How to Keep Your Home Cool Without Cranking Up the A/C

Want to keep your home cool this summer without having to pay an arm and a leg in utility costs? Here are three alternative ways to cool your home.

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Temperatures are rising and so are your utility bills, courtesy of that big power hog: your air conditioner. If you want to cut down your cooling costs without having to crank up the A/C, here are three tricks you can try instead:

1. Fans and ice. You can easily make a DIY air conditioner, with nothing more than a box fan and some ice. Simply put the ice into a bowl and place it in front of the running fan. As the ice melts, it cools the air around it. The fan will then disperse that wonderfully cool air all around your home.

Fans can do more than that, though. Another cooling trick is to run your ceiling fans counterclockwise—this will pull up the hot air, leaving you sitting in a cooler space. And installing a whole-house fan can literally pull out all the hot air from your home and siphon it up and out at minimal cost.

2. Green cooling. Plants do a wonderful job absorbing sunshine and reducing the summer heat. If you're planning to stay in your home for a while, it might make sense to plant several deciduous trees on the south side of your home.

Another option is several potted sunflowers, which grow quickly but have large leaves. Climbing vines or foliage on a trellis can keep the front of your home cool, while a green roof will both increase your comfort and reduce your energy bills year-round.

Some of these will actually boost your home’s value.

3. A summertime schedule. For this natural trick, simply open up the windows in the early morning and shut them before you go to work. This will allow you to suck in some cool air and to keep out the hot air later in the day. For even better results, draw the shades during the day and consider getting heat-blocking blackout curtains.

These kinds of simple heat-busting tricks can be effective at reducing the heat during the summer months and lowering your energy bills by 30% to 50%.

Plus, small investments like planting a tree or installing a whole-house fan can also boost the value of your home. I bring this up because the summer is also when the real estate market gets hot.

If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home any time in the near future, don’t hesitate to reach out and give me a call or send me an email today. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Why Your Pre-Approval Should Not Determine Your Home Buying Budget

Just because you’re pre-approved for a certain amount doesn’t mean that you can afford it. Here’s what I mean.

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Today I wanted to talk to you about a very common question I am asked, “Why am I shopping for less than my pre-approval amount?”

When you are looking to purchase a home, there are a few different things you need to realize. The first one is that the amount that you are pre-approved for is not necessarily the amount that you want to spend on a monthly basis.

This little pointer will help make sure that you stay on budget and do not get overwhelmed by payments.

The max pre-approval amount is unimportant. The max monthly mortgage payment is what you really need to look at. You should be comfortable with the amount you are spending each month on your home. You may be able to get approved for $300,000, but you may not want to deal with the payment that goes along with that price. Find out what you are comfortable spending on your mortgage on a monthly basis, and ask your lender what home price that equates to.

This little pointer will help you stay on budget and make sure that you do not get overwhelmed by your payments. If you have any questions about this or have any other real estate needs that I can help you with, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

4 Unexpected Things That Increase Your Houston Home’s Value

There are four unexpected things that can increase your home value that I want to share with you today.

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There are four surprising things that may increase how much your home is worth.

1. How close your home is to Starbucks. Who doesn’t love coffee? A 2015 Zillow report found that between 1997 and 2014, homes within a quarter mile of Starbucks increased in value by 96%. That really shows you that America has a coffee addiction!

2. Blue kitchens and blue bathrooms. According to Zillow’s 2017 Paint Color Analysis, which examined more than 32,000 photos from sold homes around the country, homes with blue kitchens sold for $1,809 more compared to similar homes with white kitchens. Pale blue or soft periwinkle blue bathrooms sold for $5,440 more than similar homes without blue bathrooms.

Homes with “barn door” mentioned in the description sold 57 days faster than other homes.

3. Trendy features. Zillow measured listings that mentioned certain favorite features, such as “barn doors” or “farmhouse sink.” According to Zillow’s 2016 analysis of more than 2 million homes, homes with “barn door” mentioned in the listing description sold for 13.4% more than expected and 57 days faster than comparable homes without that keyword.

4. How close are you to the city? Urban homes are now worth 35% more than homes in suburban areas. Since 2012, the median home value in urban areas increased 54%, while the median home value in suburban areas went up 38%.

If you have any other questions about home value or would like to know what your home is worth in today’s market, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

A Few More Buyer and Seller Questions Answered

I have five more common buyer and seller questions I want to answer with detailed explanations.

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Here are a few more common questions I get from buyers and sellers ad my answers to them.

I accepted an offer, but now I’m wondering if I could have sold for more. Can I keep looking at other offers?

Sellers never know how long a particular buyer has been on the market. It could be that they’ve been looking for a while, and it's because you’re just now coming on the market that you’re getting an offer pretty quickly. A lot of times when sellers get an offer quickly, they wonder if they priced their home too low. That’s not necessarily true. Sometimes it just means you priced your home exactly where it needed to be for that right buyer at that right moment.

Once you accept an offer, you can continue to show your home, place it under “Pending, continue to show” status, and accept other offers. However, even if you get a cash offer, you can’t move forward with it unless the previous buyer cancels their contract or defaults in some way.

While it’s a good idea to continue showings in case you have backup offers, any backup offer depends on the whether or not the current offer you have closes.

The seller didn’t disclose something about the property? Are they on the hook?

It depends on what they didn’t disclose. Was it a defect that you can prove they knew existed prior to filling out the disclosure, something they didn’t know existed, or something that was apparent throughout the transaction and never caught? They’re only on the hook if they knew about something and didn’t disclose it.

The answers to some of these questions vary on a case-by-case basis.

This is the kind of question that varies on a case-by-case basis. Any issue would be addressed between each party and their agents.

The buyer’s financing fell through before the close date. Can I walk away?

If they can’t obtain financing in some other way, yes you can walk away. If their financing didn’t come through, it becomes a question of whether they’re taking action to come up with cash funds or get their financing in order to proceed with the closing. If neither is the case and they can’t move forward, the contract will be terminated.

The inspection raised some issues I wasn’t expecting and the house appraisal doesn’t match the contract price. Can I back out of the deal?

When it comes to the inspection, unless you’re purchasing a new construction home, you’ll probably find defects with the house. Some of these defects will be normal wear and tear, and others will be more high-dollar items, and those are the things you need to watch out for.

When you do an inspection, you have to decide whether you want to negotiate with the seller to get them to fix certain things before closing, give you a credit to fix them after closing, fix those things yourself, or back out of the transaction. Again, the answer will vary on a case-by-case basis and depend on what your inspection entails. If you decide you don’t want to move forward, you’ll enter an option period where you can cancel the contract.

What happens if the house isn’t appraised for what I’m willing to pay for it?

There are a few different paths the transaction can go. The seller can lower the price, the buyer can make up the difference between the sale price and the appraised price, they can meet in the middle, or the buyer can walk away without penalty.

If the house doesn’t appraise at the sale price, the seller’s agent will typically confer with them and decide on the best course of action. At that point, the buyer also has to ask themselves how much they really like the property.

If you have any additional questions about buying or selling real estate, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to speak with you.

How Your Mortgage Can Be a Surefire Investment

Paying down your mortgage is a great investment. Find out how to do it fast right here.

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Today, we’re going to talk about how your mortgage can be a surefire investment.

Paying down a mortgage has long been viewed as a reliable investment. It reduces debt, helps home equity grow faster, and provides a guaranteed return equal to the mortgage rate—usually more than someone can make in bank savings, bonds, or other comparable investments.

One of the things I recommend to buyers when it comes to making additional payments is to make one to two extra payments of what their principal and interest on their home is.

For example, if your total payment with principal, interest, taxes, and insurance is $1,300, where $600 of that is just the taxes and insurance and $700 is the actual principal and interest portion, then you will make one additional payment of that every year for the life of the loan consistently. You’ll reduce the amount of time you pay by five or six years. By making two additional payments every year for the life of the loan, you can reduce your mortgage by 10 to 12 years.

The key is to do it every year without fail.

The key is to do it every year without fail. Any more than that doesn’t make as much of a difference, unless you’re dropping huge chunks of money. Remember, you can break it up throughout the year on a monthly basis.

Using the earlier example of the two extra payments of $700, if you broke up that $1,400 up on a monthly basis, the dollar amount per month would be $116, which would mean a world of savings over the lifetime of the loan. As they say, a penny saved is a penny earned.

Should you have any additional questions about buying or selling real estate in today’s market, feel free to contact me. I’m always happy to help.

5 Energy Efficient Tips for Winter

Today, I have five tips to help your home be more energy efficient this winter.

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Here are a few tips to help your home be more energy efficient during the winter: 

1. Use earth’s natural heater—the sun. In the summer, it’s all about drawing the blinds and curtains to keep the sun out. In the cooler months, you can use the power of the sun to warm your home and keep heating costs down. Open curtains in any south windows to allow sunlight to naturally heat your home, and close them at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.  

2. Insulate the windows. Light, gauzy curtains may look great but they can make your home colder and waste energy, especially if the window does not receive direct sunlight. If you’ve addressed all the leaks around the windows and the room is still cold, insulated drapes should help. 

Schedule a checkup for your heating system.

3. Check your heating system. Dirt and neglect are the top causes of heating system failures. Now is a good time to schedule a checkup with a licensed contractor. It’s also important to regularly check and change the air filters. 

4. Turn down the thermostat. By turning the heat down 10 or 15 degrees while you are asleep or out of the house, you can save about 10% each year. Use programmable thermostats or thermostats that connect to a mobile app to adjust the temperature when everyone is out of the house. 

5. Don’t heat unused spaces. If you’re not using certain rooms all the time, close the vents and shut the doors. It’s more efficient for your heating system to push air only to the space where you need it.

If you have any other questions about being more energy efficient or about real estate in general, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

How to Get Your Offer Accepted

Multiple offer situations are becoming more and more common here in Texas. I’ve got some advice to share with you that will help you get the home you want if you find yourself in a situation like this as a buyer. 

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Don’t wait to see what other people are going to offer. In a multiple offer situation, the seller has a ton of options. They can counter every offer, reject every offer, or accept one right off the bat. Go with your gut and put your offer in right away.

To make your offer stand out among others, there is a lot you can do. One thing would be offering a good sales price. A lot of times I tell people that if they really like a house, they need to put their best foot forward. That goes with earnest money too. Put down a minimum of 1% to show the buyer you are serious. Another thing you can do is shorten the number of days in your option/inspection period. Sellers will know you are more serious if you ask for five days as opposed to seven or 10. 

"Put your best foot forward if you like the home."

A qualified professional will be able to help you make your offer desirable in additional ways. They can advise you on what kinds of terms to offer in regards to the sale price, earnest money, option fees, closing costs, asking for a survey or not, and many other aspects of the contract. A good agent will research and ask the listing agent questions ahead of time to make sure the offer you present is the most desirable. 

If you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to ask. I am always here to take your call or respond to your email. I look forward to hearing from you.

What Actually Happens During an Appraisal?

We are here to answer the commonly asked question: “What is an appraisal and why is it important?” An appraisal is when a mortgage lender sends someone out to a property to determine its value. 

"An appraiser will look for any major defects."

When it’s time to order an appraisal on a home you purchase, a third party will come out to the home so they can determine what homes are selling for in the area and how your property matches up. They will physically look at the exterior and interior of the home and note any major defects. An appraisal will mostly look for major defects though, they aren’t going to get into the details as much as a home inspector would. 

As a buyer, when the appraiser goes out there, there are going to determine if the home you made an offer on is worth more, less, or the same as you paid for it. If the appraisal is the same as what you paid, or it comes in higher, you’re clear and free. If the appraisal comes in under what you’re paying, you will have to re-negotiate with the seller. You can stay firm at your price and force them to cover the difference, you can come down in price, or you can negotiate somewhere in the middle. There are a lot of options.

If you have any questions for me, give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you.