Toni Bird

When looking at Buying A Home, one of the biggest yes or no items in the buyer's mind is the BATHROOM. You can have a great backyard, super den, and even updated kitchen with the latest bells and whistles, but that bathroom killed the deal! Could have been wrong color tile, bathroom too small or no separate tub and shower.

Fixing up a Bathroom is NOT that hard. If the room is too small, many times you can take in a nearby closet space or take out part of another room. These are fixes that a contractor can do fairly easily and doesn't add square footage (and additional cost) to the house.

Do you have that outdated colored tile from the 50's (aqua), 60's (pink), or 70's (avocado)? That outdated colored tile can be replaced (tumbled marble in a neutral color like the one you see here is very popular right now) and adding a seat or a spot to put your soap is a nice touch. Take a look at this house for sale in Birmingham, Alabama, that has been totally redone, with a gorgeous tub and shower. Can't you just see yourself relaxing in this beautiful bath?

Don't want that big of a project; paint the tile. Don't just slather on regular paint, there is a special paint that a professional can use. I had my mother's BRIGHT PICK bathroom painted white and it had a totally new look - the cost $400.

Light fixtures can make a huge difference and are not that expensive. I bought one for over the sink for $29.95. Some are a lot higher, but check the clearance isle at Mazer's, Home Depot or Lowes and you can find some really nice ones.

Faucets and other fixtures are also a pretty easy fix. The houses we see from the 80's have a lot of brass fixtures that are considered outdated. These can all be replaced with brushed nickel or oil rubbed bronze. If you start the job - finish it. That means the stopper in the bottom of the tub should match the faucet. And those shower doors CAN be replaced with oil rubbed bronze. This bathroom to the right is in a house built in the 90's and WAS brass just 3 short months ago. Look at it now!

If you'd like a few ideas about fixing up YOUR bath, let me know. Be creative, look at magazines and shop around. We bought several fixtures and faucets at the day after Thanksgiving Sale - and the big boxes are not nearly as crowded as the mall!

Investing in fixing up the bath will pay really make your house stand out when it comes time to sell!

Ahh, it's raining right now, temp in the 70s, and really muggy outside. But a huge COLD FRONT is supposed to be on its way. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE the cold weather. My idea of the perfect day is 40 degrees with the sun shining and no wind. It is easy to breathe and it's just exhilarating!

Soon we will be able to stop running the A/C and open the windows for fresh air. This summer wasn't as hot as it has been in the past, but I for one will be glad to see a little relief from that big summer electric bill. My electric bill is less than ½ in the spring and fall when I don't run the HVAC.

One thing I've been hearing a lot about is the tax credit for getting energy efficient appliances. The credit is part of President Obama's Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Environmental Protection Agency has a rating system called Energy Star which means appliances that qualify meet strict energy standards. You can get a tax credit for up 30% of the cost of a new qualifying HVAC unit (with a cap of $1500). Now that means if you buy a new HVAC system with the new energy star ratings, you save big bucks on your utility bill (statistics show up to 30% if your HVAC is over 12 years old), AND you can get MONEY BACK when you file your taxes next January.

That sounds lime a WIN, WIN, to me.

If you want more info on the requirements for getting a tax credit for a new HVAC unit click here.

Want to save money on heating and cooling but don't want to go through the effort of having a new HVAC unit installed? You could buy this house. These owners have already purchased a new HVAC unit for this lovely house. Big rock, wood burning fireplace - very romantic on a cool evening, hardwood floors - the real thing (not laminate), new kitchen counters, fabulous deck and now a NEW HVAC. It doesn't get any better than this! And if you haven't owned a home in the last 3 years, this one qualifies for an $8000 first time home buyer tax credit.

Something to think about. Some people sit around and complain about the "government spending all that money". Well here is your chance to make it work for you.

It is very easy to qualify for the tax credit. Anyone who has NOT owned a home in the last 3 years can qualify for the tax credit. When you want to buy a home, you must qualify for a loan (unless of course you are paying cash) but if you can qualify to buy a home, the tax credit is YOURS. Do nothing NOW; in January when you file your 2009 tax return, you get the form for the credit and attach it to your return.

The tax credit is equal to 10% of the price you pay for the house, up to $8000. They call it the $8,000 tax credit because most of the homes in our city are over 80,000. If you pay only $60,000, your credit will be $6,000. This first townhome is on sale for $79,900. Click here for more info on this home. Your tax credit for this one would only be $7,990.

Here is another great home for sale. This one is a house with a nice fenced backyard that is on the market for $109,900. Click here for more info on this great property. Since there is a cap of $8,000 on the credit, then 8K is all you would get.

Remember, this is actually a tax CREDIT. So if you owe 8,000 in taxes, you will pay -0-. If you only owe $4000, then you will get $4000 back. It's that simple.

Both of these are good choices and there are many, many more. This is a great time to buy a home. What could you do with an extra 8K next year???

There are a lot of tax credits floating around out there these days. One is the tax credit for 1st time home buyers. What happens is this - if you buy a home for the first time, you get a tax credit equal to 10% of the amount you paid for the home.

So, next January when you go to file your taxes, if you bought a $60,000 house, you can subtract $6000 from your tax bill. If you buy a $100.000 house, you get to subtract $8,000 because $8000 is the most they will give you back.

If you had taxes deducted from your paycheck, you can get a refund of what you paid in UP TO $6000 or $8000 in our example above. What if you didn't have to pay that much? Great news, you get a CREDIT of the whole $6000/$8000. THIS IS A HUGE DEAL.

The tax credit will run out ON DEC 1st, so it's time to get started looking if you want to take advantage of the tax credit. If you have questions, call me. If you have good credit and some money in the bank, we can get you into a house before the tax creit runs out.

Here is a house that one of my clients bought a few years ago as HER first house. It was perfect for her. She even made some improvements like adding hardwood floors and redoing the kithen. Click here to see what the house looks like on the inside. Can you see yourself living there? AND can you see yourself getting an $8000 check from the IRS AND living here?

It has a small backyard, and very little exterior maintennce, so you won't have to spend your weekends mowing at your 1st House. Sounds really good, doesn't it.

I was showing houses to a client the other day. This is a buyer's market as we have heard so there are literally hundreds of homes for sale in her price range. Based on most of her specific requested items and through the use of the internet (pictures really help weed out the undesirable) we basically narrowed it down to 30 homes. Over a period of three trips we ventured out to personally view the top picks.

She had a couple of subdivision that she had friends living in already so we really wanted to explore those neighborhoods. Some of these were typical tract home developments. In these, many of the homes can look the same. So, what makes one home look better than the other? If you are the seller, what do you do to make YOUR home stand out?

Decorating of course is important and we have seen many instances where a nicely decorated home will sell it. She is also very interested in the yard. One home she is interested in has a patio and fountain in the back yard. It is absolutely beautiful - she referred to it as the Sanctuary.

Another item that she commented on over and over again was the use - or lack thereof of molding. Some homes had crown at the ceiling, but dinky molding along the floor. Crown molding and wider baseboards give the home a more finished look. Often times in tract homes, the builders will use small baseboards, no crown at the ceiling and no molding around the windows. I had a client a couple of years ago that was totally focused on crown molding. She bought a house without it, and had a contractor install molding and new hardwood floors before she would move in.

If you are trying to sell your home in a buyer's market and want your home to have a little edge on the others in the neighborhood, try installing some additional molding - especially in the living room and master bedroom. It will give YOUR home a little better appeal and could be what makes the sale.

If you would like some other tips about getting YOUR home ready to sell, check out the seller library at my website www.Tonibird.com.