Things to Know About Mold

Although mold growth has been an issue in the Cary NC area in the last five years, the presence of mold growth in homes has been reported since biblical times. The tiny spores produced by mold are found reproducing outdoors and indoors. The growth of mold outdoors is necessary to decompose organic matter. Most species are not harmful or toxic. Various mold spores are always present to some degree in home microenvironments such as wall cavities and crawlspaces. Sensitive individuals can have an allergic reaction when these spores are inhaled or ingested. The industry has not yet agreed upon what is an acceptable amount of exposure.

Mold inside your home is a moisture problem

Mold is usually not a problem in the indoor environment unless these mold spores settle on a wet or moist surface and are allowed to multiply. Cary NC is in the heart of the warm, humid southeast so we must be proactive to keep the growth of fungal spores in our home and crawlspace under control. A mold problem inside a structure is a moisture problem. Mold can grow within 24 to 48 hours if it has a food source (e.g. sheet rock, wood, and wallpaper glue), the right temperature (between 59°F-122°F optimally) and moisture.

How can you be proactive?

• If you have a water leak, find the source, repair it, and dry the affected structures immediately.
• Keep indoor humidity between 30% and 60%.
• Have proper ventilation in showers and laundry areas and in the kitchen while cooking.
• In areas where water is used frequently, use aerosol products that kill mold (e.g. Lysol).
• Inspect your crawlspace for standing water and look for standing water on vapor barrier, wet joists,     subfloor or damp insulation. Monitor the humidity in your crawlspace.

Mold growth can be cleaned and the problem can be corrected. If you need air and surface testing for mold, the EPA recommends that “Sampling for mold should be conducted by professionals who have specific experience in designing mold sampling protocols, sampling methods, and interpreting results.”   If you are in the process of purchasing a new home, pay particular attention to your inspection report and if the inspector suggests a mold evaluation.  At LG Real Estate, we take this concern very seriously on behalf of our buyers and sellers.

If you have questions or concerns, contact our friends who are local professionals at LRC Indoor Testing & Research in Cary, NC at 919-342-4936 or visit their website at http://www.lrcresearch.com

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As you enjoy these spring days and nights in Cary, NC, don’t forget to step back and review your home from the curb. As we preview homes preparing them to go on the Cary NC real estate market, one of the primary issues we at LG Real Estate must tackle is that there is a big tree blocking the front door. A clear view of the front door from the street is very inviting to new buyers and helps the imagery of the home when its becomes one of the homes available for Cary real estate. A large overgrown tree that was planted in the incorrect location can become very tricky for us as we set the home up to take the outside photos. If you don’t already have a tree blocking your front door and want to enhance your front yard with some new foliage, try to find a more desirable location to the left or right side of the entry area.

Look around…I bet you might be surprised how many of your Cary, NC neighbors have made this mistake and could end up struggling when they list their home on the Triangle MLS. Now you know.

Do you have any easy curb appeal ideas?

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So you decided to buy a home in Cary, NC. Fantastic! You have a variety of choices including hundreds of beautiful neighborhoods and thousands of new homes currently being built. Of course you want to buy your Cary area dream home, the one that fits your needs and appeals to you the most. Before you pull the trigger on your new home, consider this piece of advice. Lenda Goulding, Cary realtor and President of LG Real Estate, says when buying a home “Always Think Resale”.

When it comes to thinking real estate resale in Cary, let’s look at some of the demographics of Cary provided by the Cary Chamber of Commerce. The average age of a Cary, NC resident is 33.7 and 72% of Cary’s population is made up of families. The average family in Cary moves every 5 years. So the odds are very good that the home you buy today will be for sale in the next 5-8 years. “Always Think Resale”

So when thinking resale, try to purchase a home today that will appeal to the largest number of future buyers. In Cary, the highest number of future buyers are going to be …… yes, that’s right ….. Families. So, what does a family want when purchasing a home. Here are three important criteria to consider:

1. Location, Location, Location — Appealing and well kept neighborhoods, quiet and safe streets (cul-de-sacs), neighborhood amenities such as pool and tennis courts, and of course convenience to shopping.

2. The home itself — In Cary go for a 4 or 5 bedroom home with a bonus room and plenty of bathrooms. The kitchen should be large with modern appliances, plenty of storage space, and a 2 or 3 car garage. A large flat backyard is always an attractive feature for a family.

3. Schools –Whether you have kids or not, you should look closely at the schools. In Cary NC, you want to look at all three schools in your neighborhood - elementary, middle, and high school. Also, where are the year round and magnet schools located for your area? A great resource for reports and Wake County school information is: www.wcpss.net/.

So now you found a great neighborhood in Cary with wonderful schools and a home that suits your needs today. What else is important to keep in mind in Cary when you’re “Always Thinking Resale”? Answer: New Home Competiton.

In Cary there are literally thousands of new homes being built with all the latest and greatest amenities and home styles. When you sell your home in Cary in the next 5 - 8 years, your main competition will be new homes. The way you compete with new homes is to keep your home updated and in what Lenda Goulding (LG Real Estate) refers to as “Parade Pretty”.

So look for a home with a functional floor plan that is well built and maintained. If a home has “good bones” (Lenda again) it can be updated over time to compete with new homes. The landscape is another often overlooked criteria. Remember, new homes are not going to have well developed and mature landscapes. So purchase a home with a good landscape blueprint and work to continually upgrade your landscape. Here is where your home home can really shine and beat those new home beauties.

In summary, when you buy your next Cary, NC home, review the factors outlined in this article and of course, “Always Think Resale”. Please drop us a line with any ideas you have for enhancing resale potential when buying your Cary NC home.

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Not everyone has experience with selling homes.  I, myself have only sold one home.  I’ve bought two and I think this is definitely the more pleasant of the two transactions.  I am not a licensed real estate agent.  I have been working as an assistant for almost a year, and I have learned so much about real estate transactions.  So, as an ‘outsider’, if you will, I can give you some tidbits about the process of selling a home.  It’s the basics and a very good place to start, if you aren’t a veteran seller.

Step 1  Before going on the market.  Once you know that you are going to sell you home, take a deep breath.  It is a time consuming project.  These steps are pretty well known:
• De-clutter, need I say more?
• Interview agents.
• Decide on a price. 
• Determine showing instructions. 

Step 2  You are on the market.  Yahoo!  That part is done.  Find a buyer!

Step 3  Under Contract.  Accepting an offer is an entire blog entry all on its own and I am not about to tackle that tricky one.  But let’s say you have already accepted one.  What now?  You’re done, right?  Nope!  Here’s what to expect:

• Closing date – Buyer usually picks a date that works for them, but this is negotiable.  Sometimes it is simply a date picked almost randomly.  It can be adjusted.
• Inspection - Buyers typically hire an inspector.  The inspector comes to the home and checks the house out.  They look for things like shingles that are missing, gas log fireplaces that aren’t working, water under the house, etc. 
• Repairs – From the inspection the buyers can create a repair request.  This is a formal list of things they want repaired before closing.  You can decide to fix all of them, some of them, none of them, or offer money in lieu of fixing them.  Of course, there are ramifications to each of these decisions and your agent should explain them all to you.  Once that is negotiated, you sign the repair request.  Now you MUST do what you agreed to do or the buyer can back out of the purchase. 
• Deed & Lien Waiver – Legal paperwork that the seller must sign for the sale of the home.  This is typically prepared by the closing attorney, but you can have your attorney draw them up if it would make you feel more comfortable.
• Attorney instructions – What?  I have to give the attorney instructions?  Aren’t they supposed to know what to do?  Well, yes, but where and how would you like your proceeds delivered?  Oh, maybe that is a good idea.  Pay off the mortgage and give the rest to me!
• Closing – You technically don’t have to go to this one.  You can sign all the paperwork ahead of time. 

Now take another deep breath and move on to your new home!

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When I recently googled the phrase: How to keep your home in top condition the results I got were very interesting.  Here are the top four entries:

1. 74 tips to keep your car in top condition
2. Keep your pool in top condition
3. Keep your minnows in top condition
4. How to keep your hair in good condition

Wow!  Most people think about keeping their car, their pool, or their hair in top condition but what about their home.   Well, I’m not planning on selling my Cary NC home anytime soon.  Of course, but consider this - Your home is in many cases your largest financial asset - worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.    It certainly makes perfect sense to protect, enhance, and maintain such a valuable real estate investment at all times. 

The best standard to use for keeping your home in top condition is to keep it in selling condition. We all know how much work, improvement, maintenance, and cleaning we do right before we sell our home.  The problem is we never get to enjoy all this effort once our home sells.  

So how does one go about bringing their property up to selling condition now - when they are not planning on listing their home.  Here’s a suggestion - Have your home inspected periodically as if you were going to sell it in the next 90 days.  Hire a licensed North Carolina home inspector to gain a better understanding of the condition of your property. 

Home inspectors typically evaluate structural components (floors,walls,roofs,chimneys, foundations), mechanical systems (plumbing, electrical, heating/air conditioning), installed appliances and other major components of your property.  Home inspection reports range in cost or should I say investment from $300-$500 depending on the size of your home.  Once completed, you should review the report with the inspector and make the repairs necessary to keep your home in top condition.   By taking a proactive approach, you can keep your home in selling condition and protect one of your largest and most valuable assets.

Additioanlly, upgrading your kitchen, bathrooms, and making other improvements are vitally important in today’s real estate market especially with so many Cary new home neighborhoods.  Please review some of our other article on CaryAreaBlog.com which address these topics. 

In summary, investing in the maintenance, enhancement, and upkeep of your Cary NC home is money well spent.  Please share with us any tips or ideas you have used to keep your home in top selling condition.

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In listing a home in Cary, NC, one of the key questions for us to ask new clients who want to sell their home, is…

• Did YOU add on that deck? or
• Was that beautiful 3rd floor space always finished? or
• Did YOUR condo always have an elevator?

As listing agents, we at LG REAL ESTATE spend a great deal of time educating our sellers on the importance of getting a permit for many “innocent” or “common” additions or modifications. The lack of a permit can break a sale! We are not allowed to market any unpermitted space in TMLS, our Multiple Listing Service. And, today’s savvy buyers want to make sure that all improvements are permitted. The need to go back and get prior work permitted is so common, that the Town of Cary has set up a rather painless process in their permitting department to handle it.

You can get the all the details online at www.townofcary.org.

Here are the everyday items that need a permit per the town’s website:

• Converting a residence to a business.
• Constructing a deck, screened porch, or sunroom.
• Installing an irrigation system.
• Installing a swimming pool.
• Adding a ceiling fan. - Can you believe this one????
• Finishing an attic or basement. - THIS IS THE BIGGIE FOR US!
• Replacing a furnace or air conditioner.
• Replacement of water heaters in the same location with the same fuel source.
• Installing gas logs, attic fans, skylights

As you can see, some items would be easy to get a permit for. But an attic expansion could require the Town of Cary to tear holes in the sheetrock of your attic if they cannot verify the wiring was put in to code. They also require stair railings. Many do-it-yourself projects leave the stair railing out. Also, the stairs have to be a certian height. For one LG Real Estate client, we are unable to list the square footage for a 3rd floor expansion at this time because the risers were not built to code. These NC Building rules are in place to protect each of us as consumers.

If you are unsure if your project requires a permit, call Cary Inspections & Permits Dept at 919-469-4043 between 8am and 5pm weekdays.

Have you experienced any permitting challenges? We’d love to hear about them.

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Staying with the theme that Lee Ann started last month, I wanted to discuss another energy efficient tip that is not always on our minds. 

LIGHT BULBS

Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL):  Replacing your incandescent light bulbs with CFLs.  The CFLs use 50-80% less energy than incandescents and lasts up to 10 times longer too!  One website showed a savings of $47 per month in electricity costs! (In the average household, compared to incandescent bulbs.) 

Progress Energy, the electric supplier in Cary, NC and the surrounding areas has a page on their website that is dedicated to CFLs.  (They also have a number of other energy savings ideas, check it out…)  There is also the reduction in air and water pollution.  Saving electricity reduces CO2 emissions and sulfur oxide.  CFLs are versatile too.  You can use them in almost any household application.  They do cost a little more than incandescents ($2.98), but the savings is in the long run.

There are some limitations to consider too: 

• On/Off Cycling.  CFLs are sensitive to frequent turning on and off.  Your closets are probably not a good place for a CFL. 
• Dimmers.  Although there are CFLs for dimmers, be sure you have that one specifically.  A regular CFL may have a much shorter life span when used with a dimmer switch.
• Outdoors.  A CFL used outside should be protected form the elements.  Check the packaging before putting a CFL outside.
• Spotlight vs Area Lighting.  These are great for  area lighting, but not for targeted lighting.
• Mercury Content.  A CFL generally contains an average of 5 mg of mercury (one-fifth of that in the average watch battery and less than one-one hundreths of the mercury in an amalgam dental filling).  But mercury is a toxic metal.  Be sure to dispose of these properly and to take caution if you break one.

LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes):  Are there any other options?  Yep, LEDs. LEDs are small solid light bulbs that are extremely durable and energy efficient.  You have seen them places, but may not have noticed.  The next time you are sitting at a stop light, really look at the light.  Is it one large red circle or hundreds of tiny lights making up a circle?  Chances are it is the latter.  Why has the state or city decided to change the lights to LEDs?  They are long lasting and energy efficient.  LEDs last 10 times longer than CFLs and 133 times longer than incandescents.  LEDs also use very little energy.  Traffic lights with LEDs use at least 80% less electricity.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?  One website showed a savings of $55.47 per month in electricity costs (in the average household, compared to incandescent bulbs).  There are other benefits as well.  LEDs do not have a filament, so they can handle applications like flashlights and headlamps.  They also do not cause heat build up.  LEDs produce 3.4 btu’s/hour compared to 85 for incandescent bulbs. 

As with all things, there are some limitations to consider with LEDs too:

• Cost.  The cost of LEDs continue to decrease, while the types of LEDs available continue to increase.  An LED bulb designed to replace a 25 watt incandescent bulb may cost around $40.  (No, that is really $40!)  Obviously the cost savings is in the long run. 
• Light field.  LEDs give off focused light.  This makes them perfect for things like flashlights, reading lights, spot lights, etc.  New designs are addressing this so that 360 degrees of light can radiate, like an incandescent bulb. 

So, have I run out and bought CFLs or LEDs for my house?  Not  quite.  The cost for the LEDs is still holding me back and I don’t want to put in CFLs where there is constant on/off cycling.  I have put CFL bulbs in places that are not easily reached or almost always on, like the garage ceiling lights and the light above my sink in the kitchen. 

Energy efficient homes aren’t only good for the environment and your wallet, they are a good thing when you need to move.  People are becoming more and more conscious of that ‘extra’ cost when buying a home.  What will it cost to heat, cool, or light it?  Everyone wants to save money with the necessities.

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All Home Improvements Are Not Created Equal

You want your home to look as nice as possible while you live there or when you list your home for sale on the Cary real estate market.  But which projects will give you the most return-on-investment (ROI) for your remodeling dollars?  The list below provides information on the best remodeling paybacks.  The costs are averages in the Cary, NC area and may not reflect the size of your particular project or area of the country.    

If you are selling your home, choose a real estate agent who is very familiar with your Cary neighborhood and the homes for sale that are your competition.  An experienced agent can recommend which projects are critical and necessary for you to compete favorably in your neighborhood and current real estate market.

   Quick and Inexpensive Home Repairs  Listed below are some low-cost improvements that people tend to forget about.

Please share with us your most profitable or innovative home improvement idea.  

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Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese practice of using objects, space and environment to create balance and harmony.  Feng Shui works with Chi, the energy that connects the universe. By manipulating Chi, you can improve 9 areas within your life and your home.

 Each of these areas or life situations also corresponds to a specific area of your home. The areas are charted in a particular order by use of a bagua. This is an eight sided figure, the center being the 9th area. By using the bagua and your main entry door into your home, you can determine the areas for each life situation.

To improve each of these areas, the use of specific colors, light, movement, and Chinese “cures” are the foundation of Feng Shui.   If you are planning on selling your home, the use of feng shui is an excellent starting point in preparing your home to sell.         

 An excellent source of Feng Shui information is the book, Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life by Karen Rauch Carter.  Her website is http://www.fengshuipalace.com/ .

What are your thoughts on the use of Feng Shui to improve the feel and energy flow of your home?  

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With tax time quickly approaching, one of our Cary area real estate services is to educate our clients with any tax tips that might help you save money.

In some of our established Cary and Morrisville, NC area neighborhoods such as Preston, homes are becoming of age where a few of the household systems are needing replacement. For example, in the heart of the 101 degree August days we had here in the summer of 2007, my AC died. Upon further inspection, we were required to replace our main unit with a newer, more energy efficient model. After a few nights in the heat, it was money well spent. But our original unit was only 10 years old. Some household items are going to fail sooner than others.

Just before the end of the year when LG Real Estate was gathering articles for our newsletter, the Real Estate Market Update, I became aware of a tax credit that I can now use. Consumers who purchase and install specific products, such as energy-efficient windows, insulation, doors, roofs, and heating and cooling equipment in their primary home can receive a tax credit of up to $500 beginning in January 2006 through December 31, 2007.

For installing my particular type of efficent AC unit, it appears that I will get a credit of $300. However, i will still check with my accountant.

What is nice about a tax credit is that it reduces the tax dollar-for-dollar while a deduction only removes a % of the tax that is owed.

There is more detail on these energy-efficient upgrades on www.energy.gov/taxbreaks.htm.

Do you have any tax breaks that you can pass along to our Cary area real estate clients? If so, please respond.

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