Home Repairs That You Should Never Procrastinate

It's easy to put off home repairs, especially if they seem like big, daunting tasks.

You are only making the problem worse and costing yourself more money by procrastinating. So, what home repairs should you never procrastinate?

Repair a Leaking Roof

The roof keeps everything safe from rain and snow in most homes, so if it falls apart, every room becomes vulnerable to water damage or more. For one, a leaking roof can cause water damage to your home, which can be expensive to repair. When you have a leaking roof, it can lead to the growth of mold and mildew, which can cause respiratory issues. Thus, to avoid extra cost, it's essential to call an expert to help you with your roof repair.

Repair Cracks in Your Walls

Your walls may not look like much, but they're the foundation of your home. And if you don't take care of them, it can lead to severe structural issues later on. The cracks in the wall can lead to more severe problems with mold or other pests that could come into your home and make a mess of things. Plus, if you don't fix the issue now, you will only have more significant issues later. Cracks in walls usually appear due to moisture, so you want to fix them before they get bigger.

Fix Leaky Faucets and Toilets

Leaky faucets and toilets can waste a lot of water and lead to expensive repairs if they are not fixed quickly. Fixing these issues as soon as you notice it will help avoid further damage or wasted water. Besides, leaky faucets and toilets can lead to other issues, such as rusting or corrosion. If left neglected, it can also lead to mold and mildew issues, leading to further potential health risks such as asthma. Replacing faucets and internal parts of toilets because of corrosion is very expensive, so fixing the issue will save you a lot of money.

Replace Old Appliances

If you've been putting off replacing your old appliances, now is the time to do it. Old devices are more expensive to run, and they're not as energy efficient as newer models. The issue with older appliances is that they cannot save on energy. Today, the most recent devices save hundreds of dollars on utility bills every year because they use less power than their predecessors!

In conclusion, if you've been procrastinating on a home repair, now is the time to stop. The sooner you fix the issue, the more money you'll save on repairs. You also need to ensure you contact an expert to avoid the issue from repeating itself in the future.

Keep reading.

Related Links

• 6 Shocking Things Your Home Inspector Won’t Check

• 6 Downsizing Hacks You Should Try If You’re Moving from a House to an Apartment

• Two Years Later: How the Pandemic Has Rocked the U.S. Housing Market

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search Homes in Colorado

Search Homes in Oklahoma

Search Homes in Oregon

6 Downsizing Hacks You Should Try If You’re Moving from a House to an Apartment

When moving from a spacious house to a smaller apartment, decluttering is the name of the game.

Thinking of all the downsizing you’ll have to do, you might feel that old familiar stress creeping up your back. But not to worry: Just take it one emptied cupboard, drawer, or closet at a time, making sure to get rid of duplicates and holding on only to what you need or use often. Here are six expert hacks for decluttering, from planning in advance to keeping just the essentials.

Get organized. 

The month before your move, commit to a decluttering challenge. “Get rid of one item on day one, two items on day two, three items on day three, etcetera,” recommends Trent Brock, a moving expert at PODS, a national moving and storage company. “You can get rid of anything. Nothing is off-limits. From a sofa to a fork — it’s all fair game.”

Consider storage. 

If you’re short on time, consider taking advantage of short-term home storage solutions along the way. “For example, you can use a PODS portable storage container to aid in the downsizing process by creating extra space right in your driveway for sorting your things,” recommends Brock. “Off-site storage is perfect for items you’re on the fence about. Moving those things out of your living space for a month or two can help you decide if you really need them in your life and in your house.”

Use multi-use Items for extra storage.

Invest in space-saving essentials. “Downsizing is about saving space however you can,” says Brock. “Consider getting a few items that make it easy to conserve space. For example, try packing your seasonal clothes in a vacuum-sealable bag or investing in an ottoman that doubles as blanket storage.” 

Take a hard look at your must-haves.

It’s easy to accumulate a surprising number of mementos. Brock recommends narrowing these items down to the most important keepsakes, then storing them in a labeled box so they’re easy to find. If you find yourself hesitant to let go of familiar items or treasured childhood keepsakes, cut yourself some emotional slack. After all, it took you years to accumulate all your stuff; parting with that is no easy task. 

Be thoughtful about your furniture.  

There’s no better time to evaluate whether you really like that clunky dresser than before you haul it up three flights of stairs. “See if you can acquire a floorplan of your new apartment ahead of time and map out where your largest pieces of furniture would fit,” recommends Brock. “When it comes to furniture ideas for small-space living, anything that takes up room should serve a function — and, often, more than one,” says Brock. “For instance, a kitchen cart with a butcher block top can expand your counter space, stash pots and pans, and even triple up as a bar cart.”

Only bring the essentials.

Do you really need a rice cooker, pressure cooker, slow cooker, toaster oven, and air fryer? Chances are you won’t have room for all of them in your new pad even if you want to. Get practical and pare down to the basics — and that goes beyond the kitchen. “Maybe you can keep three throw pillows out of your collection of a dozen and bring two sets of towels instead of ten,” says Brock. “Take stock of your belongings, from your wardrobes to your cabinets, setting aside anything you can part with. Because if it doesn’t make you happy in a larger space, it certainly won’t make you happy in a smaller space.”

Get more tips like this on Apartment Therapy!

Related Links

• 6 Shocking Things Your Home Inspector Won’t Check

• Turnkey Home vs. Fixer-Upper: Which Is Best for Investors?

• Two Years Later: How the Pandemic Has Rocked the U.S. Housing Market

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search Homes in Colorado

Search Homes in Oklahoma

Search Homes in Oregon

Colorado parks are full and getting fuller. How will the state decide who gets in, and who gets hurt?

Lake Pueblo hosted 3.4 million last year. Jeffco Open Space estimated 7 million users in 2021. That’s right. 7 million. But efforts to control crowds raise questions of equity and access.

If anybody could work the system and get access to wildly popular open space this summer, you’d think Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commissioner Taishya Adams would have a good shot. 

But there she is, just like everyone else, penciling early March on her planner as the day she can first swing sharp elbows online to get summer group backpacking reservations at Rocky Mountain National Park, not far from her home in Boulder.

“I’ve had it marked in my calendar for six months,” Adams told her fellow commissioners last week. She endorsed a new timed entry proposal for Eldorado Canyon State Park, where overflowing parking lots on weekends back up onto lawns in the little town of Eldorado Springs.

But she added a warning message: Intergenerational families love the big picnic areas at Eldorado and other state parks. They come in more than one car. Managing crowds by managing cars should not shut out diverse uses of state open space. 

“I would hate to see that become a barrier,” Adams said. 

Everyone agrees Colorado’s open spaces are growing alarmingly crowded on popular days. The numbers are startling. 

Visitation at close-in Front Range state parks has doubled or nearly tripled. Sprawling Lake Pueblo had to turn away cars for the first time in 2020, the year it passed 3 million visitors. Jefferson County Open Space does not have gated entry for counting, but believes visitation to its 28 foothills gems passed 7 million last year. 

Staunton State Park near Conifer rocketed from 89,000 in 2015 to 277,000 in 2020. Barr Lake in Brighton, a hit with birders and flatland bikers, went from 119,000 in 2015 to 258,000 in 2020, before settling back a bit with indoor pandemic restrictions easing in 2021. Open space officials expect use to keep climbing rapidly, if not quite as steeply as in the first year of the pandemic. 

A Center for Western Priorities study of reservable camping spaces at federal and local public lands showed more than 95% of sites were taken at peak periods, with an overall 39% increase in summer camping at public spaces. 

And the state parks commission may have just opened the gates on a new flood — the annual Keep Colorado Wild state parks pass will be only $29 in 2023, tacked on to annual car registration with an option to decline it, less than half the current $80 fee for one car.

Open space fans and park managers worry that new layers of control and costs will widen the already large gap between tourists and outdoors enthusiasts with time and income, and those on tight budgets and less access to technology. 

Fees are adding up at every level, Eldorado Canyon hiker Jeff Paquette said.

“So now you have the annual pass for your state, the annual pass for your county, and before you know it, it’s going to be for all open space,” he said. 

The Sierra Club is among those fighting for more open space and recreation opportunities closer to cities, Ostfeld said. By Sierra Club’s definition of “nearby,” 100 million Americans lack easy access to open space. 

“We must be very careful to ensure that the actions of public land managers don’t perpetuate the status quo, with many communities already feeling unwelcome or unsafe in some of our national and more remote parks and public lands,” Ostfeld said. 

Being mindful of everyone’s time and resources is key to designing open space access, Weiss said. 

“One thing we’ve learned from all of this is that any sort of time system where a clock turns over and everyone is mashing a button to try to get in, that is not fair and equitable,” he said. Some space needs to be reserved for lottery or last-minute access for those whose lives can’t revolve around one reservation window.

Colorado leaders say they are aware of all these pitfalls, and will keep working to avoid them. The new $29 state parks pass linked to motor vehicle registration will bring in money to add new parks, experiment with reservations, expand shuttle systems and more, DNR’s Gibbs said. 

He said he still prefers to look at access as a good problem to have. 

“In the long run,” Gibbs said, “we want people to get outdoors. I mean, this is Colorado.”

Read the full story.

Related Links

• Volatile mortgage rates rise to 3.85% amid war, record inflation

• 6 Shocking Things Your Home Inspector Won’t Check

• Two Years Later: How the Pandemic Has Rocked the U.S. Housing Market

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search Homes in Colorado

6 Shocking Things Your Home Inspector Won’t Check

Home inspectors are quite thorough. Before you buy a house, they’ll scrutinize things you never thought to look at in your many walk-throughs, from cracks in stucco to how well the toilet flushes.

 In fact, their checklists include over 1,600 features, all with the goal of helping you decide whether the home is in good enough shape for you to close this deal—or whether you should back out while you can. Given that a basic home inspection costs $300 to $500 but could save you thousands in repairs, that’s a sweet deal!

And yet, home inspectors don’t check everything.

For one, conditions such as mold, radon, or asbestos that require laboratory samples or equipment are the stuff of specialty inspections, which cost extra or must be conducted by other specialists.

Here’s what home inspectors conducting a basic search aren’t eyeballing, and what you can do if you want to make sure your prospective new home checks out on all counts.

Electrical outlets behind heavy furniture

For one, basic home inspections evaluate only the stuff these professionals can see or access easily. That means if furniture is blocking certain areas, your home inspector isn’t about to throw out his back to lug it aside.

“I’ve had china cabinets in front of an electrical panel, and there’s no way we’re going to move that stuff,” says Frank Lesh, executive director of the American Society of Home Inspectors, headquartered in Des Plaines, IL. Instead, ask the home seller to move such items in advance so the inspector can do his work without heavy lifting.

Roof

Home inspectors will gamely climb onto your roof and check for missing or warped shingles and make sure flashing and gutters are in good shape. There’s one huge caveat: Your roof should be less than three stories tall and not too steep. If it is, they’ll probably pass. After all, if they fall, it’s a long way down!

“We’ll go up on roofs if it’s safe,” says Lesh. “But if it’s raining or it’s too high, we’re not able to get to it.”

It’s reasonable to worry about the roof, which is a big-ticket item. You can hire a specialized roof inspector for $500 to $750 to examine roofs that a regular inspector will avoid. Some, hoping to get business if they turn up issues, will even inspect it for free; others charge according to location, roof height, and material. If they can’t climb onto roofs, they can perform an infrared inspection that assesses temperature differences along your roof to determine where heat is escaping.

Fireplace and chimney

Home inspectors will typically open and shut dampers to make sure they’re working, and shine a flashlight up the chimney to check for big obstructions like a bird nest. But that’s typically where their inspection ends.

Want more? A fireplace inspector can perform a Level 1 inspection to look for soot and creosote buildup, which could start a chimney fire. This extra inspection will cost about $80 to $200. If the home has experienced an earthquake or major storm, a chimney inspector will perform a Level 2 inspection, which adds visits to the roof, attic, and crawl space to check for damage ($100 to $500).

Ground beneath your home

While home inspectors will thoroughly check the home, the ground beneath it might go largely ignored. So if you’re worried about the land’s structural integrity—or whether it shifts, tilts, or has sinkholes or a high water table—you’ll need to hire a geotechnical or structural engineer.

These professionals test the soil for an array of problems, but it’ll cost you: Basic testing costs $300 to $1,000, and drilling a bore hole for deeper investigations can cost $3,000 to $5,000. That’s a lot to pay for a hunch, so if money is tight, go to PlotScan, a free site that will tell you the history of sinkholes and other natural catastrophes in the vicinity of your home—and help you assess whether more research should be done.

Swimming pool

Basic home inspectors will turn on pool pumps and heaters to make sure they’re working. But inspectors won’t routinely evaluate cracks or dents in the pool. For that, you’ll need a professional pool inspector, who will run pressure tests for plumbing leaks. He’ll also scrutinize pumps, filters, decking surfaces, and safety covers. The cost will hover around $250 or could be free, if you end up hiring the pool company for regular maintenance.

Well and septic system

If your inspector works in areas where wells and septic systems are common, for an extra fee ($150) he might test your well water and check that your septic system is running correctly.  But if most houses he inspects are on public well and water, you’ll have to hire a well inspector.

Well inspectors—typically employed by companies that install or repair such systems—will collect water samples for lab analysis for coliform, arsenic, and other harmful bacteria and chemicals. They will ensure that well parts such as seals, vents, and screens have been properly maintained and that the well and pump can produce enough water. This will cost around $250.

Does the home have a full-on septic system? Then for $100 to $200, a septic system inspector will check your tanks, baffles, and piping; evaluate the inside of septic tanks using a camera to check on concrete conditions; and make sure wastewater is going into the tank, not leaking to the surface.

Get more content like this on Realtor.com

Related Links

• Volatile mortgage rates rise to 3.85% amid war, record inflation

• Turnkey Home vs. Fixer-Upper: Which Is Best for Investors?

• Two Years Later: How the Pandemic Has Rocked the U.S. Housing Market

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search Homes in Colorado

Search Homes in Oklahoma

Search Homes in Oregon

Volatile mortgage rates rise to 3.85% amid war, record inflation

Mortgage rates have been all over the place lately. They rose this week, reflecting the volatility of the U.S. economy brought by inflation and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The average 30-year-fixed rate mortgage increased to 3.85% for the week ending March 10, up from 3.76% in the previous week, according to the latest Freddie Mac PMMS Mortgage Survey.

A year ago, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.05%. The PMMS report is focused on conventional, conforming, fully amortizing home purchase loans for borrowers who put 20% down and have excellent credit. The survey said buyers paid 0.8 mortgage points on average.

According to Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, over the long-term, rates will continue to rise as inflation, which spiked 7.9% in February, broadens and shortages increasingly impact many segments of the economy. “However, uncertainty about the war in Ukraine is driving rate volatility that likely will continue in the short term,” he said in a statement.

Mortgage rates usually move in concert with the 10-year Treasury yield, which reached 1.94% yesterday, compared to 1.86% on the previous Wednesday. The 15-year-fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.09% last week, up from 3.01% the week prior. A year ago at this time, it averaged 2.38%.

Economists have said that the war in Ukraine could bring a short-term reduction in mortgage rates, as investors flock to safe haven assets like mortgage-backed securities and bonds. However, longer term inflation brought on by the conflict, mainly via oil prices, will cause mortgage rates to rise

The expectation of higher rates increases borrowers’ appetite for new loans. Mortgage applications jumped 8.5% for the week ending March 4. Compared to the same week one year ago, applications dropped 35.8%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

Borrowers’ demand for mortgages increased across the board. The MBA‘s seasonally adjusted refi index rose 8.5% from the previous week, with a larger gain in government refinances. Meanwhile, the purchase index was up 8.6% in the same period.

Read more.

Related Links

• 5 Ways to Trick Yourself into Decluttering Your Home

• Mid-April Is the Best Time to List, Report SaysTurnkey Home vs. Fixer-Upper: Which Is Best for Investors?

• Two Years Later: How the Pandemic Has Rocked the U.S. Housing Market

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search Homes in Colorado

Search Homes in Oklahoma

Search Homes in Oregon