Summer has officially begun! The Florida heat is starting to rise and that means the costs of using air conditioning will also increase. For some, using AC around the clock is the only way they can be comfortable in their homes. They may not care about paying almost double in electricity costs each month, or maybe they just feel that it’s worth the money. However, for others, paying double during the long summer is not an option at all. If that’s you, here are some simple ways to cool down your costs on AC over the next few months.

Keep Your HVAC System Maintained
Throughout the year, you should be keeping up with your HVAC system by changing the filters, cleaning around the area of the unit, checking the coils, making sure the unit is level, etc. Dirty filters and coils can actually block the airflow into your home, causing the unit to work harder to cool the house. Here is a great list on how to easily take care of your unit.

According to NEAMB.com “Cleaning and/or replacing filters once per month will lower an AC’s energy consumption by 5% to 15%.”

Ensuring that your system is consistently maintained will save you money in the long run. Having to replace your unit because it was not properly maintained will cost far more than those high electricity bills over the summer.

Check for Drafts
Take a few minutes during the late afternoon, around 3-4pm, to check for drafts around the house. Run your hands along windows and doors that lead directly outside. Four o’clock in the afternoon is typically the hottest part of the day so it will be easy to feel if cool drafts are leaking out of your home.

No one wants to pay for cooling the neighborhood, so if you feel drafts coming from your house, you may want to look into replacing the insulation around those doors and windows. Don’t let that precious cool air escape, especially when the temperature starts rising to over 100 degrees!

Turn on your Ceiling Fans
Using fans throughout your home can make it feel between 6-10 degrees cooler in a given room. Fans use much, much less electricity – about one-tenth of what is used by AC. That’s a pretty inexpensive way to make your home feel cool.

Using your air conditioner and ceiling fans at the same time also helps to keep the air circulated without turning the AC down too low, thus saving you money once again.

Close the Blinds and Curtains
Everyone loves letting the natural sunlight illuminate their homes but during the hottest part of the summer, that beautiful sunlight just might not be worth it. By closing your blinds and curtains, you can “reduce heat gain by around 45%,” the article by HEAMB stated. Drawing your curtains also helps to insulate your home by blocking the hot air seeping through the windows.

If it still feels like heat is getting in despite your curtains and shades being drawn, you may want to try using heat-reflecting curtains or shades. You can find these at almost any home store, such as Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Walmart, or Target and they are typically not expensive.

Be Economically Smart
If you are keeping in line with the previous tips by closing your blinds and using fans, this will allow you to keep you from turning the AC unit down too low when you’re home. Try to set your air as high as comfortably possible and, NEAMB says, you could potentially save another 10%.

When you’re not home, turn the AC up very high or simply turn it off completely right before you leave the house. A common myth regarding air conditioning is that your AC unit will run more economically if you leave it on all the time and that is simply not the case. It runs best when at its highest capacity for a short amount of time.

If you have a programmable thermostat, you may want to take advantage of it by setting it at a higher temperature when you leave for work and program it to turn down a little while before you come home. If you’re without these luxuries, you may just have to brave the warmth inside your house for a short bit while your AC kicks in.

All of us here at First International Title wish you a fun-filled summer regardless of the heat! Please leave a comment below to let us know if this was helpful to you or a client.

Comments? Questions? Contact your local Title rep today!

If you’ve recently worked out a contract for your client’s listing, then congratulations! However, before you start celebrating, there is a lot of work to be done to ensure the transaction makes it through to the end. A big piece of the puzzle is having the inspection done. The inspection could be the difference between the buyer’s peace of mind or terminating the deal.

Now that we have your attention, there’s no need to worry! Here are some simple steps to make certain you and your client know what to expect for their inspection.

Curb Appeal
If your client’s home exterior has gotten ahead of them over the years, you might suggest they freshen up the outside in preparation. Have them focus on the property’s curb appeal by trimming trees and bushes, cleaning out gutters, power washing your house, re-painting the exterior, and properly seal up any cracks or missing pieces from the chimney and roof.

If your seller has the time and expenses, he or she can add some bright-colored flowers to make the home feel welcoming and grab a new front door mat that says, “Welcome Home” to, not only help with the inspection, but also make the buyers feel comfortable to soon be living there.

Back to the Basics
Keep in mind the everyday maintenance fixes like replacing burned out light bulbs and ensuring the smoke detectors work. Your client should check that vents are working properly, light switches turn on the lights correctly, windows and doors close completely and lock perfectly, and that all of the house’s outlets convey electricity as they should.

Your inspector will check all of these things. Even something small like a non-working light bulb could cause unnecessary problems. Make the process easier on you and your client by thinking ahead and making sure these problems are fixed ahead of time.

No Plumbing Problems
Your client should also look over all of the sinks and see that water flows down the drain quickly and smoothly without back-up. Also, have him or her check the water pressure in sinks and bathtubs – does the water come out too hard or not hard enough?

If there are leaks underneath a sink or water marks coming down one of the walls, have someone take a look at these and fix the leaks before the inspector comes and shares this information with the buyer. Many times, a leak is an easy fix that will save everyone a headache later on.

Clear out the Clutter!
Your client should strive to make it easy for the inspector to get to the places he needs to check without hassle. It’s helpful if places such as the attic, basement, heating or cooling systems, and electrical panels are clear of clutter. Have the sellers throw out what they can – hey, they’re moving soon anyways, right? – and box up what they can’t and set it neatly aside. This may also save your client the embarrassment of the inspector tripping over kids’ toys or newspaper stacks in order to reach something important.

Final Thoughts
On the day of inspection, have the doors, gate, and garage unlocked to allow the inspector to get in without any hassle. If your clients are not comfortable leaving the door unlocked, wait until the inspector gets to your house and you’re able to let him in.

If you can, take your client and go grab some lunch while the inspection is going on. It’s best that the homeowner is not present during the process so that the inspector can perform his job safely and without distractions.

If there is a dog or other pet, it can be brought to a pet hotel for the day or simply put up in its travel cage just until the inspection is over.

Thanks to Bruce Grissom of Burgess Inspection Group, Inc., we have provided a simple check-list for you and your clients to have throughout the inspection process. The inspector will be checking these things, so be sure to cross off each bullet point. First International Title wishes you the best of luck on your inspection!

[Click Here to Download the Checklist]

Checklist provided by Bruce Grissom, Professional Inspector “TREC” License # 20953. 214-251-5504.

Questions? Comments? Contact your local title rep today!

Taking care of your lawn can feel like such a task on top of your normal day-to-day routines, especially if yours is larger than average. Unfortunately, if you don’t put enough love and care into your grass, then it will certainly show on the outside. We can’t keep up with the Joneses with a brown and patchy lawn, now can we?

Fortunately, there are a few simple steps that you can implement each year to ensure your yard stays healthy and green. And no, it shouldn’t eat too much time out of your week to do so.

Create a Schedule for Yourself
Just as you would get an oil change in your car every 5,000 miles or change your bedsheets every week, your lawn also needs a little bit of maintenance each season to keep it pretty. Try not to get too far behind or else you will end up creating more work for yourself in the end.

1. Spring

Bill Martin from Top5LawnMowers.com suggests that spring time is best to test your soil and fertilize in preparation for the hot months of summer. Use a fertilizer that is three parts nitrogen, one part phosphorus, and two-part potassium. Also, don’t fertilize too often or else you risk drying out your lush grass.

“Also it is time to put out some fire ant control and other insect treatments,” Martin writes. “If you wait too long those little devils will take over a lawn….might even try a hostile takeover of your garage!”

2. Summer

Water, water, water. Get into the habit of watering your lawn in the early morning hours. Watering during the day can cause you to waste that precious H2O due to evaporation in the hot Florida sun. If you’re able to set your sprinkler system to go off ahead of time, schedule it the night before to water the grass before or as the sun comes up.

Also, if you plan on adding any plants, be sure they’re able to withstand the heat.

3. Fall

Although your kids and dogs may love to play in the mountainous piles of leaves in your backyard, letting the leaves stay all fall and winter long will make way for not-so-good growth the following spring. So once you and your family are done playing, just make sure you put the leaves in bags and dispose of them.

Martin adds once again that you should give your lawn some more fertilizer and do another insect treatment.

4. Winter

You’ll like the sound of this! Martin suggests you can’t really do much when there’s snow or frost on the ground anyways, so take this time to relax from your lawn duties. Once spring rolls around again, you’ll be ready to go!

Mowing
Of course, mowing your lawn is essential, especially for those who live in HOA communities. However, try to avoid mowing the grass too often or mowing it too low or else you risk drying out your healthy yard. Also, wikiHow suggests you try changing the direction you mow in every time you cut the grass.

“It will help cut down on stress to the lawn, and may also prevent divots from forming in your pattern,” the article states.

Carissa Gingras from the Briggs & Stratton Corp. tells us to “be sure to only cut off one-third of the grass’ length at a time and to cut it no shorter than three inches tall. Cutting grass too short leaves it vulnerable to insect invasion and disease.”

A few other tips from Gingras is to keep your mower blades sharpened, change the oil in your lawn mower regularly, and change the spark plug when needed.

Have a Picnic!
After your yard looks as green and luscious as you dreamt it would – take that, Joneses! – make sure you take advantage of it. Have a family picnic, play an outdoors game (football, manhunt, practicing cartwheels, etc.), put in a little tire swing, or have a barbecue. You put it in a lot of work to make your lawn look good, so take advantage of it and have a blast!

Questions? Comments? Contact your FIT rep today!