10 Most Desirable Do-it-Yourself Outdoor Projects

Increasing the value of your home does not have to mean it's costly! Call me today for free Home Checkup! Laura Key 310.866.8422

The warmer weather has home owners looking to spruce up their home’s outdoor spaces. So when it comes to do-it-yourself outdoor projects, which projects are most home owners tackling?

A survey of more than 1,200 home owners by the Home Project Council identified the following DIY outdoor projects as most desirable:

1. Plant a garden

2. Use decorative pebbles, stones or rocks for landscaping

3. Build a deck

4. Create a fire pit or barbecue pit

5. Build a patio or walkway using concrete pavers or bricks

6. Install or build a shed or storage building

7. Stain or paint siding or windows

8. Build a privacy fence

9. Stain or paint exterior concrete surfaces (patio, pool deck, driveway, sidewalk, etc.)

10. Repair or seal concrete cracks in patios, steps, or driveways

Home owners identified the most difficult or intimidating DIY outdoor projects as being building an outdoor kitchen and pouring concrete slabs for patios, steps, or sidewalks, or building a deck, according to the survey.

Source: Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR(R) Magazine

Want to know what your home is worth in this market? Give me a call for a free CMA Laura Key 310.866.8422

Study: Buyers Can Afford Bigger House If It's New

Good News on the Home Front! Ready to Buy! Let's do this together! Laura Key 310.866.8422

The National Association of Home Builders says its new study shows that home buyers can buy a more expensive, newer house and still have the same operating costs as owning an older existing home. 

NAHB examined data from the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2011 American Housing Survey to determine how utility, maintenance, property tax, and insurance costs vary depending on the age of a home. 

Houses built prior to 1960 have average maintenance costs of $564 per year. On the other hand, homes built after 2008 have average maintenance costs less than half that — $241, according to the study. 

For homes built prior to 1960, operating costs average nearly 5 percent of the home’s value while the average was less than 3 percent for homes built after 2008, the NAHB study found. 

The study also took into account the first year after-tax cost of owning a home by its age, examining the purchase price, mortgage payments, annual operating costs, and income tax savings. “A buyer can afford to pay 23 percent more for a new house than for one built prior to 1960 and still maintain the same amount of first-year annual costs,” according to NAHB.

New houses tend to cost more than existing homes, so the mortgage payments will likely be higher — but the lower operating costs of a newer home will give buyers annual costs that could be about equal if they purchase a lower priced, older home with a smaller mortgage payment but higher operating costs, NAHB says. 

"Home buyers need to look beyond the initial sales price when considering whether to buy new construction or an existing home," says NAHB Chairman Rick Judson. "They will find that with the higher costs of operating an older home, they can often afford to spend more to buy a new home and still have annual operating costs that fit their budget."

Source: National Association of Home Builders

After Central Air, Buyers Want Walk-In Closets

I have to agree with this article. What is more important to you for your new home? Laura.A.Key@gmail.com

Recent home buyers who want a walk-in closet but didn’t get one in their home say they’re willing to spend $1,350 for one. That’s just one of the important findings in the 2013 Profile of Buyers’ Home Feature Preferences, released today by the National Association of REALTORS®.

Buyers who wanted new kitchen appliances but didn’t get them say they’re willing to spend $1,840 for them. Those who wanted air conditioning are willing to spend $2,520.

The report looks at 33 home feature preferences based on what a representative sample of U.S. households that bought between 2010 and 2012 say they value. Just over 2,000 households participated.

Among the findings: Households in the South tend to want the biggest and newest homes, and they like wooded lots. Those in the Northeast are most likely to like hardwood floors. First-time buyers and single women are big buyers of older homes. Households with children and move-up buyers like larger homes.

The report also contains these tidbits on buyer preferences:

·        Among buyers 55 and older, 42 percent want a single-level home, compared to just 11 percent of buyers under age 35. Single women also tend to place importance on single-level homes.

·        Single men want finished basements.

·        Single men and married couples place importance on new kitchen appliances.

·        Among all 33 home features in the survey, central air conditioning is the most important to the most buyers; 65 percent consider this very important.

·        The next most important feature is a walk-in closet in the master bedroom; 39 percent considered this very important.

·        Also important — buying a home that’s cable-, satellite TV-, or Internet-ready.

·        Thirty-two percent of buyers say they’re willing to pay a median of $5,420 more for a residence that also has waterfront property, and 40 percent say they’re willing to pay a median of $5,020 more for a home that’s less than five years old.

— Robert Freedman, REALTOR® Magazine

Ready to find your dream home! Search for free! No signup, no hassle, just a good solid resource.  Let me earn  your business! www.KeyCaliforniaHomes.com

Home Improvement with Heart — Just in Time for Valentine’s Day

Roses are red; violets are blue — here are romantic improvements that add value, too. The sensual shower

What makes your honey feel better than a long, soothing shower? (OK. It’s a rhetorical question.) But showering exactly the way you want it is a little luxury that can set the mood for a lot of love.

Programmable showers ($290 to $3,500) let you digitally determine water temperature, pressure, even type of spray. Pulsating, anyone? 

And if you want things to get a little steamy in the bedroom, start in the bathroom with asteam shower ($7,000 to $10,000). You’ll need space to put the steam generator — an adjacent closet will do — and you’ll have to make your shower airtight to trap the steam. Or you can buy a prefab unit ($1,000 to $5,000) that you can install yourself or hire a pro to do the wet work ($500 to $1,000).

Read on to learn about more romantic home improvements:

• Squeaky Clean
• Dim the Lights
• Surround Yourself with Sound
• Fireplaces Turn Up the Heat

Squeaky clean

We know you’ll want to be extra clean and coiffed for Valentine’s Day night, so get ready for the fun with an electronic toilet seat that washes and warms, plays music, and sprays pleasant scents.

A couple of years ago, these deluxe seats were hard to come by. Now, big box stores around the country sell these bathroom accessories that fit on top of your toilet ($150 to $600). They come with a host of features, some with slow-closing lids and germ-resistant seats. 

If you want to go whole hog, buy complete high-tech toilets that also include LED lights for late night bathroom breaks and no-touch flush ($450 to $1,100).

Dim the lights

Help romance along by avoiding harsh overhead lights and instead installing dimmers on bedroom lights ($16 to $38) or just replacing a few lamps with lower wattage bulbs.

Not only will dim lighting set the mood, but lowering brightness extends the life of bulbs,saving energy and money — and what’s sexier than that?

Surround yourself with sound

Isn’t it romantic to listen to music in the dining room, bedroom, even the bath? 

You can go high-end — and high-effort — and have a sound specialist install whole-house sound, which entails running speaker wires through ceilings and walls ($700 to $2,700 per room), and hooking up a pair of speakers ($100 to $2,000 each pair).

Or, you can save some money and install a wireless system yourself. The music is distributed by a computer and sent via router into small player boxes in each room ($400 per room). This DYI project takes a couple of hours.

Fireplaces turn up the heat

Lounging by the fireplace on Valentine’s Day, sipping champagne, eating chocolate-covered strawberries is a dream celebration. But, let’s get down to earth and just settle for the fire.  

If you already have a wood-burning fireplace, sweep it out and perform chimney maintenance so your V-Day doesn’t go up in flames. 

If you’re missing a place for flames, you could go all out and add a fireplace. If you have a wood-burning fireplace one but never use it because of the hassle, you can retrofit with agas fireplace insert that gives you light and heat with just a flick of a switch ($3,000 to $4,000).

Or, if you’re in a hurry, install a plug-in, electric fireplace that supplies a realistic-looking flame and even heat. Installation is a DIY project. Your biggest hassle will be selecting the location — along a wall or stand-alone — and picking the most romantic-looking mantle surround or fireplace shelf (with mantle package $800 to $1,600).

Tell us what you love about your home.

Thinking of buying or selling your home! You need someone who is experienced, caring and hardworking!  Call Laura Key today at 310.866.8422 or email Laura.A.Key@gmail.com