Landscaping for Cheap

It’s the time of year to start pulling your yard together by updating your landscaping! To some it may seem too expensive but here are some really easy ways to use your resources. While it can be costly, here are some ways to cut those costs:

Free Stuff

Some cities may be willing to give you trees to plant in your yard in an agreement that you maintain it. Edmond has an Urban Forestry Department and Oklahoma City a Parks & Recreation Department.  They are responsible for the landscaping in the city and your home is part of the city!

If you have friends that are gardening, ask to trade cuttings or exchange seeds to diversify your landscaping.

If you already have your yard designed, in may be okay to put some gloves on yourself and simply trim it and rake up. This will save you lots of money and you can enjoy some time outside before it gets too hot!

Be Water Conscious

To keep water bills low, find plants that are drought-resistant to keep up through the hot Oklahoma summer!

Compost

Save money on fertilizer by creating your own compost bin! Not only is this a great way to dispose of your food waste but it’s full of vitamins and nutrients to keep your landscape healthy.

Join the National Arbor Day Society

For $10, become a member of the National Arbor Day Society and receive 10 trees shipped to you at no further cost. This is a great, cheap way to get some saplings to start growing in your yard.

Increase Your Home Value

The Florida Nursery Growers and Landscape Association’s survey shows that a landscaped yard increases property value by around 14%. Specifically important was the landscaped patio, increasing home value by 12.4%. Consider it merely an investment in your house like updating your kitchen!

Hopefully these landscaping tips will motivate you to get out there and enjoy this great sunshine and fix up your yard. Whether you’re preparing for spring, to buy a house or to sell your house, updating your landscaping can be affordable and can be beneficial regardless of the hard work.

How do you plan to spruce up your yard this spring?

Anya
The Allen Group

Spring Cleaning to Sell

Now is the time of year for spring cleaning fever! If you’re preparing to sell your home, there are a couple additional things you can do to get your home ready for the market.

Exterior

An easy thing to do is freshen up the exterior of your home. Think about how the buyer would feel about your house without knowing how great you’ve kept it inside! Curb appeal invites them in to see how great the rest of your home is.

1. Mow the lawn, pull the weeds, mulch the garden, trim the shrubs, etc. This may take you all weekend but it can be done inexpensively.

2. Rent or borrow a power washer. You can spray down the exterior with the power washer to make it super clean. Look and see what psi you need to use to wash the type of exterior you have so as to not damage it. 1000-2000 is typical for wood or vinyl but brick needs to be between 500-1200 because it is more brittle to that kind of pressure.

3. If you have a painted exterior and your paint is chipped or faded, considering spending the weekend redoing that.

4. Clean the windows! As easy as that.

Interior

Spring cleaning in general should get your home ready to sell, but here are a couple other things to consider,

1. If you have acquired too much stuff over the holidays, you may need to de-clutter. Consider donating, having a garage sale, or renting a storage unit just for while your house is on the market. HomeGain claims a 586% return on the investment of a storage unit during the sale of your home.

2. Before you start buying more lights to help brighten up your home to sell, try cleaning the light fixtures. With the lights off, you may wipe the dust off of the bulb itself with a slightly damp cloth. Remove sconces and soak in the sink with mildly soapy water. You may be surprised how much that dust was blocking the light!

3. Use/rent/borrow a carpet shampooer or hire professionals to clean your carpet. Your carpet will look rejuvenated and getting that deep-down dirt out will help it look fresh.

4. If you can afford to, consider taking down a wallpaper that has become outdated or that you’ve gotten sick of and just repainting the wall. Even if the buyer will just come back in and repaint, you repainting will help the room look cleaner, newer, and fresher while it is on the market.

Good luck!

Then give us a call if you’d like a free in-home presentation about selling your home!

Anya
The Allen Group

Why Buy This Spring?

Spring symbolizes new birth, rejuvenation. With the sunshine here in Oklahoma finally breaking through the chilling winds, we are seeing another refreshing year in the housing market. Spring is springing and mortgage interest rates are staying low!

As more homes enter the market, you as a potential buyer have an extra advantage than usual. More choices of homes available to you and better yet, the interest rates are super low. You can buy $50,000 more house for the same monthly payment or buy the same house and save more than $74,000 in the long run compared to the average interest rate over the last 30 years nationwide.

This is great news for buyers and sellers alike. Lower interest rates open the market to those who wanted or needed a bigger house than they could afford with a high monthly payment. Selling your home may be easier with so many available buyers and buying a home is obviously a more affordable and appealing option than it may have been before. Home values are rising and now is a great time to invest in your future and kick your Spring off with a fresh move!

To see how much money you can save, contact a lender.
To see how much house you can afford, contact us!

Anya
The Allen Group

Renting vs. Buying

Lately, I felt like my piggy bank was feeling a little empty inside (ha, ha).
I personally have been renting for a couple of years and buying a house wasn’t something I thought could save me money. Even though I work in real estate, I thought of it as being out of reach for me. Renting vs. buying? What kind of benefits could I possibly gain from buying? It sounds expensive and scary!

While it is a big decision, it’s something that should be considered. I finally asked myself, “Where does all that rent money go?” and the truth is, it doesn’t matter. It’s out of my hands forever. You may be surprised that in the fight of renting vs. buying, buying comes out on top. Weigh your options.

When you get a mortgage, yes, you are in debt. The trick is that as you pay it off, that payment also goes toward your ownership of something; your home. Buying a home instead of renting is an investment. An investment in your future and an investment for your lonely piggy bank.

More resources on mortgages and renting vs. buying are available to you! Contact a loan officer for exact interest rates and to see how buying vs. renting will benefit you!

Anya
The Allen Group

Increased Mortgage Payments?

When I Googled April 18^th to confirm some hearsay, I learned that April 18^th was the day when the American Revolution began in 1775 and the day it ended in 1783.That’s an interesting fact albeit a little antiquated; I have some more recent April 18^th based news for this year.

Word of mouth isn’t always reliable, no matter what business you’re in. When I heard that annual mortgage insurance premiums were going up, I wasn’t quite sure I believed it. We survived the recession and our housing market here in Oklahoma City is slow but still rolling. Why would they do this to us!?!

A while back, the Senate passed an approval for an increase in insurance premiums on your mortgage. It isn’t all bad…they’re increasing insurance premiums so as to maintain the financial stability of the Federal Housing Authority’s (FHA) Primary Mortgage Insurance (PMI) sources. No one likes to pay insurance; however, strengthening these sources ensures that lenders will still be able to provide home loans even in times of “economic volatility” and this helps provide long term stability in the housing market. It may have a short term negative impact to the market as debt/income loan qualification restrictions will reduce the amount a borrower can qualify for with the increased PMI premium.We hope that it won’t be a significant impact and we also hope there will be a resurgence of secondary loan options that bypass the PMI requirements. Most importantly, if you are considering a new mortgage then you should do it before April 18^th to avoid the increased insurance premium.

We’re not trying to push you, but if you think you will have a hard time affording your dream house now, the bps (basis points) will be increasing from 90 to 115…and this translates to a higher monthly payment for that dream home. If you thought about getting a 15 year FHA loan, you might want to do some research and talk to a loan officer because the monthly mortgage insurance premiums on 15 year amortizations are going to double. I’m by no means a mortgage expert but in order to accommodate this increase, you should consider being under contract for a home before April 18, 2011 or saving for a higher down payment.

According to the letter released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the difference it will make in your budgeting shouldn’t be too significant. The example they give is $163,000 sales price with the 3.5% down will be a $33 increase per month so don’t get too discouraged. I guess that about sums it up!

And, as always, we’re here to inform, empower, and assist! If you have any questions or would like us to refer you to a good loan officer, feel free to email us at theallengroup@sellingoklahoma.com or call us at 405-509-9350!

Anya
The Allen Group

New Construction Homes in Edmond

If you’re thinking about buying a new construction home in Edmond, you may be considering a newish construction home, maybe built in the 1990′s. This doesn’t seem as though it would be an issue, but let me explain.

Edmond grew substantially during this timeframe and as more jobs moved into the city, there was a big building boom. With so many more buyers than homes, builders/developers didn’t have to add a lot of great features in order to get a home sold. This doesn’t mean that they weren’t great homes, but some builders were good and some were simply adequate.  New construction homes in Edmond have a quality that pre-building boom Edmond homes have. Once the supply could catch up to the demand, the features a home offered became more important than simply having the house completed. Around 2000, some builders had more motivation to upgrade new construction homes in Edmond as soon as the demand slowed down.

Builders and developers improved homes by investing in the foundation, kitchen, baths, and more. They opened up the floor plans, switched from dedicated formal dining rooms to flexible rooms capable of being used as offices and more. Raised ceilings, enlarged windows, and energy efficiency as well as strictly aesthetic upgrades such as the change from formica to solid surface counters and the switch from brass or gold hardware to oil rubbed bronze or pewter.

When looking to buy a new construction home in Edmond, or even anywhere, consider the market trends in the area or consult a licensed Realtor to ask questions. Consider the option of buying an older home with good bones and bringing it up to date with your own customized updates. There are many factors that may affect the quality of the home you’re considering. It’s our job to be familiar with real estate trends that affect you and inform you! If you’re looking at a new construction home for sale in Edmond, or even elsewhere, we’d be glad to point you in the right direction!

Call us today to get more helpful hints!

Anya
The Allen Group

The Importance of Home Inventory

The Importance of Home Inventory

If a certain room in your house caught on fire, could you remember everything in it? In 2009, fires alone caused $7.6 billion in property damage to home owners (NFPA).

While we don’t like to think about our belongings being stolen, burnt, or swept away in a tornado, having an inventory of your possessions in case of accidents may really pay off. Having an up-to-date home inventory is common practice in hurricane stricken areas, but it is always important no matter where you live to have a way to account for everything in case of a disaster such as home inventory. You and your insurance agent can work together to make sure you’re insured the right amount and can replace everything if you have a current list.
So how do you create home inventory? What goes on a home inventory list?

Keeping a home inventory may take a little time, but it is really easy. With the advancement of technology, we have all kinds of options! To start out your home inventory, you may take a notebook and walk room to room writing down everything of value. This may include the obvious such as furniture, appliances, and electronics. But you may also want to include any kitchen sets, collector’s items, tools, jewelry etc. Make sure you write down make, model, and serial numbers as they apply. Now it is up to your discretion what holds value and should be documented.
Now that you’ve written everything down, you can stop there if you’d like but there are many options available as to where to keep your home inventory.
1. Keep your notebook pages in a fireproof safe or in a trusted location such as a friend or neighbor’s house.

2. Type them up into Microsoft Word or Excel. Save them on your computer, and print a hardcopy to keep separately either in a safe or a different location.

3. If you own or can borrow a video camera, give a walking tour throughout your home and make sure to point out your valuables and zoom in on or read out loud the serial numbers if applicable. Again, keep this tape in a fireproof safe or on another property.

4. Use a program online such as Online Inventory with StuffSafe. I have personally started my home inventory on this website. I was a little leery about listing my valuables on the internet, but they never ask you for your address and you could give an alias if it makes you more comfortable. It’s a free program that is paid for by the ads on the side. You can attach photos or files to each item so you can prove their condition at that time and they have all kinds of organizational tools. At any time, you can download your inventory onto your computer or a disc. If your computer were to be stolen, your inventory is still stored safely online and accessible from any computer.

While it would be unfortunate, steps can be taken to ensure that you have the insurance coverage and records you need to get everything going again!

Anya
The Allen Group