Sip a cold summer drink while relaxing on the porch, taking in the expansive lake and mountain views. This lakefront home has been exquisitely renovated with all high-end products. Boathouse and large lakeside patio. A wonderful home to begin your memories at the lake. For more photos and details, visit www.Shorenough.com.
Landscaping is one of the surest ways to pump up the value of your property. According to research by Virginia Cooperative Extension, going from a plain lawn and a concrete driveway to a well-landscaped lot raises a home's perceived value by 12.7%. The opposite is also true: A "minimal" landscaping job-a thoughtless smattering of scraggly plants-actually detracts from home value. How much should you invest in upgrading your landscape? Professionals recommend budgeting 10% of your home's value. But the important thing to remember is that success doesn't depend on how much you spend. "Landscaping doesn't have to be expensive, just well planned," says Carl Heldmann, author of "Be Your Own House Contractor." Here's how to get started on a landscape plan of your own.
First, consult a pro
To figure out how to allocate your landscape dollars, start by picking the brain of a pro. Even if you have a naturally green thumb, a trained professional can save you from wasting money on wrongheaded ideas and open your eyes to possibilities you haven't considered. There are various types of landscape pros (http://www.asla.org/nonmembers/publicrelations/guidejobs.htm), and their expertise is priced accordingly. If your yard has major issues or you have grand ambitions, consider hiring a certified landscape architect to design a comprehensive plan that includes such things as irrigation, lighting, architectural features, soil conditioning, and, of course, the growing stuff. A verbal consultation costs about $100-$150; a detailed plan can run from $300 to $2,500. The American Society of Landscape Architects (http://www.ASLA.ORG) offers a state-by-state "firm finder" on its website. Landscape designers typically charge less than degreed landscape architects and are a good choice for simpler projects that don't require construction. Horticulturists specialize in plants, not necessarily design. Then there are landscape contractors, the design-build firms of yard work. Start by asking friends whose gardens you admire for recommendations. Your local home and garden center is another good source for contacts.
Set your priorities
Before you get any dirt under your nails-or hire someone to get dirty-you need to make two lists: a) what you want and b) what your property needs. These aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but the exercise is important for setting priorities. It would be folly to spend big bucks on an outdoor kitchen before resolving potentially disastrous issues such as a diseased tree or drainage problems (http://www.houselogic.com/articles/7-signs-you-may-have-a-drainage-problem/). The first question that a professional will likely ask is: What do you see yourself doing in your yard? Hosting Sunday barbecues? Doing the crossword puzzle in a hammock? Swimming laps? Growing vegetables? Clip pictures of outdoor spaces you like and don't like to clarify the feeling you're trying to achieve. Remember that part of your landscape budget will go toward the "b" list. Those are things that may not lend themselves to sexy magazine spreads but can protect your property value-not to mention enhance your quality of life-by lowering water bills, reducing the need to mow or rake, or blocking the view of your neighbor who hot-tubs in the buff. We're talking about practical considerations such as irrigation, fencing, lighting, equipment storage, privacy, and security.
Create a "floor plan" to target costs
To ballpark costs for materials and labor, think in terms of square footage, which is how landscapers charge. According to Costhelper.com, (http://www.costhelper.com/cost/home-garden/landscape-design.html) hiring someone to create a "naturalistic garden" averages $11 a square foot; the cost can double for a formal garden with walls and water features. And don't forget to factor in long-term maintenance such as mowing, mulching, and pruning. (Sweat equity, anyone?) If you're designing your own plan, start by measuring your property or getting a plat survey from the county. You might even be able to find a topographical map indicating features like slopes and swales. You can sketch the basic layout to scale using old-fashioned graph paper or landscape design software. Prices have come down considerably on the latter, but quality varies widely, so check online reviews before purchasing. A free option: Google's Sketchup (http://sketchup.google.com), with cool apps for trees, pavers, shrubs, outbuildings, and the like. Once you have the parameters, create a floor plan, marking off different sections just as you would rooms of a house. The front path is the foyer, there might be a "dining room" with a picnic table, a shady "bedroom" for a hammock, a "rec room" with play equipment. Consider the costs for each area of your plan, including materials, equipment, furnishings, greenery, and any specialized labor like irrigation or electricity.
Think long term
If your ambitions exceed your wallet (and whose do not?), go back to your priority list and pick a section or projects to tackle as your budget permits, advises Angela Dye, principal designer/president of A Dye Design, a landscaping firm in Phoenix, Ariz. "What is the absolute most important thing you need to have done?" she asks. "What is bugging you most?" A carefully conceived plan will keep you on track during this gradual transformation, both in terms of vision and budget. And remember that patience pays off. "Additions or renovations can start losing value once completed," says Jim Lapides, spokesman for the American Society of Landscape Architects. "A landscape literally grows in value over time." Laura Fisher Kaiser is a contributing editor to Interior Design magazine and a former editor at This Old House magazine. The secret to her Washington, D.C., garden is blood, sweat, tears, and mosquito repellent. Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this. Reprinted from HouseLogic with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Copyright 2011. All rights reserved
Home sales activity and median price in New Hampshire dipped in March, compared to March 2010, leaving first quarter unit sales practically even with the first quarter of last year, while median price for the first quarter dropped nearly 5 percent from the same period 2010.
Realtors in the Granite State sold 1,892 homes in the first quarter of 2011, compared with 1,891 in 2010, according to data released this week by the New Hampshire Association of Realtors (NHAR). Median price, meanwhile, dropped from $207,000 in the first quarter 2010 to $197,000 in the first quarter 2011, NHAR reported.
“We still have yet to find any clear trend line,” said NHAR President Tom Riley, a 35‐year veteran of the real estate industry and president of Riley Enterprises in Bedford. “Overall, it still appears to be a market that is stabilizing, but we’re certainly in no position to make any bold predictions about a timetable for the recovery.”
Riley noted that the March sales decrease followed two consecutive months of increases, and he said the data is still reflective of a particularly difficult winter selling season in New Hampshire.
“Eventually, we expect to find a clear pattern to the market,” Riley said, “but we haven’t found it yet.” In terms of local markets, six of the state’s 10 counties saw unit sales increases in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago, including upticks in New Hampshire’s three largest – Hillsborough, Rockingham and Merrimack.
Meanwhile, only Sullivan County and Carroll County showed median price increases.
Click here for March 2011 data residential.
Click here for March 2011 data condo.
Riley continued to assert that the unprecedented buyers’ market – low interest rates, low prices and high inventory – remains ripe for increased activity in the coming months. “The bright spot in this challenging economic picture is the chance for those who in the past have been priced out of the market to now get in,” he said. “I don’t remember a better opportunity for buyers.”
Press Release: NH Association of REALTORS®, Dave Cummings, NHAR Director of Communications
A great hideaway on 4.43 acres tucked up in the woods and surrounded by stately pines! Quiet location bordering a stream with direct access to Gillingham Pond. Open floor plan, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, back deck. Come take a look! Offered at $278,900. Visit www.64ForestBrook.com for more photos and details.
By: G. M. Filisko
Understanding how appraisals work will help you achieve a quick and profitable refinance or sale.
1. An appraisal isn’t an exact science
When appraisers evaluate a home’s value, they’re giving their best opinion based on how the home’s features stack up against those of similar homes recently sold nearby. One appraiser may factor in a recent sale, but another may consider that sale too long ago, or the home too different, or too far away to be a fair comparison. The result can be differences in the values two separate appraisers set for your home.
2. Appraisals have different purposes
If the appraisal is being used by a lender giving a loan on the home, the appraised value will be the lower of market value (what it would sell for on the open market today) and the price you paid for the house if you recently bought it. An appraisal being used to figure out how much to insure your home for or to determine your property taxes may rely on other factors and arrive at different values. For example, though an appraisal for a home loan evaluates today’s market value, an appraisal for insurance purposes calculates what it would cost to rebuild your home at today’s building material and labor rates, which can result in two different numbers. Appraisals are also different from CMAs, or competitive market analyses. In a CMA, a real estate agent relies on market expertise to estimate how much your home will sell for in a specific time period. The price your home will sell for in 30 days may be different than the price your home will sell for in 120 days. Because real estate agents don’t follow the rules appraisers do, there can be variations between CMAs and appraisals on the same home.
3. An appraisal is a snapshot
Home prices shift, and appraised values will shift with those market changes. Your home may be appraised at $150,000 today, but in two months when you refinance or list it for sale, the appraised value could be lower or higher depending on how your market has performed.
4. Appraisals don’t factor in your personal issues
You may have a reason you must sell immediately, such as a job loss or transfer, which can affect the amount of money you’ll accept to complete the transaction in your time frame. An appraisal doesn’t consider those personal factors.
5. You can ask for a second opinion
If your home appraisal comes back at a value you believe is too low, you can request that a second appraisal be performed by a different appraiser. You, or potential buyers, if they’ve requested the appraisal, will have to pay for the second appraisal. But it may be worth it to keep the sale from collapsing from a faulty appraisal. On the other hand, the appraisal may be accurate, and it may be a sign that you need to adjust your pricing or the size of the loan you’re refinancing.
More from HouseLogic
How to use an appraisal to eliminate private mortgage insuranceUnderstanding the assessed value of your home for tax purposesUnderstanding the amount at which to insure your home
Other web resources
More information on appraisalsHow to improve the appraised value of your home G.M. Filisko is an attorney and award-winning writer who’s had more than 10 appraisals performed on her properties in the past 20 years. A frequent contributor to many national publications including Bankrate.com, REALTOR® Magazine, and the American Bar Association Journal, she specializes in real estate, business, personal finance, and legal topics. © Copyright 2011 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Visit HouseLogic.com for more articles like this. Reprinted from HouseLogic.com with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
Concord, NH - The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services has released two new tools to help homeowners better manage water running off their properties during storms (stormwater).
The New Hampshire Homeowner's Guide to Stormwater Management: Do-It-Yourself Stormwater Solutions for Your Home provides fact sheets with step-by-step instructions to install stormwater treatment practices that homeowners can do themselves, such as dry wells and rain gardens. These stormwater treatment practices help protect nearby streams and ponds from water pollution, and help reduce flooding, create wildlife habitat, recharge groundwater, and conserve water resources.
The second tool, The New Hampshire Residential Loading Model, is a modeling tool for homeowners to estimate the amount of nutrients, specifically phosphorus and nitrogen running off of their properties.
As residents add driveways, walkways, home additions, sheds, or garages to their properties, the amount of water that seeps into the ground decreases and the amount of water running off their property increases. This can result in flooding and water pollution as the increased water flow picks up and carries pollutants such as phosphorus and nitrogen to nearby waterbodies or groundwater supplies. This model can help homeowners plan their additions and changes to properties while reducing impacts to water resources.
According to Harry Stewart, DES Water Division Director, "our intent is to provide homeowners and local building officials with a simple tool to identify cost effective ways to offset potential impacts to water resources."
Both resources are available at
http://m1e.net/c?82384231-HPRMth9PvdXmQ%406386493-FG8fge/HKtKqk by entering in "Stormwater Management" in the "search this site" at the top right of the DES home page. For more information please contact Eric Williams at (603)271-2358 or at eric.williams@des.nh.gov."
You'll feel warm and cozy in this classic New England Farmhouse with beamed ceilings, wide pine floors, raised panel doors and more. Wonderful original features throughout. Level, open lot with established gardens and apple and pear trees. Was $424,000., now offered at $375,000. For more photos and details, visit www.27ShakerSt.com.
Simply put, a short sale is when a seller has a hardship (e.g. death, divorce, job loss), needs to sell, and owes more on the mortgage than the home is worth. It is a complicated process for both sellers and buyers and is anything but short when it comes to time frames.
Sellers first should speak to their lender’s short sales specialist (which could entail many phone calls) and submit a financial package. Not all lenders will accept short sales – it may be financially better for them to foreclose. There could be tax consequences if the IRS considers the amount forgiven as income or the lender may still want the difference owed even after the sale. Sellers should speak with a CPA and lawyer.
Buyers need lots of patience! Even if the Seller accepts your offer, it still has to be approved by the lender. This could take months. (It is more complicated with multiple loans on the house.) The National Association of Realtors® report that on average, short sales sell at a 17% discount. A short sale can be a good deal but understand the obstacles and bring plenty of patience.
Keeping my buyers and sellers educated is part of my job. Give me a call if you would like to work with a Realtor® who will always keep you informed, 603-526-4116.
Sales of existing-home sales rose in March, continuing an uneven recovery that began after sales bottomed last July, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Existing home sales which do include condominiums and co-ops, increased 3.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.10 million in March from an upwardly revised 4.92 million in February, but are 6.3 percent below the 5.44 million pace in March 2010. Sales were at elevated levels from March through June of 2010 in response to the home buyer tax credit. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, expects the improving sales pattern to continue. “Existing-home sales have risen in six of the past eight months, so we’re clearly on a recovery path,” he said. “With rising jobs and excellent affordability conditions, we project moderate improvements into 2012, but not every month will show a gain – primarily because some buyers are finding it too difficult to obtain a mortgage. For those fortunate enough to qualify for financing, monthly mortgage payments as a percent of income have been at record lows.” NAR’s housing affordability index shows the typical monthly mortgage principal and interest payment for the purchase of a median-priced existing home is only 13 percent of gross household income, the lowest since records began in 1970. “Although home sales are coming back without a federal stimulus, sales would be notably stronger if mortgage lending would return to the normal, safe standards that were in place a decade ago – before the loose lending practices that created the unprecedented boom and bust cycle,” Yun explained. “Given that FHA and VA government-backed loan programs turned a modest profit over to the U.S. Treasury last year, and have never required a taxpayer bailout, we believe low down-payment loans should continue to be available for those consumers who have demonstrated financial responsibility and are willing to stay well within their budget. Raising the downpayment requirement would unnecessarily deny credit to many worthy middle-class families and veterans,” Yun said. The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $159,600 in March, down 5.9 percent from March 2010. Distressed homes – typically sold at discounts in the vicinity of 20 percent – accounted for a 40 percent market share in March, up from 39 percent in February and 35 percent in March 2010. NAR President Ron Phipps, broker-president of Phipps Realty in Warwick, R.I., said some renters are looking to home ownership as a hedge against inflation. “The typical buyer today plans to stay in a home for 10 years, while rents are projected to rise at faster rates over the next few years,” he said. “As buyers gain more financial security, the advantages of home ownership become more obvious. Rents will continue to trend up, especially in comparison with a fixed-rate loan which provides financial stability and gradual accumulation of equity over time.” Total housing inventory at the end of March rose 1.5 percent to 3.55 million existing homes available for sale, which represents an 8.4-month supply at the current sales pace, compared with a 8.5-month supply in February. Single-family home sales rose 4.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.45 million in March from 4.28 million in February, but are 6.5 percent below the 4.76 million level in March 2010. The median existing single-family home price was $160,500 in March, down 5.3 percent from a year ago. Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast rose 3.9 percent to an annual level of 800,000 in March but are 12.1 percent below March 2010. The median price in the Northeast was $232,900, down 3.0 percent from a year ago. The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries. Source: The National Association of Realtors, Washington, DC, April 20, 2011
A true gentleman's farm for those who want space, a beautiful home in tip-top shape all on a spectacular piece of conserved land. This antique home was totally restored/renovated in 2008 and sits on 113 peaceful acres. Views, historic barn. A place you won't want to leave. For more details and photos, visit www.BetweenTheMountainsFarm.com.
Stacey Viandier, Listing Agent