Focusing on Color: Painting Your Home

by admin on June 17, 2011

Wherever we go, we respond to color, though its effect is often underestimated.

Color use is important to us in our homes and workplaces.

If you are selling a house, you will want to choose different colors than those you might use for your own home.

If you just purchased a house, you can add some of your own personality with paint.

HGTV’s Shari Hiller says color accounts for 60 percent of our response to a room.  Here is some advice.

Living room: Start with colors you love from something in the room. Consider colors from artwork, a rug, dishes, an accessory or furniture for a main color or accent. Buy two or three quarts of paint. Paint sample boards to hold up to the furniture, fabrics and surfaces you choose.

If you aren’t sure where to begin with a color, experiment in a bathroom, a small hall or area between rooms. The dining room: Do you want the area to feel social and stimulating or be formal and quiet? Warmer, contrasting and somewhat brighter colors add to a sociable atmosphere. Deeper blue-greens and neutral colors make the dining area more formal.

The monochromatic color scheme: In any room, one color need not be boring. You can create bold or subtle variations within one color group with contrasting paint finishes. It helps to use matte finish paint for walls and slightly shiny eggshell paint for wood trim. The paint will appear to be a slightly different color. It can be attractive to paint an entire wall in a lighter or darker hue of the same color.

White or off-white tint can be a striking accent when used as trim with a monochromatic color group.
For bedrooms: Softer, cool colors and neutrals create a quiet feeling.

Children’s bedrooms: Stay away from bright and intense wall colors, which are said to lead to unrest and irritability.

For an accent color in any room, select a warmer color, more toward reds, or a cooler color more toward blues, to compliment your main color group.

Tagged as: decor, home care, staging

Buying Short Sales or Foreclosures

by admin on June 14, 2011

There’s no question that negotiating the short sales or a foreclosure can be time-consuming and frustrating. It can take months. But if you’re patient and willing to do the work, your reward will be a great house at a bargain price.

Short sales

For a distressed property, you could be dealing with third parties, each with their own agenda and process rules.
On short sales, banks will price a home close to the market value, but they are often willing to take less to avoid a costly foreclosure. The average short sale in the past year has sold at14 percent off the list price, compared with a 7 percent discount for foreclosure and regular sales.

Dealing for a foreclosure
Because banks are eager to unload properties they own, they list the home at a price at which they think it will sell quickly. These properties are often bought for cash by investors. In California, 31 percent of recent deals were by cash, according to Money magazine.

In some cases, the bank that handles the foreclosure may not own the loan. During the real estate boom years, many loans were sold off to other investors. In that case, the bank who owns the property has to consider the amount investors who own the loan are willing to accept.
Wells Fargo short sale and foreclosure servicing department says, on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, lenders can accept no less than 88 percent of appraised fair market value in the first 30 days. That declines to 84 percent after 60 days.

How to make an offer
In deciding what to bid on a foreclosure or short sale, remember that banks aren’t interest in making several counteroffers, though they may come back to you once or twice. In weeks to come, you could resubmit the offer and it might be accepted.

Your initial bid should be 10 percent to 20 percent below the list price.

Tagged as: foreclosure, real estate, short sales

June is Fly-A-Kite Month: Fly kites just for fun or as a sport

by admin on June 8, 2011

Blue skies and gentle breezes beckon as June ushers in the kite flying season. This is a time for adults, kids, funsters and sportsters to play.

It has been so for thousands of years since kites were first flown in China. But today’s kites are far different.

You can buy a basic diamond-style kite for a few dollars and have fun with it. Or you could opt for a Delta or Dragon kite for winds below 15 mph. For more challenging winds, box kites and Para foil kits are recommended.

New materials like ripstop nylon, fiberglass, and carbon graphite have made kites stronger, lighter, more colorful and durable. Modern Delta kites, like the one pictured here,

can be used for tricks and aerobatics.

Advice for novice fliers

* Choose a colorful kite so you can see it against the sky and clouds.

* Find a large, windy and open area that is free of power lines. A beach or a football field is fine.

* Hold the kite in both hands and throw it into the wind until the wind catches it. Or let out some string and run with the kite behind you until the wind catches it.

* Gradually let out more string until it reaches the desired height.

* If the kite dips or begins to crash down, run with it or pull in some of the string to give it more lift.

* When you are finished, bring the kite down slowly by winding in the string.

* Grab the kite before it reaches the ground.

Tagged as: activities, California, california weather, stress reduction