumer electronics and the answers surprised the alliance.

“While we expected to learn that the kitchen continues to serve as the hub of the home, we were surprised to find that bigger kitchens aren’t necessarily a priority for most U.S. homeowners,” said Tim Woods, vice president of the alliance.

“For example, we thought that a desk or workstation would be a popular addition but, in fact, most homeowners told us that a computer on a counter worked just as well. Eighty-two percent of our respondents told us that they had no interest in creating a separate space to do work assignments in the kitchen, though they did suggest that a more innovative kitchen design that freed up counter space would be useful,” he said.

The alliance is a consortium of Continental Automated Buildings Association members (including Hewlett Packard, Intel, Microsoft and the National Association of Home Builders) who comprise a network of companies engaged in advancing the connected home space. It will release the full study during the 2007 Kitchen/Bath Industry Show & Conference (KBIS) in Las Vegas, May 7-10, where the alliance will display an “Ideal Digital Kitchen” model created based on the survey results.

Preliminary findings reveal the ideal digital kitchen includes:

Every homeowner eventually wants to make a change, but if you’re like many people you haven’t a clue where to begin. Just like fashion styles, interior designs change with the times as well. So, if you’ve been in your home for a long time and are ready to sell or are just ready for a makeover, read on to see if the hottest trends are suitable for your home.

Go ahead and slap a fresh coat of paint on the walls. But don’t make it sterile white or boring beige. At the very least use these colors along with some vibrant accent colors on a single wall or two.

“We’ve gone through an era of everything being very muted and quiet and what we see with the younger generation coming up is that we’re really going to use lots of colors. Colors on the walls, color on the furniture such as lime greens, browns, oranges and bright reds,” says Dixie Lovejoy, owner of Arizona-based Apple Interior Systems, Inc.

A little paint can make a major change to a home. It’s always a good idea to put on a fresh coat or at least touch up the paint before you place your home on the market. It gives a buyer a feeling of cleanliness and that the home has been well cared for over the years.

“Paint is a very inexpensive way to do something new and not have your house seem dated as time goes on,” adds Lovejoy.

Think big, but buy less. “People used to buy accessories on a very small scale. In our office, one of our slogans is: bigger is better,” says Lovejoy.

She says that means things like pots, statues, fountains, and flower arrangements should all be bigger. So instead of having a lot of knickknack items, you buy less but when you do, you buy big. The idea is to make a statement with your decorating rather than make your home look cluttered.

Accent pillows are a must! The key home décor ingredient that no home should be without gives new meaning to pillow talk. Lovejoy says accent pillows will get your houseguest chatting about your harmonizing décor. “Accent pillows are kind of a key to all design that ties everything together,” she says.

Bye-bye sliders. In my opinion, sliding glass doors have always been a bit of an eyesore, but so many tract homes have them. Now, Lovejoy says, sliding glass and even French doors are losing ground. The new alternative creates wide open space even in a residential tract home. Instead, doors that virtually vanish or disappear are appearing in more homes and allowing better access to the great outdoors.

“They actually can slide all the way into a pocket that’s built into a wall or stack on top of each other so it becomes one small window on the left or right side but the rest of your house is all open. There are also folding doors that do that,” says Lovejoy.

She says the typical narrow three-foot opening on sliding or French doors just isn’t suitable for what homeowners want today. “The newest trend is opening up a 12 to 22 or 30 feet of glass. It gives you almost the lanai effect like you have in Hawaii where the inside and the outside all become one,” explains Lovejoy.

Of course, this is ideal for homeowners who have big parties or events at their home. “You can just open up your house and the traffic flows inside to outside,” says Lovejoy.

Then the outside is decorated much like the inside with fireplaces, couches, chairs, coffee tables, and Lovejoy says even drapes and pictures hanging on the walls on the outside of the house. All of this makes the determining line between the outside and inside of your house disappear.

Furnish your outdoors like your indoors.

“We traditionally don’t even use regular patio furniture. We upholster couches and chairs and everything in outside fabric because it’s gotten so incredibly intricate. It’s not the old red, white, and blue fabric that we used to think of for outdoor furniture,” says Lovejoy.

Today, designers are using big patterns made from velvets and even sheer materials on outside furniture which begs the question, “how does this fabric hold up on a couch or chair?”

“We’re the toughest market there is with the weather and everything else … and we’re the dustbowl of the world out here but even the moisture that you have in the costal cities wouldn’t affect it,” says Lovejoy. Need to clean your furniture? Don’t hire a professional, Lovejoy says, “You can take a hose to it and wash off the couch or chairs or you can vacuum them just like you do inside so there’s really no difference,” says Lovejoy.

When it comes to flooring soft is out, hard is in. “I think that we’re going away from soft surfaces on the flooring,” says Lovejoy.

Traditionally, homes have always had carpeting in the bedroom areas and maybe tile or hardwood flooring in other parts of the house. That’s changing to create a better flow between the indoor and outdoor living areas. “That way when you open up your house for entertaining, the patio or the lanai on the outside, or your sunroom, has the same surface as the house so you get that huge expanded feeling,” says Lovejoy.

Of course, area rugs are making a huge impact in the marketplace because of homeowners wanting to have some cozy, soft areas on the floor near beds, couches, and fireplaces. Even just a few changes to your home can take it from drab to fabulous with these hot trends.

Written by Phoebe Chongchua

Pricing property can be more art than science in some of today’s markets. New home builders probably have the easiest time of it — at least without shocking the buyers — because everything is new. There are no bare areas in the carpet, fingerprints on the appliances, nicotine stained ceiling tiles in the rec room — and definitely no cat and dog odors that are promised to be dealt with by installing new carpet after the buyer moves in.

With resale homes, the first weapon to use in the battle to sell the home is to price it correctly. The challenge for sellers is that they want as much as the last sale, however, in today’s market that’s not as guaranteed as it was a year ago. The seller can still walk away with hundreds of thousands of dollars in gain, but maybe not the absolute highest amount of gain ever in the community.

Thus, pricing is the key. There are only a few ways to price a home for sale and sellers who don’t want to wait around on the sale of their home need to adapt to the accepted modes of pricing and get over the fact that their house may not be worth as much as it was 12 months ago.

The first model is probably the most popular — the comparable. By pulling up only the sales of your particular model, your Realtor can determine a trend price for your home. The challenge in a slowing market is that your particular model may only have three sales in the last year. Such a low number of houses selling does not really create a trend line, especially if the last sale was 6 months previous. Thus, you turn to the second pricing model.

Your home is then dissected to create comparables across a few neighborhoods or even a whole zip code that match your local community. Several aspects of your home will be plugged into the comparable model: style of home (split level, colonial, etc.); number of levels; number of bedrooms and baths; extra rooms; year built; square footage; and more. Then the averages on these parameters are tabulated and you’ll have a target price. Keep in mind to remove the highs and lows.

Finally, another way to price your home is to come up with a tax assessment model. This one takes a little bit more homework and data mining. It’s tedious, but it can present an accurate picture of home values in your community. The first step is to pull up all the sales in the community in the last 6 to 12 months. Tabulate the sales price total (let’s say it comes up to $10 million) and then tabulate the tax assessment total (our model will use $8 million). Divide the tax assessment into the sales price and you come up with a tax assessment-sales price ratio. In this case, the community ratio is 1.25. Multiply your tax assessment by the ratio figure, and it will determine your target asking price. For example, if your tax assessment is $250,000, multiply it by 1.25 and you’ll arrive at $312,500 as a target asking price. Again, be careful to pull out the anomalies that represent overbuilt properties. The largest, biggest house in the community could affect your price, as well as the pre-foreclosure sale.

You’re looking for average prices with average situations for average results.

The biggest challenge in pricing the home is a seller’s greed level. Sorry to be so blunt, but sellers always want more than the last sale, regardless of the market condition. My blunt advice is to “get over it.” Waiting around for the “right” buyer is just plain foolishness in the world of real estate. If you’re putting your home on the market, don’t wait around and waste your time, the buyers’ time and the agents’ time with an unrealistic asking price.

If your Realtor provides feedback from colleagues that your house is overpriced, move on it. Move from denial into acceptance and price the house right. Remember, the goal here is not to price the property as high as possible, but to sell the house.

Written by M. Anthony Carr

It’s as old as time, but as popular as ever. Stone is rapidly making its way into homes as perhaps one of the fastest growing decorating trends. The European Old World look brings with it not only a luxurious style but also an ease and comfort that gives a home personality.

Homeowners are leaving behind the once-preferred 70′s looks of wall-to-wall carpeting throughout the house, linoleum kitchen floors and vinyl tiles in the bathroom, and instead choosing natural stone, Versailles patterns, travertine, and limestone, with honed-matte finished surfaces. For countertops, homeowners are using two tones, finishing their kitchen island in maybe limestone and the surrounding kitchen countertops in granite materials for a unique style.

At one time granite and marble were only seen in office buildings, while rustic style stone only was used in vacation homes.

“People are trying to personalize their homes more than they did before. Before you used to go through the house and you’d do everything pretty much the same overall. Now people are bringing in different types of materials like glass tile, mosaics, different designs, different sizes, textures, into the same room. They tend to want to give each room more personality by adding different types of products,” said Giovanna Gomes, President of Stones Unlimited on Miramar Road.

What is completely losing a place in homes is the white tile countertops that was the staple in every home for decades. “White tile used to be typical when building or remodeling a house. Now we’re seeing all white ceramic tile is being replaced with solid surface countertops such as granite which has no grout lines and is easier to care for,” said Lilliana Bosforo, Director of Fabrication for Stones Unlimited.

There are many different choices, sizes, textures and styles of stone. Pricing varies depending on the type selected. Some very expensive flooring is even brought back from old chateaus and farmhouses in Europe that are scheduled for demolition. The 100 to 200-year-old stone material is brought to the US for cleaning, sanitizing, sizing and cataloging.

The chic look and durability of stone makes it appealing to homeowners. But experts caution that before it’s put in homeowners should understand the maintenance required and the issues that may come up. One of the most common problems is stains. Because stone is very porous, if you spill things on it, the stone can easily absorb the liquid. However, proper care such as sealing the stone can alleviate this problem.

Gomes also said that you should consider how much foot traffic you have in various areas of your home before putting in stone floors. “Honed surfaces are usually the best because they’re matte finishes so they don’t wear like a polished material would. A polished marble will scratch and if you drop something acidic it’ll etch which means the polish will be removed in that particular area. So there are more maintenance issues with polished surfaces,” said Gomes.

However, honed surfaces show less wear pattern. Gomes said you can also be more aggressive with your cleaning, “It’ll always look beautiful.”

For countertops Bosforo recommends granite because it is dense and easy to maintain. “You’re going to have your least amount of problems with a granite over marbles or limestone which some people do put those in their kitchens, but we let them know that there will be more maintenance with a marble or a limestone and, of course, you’d want to do it honed,” Bosforo said.

Another reason granite is recommended over marble or limestone is because acids in some foods can etch the stone and cause it to leave marks or rings on the materials.

When deciding which stone to choose, keep in mind these handy tips from Stones Unlimited:

 
1. Granite is most suitable for kitchens and bar counters because it is the most dense. It also resists hot and cold. Acidic foods will not etch the polish. 
2. Marble is not as dense as granite but is more so than travertine. Marble works well for bathroom flooring, on back splashes and fireplaces. 
3. Travertine is not as dense as marble but is more so than limestone. 
4. Limestone is the softest and most porous of the stones. It requires more frequent sealing. 
5. Slate is an excellent choice for outdoors or indoors.

 

Written by Phoebe Chongchua 

If your property tax is aligned with or assessed based on the value of your home, a swing in property values could warrant close scrutiny of your property tax bill.

Some more progressive tax jurisdictions will make the adjustment for you — up or down — but most only move your rate up or they’ll wait for the property to change hands before adjusting the tax.

Even where adjustments are automatic, you still may not be satisfied and will need to appeal the deal.

Over valued or over assessed property is perhaps the most common and successful grounds for challenging your tax bill.

When the economy is faltering and spawning foreclosures, short sales and homeowners otherwise bailing out of homeownership, consider it a red flag — it’s time to scrutinize your property tax bill.

Many homeowners bailout, accept the foreclosure or take the short sale way out because their mortgage is more than the value of the home, which may have fallen for a variety of reasons.

The incidence of incorrectly calculated property tax bills may also warrant a close inspection of your property tax bill or an appeal.

Many errors in calculating your property tax bill also stem from clerical mistakes according to the American Homeowners Association (AHA) which, along with the National Taxpayers Union, offers a low-cost kit to help you check our property tax’s accuracy and, if necessary, attempt to lower your levy.

Visit the Federation of Tax Administrators (http://www.ntanet.org) to pinpoint your property tax jurisdiction, records and procedures.

Tell-tale signs your property tax could warrant an adjustment include:

 
• Errors in the description of your property on the tax bill. 
• Compatible homes in the area that have sold for less than your appraised value. 
• Neighbors with lower assessments on similar houses. Keep in mind some homes retain the same assessed value for years and assessed values often don’t rise or fall in step with market values or home sale prices. 
• Value reducers in your home or area, including drainage problems, easements, re-zoning, heavy traffic, nearby railroad tracks, freeways, industry or toxic waste. 
• Depreciation factors, including the quality of materials, inefficient heating, structural cracks, deterioration, or chronic defects.

 

When you examine your tax records in the local assessor’s or property tax office to make sure the information is complete and accurate also ask yourself:

 
• Did you buy your home in a bidding war? An overvalued property is an over assessed property. 
• Are there errors in your tax records? Look closely at your records and make sure there aren’t reporting errors. A condo listed as a single-family home, square footage that’s off, too many rooms and more can falsely boost assessed value. 
• Do the math. Many states put a cap on how much above the market value an assessment can be and how much it can rise each year.

 

If you need to appeal the assessed value and related property tax, prepare yourself for a time-consuming ordeal.

In most cases the process is free for taxpayers, but you may want to enlist the aid of a licensed professional to assist you.

Typically, you’ll have to find three, five or more comparable homes in your neighborhood that have lower assessments. Obviously, the lower the better. Also, the more comparables, the stronger your case. Truly comparable homes are homes nearly identical to your home’s floor plan, age, lot size, improvements and other factors.

The information is largely public and available, with some digging, from your tax assessor’s or property tax office, but you can hire a real estate agent or other professional with access to your local multiple listing service. They can quickly generate a comparable market analysis of homes both recently sold and those in escrow to hone in on your home’s true value.

An appraiser with multiple listing service access can do the same, as well as perform an appraisal of your home.

If you hire a professional you could be out a few hundred dollars. Don’t make a case if you don’t think it’s worth the cost to appeal.

Approach the appeal objectively, not with an adversarial chip on your shoulder. You only want your due, not to incite the property tax system.

If at first you don’t succeed, be prepared to appeal to a higher authority.

Written by Broderick Perkins