How to Prepare Your Home for a Public Open House

If you or your agent is planning an open house for your home,  a checklist of actions to be taken would be a good idea- for you, and for your agent! "Plan, Prepare and Proceed!" Here are a few helpful hints .

Advertising:

Plan an open house at least two weeks prior to the event if you can. Advertising your open house event should start at least one week prior.  The best venues by far for getting the word out are Realtor.com and Listingbook. Your realtors website, their company's website, facebook.com, twitter.com, youtube.com, craigslist.org, and local online news aggregators are also very good sources.Taking out an as in the local newspaper is still a good idea, however  it is costly, and no longer brings in the traffic that it used to. Also consider sending out invitations by email or through the post office to your surrounding neighborhood.
 
Signage:

Make sure you have enough directional signs to get buyers to your home. This is important for two reasons: One, being that some people are somewhat geographically challenged and may not have a GPS system to rely on, and Number two; You may be able to get traffic from the signs alone, whereas a passerby may not have seen any of your advertising, yet could be in the market for YOUR home.

Showplace ready:

Get your home showcase ready! You ARE being judged. You only have a few seconds to make a first impression, and it doesn't take much to make sure that someone's first impression is a good one. That means staging your home for sale.


Marketing Materials:

Always remember that when a buyer comes to your open house, they are probably making a day of it, and going to many houses in one day. How will they remember your home by days end if they don't have nything to remind them of all the wonderful features that your home has? Buyers get somewhat blurry eyed by the end of the day, so make sure you have enough detailed property brochures and the like  for everyone that comes through.

Financing Information:

Have a mortgage broker prepare different analyses to give out for your home to show buyers just how affordable it is to own your home. The mortgage broker should include three to four different financing scenarios for your buyer.

Offer or Contract Paperwork:

Have all of your paperwork in order, and  ready and available at a moments notice. That includes all of the state mandated disclosures, as well as a standard purchase agreement and recipt of deposit acknowledgement. Be ready to make a sale.  Strike while the iron is hot!

It's time to  get your home sold! - and I just happen to know the best agent in the state- she specializes in Fairfield County and Southwestern Connecticut  (that's me!)  So E-mail me today!

Ten Easy Ways to Save Energy in Your Home

Most people don’t know how easy it is to make their homes run on less energy.  Drastic reductions in heating, cooling and electricity costs can be accomplished through very simple changes, most of which homeowners can do themselves. Of course, for homeowners who want to take advantage of the most up-to-date knowledge and systems in home energy efficiency, InterNACHI energy auditors can perform in-depth testing to find the best energy solutions for your particular home. 

Why make your home more energy efficient? Here are a few good reasons:

• Federal, state, utility and local jurisdictions' financial incentives, such as tax breaks, are very advantageous for homeowners in most parts of the U.S.
• It saves money. It costs less to power a home that has been converted to be more energy-efficient.
• It increases the comfort level indoors.
• It reduces our impact on climate change. Many scientists now believe that excessive energy consumption contributes significantly to global warming.
• It reduces pollution. Conventional power production introduces pollutants that find their way into the air, soil and water supplies.

1. Find better ways to heat and cool your house. 

As much as half of the energy used in homes goes toward heating and cooling. The following are a few ways that energy bills can be reduced through adjustments to the heating and cooling systems:

• Install a ceiling fan. Ceiling fans can be used in place of air conditioners, which require a large amount of energy.
• Periodically replace air filters in air conditioners and heaters.
• Set thermostats to an appropriate temperature. Specifically, they should be turned down at night and when no one is home. In most homes, about 2% of the heating bill will be saved for each degree that the thermostat is lowered for at least eight hours each day. Turning down the thermostat from 75° F to 70° F, for example, saves about 10% on heating costs.
• Install a programmable thermostat. A programmable thermostat saves money by allowing heating and cooling appliances to be automatically turned down during times that no one is home and at night. Programmable thermostats contain no mercury and, in some climate zones, can save up to $150 per year in energy costs.
• Install a wood stove or a pellet stove. These are more efficient sources of heat than furnaces.
• At night, curtains drawn over windows will better insulate the room.

2. Install a tankless water heater.

Demand-type water heaters (tankless or instantaneous) provide hot water only as it is needed. They don't produce the standby energy losses associated with traditional storage water heaters, which will save on energy costs. Tankless water heaters heat water directly without the use of a storage tank. When a hot water tap is turned on, cold water travels through a pipe into the unit. A gas burner or an electric element heats the water. As a result, demand water heaters deliver a constant supply of hot water. You don't need to wait for a storage tank to fill up with enough hot water.

3. Replace incandescent lights.

The average household dedicates 11% of its energy budget to lighting. Traditional incandescent lights convert approximately only 10% of the energy they consume into light, while the rest becomes heat. The use of new lighting technologies, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), can reduce the energy use required by lighting by 50% to 75%. Advances in lighting controls offer further energy savings by reducing the amount of time that lights are on but not being used. Here are some facts about CFLs and LEDs:

• CFLs use 75% less energy and last about 10 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs.
• LEDs last even longer than CFLs and consume less energy.
• LEDs have no moving parts and, unlike CFLs, they contain no mercury.

4. Seal and insulate your home.

Sealing and insulating your home is one of the most cost-effective ways to make a home more comfortable and energy-efficient, and you can do it yourself. A tightly sealed home can improve comfort and indoor air quality while reducing utility bills. An InterNACHI energy auditor can assess  leakage in the building envelope and recommend fixes that will dramatically increase comfort and energy savings.

The following are some common places where leakage may occur:

• electrical receptacles/outlets;
• mail slots;
• around pipes and wires;
• wall- or window-mounted air conditioners;
• attic hatches;
• fireplace dampers;
• inadequate weatherstripping around doors;
• baseboards;
• window frames; and
• switch plates.

Because hot air rises, air leaks are most likely to occur in the attic. Homeowners can perform a variety of repairs and maintenance to their attics that save them money on cooling and heating, such as: 

• Plug the large holes. Locations in the attic where leakage is most likely to be the greatest are where walls meet the attic floor, behind and under attic knee walls, and in dropped-ceiling areas.
• Seal the small holes. You can easily do this by looking for areas where the insulation is darkened. Darkened insulation is a result of dusty interior air being filtered by insulation before leaking through small holes in the building envelope. In cold weather, you may see frosty areas in the insulation caused by warm, moist air condensing and then freezing as it hits the cold attic air. In warmer weather, you’ll find water staining in these same areas. Use expanding foam or caulk to seal the openings around plumbing vent pipes and electrical wires. Cover the areas with insulation after the caulk is dry.
• Seal up the attic access panel with weatherstripping. You can cut a piece of fiberglass or rigid foamboard insulation in the same size as the attic hatch and glue it to the back of the attic access panel. If you have pull-down attic stairs or an attic door, these should be sealed in a similar manner.

5. Install efficient showerheads and toilets.

The following systems can be installed to conserve water usage in homes:

• low-flow showerheads. They are available in different flow rates, and some have a pause button which shuts off the water while the bather lathers up;
• low-flow toilets. Toilets consume 30% to 40% of the total water used in homes, making them the biggest water users. Replacing an older 3.5-gallon toilet with a modern, low-flow 1.6-gallon toilet can reduce usage an average of 2 gallons-per-flush (GPF), saving 12,000 gallons of water per year. Low-flow toilets usually have "1.6 GPF" marked on the bowl behind the seat or inside the tank;
• vacuum-assist toilets. This type of toilet has a vacuum chamber that uses a siphon action to suck air from the trap beneath the bowl, allowing it to quickly fill with water to clear waste. Vacuum-assist toilets are relatively quiet; and
• dual-flush toilets. Dual-flush toilets have been used in Europe and Australia for years and are now gaining in popularity in the U.S. Dual-flush toilets let you choose between a 1-gallon (or less) flush for liquid waste, and a 1.6-gallon flush for solid waste. Dual-flush 1.6-GPF toilets reduce water consumption by an additional 30%.

6. Use appliances and electronics responsibly.

Appliances and electronics account for about 20% of household energy bills in a typical U.S. home. The following are tips that will reduce the required energy of electronics and appliances:

• Refrigerators and freezers should not be located near the stove, dishwasher or heat vents, or exposed to direct sunlight. Exposure to warm areas will force them to use more energy to remain cool.  
• Computers should be shut off when not in use. If unattended computers must be left on, their monitors should be shut off. According to some studies, computers account for approximately 3% of all energy consumption in the United States.
• Use efficient ENERGY STAR-rated appliances and electronics. These devices, approved by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR Program, include TVs, home theater systems, DVD players, CD players, receivers, speakers, and more. According to the EPA, if just 10% of homes used energy-efficient appliances, it would reduce carbon emissions by the equivalent of 1.7 million acres of trees.
• Chargers, such as those used for laptops and cell phones, consume energy when they are plugged in. When they are not connected to electronics, chargers should be unplugged.
• Laptop computers consume considerably less electricity than desktop computers.

7. Install daylighting as an alternative to electrical lighting.

Daylighting is the practice of using natural light to illuminate the home's interior. It can be achieved using the following approaches:

• skylights. It’s important that they be double-pane or they may not be cost-effective. Flashing skylights correctly is key to avoiding leaks;
• light shelves. Light shelves are passive devices designed to bounce light deep into a building. They may be interior or exterior. Light shelves can introduce light into a space up to 2½ times the distance from the floor to the top of the window, and advanced light shelves may introduce four times that amount;
• clerestory windows.  Clerestory windows are short, wide windows set high on the wall. Protected from the summer sun by the roof overhang, they allow winter sun to shine through for natural lighting and warmth; and 
• light tubes.  Light tubes use a special lens designed to amplify low-level light and reduce light intensity from the midday sun. Sunlight is channeled through a tube coated with a highly reflective material, and then enters the living space through a diffuser designed to distribute light evenly.

8. Insulate windows and doors.

About one-third of the home's total heat loss usually occurs through windows and doors. The following are ways to reduce energy lost through windows and doors:

• Seal all window edges and cracks with rope caulk. This is the cheapest and simplest option.
• Windows can be weatherstripped with a special lining that is inserted between the window and the frame. For doors, apply weatherstripping around the whole perimeter to ensure a tight seal when they're closed. Install quality door sweeps on the bottom of the doors, if they aren't already in place.
• Install storm windows at windows with only single panes. A removable glass frame can be installed over an existing window.
• If existing windows have rotted or damaged wood, cracked glass, missing putty, poorly fitting sashes, or locks that don't work, they should be repaired or replaced.

9. Cook smart.

An enormous amount of energy is wasted while cooking. The following recommendations and statistics illustrate less wasteful ways of cooking:

• Convection ovens are more efficient that conventional ovens. They use fans to force hot air to circulate more evenly, thereby allowing food to be cooked at a lower temperature. Convection ovens use approximately 20% less electricity than conventional ovens.
• Microwave ovens consume approximately 80% less energy than conventional ovens.
• Pans should be placed on the matching size heating element or flame. 
• Using lids on pots and pans will heat food more quickly than cooking in uncovered pots and pans.
• Pressure cookers reduce cooking time dramatically.
• When using conventional ovens, food should be placed on the top rack. The top rack is hotter and will cook food faster. 

10. Change the way you do laundry.

• Do not use the medium setting on your washer. Wait until you have a full load of clothes, as the medium setting saves less than half of the water and energy used for a full load.
• Avoid using high-temperature settings when clothes are not very soiled. Water that is 140° F uses far more energy than 103° F for the warm-water setting, but 140° F isn’t that much more effective for getting clothes clean.
• Clean the lint trap every time before you use the dryer. Not only is excess lint a fire hazard, but it will prolong the amount of time required for your clothes to dry.
• If possible, air-dry your clothes on lines and racks.
• Spin-dry or wring clothes out before putting them into a dryer. 

Homeowners who take the initiative to make these changes usually discover that the energy savings are more than worth the effort. InterNACHI home inspectors can make this process much easier because they can perform a more comprehensive assessment of energy-savings potential than the average homeowner can. 

Article submitted by Nick Gromicko, Ben Gromicko, Rob London and Kenton Shepard

Nick Gromicko, FOUNDER. http://www.nachi.org
International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI) is the world's most elite, non-profit inspection association.
President, ComInspect, www.cominspect.com
Director, Master Inspector Certification Board, www.certifiedmasterinspector.org
Author, 15 books and Co-Host of  http://www.NACHI.TV

Connecticut Mortgage Rates and Financing Update August 5, 2011

It would be hard to find another time frame of MBS prices moving in a more volatile fashion than this week. In less than an hour on Friday morning, prices moved up 14 ticks to 2 day highs and then down 23 ticks to 2 day lows.  On Friday morning stocks appear to be stalling and bouncing lower after failing to break 1220. Bonds like it. 10's are down to 2.462 now. Keep in mind that quoted levels in these updates continue to be moving targets.  

U.S. job growth accelerated more than expected in July.  This could ease fears the economy was sliding into a fresh recession. U.S. payrolls increased 117,000 above market expectations for an 85,000 gain. The unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent from 9.2 percent in June. The payrolls count for May and June was revised to show 56,000 more jobs added than previously reported The report was the first encouraging piece of economic data in some time.  Economists see the odds of a recession as high as 40 percent. Top policy makers at the Federal Reserve will sift through the report when they meet on Tuesday but are not expected to announce any new measures to support the sputtering recovery. The U.S. central bank has cut interest rates to zero and spent $2.3 trillion on bonds. Policy makers have said they want to see how the economy fares before taking any further action.


The Best Execution conventional 30-year fixed mortgage rate has improved to 4.250%. Some lenders are even offering 4.00% but that quote carries with it additional closing costs. On FHA/VA 30 year fixed Best Execution is now 4.00% with some lenders willing to go as low as 3.875% (includes additional closing costs).  15 year fixed conventional loans are still best priced at 3.75% but we've seen very aggressive quotes at 3.625% too. Five year ARMs are still best priced at 3.25. ARMs and 15 year quotes seem to have bottomed out. 

It's important to point out an increased amount of variation in what individual lenders are quoting as their Best Execution rates.  This is a factor of price volatility in the secondary mortgage market. Unfortunately when volatility picks up in the secondary mortgage market, the cost of doing business gets more expensive for lenders (hedging costs go up). Those added costs are usually passed down to consumers via extra margin in rate sheets.

30 year fixed - 4.250% + .0 points for rate
20 year fixed - 3.750% + 0 points for rate
15 year fixed - 3.375% + 0 points for rate
10 year fixed - 3.250%  + 1.125% lender credit points for rate
5/1 ARM - 2.750% - 0 points for rate
7/1 ARM - 3.125%  + 0 points for rate

FHA/VA
30 year fixed - 4.125% + 0 points lender credit for rate
5/1 ARM - 2.750 +  0 points for rate
7/1 ARM - 3.250 + .3750 lender credit  for rate

Jumbo - over 729,000
30 year fixed - 4.875 % with 0  points  for rate
15 year fixed - 4.375% + 0   points for rate
5/1 ARM - 3.250 % + 0 points for rate
7/1 ARM - 3.750% + 0 points for rate

10/1 ARM -  4.375% with + 0 points for rate

Jennifer Buchanan,  Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist at MetLife Loans is a seasoned veteran of the Mortgage, Banking and Broker Industry and specializes in mortgage loans throughout Fairfield County, Connecticut.
   Her attention to detail is unsurpassed, and her understanding of the marketplace makes it easy to find the right loan to fit her clients specific needs .  Jennifer's local processing and closing team are also known for their exemplary service.
   Understanding that the vast majority of mortgage brokers never discuss the long or short term  financial needs or goals with their clients, she set herself apart from the rest by obtaining the coveted CMPS  designation. (Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist)
    She is a member of the National Association of Responsible Loan Officers, and her commitment to ethics, understanding of the marketplace, and business acumen have earned her the respect of her peers and clients alike.

Jennifer Buchanan
Metlife Loans
203-341-6949

Real Estate Advice for Buyers and Sellers on our YouTube Channel

We are pleased to present our own YouTube Channel, for anyone that may prefer "visuals" as opposed to reading. You can find our channel at www.Youtube.com/CTrealtorJudy. There are about 50 handpicked helpful videos, and playlists include:

Finding a Realtor

Tips from AOL Real Estate

Buying Tips

Selling Tips and Advice 

Homeownership

Financing and Loans

There's a photo link to our channel halfway down the left hand side of our website, and we add new how-to and instructional videos whenever we find them.

Remember, no video, website or blog can take the place of a great Realtor to assist you with your home buying or selling needs.  Research is all well and good, and I encourage you to do so and respect that very much. I do lots of research, too- before I make any decisions, or when I am assisting a client in making a decision. When you need a Realtor,  I am just a phone call or an email away, and I will be happy and honored to help you get the best price on your home sale or purchase.

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Best Towns for New Construction Homes in Southwestern CT

When the media talks about real estate, we hear a lot about new construction starts, or the number of new construction permits being applied for. With that in mind, we gleaned information from our local MLS on the towns we service in Southwestern Connecticut with regards to the amount of new homes the available in each town. The chart below includes only homes that currently on the market within the GFC-CMLS.

Look below the chart for the  top rated towns for newly built homes.

Best Overall Average Pricing for New Construction:

Fairfield
Monroe

Best Selection for New Construction :
Westport

...in New Haven County:
Seymour
Oxford
Derby

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