Want to remodel your home? These eight strategies will help you yield substantial savings.

 

Do your remodeling in the off season

Like accountants and farmers, home-improvement pros have a slow season when they may slash prices to grab business. Redoing your bathroom in January, replacing a furnace in July, or installing a patio in November could yield 5% to 15% savings.

Buy online

Everything — including the kitchen sink — is sold online these days, often for 10% to 25% less than at local shops. But since a delayed, damaged, or disappointing product can derail a project, go see the item at a store first so you know what you’re getting, order early enough so there’s time for an exchange if there’s a problem, and buy only from authorized resellers (you can verify this at the manufacturers’ sites).

Combine small tasks and save

Handymen and specialists typically impose a minimum charge (often two hours at $50 to $100 an hour) just to come to the house. Bundling small jobs could get you two to three times the results for roughly the same cost.

Hiring a contractor? Negotiate!

If you’re getting a contractor to do the work, learn the right way to negotiate. First, let the contractor know he has competition, says Russell Korobkin, professor of negotiation at the UCLA School of Law. Hardball haggling won’t work — even if you win a discount, the pro might cut corners to make up the difference. But the remodeling market is still in the dumps, so if he hears you’re considering a few contractors, he’s going to give you his best price.

Set a low bar

Then, before the contractor bids, name your ballpark budget — about 20% under what you really expect to spend, advises Korobkin.He’ll scoff, but you’re setting an anchor that’s going to be in his mind as he puts together his price.

Take a collaborative approach

Ask the contractor to suggest painless ways you could alter the project plan to save money, says Korobkin.

Give the silent treatment

Once you have his final number in hand, let him stew, says Korobkin. If he has any wiggle room left and he’s hungry for work, he’ll reach out with a sweeter offer.

Source: http://money.cnn.com//galleries/2012/real_estate/1204/gallery.renovating-best-deals.moneymag/index.html

Mortgage payments at lowest level in decades

(Money Magazine) — For today’s homebuyers, the weight of the monthly mortgage bill is the lightest it’s been in decades.

Put 20% down on a median-priced ($154,400) existing home, and your payment will come to $616 a month, only 12.1% of the median U.S. family income.

In 98 of the top 100 metro areas, it’s now cheaper to buy than rent.

“If you have good credit,” says IHS Global Insight economist Patrick Newport, “this is the best time in 40 years to buy.”

Want to trade up? You may think the buyer of your current home is getting a deal, but you might get an even better one on your next place.

Real estate’s best-kept secret

Prices for bottom-tier properties have improved since 2011, reports Zillow, while top-tier prices keep falling.

Want to invest? To get the best rate (a quarter to a half point higher than for your primary residence), you’ll have to put at least 25% down, according to federal guidelines.

Work with a real estate agent who specializes in investment properties.

It’s safe to sell your home again

(Money Magazine) — Given everything they knew about the lackluster housing market, Meghann and Cort Battles didn’t expect much when they listed their four-bedroom home in Centennial, a Denver suburb, for sale in January. So they were taken aback by the onslaught of interest.

Meghann, at home on maternity leave with their two sons, juggled 32 showings in the first month. “It’s so exhausting trying to find somewhere to go for an hour two or three times a day,” she says. The Battles even installed a special front-door handle to text them when buyers enter and exit so that they can return as soon as possible. “It’s just crazy,” she says.

Wait, isn’t the real estate market still supposed to stink after five straight years of falling prices?

Turns out that while analysts debate when the market will hit bottom, for a surprising number of cities the turnaround has already begun. In December, prices rose in 109 of the 384 metro areas tracked by the data firm CoreLogic. Scrub out foreclosures, and that figure climbs to 169.

If you think that recovery means a return to the boom’s double-digit price increases, forget about it. “The market won’t suddenly snap back,” warns CoreLogic economist Sam Khater, who has studied past housing busts.

And for harder-hit areas such as central Florida and the Rustbelt, improving may simply mean things are less bad than they were two years ago.

Source:http://money.cnn.com//2012/04/19/real_estate/housing-market.moneymag/index.htm?section=money_realestate&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_realestate+%28Real+Estate%29

Living near good schools will cost an extra $200K

 

Want to live in a good school district? It’ll cost you an extra $200k.

Home values are $205,000 higher, on average, in neighborhoods with high-scoring public schools versus schools with low scores, according to a new report issued by the Brookings Institution.

Homes in high-scoring neighborhoods typically have 1.5 additional rooms, and 30% fewer are rented, the study found. Housing costs average $11,000 more per year in areas with better schools.

Some of the areas with largest differences in housing costs also have the widest gaps in school test scores. The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk metro area in Connecticut, for instance, has both the widest gap in test scores between higher-income and lower-income neighborhood schools and the largest difference in housing costs, at $25,000.

Not surprisingly, income has an impact on test scores. The average low-income student attends a school that scores at the 42nd percentile on state exams, while the average middle/high-income student goes to schools that score at the 61st percentile.

Poor students have become more concentrated in schools with other poor students since 1998, Brookings found. The average low-income student attends a school where 64% of fellow students are low-income, though they represent only 48% of all U.S. public school students. The percentage of economically integrated schools is less than 7%.

New-home construction takes a pause

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — After a strong start to the year, home builders have pared back, according to a report from the Census Bureau.

The number of new homes that began construction in March fell 5.8% to an annualized rate of 654,000 compared with February, the bureau said Tuesday. Housing starts were up year over year, however, by 10.3%.

The decline in starts represented a “pause in what had been a fairly rapid build-up in builder confidence that started last September,” said David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders.

He cited two factors contributing to the slowdown: competition from foreclosures and tight credit conditions that made it difficult for builders to get construction loans and homebuyers to get mortgages.

The results fell short of analyst expectations. A panel of experts from Briefing.com had forecast that starts would clock in at 700,000.

The report contained some good news. Housing permits, a more forward looking market indicator, grew 4.5% in March to a 747,000 annual rate, compared with a month earlier. They were up 30.1% year over year.

“What we’re seeing is a mixed bag,” said Michael Larson, an analyst with Weiss Research. “While some numbers are a little bit better, you can’t really call the housing market recovery very healthy.”

Much of the rise in housing permits were for multi-family homes, but the Census Bureau report does not distinguish whether those developments are for rental apartments or condominiums.

How the Duggars Support 19 Kids and Live Debt-Free

 

It costs nearly a quarter of a million dollars to raise a kid from birth to 18, according to the most recent calculations by the United States Department of Agriculture—and that’s before college tuition. Multiply that by 19 children plus mom and dad and it is a little mind bending that the Duggar family, of reality television fame, manage to support themselves without government assistance and, what’s more, are completely debt-free.

These days, the family earns its money from their popular TLC program, 19 Kids and Counting as well as from real estate investments. E!Online estimates each episode makes them a cushy $25,000 to $40,000. However, even before the brood hit the big time on television, they were self-sufficient and lived comfortably. How did they do it?

Neither dad Jim Bob nor mom Michelle Duggar attended college. They married when he was 19-years-old and she was 17. They got their start as entrepreneurs by selling used cars which Jim Bob repaired himself. Then they launched a towing business. They sold the business in 1994 and went into real estate. One of their first lucrative deals was to convert an old chicken hatchery into 10 commercial rental units. They also leased land to a cell phone company for its transmission tower. While the real estate business grew, the family was scrupulous about living withing their means.

Buy your home with cash. The Duggars borrowed to purchase their first home—a tiny 900-square foot cottage where they raised five children. It took them seven years of scrimping, but they bought their 2,000-square-foot second house, which they were living in with 17 kids when their reality show began, outright for $65,000. Their current house sits on 20 acres and is 7,000 square feet. The family divides itself over four bedrooms and shares one super-sized family closet.

 

Source:http://shine.yahoo.com/financially-fit/duggars-support-nineteen-kids-live-debt-free-180400323.html

US Homebuilder Outlook Dips Below 4-Year High

The outlook among U.S. homebuilders dimmed in April after six months of rising or steady confidence. The decline suggests the housing market remains weak despite modest gains.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo said Monday that its builder sentiment index fell this month to 25 from 28. Last month’s reading was the highest since June 2007. The index rose for five straight months between September and February.

Builders expressed weaker confidence in sales over the next six months. A separate gauge measuring that outlook rose for six straight months before falling this month, from 35 to 32.

The housing industry has a long way to go in its slow recovery. Any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the housing market. The index hasn’t reached hit that level since April 2006, the peak of the housing boom.

“What we’re seeing is essentially a pause in what had been a fairly rapid build-up in builder confidence that started last September,” said David Crowe, chief economist with the homebuilders’ group. “This is partly because interest expressed by buyers in the past few months has yet to translate into expected sales activity.”

The spring buying season got an early start thanks to a mild January and February, which made up the best winter for sales of previously occupied homes in five years. Permits to build houses and apartments rose in February to their highest level since 2008.

Yet home prices continued to fall this winter. Builders keep slashing their prices to stay competitive. Last year was the worst for new-home sales on records dating back to 1963.

Builders are struggling to compete with foreclosures, which have forced down prices of previously occupied homes. And many people are finding it hard to qualify for loans or meet higher required down payments.

Low appraisals are scuttling some deals after contracts have been signed. As a result, some people who want to buy a new house are holding off because they can’t sell their home.

Those in a position to buy are benefiting from lower prices and the cheapest mortgage rates on record. The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage is hovering near record lows below 4 percent.

Builders have pointed to some regional pockets of strength. New Orleans, Pittsburgh and other smaller areas of Texas, in particular, have reported increased buying.

By DEREK KRAVITZ AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON April 16, 2012 (AP)

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/us-homebuilder-outlook-dips-year-high-16147600#.T4ye9psr27s