Archive for the 'Home Improvement Tips' Category
Pensacola Real Estate News: Redneck Ingenuity Makes Home Inspections A Must
February 17th, 2008 Categories: Home Improvement Tips, Home Inspections, Pensacola Real Estate News
As a Pensacola real estate agent, I always recommend home inspections for my buyers (and sellers too). Most homes have the typical issues that agents and inspectors see often enough, but sometimes unusual “modifications” are encountered. And rednecks are especially good at creative modifications.
Many people don’t think of Florida as having a lot of rednecks, but Pensacola is often jokingly referred to as LA (Lower Alabama). When I grew up in Pensacola it was a much smaller town than it is now. The east side of town generally consisted of families with higher incomes and children that drove the better cars, i.e. not old pick up trucks. The west side of town was considered the more redneck area. The west side crowd used to regularly congregate at large parking lots on Perdido Key and throw some pretty wild parties. There were plenty of good ole boy fights, either over the women, or just drunks fighting for the fun of it. Many of the pickup trucks would be loaded up with kegs of beer. The trucks that weren’t loaded with beer were often being raced across the empty lots, or worked on in the parking lot to make them faster, or just to get them well enough for the trip home.
Today those same stretches of beach property are occupied by high rise Perdido Key condos, where any self-respecting redneck would dare not venture. But rednecks can still be found around the area. In fact, just recently Pensacola home inspector Jim Ellis discovered some true redneck ingenuity in a home he was hired to inspect. Here are Jim’s remarks, and a couple of pictures he snapped at this home:
“My inspection this morning had some handy man work done. Just as an example someone ran the cables from 2 Dish satellites through the top of a plumbing drain waste vent, made a hole in the pipe into the attic and had it exit to the bedrooms for TV! Certainly no short term problems here, but, possible water leaks, slow plumbing drain and odors in the attic could occur”
Jim writes a blog on the Active Rain network. If you want stories and info about home inspections, visit Jim’s blog at http://activerain.com/blogs/shamus
And I couldn’t pass up adding this beauty from my favorite bad MLS photo guy Athol Kay.
How can you really call yourself a redneck if you don’t have a clothes line running across your kitchen. Yes, this picture was actually posted on an MLS somewhere. Thanks Athol.
If you want a bunch of great laughs, visit Athol’s bad MLS photo of the day site at http://www.reagentinct.com/category/bad-mls-photo-of-the-day/
If any Pensacola west side rednecks are offended by this post, please understand something. I grew up on the west side of Pensacola and went to Escambia High School. I know about those great beach parties because I was at a lot of them. Keep up the ingenuity my redneck brothers. Just beware of the home inspector!
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Home Improvements - Which Ones Really Pay Off?
December 5th, 2007 Categories: Home Improvement Tips, Saving You Money
If you are planning on improving your home in Pensacola and you are wondering what home improvements will give you the most bang for your buck, a new report was issued that can give you some ideas where best to spend your home improvement money.
You can read the report and see the numbers at this link, http://www.costvsvalue.com. What is most important to note is that the obvious winners in this market test were exterior beautifications. What you can see, touch and feel is what gives the biggest cost recuperation. The report shows that the addition of a wood deck or vinyl siding are the improvements that have the largest return in value. But note that no improvements will return all of the money you put into them in short term resale value.
If you plan to sell your home soon, you will want to focus on the visible improvements. Extra insulation in the attic is great, but the buyers can’t see that and there is no emotional impact. Anything that beautifies the home will have that added punch of emotion. Your potential buyers need to feel good about the house. Try landcaping or vinyl siding to improve the property.
Now if you plan to live in the house for another 10-20 years, it may be more worthwhile for you to focus on “non-visible” type improvements, such as attic insulation or a new A/C unit or hot water heater. These types of improvments add value and savings in reduced energy costs. However, they generally do not WOW the buyer and have an emotional impact. One addition that I really like are new windows. New windows not only impress potential buyers, but they also save energy, and can save help you save on insurance costs in hurricane risk areas.
So if you want to add value to your home, take a look at the report and make your own judgments as to what upgrades would be in your best interest. I was surprised to see that they did not list fireplace upgrades. That was always on the lists as a top improvement in resale value. The estimated cost recuperation on new windows is around 80%
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How You Can Save Big Money On Home Improvement Projects
October 22nd, 2007 Categories: Home Improvement Tips, Saving You Money
Do you want to get 10%-20% off every purchase at Lowes or Home Depot stores in Pensacola?
Need to Improve the value of your real estate? Then Read On!
You can save 10% or 20% off every purchase at Lowes or Home Depot with coupons. These companies are not exactly making it easy to figure out how to do this, but I’m here to help.
I have found 4 ways to get coupons that can be used good at any Lowes or Home Depot. (Don’t try to use the coupon image on this post. It is just there to liven up the article for your viewing pleasure. It won’t work anyway).
1. Go to the Lowes Moving Site and request a coupon. It should be sent to you in email within a few days.
This is great for getting one coupon, but to get more coupons using this method will require that you use a different name and email address for each request. To my knowledge, Home Depot does not have this offer available.
2. Go to the customer service desk and ask for a coupon. Sometimes they have them available. I was recently given one at the Home Depot on Mobile Highway in Pensacola, but it was only good in certain departments.
3. Complain about something. This one worked for me at Home Depot. I drove across Pensacola to attend a tiling class at the Home Depot on Brent Lane and Davis Hwy. This tiling class was listed on their online schedule at their web site. No one at the store knew anything about a tiling class scheduled for that time. I wrote Home Depot and complained and got a 10% off coupon within a week. Now I’m sure we can all find something to complain about. I don’t know how many times this will work.
4. Buy coupons on Ebay. The downside to this method is that it will cost you a few bucks. The good side is that it requires very little effort and you can often buy lots of 3-5 coupons at a time. Some 20% off coupons are also available. Just search for either “Lowes Coupon” or “Home Depot Coupon” on Ebay. There are always a lot of them available and you can use the “Buy It Now” feature to get them quickly.
I hope this helps my readers save some money on their Pensacola home improvement projects. Look for more great money saving tips in the future. As I find them, I’ll share them with you all.
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