Valentine's Day Fun!

Browsing through a few home magazines today, as I sip herbal tea on the patio.  It's a beautiful February day here in El Lago.  A balmy 66 degrees - warm enough to take a few minutes soaking up the sun before I get back to work.

Nothing makes a house a home, more that DIY holiday projects.  If you're getting ready for some Valentine creativeness this weekend, as I am, here are few things that look easy enough to do tomorrow.  I hope you enjoy - and Happy Valentine's Day!

AO

Easy DIY Ideas for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, which means we have another reason to decorate our homes! Decorating for Valentine’s Day can be a fun daylong activity that you can do with your kids. Making Valentine’s cards, baking sweets and treats, and even just cutting up paper hearts are just a number of things you and the kids can do together.

Here are a few DIY ideas for Valentine’s day. We’ll be doing these to get ready for this lovely holiday.

Conversation Hearts candies in a votive—a simple and sweet Valentine’s Day accent piece 

One of the quickest and easiest DIY Valentine’s Day decorations involves just three items: Conversation Hearts candies, a small glass candle votive, and a small candle in the color of your choice. Fill the votive half-way with candy, place a candle on top and light it. Voila! Quick and easy.

These would be great on the mantle over your fireplace, on the table runner of your dining table, on the bathroom counter, or even on your coffee table. Feeling a bit fancy? Tie a pink or red bow around the votive. Thank you, Chrissie of Living on Love and Cents for this wonderful idea!

Make and hang paper heart wreaths around your home

Paper crafts are the perfect go-to when decorating for Valentine’s Day, which is why we’re fans of this idea. Making a heart wreath to hang inside your home is fun, quick, and easy (we love easy). All you need is some pink, red and white construction paper or cardstock, or you can use scrapbooking paper.

Use a heart shape hole punch or cut out hearts in various sizes, also cut out a circular base out of cardstock. You’ll be gluing your hearts on this base. Next, glue a layer of hearts on the base and then glue an additional layer of hearts on top of it. Lastly, glue a ribbon on the backside of the wreath and it’s ready to hang. Make more than one Valentine’s Day wreath and hang them outside bedroom doors, hallway walls, or over your fireplace.

Add a bit of flair this Valentine’s Day—or any holiday—with a DIY glitter lantern

via ohhappyday.com

We’ve all heard of a mirror ball, but have you ever heard of a glitter ball, or rather, a glitter lantern? We found this fantastic DIY glitter lantern on ohhappyday.com, a lifestyle and party planning blog based out of San Francisco, California. According to the bloggers, all you need to make your own glitter lantern is: a round paper lantern in the size of your choice, spray glue for glitter (they listed Design Master Glue for Glitter on their blog), glitter, and a drop cloth or newspaper for catching excess glitter. It might be a good idea to do this project in the garage or outside.

Lay open your drop cloth or newspaper on a flat surface. Next, open up the lantern so that it’s in the shape of a globe and spray the glitter glue in patches on the lantern. Start pouring about a handful of glitter on that patch of glue and repeat the process until you’ve reached the optimal level of coverage. Use any excess glitter that fell on your drop cloth or newspaper for any touch ups.

Since this is for Valentine’s Day, a few choice colors for glitter would be red, pink and even white. Hang your glitter lanterns around your patio in clusters or just string a few of them throughout your yard.

Kid Friendly Jar O’ Sprinkles Project

via Nap Time Creations

Finally, this is a fun project to enlist the help of the kiddies. Emily of Nap-Time Creations decided to create a “jar o’ sprinkles” using real edible sprinkles and Mod Podge. Her kids participated by adding personalized paper hearts to make an adorable Valentine’s Day bouquet. Here’s what Emily did…

First, Emily painted a thick layer of Mod Podge all over the inside of a glass jar and poured sprinkles all over the inside, making sure to turn the jar so that the inside had even sprinkle coverage. After the Mod Podge dried up and she was sure that the sprinkles weren’t going anywhere, she had the kids paint and personalize a couple paper hearts that she cut out earlier. After the paper hearts were dried, Emily hot-glued the hearts to some skewers, thus completing her bouquet. The results are pretty awesome.

What Makes a Place Great?

This is an interesting post that I picked up for you from the National Association of Realtors.  Good ideas and lots of things to spur the imagination.  Everyone wants a great place - so here are some insight on .  . .

What Makes a Place Great?

6 House Hunting
Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Missing out on the perfect place. 

Hundreds of new homes hit the market every day, and if you’re not using all of the house hunting tools available, your dream home could slip by unnoticed — or worse, someone else might snatch it up before you even know that it’s for sale. One of the toughest lessons for a first-time (and, yes, even a second-time) buyer is that in this market, passive house hunting simply will not cut it. If you don’t make house hunting a top priority, it’s going to be a painful process. Work with your agent to come up with a smart strategy—and clarify your preferred method of contact—for moving quickly when a listing that you just have to see hits the market. Plus, be sure that you leverage smart free tools like Trulia’s Nearby Home Alerts. You’ll get an instant notification on your mobile device when new listings near your current location come on the market.

2. Choosing the wrong lender. 

Few things are more frustrating than finding the property you’ve been looking for only to find out that the loan you were promised isn’t coming through. Many agents will provide a list of their preferred lenders. Trust your Realtor - they do lots of business and know which lenders deliver what they promise, on time! Preferred lenders earn their preferred status only after they’ve consistently delivered loan closings. Seek out preferred lenders, and don’t be afraid to interview two or three to find your ideal fit.

3. Fixating on price per square foot. 

Let your agent guide you here.  Are you searching by price per square foot? If you are using this as one of your search criteria, you might want to think again. Measurements, often are not guaranteed to be accurate, and mis-measurements can place appropriately priced homes outside of your search parameters. Other criteria can also effect the accuracy of price per square foot.  However, that being said, the home you choose will be appraised using price per square foot, so that's something to keep in mind.

4. Desperation.

When prices are on the rise, buyers get antsy and sellers get greedy. Many buyers have been outbid on numerous properties and have just become tired of looking. As a result, they are placing ridiculously high offers on properties that just aren’t worth it—just to get into a home this minute. Avoid the temptation and build yourself a backup plan. Have your real estate agent recommend short-term or corporate rentals options, so you’ll have a soft place to land while you wait for your dream home to appear on the market.

5. Foregoing Inspections

In a perfect world, sellers would disclose every single issue to the prospective buyers. Since that’s not the case, inspections are a great idea; yet one that many agents see clients skipping too often. Inspections identify red flags and can address the general state of a property. Plus, they can provide leverage when it comes time to negotiate.

6. Buying a “project.” 

The unwritten rule of renovating states that it will take more time and money than expected. So it’s important to know your threshold for renovations before you buy a fixer-upper. Your real estate agent will have referrals to general contractors and specialty tradesmen. It doesn’t hurt to schedule a showing with one of these pros in tow either. It’s better to know what you’re getting into before you find yourself in over your head.  With a bit of savvy, patience and the right agent, many of the pains that come with house hunting can be avoided. And if all goes according to plan, you’ll end up with a place you’ll be proud to call home.

Source: Trulia @ www.trulia.com

Selling Your Home?

So you're thinking about Selling Your Home

Once you start to think about selling, it can seem like information and advice are popping out everywhere.  But, the truth is, most of it may not be the best information or advice for your situation.  For instance, home values on websites such as Zillow, can be tens of thousands of dollars off in either direction.

Before you list Your Home

The best thing you can do first is to have good advice.  Without a trusted source, it's hard to separate truth from fiction.  Just because you find a valuation on the internet, doesn't mean it's the right valuation for your home. The difference between accuracy and generalization can either save or cost you money.  Selling your home is a process, not a single event.  Knowing a few simple facts will speed that process.

3 MYTHS about Selling Your Home

1. It's Only What's Inside that Counts:  The reality is that home buyers are visually reactive, and if the home does not have curb appeal from the outside some buyers will literally refuse to get out of the car!
2. You Don't Need a Home Stager:  Your dog's in a crate and your dirty dishes are in the dishwasher safely out of sight.  Who needs the expense of a stager, right? Wrong! A clean, but well lived-in home, is not a home that is ready to sell.  Staging is a low to moderate expense that is well worth the money.  The stager is not emotionally connected to your home, so her opinions and expertise are developed by experience of what sells, and what inhibits sales.  Most stagers offer varying levels of service, so you can pick the level of staging that works for your family and your budget. 
3. The Paint on the Inside is Not Important:  Applying a fresh coat of tasteful paint is always a great selling point. When you do it well, paint can be one of the best returns on investment of any simple home improvement. Moving is a hassle and home buyers don’t want to spend time painting before they move in.  Your teen may have talked you into painting their bedroom black, but buyers, especially those over 30, aren't going to think it's cool. There's a reason homebuilders' favorite paint color is fondly referred to as Buy Me Beige.

Do You Really Need a Realtor When Selling Your Home? 

Sure, you can find articles written by homeowners who sold without an agent, and think they saved tons of money and had a great experience.  I even read one article that said real estate contracts are "nothing".  To put this in perspective, try googling "FSBO horror stories".  You'll think twice about representing yourself when selling your home after reading the nightmare tales of "for sale by owner".  Be smart and enlist a professional local Realtor. Sellers that choose to go it alone, more often end up wasting time and money. Don’t be unwise, hire a local Realtor for the best advice, information and outcome.

Local Realtors know the market.  Full-time Realtors tend to know more about neighborhoods they specialize in, as well as trends and history, which can add to your bottom line dollars.  Our team is dedicated to helping you get the most money possible from the sale of your home.

Andra Oyler, 281-814-2184

Steve Oyler, 281-814-2203

Keller Williams Clear Lake/NASA

Sources:

realtormag.realtor.com

Hidden Gems

Data provided by ActiveRain.com. ActiveRain is an online community of real estate professionals who exchange best practices, write real estate blogs, and get free education from the industry and their peers.

Help for the Rainy Season

The thought of water inside a home is one of the top concerns for every homeowner.  Besides the cost of cleanup and repairs which can skyrocket out of control, the mere fact that something beyond our control might invade our private space is unsettling.  But, with a bit of preparation and precaution, you can limit the possibility of disaster.

Having personally lived on the Gulf Coast for most of my adult life, I have been up close and personal with the plywood suggestion.  We remained in our home during Ike (I don't recommend this to anyone!). Even though we live about a mile from where Ike made landfall in Clear Lake, we had no damage, thanks in large part to plywood.  Every window in our home has cut-to-fit plywood coverings which take only a few hours to install on preset posts.  (Thankfully, no rising water threatened our home.)

According to Barbara Ballinger, contributor to Realtor Magazine, there's no need yet to acquire an ark, but water certainly has become a bigger menace in many parts of the country.  To prevent damage and avoid large out-of-pocket expenses, homeowners should stay on top of maintenance and repair needs.  The average water damage insurance claim between 2008 and 2012 for a worst-case flood event, totaled more than $38,000, according to National Flood Insurance Program data.  Here are a few steps that all homeowners should consider to protect their property from the ravages of water.

• Roof shingles that are missing, torn, curled or cupped should be replaced now.  Rusty nails can also allow water to seep in.
• Make sure gutters and downspouts are performing properly before the rain starts.  Remove all debris and verify that fits the house property.  According to Wayne Owczarzak, owner of Mr. Handyman in Wheaton, IL, improperly fitted gutters and spouts can actually do more harm than good.
• Fix any broken or cracked glass in windows and doors.
• Warning signs of seepage problems at the foundation include white haze, baseboard warping, and cracking paint.
• If you use a sump pump, be sure to give it a spring cleaning before clouds gather.
• French drains should be cleared of all winter debris as well.
• Though we don't have many boilers in the south, Jeffrey Colle of East Hampton, NY, suggests elevating boilers, furnaces, as well as hot water heaters to save them from flood hazards.  Locally, hot water heaters on the ground floor must be elevated 18" above the floor.
• Don't forget your window wells.  A quick cleaning of accumulated debris can save $$$ by allowing the wells to drain and not fill with water.
• Pre-cut plywood is a staple on the Gulf Coast.  This take advance preparation, but is priceless in its ability to save window and doors in a hurricane.  
• Buy the right flood insurance before you need it. 

2014 Cost vs. Value: 5 Mid-Range Remodeling Projects That Offer the Biggest Returns

Here's a quick look at the short list of remodeling projects what will give you the most bang for your buck. As we rapidly head for warmer weather we'll start to see an increase in listings so you'll want the home you're selling to be in top competitive shape to meet or beat the competition.  Although these projects are in the mid-cost range, take note of the return on the investment for each project. This is a quick read, but a good one!

2014 Cost vs. Value: 5 Mid-Range Remodeling Projects That Offer the Biggest Returns