FlippingSTATION.blogspot.com

Staging Home For Sale

2009-02-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

Trying to sell a house, regardless if it is an investment property or someones residence for many years, creates many challenges not only to the selling agent who takes the responsibility to list and sell the property but also to the homeowners who face with all types of emotions and uncertainties like asking questions: Will somebody buy my house? How much my house will be sold for?

Homes for sale being converted as sold homes is something that no one can exactly predict when it will happen, it can be a matter of days, weeks, months or even years. With the existing market, where there is more supplies than demands, considering all the mounting inventories available in almost different parts of the US, the competition is stiff and high. Inorder for anyone trying to sell her/his property faster than his/her comparable properties, the property need to be very competitive and stands out among the comparables.

Considering comparables with the same asking prices and similar square footage, one way to help a property stand out better and have better chances of getting offers and possibly bidding war is by making the property look at its best as a product. Presenting a house for sale as a product means making it as presentable as possible, highlighting its best features and assets.

One way to highlight a house for sale is by staging it. Home staging has been widely popularized in the past few years. Although, its been existing and practiced for a long time, its only been popularly known and widely encouraged in recent years to all those who try to sell their house or properties. Staging a home is dressing up the house to highlights its best features and assets and minimize its flaw and make the negatives forgetable or unnoticable.

Each house for sale have different characteristic and current state that it is almost impossible to know how much it will cost to stage a house. Home staging can cost from zero (0) to thousands of dollars, depending on what changes you want to make in the interior design. Simple decluttering and depersonalizing of the house by removing unnecessary and distracting decors and other items that will not help make a sale, removing family photos and personalized items, or re-arranging furnitures are some ways to stage a house without spending a lot of money but will help make your house more presentable and sellable.

©JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.
Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

Crown Molding And Ceiling Vents

2008-11-21T21:43:00.000-08:00

Crown molding are highly desireable these days, they make a room more finished and classic. For new home constructions, crown molding placement may already be a part of the plan and may pose no conflict with the location of the air vents. But for older homes, that were originally built with no crown molding, and crown molding was not a consideration in the past, the location of the vents placed in the ceilings may sometimes interefere with the placement of the new crown moldings. Having ceiling vents placed way too close to the edge of ceiling, just an inch or two near the walls, may complicate the idea of adding a crown molding. If you are serious about adding crown molding to a room with vents placed too close to the edge of the ceilings, these vents may need to be moved inorder to give clearance to the crown moldings. But moving the air vents may not sound as easy at it look because hidden above the attic, on the other side of the ceiling vents, are huge ducting system attached to these vents that will make vents moving a complicated process, specially when you need to move the vents some feet away, in different part of the ceiling.

©JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.
Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

Quest For Kitchen Cabinets

2008-10-23T00:07:00.000-07:00

Replacing kitchen cabinet and make a kitchen look more current and up-to-date is one of my favorite job in a home renovation. Kitchen renovation is one of the most important changes in a home renovation specially when it comes to selling homes. Equally important to put a lot of thought and budget into is the master bathroom or all the bathrooms in the house.

One key item that will hugely affect the overall result of a kitchen renovation is the style and quality of the kitchen cabinets. There are several choices and styles of cabinetries to choose from, that is why it is not the easiest job to decide which one works the best. One major factor that widely influence someones decision to choosing kitchen cabinets is the budget. Kitchen cabinets for a 10 feet by 10 feet kitchen can range anywhere from $1,000 to $30,000 depending on the cabinetry components and materials the cabinets are made of. Quality, design, manufacturer and branding also widely influence the cabinetry pricing.

There are plenty of choices when it comes to cabinetries. Knowing your budget and the maximum amount you can spend on it, will largely influence the type of kitchen cabinetry that will end up in your kitchen. Commonly, custom and special order cabinets are usually more expensive compare to the ones that are ready-made and already available in the store shelvings.

Sometimes, higher prices is not always the best ones that may work the best in someones kitchen. In a design point of view, the colors and stained, design and style of the cabinets needs to work with the appliances and the wall paint as well. Personally, choosing kitchen cabinet may not be the easiest decision there is, but it is definitely a fun process (i think), and seeing the kitchen overall result and seeing everything all come together is a rewarding experience.

©JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.
Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

Mini Blinds For Privacy

2008-10-15T23:58:00.000-07:00

The new windows that we installed looks great. We installed double-paned with grid vinyl windows, and its an high energy efficient design.

But there are times, no matter how nice the view is outside, there instances that we need privacy specially in the evening, when it is dark outside and we have the lights on. To resolve the issue of privacy with the glass windows, we decided to install room-darkening mini blinds. Room darkening mini-blinds is great for being out of the way in the morning, and serves its purpose in the evening or at anytime when needed.

The good thing about mini-blinds is that they are very flexible, you can collapse it, adjust the angle of the blinds for light and view control, and if the mini-blinds are installed within the framing of the window, it can also work together with curtains!

©JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.
Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

Getting A Permit For Room Addition

2008-09-27T23:43:00.000-07:00

We needed to have a laundry room and a master closet added to a house but doing so requires building permit here in CA. So we could not proceed with the project without having the permit approved and ready for actual implementation. To get the project up and running, we needed the permit, first by having the application submitted and have it approved by the building department of the city hall.

Getting the building permit in itself was a lot work. We were required to submit scaled drawing of different plans. There were all types of technical drawings that were required together with the permit application including plot pan, foundation plan, structural plan, roof plan, floor plan, electrical plan, and more. It was definitely a challege and loads of work for me because I had to prepare all the drawings myself.

In the end, it was a relief to have the permit finally approved after second visit to the city hall. It took two (2) visits because there were additional drawings that were requested the first time. And CA laws requires Title 24 report for the particular permit that we were seeking.

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Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

Test Paint Before You Paint

2008-08-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

We recently bought a costumized colored paint for used in kitchen and bath. Before we made the purchased, we checked how the paint swatch will work with the existing wall and floor tiles in the bathroom by putting the swatch next to a tile piece, it was perfect combo, so we thought. The color swatch was a nice shade of green that went really well with the tile, which is an exact match of the existing tiles in the bathroom. We decided not to buy a paint test sample by the quart to test the color we choosed, basically just went with how they went together visually, side by side in pieces. When we got the customized paint ordered, the color matched perfectly with the paint swatch, so we painted the bathroom wall with it. After the painting was done, the green paint in the wall looked very yellowish as the natural sunlight goes through the window. The existing lighting of the bathroom didnt help either, the painted wall definitely didnt look the same as the color we ordered because the lighting of the bathroom changed the shade of the green into yellowish.

Lesson learned, it is always a good idea to buy a quart of paint with the desired color before purchasing by the gallons, specially if you are planning to purchase five (5) gallons or more. By running a sample painting, not only will it save you money when it wont turn out as expected, but save you lots of time and effort as well. With all the effort and time it took to paint and had to change to another color after that definitely consumed a lot of time and sweat and the remaining unwanted paint will be unusable and usually cannot be returned because most stores do not allow special orders or customized paint colors to be returned.

So if you are planning to refresh a room or two by painting the walls, it might not hurt to run a test painting in the same wall first where you are planning to paint to make sure that the paint color you choose will still look as you expect with the electrical lighting and the natural sunlight that goes through the room. Best yet, check the test paint at different times of day to make sure that the new paint color you choose work well both day and night!

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Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

All rights reserved. Please do not copy. Please do not republished without any written permission from author.

Knocking Down Walls

2008-07-19T16:15:00.000-07:00

People love the feeling of openess in their homes. A lot of times traditional rooms are separated by four cornered walls, but sometimes, walls separate you from the things that are happening in other rooms! There are times that a wall feels more closed in and makes you feel missed out from the fun and family activities. Nowadays, a lot of family wants an open feeling in their home, being able to see the kids or participate in the conversation with friends in the living room or dining area while cooking in the kitchen. Having a nice flow in foot traffic and having the house visually look larger is ideal for a lot of people these days, and one way to achieve these goals is by knocking down few walls that separate one room to another, and give it a new open feeling and smooth flowing. But before you get so excited and start knocking down walls, wait, knocking down walls maybe the design solution to elimenate the cramp and closed-in feeling, but be sure to consult a Structural Engineer first, to verify that the wall you are removing is not a load bearing wall! Bearing walls are functioning integral part of the whole house, so it cannot be easily remove without resupporting everything else that relies on those walls. Bearing walls maybe supporting your whole roof above or your second floor. So if you will blindly remove a load bearing wall without resupporting those loads first, it may cause your roof or second floor to collapse or sag, which you dont want to happen. So before getting so excited above removing those walls inorder to achieve those open feeling, make sure that you properly consult with a license Structural Engineer inorder to help you decide how to resupport all the existing loads that the existing bearing walls are carrying. Bearing walls or non-bearing walls, there is a way to knock them down, it just have to be done right and properly. One popular way to resupport all the loads of a bearing wall is by installing the right size beams. But beams installation can be a lot of hard labor and heavy task, and needs knowledgeable manpowers. Installing huge beams requires manpowers and requires temporary supports of existing loads while the beams are being placed. If you are willing to spend these extra costs and works of removing a wall or two, you can possibly achieve that open feeling in your home that you are aiming for.

©JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.
Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

Flooring Choices

2008-06-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

When it comes to updating or changing the floor, there are so many choices out there. Among the popular ones are hardwood floor, laminate flooring, natural rocks, tiles, carpet, vinyl, etc. Deciding which one to choose is a major challenge for a house flipper or designer. One main factor that may largely affect someones decision when it comes to flooring is the time and budget to renovate the floor.
Real hardwood floors are normally more expensive but definitely more desirable compare to wood laminate flooring. But both hardwood and laminate flooring will definitely make a nice upgrade and finish if installed and done right. Carpet flooring are widely desireable in areas like the bedrooms and family room, where people usually want to walk bare foot, but definitely wont work the best in bathrooms nor kitchen where they are normally wet areas. Deciding the right color of carpet is not an easy task specially that there are tons of choices out there and aside from color choices, there are also several different materials and textures that needs to be considered. The type and quality of carpet you choose will definitely affect your budget depends on the price point. Tiles and natural stones are great alternative, although they may be more complicated to install than other type of flooring but easier to maintain and clean. For wet areas like bathrooms and kitchen, ceramin tiles and natural stones are usually most prefered. Vinyl sidings are usually the most affordable but if you wish to speak quality and elegance to your potential home buyers, vinyl sidings might not be the best choice for this purpose. Like ceramic tiles, vinyl sidings are easy to clean and maintain.

©JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.
Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

Grid Or Gridless Windows And Doors

2008-05-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

When it comes to maximizing the enjoyment of a beautiful outdoor scenery from indoors, it is hard to decide which type of window or sliding french door is best, with a grid or with no grid. I personally think that windows with grid looks very nice from outside look and it totally defines the whole space specially looking from the outside. Looking from the outside, grid windows definitely stands out and looks more defined. But the problem with windows with grids is that it kind of chopped and pixelate the beautiful outdoor scenery when you are looking from inside. The square grid pattern in a window may sometimes take away the scenery as a whole because of the lines crossing each other right infront the view. Although sometimes, outdoor view is not very pleasant, so having grid may work wonders with such scenery to cover and disguise the view, atleast it minimizes or hide the unpleasant view a little bit. But when you are talking beautiful views of the lawn, beach, or mountains, then having grids may sometimes feel like it is taking a little bit of the scenery.
So before you tear down windows and start buying the replacement window, it is wise to check out the view or scenery that will be visible where the window will be placed and installed inorder for you to know which type of window is best for what you want to achieve. If you wish to open up a wall and put a window or french door inorder to showcase an amazing scenery outside, then you might think twice about having square grids because sometimes it does take away some of the view from inside by making it looked pixelate and chopped, and you might not like how it will come out but once the window or door is installed it might be too late to decide that the grid is not working for you, unless you have plenty of budget you can always change things. Specially that new windows and the cost to install windows and doors nowaways are quite high, so it is definitely quite costly to make mistakes and to change minds.

©JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.
Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

Before Upgrading The Bedroom Windows

2008-05-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

After a visit in the city hall to inquire regarding changing the outdoor sidings, we also find out that replacing bedroom windows in our area now requires a permit and/or detailed scaled plan also not just the exterior sidings. Permit and scaled drawing is required regardless if it is the same window dimensions, smaller window, or bigger windows to ensure that the new code is meet. The code requires that for fire safety and having working emergency exit there should be a open space of atleast 5 square feet and a certain minimum measurement is also required from finished floor to the bottom of the window edge for easy escape route incase of any fire or emergency.

So trying to upgrade the same size window in the bedroom is now more expense than before because if the current code is not meet, then the new windows needs to be adjusted and positioned properly inorder to meet the required code. Adjusting the position and height of the window may mean tearing up the sheet rack wallings, or re-framing the whole 2x4 frame boards, and possibly moving moving the header board to accomodate the new code.

There is definitely good and bad side to this new code. On the good side, having safety measures is definitely ideal for most household because no one may never know when they need an escape route or emergency exit. But on the bad side, if you just want to upgrade your bedroom windows from single pane to dual pane or more energy efficient windows inorder to save electricity bill then the new code in replacing bedroom windows in some areas or cities will turn out to be more costly than before because as mentioned earlier, doing so may mean tearing interior walls and re-framing, so more cost of materials and cost of labor will be added to the total expense.

©JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.
Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

When Is The Best Time To Flip

2008-04-08T01:44:00.000-07:00

Personally, I think the best time to flip a house is during summer and spring time because that is when the weather is most generous and accomodating. Rain and snow is not in anyway very friendly when you are trying to knock down walls, tear up the roof, paint the ceilings and sheet rock inside with no outside ventilation. The only pitfall when it comes to summer time flipping is the ability to bear summer heat specially when it is three digits temperature outside, its not only uncomfortable and unhealthy, but it is hard to concentrate on the task at hand when the sun is beginning to toast you.

Although, summer and spring time is probably the best time to flip and you only have few months target to get the renovations done, then that could be a problem because the timing to sell the flipped house might not be so good when it will be listed on a winter time, where there are probably less people coming out to look for properties due to weather conditions. The good thing is that when it comes to real estate, anything can possibly be accomplish at anytime, may be bad timing or good timing, but where there is a well, there is a way. But then again, if you want to flip and want things done in your timeframe, weather doesnt matter sometimes, rain or shine, the main goal is get it done specially when the carrying cost is outrageously high.

©JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.
Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

Buying Bank Owned Properties

2008-03-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

For the past few years, there were a lot of properties in the United States that ended up in default and/or foreclosures. Some properties in default were thankfully been saved by homeowners, while other properties ended up in the hands of the lenders. Properties that were not recovered by the homeowners usually ended up being owned by the lenders, and most lenders are banks. So when you are planning to purchase a once foreclosed property, you probably ended up buying such property from a bank, as the seller.

Nowadays, you heard it all over the radio and telivision regarding properties that were foreclosed, but finding all these properties to purchase is not always easy as it sounds. Because although there are a lot of available properties that are owned by the banks that are ready for sale, dealing with the bank to buy a property is not always the easiest process. For one, banks are not in the business to sell properties that is why they usually cannot accomodate all interested buyers right away. Some banks may have designated realtor that they hired to take care of all the sales of properties that they acquired via foreclosures, but probably not all banks have immediate real estate agent that you can approach regarding their properties for sale. So having access to this properties may not always be a breeze as anyone thought and imagine! Even if some banks do want to get rid of their acquired properties, it is still difficult for some buyers to check out these properties specially if some of these properties are not being listed in the MLS.

And if you get lucky that you find a property you are interested to buy from a bank even if it is not listed by a real estate agent, many still find it hard to purchase such property due to the fact that many banks are busy doing banking and could not accomodate customers right away who are trying to purchase any of their properties. The hardest time for most real etstate buyers is the waiting time specially that for many people, time is gold, and not knowing when a bank is gonna reply on a purchase interest is definitely a buyers nightmare! Although there are lenders/banks that are highly motivated and may answer to any purchase interest in a matter of few days, some buyers may not be so lucky if they ended have to wait for few weeks.

No situation is ever the same, so definitely buying a property from a bank or a lender is a case to case basis when it comes to determining if it is easier process or more complicated process. One of the easiest way to find properties for sale is definitely properties that are being on MLS and online.

©JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.
Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com

Disclosure Policy And Site Terms

2008-02-23T13:42:00.001-08:00

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content may not always be identified.

Effective Date: January 1 2007

Foreclosures still continues

2007-11-28T20:52:00.000-08:00

This year 2007 has been a terrible year for a lot of homeowners who have no choice but to have their homes go into foreclosures. This is not an easy situation for anyone to handle, to have a home go into foreclosure, or worse go into auction. One of the many possible reason why a home ended up in foreclosure is the flactuating interest rate of a homeowners mortgage loan. If a homeowner availed a variable rate loan when they bought their house, this rate would either go up or go down, in other words, the monthly house payments could also either go up and down as well. And the years 2006-2007, the interest rates have been going up and up most of the time, and a lot of the homeowners who bought houses using variable rates loan are largely affected by these flactuating rates. And with the climbing interest rates, monthly payments are going higher and some couldnt possibly afford the monthly payment changes, that affects their capability to pay on time and pay the above minimum of what is due per month. And most lenders, after few months of deliquency in paying the mortgage loan will result in home foreclosures.

The year 2006-2007 have been a record breaking numbers of homes in foreclosure, and prices of homes for sale are dropping as well. This situation generally means that there are a lot of housing inventories in the market. More housing inventories than what is in demand, meaning more inventories than buyers, results in price drop of houses, which is not good in the part of the sellers. This is also what is commonly called a Buyers Market, where individuals or investors who would like to buy a house can possibly get a house cheaper than what a house was previously priced or assessed.

All Rights Reserved. Written by JAZEVOX
Written by JazeVox of http://flippingstation.blogspot.com/ and http://ourflip.blogspot.com/

Effects of Too Many Home Shows

2007-10-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

Since one or two years ago, i been watching a lot of HGTV and TLC home shows, where I learned a lot about home remodeling, fixing houses, and interior decorating. Some of the shows that motivates me a lot are Flip That House, Property Ladder and Flip This House. Watching thess shows surely inspired me to try the real estate ladder, and try climbing it myself. My prior experiences as far as real estate related were fixing our home and make it more updated and doing lots and lots of landscaping that will surely help in house flipping by giving more curb appeal to make the property more appealing to the prospect buyers. I always wanted to study Architecture, or Interior Decorating in college but somehow the wind blow in another direction and I ended up in an engineering course. But the real estate is something that I am totally motivated to try these days, I am planning to take some formal training to get started and hopefully find myself up climbing the property ladder pretty soon.