damn, where would you find a HUD statement from a house that's not yours? I would think it's a violation of the homeowner's privacy.

2/1/2012 11:55:57 AM

FOIA request?

2/1/2012 12:16:06 PM

why do you need their HUD statement?

2/1/2012 12:19:28 PM

She says that she cant verify true sales price by tax records

2/1/2012 12:30:23 PM

sounds like she's trying to save face by making it as difficult as possible on you.

2/1/2012 1:22:41 PM

^

2/1/2012 1:31:02 PM

Well, she's doing a fantastic job.

2/1/2012 2:59:02 PM

Quote :

"The appraiser has agreed to use the house in our neighborhood but is now asking that we track down the HuD statement/ building contract ourselves... "

jesus christ. what a lazy bitch. YOU are paying HER. make that shit clear. Have you talked to the lender about hiring someone else?

2/1/2012 4:23:19 PM

I think they changed the law so that the bank has to use an appraiser chosen at random out of some pool. Not so sure they can change.

2/1/2012 4:29:26 PM

but still its her job to obtain the info.

2/1/2012 5:03:26 PM

Some people just deserve death in fire. Good luck with your research and sale.

2/1/2012 11:47:24 PM

getting our house prepped to put on the market in the next month.

Anyone ever use any professional staging people?

haha basically my wife and i disagree on what we actually need to do, and I just want someone who does this shit for a living to come in and tell us what we should do, and that'll settle the dispute.

2/2/2012 9:16:02 AM

Or you can just let TWW decide the dispute

2/2/2012 9:19:25 AM

^^Depends on how serious you are about staging. Professional stagers usually require an investment, as they typically like to replace furniture, buy paint, accessories, etc.

If you don't want to spend much/any money, then don't bother with professional stagers. Any realtor worth his salt should be able to guide you through at least optimizing your house as-is for showing. You can always start with the basics like:

De-clutter, including nick-knacks
Remove uncessary furniture like extra side tables or decorative pieces that don't serve much of a purpose other than looking nice; this may include bedside tables in guest rooms.
Remove ALL uncessary clothes from closets
Remove all seldom used storage items from guest room closets
Remove and store out-of-season items like winter coats
Take down personal photos
Remove magnets and/or decorations from fridge
Remove seldom used small kitchen appliances from the counter tops like a stand mixer or blender (but if you use a coffee maker every day, that's typically OK to leave out)
Take down any collegiate or sports decorations, including yard and porch items
Remove any mailbox decorations
Paint over any bold colors and replace with neutral colors
Essentially throw as much stuff as you can in your attic or in a storage unit that you don't use on a regular basis.

Basically do everything you can to make your house as generic (non-personal) and as spacious as possible. You want the potential buyer to be able to imagine how they could make the space, not let them be distracted by your own style, no matter how "awesome" it is.

[Edited on February 2, 2012 at 3:23 PM. Reason : Just my $0.02]

2/2/2012 3:14:35 PM

Appraisal came back. Result:

2/2/2012 3:23:17 PM

With staging don't forget to clean up your yard a bit. Trim bushes, mow grass, ect...

For the inside ^^ pretty much said it all. On open house days have things like fresh flowers and fruit out. People like that stuff and it helps brighten the house up.

2/2/2012 3:51:20 PM

^^^ I agree on pretty much all of that. I really would never hire a stager unless you just weren't in town at all or something.

As far as the neutral paint colors go...I agree to some extent. There are certainly a large percentage of buyers who fall for the nicely decorated house and don't look past the houses that are great houses but are just currently missing the final touches. If you have your entire floor painted orange or have different, bold, dark colors in every room, sure, paint it all a light grey or taupe or something as that constant stream of bold colors will appeal to a small amount of buyers and will scare away plenty who don't want to repaint.

Let your realtor help you a little there though. If you are actually someone who has some nice style that isn't too specific and the dining room is decorated to the nines and is really based around the rich, warm chocolate wall color or that cool, soft green it might actually be better to leave it that then paint it over with some hideous builder beige that downgrades the luxury of the space. Believe it or not, there are PLENTY of people out there who loathe the idea of painting in a new house but also hate beige and actually like to find a house that is painted well already (not bold but not beige). They are people who know what they like when they see it, but don't like doing the painting and decorating themselves. They're more common than you think too.

The "paint everything beige" idea comes from a better-safe-than-sorry point of view because the majority of people either have terrible style / don't care about decorating / didn't have time or money to decorate well. But it's not always the right avenue.

[Edited on February 2, 2012 at 5:23 PM. Reason : ]

2/2/2012 5:09:13 PM

i noticed a weird smell in our bedroom starting yesterday. it's odd in that i've not smelled that particular smell before, but it seems like a combination of things. there's an earthy/dirt quality to it (like when my dogs come inside at night & have been running around in the part of the yard missing grass), plus maybe hint of dog poop (not people poop smell). it's not specifically sulfur/rotten eggs.

there is a bathroom off the bedroom, but i don't smell anything in there. i turned the fan on (hvac, not bathroom exhaust) & i don't smell it coming out of the floor registers. i've removed hamper & all the dirty clothes/towels/sheets from the room. i've looked & sniffed all over the room, can't narrow it down to a more specific location other than "bedroom." no hidden dog poop anywhere.

i can't for the life of me figure this out & it's definitely stronger today than yesterday. husband is sick & can't smell anything at all, so he's no help right now.

my main concern/worst case scenario is a sewer gas leak from the toilet. when i replaced it a few years ago i noticed the cast iron flange, which extends about 2 feet or so under the house, was cracked at the top. just in the horizontal piece that screws go into, not the pipe itself. we figured it would be crazy expensive to have it replaced, so we bought a new pvc flange to fit inside & bolted/sealed/shimmed it like crazy to make sure it was stable. i know that's probably not the best way to go about it, but that's what was done. just in case & as a test, i've turned the bathroom exhaust fan on, closed the door, & sealed the bottom with a towel. we'll see if it's dissipated in a little while.

any ideas? also, any idea on how much replacing that cast iron flange might be if it is indeed the worst case scenario? we had a new shower installed about a month ago & it cost $319 for the plumber to replace the shower drain & valve.

[Edited on February 2, 2012 at 11:14 PM. Reason : ]

2/2/2012 11:05:53 PM

Best Staging in Raleigh

http://www.champagnestaging.com

2/2/2012 11:07:53 PM

okay it's definitely NOT coming from the bathroom. when i opened the door it smelled a lot better in there than the bedroom. i did another check through the room and still couldn't find anything that seemed to be causing the smell. i slept in there overnight & didn't die, so that's good i guess. the crawlspace access is right next to the bedroom so i'm going to shine a flashlight around in there this afternoon. what's got me mad/confused now is that if i'm going to spend all afternoon cleaning the bedroom, i don't even know where to start. i just have no idea wtf this is.

2/3/2012 7:40:45 AM

Quote :

"Take down any collegiate or sports decorations, including yard and porch items Paint over any bold colors and replace with neutral colors"

I have to admit, when we were looking at houses if the people had an NCSU grill cover or something we'd usually add a couple of points to the house

I don't necessarily agree with painting your house neutral colors. I think it depends on what colors you have there in the first place. We saw a few houses where whoever lived there was obviously into interior design and the bold/deep colors they choose made the house look excellent. And then there were houses where every room had been painted white/beige and all I could think was, "Ugh, going to have to paint the shit out of this house to make it not look like a giant apartment." But if we're talking like, lime green walls in the living room or something then yeah, might want to consider repainting.

2/3/2012 9:06:33 AM

^this.

or murals, kids colors, strange designs, etc. I don't care for a sky blue wall with a big tree painted on it. I don't care for blaze orange with little doodads all over the place. I don't care for pink and ponys. I don't care for you strange obsession with forest green, lavender, or all black.

2/3/2012 9:14:05 AM

^^ exactly.

2/3/2012 9:18:34 AM

^^^I agree with you about the paint. I should've been clearer, I meant to say really bright or really dark colors or murals or painted ceilings and stuff like that. I didn't mean to imply that you need to make your house beige-tastic. The point is that I'd rather have someone say, "I really don't like the gray/beige/neutral-whatever, but I can live with it until we paint" than "Good God, we have to paint over that [bright/weird color] before we move in" kind of thing. You want to cast the largest net possible, so it's usually best to appeal to the masses by avoiding colors that can be polarizing (i.e. people either love it or hate it).

Kinda the same logic behind the collegiate stuff. I remember when we were looking at houses I thought the same thing as you when I saw NCSU gear, added a couple of subconscious brownie points. But conversely, if we saw UNC stuff it was off-putting, albeit extremely minor.

Little things that seem insignificant can be difference makers, especially in a buyers market like this. There's a reason why realtors will do seemingly silly things like bake cookies or put out fresh flowers.

2/3/2012 10:08:45 AM

I remember us going to one open house where the realtor had baked some cookies for it. But no amount of cookies was going to cover up the obvious issues with that house hahaha. Poor house is still on the market too. It has to be going on two years now.

2/3/2012 10:22:25 AM

[user]se7entythree[\user]: Sounds like something may have died under the room or in a wall.

2/3/2012 10:39:51 AM

Turns out the smell was from a shower seat. One of those portable ones that old people use. I'm pregnant & sometimes just can't stand up for the whole shower. Anyway, I had taken it out & put it next to the bed a few days ago. Prior to the shower it had been in the attic for forever. Idk what is growing in it but it's outside on the deck now. The seat itself didn't smell super strong but the smell was gone after I removed it. :shrug:

2/3/2012 9:13:40 PM

After we get home from vacation, I am going to start on the master bath repair/renovation.

Still struggling on a color scheme, or shower design.

Anyone got any suggestions? Maybe links to design pictures you think look nice? I can't seem to find much that strikes me.

2/6/2012 7:42:18 PM

Post some current pics so we can get an idea of what you're working with.

2/6/2012 8:11:17 PM

I've got some loose floorboards. Quick/easy fixes?

2/7/2012 7:18:35 AM

^^^pintrest... hahah, I feel ~ for saying that, but my gf is on there and is all the time showing me cool house features/room designs/colors/etc.

2/7/2012 8:38:42 AM

^^little more detail. Do you mean the floor squeaks when you walk on it or the strips are actually detached?

2/7/2012 9:14:47 AM

"Strips" are loose/detached. My hardwood floors are the original restored floors (house built in 1889). So they aren't uniform "strips." They look great, but I have a couple loose boards (and large seams that dirt and debris get into ).

2/7/2012 9:30:27 AM

anyone know of a good tool/way to figure out kitchen colors (floor, counters, cabinets)? I've been searching for a kitchen planner tool, but haven't found one I liked so far.

2/7/2012 2:30:41 PM

Honestly I go to Barnes and Noble, grab all the stupid kitchen magazines they have, and look over them until I find kitchen I like and bring those magazines home.

2/7/2012 2:46:14 PM

Update on my appraisal logjam...

the appraiser has agreed to use the true comp in the neighborhood but since she had already given the appraisal to the bank they now have to agree to use it.

the agent just called us and wants us to get the floor plans for the house so the bank can verify square footage...


i also sent her this email...

Quote :

" Hello Jenny, Attached is the only floor plan the homeowner has. It is accurate but some of the dimensions are small. I have compared the foot print of this drawing to that of wake gov ( http://services.wakegov.com/realestate/Building.asp?id=0018863&stype=addr&stnum=601&stname=cabarrus&locidList=429&spg=1&cd=01&loc=601+W+CABARRUS+ST&des=601+W+CABARRUS+ST&pin=1703464953) and they are the same. Per the attached plans and the wake gov building sketch this is what I came up with... First floor = 810 sqft Second Floor = 765 sqft (same building foot print minus the 9’x5’ foyer) Total = 1575 Here are some differences to note between 601 Cabarrus and 521 W. Lenoir. (Per Pics http://www.vrguild.net/c/star.pl?U=1109301618119083&Z=1) Kitchen appliances aren’t as upgraded. No Fireplace no wet bar No in-ceiling speakers No tile in bathrooms (or anywhere in the home) Wood floors in baths. One piece acrylic shower in master bath and second bath. Cultured marble sinks in master. 3rd “bedroom” is labeled as office on first floor. (Very small) Carport instead of oversized 1 car garage with driveway. Power/Phone for house is overhead in lieu of underground all painted wood freeze/facia boards in lieu of hardi parged block foundation in lieu of brick no metal roof no gutters Hope this helps. "

2/7/2012 6:25:40 PM

any advice on flooring types? I've got a dog and I'm concerned about damage. I'd love to have hardwood/engineered hardwood.

2/7/2012 6:30:34 PM

its all gonna scratch. hardwoods can more likely be finished than engineered hardwoods. i have hickory hardwoods here and my golden has done a number on them. mainly because she high energy

2/7/2012 6:51:35 PM

I'd prefer hardwood, which can be refinished, but then that gives me moisture issues.

engineered hardwoods are ok, but i've heard too many horror stories of them bubbling up to make me thrilled about them.

I don't care for laminate and it's not repairable

2/7/2012 6:55:34 PM

What kind of moisture issues?

2/7/2012 9:09:18 PM

what about that tile that looks like hardwood?

2/7/2012 9:10:03 PM

^^dog, dog bowl, spills, etc. and I just fear the damage a dog can do to hardwood; my brother's old house had wood floors and their dogs destroyed the floors. flooring websites say that keeping the dog's nails trimmed and having prefinished floors will be fine, but user reviews/comments often say the opposite.

^never seen that...

[Edited on February 7, 2012 at 9:35 PM. Reason : .]

2/7/2012 9:33:24 PM

plenty of engineered hardwoods can be refinished. In fact, any of the engineered boards worth a damn can be. The number of times they could be refinished is limited compared to a solid hardwood, but honestly, how many times are you going to refinish hardwood floors

People always talk about that, but I have never talked to a single person who has refinished hardwood floors multiple times in their house. In fact, the only people who I know that have ever refinished hardwood floors were in old houses and it was probably the first time they had been refinished in like 25 years.

We still haven't decided whether we are doing solid or engineered on our 1st floor or not but the refinishing isn't much of an issue to us.

^What kind of moisture issues would you have with solid that you wouldn't have with engineered with those things? However, to be honest none of those are really moisture issues unless you are letting big puddles of water sit around all the time. Those are all things that everyone with hardwoods deal with without much of an issue.

[Edited on February 7, 2012 at 9:36 PM. Reason : ]

2/7/2012 9:34:02 PM

yeh, depending on the type, engineered can be refinished. but I've read a few horror stories of engineered hardwood floors bubbling up and coming apart; maybe it was just cheap/bad flooring.

I thought engineered floors could handle moisture better than solid wood. maybe i'm wrong.

[Edited on February 7, 2012 at 9:37 PM. Reason : .]

2/7/2012 9:36:58 PM

they can deal with moisture better as well as thermal expansion/contraction. When they say that, they aren't really talking about spills and such and are instead talking about humid environments or the problems with moisture finding it's way through a concrete subfloor. It's not really any more durable from a surface water problem. However, it also isn't any LESS durable and once again, if wood is finished properly you aren't going to have any problems unless you have a washer or dishwasher overflowing or something like that. A dog spilling their water won't ruin the floor.

And also, I could be out of the loop, but I have never heard of anyone having problems with engineered hardwood "bubbling" (and I know lots of people who have them installed). What was bubbling? The poly finish?

[Edited on February 7, 2012 at 9:46 PM. Reason : ]

2/7/2012 9:43:14 PM

Just some comments on some flooring/random message boards I found in a google search.

2/7/2012 9:45:59 PM

I would disagree. Engineered woods have "plys" that would come apart easier Than a solid hardwood.

A true hardwood that is "finish in place" may be the way to go. That would keep minor spills from "seeping" in between the boards to the unprotected sides of the wood.

2/7/2012 9:46:05 PM

here's a site with several different types
http://www.builddirect.com/Porcelain-Tile.aspx

idk anything about specific brands, but i've seen a lot of it in architectural magazines at work. it can look really awesome, but i imagine it's one of those things that if you don't get it right, it looks worse than bubbled up engineered flooring.

2/7/2012 9:46:27 PM

^^well that is true yes - if you go with the finished in place versus the pre-finished it would at least keep some water from getting between the boards. I don't really like the look of those though (just a personal opinion here, plus the finish technically isn't AS durable as what they do on nice pre-finished floors these days). They always seem old-fashioned or look like a high school gymnasium to me.

I've never seen the plys of an engineered wood start coming apart simply because of a spilled drink or a dog's water bowl spillage. Now, our house right now only has some engineered hardwoods in one part of the house - some pre-existing cheap stuff in the foyer. So most of my experience is from talking to people who have had them for years or looking at some friends' houses. The stuff in our foyer is cheap contract grade engineered flooring though and besides some scratches from our dog it is 9 years old and looks fine. Plenty of water and snow coming in from the front door over the years. It will be coming out when we update, but it isn't because of any bubbling or ply separation, it's only so we will have one continuous type of flooring on the 1st floor

[Edited on February 7, 2012 at 9:57 PM. Reason : ]

2/7/2012 9:49:23 PM

I thought he was speaking of a lot of water.

2/7/2012 10:09:33 PM