Showing properties 1 - 12 of 500+. See more Pool Homes - Pinellas County.
(all data current as of 5/17/2012)

1. $24,200 : 6810 33rd St N, St Petersburg
   
   2 beds, 1 full bath

   Home size: 804 sq ft

   Lot size: 5,600 sqft
2. $29,000 : 6518 29th Way N, St Petersburg
   
   1 bed, 1 full bath

   Home size: 672 sq ft
3. $50,000 : 430 55th St N, St Petersburg
   
   2 beds, 2 full baths

   Home size: 735 sq ft

   Lot size: 6,350 sqft
4. $55,000 : 5840 42nd Ave N, St Petersburg
   
   2 beds, 1 full bath

   Home size: 987 sq ft

   Lot size: 7,350 sqft
5. $55,000 : 10536 116th Ter, Largo
   
   2 beds, 2 full baths

   Home size: 1,012 sq ft
6. $55,900 : 5442 59th St N, St Petersburg
   
   3 beds, 2 full baths

   Home size: 1,241 sq ft

   Lot size: 6,650 sqft
7. $57,500 : 2941 Bay View Dr, Safety Harbor
   
   3 beds, 1 full bath

   Home size: 972 sq ft

   Lot size: 6,900 sqft
8. $58,000 : 3826 16th Ave N, St Petersburg
   
   2 beds, 1 full bath

   Home size: 1,008 sq ft
9. $58,100 : 8420 Gerbera Ave, Seminole
   
   2 beds, 1 full bath

   Home size: 1,382 sq ft

   Lot size: 8,690 sqft
10. $59,000 : 8210 82nd Ave, Seminole
    
    3 beds, 1 full bath

    Home size: 1,156 sq ft

    Lot size: 6,000 sqft
11. $59,000 : 1618 Overlook Dr, Tarpon Springs
    
    3 beds, 2 full baths

    Home size: 1,684 sq ft

    Lot size: 10,500 sqft
12. $59,900 : 6026 12th Way N, St Petersburg
    
    2 beds, 2 full baths

    Home size: 780 sq ft

    Lot size: 8,000 sqft

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.

In that report, “10 Hot Spots for Global Homebuyers,” Inman News explores the 10 most popular areas in the U.S. for foreign homebuyers, based on public records of foreign buyers who cite a non-U.S. address. Six of the 10 market areas are in Florida, while the remaining four are in Arizona, New York, Hawaii and Nevada.

The 10 markets, ranked by highest share of foreign buyers who used a non-U.S. home address, according to public records data complied by DataQuick, are:

1. Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla.
2. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.
3. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla.
4. North Point-Bradenton-Sarasota, Fla.
5. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla.
6. Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Ariz.
7. New York County, N.Y. (Manhattan)
8. Honolulu, Hawaii.
9. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.
10. Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev.

In nine out of the 10 areas, except for Manhattan, Canada was one of the top three countries of origin for buyers who listed a foreign mailing address on a home sold between May 2011 and January 2012, according to DataQuick. All nine are in relatively sunny locales.

In eight out of 10 areas, Canada was the leading home country during that time, accounting for between 41.7 percent of foreign buyers in Lakeland-Winter Haven and 90.2 percent in Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale.

Share of Canadians among global homebuyers in 10 U.S. markets

In an Inman News analysis of public records data provided by DataQuick, Ontario ranked No. 1 among all Canadian provinces for home-purchase activity in six of 10 markets in the report, and Ontario also ranked in the top three among Canadian provinces for buying activity in the other four U.S. markets identified in the report. Quebec ranked first among Canadian provinces for its share of homebuyers in the Miami market area, and ranked second in market share among Canadian provinces in five of the 10 U.S. markets, fourth in one market, and sixth in two other markets.

While Ontario and Quebec are the most populous provinces in Canada, they are proportionally overrepresented in the six Florida metros featured in the report.

While they make up about 38 percent and 24 percent, respectively, of the overall Canadian population, about 56 percent of more than 6,500 Canadian buyers in those metros combined came from Ontario between May 2011 and January 2012, while just over a third (34 percent), came from Quebec. Every other Canadian province or territory accounted for 2 percent or less of Canadian buyers in that time period.

Ontario is home to Canada’s capital, Ottawa, and is the wealthiest of Canada’s provinces and territories. The province accounted for nearly 38 percent of country’s gross domestic product in 2010; Quebec accounted for nearly 20 percent, according to Statistics Canada. Alberta and British Columbia followed at 16 percent and nearly 13 percent, respectively.

Alberta had the highest GDP per capita in 2010 among the provinces and territories: $70,826 (in Canadian dollars). British Columbia’s per capita GDP ($44,847) was just below Ontario’s, though above that of Quebec. Alberta and British Columbia also had some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country in February: 5 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively, compared to 7.4 percent at the national level. By contrast, Ontario and Quebec had jobless rates somewhat above the national level at 7.6 percent and 8.4 percent.

In Lakeland-Winter Haven, nearly two-thirds of the area’s Canadian buyers came from Ontario, while just over 1/10th came from Quebec. Interestingly, while Newfoundland and Labrador only make up 1.5 percent of Canada’s population, they accounted for nearly 10 percent of Canadian buyers in the area.

This may be partially attributed to the province having the third-highest per capita GDP in the nation in 2010 ($55,138 in Canadian dollars), after Alberta and Saskatchewan. By comparison, Ontario’s per capita GDP was $46,303 in 2010 and Quebec’s was $40,394.

The share of Canadian buyers who used a Canadian home address among the total pool of global homebuyers in the 10 U.S. markets ranged from a high of 90.2 percent for the Phoenix market area to a low of about 8 percent for the Manhattan market area.

North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Fla. (share of Canadian buyers, by province/territory)

Share of overall foreign buyers from Canada in North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota (May 2011-January 2012): 77.2 percent.

Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. (share of Canadian buyers, by province)

Share of overall foreign buyers from Canada in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (May 2011-January 2012): 72.3 percent.

In contrast to the other Florida metros on this list, the Quebecois make up most of the Canadian buyers in the Miami metro area.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla. (share of Canadian buyers, by province)

Share of overall foreign buyers from Canada in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach (May 2011-January 2012): 70.5 percent.

Residents of Ontario made up the overwhelming majority of Canadian buyers in the Cape Coral, Orlando, Sarasota, and Tampa metro areas.

Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. (share of Canadian buyers, by province)

Share of overall foreign buyers from Canada in Cape Coral-Fort Myers (May 2011-January 2012): 67.4 percent.

Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla. (share of Canadian buyers, by province/territory)

Share of overall foreign buyers from Canada in Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford (May 2011-January 2012): 46.1 percent.

Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla. (share of Canadian buyers, by province/territory)

Share of overall foreign buyers from Canada in Lakeland-Winter Haven (May 2011-January 2012): 41.7 percent.

All charts are based on public records data provided by DataQuick and analyzed by Inman News.

Living on the edge. No, we’re not referring to the classic Aerosmith power ballad, but rather homes that offer a “living on the edge” experience, in the most literal sense of the term. For those looking to understand what it really means to fully imbibe in a remote living feel, Realtor.com brings you five of the most incredible cliff-top houses on the market today.

Cliff-top Zen in Bedford, N.Y.

Pulling up to this architectural masterpiece once owned by the late “Dali Rama” himself, Frederick Lenz, you wouldn’t necessarily expect it to reveal such a dramatic backdrop. But that’s exactly the case with the $4.99 million contemporary gem, which rests atop “a spring-fed rock quarry” in a peacefully remote, 18-acre slice of Bedford, N.Y. Designed by New York architect Lynne Breslin, the modern estate features the utmost in Zen master living, including a flowing floor plan with a variety of open spaces, clean meditation areas, a sustainable herb garden and more.

Cliff-top Zen in Bedford, N.Y.

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Sheep Mountain Cabin in Luther

It doesn’t get much more remote than this far-flung cabin in Luther, Mont., that hugs a ridge of Sheep Mountain, overlooking the canyon beneath it. Listed for $1.35 million, the secluded cliff-top getaway offers a modest two-bedroom, two-bath living space, but boasts an incredible 110-acre lot with world-class views. It’s pretty much where you would expect someone like renowned playboy George Clooney, who has made a career out of feigning marriage (oh, and he’s pretty good at that acting stuff, too), to retire to someday when he completes the transition from leading man to mountain man.

Sheep Mountain Cabin in Luther, Mont.

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Historic Ravenscleft Cottage in Mount Desert, Maine

Found atop an outcrop of pink granite ledges is Ravenscleft, one of the more notable Peabody & Stearns Shingled Cottages found along the affluent Cooksey drive of Mount Desert Island, Maine. Built in 1901, the historic property was said to have been used as a navigational landmark for sailors entering Seal Harbor, who used the jagged granite and the “raven’s nest” perched above it, to guide them along the shore. Besides being a stunning home example of “living on the edge”, Ravenscleft, listed for $7.5 million, offers a rare opportunity to purchase a cherished Maine property.

Historic Ravenscleft Cottage in Mount Desert, Maine

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Glass House by the Sea in Timber Cove, Calif.

One of the more dramatic home interpretations of “living on the edge” can be found in the sleepy coastal town of Timber Cove, Calif. Built on a rock formation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is the getaway retreat known as the “Glass House by the Sea”, which connects to the mainland by way of a winding, wood-lined bridge. Paying tribute to the dramatic landscape that the $1.99 million cliff-top villa sits on, the design of the home features rows of floor-to-ceiling glass that give way to panoramic views of the rock and ocean below.

Glass House by the Sea in Timber Cove, Calif.

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They do things bigger in Texas, so it comes as little surprise to find a 9,610-square-foot home perched atop a sheer rock cliff. The home in question, an $8.9 million contemporary masterpiece by noted architect Paul Lamb, looks out over Lady Bird Lake and boasts unprecedented views of the Austin, Texas, skyline and the basin below. Besides its dramatic locale, the estate features a lot of more than three acres and an infinity pool that enjoys 650 private feet of waterfront land.

Lady Bird Lake Lookout in Austin, Texas

A. No. The maximum Section 121 exclusion you’ll qualify for is $100,000 (40 percent of the full $250,000 exclusion for single taxpayers).

One of the greatest boons in the tax code for the average person is the Section 121 home-sale exclusion. Homeowners who qualify for it don’t have to pay any income tax on up to $250,000 of the gain from the sale if they’re single, or up to $500,000 if they’re married filing jointly.

Qualifying for the Section 121 exclusion is simple: You just have use the home as your principal residence for at least two years of the prior five years before it’s sold.

As Section 121 was originally enacted in the 1990s, this meant that you could buy a house, rent it out for three years, live in it for two years, and then sell it and qualify for the entire Section 121 exclusion. Thus, you could avoid having to pay tax on up to $500,000 of otherwise taxable gain. And you could do this over and over again. However, those days are gone.

Section 121 was amended in 2008. For sales and exchanges after Dec. 31, 2008, gain from the sale or exchange of a principal residence allocated to periods of nonqualified use is not excluded from gross income. Nonqualified use means any period in 2009 or later where neither you nor your spouse (or your former spouse) used the property as a main home.

Example: You purchased a home on Jan. 1, 2009, and rented it out until Jan. 1, 2012, when you moved in and made it your main residence. You sell the home on Jan. 1, 2014 for a $100,000 gain. During the five years you owned the home there were three years of nonqualified use. Because three of five is 60 percent, only 40 percent of the $100,000 gain — $80,000 — can be excluded under Section 121.

However, nonqualified use does not include any portion of the five-year period in the two-out-of-five-year Section 121 exclusion that falls after the home is used as the principal residence of the taxpayer or spouse. In other words, if you live in the home and then rent it out, the periods of rental use after you lived in the home aren’t a nonqualified use and your Section 121 exclusion won’t be affected.

Most of the markets are located in sunny Florida, though areas in Nevada, Arizona, New York and Hawaii are also on the list. The report highlights the economic and personal factors that drive foreign buyers to buy; their preferred property types; top countries of origin; how they find the real estate professionals they work with; why the selected markets appeal to them; and relevant demographic and housing-related characteristics for the markets, including share of foreign-born population, distressed property footprint, home-price trends, and vacancy rates.

Among the findings in this report, researched and written by Inman News reporter Andrea V. Brambila:

• Population levels in the markets range from about 600,000 in Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla., to nearly 5.6 million in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla.
• Seven out of 10 markets had foreign-born populations above the national rate of 13.1 percent in 2010. The Miami metro had the highest share born abroad, at 39.2 percent.
• In six of the 10 markets, area inhabitants who were foreign-born and moved from abroad accounted for a higher-than-average share of overall inhabitants who reported moving in the previous year in 2010. New York County (Manhattan) had the highest share: 7.7 percent of the people who moved in that county were both foreign-born and hailing from abroad.
• In seven out of 10 markets, the median sales price for an existing, single-family home was lower than the national median of $163,500 in fourth-quarter 2011. In eight out of 10 markets, the median sales price for a condo was lower than the national median of $160,800 for that same quarter.
• Condo prices fell on an annual basis in the fourth quarter in seven out of 10 markets. All seven saw their prices decline by more than the national rate of -1.7 percent.
• Seven of the 10 markets had a higher share of distressed sales in fourth-quarter 2011 than the national rate of 23.7 percent. Eight of the 10 markets had higher foreclosure activity rates in fourth-quarter 2011 compared to the national rate.
• Nine of the 10 markets, except for Honolulu, had higher vacancy rates in 2010 than the national rate of 13.1 percent. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., had the highest rate, at 37 percent.

To provide disclosure of all possible defects, inspectors would need to take air samples for mold, to place test canisters for radon gas, and to sample various materials for possible asbestos fiber and lead content.

But that’s not all.

Home inspections would not be complete without a structural analysis of the foundations, which would require that the inspectors be licensed structural engineers or that they subcontract with a structural engineer on every inspection. Inspectors would also need to take core samples of property sites to ensure geological stability and to evaluate subsurface water drainage characteristics based upon soil composition.

This, of course, would require credentials as a licensed geotechnical engineer. Homes would also need to be tested for electromagnetic fields, for soil contamination, and for off-gassing of synthetic compounds such as urea formaldehyde.

This list could be expanded almost indefinitely if the essential purpose of a home inspection was to disclose all possible property defects.

In truth, home inspections are preliminary visual inspections, not technically exhaustive evaluations. A home inspection is analogous to the routine annual physical that you receive from your doctor. Family physicians don’t do electrocardiograms (EKGs) or CT scans as part of an annual exam. Instead, they look for indications that such tests might be necessary. If so, they refer you to specialists.

In the same way, a competent home inspector is looking for conditions that might warrant further evaluation by specialists such as plumbers, electricians, geotechnical engineers, or registered environmental assessors.

It might surprise you to know how very thorough many home inspectors are in their forensic duties, and how able they are to find significant defects without the use of sophisticated testing devices.

~written by Barry Stone

1. House hunting too long. As many as 60 percent of the homes for sale in some markets are short sales. Many other listings are bank-owned (also known as real estate owned or REO) properties, and those homes tend toward two extremes: terrible condition, or so nice at such a low price they receive multiple offers.

Even the nicer, nondistressed homes on the market can end up in and out of contract over and over again due to appraisal or other lending-related issues.

As a result, it is not at all bizarre to hear homebuyers today say they’ve been house hunting for a year, 18 months, even two or three years. When you house hunt that long, you become susceptible to house hunt fatigue, which causes irrationally extreme overbidding out of sheer exhaustion.

Alternatively, it can cause you to settle for whatever house you can get, even if it doesn’t actually meet your needs — then spend the next 10 years obsessively spending to upgrade, improve, repair and furnish the place to try to make it more like the home you actually wanted.

Both of these outcomes negate and deactivate the bargain you stood to score.

To avoid house hunting too long, it’s uber-important to get and stay clear on the differences between what you want and what you need, and to work with a local real estate professional you trust.

Look to your agent to get and keep your expectations centered in reality, so you can make more strategic decisions throughout your entire house hunt, like house hunting in a price range where you’re likely to both find homes that will work for your life and be successful in your efforts to obtain one.

2. Making lowball offers way too low. Overbidding seems like an obvious way to cancel out the bargain potential of your deal. But making excessively low offers — offers sellers couldn’t afford to take if they wanted to — can have the very same result.

Buyers who think they can operate strictly on the basis of buyer’s market dynamics — without realizing that most sellers will need to make enough to pay off their mortgage or at least receive the fair market value for their home — are cutting off their own noses to spite their faces, all in the name of trying to score an amazing deal.

Note to “lowballers”: If you don’t actually secure the home, the superlow price you offered is no deal at all.

3. Freak-outs, stress, drama and mayhem. Once was, it was mostly the buyers uneducated about the homebuying process who tended to freak out and stress the most, especially at the top of the market. These were the folks who found themselves defeated at every turn by buyers who knew what they were up against and were prepared to make their best offer on their first offer.

Fast forward, and now the norm is for buyers to spend much more time reading up on what to expect, but the inundation of information can create brand new mindset management challenges.

Almost every buyer is stressed about whether they can qualify for a loan, and about buying into a down market. Some buyers try to apply national headlines about home prices being depressed to the superlocal dynamics of their neighborhood market.

This is unwise if you happen to be, for example, trying to buy a home in the boomtown real estate markets of Silicon Valley. Others go the opposite direction and deny that the basic truths about, say, buying a short-sale listing will actually apply to them (attention homebuyers: buying a short sale usually takes a long, long time).

The emotional freak-outs that result from having your expectations shattered, sometimes brutally, in the course of buying a home often lead to panic-based and fear-based decisions, which can be costly in the short and long term. Additionally, the stress itself can take a toll on your ability to be productive at work, and can even impair your relationship with your mate, neither of which are worth any deal you think you stand to strike.

Again, managing your expectations by working with a trusted broker or agent you feel comfortable relying on to understand the market in your neck of the woods and the type of transaction you want to pull off is essential to downgrading the role emotion plays in your real estate decision-making.

(Blog author) Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of “The Savvy Woman’s Homebuying Handbook” and “Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions.” Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador

That intermittent fogging during cold temperatures is an indication that you have what’s known as a “blown seal” in your insulated glass window. Here’s what happens:

Insulated glass windows, also known as double-pane windows, have two panes of glass that are held apart by a metal strip. The strip, usually somewhere between 1/4 and 3/4 of an inch wide, is adhered to the two glass panes with a flexible sealant material.

During the manufacturing process, moisture is evacuated from between the glass panes as they’re sealed together, forming a dead air space. It’s the combination of the two glass panes and the dead air that gives the window panes their additional insulating value, and helps keep the window warmer than one with a single pane of glass.

Depending on the type and design of the window, sometimes inert argon gas is used between the panes to increase the insulating value even further. Some windows also have decorative grids trapped between the panes as a design feature. The sealed, insulated glass units are then placed into the frame and held in place with molding strips, making up a complete window unit.

What happens when damage occurs

The sealed, insulated glass unit is designed to have quite a long life span; in theory, it should last as long as the window unit itself. However, sometimes there are flaws in the manufacturing process or, more likely, some type of impact damage occurs to the window. That can cause a small opening to appear in the seal between the glass and the spacer bar. It’s something you won’t see, but it’s enough to allow air to enter the space between the panes of glass.

You might be thinking that that’s no big deal, since that’s just an air space anyway, right? But the difference is that it’s designed to be a dead, dry air space. Now, with the broken seal, air that has moisture in it has been introduced.

During the summer, when the air temperatures outside are warm and the glass is also warm, that’s OK. But now, with the colder temperatures of winter, the outer pane of glass gets cold. The warm air inside your house is trying harder than ever to escape, and it carries moist air into the window cavity, where it hits that cold glass and condenses back into a liquid. The result is that fogging you see. And because it’s inside the window, you can’t do anything to get rid of it.

Replacement is the only option

Once you discover a window with a blown seal, your only option is to replace the insulated glass unit. You need to do that as soon as you discover the problem, as the window has lost its insulating value, and the trapped moisture can potentially lead to other problems. Not to mention the fact that you can’t see through the window!

The good news is that you must replace only the sealed glass unit, not the entire window. This is something that you need to leave to the pros. Contact a glass company in your area and have them make a site visit. They’ll examine the window, measure the insulated glass unit, including the size of the air space, and have a new one made up that matches. When the new one is ready, they’ll come back out, remove the moldings and the old unit, and install and seal the new unit in place.

If the window is relatively new and the glass unit fails, contact the company or the contractor where you purchased it. Home centers such as Lowe’s and Home Depot will typically replace insulated glass units that fail, as will many other retailers.

If you have windows that are damaged in an insurance-related claim, such as a fire, wind storm, or some type of impact such as a tree limb that falls, you may not be aware of the fact that a seal has been damaged until winter comes around and the fogging becomes obvious. For that reason, if you suspect any type of potential window damage, always make your insurance adjuster aware that you’ll be holding the claim open for possible future supplemental damage claims.

Blog Author is Paul Bianchina written January 13, 2012

Nearly every mother will attest that at some point in her parenting career, often while still pregnant, every worst-case scenario that could ever possibly happen to her progeny (or progeny-to-be) has run through her mind.

Laid-back moms take a deep breath and dismiss such fears as fanciful.

But many others take the Scout-inspired “be prepared” approach, taking serious measures against kidnapping by tagging their kids with GPS-enabled trackers; against school admission drama by sticking their toddlers in enrichment classes ranging from Kinder Kung Fu to Mandarin; and against the ills of being whatever the opposite of well-rounded is (ill-rounded? squared?) by enrolling them in hip-hop dance, golf, Latin and Hebrew school — all at the same time, all before they reach grade school.

This is yet one more way in which buying a home has parallels to birthing — and raising — children. Years before they ever buy, when they’ve barely begun padding their down-payment nest eggs, buyers-to-be report tossing and turning, waking up with night sweats, concerned about all the calamities that might befall their home.

What if a hurricane hits? An earthquake? What if they’ve been completely spoiled by apartment living, neglect to spend 10 hours every weekend working on their house and let the place fall into ruin?

What about all the more mundane, and more-likely-to-arise events that go along with homeownership: Will their effort to unstick a window send them to the hospital, or their do-it-yourself efforts to replace a single roof shingle spiral into a bigger leak than they had before?

These nightmarish concerns of homebuyers everywhere are precisely the issues addressed in the meaty little tome, “What’s a Homeowner to Do?” by DIY Network star/contractor Stephen Fanuka and co-author Edward Lewine.

If you’ve ever bought one of those little gift books that has a year’s worth of daily inspirational messages, this book will remind you of one of those — on steroids. It’s a small-format book filled with 442 tips, diagrams, and easy-to-use, bite-sized tutorials for do-it-yourself home improvement, maintenance and safety projects.

Fanuka, the star of the show “Million Dollar Contractor,” teams up with Edward Lewine (who writes a couple of home improvement columns for The New York Times Magazine) to comprehensively catalog and address precisely the sorts of items that keep buyers and homeowners awake at night, offering their insomnia-soothing home improvement knowledge in a highly digestible format.

Throughout, they flag items that homeowners need to maintain on a regular basis to avoid disasters, parse out which items owners can do themselves (and which they should refer to the pros), empower them to ask the right questions and have the right conversations with those pros, and walk them through simple instructions for doing it themselves, where applicable.

The book starts out with a “green manifesto” that briefs readers on all the ways in which their homes impact the environment by offering them a long bullet point list of choices they can make to green their homes. It then moves on to cover the down-and-dirty, do-it-yourself tutorials with a chapter on how to assemble and use a basic toolkit, including what not to do (e.g., get “mesmerized by fasteners”).

Then, the book proceeds to offer hundreds of mini-lessons categorized by area of a home, from the exterior, to windows, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and such subjects as carpentry, doors and locks, walls, basements, garages, yards, and safety and security issues.

Many of these lessons, which run from how to locate a roof leak to how a door lock works, come complete with the authors’ “Tricks of the Trade,” pithy one-liners with uber-handy suggestions, workarounds, troubleshooting, insider secrets for handling common issues and even warnings for avoiding common complications.

And the range of topics the authors cover maps directly to the range of concerns real homeowners have, from maintaining their roofs to installing baseboards, cabinet doors, landscape lighting and supports for adjustable shelves.

Often, these sorts of tips books can be tough to use for readers who have a high need for information — those who want to know why they should do things a particular way, or why they should trust the proffered advice.

But interspersed throughout the book’s tips on what to do to your home are highly interesting briefings on “how” things in your home work. In short-and-sweet plain English, Fanuka and Lewine answer questions like “What’s so important about rain gutters?” and “How are wooden stairs constructed?”

If you own a home and feel at loose ends when it comes to knowing what you should be doing to keep it in tip-top shape, “What’s a Homeowner to Do” is an accessible, yet smart, primer and reference guide you’ll turn to time and time again. If you’re still in house hunt mode, definitely put it on your housewarming registry — it’ll save you some sleepless nights, and maybe even some money!

(Blog Author) Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of “The Savvy Woman’s Homebuying Handbook” and “Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions.”