12 Ways to Protect Your Home During Florida’s Rainy Season

While Florida is known as “The Sunshine State” from June to October our state experiences its rainy season. During this five month period Florida experiences up to 70 percent of its regional rainfall in an average year. The rainy season can also bring flooding, which may occur when large amounts of rain fall over a short period of time or from a single heavy storm, tropical system or hurricane.

If you haven’t lived in Florida for long, you may not know that our climate has two seasons: wet and dry. Flood and drought are frequent visitors, the result of too much or too little rain. In any year, drought can happen during the wet season, and flooding can occur when we least expect a downpour. Weather in South Florida has a way of ignoring the calendar and expectations of “normal.”

Whether your are a homeowner or a renter, it’s important to be prepared for the rainy season, as the weather can change instantly and without warning.

Here are 12 ways to help keep your home safe during this period:

• Caulk cracks around windows and doors to prevent water from seeping inside. Check old caulk every year for chips and cracks, which indicates the caulk has dried out and needs replacement.

• Check and trime trees in your yard. Remove any small or dead branches, which could fall during heavy rain and cause damage.

• Remove leaves, branches and debris from gutters and drains. Otherwise, water could overflow and rot the woodwork around the roof area.

• Check your roof for any loose shingles or possible holes which could result in leaks. Hire a licensed roofing contractor to make repairs so you are covered in the event of a liability.

• Plug sewer traps with check valves – special valves that direct water in one direction only – thereby preventing it from backing up into your home. You can purchase these at a hardware store, or improvise by using large corks or stoppers to plug sinks and tubs in an emergency.

• If you own a pool, lower or empty the water level all together, so it is less likely to overflow during heavy rain. The chlorinated pool water can be harmful to your grass.

• Turn off automated sprinkler system when rain is expected.

• Stock up on sand and sandbags to fill in low areas around your home. Some local fire stations provide sandbags to residents during the rainy season.

• Be sure to stock up on water and non-perishable items. Have a flashlight, batteries and a first aid kit on hand in case you get stranded in your home.

• Ask your local planning and zoning office whether your property is above or below the flood level, and find out if your area has a history of flooding.

• Keep important documents – including insurance policies, birth certificates and passports – in a firesafe or easily accessible waterproof box.

• Become familiar with your home’s fuse box. Know how to turn your electricity off in the event your house gets flooded. Make sure not to turn it back on until everything has dried out.

Roberta Burish
Florida Gulf Coast Real Estate Specialist

941-704-4223
rburish@kw.com

Part 4: Florida New Home Construction vs Resale

In our latest entry regarding new home vs. existing construction, we will take one final look at the advantages and disadvantages of each, and how you can navigate through the options of each to come to an informed decision.
When it comes to buying real estate, may in be in southwest Florida or anywhere else in the world, the top three criteria in evaluating property comes down to three simple items:

1. Location – a good neighborhood with good schools, easy commuting distance, and good resale values will always be a better choice.
2. Condition – a house needing a lot of work can be a bad bargain, and one needing less work a better one – that goes without saying, depending, of course, upon…
3. Price – Price is king, even though I listed it last. A fixer-upper can be a good deal, if it is priced reasonably (the delta being less than the cost of repair). But price can’t really trump location. You can fix a leaky roof, it is harder to fix the neighborhood or school.
So how do these criteria apply to (A) existing homes, (B) homes for sale in a development, and (C) having a home built to order? Let talk about it.

1. Location, Location, Location

For Existing Homes, the market value of the homes is fairly well established by resale values. And that should tell you a lot about the neighborhood as well. So you can research this and figure out whether the location is right for you.

For new homes, this can also be the case – or not. In crowded urban areas, there are no places to build new homes – so newer homes may tend to be further out – meaning longer and longer commutes. And if the neighborhood is totally new, it is hard to gauge resale values and school systems – if they are still being built.

The first step involved here is to research the neighborhood. In particular, review home prices in the area first. Lookup property taxes to get a better sense of your total payout, as most of that information is available online. A brand new home in a brand new neighborhood could become a problem down the line if it’s built in a bad area. For example, if you build a $500,000 home in a county where the average home price is $150,000, chances are that it will be a very hard home to sell down the road.

2. Condition

You would think new homes would win this one, hands down. After all, everything is new, right? Wrong.

For new homes, usually the builder offers a warranty of some sort – and of course, before you take possession, there is usually a “punch list” of items to be fixed (more on this, later!). It can be commonplace for new home owners complain about a leaky roof, a backed-up sewer or appliances that fail. Yes, those are all nightmare scenarios, but they usually occur on the watch of the first owner in the first few years. Which is why it would be wise to look into a home warranty to cover some of these potential mishaps.

On the other hand, this does not automatically mean that a “used home” is always a better deal. A home inspection is always a good idea for a used home or a new one. For existing homes, the inspector can point out how long to expect things to last. In general, roofs, appliances, air conditioners, etc. all last about 15 years or so. If you buy a 15 year old house, and all these items are original, well, you have an idea what to expect – just as much trouble, if not more, than a new home. But if priced properly, and you can budget to replace these things, it may be a better deal.

A well-built home from a reputable builder with a good home warranty can be a good deal, but expect to have some “teething pains” in the first year or so. An existing home can be a good deal, but have a home inspection done to make sure there are no hidden defects either. And by the way, a home warranty for an existing home is not that expensive, and some sellers will offer it to induce people to buy. It never hurts to ask!

3. Price

Upgrades are a problem, as the builder makes a lot of money on them. For example, if you want a deck installed, the builder will say “Sure” but quote you twice what a local carpenter would charge. So you see many of these new homes with no decks, because the house-poor buyer can’t afford the outrageous charge the developer wanted, but doesn’t have the cash to hire a local carpenter.

So, you may be able to use upgrades as a leverage – get a free or reduced price upgrade in the place of a price cut – the builder keeps his prices stable, and you get something.

Existing homeowners, on the other hand, are getting desperate – and many are facing foreclosure, short sale, or their homes are in foreclosure. There are super-bargains galore out there right now, in many markets (like southwest Florida) and in such markets, buying a new home may not work if one is inclined to purchase a short sale or a foreclosed property.

Before you decide to build, check resale prices on similar houses and make an informed decision – and expect cost over-runs on new construction, especially if you are having a home built to order.

4. Hassle

This is a factor that was not mentioned previously, but makes sense to mention. If you buy an existing house, you can close in 30 days and move in, with the kids ready for school and your husband ready to go to work.

A new house takes longer to build than anyone thinks it will. And the hassles are enormous. Most folks report it is like having a second job, just monitoring the progress of construction, making decisions with your builder, etc. And if they say it will be built in a month, factor in three months. It usually works out that way.

So why do people build new homes? For many, it is emotional reasoning – “We get to have exactly what we want!” people say. But there is a problem with emotional argument. First, chances are, what you want is what other people want – and an existing home is out there that is pretty close to what you want. Unless you are building a Frank Lloyd Wright home, you will likely end up with a traditional home that will be remarkably like everyone else’s.

And this is a good thing, as oddball houses are very hard to sell, down the road. An Eco-Yurt or a Buckminster Fuller Dome Home may be very cool and eco-friendly, but very hard to sell. A medieval castle may be really cool, but one wants a home with a dungeon (well a few people do, and they scare me!).

So getting “just what you want” is a pretty specious argument. Odds are, you want what is already out there.

New is nice and all, but it becomes “used” in short order. So buying a home on the emotional logic of new paint smell or new sheet rock, is sort of a bad idea.

One other thing: Bear in mind a new home has no lawn, trees, shrubs, plantings, deck, or a lot of amenities. In many cases, you may not even get a driveway. Factor in those costs and hassles into the equation. Living on a bare lot with a scraggly lawn and no trees is no fun. An existing home may have lush landscaping and a lot of accessories that you would have to pay for.

And living in a construction site is never fun, and if you buy a home in a new development, you can expect a lot of noise and dust until it is finished out. Your home may be done, but what about the one next door?

So what’s the Answer?

The final answer really is: None! Each situation is unique. It depends on the location you are looking at what your preferences are.

My personal take is that I would look to see if there are motivated sellers in the market area I am looking at, and seek out a good deal. If there are lots of foreclosures in a particular area, I suspect you would get a much better deal on existing homes than new construction.

And finally, even if the price differential was neglible, I would think hard about the hassle-factor. What decision would be easiest, and less costly for you in the long run?

Roberta Burish
941-704-4223
rburish@kw.com

Part 3: Florida New Home Construction vs Resale

Buying Old Homes vs New Construction

If you’re looking to move, there’s no doubt you already have an idea in mind as to what your perfect home would look like. Maybe you were inspired by something you saw in a movie or in a magazine. Perhaps you are thinking of beachfront property with a deck, sipping a cold drink with a loved one and watching the sunset.

Or, maybe you’re looking for something brand new, with a modern, contemporary style, the latest amenities and a minimal amount of maintenance, because you would rather spend you time enjoying your home than constantly working on it.

Let’s say that you decided to opt for a more traditional home – what real estate agents typically call a “single-family detached house” (with or without the swing set). The big issue now is to decide whether you want a brand-new home that no one else has lived in or an existing home with some history and, perhaps, a bit of character. Both have their pros and cons, and understanding how they differ is crucial to finding the one that completes the picture for your particular lifestyle.

New House, New You?

New cars have that new-car smell; a newly built home has the smell of fresh wood and paint. It signifies the suggestion of a new beginning. These days, most new homes are built in developments like the South Oak subdivision in Ellenton, Florida, have a unified style with more than one communal areas, and consist of anywhere from a handful to hundreds of homes. Built to the latest codes and standards, they tend to be contemporary styled, energy efficient, and more expensive than resale homes of a similar size.

The question is, are the nicer amenities worth the added cost? Specific details vary, of course, but consider the pros and cons.

The Pros and Cons of New Construction

PROS

• Contemporary style
• Some flexibility on design during construction phase
• Cheaper to maintain (new appliances = fewer repairs)
• Cheaper to operate (energy-efficient construction)
• Extended warranties
• A cohesive neighborhood (consistent layout, common areas)
• The smell of fresh paint
• Frequently have a homeowners association (helps protect resale value)

CONS

• Cookie-cutter design
• Higher price (upscale amenities, current construction costs)
• Limited negotiating room on price
• Generally smaller yard
• Potential for monthly homeowner dues
• Risk of shoddy construction
• Frequently less character, or homogenous design

Of course, one homebuyer’s pro ( “No one has lived in it before us, so we won’t inherit any problems…”) can be another’s con ( “No one has lived in it before us, so we have no way of knowing about any problems…”). Fortunately, there are ways to make sure the house you’re buying is really the house you want.

Check the builder’s track record. What is their reputation? Were their projects completed on-time, on budget and without bad blood between builder and buyer?Take a walk around the neighborhood. Talk to the residents if possible. Tell them you are thinking of buying – would they recommend the builder? Were there any issues or problems?Did they live up to their contractual commitments?Picture your home, not the model home. You can certainly have the granite counters, surround-sound home theater, and gold-fixture jetted tub you saw in the model home, but they’re not included. The amenities in the model home are all available options the builder has to offer. Just know whatever you decide to add, you will have to pay extra for them.Finally, consider the intangibles. Similarly styled homes attract like-minded buyers, and most developments are built with families in mind. Depending on your point of view, the consistency, conformity, and kids playing in the street can be a blessing or a curse.

The Pros and Cons of Resale Homes

PROS

• Availability: More choices, more styles to choose from
• Lower price: It’s not new anymore
• Price may be more negotiable
• Track record: Many repairs already made
• Established neighborhood

CONS

• More maintenance: Things break or wear out
• Less energy-efficient: More costly to operate
• Dated design, older appliances and amenities.
• Generally smaller bedrooms, bathrooms, and windows
• It’s been lived in!

With new construction, there are ways to make buying a resale home less scary:

• Have the home inspected. You do not want to find out the foundation is rotten or the roof needs to be replaced after you move in.
• Consider a counter-offer. If the inspection reveals fixable flaws, propose the seller do the repairs or lower the price.
• Expect the unexpected. Pipes leak, foundations crack, and furnaces fail — get used to it.
• Be honest with yourself. If major repairs are required, you’ll either have to do them yourself or bring in the professionals. Some people can handle the disruption; others can’t.

Put it all together and the bottom line on resale homes is this: Don’t buy someone else’s problems unless you can tackle the solutions. Find a house you like, consider its pros and cons — objectively, as well as emotionally — and think about the compromises you’re willing to make. The more logically you approach buying the house, the more you’re going to love living in it.

Roberta Burish
Florida Gulf Coast Real Estate Agent
rburish@kw.com
941-704-4223

Part 3: New Home Construction vs. Existing Homes

Given the rock-bottom pricing on existing homes these days, why would a buyer want to fork over a lot more for a new home?

Why you should be new

Those model homes in new-home communities sure are enticing, aren’t they? After all, they have all the latest flooring, fixtures and appliances. But is it worth paying a premium for it?

That depends on several factors, including the community, location and design. It also depends on your own needs. Is this a home you can see yourself living in for the next 10-20 years, or is it a temporary stop until you come across something better?

Some new home communities, like the South Oak subdivision in Ellenton, Florida, are emerging bedroom communities that lie 35 minutes due south of the Tampa/St.Pete area, with close proximity to shopping at the Ellenton Outlets.

Builders today are willing to throw in more upgrades, such as a free fence, appliances or upgraded floording for buyers who press for incentivs. And the builders will also assume closing costs to seal the deal.

What you do get in a new home – if you buy from the right builder – is a house that will need fewer costly repairs, will cost you less for updates and will have greater energy efficiency.

For example, the difference in energy savings between a new Energy Star home and even a 10 year-old home can be significant up to 50% in some instances. These homes can also bring in more at resale.

You won’t have to pay thousands to swap out old single-pane windows or add insulation. You won’t have to spring for new cabinets, countertops or flooring, as you might with the purchase of a 1970s or 1980s-era home. You get a home built with materials that suit your taste, and you don’t have to clear out or otherwise inconvenience yourself to get it that way.

More buyers appear to be interested in new construction; sales climbed 5.7% in September from the previous month, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

New homes can also be harder to appraise if they have a lot of special features. In many cases, an independent appraisal might be required to get lender approval.

And there can be a tradeoff in size. As homebuilders have worked to bring down prices post-bubble, many have had to cut lot sizes and room dimensions. In the best case, that means efficient floor plans with less to clean. At worst, it means a bedroom that barely accommodates your furniture, a backyard as small as a postage stamp and a view straight into your next-door neighbor’s window.

With so many builders cutting corners, you’d be wise to check out a builder’s reputation first and look for any pending lawsuits against the company. Hire a reputable home inspector – and possibly even a contractor – before you close and move in.

Roberta J. Burish
Florida Gulf Coast Home Specialist
Phone: 941-792-2000
Email: rburish@kw.com

Florida New Home Construction vs Resale

New Construction Homes – Personalizing Your Own Space

Many re-sellers who bought their home in Florida during the height of the real estate boom are still adjusting to the reality that prices were way overstated, and still believe their home should be worth what it could have sold for back at 2007 price levels.

Builders, on the other hand, have adjusted to the reality of the current market. With so many Florida new home communities, including the new South Oak subdivision in Ellenton, they also know that they must compete for your business. This is good news for buyers, as this healthy competition results in better pricing, more features and additional incentives.

Builders have written down their land costs, changed specifications and have lost the fluff and overhead they once had worked with. They’ve had to basically change their business model to fit today’s market and lower Florida new home prices are a reflection of that.

The cost per square foot for a Florida new construction home is typically better than a resale home and is often competitive with short sales. When an appraisal is done and closed homes are pulled, short sales are included, reducing the appraised values for all homes.

Although this isn’t necessarily fair or correct, it has kept current home values at an all time low and Florida new home builders are the only ones that can compete.

Florida homeowners are also not rushing to put their homes on the market to sell them at a loss. Instead, they are sitting on their property and waiting it out for the market to improve, which will happen slowly over time.

What this all boils down to is that if you are considering selling your home at a loss and buying at today’s prices, it would be a wash because with time, your Florida new construction home will increase in value just as the old one would have and you will have recouped your equity.

Most Florida new homes also have a longer life expectancy than resale homes, giving them a longer period of time to appreciate.

New Construction Homes – Efficiency

Today, most Florida new home builders have embraced the “green living” philosophy. It’s no longer a trendy buzzword, but a way of life that helps to save money, by being more energy efficient while improving the overall value of your home.

Most Florida New construction homes are now built with enhanced home performance and healthy living in mind because homeowners are realizing that what it costs to live in their home is just as important as the initial purchase price of their home.

Builders have begun to include, as standard, items like:

• Stronger and more durable windows
• Cleaner, more efficient HVAC systems
• Increased insulation values in attics and walls
• Better air ventilation and humidity level controls
• Programmable thermostats
• Compact fluorescent light bulbs
• Water saving fixtures
• And more!

Many new homes are designed to meet EPA’s stringent Energy Star® program standards, which are carefully inspected and monitored throughout the building process.

New construction homes offers homeowners increased personal comfort levels, enhanced home performance, lower energy and outgoing home ownership costs each month (savings can be as much as 39% in Florida’s sub-tropical climate).

New Construction Homes – Warranty

There is a certain amount of comfort knowing that you won’t have to fix or replace anything right after you move into a home, especially a costly item like the AC unit, water heater or a major appliance.

Most builders now offer Florida new home buyers a full one year warranty on everything in the home. Mechanical systems and appliances may have additional warranty periods that extend beyond the initial first year.

Purchasing a resale home is a totally different ball game then buying a Florida new home because with a resale home, you don’t really know what your getting. Unforeseen problems are usually not covered under warranty like a Florida new home.

Even if you hire a home inspector, which you definitely should do, an inspector can’t “guarantee” the house won’t have problems. All they can really do is inform you as to whether an appliance or system is currently working and ‘guesstimate’ on the life expectancy of that item. Beyond that, a resale home purchase is a buyer’s risk.

New Construction Homes – Personalizing Your Own Space

Often times, when you purchase a resale home, you also purchase the previous owner’s vision and decorating tastes.

With a Florida new construction home, you have the opportunity to choose what you like from the start, including such options as: elevation, cabinetry, flooring, wall color, fixtures, counter tops and the list goes on.

You can actually personalize your new home before you ever move a single box or piece of furniture!

Even if you enjoy “doing-it-yourself,” you must factor in the costs of making changes and upgrades, which can quickly add up with a resale home. Stained, dirty carpet replacement? – Several thousand dollars. Update a kitchen? Granite, 42″ cabinets – Now we are talking BIG money!

New Construction Homes – CDD/HOA Fees

A lot of people say they don’t want to pay high new home community fees, mainly because they don’t understand what those fees are actually used for. CDD/HOA Fees take care of such things as clubhouse, pool and grounds maintenance, street lights, roaming security, etc.

CDD/HOA Fees help preserve the overall quality of life of the community and keep it looking as beautiful as it did the day it opened. The street-scape is fresh, grass and hedges are maintained and flowers are changed with the season. If you were to compare this to an older community withoutCDD/HOA Fees, you would definitely see the value and difference!

Roberta Burish: Your Florida Gulf Coast Home Specialist
Email: rburish@kw.com
Phone: 941-792-2000

9 Reasons to Choose a New Home Over Resale

Recently, the real estate market has been inundated with foreclosures, fixer-uppers and older homes looking for a quick sale. Often, due to the distressed nature of these types of properties, buyers are able to purchase these homes at low prices. On the surface, this may seem like a great deal. However, when you take into consideration the upgrades and maintenance required of an older home, is it really a better deal than buying new construction?

Here are 9 benefits to buying a new home over a used home:

1. Customization: Many home builders allow buyers to participate in the process of designing their property, which helps create a living space specifically tailored to the consumer’s tastes. New home buyers, for example, can often decide where their bathroom might go, choose their favorite type of flooring, or pick the color of the exterior paint. Buyers moving into a subdivision can sometimes even pick the lot they like best.

2. Building envelope: Building codes have mandated increasingly higher energy efficiency standards since they began to address the issue in the late 1970s, says Kevin Morrow, senior program manager for the National Association of Home Builders’ green building programs. “The most recent International Energy Conservation Code came out in 2009 [and] required roughly 17 percent more efficiency than the codes of three years prior,” he says. “So using that as sort of a gauge to how newer homes should perform from an efficiency standpoint compared to older homes, it’s pretty clear that just as homes meet code, they are going to be more efficient.”

Newly constructed homes use energy more efficiently in two ways, Morrow says. First, they tend to have a tighter-sealed building envelope that helps prevent conditioned air—cool air in the summer, warm air in the winter—from escaping. Features that create this envelope include higher-efficiency insulation, doors, and windows. “Gone are the days of the single pain window … now I think you are starting to see triple- and quadruple-paned windows,” Morrow says. “These are windows that are designed to really minimize the transfer of heat either from warm to cold or vice versa, and they of course will help the building envelope.”

3. Green appliances: The more energy-efficient mechanics of the house also help reduce utility bills for new home buyers, Morrow says. Newly-constructed homes often include green systems and appliances—like high efficiency stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, water heaters, furnaces, or air conditioning units—that homes built years ago might not. “The conditioning equipment is usually considered to be one of the larger energy consumption devices, but certainly those kitchen appliances matter,” Morrow says. Existing homeowners can always retrofit their property or buy higher-efficiency appliances, but doing so requires a potentially significant expense.

4. Fewer repairs: The features of newly constructed homes should also hold up better than those of existing homes, which may have experienced years of wear and tear. People will buy previously-owned houses and then the carpet needs to be replaced or it needs to be repainted, or it needs new appliances, or the flooring is worn. When they buy a new home in today’s market, it really is new.

5. Less maintenance: At the same time, today’s new homes are engineered specifically to minimize maintenance requirements. When you buy a used house, you don’t know what you are getting. You might have to do a lot of maintenance. Homebuilders today are trying to look down the road and make things as easy as possible for the homeowner so they can enjoy living there and not have to be saddled with maintenance.

6. Warranty: In addition, builders often agree to take care of the repair work that becomes necessary in your newly constructed home for at least the first year. Typically, a new home is fully warrantied by the builder for a minimum of a year and most of all the other components are warrantied for extended periods. So if your roof starts leaking or the heater breaks during the warranty period, your builder will pick up the tab for the repairs, as opposed to a resale, where even if you have a home inspection done, it may still not turn up hidden defects that may not manifest for months or even years to come.

7. Fire safety: Newly constructed homes often include fire safety features that may not be present in properties built years ag. In addition, all newly constructed homes are required to include hard-wired smoke detectors. These devices can provide better protection than battery-operated smoke detectors, which can fail to perform if their battery runs out. Hard-wired [smoke detectors] run on the electricity of the house and then have a battery backup for if the house power goes out.

8. Concessions: Especially in today’s sluggish housing market, buyers may be able to squeeze more concessions out of a home building company than an individual seller. That’s because individual sellers often have an emotional attachment to their property that can blind them to its true value. People usually think that their home is worth more money than it is, whereas builders often have greater financial wherewithal to absorb a loss on a sale than individuals.

9. Financing: New home buyers may be able to take advantage of mortgage financing perks made available through their builder. New home builders, in many cases the larger ones, have their own mortgage companies or they will offer paying points or closing costs and buy down certain rates. The seller of a resale home is generally not going to do that for the buyer.

Roberta Burish: Your Florida Gulf Coast Home Specialist
Email: rburish@kw.com
Phone: 941-792-2000

It’s Easy Being Green: Spring Cleaning Tips

With the beginning of March just around the corner, it’s time to prepare our homes for the change of seasons. Activities like washing windows, planting a garden and cleaning gutters all impact our environment in one way or another. This spring, keep our environment in mind while preparing your home and enjoy the green rewards all year long.

Clean green
Most of us have already swapped toxic household cleaners for more gentle, organic alternatives. But if you haven’t made the switch to products that are healthier for both the planet and your family, or you just need to stock up, eco-friendly alternatives, like Seventh Generation products, can be purchased, or natural cleaners can be made at home by using common household goods likebaking soda and vinegar. And, shoot for a zero-waste clean. Rather than using paper towels (even if they are made from recycled paper), opt for reusable microfiber cloths and sponges instead.

HVAC Filters
Now is a good time to replace your single-use HVAC filter with a reusable one that can be cleaned and reused for several months. Cleaning your filter once a month keeps your air quality higher and conserves energy. Opting for reusable filters saves resources and eliminates waste.

Gardening
When you get the itch to start working on your landscape and garden, consider using native plants and flowers that are acclimated to your region. This cuts down on the need for fertilizers and pesticides, and drought-tolerant varieties will conserve precious water resources as well.

Irrigation Systems
If you live in a cold weather region, you probably had your irrigation system winterized sometime last fall. Generally that involves blowing out the irrigation lines and turning off the system. As the weather warms and you turn it back on, be sure to do a thorough inspection for possible leaks. Winter’s freeze/thaw cycle can be hard on plumbing and catching any subsequent leaks early on will save money and conserve resources.

Tree Trimming
Most tree trimming is done in the fall, but if you had winter storm damage and need to do some clean-up, keep in mind that spring is the nesting season for many birds. Try your best not to disturb nesting sites, and keep in mind that many species are protected. Cutting off limbs with nests can be prohibited by local ordinances.

Gutters and Downspouts
Fall leaves may have wreaked havoc on your gutters and downspouts. Be sure to clean them well, as accumulated debris can provide tempting habitat for pests such as wasps. Discouraging their nesting can help prevent the need for environmentally dangerous sprays later in the season. Clogged gutters or downspouts can also redirect water in a way that can cause erosion of valuable top soil.

Preparing your home for spring in an environmentally-friendly way can be done without a lot of extra effort or expense. Taking care to do it right will result in a beautiful home and a greener peace of mind.

Rainwater Preservation
Springtime brings more rain-showers than most of us can handle, but come mid-summer, gardeners and lawn-care enthusiasts usually end up praying for rain. It seems like such a waste to have excess water one month and a shortage another. Luckily, rainwater harvesting has gone mainstream, and it’s easy for homeowners to take advantage of recapturing “lost” water with a rain barrel. Your roof collects rainwater and funnels it through gutters or downspouts, where it can be collected. But be sure to leave room to provide easy access the spigot. When your plants need a drink, just use the water from the barrel instead of turning on the hose.

Capturing rainwater during the upcoming rainy season can be used for irrigation or drinking water.

Need help buying or selling your home? Contact Roberta Burish, an experienced Florida Gulf Coast real estate agent today.

Phone: 941-704-4223
Email: rburish@kw.com