Register Real Estate Advisors

I recently went to see Jerry Seinfeld perform in Houston and his opening act talked about how professionals should perform home repairs.  We laughed about the fact that Home Depot lets us think we can redo anything in our homes and many times we fail at it on our own and still have to invite in professionals to complete the work.  I read the article below in the Summer 2011 USAA Magazine and hope you enjoy it.  It gives good ideas for common homeowner mistakes.

All it takes is a
Saturday and a trip to the hardware store to better protect your
property—and even your life.  Kurt
Salomon, president of the American Society of Home Inspectors, highlights five
common hazards that can be fixed easily and inexpensively.

• Test for radon. A hazard you can’t see, smell
  or taste, radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers in America.  Release by uranium in the ground, it can
  affect homes on the same street differently, says Salomon.  Testing is cheap and can be done over the
  weekend.

Cost: about $20 for a test kit.

• Install a smoke detector in every bedroom.
  Having one upstairs, one downstairs and one in the kitchen isn’t
  enough.  “A child can die of smoke
  inhalation if a fire starts in the bedroom before the smoke reaches a hallway,”
  Salomon warns.  Test batteries once a
  month and replace twice a year.

Cost: $7-$60 or more for a new
detector, depending on style and brand.

• Ensure your stairway handrails are properly installed. Handrails should be installed 32-36 inches
  from the floor to the top of the rail on both sides, and they should contrast
  with the color of the wall, according to thiscaringhome.org.

Cost: $10-$20 for new hardware to raise or better
secure a rail.

• Check the
  charge on your fire extinguisher.
  “There’s a gauge on every extinguisher, and if it’s green, you’re
  good.  If it’s red, replace the
  extinguisher,” Salomon says.  Also, make
  sure to get the right kind of extinguisher; some are designed specifically for
  kitchen fires, while others are for electrical fires.

Cost: $15-$75

• Fix broken fence hinges and locks around a pool. The latches for automatically closing gates
  should be at least 54 inches above the ground, so raise them if they’re lower.

Cost: around $20 for hardware.

Look at every home through the eyes of a burglar. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that 2.1 million burglaries were committed in 2004. Not all of these situations involved forced entry; many were the result of unlocked doors and windows. Once you close that loophole, though, how can you determine if one house is more vulnerable than another? Well, a residence surrounded by a 15-foot electric fence and patrolled by guard dogs might be a giveaway, but here are some more subtle ways to judge a house’s security.

Entrances should be visible and the exterior well lit. Thieves don’t like to be seen. If a home’s doors and most-accessible windows are visible from the street or a neighbor’s house, they might look for another home. Most homes have outside lights; make sure those lights are positioned correctly. Lighting up the front door and driveway is great, but what about the dark corner of the yard near the living-room window? Use motion-sensor lights in these areas.
Exterior doors must be metal or solid-core wood. A particle-board or similarly weak door will break long before most locks give out.

All exterior locks should have dead bolts with metal strike plates. Dead bolts alone don’t deter burglars. Without a heavy-duty metal strike plate screwed in the door frame to receive the lock, someone could break open the door by busting through the wood.

Watch for old sliding-glass doors. Old doors with worn-out rollers can be lifted off the track, bypassing any lock.
Any fence gates should have locks. Yes, burglars can climb over most fences, but they risk more exposure by scaling a fence instead of quickly walking through the gate.

Look for “painful” landscaping. A good way to discourage a thief from breaking in through a first-floor window is to install a rosebush or other thorn-covered plan under it.

You can’t keep a determined, professional burglar out of a home. However, you can make it less appealing for him to try.

2005 Copyright by the Texas Association of Realtors, All Rights Reserved.