29 July 2011 by Orville.

What do you do when a faucet starts leaking?  We had a problem a while back at our house, when we realized the floor of the cabinet under the kitchen sink was damp.

We could not see any drip and could not tell where it was coming from.  There was some funny stuff going on, and we were not liking hte moist dank smell that we realized was already developing.

We called our home warranty people, and they sent round a plumber.  The Plumber could not find the problem initially, but gave me some clues and instructions on how to check and determine the source, before we started knocking holes in the wall and messing stuff up!

After watching and investigating we finally were able to find that the small gate valve for the hot water side was indeed leaking, but it seemed to be intermittent.  I disconnected the dish washer, and found there was water under the dishwasher.

This was not good, since the dishwasher had not worked since we moved in!  I have not yet put in the new one, and this was a good time to get that one out and soak up the water I found under it!

I did some trouble shooting and finally had to come back to that single faucet.  I called the plumber back and he came to proceed based on the clues we had.

It turns out it was that gate valve, to which was also connected the dishwasher pipe.  When he removed the valve we saw that it was eaten up inside with corrosion.

It looked like it should have been spewing!  But it was solid outside.  So we redid the connection, added a second valve to control the dishwasher connection and got everything back in order!

I had a similar but much easier problem with leaking outside faucets when we moved into our current house.  With some help from Internet research and Lowe’s, where my wife went to ge the fixin’s, we got this one done.

Here are some practical steps to fixing a leaky faucet:
8 steps to fixing a leaky faucet

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18 July 2011 by Orville.

Visit Real Estate Investor’s Forum

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8 July 2011 by Orville.

What sets market value?  Not the prices people ASK, but what buyers are willing to pay for a house.  When something does not sell you lower the price as an incentive.  SO when selling slows down, prices get lower.

The price of recently SOLD houses tells you what a house can likely be sold for.  If prices people are willing to pay drop below what is owed on a current mortgage, then a Short Sale is the primary way to make an adjustment.

A “short sale” is the term used when the bank holding the mortgage agrees to take less that currently owed.  In our market, a huge percentage of homes are upside down like this.  The owner now owes more than the home is worth!  (More than anyone is willing to pay or is paying for neighboring houses.)

If the homeowner decides it is not worth it to keep paying on such a house, or loses their job and cannot keep up the payments, the house will likely be foreclosed.  But then the bank cannot price the house above the market, so it normally needs to be discounted anyway.

So we see more banks now agreeing ahead of time to let the buyer advertise the house for sale, and agree to take a “short” offer, eating the loss.*

Thus short sales are not a decrease in value, but a way to adjust to the current value, or BUYING price.  Unsold houses further depress the economy.  Lower prices create sales.  In many cases, this makes a great deal for the home buyer.

Market value is what buyers are willing to pay for a house.

*(Although most people are not aware of a back-door deal that actually insures them against this loss.  You and I, the taxpayers, will pay the difference!  Or rather, we will begin paying the interest on the money the government borrows to enable FDIC to bail out the bank on that particular mortgage.)

Initially written as comments on a Real Estate blog
Developed for the Home Strategies blog 8 July 2011

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