What Everyone Should Know About Smoke Detectors

I always thought that if the battery was replaced the smoke detector would work. That is not

the case. The battery tester only shows that the battery works, the sensor inside could become useless after 10 years...and you are no longer protected.



Virtually every United States household has one or more smoke detectors, according to the National Fire Protection Association, but they only operated in 47 percent of fires in the period between 2003 and 2006. Nearly a quarter of home fire fatalities happened in dwellings with non-working detectors. Reasons for smoke detector failures vary, but older models are less reliable than their new counterparts and all detectors require eventual replacement.

 

    * Newer smoke detectors have approximately an 8- to 10-year lifespan of reliable service, according to U. S. Fire Administration. Change them when they they reach that age, even if they still seem to be functioning properly. Replace all the detectors when you move into a new home if you are unsure of their age. The City of Dayton, Ohio, warns that older models have a 30 percent failure rate within their first decade, so do not take a chance with units of an unknown age. Use a marker to write the purchase date inside your new detectors so you will remember when to replace them.



    * Ten-year-old smoke detectors should be replaced because they no longer function as efficiently, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Their detection sensitivity can drop, even if they are still functioning, and they are more likely to go off with false alarms from outside factors such as humidity or dust in the unit.



  * Smoke detector batteries need regular replacement, regardless of the unit's age. Change the batteries annually on an easy-to-remember date. Install new batteries even if the present ones still seem to be good because they could fail unexpectedly. The U. S. Fire Administration recommends vacuuming your detectors occasionally to remove dust, cobwebs and small bugs.



    * You have two options when replacing old smoke detectors, photoelectric or ionization units, each of which senses the presence of smoke in a different way. Smoke interrupts the electric current in ionization smoke detectors and interrupts a light beam in photoelectric models. The U. S. Fire Protection Association explains that ionization units are best at alerting you to large, fast-moving blazes, while photoelectric detectors work best for slow, smoldering fires. Some manufacturers sell detectors that use both technologies.

With Rates & Prices on the Rise, Do You Know the True Cost of Waiting?

With Rates & Prices on the Rise, Do You Know the True Cost of Waiting? Posted: 22 Apr 2014 04:00 AM PDT We, at KCM, have often broken down the opportunity that exists now for Millennials who are willing and able to purchase a home NOW... Here are a couple other ways to look at the cost of waiting. Let’s say your 30 and your dream house costs $250,000today, at 4.41% your monthly Mortgage Payment with Interest would be $1,253.38. But you’re busy, you like your apartment, moving is such a hassle...You decide to wait till the end of next year to buy and all of a sudden, you’re 31, that same house is $270,000, at5.7%. Your new payment per month is $1,567.08. The difference in payment is $313.70 PER MONTH! That’s like taking a $10 bill and tossing it out the window EVERY DAY! Or you could look at it this way: That’s your morning coffee everyday on the way to work (Average $2) with $12 left for lunch! There goes Friday Sushi Night! ($80 x 4) Stressed Out? How about 3 deep tissue massages with tip! Need a new car? You could get a brand new $22,000 car for $313.00 per month. Let’s look at that number annually! Over the course of your new mortgage at 5.7%, your annual additional cost would be$3,764.40! Had your eye on a vacation in the Caribbean? How about a 2-week trip through Europe? Or maybe your new house could really use a deck for entertaining.  We could come up with 100’s of ways to spend $3,764, and we’re sure you could too! Over the course of your 30 year loan, now at age 61, hopefully you are ready to retire soon, you would have spent an additional $112,932, all because when you were 30 you thought moving in 2014 was such a hassle or loved your apartment too much to leave yet. Or maybe there wasn’t an agent out there who educated you on the true cost of waiting a year. Maybe they thought you wouldn’t be ready, but if they showed you that you could save $112,932, you’d at least listen to what they had to say. They say hindsight is 20/20, we’d like to think that 30 years from now when you are 60, looking back, you would say to buy now…

How Did Home Sellers Handle Multiple Offers?

3 Reasons to Sell Your Home this Spring

Many sellers are still hesitant about putting their house up for sale. Where are prices headed? Where are interest rates headed? These are all valid questions. However, there are several reasons to sell your home sooner rather than later. Here are three of those reasons.

1. Demand is about to skyrocket

Most people realize that the housing market is hottest from April through June. The most serious buyers are well aware of this and, for that reason, come out in early spring in order to beat the heavy competition. We also have a pent-up demand as many buyers pushed off their home search this winter because of extreme weather. Sellers in markets where seasonal weather is never an issue must realize that buyers relocating to their region will increase dramatically this spring as these purchasers finally decide to escape the freezing temperatures of the winters in the north.

These buyers are ready, willing and able to buy…and are in the market right now!

2. There Is Less Competition - For Now

Housing supply always grows from the spring through the early summer. Also, there has been a growing desire for many homeowners to move as they were unable to sell over the last few years because of a negative equity situation. Homeowners have seen a return to positive equity as prices increased over the last eighteen months. Many of these homes will be coming to the market in the near future.

The choices buyers have will continue to increase over the next few months. Don’t wait until all the other potential sellers in your market put their homes up for sale.

3. There Will Never Be a Better Time to Move-Up

If you are moving up to a larger, more expensive home, consider doing it now. Prices are projected to appreciate by approximately 4% this year and 8% by the end of 2015. If you are moving to a higher priced home, it will wind-up costing you more in raw dollars (both in down payment and mortgage payment) if you wait. You can also lock-in your 30 year housing expense with an interest rate at about 4.5% right now. Freddie Mac projects rates to be 5.1% by this time next year and 5.7% by the fourth quarter of 2015.

Moving up to a new home will be less expensive this spring than later this year or next year.

If you are a real estate professional and want great information on where prices and interest rates are headed over the next 18 months, we cover both in the March edition of Keeping Current Matters. If you are already one of our 6,000+ members, login in to get the educational resources you need to intelligently discuss the future of values and interest rates with your clients.

Flood Insurance Changes

FLOOD INSURANCE CHANGES Property owners in flood zones are likely to get relief under a bill recently signed by the President. Under the bill (1) sales will no longer trigger immediate premium increases, and (2) properties that complied with prior flood map requirements will be grandfathered, which would likely mean that insurers may not require elevation certificates at sale to obtain flood insurance. In response to homeowners around the country experiencing large increases in flood insurance premiums and to the increased costs at sale due to the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 (“Biggert-Waters”), both the House (H.R. 3770, The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, “Menendez-Grimm”) and Senate (S. 1926) passed bills rolling back some of the Biggert-Waters provisions. Although the Senate bill was broader, the Senate agreed to go along with the House version. Other provisions of the Menendez-Grimm bill are: It limits yearly premium increases to 15% for nine FEMA property categories, no individual policy increases of more than 18% for most properties built after 1975 and 25% for older properties. It provides refunds of premiums to homebuyers after Biggert-Waters effective date. It provides for an annual $50 surcharge for residential policyholders and a $250 surcharge for businesses and second homes. It strives to reach a goal where most residential policy holders have a premium no greater than 1% of the value of coverage (i.e. $2,000 for a $200,000 policy). And it establishes a Flood Insurance Advocate within FEMA to, among other things, answer current and prospective policyholder questions about the mapping process and flood insurance rates.