Found 79 blog entries tagged as Tips For Maintaining Your Home.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, there are already rumors that many owners do not have enough insurance to cover the damages to their properties. Unfortunately, the fact is that most homeowners don't even know they aren't fully covered until it's too late.  Many people just don’t think about checking up on their policies until disaster strikes.

Purchasing the appropriate insurance is not a difficult task.  Just consult with your real estate agent about what disasters you should prepare for and then call a reputable insurance agent.  If you have one, it might be time to revisit your policy, which can sometimes look confusing, so below are a few key words to look for in order to get you on track to having all your bases covered.

• Dwelling or…

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Often, most of us are so caught up on the day-to-day hustle and bustle of life that we forget the common things we need to do to keep our Santa Cruz homes safe guarded from the increase of winter bills and weather.  Relax, below are a few ways to lighten the burden and free up your time as well as adding a few extra dollars back into your pockets.

• Cleaning your gutters – It’s as easy as one, two, three.  When fall sets in it is a good time to grab the spatula or scrapper and ladder and head outside.  Clearing the fall leaves and debris from your gutters will free up any blocking made allowing melting snow and ice to flow freely.  By doing this, you are removing the possibilities of water seepage into your Santa Cruz home that could cost you a lot to…

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Most people will end up buying relatively few houses during their lifetime, which means it’s hard to accumulate a lot real estate experience. However, buying a Santa Cruz home can be simplified if you focus on treating your purchase like any other investment. Instead of relying on how a house makes you feel, evaluate it like you would a stock purchase.

5 key things to consider before purchasing property:

1. Accurately evaluate your needs. Make sure you have a good understanding of both your current and your anticipated future needs. For instance, if your kids are all heading off to college in the next three years, you may not really need the large five-bedroom house you’ve been looking at. The key is to be honest and realistic.

2. Don’t fall in…

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Fall may not always be the most ideal time to put your Santa Cruz real estate on the market, but that doesn’t mean that your sale has to suffer. Instead, use the season to your advantage when marketing your house for sale by keeping it looking its best. Here are a few tips for selling your property this fall.

1. Spruce up your curb appeal with fall colors and themes. You want your house to appear festive and inviting without adding excess clutter or anything overly personal. For instance, this may not be the year to break out the over-the-top Halloween decorations — maybe limit it to just one or two porch pumpkins.

2. Maintain the exterior. As grass starts to require less frequent mowing, don’t forget about other outdoor maintenance. Power wash…

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If you want to make the most the of your Santa Cruz home as an asset, I have one word for you: patience.

If we’ve learned anything over the last years in the real estate market, it’s that get-rich-quick schemes can just as easily turn out to be get-poor-quick scenarios. We are very much back to the good old days of seeing real estate as a long-term investment. And as a long-term investment, it continues to be a solid one. 

Here are a few other tips on how to make the most of your largest asset:

• Go long – It bears repeating: long-term ownership is the key. Build equity, allow the property to appreciate and minimize the costs that come with buying and selling property. 

• Buyer beware – Before you even enter into the world of homeownership,…

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When you are pondering the value of your Santa Cruz home, you may want to evaluate your property from a few different angles to get a good feel for its worth. 

• Value: As the credit card commercials imply, the cost of something isn’t necessarily the same as its value (which can be “priceless”). Value takes into account how individual buyers might use a property. For instance, the home being in a good school district is probably more valuable to a family with children than to a bachelor. On the other hand, accessibility to nightlife is most likely more valuable to the bachelor than to a family with children. You may value the wide lush lawn of your Santa Cruz home while other people see that asset as a detriment, because that lawn always needs…

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If your Santa Cruz home’s bathroom is looking dull and dingy, you don’t have to wait until you win the lottery to give it a facelift. All you need is a little creativity, a lot of elbow grease and a weekend.

The best part about updating your bathroom is that it’s usually the smallest room in your Santa Cruz home, which means it’ll take less time and effort to give it a makeover. Here are seven tips to update your bathroom quickly and inexpensively:

1. Wash the shower walls: You want to remove soap scum and hard-water stains.

2. Re-grout the tub: If the grout joint, where the wall meets the tub, is damaged or discolored, scrape it out. Use a grout saw to remove the top 1/8 inch of grout from between the tiles. Wash the shower again and re-grout.…

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Does it seem like ants have suddenly decided your Santa Cruz home is Insectopia? Don’t panic. Here are the easiest, least toxic, most affordable ways to deal with ants.

First, it’s important to know that ants are social insects; they live in colonies. An ant colony may consist of thousands of individual ants.

If you see a few ants wandering around in your Santa Cruz home, they could be scouts, sent out to find the best food source for the colony. It’s time to:

• Act fast. Smash the first few ants as soon as you see them. If those scouts don’t return to the nest, the rest of the colony will not be alerted to invade.

• Spray a vinegar solution on the area and sponge it up. This will remove the scent trail of any ants that passed through,…

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Most buyers consider bathrooms to be one of the most important aspects of a home. If you’re thinking of selling any time soon, give your bathroom a facelift to increase your Santa Cruz home’s value and help it sell faster.

Here are seven ways to fluff up your bathroom without breaking the bank:

1. Spring for a new toilet seat. Buy a well-known brand name, and spend the extra money for a quality seat material. Polypropylene, basically a hard plastic material, is a very good choice.

2. Remove old wallpaper. Rent a steamer or use the scrape method to remove old wallpaper. Paint the walls in a neutral color.

3. Lighten it up. Install updated lighting fixtures to make the bathroom in your Santa Cruz home instantly brighter.

4. Refinish your…

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The kitchen is the gathering place in most Santa Cruz homes. That's probably why it gets dirty so quickly. A dirty, messy kitchen can make your whole house feel like a disaster. It can also breed germs that are dangerous to you and your family.
Here are five cleaning tips to remove bacteria and make your kitchen shine:

1. Use a paper towel. If you need to clean up a mess from raw meat, eggs or anything likely to cause contamination, use a paper towel and throw it out.

2. Microwave your sponges. Kitchen sponges are the number one source of germs in most Santa Cruz homes. To disinfect a sponge, wet it and pop it in the microwave for two minutes. Depending on the power of your microwave, a dry sponge may catch fire so be sure to wet it first.

3. …

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