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A buyer's bad experience with home inspector

By Barry Stone, Tuesday, September 20, 2011.
Image via "<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-528871p1.html" target=blank>Nelson Marques</a>/<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com" target=blank>Shutterstock</a>"

DEAR BARRY: Your repeated endorsements of home inspectors should be taken with a large grain of salt. When I bought my home, the inspector reported no problems with the roof, but he never even looked at it. After moving in, it leaked, so I had two roofing contractors check it out. Both said that the roof was totaled.

I called the inspector back to the house and showed him the damaged shingles and the rotted wood in the attic. To my surprise, he admitted that he hadn't crawled in the attic or walked on the roof during his inspection. He said the seller had assured him that the roof was in good condition.

I filed a small claims action and recovered all but $500 of the cost of roof replacement. My advice to your readers is to hire plumbers, electricians, roofers, etc., rather than wasting money on unqualified home inspectors. --Chad

DEAR CHAD: No one can blame you for being disillusioned after your disappointing home inspection. But don't let one bad apple turn you against apple pie.

If an incompetent plumber failed to repair a bad leak in your sewer line, you would not conclude that all plumbers are unqualified.  more...

Top do-it-yourself storage solutions

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Tuesday, September 20, 2011.
Image via "<a href="http://www.chroniclebooks.com/same-place-more-space.html" target=blank>Chronicle Books</a>"

Book Review
Title: "Same Place, More Space: 50 Projects to Maximize Every Room in the House"
Author: Karl Champley, Karen Kelly
Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2011; 256 pages; $24.95

"But it's my mess -- I know exactly where everything is in that." How many times have you heard a friend or loved one (you can include yourself in that!) make this claim. Even those of us who say this know the real truth: that a cluttered home, desk or closet evidences -- and creates -- a cluttered mind and a chaotic lifestyle.

Usually, we make this claim in frustration at the bad cleaning or organizing job someone else has done with our stuff, or is threatening to do.

Done properly, order is divine -- it is soothing and allows us to live life to the fullest. At the same time, the current trend is toward downsizing our homes, trying to live more frugally by moving into the smaller urban homes that promise shorter commutes, and into smaller suburban homes that cost less to operate and maintain over time.  more...

Automate your social Web Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, September 20, 2011.
Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevingessner/4093075777/">kevingessner</a>.

Every now and then I'm talking with someone and they mention that they sort of miss the old days of marketing. They miss being able to know that their marketing was running through a small number of channels or media.

They miss being able to manage all of their marketing programs through just a handful of places and people: the newspaper, the TV, the radio, and maybe one or two other things.

The Web exploded that simplicity and exchanged it for a myriad of methods and marketing opportunities. The comparative low cost and the ability to measure is great. But the complexity of managing everything is immense.

It's only getting worse. Social media, the latest of the round of Internet-driven communication innovations, is exceptionally fragmented. Almost down to the individual person. There are platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. There are content-driven apps like Flickr or Instagram or YouTube or Vimeo. There are things that are partway between platform and app, like Twitter or Tumblr.

Distributing messages to all the relevant locations can often take as much time as crafting the message to begin with. Which is why I was so excited to play with a new beta tool called If This Then That (IFTTT, for short).  more...

5 'green' homes that won gold

By Mary Umberger, Tuesday, September 20, 2011.

The gulf between "green" and "gorgeous" seems to be narrowing.

EcoHome magazine's second annual design awards singled out an array of houses that are not only environmentally exceptional, but look good at the same time.  more...

3 flavors for Inman News memberships: Free, Premium and Premium Plus

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Tuesday, September 20, 2011.
Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/75001512@N00/3804074690/">Joelk75</a>

Today, Inman News launches new memberships, including powerful tools for building newsletters and fliers using Inman News content. The www.inman.com home page has also been redesigned to prominently display more of the latest top stories, and to clearly designate which content requires a paid membership.

The membership changes are substantial. In addition to a free, basic membership offering that includes daily free content and access to online marketing tools that integrate that free content, Inman News has lowered the cost of its paid memberships and is offering two tiers of paid membership.

Our goal is to extend the reach of our award-winning content -- including news, advice, commentary, research and analysis -- to a broader audience of real estate professionals and consumers, and to enhance the sharing features for our content.

We also realize that we live in economically challenging times, and we want to ensure that there are levels of membership that make financial sense for every reader. Given the business intelligence that Inman News offers, coupled with access to new marketing tools and conference discounts at various levels of membership, we believe Inman News represents an amazing bargain.  more...

Survey: Down payment an obstacle to homeownership for most Premium Content

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 20, 2011.

More than half of renters who wish to buy a home say the biggest imediment is saving enough for a down payment, according to the latest American Dream survey from real estate search and marketing site Trulia released today.

Market research firm Harris Interactive conducted the biannual online survey for the company between Aug. 30, 2011, and Sept. 1, 2011. The survey included 1,392 homeowners and 758 renters.

The majority, 70 percent, of respondents said owning a home is part of their American dream, unchanged from the last survey in January. This attitude toward homeownership rose with age, from 65 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds to 76 percent of those 55 and older.

Among current homeowners, 80 percent said they plan to buy another home in the future and 57 percent said owning a home is among the best long-term investments they could make, Trulia said.

Among renters, 59 percent said they aspired to own a home, but of those, 51 percent said saving enough for a down payment was their biggest obstacle to homeownership at this time.  more...