Yesterday I wrote about the concept of taking six months to plan the sale of your house.  Buyers expect properties in good condition and properties in good or better condition will sell more quickly than ones not so well-maintained.  I started out by urging a review of the landscaping and lawn, the setting of the "jewel" that your home must be when it goes on the market.

Today I want to focus on the building envelope, specifically, the siding, windows and roof, those systems that keep the occupants comfortable in the face of harsh elements and can save a lot of dollars in energy costs.

Now that you have a walkable path around the house, get a clipboard and make notes on each side as you walk around.  What is the condition of the siding?  If vinyl, are there are cracks and pieces missing?  Any sections dangling?  If wood, is there mildew?  Moss? Cracks?  Gaps? Faded paint or stain?  If masonry, is there mortar missing? Broken stone or brick?  Mildew?  Moss?  View the siding of the entire house and take careful notes. 

And don't forget to look at the exposed foundation as you stroll.  Look for missing mortar, cracked plaster, etc.  Also, be on the lookout for termite tubes.  If you see any, call a pest control company immediately.  Most buyers order termite inspections on a property they're buying, but if you wait too long, you may have substantial damage to the structure of the house.  Find out as quickly as possible.

Next, with your clipboard go around the entire house again, looking at the windows.  Are any cracked or broken?  Are thermal windows fogging over?  Do the old-fashioned triple-track or self-storing storm windows move easily in their tracks?  And if there are antique storm windows, the kind that must be physically taken down to the ground and replaced by screens each year, you have a truly big decision to make.

Most windows have some sort of framing around them, often wood.  Check each window to make certain there is no rotted wood.  You may be shocked by what you find - more shocking could be the water that is penetrating the walls of the house through rotted wood.

As you check the windows themselves look closely at the caulk that bridges the gap between window, frame and siding.  Replacing this important material can be done easily and cheaply by a handy homeowner.  However, remember to push the bead of caulk with your caulking gun, otherwise you pull the caulk out as you go. 

Finally, we get to the roof with its gutters, flashing, and skylights, if any.  If your roof is more than 20 years old or looks bad, you should consider replacing the roof, especially if you see signs of water stains under the sheathing, visible from inside the attic (if you have one).  By the time water stains show up on the ceiling of the living area, you may already have rotted sheathing and/or rafters, etc.  Not a pretty prospect.  Just as a footnote, I've seen roofs that had severely curled shingles, very little granular covering and did not leak.  I have also seen roofs that looked fabulous, were less than 10 years old and leaked like a sieve.  Look at the underside of your roof for a true picture of its functionality.

Gutters are often overlooked - at  least until they fall off the house.  In poor shape they can conduct water up under shingles and into the house.  Does water flow well or do you have a rain forest growing in them?  Do the downspouts direct water away at least three feet from the foundation?  Most basement water problems come about as a result of outside grading and downspouts against the foundation.

Now that you've completed the "envelope inventory," it may be clear why I say do the survey six months before you want to sell.  If you need to replace windows or siding or roof, you're looking at some big bucks.  Moreover, it may be difficult to get contractors to bid, much less complete one of those jobs on a short timeline.  Allow yourself sufficient time to complete these jobs before putting the house on the market.  There are other jobs further down the line, closing to the listing date, that will need to be completed then, but I will get to those later.  They too will take time.

By the way, even if you don't plan to put your property on the market in six months, it wouldn't hurt to familiarize yourself with the status of your weather resistance.  There is always a chance of rigorous weather in any season, whether the weather is a hurricane, tornado or blizzard.  Be prepared.  In addition, the U.S. government offers some generoustax credits for improving your home's energy rating.

So, your job(s) is cut out for you.  It could take a couple of months to address all the issues you face on the exterior of your home.  And the fun has just started.  Just wait till you look inside!

As the real estate market begins to heat up in various areas of the country, more and more homeowners are considering putting their homes on the market.  Many are looking at doing so in the spring of 2010, but have a relatively simplistic view of what is involved in preparing their homes for sale. 

In today's market, a market influenced by buyers who have neither the time nor the interest in fixing up a home, just adjusting the price to reflect condition doesn't make it.  In fact, if your house needs $50,000 worth of work to put it in good shape and you price it "discounted" by that amount, most buyers will estimate the cost to cure defects to be $150,000, so you're $100,000 apart before they even see it.

In a series of blog entries I will lay out my notions of what it takes to prepare a home for sale.  It can take as long as six months to do those things that will make your property scream appeal to a buyer, unless you've been fastidious in how you keep the home.  There are several stages, and the first is potentially the most expensive: the exterior, including landscaping and the building "envelope."

Curb appeal is the buzz phrase for the exterior, but that's but a small part of the whole picture.  Let's take a look at landscaping first.

Six months before your anticipated listing date with a Realtor® of your choice, spend two hours walking around the outside of your house.  Landscaping is intended to be a setting for the home, not camouflage.  It should not be so overgrown as to cover windows, nor so close to the house that you can't walk between the shrubs and house without difficulty.  Many shrubs take well to pruning.  I am an aggressive pruner, and I recommend it.  Clear that path around your house and lower the shrubs that obscure the windows.  This kind of pruning can take a full weekend or more, depending on how overgrown your landscaping is.  Be sure to look at trees that have shoots (called "suckers" because they can suck the life out of a tree) protruding from the trunk below six or seven feet.  You should be able to walk beneath a tree (non-weeping variety) without incurring lacerations or concussions.  Trimming these shoots and low branches also helps enhance, not obscure the home.

What about your lawn?  Does it look like an abused rugby field or a putting green?  Six months may be necessary to put your lawn in good shape.  There are many products available to patch lawns, and of course, there are lawn services that can put your yard in good shape.  But in good shape it must be.  Like the landscaping, it is the setting for the home, and is the first thing buyers see when they approach the house.

So, your lawn and landscaping should be in good shape by now if you've followed my suggestions.  The next step is to take advantage of the space you've cleared around the house.  You're going to walk around the house and evaluate the building envelope.  That's my next installment.  Stay tuned....

Compared to the first two quarters of 2008, this year's numbers in Hillsborough look dreadful.  The number of sales is down nearly 27%, and the median price is down 17%.  A pretty grisly picture in light of recently-released national numbers. 

However, comparing second quarter 2009 to second quarter 2008, the picture brightens considerably.  The difference in the number of closings 2008 vs. 2009 is less than 2%, and median price difference is less than 7.5%.  This points up the fact that the first quarter of 2009 in Hillsborough was terrible, really terrible, with less than half the number of sales for the same period in 2008.  Keep in mind that the market in 2008 was starting to decline, and the market in 2009 seems to be improving.  The two curves probably crossed in June.

In general, economic news has not been encouraging.  But interest rates have been very favorable for the past month or so (until this week, when they inched up at bit).  Assuming the national economy, and more importantly, the local economy, begins to improve - it seems to have hit bottom - we will see increased real estate activity as people feel more secure in their jobs. 

There are good homes at good prices to be found in Hillsborough.  Keep in mind that the first-time homebuyers $8000 tax credit expires December 1.  It's time for buyers to dislodge themselves from their fence.