BNA Home Solutions

10 Tips for Maximizing Small Living Spaces FEBRUARY 24, 2019 ________________________________________ How can you make the most out of your living space? With mobility on the rise and affordability getting worse, renters and homebuyers are frequently finding themselves living in tighter quarters than they’d like. Whether you desperately crave to make your current space bigger, make a new home work for your large family, or to maximize a rental or home for sale, check out t...Continue reading

4 Ways to Winterize Your Real Estate Investment JANUARY 10, 2019 The weather outside may not be frightful yet, but it certainly will be soon. Smart real estate investors should take advantage of the mild temperatures to get their homes ready for the snow and ice. Here are four ways to make sure your real estate investment stays cozy and safe all winter long.... 1) Tune up your furnace. The last thing you want is for your home’s heating system to break down in the middle of the winter. Call in an HVAC specialist to inspect your furnace and ducts. Stock up on furnace filters, and remove anything around your heater that might catch fire after prolonged exposure to the ambient heat. 2) Seal interior leaks. Blocking interior leaks is important if you want to keep your home well insulated this season. Try holding a lit candle near your windows, door frames and electrical outlets. If the flame flickers or the smoke moves in unexpected ways, you know you’ve got some caulking to do. Tacky rope also works well as a quick-fix alternative. 3) Reverse your fan. If you’ve got a ceiling fan in your house, you can switch its direction in order to aid with heat distribution. Rather than pulling all the hot air upwards, the fan will force it downwards throughout the room. It’s a great way to reduce your heating bill, one that not enough homeowners know about. 4) Clean your gutters. You’re running out of time to scrape that leafy gunk out of your gutters, so grab a pair of gloves and a ladder and get to work. Blockages in your drainage system are bad enough, but if that sludge freezes, it could warp or even break your gutters. Worse, ice dams can cause water to seep under the shingles and into the house. If your property is located in an area where ice has been a problem in recent years, gutter heaters may be a worthwhile investment. If you haven’t taken these steps to prepare your real estate investment for winter, you should put them at the top of your list. This season won’t be kind to houses, especially empty ones, so it’s important for real estate investors to do everything they can to ensure that their properties stay warm and safe until the spring. See original at: https:/ /www.cthomesllc.com/2011/12/27 4-ways-to-winterize-your-real-estate-investment

4 (Weird) Threats to Your Property Value DECEMBER 12, 2018 ________________________________________ Every homeowner likes making their house unique, but it’s not always good to stand out. Sometimes what you think gives your home character will actually drive down your property value when you list your house on the market. Here are four odd threats to your sticker price you should be aware of: 1) Bigger Isn’t Always Better. While you might think the largest house in a nei...ghborhood would be the most coveted, this is surprisingly not the case. If your home is significantly larger than other homes in the area, it will actually be harder to sell, because many buyers in that price range will first look to neighborhoods filled with larger houses. 2) Clashing Colors. It’s not unusual for people living in the suburbs to give their house a unique paint job or even a few highlights to make it stand out from similarly-styled homes. But this colorful twist could end up wringing thousands of dollars out of the house’s property value. If you’re selling a home with orange shutters or a purple door, it’s probably a good idea to repaint them in neutral shades before listing your real estate investment on the market. 3) Inconsistent Appliances. Believe it or not, consistency in a room’s theme is a major selling point for today’s buyers. If you’ve got a kitchen with black plastic appliances and a stainless steel refrigerator or a bathroom with a copper basin sink and a white porcelain toilet, it can take a significant bite out of your final sale price. If you plan on selling your home, invest in appliances that fit a general theme. Instead of sinking your property value, these brand-new, matching appliances will increase it by thousands. 4) Alarming Homeowner’s Associations. With more and more people migrating to the suburbs, homeowner’s associations have become a factor in many people’s decision to buy a house. If your neighborhood watch acts more like the neighborhood police or if they hardly exist at all you could see a major hit in buyer interest. The best thing you can do to overcome this obstacle is to show your real estate investment on days when your neighbors are least active and to try to clean up around your neighborhood if they’ve been shirking their duties. Just because you didn’t expect these things to hurt your property value doesn’t mean that you can’t take steps to avoid them. As long as you stay creative and active when it comes to listing your real estate investment, you should be closing your sale at a good price in no time. See original at: htt://www.cthomesllc.com/2011/10/4-weird-threats-to-your-property-value

A Couple Cool Home Additions to Bank On November 17th, 2018 What cool, yet unconventional, home additions can homeowners and real estate investors add for additional appeal to their property? Adding the right improvements can result in huge profits for any investor. Home additions and improvements are constantly a source of controversy in the real estate community. Green real estate investors and regular homeowners frequently and mistakenly believe that the improvement idea...s they have will automatically add value to their properties. Unfortunately, while many of these upgrades may make the property look nicer and increase a perceived value, they do little to actually boost the price. Many times, newbies put tons of cash into home additions that never produce a positive return. It takes extensive knowledge of the real estate industry and local home values to make the right improvements and generate a profit. Decks, additional bedrooms, new landscaping, and staging can all be good moves. But what creative additions are there to consider that may really be exciting and rewarding to work on? Consider the following home additions for your project: 1. Relaxing spaces Americans are more stressed out than ever and want their home to be a retreat where they can get away from it all. So what about a rooftop Zen garden, sauna or yoga studio? 2. Bigger home offices Home offices have been pegged as one of the most important room additions today. However, with more individuals working from home and home schooling become a bigger trend, buyers want bigger home offices that are already for them to switch on and get to it. See original at: https:/ /www.cthomesllc.com/2013/09/ home additions-to-bank-on

4 Ways to Reduce Your Power Bill This Season OCTOBER 29, 2018 ________________________________________ As the days get shorter and the weather gets steadily colder, homeowners across the country will see their power bills increase dramatically. Heating and lighting your real estate investment through the late fall and winter can cost you thousands if you’re reckless. So don’t be! Here are a few steps you can take to help keep your heating and power bills to a minimum: 1. Pu...ll the plug. Did you know that even when a device or appliance is turned off it’s still drawing power? Things like televisions, home theater equipment and stereos actually run in standby mode when you leave them plugged in, and they can draw as much energy as a 100-watt light bulb. If you remember to switch off your power strips or unplug the individual devices, you can easily save $10 a month on your electric bill. 2. Put your computer to sleep. Much like car engines, a computer uses more energy during startup and shutdown than it does when it’s left to continuously run in a low-power state. Instead of shutting your computer down, try putting it into hibernation mode instead. You’ll save money on your power bill, and because you won’t have to boot up quite so often, you’ll save time too. 3. Use small space heaters. Don’t crank up the thermostat every time your real estate investment gets a little chilly. Small, portable space heaters can warm a bedroom in minutes, and when used wisely they can save you hundreds a month on your heating bill. You can pick them up at any department store for less than $20 per unit. 4. Upgrade your windows. Do you have double-paned argon-filled windows in your home? If you don’t, they’re definitely worth considering. Not only will they save you 9.8 tons of heat annually, they’ll also boost your property value significantly. The weather might be extreme this season, but that doesn’t mean your power bill has to be. If you take the right steps to insulate your real estate investment and remember to unplug your appliances when they aren’t being used, you can keep your wallet stuffed and your property value high. See original at: https:/ /www.cthomesllc.com/2011/11/4-ways-to-reduce-your-power-bill-this-season