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Deals Of The Week January 26th, 2010

Just sent out the deals of the week…If you didn’t get it let me know and I will put you on the list.

I scoured through the MLS and this is what I included…

4 of 62 new listings:

8 of 67 price changes

All 20 foreclosures

All 9 relos

All 32 Shortsales

As I said before, some of the new construction house are good values, expecially the 5 star plus houses because they qualify for the $7,500 energy rebate along with the $6,500-$8,000 tax rebate. Sooooo…Here are all the new construction houses that are 5 star plus energy rated. Keep in mind that some of these are not in the ground yet, but some are.

If You want to get on the deals of the week just click here and fill out the form

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Seven Steps To Fixing Your Wood Foundation January 17th, 2010

Categories: For Buyers

Treated Wood Foundation

I had someone from Georgia who uses wood foundations in that area ask why they weren’t used often in our area any more. Apparently my old article on this subject from Feb 2007 is partially missing, I can’t seem to fix that so I’m publishing my letter back to him. Fortunately, I was able to salvage my old illustration of wood foundations. Click the illustration to expand it.

Here is the letter:

Hello Greg,

The reason Treated Wood Foundations are not used is because they are now feared by most home buyers. I believe this is because most of them were installed incorrectly when they were used extensively in the early 80s.

I would say that about 1/3 of the houses built from 1977-1985 in our area used treated wood foundations. Almost all of those have failed to some extent. That is a lot of houses because we experienced a building boom at that time.

We had a real estate crash in 1985 that put a halt to almost all new construction until the early 90s. By that time enough of the foundations had already failed to scare buyers from them. Now, a lot of buyers won’t even look at a house with a wood foundation.

Here is how they were constructed and why they failed. First, the area is excavated and a concrete footing is poured about 4 feet below ground level. Then a treated sill plate is anchored to that footing. Upright 2×6 studs are toe nailed with galvanized nails into the sill plate to bring the height of the floor at least 6 inches above grade. The outside is sheathed with treated plywood and then waterproofed. Fill is then placed against this wall up to grade.

The problem is a that a wall built this way is not strong enough to withstand the horizontal force created by the backfill constantly pushing against it. Our ground freezes and thaws every year and ice expands when it freezes. The weak spot is where the studs are toe nailed to the sill plate. I can almost guarantee that every house built this way has the studs sliding back over the sill plate at least a little. It only takes a little movement to break the waterproof membrane down near the top of the footer. If there is any water collected in that area it will make it’s way into the crawl space. This water creates more problems associated with excess moisture in the house.

The good news is that many, and probably most of these foundations have been repaired by now. The repair generally entails some or all of the following:

1. Excavating the exterior perimeter.
2. Repair the damaged water proofing.
3. Strengthen the joint between the studs and the sill plate, usually by anchoring a treated 4×4 kicker to the footer just inside this joint.
4. Adding a drain tile at the base of the footer to drain away any water collected there.
5. Carefully backfilling with well drained gravel.
6. Grading so that there is a positive slope away from the house at all sides for at least ten feet to help water drain away .
7. Installing gutters to keep water away from the foundation.

I have not noticed any problems with the houses that have been adequately repaired. Hopefully they will be fine as long as water is kept away from the house…because as we all know, water becomes ice in the winter, and ice expands when frozen.

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Palmer Alaska Wind Damage January 15th, 2010

Categories: For Buyers

Palmer's fierce winds ripped Welch's roof off of his home while he and his family were sleeping. (Rich Jordan/KTUU-DT)

The recent wind storm in the valley caused some damage all over the place. Airplanes on their side, hundreds of trees were broken off and roofs were damaged all over the area.

Not many were damaged as badly as this house in the photo. KTTU has a good article and video on the damage to this house. I did a little research on this home to try to find out why it was so damaged while the houses near it were relatively unscathed.

This house is in Palmer on a particularly windy street. The Matanuska River Canyon comes down straight at this neighborhood and then makes a turn to the south right here. So the wind has been funneled directly at these houses. Still, this house was built in 1985 and has weathered many stronger winds over the years. It’s possible that a few upwind trees are missing, or some other physical change in the immediate environment changed to make this year the downfall of this roof.

One thing that I noticed while watching the video is that this roof was apparently skip sheathed. That is, instead of a complete decking of plywood under the metal roofing, a 1X4 or 1X6 was nailed horizontally to the trusses and the metal was attached directly to them. The 1X4s were stapled to the trusses and the staples looked like they didn’t hold well enough and pulled out. Once one of the 1X4s worked loose and the metal peeled up it was all over.

Repaired in only 3 days

Here is the house by 1/15/2010 only 3 days since the wind stopped. That’s fast action. I would like to know the name of their insurance company.

In the future I will always be nervous about skip sheathing in windy areas.

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Wasilla Real Estate Statistics for Jan 5-11, 2010 January 13th, 2010

Categories: For Buyers

The new year started out very strong. With the first full week of the new year behind us I wanted to see how we were doing. This past week saw pending sales. The total inventory is down significantly because of all the listings that expired at the end of the year and now we see 31 more houses come off the market in the first week.

Those people who want to get in under the wire for the April 30 cutoff for the federal incentives for home buyers had better pick out their houses before the inventory shrinks too far. On the other hand, sellers may want to grab this opportunity to reach this wave of buyers and put their homes on the market a little earlier than they had planned.

		Average Price	Median Price	DOM
New	35	$254,853	$235,000	.
Total Active	648	$274,944	$239,000	165
Pending	31`	$212,054	$198,000	112
Closed	11	$214,826	$200,000	93

Written by Marty Van Diest 2 Comments »

Escape The Matanuska Wind January 10th, 2010

Categories: For Buyers

I thought I’d make a video today about the Matanuska Wind. This wind howls down the Matanuska River Valley in the winter. Usually we get 5-6 good wind storms a winter. These usually last several days each and there is no where to hide. Well, almost no where. The Butte area outside of Palmer usually does not get this wind and today was no different. The wind was strong everywhere EXCEPT between Clark-Wolverine Road and the Butte.

The video is 8:28 minutes long and gives you a good idea what one of our wind storms are like.