Worried that something is seriously wrong with the crack in the basement? Stop fretting and get advice. Home inspectors don’t work only for buyers; you can call one anytime to get an educated opinion about whatever keeps you awake. For $250 to $350 on average, an inspector will look over your home’s structure and systems. Find one in your area at ASHI.org, the Web site for the American Society of Home Inspectors, which also has a virtual home-inspection tool so you can see what a typical checkup covers. Interview a few pros to make sure their field experience matches the type of home you own.

The housing boom has lifted home values 51 percent over the past six years. For most of us that means that if our house was destroyed, insurance would pick up only a portion of the cost to rebuild. For the underinsured, the average shortfall is 21 percent, according to one firm that tracks building prices. Even if you bought a guaranteed replacement or an extended replacement policy, you could still face too-low coverage caps. (For more on being adequately insured, read the story here.) To see how much coverage you need, have a contractor estimate the cost of rebuilding. And don’t forget to check your contents coverage, which is often inadequate. Water is your home’s biggest enemy, and your regular policy won’t cover all types of damage. If you live in a floodplain, you need flood insurance (contact the National Flood Insurance Program at 888-379-9531 or floodsmart.gov). You’ll pay $1,000 a year on average if you live in an area that’s susceptible. (more…)

I am quite disgusted with the home inspection industry. Before buying my home, I hired the inspector who was recommended by my agent. First of all, $350 is a lot of money to pay someone just to flush the toilet and inform me that there are rust stains on the bottom of the kitchen sink. What’s more, the inspector referred me to a structural engineer just because of a tilted foundation pier in the crawlspace. Couldn’t I perform my own basic inspection with some sort of checklist and then, if an item appears faulty, call a licensed contractor?

As for your suggestion that you perform your own home inspection, ask yourself if you have the experience and expertise to evaluate the wiring in a circuit breaker panel, to review the conditions of a forced-air furnace, or to ascertain whether a fireplace and chimney are properly constructed and in operational condition. Ask yourself if you are prepared to crawl through an attic or foundation subarea and whether you would recognize the various construction defects that would pertain to roof framing, seismic reinforcement and ventilation. Additional examples could fill several pages and still not comprise a complete list. Despite your recent disappointment, there are many highly qualified home inspectors who can provide detailed, comprehensive defect disclosure for home buyers. Rather than draw conclusions about the entire home inspection industry, buyers should try to find an inspector with many years of experience and a reputation for thoroughness. Don’t simply rely on referrals made by your agent. (more…)

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Unlike the original Seven Wonders, which primarily stem from ancient times, Georgia’s “Seven Natural Wonders,” as they are known, date back millions and millions of years to Mother Earth’s prehistoric times, with only one exception. The list of Georgia’s Seven Natural Wonders came about when state librarian Ella May Thornton of the Georgia State Library in Atlanta compiled the first list of Georgia’s natural wonders in response to an inquiry by a journalist. Thornton’s list included the natural formations of Stone Mountain, Okefenokee Swamp, Amicalola Falls, Tallulah Gorge, Warm Springs, Jekyll Island Forest and the marble vein in Longswamp Valley in Pickens County.

If you’ve ever seen the 300-million-year-old Stone Mountain then you know that it truly has earned its place on the list of Georgia’s Seven Natural Wonders. A smooth behemoth rising to almost 1,700 feet above sea level at its summit, it is the world’s largest piece of exposed granite. At seven miles in circumference around its base and two miles long, Stone Mountain, one of the South’s most endearing icons, is flat-out imposing. A 3-acre carving of Confederate heroes Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis highlights part of the mountain. Visit www.stonemountainpark.com or call 800-401-2407.

My favorite of Georgia’s wonders is Tallulah Gorge between Rabun and Habersham Counties near Tallulah Falls in the northeast Georgia mountains. During the late 19th and early 20th century, during Georgia’s heyday of tourism, the series of waterfalls and gorges created from the flow of the Tallulah River were so glorious that they were once known as the “Niagara Falls of the South.” Georgia Power Co. dammed the falls in 1912 for construction of a hydroelectric faculty. Tallulah Gorge, breathtakingly scenic in any season, is about two miles wide and a thousand feet deep. Visit www.gastateparks.org/info/tallulah/. Call the park directly at (706) 754-7970 or for reservations directly at 800-864-7275. (more…)

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“Out of sight, out of mind” is a phrase that can certainly be applied to the heat duct system that runs under your floor or through your attic. But just because you can’t see the ducts — and there still seems to be heat coming out of the registers — doesn’t mean that your heating system is working as well as it could. And since your heating system is typically the single biggest energy user in your home, small problems with the duct system have the potential to translate into big dollars being wasted each month. There are four basic steps that you’ll want to undertake in this order: inspect, repair, insulate and clean. Any or all of these steps can be taken by the ambitious do-it-yourselfer, or can be hired out to the pros.

The first step in the process is to inspect the system, which is going to mean some crawling around. With a strong light source — preferably a cordless one so you don’t have to worry about dragging cords behind you — work your way along each of the ducts. Look for areas where joints have come loose, or where support straps are missing, sagging or otherwise not providing adequate support for the ducts. This is especially important with flexible ducts, as large sags or kinks in the ducts can impede air flow. Pay particular attention to the joints where the ducts come together — the tape used to seal the joints can come loose over time, allowing air leaks to occur that waste heat. Since the joints may be partially or completely covered with insulation, it’s a good idea to have the heat on while you’re making your inspection. Feel along the ducts for air leaks, and also listen for any sounds of escaping air. (more…)

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Winter’s finally given the rooftops their first dusting of snow. But if every falling flake made you wonder whether your roof would survive another season, it’s time to consider these points, brought to you with help from the Department of Energy and roofing-material manufacturers. You need to know which kind of roof you have — flat, sloped or peaked — and what weight it will bear. This will determine the most appropriate roofing material. (Asphalt shingles aren’t right for a flat roof, for example).

Metal roofs, common long ago, are making a comeback — in steel, aluminum and copper, among other types. To reduce the corrosion rate, steel is galvanized with a zinc or zinc/aluminum coating. Metal is available as traditional seam-and-batten roofing, tiles, shingles and shakes. New metal roofs last two to three times longer than asphalt. Wood shakes look different on every roof. But in addition to a distinctive appearance, they can help insulate your attic and allow your house to breathe, circulating air through small openings under the felt rows on which the wooden shingles are laid. Traditional roofing tiles are made from clay. They are durable and low-maintenance, save energy and are environmentally friendly. Because the longevity of a tile roof also depends on the quality of the subroof, manufacturers are working to improve flashings and other aspects of the underlayment system. (more…)

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Instead of refinancing to get their hands on quick cash, many homeowners are finding themselves in financial trouble with little or no equity in their homes, and are walking away and letting the lenders foreclose. According to RealtyTrac, the nation’s leading online marketplace for foreclosed properties, 318,355 properties entered some stage of foreclosure nationwide during the third quarter of 2006, a 17 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 43 percent yearly increase from the third quarter of 2005. But the news is not all bad. Foreclosed properties have turned into a windfall for savvy investors.

Johnson and a partner bought a foreclosed property for $39,000, using financing from their credit cards; then with the title in hand, went to the bank and took out a $40,000 loan for an extensive rehab. A short time later, the home appraised at $115,000, $35,000 more than they had invested in it. Johnson’s next move was to try another technique, he sold the equity in the home to a new investor, then used the cash he got to buy another foreclosed property. How did Michael Johnson find the properties he ended up buying? He established relationships with some of the lenders in town, letting them know he could step in and take foreclosed properties off their hands. He also regularly goes down to the country courthouse to review foreclosure notices, then spends a lot of time doing research. In addition to determining the stability of properties that have been foreclosed on, he also has to take the amount of delinquent taxes and other charges into consideration. Recent reports indicate that four percent of all homes sold in the U.S. will eventually end up in foreclosure. And when a foreclosure is imminent, lenders are willing to be creative in order to avoid a prolonged legal process and unfavorable public relations.
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A Wall Street Journal analysis of 1,000 recent home sales shows that Zillow’s “Zestimates” often are very good, frequently within a few percentage points of the actual price paid. But when Zillow is bad, it can be terrible — off the mark by more than 25% on one in 10 homes. In one case it was off by $2 million. Zillow, based in Seattle, operates a Web site that offers free estimates and other online tools for real-estate buyers and sellers. It draws revenue from online advertising.

Zillow’s estimates come from a proprietary computer program that takes into account sale prices for nearby homes that appear comparable, the size and other physical attributes of the home, its past sales history and tax-assessment data, says Stan Humphries, vice president of data and analytics. Zillow tends to work best for midrange homes in areas where there are a lot of comparable houses, he says. It is less accurate for low- and high-end homes because there are fewer of those and thus less data available from comparable sales, known as “comps.” Values of rural homes are hard to gauge for the same reason. Partly for that reason, none of the Web sites can offer 100% coverage of U.S. homes; Zillow says it has estimates on about 57% of all homes. (more…)

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