Okay, these nifty little meters aren’t available in the Twin Cities yet, but how neato are these kilowatt meters that can gauge how much your appliances use?  They are available at some libraries around the state and can be checked out for a week with a library card.

I had been thinking about writing about vampire appliances when I came upon the Kill-A-Watt poster at my Duluth library. These are the everyday things we have plugged in that pull electricty even when they’re not on.

Apparently coffee makers are a big vampire pulling on average 20 watts per hour just sitting there! If you’re interested in finding out more about this, you can read the Star Tribune blog about building a green house from the ground up.

Of course it is a good idea to unplug items anyway as small appliances are a chief cause of house fires.

I heard a story on Minnesota Public Radio by Jessica Madore that just about, at first blush, made me fall off the couch. You can give it a listen HERE.

It’s the idea of good credit homeowner backlash. It goes like this: People who have been paying their mortgages all along get fed up that their neighbors’ mortgages are now subsidized by the government. And they want in.

You probably have heard that lenders don’t even talk about lowering a payment unless you’ve missed a few or at least been late. (This is mostly true, but Citibank announced earlier this month that they are willing to talk to mortgage holders who are current, but the idea of the program is aimed at those with financial hardship. You can read more about Citibank’s Homeowner Assistance Program here.)

Apparently there are folks out there talking about muddying up their credit with some late payments to get into lower rate & payment talks with their lender. I can kinda see where they’re coming from, but it’s nowhere I want to go. I mean, foreclosure, while more common now is STILL a big deal.

And let’s suppose one does decide to “skip a payment.”  The next payment one makes will be credited to the month that was “skipped” - so suddenly, that homeowner is delinquent on the month  just paid.  So once you miss a payment, you’re a month late every month until that “skipped” amount is paid.

Sadly, if you’re not on top of this, this could go on for months before one realizes that they’ve been in the rears for months - all the while trashing their credit. Then when they need a loan for something like a car and they’re “high risk” and paying the price. And it takes years to rebuild from a mistake like that.

So does it suck sometimes to do the right thing? Yeah, it does. That’s about all I can say.

I was walking in my livingroom a couple days ago and got a brisk breeze on my ankles. It was coming from my outlet. A little investigation and I found all the receptacles on the outside walls were admitting a stiff wind.

An infrared photo showing the heat loss would have been pretty cool.

Power companies typically offer some kind of subsidized energy audit program. In the Twin Cities, Xcel Energy’s costs $35, takes about two hours, and this time of year can usually be completed within a week of the initial customer call, according to Xcel’s Tom Hoen. (www.xcelenergy.com)

Links to other power company’s home (and business) audit programs can be found at Minnesota’s Energy Challenge (http://www.mnenergychallenge.org/resources/).

The big box stores had a $1.87 solution - Electric outlet Switch Sealants (pictured above). This little piece of insulation has made a big difference.  Now if I were putting this house on the market, I’d think this little fix would be a good deal, but I might also swap out the whole outlet for one that hadn’t been lazily painted over. When selling a house neatness counts and can create a bigger picture of how a home has been tended to over the years.

Habitat for Humanity: How to Build a House, revised and updated

Here’s a great book that came across my desk recently.  I learned a lot of elemental stuff about home building and think it would be a great present to the first time home owner. It’s a lot easier to make repairs on a house if you can understand how it came together in the first place.

This book jumps into what is arguably the largest DIY how-to project with this hopeful statement: “Not everyone is a master carpenter. Fortunately for most of us, it’s possible to learn.”

For nearly 50 years, Habitat for Humanity has been showing laypeople the art of home construction. So it’s with a cultivated teaching voice (think your favorite uncle) that everything from how to read a measuring tape to pouring footings and sheathing a roof is patiently explained.

Filled with useful photos and illustrations, this book is a handy reference for those looking to construct big dreams. Amazon offers a sneak peek here.

Taunton Press, Publisher, www.taunton.com (203) 426-8171, soft cover, 282 pages, 370 photos $27.95.

Mark Nash from RealtyTimes.com wrote a great piece about trends in the market.  Every person who is trying to sell a home in today’s market should read the following information… 

In a changing market, there’s an inevitable change in buying and selling practices. Here are some trends that real estate professionals are noticing and expecting for the coming year. 

WHAT’S IN:

1. The housing correction. My prediction in the 2006 “What’s In, What’s Out” was for a soft decline in home prices in most markets. In 2007 (& 2008), I project a 5-8 percent decline in prices on average between single-family and condominium homes. [Note: This is a national perspective and not focused on the Houston market, which is predicted to perform better than the nation as a whole.]

2. Homes that are priced right. It isn’t the boom market of 2005. Look at only the sold comparables from the last six months. Forget the cocktail party chit-chat when all you heard was record prices in the shortest market times in U.S. real estate history.

3. Online home valuation sites (for example, Cyberhomes.com and Zillow.com), especially those that utilize up-to-date and reliable home sale data. Technology is great when it works, but tread carefully with online valuation websites. Ask yourself how long it takes your local recorder of deeds and real-estate transactions to record them? If they’re up-to-the-minute, okay; otherwise consider the lead time into the online valuation to get accurate information.

4. Market timing. Many buyers and sellers were on their own timelines in 2006, and they missed opportunities that were created by not recognizing the real estate market’s ebb and flow. Spring is high market, the most demand by the largest number of buyers. Summer is a good market, fall is fair, and winter is the remnant market, the left-over buyers and sellers from the high, good and fair markets.

5. Savvy buyers. With interest rates historically low and pent-up demand from a soft year in 2006, the deals and lack of frenzy won’t last long. “Deferred demand” from 2006 could ignite a mini-frenzy in some markets.

6. Third places or officetels. Home offices are on the rise, though those who work from one need more than a coffee shop or hotel lobby for business meetings. Look for alternative work spaces that bridge the home office with hourly rentals of conference room-type spaces that offer technology and privacy.

7. Upscale garages. It’s no longer the out-of-sight, out-of-mind dumping ground. Today’s garage owners want them decked out with cabinet and storage systems, mini-refrigerators, insulation, heating and air conditioning, and durable but residential-looking flooring.

8. Caving. Man caves and Mom caves are coming out of the closet. Personal dedicated space for one person in a household can go and work on projects or “chill” without being disturbed.

9. Two home offices. Rising gas prices and commuting times have created more two-work-at-home families. Size matters; make sure each is at least ten-by-ten feet.

10. Rejuvenation rooms. A one-stop space for exercising, meditation, yoga, sauna and fancy steam showers. Showers are going upscale too. Waterfall fixtures and programmable temperature and water flow are the next trends for “showerers.”

11. Heated patios, walkways and driveways. Northern baby boomers are tired of shoveling and are looking for ways to decrease winter maintenance. Plus many have discovered how also heating the patio can add an extra couple of weeks of enjoyment in spring and fall.

12. Snoring rooms. Offered as options in new homes, adjacent second bedrooms to the master offer relief from the “buzz saw” and an alternative to the couch. A godsend for millions of relationships nationwide.

13. Modular housing. Many think of the out-dated double wide as the typical modular, but modular options and quality have exploded in a range from the bread-and-butter, 1,200-square-foot starter home to the top-end 11,000 square foot home with every whistle and bell and complex finishing details. Low-cost, factory-built construction and quick concept-to-foundation times make this the affordable wave of the future.

14. Sustainable design. Sustainable design is based on three areas: energy conservation, indoor air quality and resource conservation. Sustainable design looks at homes holistically and not just as a group of unrelated systems thrown together. Natural forms of energy, such as wind, solar, and geo-thermal, are maximized.

15. Structured wiring. Right up there with all the buzz about green homes is structured wiring, now entering the mainstream must-have for technology-based home buyers. Coaxial TV cable (RG-6), Category 5E voice and data lines, distributed radio and remote-camera security are wired throughout a home into multi-outlet boxes called home network centers.

16. Mixing finishes on kitchen base and wall cabinets. Matchy-matchy is out in kitchen design. The new look is to have stained-wood bases and painted wood upper cabinets. It’s the old-Europe look, tailored to fit with today’s appliances.

WHAT’S OUT:

1. “As is” in home sale marketing. Anything went in the boom market, but if you’re planning to use “as is” in 2007 (& 2008), forget it. The two letter-two word kiss of death, buyers see it as a red flag about the home and you as the seller. You have too much competition to be chasing buyers away.

2. Buyer incentives. Free cars don’t sell houses; realistic pricing does. Gimmicks only confuse and distract buyers. Cut to the chase and deduct the cost of your free-with-purchase from your current price and send the signal to buyers that you’re selling real property, not personal property.

3. Endless open houses. The open house pendulum has swung from “the house sold in the first day” to “we need to have our house open every Sunday.” Desperation is when your home is open every Sunday. Buyers know and track it. Plan on every three weeks to have a public open house.

4. Over-full-price offers. It was a strategy in the boom market to under-price a home and let the market set the selling price. Not today. One thing that won’t change in 2007 is that every buyer will want a deal — and walk away if they don’t get one.

5. Bedrooms too small for a bed. In the boom, rehabbers and developers learned the fastest way to profit was to increase the room count of a home of an existing home. Bedrooms shrank to walk-in-closet size when a four-room one-bedroom was gut-rehabbed into a four-room two-bedroom. Or the doorways and windows gobble up too much wall space. Savvy agents kept asking, “Can you fit a queen-size bed in either room?” And the answer was usually, “No.”

6. Loads of glass upper kitchen cabinet doors. Buyers say it looks great, but many who specified and experienced it firsthand don’t have the time to keep their kitchen cabinets organized. Plus, if you hate washing the windows, having more glass in a greasy room like a kitchen means high maintenance.

7. Bowl-shaped above-counter bathroom sinks. The splashing and over-all upkeep have earned these the reputation of nice to look at, but don’t want one.

8. Any shiny metal finish. Brushed nickels and pewters are in, and antiqued and polished brass is out.

9. Stainless-steel refrigerators and dishwashers are a fading trend. The cold look
   and higher maintenance of steel is shifting buyers to specify warmer colors in
   kitchen appliances.

10. Spiral staircases. Once the rage for mid-70s makeovers, now death to a home seller. The boomers have aged, their kids don’t like them, and they’re unfriendly to pets and young children. Take yours out and put in a standard staircase (inside or out) before you sell.

On The Way Out

1. Bamboo floors. The first reviews are in on this popular eco-friendly flooring, and they’re not pretty. Easily dented and scratched, and prone to warping from variations in our climate and humidity levels.

2. Hardwood laminate floors. The word is out that these noisy poor relatives of solid hardwood don’t stand up to multiple sandings to change color or to remove stains.

3. Home sellers who smoke in their home while it is being marketed. Buyers hate second-hand and stale smoke odors. Marketing your home is not the same as living in it. If you have to smoke, go outside.

Copyright:

I’m a reluctant landlord. I never wanted to rent out my home, but given that we’re choosing to keep it off the market at the moment, there’s little recourse other than to find tenants.

Often tenants will engage in a “work for rent reduction” situation and while I believe most of the time these arrangements work out great, it’s a really good idea to have your expectations in writing. Here’s what I mean - lawn care is really subjective. Putting something in your agreement like “the yard must be tidy” isn’t all that helpful. What is tidy to one, isn’t tidy to another.

Here is some sample language on how to qualify the subjective - to which I add the disclaimer SHOW YOUR LAWYER. This is only meant as an idea-generating sample and should not be cut & pasted into your legal document without legal consul.

- Caretaking duties include keeping the lawn to be mowed to within 2 inches of the lawn height of the adjacent neighbors’ lawns.

- Caretaking duties include shoveling 1” or greater of snow fall within 24 hours. Shoveling includes the front walkway and the driveway.

-Caretaking duties include raking seasonally so that there are less leaves than would fill one standard leaf bag.

-Caretaking duties include weeding the garden beds once a week for 30 minutes.

-Caretaking duties include cleaning out gutters monthly during summer months, washing windows once a year and providing yard spring clean-up so that the yard has no piles of yard waste including, but not limited to, leaves, sticks and other plant matter.

Should these expectations not be fulfilled, the landlord reserves the right to cancel this work arrangement upon providing the tenants 30 days notice.

Seem harsh? It may SOUND harsh, but it isn’t meant to be. And are you really going to be out there measuring the lawn - no.  But it is meant to provide a measuring stick to evaluate working off the rent and to give you a leg to stand on when talking to tenants about the quality of their work.

When presenting this language in a document I think its important to say something like, “I believe this is going to be a great arrangement, I really do. However, I did spell out expectations here in the lease just so we’re all clear about what the caretaker duties entail.”

Good luck. And remember, get legal consul on your leasing agreement!

In March 2008, HUD temporarily raised FHA loan limits around the country.  Effective January 1, 2009, FHA loan limits revert.

FHA home loans are mortgages made by private lenders and insured by the federal government. 

Historically, FHA home loans have been “easier” for which to qualify than their conforming mortgage counterparts and, therefore, tend to be associated with borrowers of tarnished credit quality.

Today, that’s the not the case. 

The FHA home loan underwriting process can be as tough — or tougher — than a conforming mortgage underwrite.  There is extra documentation required and the home appraisal process is often more thorough. 

Where FHA home loans shine is in their limited downpayment requirements.

To purchase a home with a FHA-insured mortgage requires a 3 percent downpayment as of today; in January, it moves to 3.5 percent.  Versus the typical conforming mortgage requirement of 5 percent or more, FHA serves as somewhat of a home affordability product for Americans.  In addition, FHA allows larger “cash out” refinances than Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

The 2009 FHA loan limits (in most areas of the country) are:

• 1-unit : $271,050
• 2-unit : $347,000
• 3-unit : $419,400
• 4-unit : $521,250

Note that the loan limits don’t apply to all areas of the country equally.  Higher-cost regions feature higher loan limits, based on typical home values. Homes in Los Angeles County, for example, can be FHA-insured up to $625,500 in 2009, and there are exceptions made for Alaska and Hawaii.

The official FHA announcement published all of the counties with access to higher loan limits, spread across two spreadsheets.  The first spreadsheet lists each county at the $625,500 maximum; the second list is everyone else.

If your home county is on neither list, use the “base” numbers above.

To help demystify the mortgage process, the federal government is giving the much-maligned Good Faith Estimate document a makeover.  Effective January 1, 2010, the current, 2-page form will be replaced by a new, easier-to-understand version, spanning 3 pages.

The biggest strength of the new Good Faith Estimate is that it uses everyday English to explain how the mortgage works.  For example, in one section titled “Loan Summary”, the Good Faith Estimate specifically answers:

1. What is your interest rate?
2. Can your interest rate rise?
3. Does your loan have a prepayment penalty?

Using today’s disclosures, the answers are spread across 3 separate forms.

In addition, the new-look Good Faith Estimate identifies what charges are legally allowed change at the time of settlement, and how a mortgage applicant can opt for higher fees in exchange for a lower mortgage rate, and vice versa.

These educational elements are lacking from the current model.

But for all of its clarity, the Good Faith Estimate doesn’t address the issue of suitability.  As in, is this the right loan for the right borrower?  The new Good Faith Estimate won’t prevent homeowners from choosing “bad loans” — it will only educate them about the loan’s facts.

For suitable advice — as always — talk with a trusted mortgage professional who will both listen to your needs and help you make plans for them.  Getting the “best terms” on an unsuitable loan can be far worse that getting great terms on a loan that fits.

A few days ago I wrote about winter staging focusing mostly on the front of the house. Here are a couple of ideas for inside your home. My stager, Jean McCue, is adamant that no one wants to stage for Christmas and then have to change it out. So think “snowmen” not “Santa.”

Here’s one of her ideas: Buy some Christmas ornaments that are NOT the traditional green & red to add a little shimmer to your home.  This tips its hat to the jewel-toned holiday season without tying it directly to December 25th.

 Glass bowls from places like World Market and Pier 1 are a great way to display ornaments.

 Also when you’re staging think of having montages. That’s little areas that almost tell a story on its own. Montages aren’t cluttered, but do have a grouping of at least three items.

Here’s an example from a staged bathroom. The lamp warms up the little room without bleaching it out with the large, overhead light.

The Twin Cities is blessed with some great places to eat and I thought it would be fun to showcase a few breakfast places.

South Minneapolis: Remember the old Sweet Lorraine’s on 38th Street (at 24th Ave) off Hennepin? It was a classic diner and wasn’t particularly known for great eats - more of a place to fill up and go. Well, now the chef who made The Sample Room a name in northeast, Minneapolis has swepted out Lorraine with the Citizen Cafe. It serves lunch and dinner, but I’ve only been there for breakfast. The decor is hip and before your meal arrives they bring you a few samples of their sweet breads to enjoy with their tasty coffee.

I expected to pay big for the nice atmosphere and little treats, but am pleased to say it was very reasonably priced. So next your visit to South Minneapolis, perhaps browsing for homes in this neighborhood, get a bite at the Citizen.

St.Paul: Hidden in an office building on University is the sweet restaurant, The Egg & I. It’s not fancy, but the food is consistently good and it’s one of the only places I know where you can get buckwheat pancakes and a Spinach Eggs Benedict dish. Here’s the MLS hits for this area.

If you’re looking for something a little more quirky, hip and interesting in St. Paul than go for the Day by Day Cafe. It employs folks who are on the recovery path from addiction and I’ve always had delightful service there. Things that are pretty amazing there are the caramel rolls, the huevos rancheros and any omelet. Summer time is particularly fun because the backyard patio is beautiful. Here’s the MLS hits around Day by Day which includes some really sweet St. Paul neighborhoods.