Sep 11, 2013
Talk to 10 different people about homeowners associations (HOAs), and you’ll likely get 10 different opinions. Some people love living in a development with an HOA, while others find it too restrictive. Depending on your lifestyle and needs, it can be a great experience or one that feels too intrusive. Today about one in five Americans live in a house with home-owner or condo fees.
HOAs began in the mid-19th century but didn’t really gain in popularity until the early 1960s, as an outgrowth of the postwar housing boom and the growth of the middle class. Typically, an HOA is incorporated by the developer during the development and sales process, and gradually control and ownership are transferred to the home purchasers upon completion of the project. The original owner/developer quits membership in the association and has nothing more to do with it. Anyone purchasing a home in an existing housing development with an HOA must become a member. There is no other option. The overall purpose of the HOA is to represent the residents. Depending on how active these associations are, they can be quite effective in providing forums for common home-owner representation and needs.
HOAs Are Like Small Towns
A homeowners association governs the development like a small town. The HOA’s powers include imposing fines, organizing activities and providing certain services. It can also levy assessments and force home owners to pay them. Many HOAs have yearly dues, and a homeowners association can legally impose monetary fines to enforce its decisions. The groups usually appoint a board of directors, which may then elect an association president and other officers. Meetings are typically monthly but can be quarterly, depending on the size of the group.
If the HOA is larger, it will likely be broken down into committees. Committees are also appointed for various activities: maintenance, membership dues and neighborhood representation. An accounting committee or, in smaller HOAs, an individual is assigned to present the annual budget and monitor expenses and funds collected. During the foreclosure crisis, some HOAs began to lose revenue as people living in homes facing foreclosure stopped paying their fees.
HOAs Can Promote Neighborhood Harmony and Uniformity
HOAs offer many benefits to the home owner. According to the bylaws of the association, it can collectively represent the group for whatever purposes assigned. For example, to maintain a certain degree of conformity, the association can stipulate which changes are permitted for the exterior of the buildings. Sometimes the HOA can determine acceptable noise levels. If there are common areas, such as gardens and pools, the members can appoint an internal management committee or elect to bring in an outside maintenance company. On snowy days, a snow-removal company may need to be called in, and this service will be paid for out of the association’s funds. For condos or groups with shared structures or parking lots, fees can go to upkeep.
HOAs Can Be Restrictive and a Financial Drain
If you want to change the color of your house or even add a new tree, you may run afoul of your local organization. Also, if your HOA decides to undertake a major capital improvement project and the governing group approves it, you may be left with no choice but to pay your share. If you fail to pay your dues or you go against the HOA rules, you could be assessed fees and late charges. If you disagree with some of the rules, it can be very hard to get them changed.
Overall, most people see an HOA as a positive. According to the Foundation for Community Association Research (FCAR), 70 percent of residents in common-interest communities say they are satisfied with their community-association experience. The FCAR’s research also found that 76 percent believe their own community-association rules “protect and enhance” property values.
Realtor.com
Jun 14, 2013
Buttermilk-and-Honey Chicken Kabobs
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup hot sauce
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 small sweet onion, grated
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
- 2 1/4 teaspoons salt, divided
- 3 pounds skinned and boned chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into 2-inch chunks
- 10 (6-inch) wooden or metal skewers
- Vegetable cooking spray
- Grilled lemon halves
- Toasted Pecan Pesto (See Preparation Below)
Preparation
- Whisk together first 3 ingredients in a large bowl until smooth; whisk in buttermilk, next 3 ingredients, and 2 tsp. salt until blended.
- Place buttermilk mixture and chicken in a large zip-top plastic freezer bag; seal and chill 3 hours.
- Meanwhile, soak wooden skewers in water 30 minutes. (Omit if using metal skewers.)
- Coat cold cooking grate of grill with cooking spray, and place on grill. Preheat grill to 350° to 400° (medium-high) heat. Remove chicken from marinade, discarding marinade. Thread chicken onto skewers, leaving a 1/8-inch space between pieces; sprinkle with remaining 1/4 tsp. salt.
- Grill kabobs, covered with grill lid, 6 to 8 minutes on each side or until chicken is done.
- Serve with lemon halves and Toasted Pecan Pesto.
Toasted Pecan Pesto
- 2 1/2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
- 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
- 2 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
Preparation
- Process all ingredients in a food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides as needed. Cover and chill 1 to 8 hours before serving.
Southern Living Magazine-June 2013
Jun 13, 2013
Buying a home can be a very emotional experience, even when it appears to going smoothly. When something goes wrong, it can be stressful. Your agent will likely prepare you for the possibility that a pending sale won’t go through, but when it happens to you, it can be heartbreaking. Help prepare yourself by learning a few reasons that pending sales fall apart.
1. You change your mind. Cold feet or, as it’s often dubbed, “buyer’s remorse,” happens surprisingly often: fear of commitment, fear of being overextended, fear that the house is not “the one.” Sometimes instincts are correct, but often people let the natural anxiety of home buying wrap around the home itself. The best way to prevent this is to prepare yourself before the process starts. Be practical about your needs, and be honest about whether a house meets them. Don’t allow yourself to be pressured into a home that doesn’t feel right. Limit your discussions about the house to your agent, family and close friends. More input and advice, even the most well-intentioned, can cause confusion.
2. You are unable to obtain financing. Sometimes a mortgage loan falls apart. That’s why it’s important to be prequalified for loans, to avoid last-minute heartbreak. The rejection by a mortgage lender can be based on a poor credit score or negative items on a credit report. A buyer in need of a loan can correct errors on a credit report, but this generally takes a bit of time. Buyers need to be wary about taking out large loans for cars, furniture or appliances, as well as making major purchases on credit cards. These actions could compromise your loan if the lender runs a supplemental credit check. A buyer can also offer to make a larger down payment, thus reducing the mortgage balance. If you are careful during the loan process, then you should be well on your way to financing your new house.
3. The home failed inspection. Hiring a professionally licensed home inspector can aid in detecting plumbing and electrical issues, roofing and drainage problems, or faulty heating systems. Repairs can often be negotiated into a contract so that either the buyer receives a credit or the seller agrees to make the necessary repair before the closing. Sometimes, however, your inspector can turn up something that is too large to repair, such as a structural issue.
4. You haven’t sold the home you already own yet. If you haven’t sold your house yet, and if your contract with the home owner is contingent upon selling, you may not be able to go through with the purchase. Most people cannot afford to pay two mortgages at the same time. Some buyers are able to take out a bridge loan, a form of short-term financing, to bridge the gap. New home buyers who have not yet put their old house on the market can save money with a home-equity line of credit. In this type of financial agreement, a lender extends a loan for a certain period, during which the collateral is the borrower’s equity in their own house. These two solutions can help you avoid the prospect of losing out on the home you want.
5. Your appraisal comes in too low. The lender will generally loan up to the appraised value of the home, so if the appraisal comes in lower than the potential mortgage, the buyer cannot purchase. At this point it’s time to negotiate. Either the seller needs to reduce the price to the appraisal value or the buyer must come up with the difference in cash.
All of these scenarios demonstrate why it’s important to maintain close contact with your agent throughout the process. The agent has weathered many sales and has probably saved more than a few from disaster. It’s much easier to go through this exciting and emotional life transition with a knowledgeable real estate professional at your side.
Realtor.com
Jun 13, 2013
As you look around your home, you’re probably wishing you had some extra time on your hands to make a few renovations or to handle a few extra redecorating projects. But, you already have the time – it’s called the weekend! In that short 48-hour time span, there’s a lot of work you can get done. Even if you pick one task per weekend, that’s four decorating projects completed a month!
Don’t think it can be done? Well just check out these nine simple weekend decorating projects that can each be started Friday evening and wrapped up before you go to bed Sunday night.
1. Organize and Beautify Your Bookcases
If you have a lot of books, videos and collectibles clambering for space on your bookcases, taking a Saturday afternoon to remove, sort and organize everything will instantly make the room look cleaner and tidier. Sometimes successful redecorating isn’t about changing the way things are but more about cleaning up and organizing what you already have. This is also a good time to de-clutter your bookcase. Tossing out old magazines or storing books you no longer want in the garage can go a long way towards making the most of your bookcase’s capacity.
2. Tile the Kitchen’s Backsplash
If you really want to give your kitchen an updated look but you can’t afford a complete renovation, install ceramic tile to the backsplash for an instant update. It may take some time to get up and running, but once you find your swing, you’ll discover this job moves along at a smooth pace. Both weekend days will be required for this job, and you might have to extend the finishing touches over to next weekend, but you’ll be able to get the bulk of the heavy lifting done in one weekend.
3. Transform the Fireplace
The fireplace is the focus of the room during the cold, winter months but what do you do with it for the other eight months out of the year? Once winter’s chill has left, clean out the fireplace and decorate the hearth with a variety of low-maintenance plants and add a touch of vibrancy to the room. Succulents work nicely because they don’t require a lot of watering or sunlight. Use tiered plant pot holders for a truly beautiful look that will also cover up the unsightly cinder stains on the inside of the fireplace. Or, for a complete re-do, you can even consider painting the fireplace!
4. Install Some Molding
Crown molding makes a room feel and look larger than it really is, and it’s not really that difficult to install, especially when you use specially-made corner pieces that eliminate the need for cutting perfect mitered edges. In fact, once you get the hang of it, you might be able to install it in all of your rooms before the weekend is over. While you’re at it, you can also install chair railing or update your baseboards with a newer, more modern style.
5. Unify Your Picture Frames
Odds are the picture frames that adorn your walls have been purchased over a long period of time, so no two probably look alike. But, if you take them all down and paint the frames all the same color, they will suddenly look as if they all belong together. In addition, this will help give your room the color accent it’s been missing.
6. Update the Kitchen Cabinet Hardware
Forget about the old brushed nickel cabinet knobs. Today, hardware stores have a ton of different varieties to choose from. Pick a style that best reflects your home and replace the knobs in your kitchen for a quick and easy kitchen makeover.
7. Makeover Your Lamp Shades
Adding some fabric, beads or ribbons to your lamp shades will turn them from drab to fab. Choose a color scheme that compliments the room and your friends won’t stop asking you, “Where did you purchase those beautiful lamp shades and how much did they cost?”
8. Redecorate the Bedroom
All you need to redecorate your bedroom is some fresh paint, some new curtains and a new comforter and voila – you have a freshly redecorated bedroom. The bulk of your time will be spent re-painting the bedroom and that won’t take that long at all, so go ahead and start planning your bedroom’s new look.
9. Add Some Fresh Flooring
If you have hard surface floors, add some color and style to the room by incorporating a few area rugs and/or carpet runners. This is an especially good idea come winter time as the carpet will help keep your feet off the cold floor and help insulate the room.
Realtor.com
Apr 22, 2013
Was a home improvement project on your list of New Years Resolutions? If so, there are apps to help you with everything from cleaning the drapes to refinishing your floors.
1. Color Capture and ColorSnap
Download: Color Capture from Benjamin Moore for iPhone and ColorSnap from Sherwin-Williams for iPhone.
Price: Free
Repainting your bedroom? Maybe even the whole house? Choosing a color to paint your walls can be pretty intimidating — there are thousands of options! And what if you already have a color in mind but aren’t sure how to find it in the paint aisle at the hardware store? Maybe you want to paint your bathroom walls to match a certain color towel or paint your living room to match the sofa.
These apps can help. Using your phone’s camera, you can take a picture of anything you like, and the app will analyze the colors in the photo and show you the closest match in its color line. Color Capture is available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Android phones; ColorSnap is available for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. Both apps are free.
2. iHandy Carpenter
Download: iHandy Carpenter for iPhone
Price: $1.99
With this app, $1.99 buys you 5 essential tools for home improvement. There’s a plumb bob, a surface level, a bubble level bar, a steel protractor, and a ruler. While it probably won’t replace the real thing if you want to be absolutely certain that your walls are straight or your measurements are accurate, it’s very handy for quick estimations.
3. HomeSmarts
Download: HomeSmarts for iPhone
Price: Free
This free app is designed to help you remember all the tasks that go into maintaining a home. HomeSmarts starts with a short survey to gather basic information about your home, including the type of heating and cooling system you have, whether or not you have a pool or a garage, and so on. Once it has this information, it will create a yearly schedule of items that need your attention, and you can adjust how you receive alerts.
The developers of this app have quite a sense of humor, making you smile with messages like “shoveling coal into the servers” and “charging the flux capacitor” as it’s loading up your items.
4. Home Maintenance
Download: Home Maintenance for iPhone
Price: $4.99
Much like HomeSmarts, Home Maintenance helps you keep track of home maintenance tasks. This app costs $4.99 but includes a much wider range of features and capabilities. You can add more than one house and note facts like the date it was built, date purchased, purchase price, and appraised value. For each house, you can then add custom tasks or choose from predefined lists such as chimney cleaning and deck maintenance. You can even add photos for any item and email yourself a complete maintenance record.
5. Chore Pad
Download: Chore Pad for iPhone
Price: $2.99
Finding it hard to motivate yourself to get those chores done? Finding it hard to motivate your kids to get their chores done? Chore Pad can help! Add the members of your household, then add as many chores as you want, assign them to different people, and set up their frequency. You can also set up rewards, and as you complete tasks, you collect stars that you can then turn in for rewards. Get your kids to clean up their rooms by bribing — motivating — them with, say, a trip to the ice cream shop. At $2.99, this app is both affordable and useful.
6. HandyMan Sidekick
Download: HandyMan Sidekick for iPhone
Price: $1.99
This highly recommended home improvement app does it all. Whether you’re painting or wallpapering a room, putting mulch in your garden, or trying to figure out how much drywall you’ll need, just plug in the dimensions of your space, subtract any doors and windows, and figure out exactly how much you’ll need. There’s also a handy metric-to-imperial (and back) converter and a flashlight so you can see in those small, dark corners of the house.
7. Handy Man DIY
Download: Handy Man DIY for iPhone
Price: $1.99
Much like HandyMan Sidekick, Handy Man DIY offers calculators to help you figure out how much paint, wallpaper, flooring, or trim you need to complete your project. You can also create shopping lists (or choose from prebuilt options), store room dimensions for later use, create lists of tasks for each project, or check seasonal reminders of home maintenance tasks for various times of the year.
Now you have no excuse to get cracking on that to-do list! Except perhaps that it’s a gorgeous day and there’s fresh iced tea in the fridge… but at least with these handy apps, you’ll be able to get your chores done sooner and enjoy the spring!
Realtor.com
This article originally appeared on Tecca.com
Apr 22, 2013
Mortgage rates fell again this week (April 14th) and continue to trend downward, inching closer to historic lows. It is the third consecutive week in which home loans saw a decline, according to the latest survey by mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. However, the week-over-week change in home loans was minimal or “rangebound,” to use mortgage industry-speak.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed loan saw a minor change, moving slightly down from last week’s 3.43% to 3.41%. As it stands, loans are now just .1% away from the historic low reached in November, 3.31%, which was the lowest average for a 30-year fixed dating back to 1971.
The relatively static change can likely be attributed to continued stabilization of U.S. economic conditions. The bond market has especially benefited from uncertainty in the stock market, a relationship that will continue to have a dramatic effect on mortgage rates moving forward, according to mortgage expert Al Bowman:
“This leaves the stock markets to be the biggest influence on bond trading and changes to mortgage rates. If we see sizable stock gains, bonds will likely be pressured, leading to slightly higher mortgage rates. On the other hand, if the up and down pattern in stocks continues tomorrow, we are due to see the major stock indexes in negative territory. If that is the case, we should see a positive morning in bonds with a slight improvement to mortgage pricing.
The 30-year fixed wasn’t the only loan to see a slight dip. The average rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage also fell marginally, creeping slightly downward from last week’s 2.65% to 2.64%, which is now just a hair above (.01%) above the historic low.
Additionally, hybrid 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage went down from 2.62% from a week ago to 2.60%. The 1-year ARM, however, saw a slight increase week-over-week, moving up to 2.63% from last week’s 2.62%.
While some attribute the continued decline of interest rates to the bond and job markets, Frank E. Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, points to weak consumer spending. “Retail sales contracted for the second time in three months, falling 0.4 percent in March,” Nothaft said in a statement. “In addition, the University of Michigan reported their Consumer Sentiment Index dropped 6.3 points in April to settle at 72.3, its lowest level since July. The April reading snapped a streak of three consecutive gains.”
Barring a surprise, rates are expected to remain consistent moving forward, presenting home buyers and people looking to refinance an opportunity to benefit from rates at near-historic levels.
Realtor.com
