If you are in the proces of Moving or in the middle of seasonal cleaning, you may find yourself staring at a dozen or more half emptied paint cans in your basement or garage.Better yet, you ma y find anti-freeze,left over oil (used  for your lawn mower) or 5 half bottles of household cleaner. ( not the green type). A super place to start disposing of such items (in the proper fashion) is http://www.rirrc.org/content/. The Rhode Island Resource Recovery has a very helpful website and a schedule of dates and location to rid yourself of these unwanted items.

Be GREEN and do your part! RIRRC makes it easier to do the right thing and dispose of your CRUD in a proper fashion.

In the past few years i have been on many appointments to help homeowners 'see" what the value of their home is in todays market..

some of these folks were curious because they wanted to move out of state,into a larger home or even, down size into something more

manageable.other folks were financially failing and wanted to sell to avoid foreclosure. The larger number of these people ended up in

"short sales"  ( selling for less than homes worth). because what they owed on their mortgage was HIGHER than market value.

The problem CONTINUES to exists for the home owner that is  not  financially strapped, is gainfully employed , has fair to good credit and

doesn't want  to move, but is locked in to an interest rate of anywhere from 5-8%  ( sometimes higher).  Unfortunately, all the lenders

stated, we would love to refinance them but, the appraisal  value came in  10,15,20% or more under what is OWED.

Well, here is the link that we HOPE will help these folks get in to a lower interest rate mortgage through a refi program that should go into

efect soon.  http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/24/real_estate/housing_refinance/  .

 

my only hesitation about getting really excited about this is:

1.The program will help 1 million people and the need is upwards of 4 million

2 How much will Rhode Island Home Owners benefit from this program? Other states are at a higher need (Florida,arizona,california)

 

Well, given my passion to help Rhode Island  sellers,buyers and home ownership,  I will remain excited about the

revamped HARP ( home affordable refinance program). If just one of my clients benefit from it, then it worked!

Changing my maybe to YES!!!

As every real estate agent ( and hopefully seller) knows, in order to get to the closing table

you must provide closing agent  ( attorney in R.I.) with a smoke and carbon monoxide cerifcate

thats proves that your property has functioning and properly installed "carbons and smokes".

This is (almost always) the reponsibilty of the seller . However, there comes a time ( for one reason or another) that we as

realtors take on this duty for a specific property. Perhaps the seller is unable to physically perform this task , they are out of town, or it

is a bank owned property.

Well, today was one of those days for me. last minute i received notice (on a "short sale" property ) that we

needed to close asap. So, I immediately contacted the fire marshall in the town and he was kind enough to meet me asap.

of course, if the fire marshall shows up and the smokes and carbons are NOT functioning , Missing or even

 (VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW!!)- OVER 10 YEARS OLD- then you do not get the certificate

and many fire marshalls will charge you and make you reschedule.

well, I was prepared and I am writing this blog post, so sellers can prepare themself for this

stage of the game.  here is a list to be certain you are ready when the fire marshall shows up

with that ( ever important) smoke and carbon certificate.

1. find out where your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detctors should be located in your home.

2. Be certain that already installed carbons and smokes are UNDER 10 years old.

3. if you need to install new ones, buy the right ones.  (hard wire replaces hardwire )

4. you can buy combo ( smoke and carbon detectors for approx. $37.00 or individuallyand save a little cash.

5. BEST TIP - when installing, i prefer to use sheet rock screws instead of the screws they give you in the packet. makes it MUCH

easier to install.

    materials needed                                       sheet rock screws                             screws that come with smokes

6. most importantly, complete and schedule this task 2 weeks prior to close if you can and remember the town/city will charge you

$30 for this certificate and some cities/towns require a certified check. NO CASH payments. find out when you call to schedule

inspection.

Oh yeah, more than likely if you made it this far, your CLOSING is right around the corner. YEEEESSSS!!!!