“A professional remodeler knows how to translate a homeowner’s dreams and budget into a beautiful reality,” said Donna Shirey, CGR, CAPS, CGP, president of Shirey Contracting in Issaquah, Wash. and 2010 chairman of NAHB Remodelers. “They have the expertise and skills to satisfy a customer while keeping the budget in check.”

Here are five tips for planning a successful home remodel that you can enjoy for many years to come.

1. Compile a list of home remodeling ideas and draft a budget for the work.
You likely have some projects in mind, such as modernizing the bathroom, renovating the kitchen, replacing windows or repairing the roof. Prioritize your wish list: Maybe you don’t have the budget for your dream remodel, but professional remodelers can maximize your dollars by doing the work in phases, suggesting budget-friendly products and materials and implementing creative design solutions.

2. Look for a professional remodeler to help plan the project.
Start by searching NAHB’s Directory of Professional Remodelers at www.nahb.org/remodel. You’ll get a list of nearby remodelers to contact. Asking friends and neighbors for names of qualified remodelers will also help you find a match for your project.

3. Check the references and background of the remodeler.
After you start speaking with remodelers and find one or two who match your project’s needs, be sure to conduct some background research by checking with the Better Business Bureau, talking to their references and asking if they are a trade association member (such as NAHB Remodelers). Remodelers with these qualities tend to be more reliable, better educated and more likely to stay on top of construction and design trends.

4. Agree on a contract.
Talk over the details of the home remodeling project and begin reviewing the contract. You’ll want to check the remodelers’ insurance coverage, ask about any warranties on their work, know who is responsible for obtaining any building permits and understand the process for making any change orders after the contract is signed. Make sure that you and your remodeler see eye to eye before you sign on the dotted line.

5. Take advantage of the energy efficiency tax credits.
If your remodel includes replacing windows or doors, adding insulation, installing new roofing, upgrading heating or air-conditioning units, updating the water heater or installing energy generating products (such as solar panels, heat pumps or wind turbines) then you can take advantage of federal energy efficiency tax credits through 2010 that will help defray costs and maximize your remodeling budget while reducing home energy bills.

For more information, visit www.nahb.org.

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For more top headlines on RISMedia.com, be sure to see:
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Industry experts Julie Vanderblue, John Bendall, Gregg Neuman, Patty McCarthy, Brenda Fontaine and Maureen Ingelsby are among the top-producing agent panelists who will offer insight into the power of effective team-building during the session titled: “Team Building in 2010 – What’s Changed?” at this year’s Leadership Conference. The session will take place on Thursday, June 10 from 10:10-11:10 a.m. at the Hilton Rye Town in Westchester County, New York.

Here’s a more in-depth look at some of the panelists. Look for more profiles in Friday’s edition of the news.

Julie Vanderblue, President, The Higgins Group
Julie is known as one of the top selling real estate agents in Fairfield County. Her success is largely due to her exceptional marketing ability and through creating a team of professionals whose foremost concern is the needs of their clients. She received her Bachelors of Science Degree in Marketing from the University of Connecticut. Julie’s career includes advertising sales, media marketing and several independent business ventures and ownership. During her tenure as a Real Estate Agent she is noted for being the “Top Producer” 2002 – present, “Top Listing Agent 2002 Southport/Fairfield”, and #1 in Fairfield for selling our client’s properties. Julie created The Vanderblue Team in 2003 to bring together agents who shared the same philosophy of “Making a Difference in Real Estate”. As The Vanderblue Team, agents share resources, contacts and strategies to match home buyers and home sellers to properties that best suit their needs and desires.

John Bendall, RE/MAX Classic Group
John Bendall earned his real estate license in November, 1986, because he thought about buying houses and fixing them up, just like everybody else in the mid-1980’s. John soon learned the tricks of the trade from his coach, Dwight Hathaway of the Hathaway Agency. In 1991 John moved his business to Bridgewater. With speed and agility, John learned the area, refined his skills and soon became a Major League agent. Within four years he grew his business from zero to helping over 300 families. To date in 2003 John and his team have helped over 800 families. With glowing testimonials and client referrals John and his team continue to exceed their clients expectations. John was RE/MAX’s Broker/Owner of the Year in 2005 and also the 2004 CRS Realtor of the Year for New Jersey. He regularly appears on MSNBC as one of its real estate experts.

Gregg Neuman, Neuman & Neuman, Prudential California
Long recognized as San Diego County’s most successful real estate agent, Gregg Neuman, partner in Neuman & Neuman Real Estate has assisted over 5,000 families buy or sell over one and a half billion dollars ($1,500,000,000) worth of real estate. Neuman continues to confound market experts by anticipating the changes in the marketplace, rather than reacting to them, which has enabled his clients to succeed even in the most stressful real estate climates. Having entered the Real Estate industry in 1981 with 21% interest rates, Neuman has seen many housing fluctuations occur and has learned how to continue to prosper regardless of the economy. Utilizing innovative marketing techniques, cutting edge technology and strong negotiating skills, he is committed to meeting the needs of his clients.

It’s never been more important to stand out among the competition than in today’s challenging market. Don’t miss your exclusive opportunity to improve your negotiation skills from the best in the industry. This session is not to be missed!

This year’s Conference will also focus on Social Media and Mobile Strategies for both brokers and sales associates to help these professionals best meet the demands of today’s home buyers and sellers. There will also be a track dedicated specifically for brokers, and additional business development and marketing sessions.

For a complete list of sessions, visit http://rismedia.com/events/leadership-conference/sessions/.

Who Will Attend? Leaders of the real estate community, including Top 5 Members, other leading real estate sales associates, team leaders, leading brokerage owners, economists and a host of related industry visionaries from around the United States.

Register Now at http://events.rismedia.com!

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Questions on the Conference? Visit http://rismedia.com/events/leadership-conference or contact Stephanie Andre at stephanie@rismedia.com or 203-855-1234 x141.

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Beginning April 5, 2010, under new Treasury Department rules, short sales will be presented as the potential next step for homeowners who are rejected by or fail to make the grade for the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

RealtyTrac chief economist Rick Sharga suggested that offering the short sale program is the administration’s acknowledgment that its current mortgage-modification effort “can’t solve the foreclosure problem by itself.”

Kevin Gillen, vice president of Econsult of Philadelphia, said there was both statistical and anecdotal evidence that lenders have been holding off on foreclosure proceedings. “No doubt that part of this is due to staff shortages relative to the volume of delinquencies, but it’s also due to uncertainty over near-term government policy,” he said.

Sharga sees positive elements in the new guidelines: Both homeowners and mortgage servicers will have financial incentive to participate in short sales; there are limited payouts for second lienholders and paperwork is standardized, which makes it easier for everyone to comply.

The new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative program will run until Dec. 31, 2012. Among its provisions:

-The lender must offer a short sale in writing to the borrower within 30 days after the borrower either is ruled ineligible for mortgage modification under the HAMP program or has been ruled unable to sustain payments under a trial plan.

-A borrower may receive up to $1,500 to assist with relocation expenses.

-Incentives of $1,000 will be offered to lenders for each completed short sale. For each deed in lieu of foreclosure, in which the borrower voluntarily transfers the property to the lender, $1,000 will be paid to the lender.

-A lender with a second lien on the property will get up to $3,000 of the short sale proceeds, or can pursue a short sale outside the program if it doesn’t agree to share.

-The lender will not be permitted to reduce the real estate agent’s commission after an offer on a property has been received.

Currently, short sales don’t make up a big piece of the real estate market, either regionally or nationwide, for a variety of reasons. One is they tend to be difficult and time-consuming. “I handled a short sale of a condo in Bensalem PA that took a year,” said real estate broker Christopher J. Artur. Typically, there is “so much aggravation and red tape involved that some buyers get so fed up they walk away.”

Nationally, just 14% of all existing-home transactions in January 2010 were short sales, the National Association of Realtors says. In the Philadelphia region, they made up 6.9% of total homes for sale at the end of January, said Art Herling, regional vice president at Long & Foster Real Estate.

“I call short sales ‘organized chaos,’” said Noelle Barbone, office manager of Weichert Realtors’ Media office. Each lender works short sales differently, “at their own pace, and it depends on how behind the homeowners are on mortgage payments, if the house is worth less than they owe and whether or not foreclosure paperwork has been filed.”

The new program is unlikely to make short sales easier, even as an alternative to foreclosure. “What one needs in a short sale is time,” Barbone said. But these days, as buyers race to meet the April 30 agreement-of-sale deadline for the federal tax credit, time is money. “I had first-time buyers recently with 20% down, and we found two houses they liked,” said Cheryl Miller of Long & Foster’s Blue Bell office. Both were short sales, however, and neither the seller nor the agent could give a definite timeline for even seeing an executed agreement of sale, she said. “Timing is pretty critical for the first-time buyer and viable houses that are short sales are remaining unsold” as a result, Miller said.

Sharga doesn’t think the new short sale program will be the answer the government seeks. “While we’ll likely see an increase in the number of short sales, I doubt that the reality will live up to the hype.”

(c) 2010, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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A typical story an agent might hear goes like this: “The HUD-1 said the appraiser was paid $450, but the appraiser only received $325. So where did the rest of the money go?”

While this pricing structure has been in place in the industry for 20+ years, it has only recently been identified as a source of confusion and frustration. The $325 paid to the appraiser (i.e., employee, either staff or contractor) is only a component of the total cost of creating the appraisal.

As with all products, the full cost includes the expenses of licensing, training, compliance, technology, customer service, quality assurance and legal liabilities.

There are parallels between the appraisal industry and the book-publishing business that can help clarify pricing misperceptions. For example, the price you pay for a book is not typically what the author receives. (Appraisers generally receive 60% to 75% of the fee appraisal management companies bill to lenders). A book purchase price incorporates all the expenses of bringing that particular title to the marketplace: author advance, editing, design, legal, print supplies and production, and marketing and distribution. It also reflects bookseller expenses and profit margin.

Profit margins for online booksellers are relatively small, but they win on the volume front—high volume, low margin. In comparison, independent bookstores typically have lower volume and more expenses, so they require a higher profit margin. Some authors, though, choose to self-publish, which requires them to cover all costs associated with the book—in addition to writing it!

In this book-publishing example, appraisers are the authors. The payment appraisers receive for their work depends on whether they are completely self-employed contractors, work as contractors for an appraisal firm or are employees of appraisal firms.

Deconstructing appraisal pricing is further complicated by these factors:
-Some companies are both appraisal management companies and appraisal firms. This means they have staff appraisers, and also contract work to outside appraisers.
-Some independent appraisers produce their own work and bring it directly to market, but they also accept contract assignments from appraisal management companies and appraisal firms.

While these variables make it difficult to uniformly deconstruct the price of an appraisal, it’s important that the work of the appraiser and the work of the “support system” be considered as two parts of a whole. If not for the appraiser, there would be no “book.” The same holds true for the production and delivery aspects.

Appreciating the impacts of evolving regulatory change in a challenging environment, the Title Appraisal Vendor Management Association (TAVMA) remains committed to helping educate real estate professionals about settlement services. A key part of this effort has been the creation of the Standards of Good Practice in Appraisal Management.

We welcome your review of these “rules of the road” for appraisal, as well as your feedback.

Jeff Schurman is executive director of TAVMA. For the complete text of the Standards of Good Practice in Appraisal Management, please visit www.tavma.org.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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