May 20th, 2008
You can usually tell the quality of work your general contractor will give you by how he treats his employees. If he doesn’t take even the minimum amount of time to protect them, how much effort will he put into your house? Austin Injury board has a great how-to process on how to buy good worker’s comp insurance.
A worker’s comp policy can generally be purchased in one of two-and-a-half ways. First, the employer that has hired the employee can purchase the worker’s comp policy. In our case, if L&O purchased the insurance then the worker couldn’t sue L&O. However, that policy would not protect others. Therefore, if the person that was driving the forklift was employed by the general contractor, another subcontractor or even the property owner, then the employee would still be able to sue any of those entities.
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May 15th, 2008
Some of you may be receiving anywhere between $600 and $1300 within the next few weeks, and this just may be the time to spruce up that bathroom or replace those windows.
In some sense, you can kill two birds with one stone, but actually replacing those windows with more energy efficient ones; you save money while at the same time spending it and stimulating the economy. According to Channel News 8, you can recoup most your money:
Investing these dollars in home improvements, such as replacing old leaky windows with newer, energy efficient ones, can offer homeowners a significant return on investment. Some experts believe that replacement windows are one of the best home improvement investments you can make in your home.
“Remodeling Magazine’s” 2007 Cost vs Value Report estimates that a homeowner may recoup 81 percent of the cost of installing low maintenance replacement windows at resale. That means on an $8,000 window replacement project, homeowners may recoup $6,480 at the time of sale.
In addition, new energy efficient windows can lower heating and cooling bills, improve a home’s comfort and aesthetics, and add long-lasting value.
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May 7th, 2008
It looks like Americans aren’t the only ones in a lurch with the housing crisis. Britons are also feeling the heat and are trying to engage in some quick remodeling to turn the tides.
In fact, some recent studies show that as many as 62 percent of Britons took on home improvement projects to boost saleability — including off-road parking, installing new gardens, and building apartments over garages. The Telegraph has more
For example, creating off-road parking will cost you as little as £650, but could earn you in excess of £10,000 if you choose to sell. Putting in a landscaped, family-friendly garden will cost £900 and can earn a savvy seller £6,000. However, before you reach for the hammer and spade, it is important to realise that not all renovations will pay for themselves. For example, according to RICS, installing a basement could cost you £50,000 but might only make you a measly £4,000 when you sell. While reinstating original chimneys and fireplaces might seem like a great way to bring back period features, it does not add any additional value, according to RICS.
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April 14th, 2008
With the current state of the housing industry, many potential home sellers are wondering what to do to make their houses more likely to sell. Should you take on major housing improvements, like installing new siding or finishing your basement? Or should you settle for more minor improvements?
According to the Statesman, the smaller improvements are better:
Even a minor, mid-range kitchen remodeling project in the D.C. area would cost about $21,000, and a major “upscale” kitchen upgrade would cost $110,521, according to Remodeling magazine’s 2007 Cost vs. Value report. That report seeks to estimate the costs of common remodeling projects and how much of the investment will be recouped at resale.
“To sink those kinds of dollars into a property that you are planning on leaving is very risky,” said John Wuestman, a broker and an owner of suburban ReMax Advantage Realty. “Any thought of recapturing 100 percent of that isn’t true. … It’s more like 70 to 75 percent.”
Payoff for recent remodeling projects at resale varies depending on the project, Remodeling found. That mid-range kitchen upgrade, for instance, would add about $17,000 to the home’s resale price, recouping about 82 percent of its cost. The upscale version would add about $85,000 to the bottom line, for a 77 percent payoff on investment.
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April 4th, 2008
Apparently there’s been an uptick in construction companies doing mark-ups on their work so that when they offer a discount it looks like they’re giving you a good deal. One company is warning its customers how to spot such tricksters so that they don’t get conned into paying a mediocre price for any work.
As one of the largest paving stone installation firms in Southern California, Pacific Pavingstone Inc of Sun Valley knows a thing or two about staying ahead of the competition. Competing companies rely on different marketing strategies in an effort to win customers, but one that Pacific Pavingstone strongly opposes is marking up a job in order to claim that they are offering a discount. It has become a common practice in numerous industries, not just the paving stone installation sector. In fact, it’s almost an accepted “fair business practice” to mark up a paving stone pool deck, patio or driveway bid to appear to give a large, but completely artificial discount. In Pacific Pavingstone’s eyes this is anything but fair. The company regards it as downright deceitful. If Pacific Pavingstone offers a discount, it really is a discount. Upholding honest business values is testament not only to the individuals who manage and work in the company, but to their product. In less than a decade, Pacific Pavingstone rose to the number three position in its market, with thousands of paving stone driveways, walkways, pool decks and patios installed.
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March 21st, 2008
With the housing market taking a down-turn, more and more home owners are turning to modular house building. And because these modular homes are built in a factory, there’s less waste of wood and other materials, making for a much “greener” home in the end.
According to this article, modular homes are one of the fastest growing sectors of the residential community:
Homebuilders are learning that there is a very ‘green’ side to modular homes. Factory-built homes are more “green” than most site-built homes. Steven Winter, of Steven Winter Associates, is chairman of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Homes program which, rates homes for green certification on a number of criteria. Says Winter, “Because they’re built in a factory and much of the lumber is pre-cut, there is less scrap and waste; the cut-off pieces are often ground up and recycled; the central location of a factory means no wasted transportation to get workers to an isolated job site, so there’s a savings in fuel and energy. So, in a whole array of material savings attributes, time saving attributes, energy savings attributes, systems built homes go a long way toward achieving green objectives.”
The National Association of Home Builders credits modular homes as being one of the fastest-growing segments of the residential construction industry, growing by 48% from 1992 – 2002. In 2004, a reported 42,700 modular homes were built in the United States, and in the northeast, modulars account for 1 out of every 10 homes built.
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March 13th, 2008
It is logical to assume that when the house market is extremely shaky, then home improvement investments will take a sharp dive as a result. But the Pantagraph is reporting that participation in home improvement shows has nearly doubled over the last few years. Also the business of heating, ventilation and air conditioning hasn’t declined at all. As one of the people quoted in the piece said, ““HVAC is recession-proof.”
The mood seemed to be in favor of maximizing what you already own in a market when home sales are soft nationwide, vendors noted. People were looking for ways to cut their utility bills and add new amenities, such as sunrooms.
“People are definitely investing in their homes and fixing up what they have,” said Kevin Gattung, special promotions manager for Peoria Siding and Window.
He said attendance has doubled at the shows he has attended in Illinois so far this year.
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March 10th, 2008
Whenever someone decides to do some remodeling in his or her house, the thing always at the back of the mind is how much the remodeling will improve an appraisal. If I remodel my kitchen, will this add another $10,000 to my house’s worth? What about finishing my basement?
The Washington Post has an excellent article that talks about the problems that appraisers face with these questions. It isn’t an exact science:
If there are foreclosures nearby, or home builders offering deep discounts, or desperate sellers setting their asking prices 10 percent lower than the most recent closed sale, your appraised value will be lower. One problem is that some neighborhoods haven’t had many sales over the past six months or so. When that happens, appraisers have to look for something similar in other neighborhoods. For example, Loizou said, if the neighborhood is near Metro, he might search for comparable homes that sold recently near a different Metro station.
If your appraisal comes in surprisingly low, verify that the comparables the appraiser used are truly comparable to your home. “If you have other comparables, we can have the appraiser look at it,” Eul said.
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March 2nd, 2008
It’s not only important to set deadlines for contractors to get work done, it’s just as pertinent sometimes to charge a penalty if the deadline isn’t met. The city in this article had the right idea to set a 90-day deadline in which a $500 fee is extracted for every day that goes by after the deadline that the contractor doesn’t finish:
Salzmann said the fine provision has been included to emphasize the importance of getting the work completed on time.
“It is there to make sure that contractors know we need to have this done quickly, and once work is begun, we expect it to be done in a timely manner,” Salzmann said.
The 90-day completion date will be set once the contract is awarded, Salzmann said. Demolition proposals must be submitted by 2 p.m. March 12, when they will be opened at City Hall. Prospective contractors must also pay a $100 fee.
Sealed proposals are now being accepted by engineering consultant John Stinemire in his office at 15 Railroad Ave., Salzmann said.
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February 27th, 2008
Citizens in the City of Newburgh don’t seem to think so. City Council was set to vote on whether to remodel the antiquated and rundown bathroom in the West End Firehouse when public outcry resulted in them tabling the decision.
“Being a property owner for almost 40 years in the city of Newburgh, I know how much it costs to renovate a bathroom,” said Broadway resident Dick Peterson. “They have a guy in the mall who says that he will come in overnight and put a bathroom in. But $32,000 is probably more than many people in this room make in a year.”
Local 589 Firefighters Vice President Ed Diller, however, has a different opinion about the situation.
“For people to come up and say that there is something fishy about these quotes is outrageous. The building is over 100 years old; nothing gets replaced in a 100-year-old bathroom cheap. We have holes in walls where we have cardboard on to prevent bats from flying around in the bunkrooms where the firefighters sleep.”
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