Home Buying Checklist - Windows

If you are in the market to purchase a home, it can be easy to fall in love at first sight. Do so at your own risk. While the overall appearance of a home is important, the quality is in the details. In this article, I provide a checklist of window issues you should consider when viewing a home.

Windows

If you are considering buying a home, you should have a checklist of things to review for the property. There is an old cliché that eyes are the window to a person' soul. In the case of a home, they can be a clue to the quality of the home building if you check the following:

1. The first item to check is whether the windows open and close properly. Quality windows should slide easily and with little noise. Cheap windows tend to stick and make grinding noises. If any window will not open or close at all, careful attention needs to be paid to why. Is it the quality of the window or has the house started moving because of foundation problems? Make sure you know the cause.

2. The second item to check is soft or mushy sills at the base of the window. Often you can identify a soft sill by a "rotted" look, but make sure to run your hand across the sills with light pressure to see if there are any soft spots. If you find a problem, warning lights should be going off in your mind. A mushy sill means there is a water penetration problem. More importantly, it also means the problem has existed for some time. Long-term water problems can mean the existence of mold and mold can be an expensive problem to fix. If you are really interested in the home, demand an inspection paid for by the seller. If the seller refuses, walk away from the home.

3. Water stains are the final window item to check for during your viewing. Just because the sills are not soft, doesn't mean there isn't a leakage problem. Stains around a window frame are sure signs of water problems. If a room has been painted, try to find one that hasn't. If the entire interior has been painted, ask the seller to state in the sales agreement there were no water stains before the house was repainted.

Windows are almost always an indicator of the quality of workmanship for a home. Giving them a good "once over" should tell you a lot about the house you are considering.

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More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

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A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.