3 reasons why the fall and winter are the right time to house hunt

Conventional wisdom says that buying a home is best done in the spring and summer. However, there are two more seasons out there – and the colder months can be the perfect time to buy a home as well.

If you're in the market for a house, don't wait for the snow and ice to melt. Instead, check out these three reasons why the fall and winter are the right time to house hunt, and start looking at listings today!

1. Most people search in the spring and summer
One of the biggest reasons why now is the right time to buy a home is the lack of competition. Most people wait until the spring to start looking, and that means there are a lot more buyers and many more bids – driving up costs and increasing the odds you lose out on your dream home. On the contrary, the fall and winter reduce the number of interested buyers, meaning you'll have an easier time bidding.

Furthermore, a lack of competition also means:

• More focused real estate agents: Fewer buyers, fewer clients. Real estate agents will be extra devoted to your cause, and also incredibly motivated to get the deal done, since a lack of buyers is less revenue in their pockets.
• More leverage over sellers: Fewer buyers allow you to really dig in and negotiate hard on sellers. They won't have the luxury of turning away multiple bids knowing there will be other interested parties. That means you could end up with a better deal.

Overall, buyers and sellers are motivated and dedicated to the process in the fall and winter. And that could be really good news for you.

Searching in the winter could clarify other important issues – like road conditions nearby.

2. Homes are tested this time of year
One con to buying now is that the home has less curb appeal – dead grass, snow and ice all mask the home's visual attractiveness. On the contrary, that same snow, ice and cold weather are serious positives for buyers. The reason is that homes are truly tested this time of year, and all the systems will be hard at work. That includes the heating, the roof, the plumbing and other big-ticket item. It's much better to see problems and costly repairs now, then to buy in the spring and not realize you need a new boiler in January. 

Motivated buyers have to keep in mind that sacrificing curb appeal can be a plus, as cold weather can do a number on a home. Of course, bringing in a trusted home inspection professional is also a must, in order to identify any problem areas before closing. 

3. You'll have a better understanding of the neighborhood
Finally, your desired city or town is put to the test in the winter. It's easy to keep yards neat and roads maintained in the summer, but once snow and ice show up, you'll see everyone's true colors. For example, your prospective neighbors might do a bad job shoveling in the winter. The city might not plow your potential street well, or traffic could get really backed up nearby. These are problems that may not manifest themselves in the summer, but the colder weather can shed some light on your location.

Other, more minor observations include local kids playing outside or holiday decorations. You never know what features could make a home more – or less – desirable to you. Looking in the winter could help answer many of your questions.

Above all, contact Alban Inspections today if you're in the market for a home, no matter the season. 

While it happens every year, it always seems like autumn creeps up on us. It's back again, and now is the perfect time to prepare your home for the colder months ahead.

What does that mean, though? There are hundreds of things you can do to ready your home for fall, and not all are equally important. So, take a look at our list of four effective tips to get your home in tip-top shape as the season changes:

1. Clean up the exterior
It helps to start with the outside of your home. To begin, walk around your property and look for anything loose – for example, patio furniture or children's toys. Pack up all this stuff and store it in your basement, shed or garage. You don't want small items covered in snow or lost in mud once spring hits. You should also unhook and bring in all exterior hoses, and even consider storing your grill indoors, if you don't want to invest in a heavy-duty winter cover. Cleaning up extends beyond this, though. You should also look at your gutters, roof and other important components of your house. Now is also the time to make minor repairs to walkways or decks and check vents, windows and doors. Cold weather and snow can turn an easy repair in the summer into a headache in the winter.

2. Seal up your home
Just like you put on a winter coat, you want to wrap up your house in a bit of protection. While you should always be on the lookout for major repairs, like damaged roofs, walls or windows, now is when you want to search for smaller problems. One issue is poor seals around windows and doors. What you should do is look around for any drafts coming through, and seal up every gap with weatherstripping and caulk. Not only will this keep your family warmer in the winter, but it will also save you money on utility costs. Do the same with other exterior doors, like your bulkhead and garage door. Major gaps here can lead to leaks and even water damage once snow starts and ice begins to melt in the spring.

Sealing up windows and doors will keep your home warm in the winter.

3. Have your home inspected
The fall is also when you want to have all your heating components inspected. You'll be relying on them heavily in the winter, and it goes without saying that losing heat in January or February is not something you want to deal with. To avoid that, call in a trusted home inspector or industry professional to look over your furnace, boiler, chimney and other heating elements. If you have a wood-burning stove or fireplace that sees heavy use, call in the cleaner! That will help everything run more efficiently and keep you warm. Furthermore, inspect your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors as well. Your home will be sealed up tight in the winter, so it's a must that these protections are in working order.

4. Stock up on supplies
Finally, fall is when you want to stock up on any supplies and resources you'll need to get through the winter. While we obviously have it pretty good compared to our ancestors, you still can benefit from buying ahead in a few key areas. For starters, load up on firewood if you have a wood-burning stove. Also, make sure you're stacking and storing it properly. You should load up on gasoline, batteries or even a space heater or two, just to be safe – gas if you have a generator or snow blower, batteries for any flashlights, smoke detectors and the like and space heaters just in case your heating system goes.

Buying a home is an exciting time, but if you've ever done it, you know that it can take awhile to find that perfect house – in the right shape, within your budget, the right neighborhood, and so on – and that timeframe is one of the more frustrating parts of the process.

But what if we said that you could skip this altogether? That's the reality for buyers who opt instead for custom, new construction. Building your own custom home can be a wonderful experience, and you, and no one else, set the budget, the location, the architecture and the design. 

If this sounds like something you'd like to tackle, check out these hot custom home design trends today:

1. Green, sustainable designs
It's no surprise that homebuyers today enjoy green, eco-friendly design and architecture elements in their custom homes. Paying a little bit more upfront for solar panels, low-water appliances, renewable materials and more can save you a lot in utility costs down the line, not to mention make a positive impact on the environment. Sustainability has also become a trend in natural disaster-prone regions, where homebuyers want properties that can withstand winds and rains but also use materials that with withstand the impact of climate change.

2. Healthy, modern home features
A big trend today in life, not just real estate, is healthy living. This could mean a number of things, from eating right and exercising to mindfulness and mental wellness, like spaces that incorporate the indoors and outdoors. Either way, custom homes today are all about healthy, modern design. Some homeowners have rooms dedicated to exercise and yoga, while others have massive wall-sized doors that can disappear in nice weather, opening up an entire room to the outside. 

3. Open, functional floor plans
Open spaces in homes has been a trend for a number of years now. But many custom homes are taking that to the next level, thanks to a desire for incredibly functional, multi-generational designs. For instance, homes can be built to accommodate elderly grandparents and young children. This means fewer stairs, lower countertops, easy outdoor access and more. This trend takes open floor plans and magnifies it, making a home comfortable for people of all ages.

4. Small, simple living
On the flip side of large, open spaces is the tiny house trend. This has certainly gripped the custom home space as well, as many buyers want homes that are incredibly small. Like, really small. It's not surprising for homes to top out at only four walls and a few hundred square feet. The design gets creative in these small spaces, of course, as homeowners have hidden beds, stairs, tables and much more. The desire for this type of small living is a chance to spend life outside or traveling, without the significant financial investment of a home.

If you are in the market for a custom home, remember that a home inspection is just as important as it is with any existing property. So make sure you call our experts at Alban Inspections to review any new construction, in order to give you protection and peace of mind when you move in.

For new homeowners, one of the hardest parts of maintaining a new property is often overlooked: lawn care. Specifically, mowing your yard. For many people who have lived in apartments for years or decades, this could be the first time standing behind a lawnmower.

So then, the big question: How often is too often?

Keep an eye on your yard
The answer to this question depends on several variables, including the type of grass, your climate – the Maryland and D.C. area typically means summer is when grass grows the most – and your personal taste.

Thankfully for first-timers, there is one big shortcut to figuring out when to mow: the length of the grass. The general rule is called the "one-third rule" and it states that you should never cut more than one-third of the height of the grass at a time. This is to ensure that your grass remains healthy, year-round. So if you just moved in to your home, don't get too excited and chop the grass down to the ground. This could damage it and turn your yard brown.

Overall, keeping an eye on the length of your grass is the best way to tell if it's time to mow. For most healthy yards in the summer season, you should be mowing about once every week. The time in between mows could be longer for less healthy yards, sometimes even every two-to-three weeks. Either way, watch your grass and decide how long is too long before you just can't take it anymore.

Keep in mind that mowing frequently isn't inherently bad for your grass, as long as your mower blades are sharp and you're cutting off a tiny bit at a time. The problems arise when using poorly maintained equipment and taking off too much at once. The good news is after a few mowing sessions, you'll figure out the right schedule for your specific yard!

One question many first-time homebuyers may ask is "Do I need a home inspection?" If this sounds like you, just turn to any seasoned buyer and ask them. Their answer will be a very strong "yes." 

And there are a few great reasons why a home inspection is completely necessary. 

Read on to learn why:

It's your insurance policy
A smart way to think about a home purchase is that you're not just buying that awesome fireplace, that great master suite or that finished basement – you're buying every bit of termite damage, foundation cracks, roof leaks and any other problems that may be hiding in the house.

This is one of the biggest reasons why a home inspection is so important. A licensed professional can come in to your prospective property and find all of these issues before you're financially committed to the home. That way you won't end up stuck with thousands of dollars in costly repairs the moment you move in. In most cases, homes look fantastic on the surface. It takes a keen eye to spot any problems underneath, and those are exactly the problems that you need to identify quickly. 

With a home inspection, you'll have that "insurance policy" against any unfortunate surprises after closing.

It's your negotiating tool
Another key reason why you need a home inspection is for negotiating power. Consider this example: You find a home listed at $300,000. You love it, skip the inspection, offer the list price and win. After moving in, you find out all the plumbing in the two-bathroom home needs to be replaced. Depending on the square footage, this could cost upward of $8,000 – a price you're now on the hook for. 

Now imagine you had that inspection. The professional inspector caught the plumbing issue before you offered list price. Now, you have leverage – you can either ask the seller to fix the plumbing and still pay list price, you can negotiate the seller down roughly $8,000 in anticipation of the repairs, or you can walk away. All of those are options because you had a home inspection completed. And one option that's missing? The one where you were left holding the bill for a massive plumbing repair job.

A home inspection puts the property under a magnifying glass.

It's your eyes and ears
Finally, a home inspection acts as your eyes and ears. The most common scenario when buying a new home isn't the massive repair projects, but more likely a handful of smaller repairs and cosmetic changes. By completing a home inspection, you now have the intelligence to create a plan. An inspector will clue you in to all the red flag issues that could appear down the road – the furnace is on its last legs, the roof should be replaced within five years, and so on. Without an inspection, you won't know where to budget and where to plan. 

In all likelihood, there will be flaws you accept and flaws you negotiate with the seller. An inspection will give you the insight you need to identify which are which, and also help you decide how you want to renovate and improve the property once you move in.

All in all, don't skip the home inspection. The cost of a home inspection typically runs between $500 and $1000, depending on how much you include – radon testing may be extra, for example – and the square footage of the property. Of course, get an inspection even for new construction as well. There may still be issues worth noting. Even with this upfront cost, the knowledge and power you'll get from a trusted professional is invaluable to you as a homeowner.

Home inspection contractors have a large checklist they cover when combing over any property. From mold and water damage to electrical components and the foundation, inspectors pour over every piece of a property. While many issues are minor (a leaky toilet seal, a faulty light switch) a few problems can be significant. Once such concern is asbestos.

What is asbestos?
You might have heard of asbestos before. In simple terms, asbestos is a fiber that was once used in a number of different building materials. It has since been outlawed, but its former popularity means that it is still common.

This is why it is a common concern during any home inspection, renovation or construction project. 

While asbestos was once a desired material, it has since been identified as a key contributor to some cancers and other health concerns. Like lead paint, which we've covered before, once asbestos is identified in a home it needs to be immediately removed by a trained professional. It is just too dangerous to leave inside your property.

Furthermore, asbestos can be tricky to identify. Let your home inspector find the signs, and then get a sample sent off to a laboratory for further testing. If positive, a trained asbestos removal crew will need to be called in, making it even more crucial to catch any asbestos before you purchase a property.

Where is asbestos common?
Like we previously mentioned, asbestos was used in many different building materials. Over the years, it has found its home in cement mixtures, paints, tape, tile and much more. 

Several decades ago, asbestos was frequently used as insulation due to its many fire-resistant traits. As a result, many older homes today may have asbestos fibers left inside walls or wrapped around ductwork and pipes. Key places to check include behind drywall, if possible during an inspection, and near any ductwork – especially in the basement and the furnace. The fact that it was popular as insulation is another reason why renovations and construction projects increase asbestos risk.

If you have access points, ask your home inspector about any signs of asbestos in the attic insulation, near pipes in the bathroom and kitchen and around the furnace in the basement. Unfortunately, you won't have a concrete answer until you test any samples or check behind walls, but an inspector can give you an indication of whether your asbestos risk is high or low.

Make sure asbestos is inaccessible to your family or pets.

What can you do?
Say you do find asbestos – what can you do? The good news is most materials containing asbestos are not too risky, especially if they are intact or undisturbed. It is only when asbestos is moved around that the fibers can be released into the air, posing a significant health risk. So, you do have time to plan your next move if you find it.

With that said, leave asbestos alone if it is in perfect condition. Trying to remove it only increases the danger. On the other hand, if the asbestos needs to be removed, follow these steps:

1. Secure the area – don't let pets or children near the area. Block it off and keep it sealed for the time being.
2. Don't clean it or vacuum – Trying to remove asbestos yourself can be dangerous.
3. Call a professional – Trained asbestos removal crews will quickly and safely dispose of any asbestos materials, ensuring your home is safe for years to come.

Given the health risks of asbestos, trust only a local home inspection company to review your desired property for potential risks before you sign on the dotted line.