What to Do About a Flooded Basement

Welcome back!

If you are like many Atlantans and your basement is under water, you’ll need to clean it up immediately.  The faster the water flood is cleaned up, the less damage can occur.

The first step is to contact your insurance agency if you have flood insurance.

Your next step is to “Think Safety.” This is a key to successful clean up your basement after a water flood has happened. Before you step foot inside your basement to clean, make sure the electricity to that area is turned off inside your house! If there’s still flood water standing in your basement, don’t walk in it!  If your breaker box is in the basement and not reachable, then call a licensed electrician before you begin before you set foot in your flooded basement. A licensed electrician can tell you if it’s safe to walk in the water. If it’s not, he can also repair the problem while he’s there.

Anytime you smell natural gas in or around your basement, especially after a water flood, contact your gas provider immediately!  If you know how to shut the gas off, then do so. Otherwise, open all the windows and doors of your house, evacuate the premises, and refrain from smoking, cooking, creating sparks or flames.

Now, once your basement is safe to walk in, it’s time to clean up after the water flood.  Use a pump or a Shop Vac™ to remove the flood water from your basement. Flood water that is several feet deep needs to be removed at a slow rate. Because, if the water is pumped out too fast, the action will create a low pressure on the inside of your basement. Thus, the pressure on the outside will be higher, and your basement walls can easily fall in.

Once the flood water is removed from your basement, open up the windows and doors, and set up several fans to help dry the basement out.  A dehumidifier is also suggested, however these seem to be sold out in and around the Atlanta area.

Continue your clean up by removing furniture, carpeting, rugs, etc. Then, use a scoop shovel to remove mud or debris that are left on the floor.

Some rugs and room-sized carpets can be saved by drying them out and cleaning them up. However, if the flood water in your basement contained sewage, or if they’re moldy, you’ll need to discard the rugs or carpets instead. After the floor coverings are dried and have been swept, you should use a commercial steam carpet cleaner and detergent to clean up any savable floor coverings. (Home carpet cleaners aren’t usually powerful enough to handle the task.)
Vacuum the basement floor to remove as much water as possible. Then, mop the bare floor with household bleach and hot water. You’ll also need to wash the walls as well, to kill germs and bacteria.

Electronic items that were submerged in the basement flood water, or even just got water on them, should be checked by a professional repairman before they are plugged in again.

Mix up a strong solution of household bleach and hot water in a bucket to clean up any personal items you wish to keep. Wipe them dry, then allow them to set out in the sunshine to help further sanitize and deodorize them.

Paper products such as books, magazines, and photos can’t usually be saved once they are damaged by flood water.  Any irreplaceable photos you’d like to save may possibly be repaired by a professional photo shop.

Best of luck to you and your household!

Credit is Expected to Stay Tight for Another Year

That’s right…you read the headline.  If you’re wanting to purchase a home within the next year you ought to be careful not to let your credit score go bad.

According to senior loan officers at large banks, lending standards will remain tight until the second half of 2010.  The Federal Reserve Board’s survey revealed that an uncertain economic outlook and reduced tolerance for risk were the main reasons cited for tightening credit standards.

Although mortgage rates remain extremely low, being able to get a home loan will remain difficult with poor credit.  To help you maintain a positive credit score we’ve put together the following:

Things that affect your credit score negatively:

• Late or missed payments
• Using more than 80 percent of your total amount of available credit
• Bankruptcy
• Liens or foreclosures
• Periods of unemployment
• Too many requests for new lines of credit

Main factors that affect your credit score:

• Your payment history. The most important factor to a potential lender is whether or not you will pay your bills in full and on time. The more recent your good (or bad) payment history, the more important it will be for your credit score.
• Your outstanding debt. The more credit cards you have that are maxed out, the lower your score will be. As mentioned above, try to keep your credit card balances at 25 percent or less of your limits.
• The length of time you’ve been building credit. The longer your credit history, the higher your credit rating.
• The number of inquiries on your credit report. The more times you’ve applied for credit cards or loans, the more credit report inquiries will show up on your credit report. A higher number of credit report inquiries may indicate that you’re struggling financially or may have a lot of debt (even if you never used the cards or gotten the loans).

If you are interested in purchasing a home within the next year, but uneasy about your credit, contact us and we can work with you to make the American Dream of home ownership achievable.

The Importance of Frist Time Homebuyers

The recovery of the real estate market depends on first time home buyers.  Not only do they represent a large number of sales, but without them there would be no move-up market.  Current homeowners would not be able to move-up if they can’t sell their current homes.

HUD now says that first time homebuyers who qualify for the federal tax credit can apply as much as $8,000 to the down payment when financing a home with a FHA loan.  FHA currently requires that buyers make a minimum down payment of 3.5 percent of the sales price of the home…this means that a first time homebuyer can borrow as much as $228,500 and buy with no money down!

Four important things to keep in mind:

1. You don’t qualify if you have owned a home during the three years before you plan to purchase.
2. You must close before December 1, 2009
3. Your income must not exceed $75,000 if single and $150,000 if married.
4. You can’t use the credit against the down payment from just anyone, it must come from state housing agencies or certain non-profits.

If you are a first time homebuyer the time to act is now.  A closing by December 1st, 2009 means you ought to have a contract written by November 1st, and to write a contract you ought to begin looking for homes in September and October.  Even if you were to follow this schedule you may still be cutting it close.  ACT NOW and contact us!

Atlanta Home Sales Report

The Atlanta Home Sales Report from the Atlanta Journal Constitution lets you search sales and home value information for ZIP codes and counties throughout metro Atlanta. Check out the best and worst performer lists or use the ZIP code / County search to find your area or other areas to compare.

Top 5 ZIPs with the highest value increase in 2008
1.   30157—Cobb 41.14%
2.   30329—DeKalb 30.68%
3.   30137—Bartow 26.42%
4.   30517—Gwinnett 21.29%
5.   30305—Fulton 20.11%

* The number of homes sold in every county declined from 2007. The average county decrease was 28 percent.
* About 86 percent of the ZIP codes in metro Atlanta saw a drop in their median price.
* There are 46 ZIP codes in metro Atlanta with resale median prices below $100,000.
* Five ZIP codes in metro Atlanta saw increases in the combined median price by 20% or more.

Quarterly Home Prices on the Rise

The average prices paid for homes purchased in the second quarter of 2009 with mortagages bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rose 1.7 percent from the first quarter.  This marks the first time in two years that prices rose in all nine regions Freddie Mac monitors.

“The pickup in home prices growth rates is consistent with other housing market indicators that show home sales and single-family construction up in the second quarter,” said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft. “The Spring is generally the strongest buying season each year, and we normally see home price growth respond similarly [and] this year was no exception.”

Separately, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday pending sales of existing homes rose 3.2 percent from June to July, the sixth straight monthly increase in pending home sales. That is the longest streak of gains since NAR started keeping track in 2001.

With the $8,000 government homebuyer tax credit I would predict that we will see prices and home sales to continue to rise through the end of this year.  Interest rates remain low and many builders and homeowners are offering some great incentives for home purchasers…that in combination with the tax credit makes this an excellent time to purchase a home.