10207 Brighton Ridge Way, Columbia, MD 21044

$400,000
3 Bedrooms, 2 Full and 3 Half Bathrooms

Luxury townhome living in the heart of Columbia! Festivals, fireworks, concerts at your doorstep. Walk to mall, restaurants, theaters, lakefront. 2-car garage, brick front home faces woods with tons of off-street parking for guests! Home upgraded with loft, maple HW floors, granite counters, new stainless appliances, 5 baths, cathedral ceilings, crown molding, gas fireplace, Bose speakers in Living Room and Dining Room, speaker pre-wire in Master Bedroom and Loft.

$300,000
4 Bedrooms and 2 Full Baths

Priced right, updated home in Hopewell. 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths with ceramic tile floors. Spacious family room, storage, laundry, walk out lower level. Large deck. Walk to Hopewell Park, pool, Lake Elkhorn, bike trails & playgrounds. Home warranty. Close to shopping, restaurants, Supreme Sports Club, commuter routes. Perfect for FHA and VA buyers! Affordable living in desirable Howard County.

VIRTUAL TOUR

While homeowner’s cannot expect to get 100% return on their home remodeling projects, the following are the top, mid-range projects from this year’s Remodeling Magazine’s annual Cost vs. Value report for 2011-2012, based on what home owners stand to recoup at time of resale.  Note: these are the national averages.  The report also has regional averages – for example, in the South Atlantic Region (Maryland), the Attic Bedroom remodel cost recouped is 80.6%.

1. Replacing the entry door to steel

Estimated cost: $1,238
Cost recouped at resale: 73%

2. Attic bedroom (converting unfinished attic space into a bedroom with bathroom and shower)

Estimated cost: $50,148
Cost recouped at resale: 72.5%

3. Minor kitchen remodel (including new cabinets and drawers, countertops, hardware, and appliances)

Estimated cost: $19,588
Cost recouped at resale: 72.1%

4. Garage door replacement

Estimated cost: $1,512
Cost recouped at resale: 71.9%

5. Deck addition (wood)

Estimated cost: $10,350
Cost recouped at resale: 70.1%

6. Siding replacement (vinyl)

Estimated cost: $11,729
Cost recouped at resale: 69.5%

Solving wet-basement problems is one of the most important things you can do to protect the value of your home and health of your family.

Some wet basements are easy to cure simply by clearing gutters and by diverting gutter water away from the foundation. But if the problem comes from other sources—water flowing toward the house on the surface, seeping in from underground, or backing up through municipal storm drains—you must take more aggressive action.

Here are eight strategies to keep water out of your basement.

 1. Add gutter extensions

 If downspouts are dumping water less than 5 feet away from your house, you can guide water farther out by adding plastic or metal gutter extensions.

 But extensions aren’t the neatest or most effective long-term solution, especially if you’re likely to trip over them or run over them with a lawn mower. Permanent, underground drain pipe is invisible and capable of moving large quantities of gutter runoff much farther from your house.

 For about $10 a foot, a landscaper or waterproofing contractor will dig a sloping trench and install pipe to carry the water safely away.

 2. Plug gaps

If you see water dribbling into the basement through cracks or gaps around plumbing pipes, you can plug the openings yourself with hydraulic cement or polyurethane caulk for less than $20.

 Plugs work when the problem is simply a hole that water oozes through, either from surface runoff or from wet soil. But if the water is coming up through the floor, or at the joint where floor and walls meet, the problem is groundwater, and plugs won’t do the trick.

 3. Restore the crown

If the gutters are working and you’ve plugged obvious holes, but water still dribbles into your basement or crawl space from high on foundation walls, then surface water isn’t draining away from the house as it should.
Your house should sit on a “crown” of soil that slopes at least 6 inches over the first 10 feet in all directions.

 Over time, the soil around the foundation settles. You can build it back with a shovel and dirt. One cubic yard of a water-shedding clay-loam mix from a landscape supply house costs around $30 (plus delivery) and is enough for a 2-foot-wide, 3-inch-deep layer along 57 feet of foundation.

 4. Reshape the landscape

Since your home’s siding slightly overlaps its foundation, building up the crown could bring soil–and rot and termites–too close to siding for comfort: 6 inches is the minimum safe distance. In that case, create a berm (a mound of dirt) or a swale (a wide, shallow ditch), landscape features that redirect water long before it reaches your house.

 In small areas, berms are easy; a landscape contractor can build one for a few hundred dollars. On bigger projects, berms make less sense because you’ll have to truck in too much soil. In that case, dig a swale (about $1,000). Once landscaping grows in, berms and swales can be attractive features in your yard.

 5. Repair footing drains

If water is leaking into your basement low on the walls or at the seams where walls meet the floor, your problem is hydrostatic pressure pushing water up from the ground.

 First, check whether you have footing drains, underground pipes installed when the house was built to carry water away from the foundation. (Look for a manhole or drain in the basement floor or a cleanout pipe capped a few inches above the floor.)

 If the drains are clogged, open the cleanout and flush the pipes with a garden hose. If that doesn’t work, a plumber with an augur can do the job for about $600.

 6. Install a curtain drain

If you don’t have working footing drains, install a curtain drain to divert water that’s traveling underground toward your house.

 A type of French drain, a curtain drain is a shallow trench–2 feet deep and 1.5 feet across–filled with gravel and perforated piping that intercepts water uphill of your house and carries it down the slope a safe distance away.

 If the drain passes through an area with trees or shrubs, consider switching to solid pipe to reduce the risk of roots growing into the piping and clogging it. Cost: $10 to $16 per linear foot.

 7. Pump the water

If you can’t keep subsurface water out, you’ll have to channel it from the inside.

 To create an interior drain system, saw a channel around the perimeter of the floor, chip out the concrete, and lay perforated pipe in the hole. The pipe drains to a collection tank at the basement’s low spot, where a sump pump shoots it out the house.

Starting at about $3,000, an interior system is the best and least disruptive option in an unfinished basement with easy access. It’s also a good choice if your yard is filled with mature landscaping that digging an exterior drainage system would destroy.

 8. Waterproof the walls

Installing an interior drainage system gets the water out but doesn’t waterproof the walls. For that, you need an exterior system: a French drain to relieve hydrostatic pressure and exterior waterproofing to protect the foundation.

 It’s a big job that requires excavating around the house, but it may be the best solution if you have a foundation with numerous gaps. It also keeps the mess and water outside, which may be the best choice if you don’t want to tear up a finished basement.

 The downside, besides a price tag that can reach $20,000, is that your yard takes a beating, and you may need to remove decks or walkways.

By: Jeanne Huber ReBlogged from HouseLogic – Realtor.com

• 

  How to Assess the Real Cost of a Fixer-Upper House

  When you buy a fixer-upper house, you can save a ton of money, or get yourself in a financial fix. Read

• 

  Keep Your Home Purchase on Track

  You’ve found your dream home. Make sure missteps don’t prevent a successful closing. Read

• 

  4 Tips to Determine How Much Mortgage You Can Afford

  By knowing how much mortgage you can handle, you can ensure that home ownership will fit in your budget. Read

• 

  7 Steps to Take Before You Buy a Home

  By doing your homework before you buy, you’ll feel more content about your new home. Read

• 

  8 Tips for Finding Your New Home

  A solid game plan can help you narrow your homebuying search to find the best home for you. Read

Each market peaked at different times. Therefore, the InfoGraphic doesn’t cover one segment of time. Here is a site where you can see when each market actually peaked:

CLICK HERE

Courtesy The KCM Blog

Sewell’s Orchard beauty – center hall colonial with many upgrades!  Priced to sell!  New carpeting, flooring, newer appliances, cathedral ceilings, owner’s suite with dressing area and full bath, ceiling fans, walk-in closet, finished lower level, spacious deck and fenced yard. One year AHS warranty – radon system, close to commuter routes, shopping, great neighborhood.

Link to Virtual Tour: Click Here

You can adjust parameters for:

• Fun & Entertainment
• Shops & Stores
• Family & Child Friendly
• Highly Rated Schools
• Pet Friendly
• Median Home Price
• Rural, Small Town, Suburban, Urban, Downtown
• Public Transportation

The usual search parameters for homes are also available (e.g. single family detached, townhome, etc.).  An interactive map has icons for the homes for sale.

This is great for anyone who is unfamiliar with the area or who may be deciding where they want to live.

Check it out for yourself – let me know what you think!

LIFESTYLE SEARCH

There is more and more research coming out showing that it makes great financial sense to purchase a home today . Whether it be rent vs. buy ratios, income-to-price ratios or income-to-mortgage payment ratios, purchasing a home right now is a bargain compared to historic norms. Now we want to look at the COST of a home today compared to pre-peak prices.

According to the most recent S&P Case Shiller price index, residential real estate values have returned to 2003 prices. That, in itself, says something. However, when you factor in mortgage rates, the case for buying a home today becomes even more compelling.

In 2003, 30 year mortgage rates stood at 5.88%. Today, they are 4%. How does that impact the actual COST of a home? On a home purchased for $250,000, here is the difference in monthly cost:

That means you save $285.30 a month, $3,423.60 a year and $102,708 over the life of a 30 year mortgage! You buy the home for the same PRICE but the COST is over $100,000 less.

Bottom Line:
This is why so many financial advisors are saying that this may be one of the greatest times in history to purchase a home!

Reprinted from the KCM Blog - www.kcmblog.com

$105,000

Super location in Columbia’s Town Center – the best Columbia has to offer at your doorstep!  Walk to Lake Kittamakundi, restaurants, Columbia mall, parks.  Ground level condo in Glen Meadows with spacious rooms and in-unit front loading washer/dryer.  Short sale.  Diamond in the rough. . .fresh paint and a few updates will make this one awesome!