Perth Wedding Cakes » House

COMPARING SYSTEMS

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:57:58 +0000

The first thing you want to know is what kind of heating or
cooling system is in place. The ones you are most likely to encounter are the following:
Hydronic heating systems. These transmit heat through hot water or steam. They require a boiler, which can be powered by electricity, natural or propane gas, or oil. The boiler heats the water, which is circulated by a pump via pipes to the radiators or baseboards, through which the heat is distributed to the room. Forced hot water is preferable to steam. Steam systems are not as comfortable to live with. Their heat cannot be zoned, and yet it tends to be uneven throughout a house. They dry the air. They are slow to respond. They are noisy. They are inherently less efficient than systems based on hot-water circulation. You won’t find steam heat in many newer homes, but it’s still in place in many older dwellings.
Warm-air systems. These can use electricity, gas, or oil as their primary fuel source. The most common type is forced air, which requires either fans or blowers to circulate the warmed air from the furnace throughout the house. Gravity systems, which rely on the tendency of warm air to rise, are also stifi in use, primarily in older homes. They are far less popular than forced-hot-air systems, however, because they require huge furnaces (which must be located in the middle of the basement) and extensive duct-work and are notoriously inefficient to operate. Another disadvantage of gravity systems is that you cannot operate central air-conditioning through them. Because of all these drawbacks the experts I talk to say that if you have a gravity-hot-air system, you should plan to replace it as soon as possible.
In a natural-gas heating system, a heat exchanger transmits heat from the combustion area (the furnace) to the distribution system. A standard warm-air furnace powered by natural gas has an efficiency rating of about 65 to 70 percent. Newer gas furnaces have an efficiency rating of around 78 percent.
(The standard for measuring energy efficiency is called the Annual Fuel Utility Efficiency Rating. It indicates how much heat you receive for every dollar you spend. The other energy measure you should look for on newer equipment is the bright yellow “Energy Guide” that is now required by law, where manufacturers indicate the estimated annual cost of operating the unit.)
Furnaces powered by oil are similar to gas furnaces, except that the fuel is delivered by truck, as opposed to being piped automatically into your house from an outside gas line. Oil also doesn’t burn as cleanly as gas, and as a result, oil furnaces have to be cleaned regularly to operate at peak efficiency.
Unlike gas and oil systems, electric systems involve no combustion and therefore produce no exhaust. But in most areas, electricity is the most costly energy alternative.
You may encounter an electrically powered heat pump, which can provide both heat and air-conditioning. In cold weather, the pump heats the outdoor air and pumps it through the house. In hot weather, it cools the indoor air and moves it outside. The disadvantage of heat pumps — and the reason you will find them primarily in warmer climates — is that at colder temperatures, below 25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit, the system can’t draw enough heat from the outdoor air to provide sufficient heat indoors. Consequently a backup heating system is usually needed.

HOW BROKERS ARE LICENSED

admin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:43:39 +0000

If you do decide to use a broker, the next big question is, how do you find someone who is knowledgeable, reputable, and compatible? The first thing you should know is that real-estate brokers and salespeople (who typically have less experience than brokers and must be supervised by them) are licensed by the state in which they operate. Licensing requirements vary dramatically from one jurisdiction to another, however. One of the more demanding states is Delaware, which requires salespeople to have a minimum of ninety-three hours of course work in order to obtain a license; to get a broker’s license there, one must have five years of experience as a sales agent and at least thirty home sales. In Arizona, sales agents must complete forty-five hours of course work in real-estate principles; brokers there need an additional ninety hours in specialized real-estate courses and must have three years of experience. Louisiana demands ninety hours of course work for a sales license and 150 hours plus two years of experience for a broker’s license.
At the other extreme are states such as California, which requires only three real-estate courses of its sales agents. California brokers must be licensed agents who have acquired at least two years of sales experience within the previous five years. New Hampshire has no educational requirements at all for salespeople and demands only one year of real-estate sales experience for brokers. Rhode Island likewise has no requirements for sales agents, but brokers there must complete ninety hours of course work in real-estate subjects or have one year of experience as sales agents before obtaining a license. In addition to the licensing prerequisites that are in place in most states, thirty-five states require continuing education for salespeople, brokers, or both.
Clearly a license means different things in different jurisdictions. All it really tells you is that the agent has completed whatever educational requirements that particular state imposes before granting a license. It tells you nothing about the agent’s knowledge of the market or his or her competence or reliability. To get a sense of that, you really have to ask around. There’s no substitute for someone’s firsthand experience, so you should just start asking people whether they know any brokers and, if they do, what they know about them. If you want to check out a particular agent more rigorously, you can contact the state licensing agency and the local Better Business Bureau to find out whether or not he or she has a record of consumer complaints.

NO END RUNS

admin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:24:18 +0000

One thing you should not do is cooperate with a seller who has listed his or her home with a broker but now wants to deal directly with you in order to avoid paying the broker’s fee. It sometimes happens: the broker shows you a house, you express an interest in it, and then the owner takes you aside or contacts you later and suggests that you wait a while, then make the deal on your own, cutting out the broker and the broker’s commission. And sometimes buyers themselves seize upon the temptations of the end run and propose it to sellers.
Either way, it’s not a good idea. For one thing, a court might view it as an attempt to defraud the broker. For another thing, you’ll find that most listing agreements between brokers and sellers specify that the commission is due in any case if the home is sold within a specified period after the listing has expired — no matter who sells it — if the buyer saw the property during the listing period. So even if the ethics don’t bother you, the legal implications should.