Cold weather is here, is your home ready?

I know that it is trite to talk about preparing your Charlottesville Home for winter, but it truly is important. Whether you are just someone who wants to stay warm, need to save money on your winter heating bills or want to decrease your carbon footprint, taking some steps to treat your home for winter can result in a lot of savings and happier times for the winter months. 

Additionally, if you are wanting to sell your Charlottesville Home over the next few months, nothing can turn off a prospective buyer than walking in and it being so cold that they can see their breath, or passing a window with a draft that chills their bones, and their enthusiasm.

1. CLEAN OUT YOUR GUTTERS

It takes a little time for all of the leaves to finally fall and, though you may have done your duty during the fall months, you might be surprised to see how much debris has built up in your gutters and drains in the first few cold months. A ladder (a someone to spot you), a simple spatula and a few hours can make a lot of difference to your home weathering the cold months successfully. Clogged drain spouts and full gutters allow the winter water and ice to build up. This can result in ice dams that actually damage your gutters and roof, letting cool air in and costing a lot more money when the thaws come.

2. FIND THE DRAFTS AND BLOCK THEM

Every house has leaks and they are usually exactly where you expect them. The simplest method to find leaks is to be sure the HVAC is off, light a stick of incense and then walk through your home, pausing at doors that lead outside, windows and anything that goes inside of your ceiling, like canned lighting and anything that penetrates your walls, light electrical sockets. A simple step ladder can help you reach those places and locate the leaks. Breezy days are good for this task as it will make seeing the drafts easier. The average american home has leaks that amount to a NINE SQUARE FOOT HOLE, according to EarthWorks Group. Plugging these holes can be accomplished with door sweeps (yes, as seen on TV) insulation tape around sockets or gaskets around the rims of canned lighting.



3. ADD INSULATION

Everyone knows this, but hey, insulation is in the attic and we don't look up there. Besides, it makes you itchy to deal with it. Nevertheless, the quickest way to get money back on winterizing is by adding insulation. Don't stress over R-Values or measuring tape or making this hard. Look in your attic and if you can see the joists, then you need more insulation.Buy plain, rolled insulation without backing and roll it out. You don't want to use the papered backing when you are layering insulation on top of the original insulation as the paper serves as a paper barrier and adding another vapor barrier can cause moisture issues. Don't worry about too much - so long as you are not blocking any of the attic insulation, you are good to go. One big advantage of adding insulation, it helps all year round!

4. CHECK THE DUCTS

While you are crawling around in your attic or your basement or crawl space, check the ducts if you have central heating. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 60% of the heat your Central HVAC unit generates is lost because of poorly insulated or leaking ductwork. You can repair places where ductwork is pinched and use a metal backed tape to seal off any leaks you find in the ductwork. Surprisingly, duct tape is not recommended as it does not last over time and if you take the time to do this, you really do want it to last.

5. FACE YOUR WINDOWS

Windows lose heat. Its as simple as that. If you did our walk through from earlier you may have added weather stripping as a simple quick fix to drafty windows, but that won't change the amount of cold or heat that radiates out from your windows. This is not a simple weekend do-it-yourselfer fix in the way many of our other tips are, but if you find the worst windows you can budget to put up storm windows as an extra layer of protection and replace older single pane windows with ones that are double paned. Not a cheap fix but totally worth in terms of saving heating/cooling costs and a great boon when it comes time to Sell Your Home. One other tip is to have heavier curtains that you can draw over your windows at night. This added insulation helps to reduce heat loss in the coldest hours.

6. REVERSE YOUR CEILING FANS

Often overlooked and only thought of in summer months, your ceiling fans can help to distribute the heat more evenly through your house, increasing your comfort and reducing your bills. Heat rises and reversing your ceiling fans and setting them on their lowest setting helps to move that heat back down into the room where the people are. Not sure what "reverse" is on a ceiling fan? When you look up at the fan it should be turning clockwise for winter, counter clockwise for summer.

For a more complete list, please go to the full article at http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=13107899


If your home is older and you are feeling overwhelmed by its winter needs, just call me and we will find a new home and you can move. Not terribly practical perhaps, but certainly an option.

If you are wanting to Sell your Charlottesville home, Buy a Charlottesville Home or just have questions about the market and financing, you can check out my website or call me for an appointment.

Quinton Beckham
Keller Williams Realty

434.242.6212
www.buyorsellhomescharlottesville.com 

Charlottesville Joins List of Improving Housing Markets

In December, Charlottesville joined the NAHB list of Improving Housing Markets. 

“The big gain in improving markets this December indicates that key measures of housing and economic strength have now been holding steady or improving in metros across the country for six months or more, which is an important signal of stability amidst the slowly emerging recovery,” said NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg, a home builder from Gainesville, Fla. “The main thing that’s limiting the progress we’re seeing right now is the difficulty that potential buyers continue to experience with regard to overly tight mortgage qualifying standards.”

“This fourth consecutive month of expansion in the IMI, coupled with the fact that well over half of all metro areas are now represented on the list, is in keeping with the upward trends that we’ve been seeing all year in terms of housing starts and sales, builder confidence and other measures,” noted NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “In general, we expect the overall housing recovery to continue expanding in 2013. However, that is absent a major policy change of the kind that some policymakers have been discussing with regard to the mortgage interest deduction.”

“The dramatic expansion of improving markets at the end of this year should help encourage consumers who may have been on the fence about a home purchase that a housing recovery is now firmly underway,” added Kurt Pfotenhauer, vice chairman of First American Title Insurance Company.

The IMI is designed to track housing markets throughout the country that are showing signs of improving economic health. The index measures three sets of independent monthly data to get a mark on the top improving Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The three indicators that are analyzed are employment growth from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, housing price appreciation from Freddie Mac and single-family housing permit growth from the U.S. Census Bureau. NAHB uses the latest available data from these sources to generate a list of improving markets. A metropolitan area must see improvement in all three measures for at least six consecutive months following those measures’ respective troughs before being included on the improving markets list.

A complete list of all 201 metropolitan areas currently on the IMI, and separate breakouts of metros newly added to or dropped from the list in December, is available at www.nahb.org./imi. 

If you are wanting to: 

Buy a home in Charlottesville or Belmont, Click here

Sell a home in Charlottesville or Belmont, Click here

Learn about the Market and Being a Real Estate Agent, Click here

To contact me directly: 

Cell 434.242.6212

www.buyorsellhomescharlottesville.com 

Quinton Beckham

Keller Williams Realty 

Update your bathroom and improve your life

Often overlooked in day-today life, the bathroom can be a place of retreat and restoration from the day. When ignored and left to the most basic of traditional looks, bathrooms become places where cleaning and grooming is a chore. However, with a little time and money your bathroom can be transformed into a retreat that allows your body and mind to rest and prepare to face the world again. Homedit.com shares some ideas for giving your bathroom a new look and a whole new feel to go with the new year.



Outside of the kitchen, very few remodels breathe new life into your home like redoing the bathroom. From a complete refit to some simple accessories to give it a new feel, stepping out of the mundane can add enjoyment and give you cause to take the time enjoy a warming soak in the winter or a relaxing shower in the summer. Changing how you view this room can do a lot for your sensation of the space itself, changing it from a place where chores of cleaning and shaving are performed as quickly and efficiently as possible to a room to be enjoyed as an escape. Additionally, outside of a kitchen, very few rooms can do so much to increase the the value of your Charlottesville home than making the bathroom something spectacular.






Whether you go for a more modern look like the one pictured at the top of the page, or something a bit more traditional like the picture directly above and to the right, just glancing at these photos certainly lets you know that these were not bathrooms chosen out of the aisleways of the local home improvement store with a measuring tape and heavy duty cart and the latex advertisements for what is on sale. No matter what you choose, the point is to give a signature and make it inviting, unique and valuable. I have yet to be out with a couple buying a new home in Charlottesville / Albemarle where they do not comment on two rooms - the kitchen and the master bath. You may choose to update your bathroom for your own enjoyment now, but when the time comes to sell your home in Charlottesville, I can promise you this is an investment that will pay off in two ways - overall value of the home and by increasing traffic and shortening the length of time your home is on the market.


Are you an outdoorsman? Enjoy camping in winters and planting in the spring? One of the primary draws to Charlottesville / Albemarle Real Estate is the mix of city and nature, the ability of homeowners to experience and enjoy both. If you do love nature and experiencing it in person than you are likely in want of a mudroom. No mudroom in your home? Make your master bath one with a wet side and a dry with these unique partitions that let you clean up without spreading the mess throughout the whole bath.  Stylish and versatile, these partitions give your bath a unique feel and help you keep on the good graces of your spouse by simplifying clean up and not spreading the mess. Enjoy the outdoors without losing the luxury of your bath with these wonderful accessories.

Whether you have a large budget or a small one, you can make a difference in your home and your life with some well spent energy and money in a room that we should all enjoy that will add value to your home when it comes time to trade up.

For the full article go to http://www.homedit.com/new-year-makeover-ideas-for-your-bathroom/

If you are looking to buy or sell a home in Charlottesville or its surrounding areas, I would love to help. I can be found at www.buyorsellhomescharlottesville.com or at via contact information below. If you like this article, please consider sharing it.

Quinton Beckham
Keller Williams Realty
434.242.6212

Regal 14 IMAX / 3D at Stonefield

As the days grow shorter and night comes sooner I find it harder and harder to motivate myself out of the house past 5pm. Maybe growing up in Southern California before moving to Charlottesville has made me feel more solar powered than I originally thought, but as winter starts to set in I find myself drawn home as the day ends, wanting to be surrounded by warmth and the smells of food cooking. That being said, last week myself and a few friends decided to make a run out into the night to see The Hobbit; An Unexpected Adventure at the Regal 14. With a variety of shopping, 380 new homes and several restaurants already signed up, Stonefield is quite the popular Charlottesville destination.

I have to say, the theatre is pretty impressive. The outside box office (maybe not my favorite choice in the cold weather) makes you feel like you are going to see a pretty classy performance. Then as you go upstairs to enter the lobby you are greeted with overwhelming aroma of popcorn basting in a butter-like substance, video games and plenty of room to mill around as you wait for your order of cheese sticks or jalapeno poppers to deep fry. A pretty good theater experience.

Now when I was younger and 3D first came out, it was a head splitting experience of images haloed in red, blue and green with glasses that made you feel like your eyes could never quite focus... not the most pleasing of experiences. The new glasses, aside from being more stylish, allow a rather effective 3D experience. And while they do tire out your eyes, they are decidedly less painful than the glasses of the past.

With 380 homes for sale on the property Stonefield is certain to be a popular shopping and entertainment destination in Charlottesville for many years to come.

And by the way, I give The Hobbit; An Unexpected Adventure a lukewarm rating. LIke many of Tolkien's own books, it seems to have a hard time maintaining any kind of plot focus taking so many side trails that you often lose sight - and interest - in the central theme. Of course if you are a fan of the genre and Tolkien in general, you will want to see it. But you may want to wait until it comes out on a streaming service and or at least one of the sequel movies is also out as it is pretty obvious from the extra characters and plot-lines that have been written in that movie execs are seeking to stretch this one out from one movie to several.

As always, should you be looking to buy a home in Charlottesville, sell your Charlottesville home, or just see what your Charlottesville home is worth, please give me a call or check out my website.

Quinton Beckham
REALTOR
Keller Williams Realty
434.242.6212
www.buyorsellhomescharlottesville.com 

Belmont-Carlton, the neighborhood to watch!

As a resident and Charlottesville Real Estate Agent I have a real interest in the neighborhoods that compose our city. Belmont-Carlton, usually just called Belmont, is one of my favorites areas for locals.
With a great combination of old and new, the Belmont neighborhood has seen a revival over the last ten years that has not been stymied by the market.
The 403-acre Belmont neighborhood forms the southeast corner of the City and is bounded by the CSX Railway on the north, Moore’s Creek on the south and east and 6th St. SW on the west. Modern-day Belmont is actually the combination of the Belmont and Carlton neighborhoods.
Belmont is a late 19th Century neighborhood consisting primarily of two “1890’s era subdivisions, “Belmont” and “Carlton”. The neighborhood serves as a significant entrance to the City from Monticello as it is easily accessible to I-64 by way of Monticello Avenue (Route 20). With its rolling topography and setting, Belmont affords excellent views of both the Downtown and the surrounding mountains.

Originally, the county estate “Belmont” was the prosperous farm estate of John M. Carr, the nephew of Dabney Carr, a boyhood friend of Thomas Jefferson. The Belmont Mansion got its name from the farm when it was built circa 1837 by the original owner John Winn. The neighborhood of Belmont grew with the building of the Old Belmont Bridge in 1905. This bridge stood until 1961 when the New Belmont Bridge that connects Ninth Street and Avon Street replaced it. Belmont is now one of Charlottesville’s southern neighborhoods.
Area studies led to its designation as a priority neighborhood for improvements from 1996-1999, which resulted in enhancements such as new paved crosswalks, street trees and planters in “Downtown Belmont.”
The Neighborhood has a mixture of housing with corner convenience stores scattered throughout.  Industrial and commercial uses are located south of the CSX Railroad tracks.  Trackside redevelopment has added offices for corporations like National Optronics and Inova.
Opportunities abound for investors and residents alike to purchase a home that retains the character of the neighborhood, is within easy walking distance to restaurants whose charm and reviews are stellar, and not lose the feel that you live in a real neighborhood where you can know your neighbors but still have easy access to the Downtown Charlottesville Mall. Restaurants such as Mas, The Local, Tavola and La Taza offer a variety of Cuisines and feelings without losing the sensation that you are in a small neighborhood. 

To learn more about Belmont Homes for Sale or for a Market Analysis of your Belmont property CLICK HERE. 

Quinton Beckham
Keller Williams Realty 
434-242-6212
www.buyorsellhomescharlottesville.com 

Organizing your Home

      A good friend of mine says that one of the top ten reasons to sell your home is when you have accumulated so much stuff that you simply can not find anything any longer. Now I am happy to help anyone sell their home Charlottesville. I am a REALTOR, it's what I do. But assuming you don't, and there are those who abhor the thought of moving with the same shivering her-bee-gee-bees that one feels when finding a large and hairy spider in the shower. So for those who are not looking to pack up and move and yet need help being organized, I offer the following.

     "The goal of being organized," declares Brenna Peyton, owner of One Organized Girl in Charlottesville, "is easy retrieval of stored items and easy clean up of your home in general. If your system is too complicated, it can be worse than having no system at all."

     Peyton goes on to lay out several golden rules for maintaining usable organization and retrievability including: 

     1. Keep it simple - the system and the type of storage should be easy to understand and flexible

     2. For garages, attics, sheds and any other place that people don't see, use sealable containers - if you don't want the space seen, you shouldn't see the stored items when you are in there. 

     3. Open box shelving can be used in spaces where you want people to be. Use of baskets can hide those things that you don't want easily seen while still providing an easy view when you need something. 

   

For the complete article, click here.  

     However, should you truly want to sell your Charlottesville home, then I would love to help you. 

Quinton Beckham

Keller Williams Realty

www.buyorsellhomescharlottesville.com