Limit the trendy

Limit the trendy updates when renovating your home. If you’re renovating your home to prepare for a home sale, or for your living pleasure, there’s an overwhelming sense of excitement and creativity focused on the finished product.  You may already have a vision of the design for the room and fixtures.  Or you may decide to hire an interior designer (or certified home stager) to assist you with the project. Regardless of the route you take, take heed to design trends, as some are more fleeting and personal than others and could hinder your home sale.

limit the trendy renovations
Top renovations

One definition of “trend” is current style. Meaning that although a design or style is hot and desirable today, it won’t be in the near future. If you’re updating the home to live in a few years then sell a few years down the road, consider that any update you make today could seem outdated to home buyers in the future. Knowing this could help reign in your current budget, and budget for additional updates down the road.

If you’re renovating to sell, be careful to cross over the line of over-personalization.  Over-personalized spaces/rooms/homes can turn off home buyers.  Home buyers get distracted from the space of the home when they see updates, designs, and/or fixtures that they don’t like.  “Look what they did here…” seems to be an automatic response I hear when viewing homes with clients who get distracted.  Of course, distracted and otherwise turned off home buyers typically won’t pursue that home.

If you’re enticed to design by the latest and greatest trend, keep in mind that most home buyers are more interested in homes they can picture living in.  A January 17th article from the NAR blog (“The Most-Hyped Home Design Trends for 2022; Home design is reflecting much more personality, from black accents to textures galore, by Krisztina Bell, No Vacancy Home Staging Inc.) has a comment about “maximalism design: “Maximalism is back, if the 2022 fashion shows are any indication. More people are seeking to surround themselves with objects that reflect their personality. We’re seeing expressionistic lighting—like geo-shaped groupings and swirls—as well as an explosion of colorful rugs. It’s popular to mix vintage pieces with contemporary furniture and colorful glass. Put a disco ball in the basement and add tinsel curtains for even more sparkle. That’s just how bold decor is getting. But don’t go overboard with ’70s decor! A few playful and unexpected pieces is all you need for this trend.”

Ms. Bell’s words of wisdom “don’t go overboard”and limit the trendy should be the rule when renovating.

By Dan Krell
Copyright © 2022

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Disclaimer. This article is not intended to provide nor should it be relied upon for legal and financial advice. Readers should not rely solely on the information contained herein, as it does not purport to be comprehensive or render specific advice. Readers should consult with an attorney regarding local real estate laws and customs as they vary by state and jurisdiction. Using this article without permission is a violation of copyright laws.

Catch up with deferred maintenance

After the Great Recession, the country’s housing stock deteriorated.  Many financially strapped home owners could not afford the cost of maintaining their home.  Many of those home owners deferred maintenance thinking they would do it when their financial picture got better.  Others abandoned their homes, willing to face foreclosure to have a fresh start.

deferred maintenance
Home quality

As a result, the housing stock deteriorated as time passed. Foreclosed homes deteriorated during the foreclosure process.  And many others decided to sell their deferred maintenance home.  It wasn’t until five to seven years after the recession that “the cost of doing nothing” was realized.

However, the antithesis was the many home owners who opted to update and remodeled their homes in lieu of moving.  The decision to stay and “make do” was primarily because of the depressed home sale market. Many home owners who wanted to move couldn’t because the potential sale price would have been much lower than what the home owner needed to move.  Additionally, there were many who were “under-water,” meaning that their mortgage payoff was higher than what the home was worth at that time.

As the market improved, home sellers realized that their well maintained, renovated/updated homes, sell faster and for more. Real estate agents quickly embraced the idea of renovating prior to putting the home on the market.  The pay off for this strategy was evident in the recent sellers’ market (2020-2022), where well maintained and updated homes garnered a lot of attention, received multiple offers, and launched home sale prices to double digit increases.

Just as remodeling can increase the value of your home, deferring maintenance will decrease your home’s value. Unfortunately, many home owners, and their agents, believe that years of deferred maintenance can be overcome with simple and inexpensive renovations.  The truth is that years of deferred maintenance deteriorates the condition of your home, making it vulnerable to the elements, pests, and time.  Deferring maintenance also makes repairs and updates more costly down the road. 

If your home has deferred maintenance, it’s not too late to catch up.  If there are many projects with which to catch up, prioritize the most important.  You will find that as you catch up with deferred maintenance, your comfort and enjoyment of your home increases.  And if you’re planning a move in near future, keeping up with home maintenance will make your home sale preparation straightforward and easy.

By Dan Krell
Copyright © 2022

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Disclaimer. This article is not intended to provide nor should it be relied upon for legal and financial advice. Readers should not rely solely on the information contained herein, as it does not purport to be comprehensive or render specific advice. Readers should consult with an attorney regarding local real estate laws and customs as they vary by state and jurisdiction. Using this article without permission is a violation of copyright laws.

New Years Resolution

new years resolutions
Remodeling this year? (Infographic from nar.realtor)

It’s a new year, and there are numerous media pieces giving you the same old and trite New Years resolution.  Here are three New Years resolutions that may have meaning for you this year.

Selling a home this year?  Your New Years resolution is to not overpay on real estate commissions.  Although I have written a lot about real estate commissions this year, it’s a topic I have addressed through the many years of this column.  2019 is was the year when consumers finally became aware that they have control in how much they pay when selling a home.  Although home sellers have always been able to negotiate with real estate agents, agents are increasingly transparent about costs giving sellers more clout in deciding what’s fair compensation.  There are a number of ways of selling a home today.  Besides negotiating real estate commissions with a traditional real estate agent, consider all your options and do your due diligence.

Have you been putting off repairs?  Make home maintenance your New Years resolution.  If you’re thinking of deferring maintenance projects another year, ask yourself “What’s the cost of doing nothing?”  Putting off those small projects can be costly.  Deferring home maintenance is cumulative over time.  What may seem to be localized areas or systems that need attention, could spread to other areas and systems over time.   

Although average home prices have steadily increased since the end of the Great Recession, many home sellers have found that years of deferred maintenance, and lack of have been an impediment to selling their homes.  Homes for sale that are in need of repair typically take longer to sell and will sell for less than their updated and well-maintained counterparts.

Because many home buyers want turn-key home, many home owners and real estate agents believe that years of deferred maintenance can be overcome with addressing some of the home’s issues.  Making a few updates and minor repairs can improve the appeal of a home.  But unless the all deferred maintenance issues (and updates) are addressed, the home sale price may still be less than what is expected. 

Thinking of making updating your home?  Make a resolution for a healthy home.  A 2017 exposé revealed that green designed and energy efficient homes can be bad for your health.  To explain the potential hazard, Marisa Mendez uses the analogy of opening up the air-tight sealed bag of clothes from last summer and getting a whiff of the stale, plastic air (Breathing Easy: An Introduction to Healthy Homes; remodeling.hw.com; June 22, 2017).  But the green and efficient building trend has moved to make homes healthy environments with an emphasis on good indoor air quality.  Mendez stated that the good indoor air quality can be achieved by continuously exchanging the indoor air with conditioned outdoor air.  There are physical and environmental benefits of a healthy home, which include increased emotional wellbeing and reduced respiratory distress.

Bill Hayward of Hayward Healthy Home has been a leading voice of the healthy home movement.  In a 2016 Builder Magazine interview, he discussed how his own experience transformed his life (Advocating for Fresh Air in Homes; builderonline.com; September 29, 2016).  He started Hayward Healthy Homes after he realized his home made his family ill.  Hayward stated “After my family got sick inside our home, I started researching. Thirty percent of the population has allergies and is physically affected by the indoor air quality. The worst air that Americans breath right now is the air within their house.” For more info on a creating a healthy home, visit Hayward Healthy Home (haywardhealthyhome.com).

Original article is published at https://dankrell.com/blog/2020/01/31/new-years-resolution/

By Dan Krell
Copyright© 2020

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Disclaimer. This article is not intended to provide nor should it be relied upon for legal and financial advice. Readers should not rely solely on the information contained herein, as it does not purport to be comprehensive or render specific advice. Readers should consult with an attorney regarding local real estate laws and customs as they vary by state and jurisdiction. Using this article without permission is a violation of copyright laws.

Renovate Your Home

renovate your home
Home improvements from the American Housing Survey (census.gov)

Once thought of as a supporting actor in the housing industry, home remodeling is poised to take the spotlight.  The growing fascination with home remodeling is generating new renovation trends and research. It’s time to renovate your home! If you aren’t yet thinking of remodeling your home, chances are that you will be planning a home improvement project in the next five years.

Plaut & Plaut’s conclusion to their study (Decisions to Renovate and to Move; Journal of Real Estate Research; 2010; vol. 32; p.461-484) states, “Housing renovation is an important component of housing supply, yet one often ignored both in empirical analysis and in policy discussions about housing.”  They point out that that renovating a home was becoming a “substitute for moving.”  A possible cause for the trend in 2010 was twofold.  First, many homes fell into disrepair during and after the Great Recession.  During that time, many home owners could not keep up with regular maintenance, let alone emergency repairs. And second, there was a lack of quality homes for sale immediately after the Great Recession.  As foreclosure and REO home sales subsided, many homes for sale showed signs of neglect through deferred maintenance. 

Renovate your home.

Fast forward to 2019, home sale inventory continues to be a major problem for the industry (and will likely continue into the next decade).  But home remodeling is picking up the slack to improve the nation’s home stock, as well as help increase quality home sale inventory.  However, industry experts are learning there are other reasons that home owners are remodeling instead of moving.  Trends that have been identified include seniors who are “aging in place,” and multigenerational homes. 

Although a recent Freddie Mac study identified seniors who are “aging in place” as a cause of the ongoing home sale inventory shortage, aging in place is also stimulating home remodeling!  Homeownership rates for seniors are much higher today than in past generations.  Instead of moving to retirement communities or stereotypical senior housing, older home owners are staying put and renovating their homes for comfort and style.

Multigenerational homes became popular again after the recession, when grandparents, parents and adult children pulled resources to live in one home.  The trend continues as aging parents are moving in with their children, and young adults are moving back into their parent’s homes.  Remodeling a home to accommodate several generations may require turning a basement into an apartment, adding a main level bedroom and bathroom, or possibly building an addition to the existing home.

Even home owners who decide to move are remodeling their homes.  According to NAR’s Remodeling Impact Report (nar.realtor), functionality and livability are the top reasons to renovate for a home sale.  Most home buyers want a turnkey home that is functional, comfortable and energy efficient.  Home sellers who improve their homes before selling typically sell faster and for more than those who sell their home “as-is.”

While “going green” has become a standard in home improvement, a Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (jchs.harvard.edu) publication “Healthy Home Remodeling: Consumer Trends and Contractor Preparedness” identifies healthy home remodeling as a growing trend.  Healthy home building practices are intended on maintaining the physical and emotional wellbeing of the home’s occupants by using healthier building materials, such as “low-VOC paints and formaldehyde-free woods.”

When planning to renovate your home, home improvement experts recommend: create a budget and stick to it; only hire licensed contractors; and make sure your improvements have permits.

Original article is located at https://dankrell.com/blog/2019/09/28/renovate-your-home

By Dan Krell
Copyright© 2019

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Disclaimer. This article is not intended to provide nor should it be relied upon for legal and financial advice. Readers should not rely solely on the information contained herein, as it does not purport to be comprehensive or render specific advice. Readers should consult with an attorney regarding local real estate laws and customs as they vary by state and jurisdiction. Using this article without permission is a violation of copyright laws.

Home Office Spaces

If you have a home based business or telecommute, you’re one of the millions of Americans who probably have or want a home office.  What seems to be a staple of modern living wasn’t always so. 

The home office most likely developed from the “study” that existed in the larger homes of the well-to-do.  These rooms were usually separated from the rest of the house providing privacy for the home owner to read, meet with others, and of course conduct business.  As the middle-class grew, their leisure time did too.  The two or three bedroom home was getting too small.  Home owners desired a separate designated space to read, hobby, and do other work.  The standard middle-class home grew in size and added other features, such as a family room, rec room, and the home office.  Although the home office, like other specialty rooms, lost its popularity after the Great Recession, it quickly regained popularity as the recession subsided. 

Although the room may have looked like a standard office with a desk and chair, early home offices weren’t really used as a full-time space for the home owner’s job.  Most mid-century occupations required employees to report to a place of business.  However, as technology developed, the ability to work from home increased.  According to Allied Telecom (alliedtelecom.net), Jack Niles coined the term “telecommute” in 1972 when he “remotely” worked on a NASA communication system.  Working from home gained popularity during the 1970’s energy crisis, when employers needed to reduce energy consumption and employees found they spent increasing amounts of time in rush hour traffic

Home Office
Working at home

The demand for the office space didn’t serendipitously coincide with home buyer activity, but actually increased due to changes in the Americans workforce. Additionally, the popularity of the office space can most likely be gauged by the growth of affordable technology.  The advent of home computing in the 1980’s allowed many office workers to bring their work home.  Modems allowed employees to remotely connect to their employers.  However, it wasn’t until the development of the internet and subsequently broadband that full-time telecommuting jobs and home based businesses flourished.

A home office is very important to home buyers.  According to the Q2 2018 American Institute of Architects Quarterly Home Design Trends Survey (aia.org), thirty-five percent of respondents indicated that having an office space is a trending home feature. 

Of course, home design has changed through the years. Besides allocating a room for a home work space, technology has had a hand in redefining the office space.  The home office has transformed from the dedicated room to do actual work, to a “home tech flex space” that may contain a desk, printer, and router, while Wi-Fi allows the home owner to roam the home (even outside).  It’s not uncommon to see your neighbor on their deck working on their laptop.

Finding a home that fits your lifestyle is essential.  If you’re a home buyer who telecommutes or has a home based business, you want a home office.  Unfortunately, you know that housing inventory is low, and homes with this feature are further limited.  To help with your search, consider homes that have flexible spaces that can be used as your office.  Also, because there are many home renovation loan programs, including loans with streamlined options, you might consider homes that have the potential to expand for a home office.

By Dan Krell
Copyright © 2019

Original located at https://dankrell.com/blog/2019/08/11/home-office-spaces/

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Disclaimer. This article is not intended to provide nor should it be relied upon for legal and financial advice. Readers should not rely solely on the information contained herein, as it does not purport to be comprehensive or render specific advice. Readers should consult with an attorney regarding local real estate laws and customs as they vary by state and jurisdiction. Using this article without permission is a violation of copyright laws.