Open houses and listing photos are designed to accentuate a home’s positive features. But making a smart home purchase requires buyers to look beyond the gorgeous landscaping and perfectly staged furniture.
Evaluating the exterior of a home is crucial to your wallet and your future happiness. Carefully examine a home’s exterior for the following costly problems, and don’t ever skip a professional home inspection if you decide to make an offer.
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Keeping close tabs on your roof is imperative for new homeowners.
It’s easy to scrutinize a home during a careful walk through all the rooms and the yard.
What’s not so easy is determining the condition of the roof based on how it looks. Fixing a roof can be the most expensive house repair an owner may face, with a full replacement ranging from $2,000 to $12,000.
That means an inspection can be well the investment.
Your seller may or may not pay the $200 to $400 inspection fee, but be sure to have one before you purchase the home so you can factor the repairs into the cost.
The purpose of roof inspections is to find any problems as well as gauge the remaining life of a roof. The inspector will look at the roof angle and see how long it takes for water to evaporate. An acceptable rate is around two days but it can vary by location.
Inspectors will walk on the roof and look for weakened areas that indicate rot or leaks. If an area isn’t safe enough to access, the inspector will typically use binoculars. Every inch of the roof should be inspected including individual shingles.
The materials used to build your roof will also be assessed on when it was constructed, the last replacement as well as the materials’ nature of deterioration.
Feel free to ask to see problem spots and potentially vulnerable areas during the inspection. Some of the most common problems include:
It’s recommended a homeowner get three different contractor quotes to compare. Comparisons should be made with the estimates as well as the materials to be used and labor costs. Reviewing consumer ratings or talking to someone who has used the contractor before can help with the expectations of timing, clean up and how well they stuck to the contract.
If your inspection indicates the need for repair, be sure to inspect the chimney before you begin any maintenance. This way you can coordinate your roofing contractor with a mason in order to get repairs that work together rather than become a detriment to the other.
Ensure your new roof’s long life by getting certified inspections every two years. Because so many factors affect the condition of the roof, you may need to flex your inspections to account for weather damage, direction of the sun and insulation issues. You may have one side of your roof be more vulnerable than the other, so prepare your inspections thoughtfully.
Photo courtesy of iwona_kellie
Homebuyers have extra safety considerations for properties with fireplaces, garages and decks.
It’s pretty easy to get caught up in a home’s features when you’re house hunting. Many times, a homebuyer is told to consider the additional costs of utilities and maintenance some features require, but extra safety and inspection concerns are often neglected.
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When you research the steps to buying a home, undoubtedly the first and most important step is to check your credit.
Checking your credit before the process of searching and purchasing a home begins allows you to get an understanding of your own financial situation and what to expect when it comes to lending and rates.
Another important reason to check your credit before you start looking for a home is to correct any mistakes. Discovering a mistake on your credit score too late can cost you a better rate or even the home of your dreams.
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Cash is a wonderful thing. It may be true that it can’t buy love or happiness, but it sure is useful when it comes to groceries, gasoline and mortgage payments.
Real median household income, says the Census Bureau, reached $49,777 in 2009. That’s 5 percent less than households earned a decade earlier, in 1999, when they typically took in $52,388.
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Even before you finance your dream home with a VA loan, you’re entitled to think about some of the changes you want to make around the house. Not every military homebuyer settles into a home that fulfills expectations down to the last detail.
Whether it’s the landscape you plan to alter or the interior décor, here are some environmentally friendly things to do that also benefit you as a homeowner:
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First-time homebuyers are often shocked when they discover that the list price isn’t exactly what a new home will end up costing.
Securing a home loan comes at a price beyond the loan amount. That price comes in the form of closing costs, which are fees and charges you pay in order to obtain a purchase or refinance loan.
But what exactly are closing costs and how will they affect your purchase?
The to-do list never seems to end.
When you’re settling into a new home, dozens of things need to get done. For first-time military homebuyers, this list can look daunting even when it’s missing some tasks.
There are a few important but easily forgotten tasks to get done as soon as you move into your new home. Make sure you add these to your list.
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As cooler weather settles in throughout much of the country, you may be wondering what kind of dent heating your home this winter will make.
There are some simple, economical ways to keep costs manageable as well as to reduce your overall utility usage whether you’re in an apartment saving for a new home, spending your first winter in a new home or just trying to spend less on utilities this year in general.
When you research the steps to buying a home, undoubtedly the first and most important step is to check your credit.
Checking your credit before the process of searching and purchasing a home begins allows you to get an understanding of your own financial situation and what to expect when it comes to lending and rates.
See More
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