Creative Ways to Expand Your Living Space

When you first bought your home it may have been the perfect size - but several years later and the addition of a child or two, a few new pets and a basement full of Christmas decorations and winter clothes might have your house feeling a bit cramped. Without major renovations like knocking down walls or building additions, the hope of creating more space may seem impossible. However, creativity can always lend itself when you're faced with a difficult challenge, such as making space where there is none.

Try these tips to get more home out of your house:

Do Away With the Dining Room: Dining rooms are often an extra space filled almost entirely with a dining room table and chairs that rarely get used. Unless you host dinner parties on a weekly basis, chances are your dining room is sucking up much needed space in your home. Purchase a smaller table and place it in the kitchen for sit-down meals and let your imagination run wild with how you might use your newly freed space. Any number of possibilities exist from home offices to a new nursery. Take a tip from the Beverly Hillbillies movie and convert your dining area to a billiards room where you dine on the pool table or keep the pool table and stick with eating in the kitchen.

Spill Your Inside Outside: In Michigan, this isn't a year-round fix for expansion, but it's great for summer and often possible during the spring and fall as well. You can get really intricate here and build a new patio complete with outdoor wood burning pizza oven, jacuzzi and fire pit or you can keep it simple with nice patio furniture and some flowers pots. The major issue is whether it serves its purpose and people want to spend time in the space. If you want it to be available when it's raining, consider investing in a covered tent or gazebo.

Make Your Garage More Functional: Garages are great for cars and skis and lawnmowers, but they're also great for recreational areas, workout rooms and even man caves. I recently visited a house where half the garage consisted of leather couches, a flat screen TV and a refrigerator with beer and munchies. The man cave that might have been in the basement had been relocated to the garage to conserve space within the home. This also let's the man inhabiting the cave turn the volume as high as he wants and open the garage door to let some sunshine in if the whole cave thing isn't really his style. Just make sure to prepare your garage so that it's comfortable for the use intended. For instance, a craft room may not go well if it consists of a folding table butting up to a broken down Chevy that stinks of oil.

If you're buying or selling a home in the East Lansing area, please visit MyRealtorRob. On my website you can view my current Lansing area real estate listings, search the MLS and read articles about biuying and selling homes in Michigan.

Governor Snyder Approves Michigan's Housing Tax Credit Overhaul

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder recently approved the MSHDA's (Michigan State Housing Development Authority) Qualified Allocation Plan, which offers new guidelines for investors and developers taking advantage of the Housing Tax Credit Program in Michigan.

In the U.S., every state receives a certain amount of tax credits annually based on population. Michigan has seen decreases in population over the last several years, thus the total tax credits awarded has dropped as well. To make Michigan more appealing to developers and investors, the MSHDA overhauled their previous framework for awarding tax credits. In order to receive tax credits, developers must compete and they are scored on a variety of factors. If they are awarded tax credits, they can then sell them to investors and raise money to build more affordable housing.

The major changes to the plan are intended to promote community renewal in urban and rural areas with considerations for accessible transportation and other placemaking amenities. A few other changes included community support, cost containment and permanent supportive housing category modifications.

You can learn more about the specific changes at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority Website.

If you live in the Lansing or East Lansing areas in Michigan and are thinking about buying or selling a home, please contact me at MyRealtorRob. As an East Lansing realtor, I can provide you with a free market analysis, help you get pre-qualified for a mortgage loan and answer questions about life in the Lansing area.

Many Young People Not Buying Homes

Once upon a time you went to school, started a career, got married and bought a house. It was sort of like a template for life in the United States and a lot of young people strove to achieve each of those milestones. Today, the template and, more so, the grid that we lay it upon has changed dramatically. Recessions and bursting housing bubbles, struggling economies and overwhelming student debt are only a few of the major transitions that America has seen in the last decade. These changes have a variety of ripple effects on people's lives and one effect is that fewer young people are purchasing homes.

According to a February 2012 article in The Atlantic, half as many young people were getting mortgages between 2009 and 2011 compared to ten years earlier.  The article cites a range of reasons for fewer young homeowners including higher student debts, fewer marriages, decreased earnings and a recognition that many people lost big time investing in real estate. It's no wonder that these factors influence entire generations who might otherwise have walked the path of home ownership like their parents before them and their parents before them.

One young person who wrote into The Atlantic stating their reason for not purchasing a home said, "My generation wants more freedom to travel, to see and live in new places and to experience new cultures. In general, buying a home can seem like a rejection of freedom, and anytime one of my friends gets a home, I just can't help but think how restricted they now are, whether that's true or not." This implies a shift of priorities for younger generations, perhaps moving away from security and towards excitement.

Another respondent said, "I wish I had bought straight out of college. (...) Home ownership is a big commitment, but in my opinion renting is financial suicide." In this person's case, buying made more sense, especially after they spent years paying rent and still had no place to live unless they continued to shell out the monthly payment.

Ultimately buying a home, like most things, boils down to personal situation and preference. A young, single person loaded with student debt who likes flexibility may hate home ownership. On the other hand, young people who have graduated, found a good job and intend to stay put for a while could benefit from purchasing a home and building equity rather than giving their hard earned money to a landlord each month.

If you're considering buying or selling real estate in the East Lansing area, please get in touch with me at MyRealtorRob. With Michigan State University as something of a hub in our community, we have a lot of students and student families who like to purchase while they attend school. If that sounds like you and you would like to learn about the affordable East Lansing housing in the area, send me an email.

Save Money with Home Maintenance

It's easy to overlook home maintenance. After all, most of us subscribe to the old adage "if it isn't broke - don't fix it." Unfortunately, your home doesn't exist in a glass bubble. Instead it is exposed to you and your family, climate conditions, outdoor vegetation, pets and a variety of other elements that cause areas to slowly degrade. You can skip the maintenance, but at some point you will be faced with a hefty repair bill that could have been avoided with some basic maintenance steps.

Avoid Roof Repairs: Roofs are a costly expense, but you can minimize the likelihood that your roof will spring a leak or need to be replaced in the near future.

• Clear Debris: Clean all debris off your roof including leaves, branches and anything else that lands up there. Debris can hold water, which quickens roof deterioration
• Get Rid of Algae: If algae or moss is growing on your roof, clean it off and consider applying zinc control along shingle ridges.
• Ventilate Your Attic: Adding ventilation to your attic helps preserve the roof by reducing the temperature beneath the roof. You can hire a contractor to add vents to your attic or, if you're handy, it can be a weekend project that you do yourself.

Make Your Lawn a Priority: Many homeowners consider mowing their lawn to be the only necessary maintenance; however, neglecting your grass can lead to problems down the road.

• Mow Your Grass Higher: Its tempting to go for the close shave when you mow your lawn, but slightly longer grass reduces water loss, prevents more weeds from growing and strengthens the roots of your grass.
• Skip Fertilizer When it's Hot: Avoid using lawn fertilizer in the summer because grass is already taxed merely trying to survive in the heat. Fertilizer can have damaging effects when your lawn is too weak to handle new growth.

Clean Filters: Filters in your furnace and air conditioner need to be kept clean, otherwise you may find yourself roasting the summer and freezing in the winter.

• Change AC Filters: Change the filter in your air conditioner before summer begins and you start using it. Also make sure to change it once every few months while it is in use. Ensure that the exterior of the unit is clean of shrubs, mildew and dirt as well.

Basic home maintenance can save you thousands of dollars every year.

If you're in the East Lansing or Greater Lansing areas of Michigan and are thinking about buying or selling your home, please contact me at MyRealtorRob.

Homeowners Weary of Mortgage Help

The sheer number of homeowners who faced foreclosure in recent years caused a myriad of federal and state housing programs, designed to assist individuals in avoiding foreclosure, to pop up everywhere. With these legitimate programs came a range of less than ethical opportunists who offered similar programs, which in some cases turned out to be expensive scams that did little to assist the homeowner in anything except going further into debt. A recent article on AOL Real Estate cited an example of a homeowner who waited nearly six years, struggling beneath an unaffordable rising interest rate, before he sought help through the government subsidized housing counselling organization called the NeighborWorks Home Ownership Center. His reason for waiting so long to seek help? He feared that most of the programs were scams.

A survey by Money Management International, a financial counseling organization approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, found that 53% of the homeowners who responded described fears of fraudulent services and scams as the number one reason that they did not seek help from housing counselling programs. It is important for individuals to make educated choices when it comes to housing assistance, but too much caution has led many homeowners to experience foreclosure rather than seek help. A study conducted by HUD found that 70% of homeowners who used housing counselling found a mortgage remedy while another study conducted by the Urban Institute found that individuals who used HUD backed counselling programs were 89% more likely to receive a loan modification.

At the state and federal level, there are a variety of programs that homeowners can consider if they're facing the possibility of foreclosure. It's important that people overcome their fears and seek assistance before their ultimate fear becomes a reality and they lose their home. Visit the Federal Reserve Website to find mortgage and foreclosure resources.

If you're buying or selling a home in the East Lansing or Greater Lansing areas of Michigan, please visit my website at MyRealtorRob. As an East Lansing realtor, I can assist you in the purchase or sale of your home and finding local resources for financing and foreclosure assistance.

New Program for Struggling Michigan Homeowners

Michigan has been, by far, one of the hardest hit states during the housing crisis of the past several years. Rampant foreclosures left many Michigan residents scrambling to find housing amid an economy thin on jobs and heavy on unemployment. To combat these financial obstacles, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) began offering a variety of programs to assist homeowners who were struggling with their mortgages for a variety of reasons from unemployment to overwhelming medical bills. On July 9th, Gary Heidel, executive director of the MSHDA, announced a new Modification Program to help underemployed homeowners in addition to revisions made to the Michigan's Hardest Hit Funds programs.

The new Modification Plan is designed to help homeowners who are struggling with their monthly payments. The maximum reservation for the program is $20,000 and the funds go to the lender for the delinquent amount so that the lender can modify the mortgage and reduce the owner's monthly payments. Homeowners who have a delinquent second mortgage can also take advantage of the program if their first mortgage is current.

In addition to the new Modification Program, Michigan residents have access to several other plans designed to help homeowners prevent foreclosure. These include the Unemployment Mortgage Subsidiary Program, the Mortgage Loan Rescue Program and the Principal Curtailment Program.

The Unemployment Mortgage Subsidiary Program: This plan makes payments directly to the lender in upwards of $1,000 or 50% of the owner's monthly payments for a period of 12 months.

Mortgage Loan Rescue Program: Designed to assist homeowners who are delinquent on their mortgage, this program pays funds directly to the lender to help the homeowner avoid foreclosure. The maximum allowance has recently been increased to $20,000.

Principal Curtailment Program: This program assists homeowners who have a mortgage principal that is higher than the home is worth and are also struggling to make their monthly payments. Homeowners can qualify for up to $10,000 in assistance, which is paid directly to the lender, but the lender must match the total assistance amount and reduce the principal accordingly. The total reduction helps the owner with more manageable payments while also decreasing the total amount owed on their home.

You can learn more about Michigan's variety of homeowner assistance programs at the MSHDA website. If you're buying or selling a home in the East Lansing or Greater Lansing areas of Michigan, please contact me at MyRealtorRob. In addition to providing a free market analysis, I can assist you in securing financing and finding the best loan option for your current needs.

Home Buying: Finding Your Dream Neighborhood

The home of your dreams often has a lot less to do with the size of the master bath than, say, the area that it's located in, the schools nearby and the community that the home is a part of. People often forget when shopping for their future home that much of their life will be lived outside of those neatly painted walls. When it comes to choosing the perfect home, it's usually more important to take a close look at the world surrounding the home including nearby parks, stores, neighbors and schools.

Neighborhood Considerations

• Quality of Schools: You can consider a variety of factors here including the school's location, average test scores, college-bound percentages and spending per student. Gather information about the subjects studied, the teachers' backgrounds and the quality of the school lunches. Check the area to see if alternative school options such as Montessori are available if you prefer to offer your children a more creative environment.
• Education and Income Profile: Consider the household income, education level, occupation and family type of a given neighborhood. You can find some of this information on The U.S. Census Bureau Fact Finder Website. You can also ask people living in the neighborhood and your realtor. If you're single and not intending to have kids, a family oriented community with playgrounds is probably not your best bet. On the other hand, families might do well to avoid communities where a lot of people rent or groups of students live.
• Amenities: This can include a whole range of options from museums to bakeries. Spending Sunday mornings walking two blocks to buy homemade donuts and coffee can be the makings of a dream home so consider what you really love to experience and choose a neighborhood that makes this a possibility.

If you're thinking of purchasing a home in the East Lansing or Lansing areas of Michigan and would like to learn about the right neighborhood for you, please contact me through my website at MyRealtorRob. As an East Lansing Realtor and resident, I can point out popular communities, desirable area amenities and homes that are in your price range that also fit your neighborhood profile.