Can you recognize these 12 home maintenance cures for Yardley & Newtown Homes.
Based on the real estate market in Yardley, Newtown and all over Bucks County, over the past year or so, there appear to be many people who have recently purchased homes for the first time. As I have writen about previously, I love working with first time home buyers.
I found this article on a great website, called House Logic. The site is defintely worth checking out. There are dozens and dozens of great articles that pertain to real estate. Today, lets look at 12 common home maintenance clues, and solutions.
Your house sometimes acts as if it’s alive—making strange sounds, emitting odd odors, and giving visual cues that say something might be amiss. Often, these are signs of home maintenance issues that need to be addressed, and decoding these sometimes puzzling clues could prevent minor problems from turning into major home repairs.
Here’s how to interpret what your house is trying to tell you, and how to recognize the early warnings of common home
Peeling exterior paint
Cause: Moisture is probably getting underneath the paint, perhaps from a leaking gutter overhead or from a steamy bathroom on the other side of the wall.
Cure: If you catch the problem right away, you might just need to address the moisture issue and then scrape off the loose paint, prime bare spots, and repaint that wall, for a total of a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars. Delay too long and the siding might rot. Patching and repainting the whole house might cost $10,000.
To prevent a chronically steamy bathroom, consider installing a new ventilation fan with a humidity-sensing switch that automatically exhausts moisture-laden air. Cost is about $250.
Flickering lights
Cause: If only a single bulb flickers, it might be loose in its socket or in need of replacement. If lights always dim when the refrigerator or other appliance turns on, the circuit might be overloaded. If groups of lights flicker, connections at the electrical panel or elsewhere might be loose, causing power to arc—or jump—over the gaps. Arcing is a serious problem; it starts fires.
Cure: Anyone can tighten a bulb. Handy homeowners can shut off circuits and tighten loose connections within switch boxes. If you’re not comfortable doing that, or if you suspect an overloaded circuit or loose connection at the panel box, call in a licensed electrician. You’ll pay $150 to $250 for a new circuit, and $500 to $700 for a new electrical panel—way less than what you’d spend to recover from a fire.
Rustling in a wall
Cause: Sure, termites usually signal their presence by building pencil-thick mud tubes up from the ground or by swarming from pinholes in floors or walls. But did you know it’s also possible to detect them by sound? Tap on a wall and then press an ear against it. See if you hear rustling that matches recordings of Formosan or other termites. A sound like crinkling cellophane could mean carpenter ants.
Cure: Call a pest-control professional. Cost is $65 to $100 for an inspection.
Loud knocking
Cause: If the knocking occurs when you turn off water, you have “water hammer,” caused when fast-moving water comes to a sudden stop and there is no air chamber (a short, specially designed piece of pipe) to cushion the shock wave. If knocking occurs when your furnace switches on or off, metal ducts are expanding or contracting as temperature changes.
Cure: If water pipes are the issue and there is an air chamber near the faucet, it may be filled with water and needs to be drained. You might be able to do this yourself. If you’re not confident of tackling that or if there is no chamber, call a plumber ($65 an hour) to add one. Those snapping ducts? Just get used to them.
A toilet tank that refills all on its own
Cause: Worn interior parts may be causing water to trickle through the toilet constantly, causing the water level in the tank to lower and eventually triggering the refill mechanism. A leaky toilet potentially wastes 1,500 gallons a month.
Cure: Untangle or loosen the chain—it may be too tight and preventing the flapper from seating fully, letting water leak out the flush valve. Or, try bending the tube connected to the float ball. If those don’t work, replace the valve and flapper inside the toilet tank (under $25 if you do it yourself, and a little more if you upgrade to a water-saving dual-flush valve).
Creaks and groans
Cause: All houses creak and groan a little as parts expand and contract with temperature fluctuations and with changes in levels of humidity.
Cure: None—it’s normal for house to make a few snaps and pops. But don’t ignore really loud groans when there’s been an unusual amount of snow or rain, especially if your house has a flat roof. There may be an excessive or even dangerous amount of weight on your roof. If you suspect that may be the case, be prudent: Get everyone out of the house and call in a professional to check the roof.
Musty odors
Cause: Mildew, a fungus, is growing because indoor air is humid enough to allow condensation to form on cold surfaces. Basements are favorite haunts for mildew.
Cure: Keep surfaces dry by one or more strategies: increase air movement with a $20 fan, keep relative humidity below 50% in summer or 40% in winter with a $175 dehumidifier, or make surfaces warmer by adding insulation.
Rotten-egg smell when you run water
Cause: Bacteria that produce hydrogen sulfide gas (the scientific name for “rotten egg smell”) are in your plumbing, or there is a problem with your water heater. Fill a glass with hot water, step away from the sink, and take a whiff; if you detect no sulfur smell, they’re in the drain.
Cure: Disinfect the drain by pouring in a $1 bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide solution, sold at drug stores. A sulfur smell in only hot water points to the water heater as the problem; call a plumber to disinfect the system or replace the tank’s magnesium anode. If hot and cold water both smell, call your water supplier (or health department if you have a well).
Strange-tasting tap water
Cause: Mineral content of drinking water varies, so taste does too. But if the water tastes metallic, iron or copper may be leaching from pipes. If you taste chlorine, your water supplier may have overdosed on disinfectant, or a correct level could be interacting with organic material within your plumbing system.
Cure: If chlorine seems high at all taps, or if you taste metals, call your water supplier or have your well water tested. If only one tap has water with high chlorine or if the taste goes away after you run water for a few minutes, flush your system or call a plumber.
An under-the-counter water purifier with a top-quality activated carbon filter will remove heavy metals, bacteria, and other contaminants. In addition, it removes odors and bad tastes. Expect to pay $150 to $200 for a purifier with a replaceable cartridge.
Sour milk
Cause: With today’s hyper-pasteurized dairy products, milk doesn’t sour easily. So if it or other refrigerated food spoils unusually fast, the temperature in your refrigerator could be too high.
Cure: Get an $8 refrigerator thermometer and adjust the control so on each shelf stays below 40 degrees. If you can’t achieve this, consider buying a new Energy Star-rated refrigerator. Fridges are pricey, $450 to $2,000 or more, but you’ll save energy as well as food and might qualify for rebates.
Trembling floors
Cause: If items on tables and shelve jiggle and shimmy when you walk past, or if your floor feels like it gives under your weight, the floor joists might not be sturdy enough or past remodeling might have removed a support wall.
Cure: Have a structural engineer or experienced contractor see whether you can add more joists, bolster existing ones with an additional layer of plywood subflooring, or add a post to support the floor better. You’ll pay up to $500 for a structural engineer to evaluate your problem.
Mysterious breezes
Cause: If a ground-floor room seems drafty, air may be seeping in along the foundation or through an improperly sealed window or door. A drafty attic can make things worse, as warm air currents will rise naturally and exit through any gaps in the attic, pulling colder air in through lower-level cracks.
Cure: Starting in the attic and working your way down, seal all gaps.
Continue Reading > Add a Comment |Upper Makefield, Washington Crossing and Bucks County Market Statistics for June 2010
For today’s post, lets look at what has happened through June, in Upper Makefield Township & Washington Crossing , Bucks County real estate.
Upper Makefield Township is interesting, because it represents one of the more expensive real estate communities in Bucks County, and also, in general has the fewest number of transactions. As a result, sometimes the numbers can be skewed.
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Upper Makefield Real Estate update, June 30, 2010
Inventory of homes for sale, as of the end of June, 2010 was 138
Inventory of homes for sale, as of the end of May, 2010 was 141
Inventory of homes for sale, as of the end of June, 2009 was 132.
Inventory is fairly stable, both month to month, as well as compared with the same time last year.
Average price of a home for sale at the end of June, 2010 was 1.24 million.
Average price of a home for sale at the end of June, 2009 was 1.32 million.
List price in inventory is down by 5.5%. However, this is where the numbers can get a bit skewed by the number of houses that are for sale above 1.3 million.
Sales data:
47 Homes have sold, through June, 2010 at 90% of original asking price.
30 Homes sold through the end of June, 2009 at 87% of original asking price.
This really represents a large increase in the activity level, for Upper Makefield Township real estate. Sales volume is up by more than 56% from last year, at the same time.
Additional observations: At the current sale pace, there still remains an 18.6 month supply of homes in inventory. This compares with 22 months a year ago, so factors have improved, although we still remain in a strong, buyers market in Upper Township and Washington Crossing.
The other interesting observation is that during 2009, most (82%) of the homes sold in Upper Makefield Township, sold for less than a million. Currently, 49% of the homes (68 of 138) on the market are priced above 1 million. This represents a 38 month supply at current sales pace for homes priced above a million. As bad as that sounds, it actually represents a significant improvement for more expensive homes in Upper Makefield.
As always, it is critical to price your home realistically, if you want to sell.
I can offer a very detailed report, that will show you homes that are active, pending and sold, within about a 5 mile radius of your home, in any area I serve. It is an extremely detailed report. If you would like to receive the report, please email me. Marty@buckscountypatoday.com
Continue Reading > Add a Comment |A detailed look at the Real Estate market in Yardley, Newtown, and all of Bucks County
It’s time to take a detailed look at how the real estate market is performing, in Yardley, Newtown, and all other Bucks County areas, that I cover.
It is interesting to look at the Bucks County real estate update, and realize that we now have information for the first half of 2010.
Some observations, Bucks County wide real estate, first.
- Through June, sold/closed units is positive, compared with last year, in 7 of 8 of our principal markets, as well as for all of Bucks County.
- County wide the increase was 22.9%
- Real estate prices were actually up by 5.2%, through the first half of the year, for the entire County. Refer to the chart, to see how each municipality did.
- For all of Bucks County, the pricing momentum actually declined from May. It went from a 6.8% increase in May to June’s 5.2%
- The best forward looking indicator we have, is pending sales. Probably due to the expiring tax credit this June, pending sales for Bucks County, was down 32%, compared with June of last year. Surprisingly, it was 4 % higher than at the end of May.
- Inventory of homes, is higher now, than it was at the end of May, County wide. However, compared with June, last year, inventory levels are down, County wide.
- Bucks County wide, there remains a 10.5 month supply of homes on the market, which is better than it was last year, at the same time, but still indicating a strong, buyers market.
- Average days on the market, remains higher in most markets, than last year.
- Average list price of homes in inventory, at the end of June, for the County, was down just slightly from last year. (-0.8%)
- Discounts off of the asking price, are actually showing an improving trend. Overall, buyers are achieving approximately a 7% discount from the opening list price of the current listing contract.
Each of the real estate markets that I cover, performs differently. Lets look at real estate in Lower Makefield & Yardley, for now. I will review Upper Makefield Township, Newtown, Northampton, and others, in furture posts.[issuu viewmode=presentation layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml showflipbtn=true documentid=100716154203-21c2dbbf18274151a0d0d7f568940ff8 docname=lmt_sold_units_-_avg_price_chart-1- username=sbgifford loadinginfotext=LMT_SOLD_UNITS_%26_AVG_PRICE_CHART(1) showhtmllink=true width=400 height=188 unit=px]
Lower Makefield Township, Yardley real estate observations.
- Inventory of homes for sale in June 2010 was 238
- Inventory of homes for sale in May 2010 was 223
- Inventory of homes for sale in June, 2009 was 253.
- Average price of a home for sale in June 2010 was $514,000.
- Average price of a home for sale in June 2009 was $526,000.
- 163 Homes sold through June of 2010, at 93% of the asking price.
- 97 Homes sold through June of 2009, at 91% of the asking price.
There remains an 8.9 month supply of homes on the market, in Lower Makefield Township. Since we consider a balanced market to exist, when there is about a 6 month supply of houses, conditions still favor buyers.
Average days on the market are now 79 compared with 70 last year at this time. Competition remains a challenge to sellers. Now, more than ever, it is critical to price homes correctly and market aggressively, if you are to sell.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments, and I will post additional details on other communities, in future posts.
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Update to Yardley, Lower Makefield Township, Bucks County, real estate market.
I will provide a much more detailed, statistical review of actual numbers for the real estate market in Yardley, Lower Makefield Township, and all over Bucks County, over the next few days.
In the meantime, check out these graphs, that are specific to real estate in Yardley and Lower Makefield Township, in Bucks County.
Please note that these charts, include all homes that fall within the 19067 zip code.
Inventory trend in Lower Makefield Township & Yardley
Days on market for Yardley & Lower Makefield Township, Bucks County
Median price for Yardley & Lower Makefield Townshp
Interesting to see that the trend, regarding inventory levels, has been increasing, although average days on the market appears to be decreasing, and median pricing has held reasonably steady.
No question that the level of sales activity has slowed, since the tax credit expired at the end of June.
I will take a closer look at the real numbers, in future posts.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Continue Reading > Add a Comment |Want to appeal your taxes in Yardley, Newtown & Bucks County?
As many of you know, I have written a number of blog posts, about the process of filing a real estate property tax appeal, anywhere in Bucks County. I have had home owners calling me, about real estate tax appeals, everywhere from Lower Makefield Township, Yardley, Newtown, Upper Makefield Township, and all over Bucks County.
As we get closer to the filing deadline, for 2010, I thought it would be helpful to give you some updated information on the process.
I have actually posted, on my blog, the form that needs to be submitted to the tax office, in order to notify them of your intent to file an appeal of your real estate taxes.
The issue for the current year, however, is that the formula that the County will use, to equate your assessment to fair market value, from a tax standpoint, has changed. This has been confirmed for me, through a couple of sources, but the change is pretty significant, and unfortunately, will drastically reduce the number of home owners that will be succesful in their appeals.
In order to determine how your assessment equates to fair market value, from the County tax assessor perspective, you will take your assessment, and divide it by .109. The rate last year, was .097.
For example, if your current assessment is 47,440, you would divide that by .109, which equals 435,229. If, in your opinion, your house is worth more than that, it would mean that you can make a case for lowering your taxes. Using the same assessment, and using last years equalizer, the amount would have been over 488,000! You can see that the change, by approximately 12%, in the equalizer that the County is now using, will have a very significant effect on who is able to appeal their taxes, this year.
Although, as I have mentioned in previous posts, the process is extremely easy, it is a good idea to check your assessment, and look at the equalizer, to see whether it appears as though you have a case.
Please note, that I am not an appraiser, nor a tax advisor, so it may be wise to consult a professional, if you are considering filing a real estate tax appeal. I offer this information, only as a public service, to provide direction for those people who are considering filing tax appeals.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Continue Reading > Add a Comment |