Wouldn’t it be great if you could push a button at night, and all of your doors would lock, your lights would turn off, and your alarm would set automatically?

That kind of “smart home” feature may sound futuristic or simply beyond reach for those without a lot of money or technical expertise. But the technology is already available and new products and services are making it and similar home automation features increasingly accessible to the average homeowner.

“It appears that we may be at a turning point,” said Chet Geschickter, an analyst with Gartner, a market research group. “We may have all the raw materials for this interoperable home automation world.”

In recent months, some major corporations have announced new products and services that could help turn the smart home into a mass market activity. Among the developments:

AT&T announced it will be rolling out its home automation initiative in March and plans to offer the service in 58 markets nationwide by the end of the year. The service will offer connected door locks, thermostats and video cameras as well as basic security protection. Unlike a similar service offered by Comcast, AT&T’s will be sold separately from the company’s broadband offerings.

Lowe’s introduced a collection of add-on services for its Iris home automation kits, which it unveiled last summer. Among the new features are sensors designed to help consumers monitor their elderly parents, an automated pet door that users can lock or unlock remotely, and a lawn moisture sensor that notifies customers when their yards are getting dry and allows them to turn on their sprinkler system remotely.

ADT, the home security giant, added the ability to remotely lock and unlock doors to its Pulse home automation offering. The company already allowed users to adjust their lighting and thermostat and view security video of their home remotely.

Home appliance maker LG showed off a new washer and dryer set that users can start remotely with their smartphones.

The promise of widely available home automation has been around since “The Jetsons” aired 50 years ago. But until recently, smart home systems have been pricey and complex, typically requiring professional installation. And few consumers have been aware of the availability of such services or haven’t been convinced that they needed them.

But in recent years, major consumer service providers – including ADT, Comcast and Vivint – have entered the market, helping promote the concept of home automation and make it more accessible to average consumers. Companies such as Comcast and Vivint now offer basic home automation systems for less than $500 installed. And Lowe’s Iris, which is available for about $300 for a full system, is designed for self-installation.

“We definitely see that (home automation) is moving increasingly into the mainstream,” said Jonathan Collins, an analyst with ABI Research.

Helping drive the decline in price and ease of use are standardized wireless technologies such as ZigBee and Z-Wave that allow users to install light controllers and automated door locks without needing to rewire their house. Such technologies have allowed electronics manufacturers to design more modular and expandable systems, letting users and service providers customize systems for individual needs and budgets.

The spread of broadband, cloud computing and smartphones have also provided new and compelling ways for consumers to interact with home automation systems, say analysts. For example, smart home services can take the smartphone’s location information and use it as a trigger for doing things like turning on lights or sending alerts.

“Without a smartphone, (the smart home) wasn’t really an exciting value proposition,” said Lisa Arrowsmith, a research manager at IHS Electronics and Media.

And new features are making such systems more attractive to consumers, analysts and industry insiders say. Video monitoring, for example, has proved particularly popular among ADT’s customers. And the growing awareness around energy conservation is driving the adoption of smart thermostats that can adjust temperatures when consumers are away or in response to signals from utility companies seeking to reduce peak demand.

To be sure, home automation still isn’t for everyone. While less expensive and easier to install than before, they still aren’t cheap, and many consumers may still need help configuring them.

The smart home services offered by ADT, Comcast and other providers typically are sold only with other services, such as security protection or broadband access. And they generally require users to sign long-term contracts that can include pricey monthly subscription fees.

Also, many smart home technologies and devices are incompatible with one another. So consumers who want to add on to their systems or change their service providers may find they have limited options — unless they want to start from scratch.

“There still are some questions that need be to be answered around this market,” Arrowsmith said. “I don’t think we’re going to wake up tomorrow and everyone’s got one, but we are seeing decent growth rates.”

© 2013 San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) Distributed by MCT Information Services.

ATLANTA – Feb. 19, 2013 – After a meteor struck western Siberia and more meteors threatened the entire globe on Friday, CNNMoney asked the question: Who pays for damage to a home if hit by a space object?

Rest easy, “your insurance covers falling objects,” says Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute. In the rare case a meteor crashed through a homeowner’s roof over the years, insurers have paid the damage for those insured, Hartwig says.

“Blue ice” – frozen sewage that sometimes falls from airplanes – is more common and is also covered if it falls from the sky onto your home, Hartwig says.

A remnant of a meteor struck in the Urals region of western Siberia Friday injuring more than 700 people and damaging nearly 300 buildings. It was referred to as a “once-in-a-century” event.

“The earth is pelted with 40 tons of space debris a year,” says Laurie Leshin, a former NASA scientist. “Most of that is in teeny dust particles,” and rarely does it injure people or damage property.

Source: “Who Pays for Damage From a Meteor?” CNNMoney (Feb. 15, 2013)

© Copyright 2013 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688

(MCT)—In the market for a hot-water-dispensing refrigerator? That was just one of the innovative and unusual products on display last month at the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas.

The annual event, put on by the National Association of Home Builders, serves as a massive showcase for new ideas and technology for the home.

Here’s a roundup of some that are vying for “how did we ever live without it” distinction:

In one of the notable kitchen offerings, General Electric Co. brings hot water to the refrigerator door. The new line of Cafe French-door models can heat 10 ounces in less than two minutes. Those hoping to save steps to the microwave, though, will have to wait until the doors debut in May.

For a high-tech twist on singing in the shower, Kohler Co.’s Moxie shower head and wireless speaker system plays up to seven hours and has wireless range of 32 feet. Magnets secure the speaker to the shower head, making it easy to pop out when it’s time to recharge the lithium ion battery.

Retro sinks’ colors got a redo from Kohler, too. No more avocado or harvest yellow; the new hues, developed by designer Jonathan Adler, include Annapolis Navy, Piccadilly Yellow, Greenwich Green and Palermo Blue.

A skylight that opens using solar power and closes automatically if it senses rain seems like a bright idea. The no-leak solar powered Fresh Air skylight by Velux is eligible for a 30 percent federal tax credit.

Ever wished for a little more light on the subject? Under-cabinet task lighting can be moved around with Halo’s track system and magnetic LED pucks from Cooper Lighting.

Glass stairs took another step toward practicality with the recent addition of decorative treads by Innovative Building Products. The treads, called ceramic frits, add traction.

Responding to consumer demand for better-organized homes and storage, ClosetMaid moved out of the bedroom closet. On display were systems for specialized craft rooms, the laundry room and the garage.

Building pest control into the walls of new homes is an interesting idea. Taexx’s Tubes in the Wall built-in pest control system includes scheduled service that can take place while the homeowner is away. This may not have been the sexiest display on the showroom floor, but it did feature a man dressed up as a giant pest.

©2013 Los Angeles Times
Distributed by MCT Information Services

WASHINGTON – Jan. 22, 2013 – A homebuyer has been approved for a mortgage loan, and both buyer and Realtor expect to be at the closing table soon. However, buyers sometimes do things that jeopardize the loan, and lenders sometimes rescind a loan offer shortly before a scheduled closing.

Common mistakes

• Making a big purchase. Big purchases, such as a new car or furniture, can change the buyer’s debt-to-income ratio that the lender used to initially approve the buyer’s home loan.
• Opening new credit. Buyers should avoid new credit card applications between approval and closing.
• Missing payments. Even bills in dispute should be paid on time between loan approval and closing.
• Cashing out. Avoid transferring large sums of money between bank accounts or making undocumented deposits – both could send up “red flags” to a lender.

Source: “How to Keep Your Mortgage Approval Approved,” Realty Times (Jan. 14, 2013)

© Copyright 2013 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688

December 6, 2012 – The number of housing markets considered “improving” according to parameters established by the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) surged by 76 to a total of 201 metros in December, according to IMI data released today. The index also shows that the number of states represented on the list by at least one metro increased from 38 in November to 44 (plus the District of Columbia) in December.

The index identifies metropolitan areas that have shown improvement from their respective troughs in housing permits, employment and house prices for at least six consecutive months. A total of 84 new metros were added to the list and eight were dropped from it this month. Newly added metros include such geographically diverse locations as Atlanta, Ga.; Bloomington, Ill.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Seattle, Wash.; and Green Bay, Wis.

“The big gain in improving markets this December indicates that key measures of housing and economic strength have now been holding steady or improving in metros across the country for six months or more, which is an important signal of stability amidst the slowly emerging recovery,” said NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg, a home builder from Gainesville, Fla. “The main thing that’s limiting the progress we’re seeing right now is the difficulty that potential buyers continue to experience with regard to overly tight mortgage qualifying standards.”

“This fourth consecutive month of expansion in the IMI, coupled with the fact that well over half of all metro areas are now represented on the list, is in keeping with the upward trends that we’ve been seeing all year in terms of housing starts and sales, builder confidence and other measures,” noted NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “In general, we expect the overall housing recovery to continue expanding in 2013. However, that is absent a major policy change of the kind that some policymakers have been discussing with regard to the mortgage interest deduction.”

“The dramatic expansion of improving markets at the end of this year should help encourage consumers who may have been on the fence about a home purchase that a housing recovery is now firmly underway,” added Kurt Pfotenhauer, vice chairman of First American Title Insurance Company.

The IMI is designed to track housing markets throughout the country that are showing signs of improving economic health. The index measures three sets of independent monthly data to get a mark on the top improving Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The three indicators that are analyzed are employment growth from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, housing price appreciation from Freddie Mac and single-family housing permit growth from the U.S. Census Bureau. NAHB uses the latest available data from these sources to generate a list of improving markets. A metropolitan area must see improvement in all three measures for at least six consecutive months following those measures’ respective troughs before being included on the improving markets list.

A complete list of all 201 metropolitan areas currently on the IMI, and separate breakouts of metros newly added to or dropped from the list in December, is available at www.nahb.org./imi.

Advice on what to do and how to do it is everywhere these days. Whether you want to know what to eat, how much money to save or how to learn a new language, it seems that the answers are a mere Google away.

And that has created its own set of problems, chief among them the issue of information overload. Sorting through the overwhelming inundation of information about how to proceed with any major life endeavor — including real estate matters like buying, selling or refinancing a home — has become a sort of pre-action step.

Often, the most helpful action-sorting, order-creating, overwhelm-abolishing advice turns out not to be advice about what to do, but advice about what not to do. To that end, here are my top three real estate don’ts:

1. Buy too soon. As I see it, the drive to buy a home before your finances, your family and even your personal development are truly ready (and the complicity of lenders who were all too happy to make loans to borrowers, prematurely) is to blame for much of the real estate mayhem we saw in the recent real estate recession.

If you have no money to put down, no cash cushion, poor spending, saving and debting habits, or uncertainty about how stable you and your household will be in the next five or so years, geographically and otherwise, buying a home is a move that is highly likely to end in a tale of woe.

As strongly as I believe in the power of homeownership, I have seen time and time again that it is better deferred until you are truly ready than rushed into and regretted.

2. Take it personally. Whatever it is. Buyers who get overly attached to a property, emotionally speaking, put themselves behind the eight ball when it comes to negotiations, and are also likely to panic and make bad decisions when it comes to responding to inspection reports and borrowing mortgage money.

Know that there are literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of prospective homes in your area that might fit your needs, so beware of allowing any single one to get you too worked up, before you have it in contract, have your inspection reports in hand, and have made it through appraisal and underwriting phases.

For sellers, the potential to take things personally is exponentially greater, given that your home is likely both your largest asset and the place that has been good enough for you and your family to live in for, perhaps, years. It’s very easy to get offended by everything from the real estate agent’s estimation of what your home is worth, staging and property preparation advice (which can feel like your taste and lifestyle are under attack), lowball offers, appraisals — you name it.

The very best practice is to find and work with professionals you trust, six months or even a year in advance of when you want to make your move, then be open and attentive to their advice, even if it hurts. Do not allow your emotional attachment to your home to get in the way of the financial and personal progress you seek from trying to sell it.

3. Avoid discomfort. As a general rule, many of the best things in life require us to go through some discomfort or small, recurring pain to get them. To get fit, you have to get up and exercise when you might feel like curling up and snoozing. To get ahead in your career, you have to exercise discipline in your work habits, putting in hours and ideas even when the going gets tough.

It is no different with real estate; in fact, the nature of the real estate game is so foreign to what most of us consider our zones of comfort and competence that making a series of informed, smart real estate decisions can actually require a series of uncomfortable commitments, several months or even years of agreement to endure little pains to reach your goal.

Whether your personal discomfort zone is triggered by one or all of the following:

-Staunching your spending hemorrhage.
-Saving money when you’d rather take a trip.
-Working through your financial maths repeatedly.
-Negotiating.
-Asking hard questions (and continuing to ask them until you are satisfied).
-Thoroughly reading literally hundreds of pages of disclosure, inspection, and homeowners association HOA) and loan documents.

My last “don’t” is this: Don’t avoid any of these uncomfortable processes, practices and moments. They are each an essential element of the process of buying or selling or mortgaging a home with wisdom and long-term sustainability.

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is a real estate broker, attorney and the author of two critically acclaimed books on real estate. Tara also speaks and writes on the art and science of life transformation at RETHINK7.com.

NEW YORK – Dec. 7, 2012 – The Wall Street Journal recently cited five significant factors behind the rise in home prices, as numerous markets see significant year-over-year gains. The big price drives are:

1. The rise in housing affordability – which draws more buyers into the market, attracted by historically low mortgage rates and fallen home prices compared to a few years ago.

2. The rise in household formation – which is expected to hit 1 million new households this year. That’s up from an average of 570,000 over the last five years, according to data by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

3. The rise in rents – which has prompted more investors to purchase properties to rent out, even as it has caused more renters to second-guess why they’re paying so much rent when they could buy.

4. The decline in distressed sales and foreclosures – which has fallen significantly this past year. While distressed sales are still high by historical standards, they have fallen from their peaks in most markets, helping to alleviate the downward pressure on prices.

5. Inventories of homes for-sale are at their lowest levels in nearly 50 years – because builders have cut back on construction and many homeowners are waiting to sell until they can recover some equity.

Source: “Five Reasons Home Prices Have Been Rising,” The Wall Street Journal (Nov. 27, 2012)

© Copyright 2012 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688