What do you do if you have radon above the action level of 4.0 pci/l? What does it cost to make your house safe? There are tried and true cures for that problem. To mitigate for Radon, a system is installed that creates a slight vacuum under the basement slab. This keeps the radioactive gas from
What is Radon and why should you care? According to the EPA Radon is a naturally-occurring, invisible and odorless radioactive gas. One in 15 American homes contains high levels of radon. Radon gas is not isolated to certain geographical areas or home types. Radon problems have been detected in homes in every county of the U.S.
It is impossible to judge the value of a house without calculating a rough cost of repair. The properties around here are frequently 100 years old. When a problem begins, it is much cheaper to repair than the same problem left for years to get worse. Tip one: deferred maintenance costs roughly five times more to
A dead hot water heater led me to DIY hell. Here’s how it happened. Last winter, our tenant’s hot water heater gave up the ghost. The thing had a twelve-year warranty, but it spilled its guts all over the basement seven years into its life. Oh joy! There is a silver lining! At least we
You know that real estate bubble I keep saying is inflating? It just got a pump of air. I agree with Jim Morrison at Banker and Tradesman that easing credit restrictions is the wrong thing to do. It didn’t go well in 2006, and it won’t end well this time. What’s happened? Credit reporting has
In 2012, my old Boston.com colleague, Scott Van Voorhis, quoted me about house preparation for sellers. The article came directly out of my experience with buyers being turned off by sellers' house preparation, or lack thereof. This weekend, I showed some property and saw the same stuff. If the house is under-priced and set for
Here’s the headline: Real estate prices just passed the line for affordability. This is news. When a market passes the point where average consumers can buy, the market is headed into a bubble. Yet RIS, the source of the info, does not conclude that the market is about to correct, yet. First, a definition: affordability
Today, a guest post from Jim Vogel: Your home is yours. Your children’s wedding photos line the walls, your grandmother’s tulips bloom in the front yard every spring, and you can still make out the faintest hint of marker where grandkids made the wall their canvas. But now that you’re moving to a new house
Where is the line between taking care of the property and leaving the tenants alone? One of the sore-points for tenants is that some landlords are not respectful of the tenant’s right to “quiet enjoyment” of their space. A landlord may come in too frequently, may not give notice, and may not cooperate to enter
It's starting. My phone is ringing because landlords are notifying their tenants of their plans to sell the apartment. Some will renovate, some will just sell. When a seller puts an occupied apartment on the market, it takes some diplomacy to make it work. Someone lives there, and it's for sale: Showing rented houses and