Turn downspouts from your eavestroughs away from your house and allow them to drain as far away as possible. Water from downspouts will saturate ground surrounding the foundation and flood the basement as it seeps through weeping tiles.

Weeping tiles are perforated pipes running around base of foundation that collect excess moisture in soil and channel it through Brooklyn sewer pipes to storm sewers. If too much water is seeping into ground near the foundation, it can flood weeping tiles and back up into basement. Improve drainage around your home by building up ground near foundation, sloping away from walls. Install a back-up valve and a sump pump. The back-up valve will still allow water to flow down the basement drain, but will prevent sewer water from backing up the pipe. A sump pump can be installed on the sewer line to pump excess water out of the pipe and into the yard.

Do not install back-up valve without sump pump if there are plumbing outlets in basement. Without a pump to relieve pressure, the backup valve will force sewage through toilets, sinks or showers in basement.

CLEANING UP AFTER THE FLOOD: Check your insurance policy to see if it includes sewer back-up coverage. Contact your agent immediately. Take photographs of the affected area. Perform emergency repairs and remove all items that have been damaged or destroyed, but do not dispose of any damaged goods without your insurance adjustor’s approval. Discard contents of freezers or refrigerators exposed to floodwater. Also discard products in jars, bottles and cans if there are signs of seepage. The city is advising that no major renovations or replacements be made until September, when the flood risk will be lower. Utilities and services: All electrical wiring that was flooded must be inspected by an electrician before it can be turned back on. Winnipeg Hydro or Manitoba Hydro will perform an inspection at no charge. All natural gas appliances should be inspected by experts. Furnaces and appliances: Should be inspected before they are turned on. Using an electrical appliance before it is inspected can burn out the motor or cause an electric shock. All insulated appliances must have soaked insulation removed and replaced. Any appliance used to prepare food should be cleaned and disinfected. If you smell gas in your basement, call the utility immediately. Do not attempt to repair floors until they are completely dried out. Floors can be cleaned with a combination of borax (five to 10 per cent) and a few drops of kerosene. Soaked doors should be laid down flat on ground with doorknobs removed. This will limit warping. Rugs and carpets: Soaked flooring should be removed quickly and allowed to dry to protect against mildew. Thoroughly vacuum and then clean with commercial rug shampoo containing disinfectant. Wood furniture: Should be allowed to dry outside if possible. Upholstered furniture: After brushing mould off surface, wipe upholstery with a sponge soaked in soap suds or 50-50 solution of rubbing alcohol and water.

TAKE PROPER PRECAUTIONS: Scrub all skin surfaces that come in contact with floodwater. Salmonella, Shigella and Hepatitis A can be contracted if proper hygiene is not observed.

While there are many factors to consider when selecting a listing agent in today’s market, sellers should carefully choose a real estate agent who is knowledgeable, reputable and will ensure their best interests are safeguarded, according to Buyers Home Warranty Co.

“Determining the agent’s level of expertise and knowledge of market changes is particularly important in this real estate climate,” said Ray Adams, president of Buyers Home Warranty Co. “Lack of knowledge can not only cost real estate agents and their clients the sale, but it can often lead to a lawsuit. That’s why we offer a continuing education course on consumer protection for real estate professionals statewide.”

First of all, sellers should refer to various sources of recommendations when searching for listing agents to interview.

“For example, recommendations by the local chamber of commerce and board of realtors are excellent sources as well as referrals by friends and relatives,” said Jim Paul, broker of Century 21 Paul & Associates in Burbank.

After selecting several real estate agents to interview, what questions should sellers consider asking? Paul listed the following points to discuss when interviewing real estate agents:

– Experience in real estate

– Number of years working full-time in real estate

– Ranking in the company

– Company’s scope of resources available to agents

– Strengths in listing or selling

– Type of continuing education

– Knowledge of changes in the market

– Type of marketing plan, how listing, negotiations and escrow

are handled

– View towards disclosure, inspections and home warranties.

In addition, Paul suggested that sellers select Evergreen Colorado Real Estate agents who recognize the importance of recommending a physical inspection of the property, full disclosure and a home warranty.

“Real estate agents who are looking out for their seller’s best interests should advise them to get a physical inspection of the property up-front, determine any issues that need to be addressed, and then disclose all the facts to potential buyers,” explained Paul.

“Full disclosure of known defects often relieves sellers from liability when disputes erupt. Furthermore, providing a home warranty can protect them from future liability of many unknown defects, or system and appliance failures that arise after the close of escrow,” he added.

Mary Krueger, broker of The Western Group, an independent real estate company with offices throughout the Inland Empire and Anaheim, agrees that anyone hiring a real estate agent should do so in the same manner as hiring an employee.

“Ask for a resume and references, but most important, be sure to check references,” said Krueger. “Sales awards don’t have as much relevance as recommendations from past clients.”

“It’s also important not to necessarily list with the highest bidder,” she continued. “Real estate agents who are realistic about pricing demonstrate they are looking out for their clients’ best interest, since an overpriced home may actually sell for less than those more realistically priced.”

“There’s a trend in today’s market where sellers are negotiating the listing agent’s commission. But sellers should remember the saying, `you get what you pay for,’” cautioned Krueger. “Agents who accept less commission may be more inclined to take short cuts because they’re doing a job for less money.”

Backed by veterans who have been involved with the home warranty industry since its inception in the early 1970s and were responsible for founding the Home Warranty Association of California (HWAC), Buyers Home Warranty Co. is recognized as a leading firm which provides service contracts covering the repair or replacement of major home systems and built-in appliances throughout California.

The company well exceeds statutory requirements set by the California Department of Insurance, maintaining its solid financial position by securing its reserves in cash assets. As a member of the HWAC, Buyers Home Warranty Co. abides by a professional code of ethics and ensures a high standard of practice within the industry.

With the real estate market still a bit sluggish at best, homeowners eager to sell their homes and move up or out of the area are looking to local real estate agents for the best in marketing tips. While fancy gimmicks may entice a few gawkers, the tried-and-true method is what really works: The house that is priced right and is in pristine condition is the house that sells.

Pricing a house properly requires knowledge of the market and of resales in a particular subdivision, information that any real estate agent can easily supply.

Eighty percent of the work involved in selling a house is pricing it right. If you price your house slightly above the market, you are going to eliminate a lot of buyers. If you price it slightly below the market, you are going to create a lot of excitement among Realtors, who will bring more potential buyers to your home. Keeping your price low is the most important element to selling.

While sellers may find it frustrating to realize they could have sold their property at a higher price a few years ago, they need to understand that prices change rapidly.

You have to look at pricing within a 60- to 90-day range, and it doesn’t matter what houses sold for two or three years ago. The summer months could be different from spring or fall, and 2012 could be completely different from 2011. And buyers will be even more aware of current prices than sellers are.

While pricing your home at the right level should appeal to buyers and their real estate agents, another method of generating interest is to offer an above-market commission to the selling agent.

Increasing the commission gives Realtors more of an incentive to bring buyers to your house, since they will earn more money for selling your house than someone else’s. The more traffic you have, the greater chance that you will sell your house.

Another option for sellers is to offer some financing assistance to purchasers.

Sometimes sellers are aware that buyers need a little help getting into a property. Helping a bit with down payment or closing costs can be good incentive for a buyer. Purchasers need to feel they are getting a decent deal, so sellers really need to start out with a reasonable offer and not overinflate their asking price.

Step 2 of the selling equation, after proper pricing, means getting your house into marketable condition.

Finding out the current value of your house means you need to compare it with other houses in your neighborhood in terms of both price and condition. Some homeowners have deferred maintenance on their home and should expect to replace items or accept a lower price than other homes in the area.

But getting a home into good condition does not always require purchasing all new appliances or replacing the roof. It can mean as little as washing the windows and the carpet, doing a few minor repairs and clearing the clutter out of the basement.

You have to qualify the requirement of getting your house in good condition, since a seller will not necessarily get back dollar for dollar what they have spent.

The point is that if your carpet is 20 years old and used up, you need to replace it in order to enhance your house and make it more salable . Homeowners naturally are trying to hold onto every cent they have and spend as little as possible, but if you have lots of equity, it just makes sense to enhance your house to get a better price.

Homeowners are often unaware of the condition of their home and have become so accustomed to its flaws that they don’t notice them. Having a third party, such as a real estate agent, look at your house helps a seller see his property through unbiased eyes.

Sellers need to see their house the way a prospective purchaser would see their house. Many times sellers have only one chance for the buyer to see that house, so they need to make all the necessary repairs and clean the house (or have it professionally cleaned) before it is put on the market.

Real estate agents agree that selling a home requires a lot of work in addition to the basic cleaning.

Buyers are very aware of the approach to a house, and first impressions are very important. So front doors should be cleaned or painted, and shabby storm doors should be replaced. The grass should be cut, windows washed and carpet cleaned. Sellers should have a yard sale or call the Salvation Army and clear out all the clutter before showing the property. They should also turn on all the lights to make the house look brighter.

A home warranty guarantees that appliances and heating systems will be repaired for one year, and they only run $200 to $400. This offers great peace of mind to buyers.

As if cleaning a property and pricing it right weren’t enough, there are a few more things sellers should (and shouldn’t) do to help market their homes.

Whenever a property is listed, sellers should make it available whenever a Realtor wants to show it. Realtors and buyers are often on tight schedules, especially when the buyers are from out of town, and you can’t always bring people back at another time.

When the house is being shown, sellers should restrain themselves from following the orange beach real estate agent and prospective buyers through the house, since buyers are more willing to ask questions and perhaps be more critical when the homeowner is not present.

Children, pets and guests should be kept out of the way as much as possible when potential buyers are in the house.

It’s important that sellers stay out of the way as much as possible, since it is the house that is selling, not the people. It matters much more that buyers like your home than whether they like you.

When today’s home buyers settle into their houses, they are bringing more than just furniture - they are bringing blueprints for new home additions and alterations.

According to a consumer survey by Professional Builder magazine, 58 percent of tract home buyers expect to be able to build new additions to their just-purchased homes, while 51 percent expect to be able to add or alter doors and atrium windows.

“Most people know what they want in a home, such as a bay window in the kitchen. When they find that almost-perfect house, many people are choosing to remodel it into their dream home,” said Randy Iles, senior vice president of marketing and sales at Pella Corporation. “Remodeling projects like these are a lot easier if you have the advice of an experienced professional and know where to look for home improvement products.”

When selecting materials for a remodeling job, home remodelers should consider the advantages and disadvantages of each supplier, according to Iles. “Take your business where you’re comfortable with the sales team’s knowledge, where the product quality is superior, and where the product is backed with professional customer service and an excellent atrium windows warranty,” Iles said.

You can do atrium windows review and a visual inspection of your roof, concentrating especially on the area near the eavestroughs and the peaks. You are looking for a couple of things: If your house is new, check for missing shingles that may have been loosened by winds and also see if ice is building up just above your eavestroughs. This may be a sign they are blocked. If you have large trees beside your house check to see if the branches are hitting the roof.

The windows used in most new homes are far superior in energy efficiency to the original windows in many older homes.

If you have a chimney, get a flashlight and take a good look inside to ensure there are no obstructions or heavy soot buildup. When was the last time you changed the air filter in the furnace? How is the humidifier working ? A quick way to check if you have the appropriate amount of moisture in your home is by looking at your windows - if they are sweating, especially on the bottom third, then your humidifier is probably set for too much moisture. If the windows are condensation- free, are you getting shocks from your carpets? Is your throat dry when you wake up in the morning? You probably need to increase the moisture.

1. RESEARCH your desired location. It is one of the fundamentals of the Hudson WI real estate market that won’t change no matter what technological advances are made in the decades to come. Be prepared to put in a lot of work on building in the right location. Ask yourself the basic questions. Are there good public transport options, does the area have a nice feel to it, is it close to shopping centres and community facilities like a park to stroll around in?

2. THINK about the future. Buying a home is exciting but it is important to be as clinical as possible and factor in some of your future needs. It is hard work for young couples to build up a deposit, and if you are planning a family make sure your property has enough bedrooms to accommodate an expanding brood, so you don’t have to sell and buy again too soon.

3. INVESTIGATE school zones. Hand-in-hand with your research on the right geographical areas as you search for a home is a detailed look at school zones and the quality of schooling available in the area. Things can obviously change at a school but if you aim to send your children to a specific state school, then it pays to check on the borders of the school zone.

4. ASK for pre-approval. To give yourself extra confidence as you search for the right property, talk to your bank and go through the pre-approval process for a loan. It’s usually fairly simple and will give you a clear idea of how much you can afford. In this way you will be able to pinpoint areas that are within your price range.

5. TALK to your financial institution about the right loan for you. There has been a lot of volatility in global financial markets and economic conditions can change quickly. Make sure you examine your options. Crunch the numbers carefully and be conservative in your budgeting so you can comfortably handle repayments whatever comes along.

Falls from heights are the largest cause of serious injuries in the agriculture, construction, manufacturing and service industries, according to the UK Health and Safety Executive.

In light of this fact the European Union has introduced revised health and safety legislation, enforcing new standards and making the provision of appropriate fall protection mandatory.

From this month it is compulsory for all safety equipment used in the EU to carry the new CE mark which guarantees that it meets a rigorous set of quality and performance standards. Companies whose employees work at heights, be they builders, oil rig workers or window cleaners, must ensure that they use safety equipment of the appropriate standard.

The British company BTP  developed Sayfglida, a permanent safety and support system which is installed during the construction of bridges, buildings, etc and remains permanently in place so that they can be maintained and repaired.

The trick with fall arrest systems is to dissipate the energy of a fall through the harness, shock absorber and overhead steel line. This latter spans the whole length of the structure and is computer designed to its dimensions and specifications: it must not be too taut, otherwise a faller would come to a jolting halt, but it must not be too elastic, or the experience would be akin to a bungee jump.

The fall protection harness is designed to spread the energy of the fall over those parts of the body which can best withstand pressure, like the trunk, thighs and shoulders. The shock absorber is a concertina of material which rips open sequentially, absorbing energy as it does so.

Keeping an eye on your children, your property and your valuables around the home can be a lot easier today if you have another set of eyes.

The eyes of security cameras.

Mention the words “security camera” and most people think of banks, stores and office buildings. And until the last few years, only estate-size homes tended to be outfitted with cameras.

But a number of factors societal, financial and technological have changed that.

Home security cameras don’t just check on intruders anymore. They’re used as much to keep an eye on children. That’s where the “secure” in security comes in. Busy parents who have to do something around the house while the kids are in another room can feel secure if they can check in through a camera. New parents could use a security camera to keep an eye on a sleeping baby.

Cameras often are used at the front door or a front gate.

Residential security cameras have become increasingly popular in two states California and Florida because of an increasing number of gate entries.
Price is one of the most important factors in the growing popularity of security cameras. A basic system, with one camera near the front door and a monitor, costs from $900 to $1,000. A more complex system can run from $2,000 to $5,000 and up.

Those prices might seem high, but in a survey by Builder magazine  the official publication of the National Association of Home Builders trade group  more than half the shoppers queried said they would pay $1,500 or more for a home-security system.

Technological improvements in residential security cameras also have made them more popular.

They’ve gotten smaller. They don’t have to be the big, old clunky things you used to see. They can be very subtle, blending in with a home.

Picture clarity has certainly been improved, and what makes that much better sometimes is the ability of some cameras to move. It’s now possible with some systems to sit in front of a monitor and operate a control which moves the camera. Instead of having someone or something on the edge of the picture  perhaps out of focus  you can move the camera to have what you want to see in the middle of the picture.

The video systems are most easily installed when a home is being built. Problems can arise if the camera and monitor wiring is too close to a home’s electrical wiring. In existing homes, that problem is compounded by existing walls.

In homes under construction, it’s a lot easier to cope with problems such as these. But even the installer has to know what he’s doing.

Around the already congested River Valley area alone, close to 2,700 apartments are due for completion in Valley Park, Mirage Tower, UE Square, the Anchorage and Aspen Heights.

Upper Bukit Timah, a new residential district, will have at least 3,000 new units, mostly in the Hume Park and Hillview developments.

DTZ Leung’s Amos Koh said: “Rentals will be under pressure but they’re not going to move down too quickly. So far our agents have not had to reduce rentals to get expatriate tenants.

“For the next six months or so, rentals will probably remain flat. I don’t see them going up much but I wouldn’t say they will go down.”

While official statistics show that island-wide rentals fell 5 per cent last year, consultants say prime rentals are not coming down but are flattening out.

Whether rents will fall depends on how firm expatriate demand is. It also depends on what proportion of available units is taken up by owner occupiers.

But the completion of large projects like Aspen Heights and Valley Park “will definitely have an effect on rentals in district 9″, said Knight Frank’s Peter Ow.

He added: “If the apartments are not in prime areas, we would expect rentals to dip.”

Supply may also be enlarged slightly by “speculators-turned-investors” - those who have decided to hold on to their properties to lease out rather than sell in today’s quiet market.

Apartments in prestigious districts 9, 10 and 11 can fetch rents up to 20 per cent higher than other popular areas like the east, and up to 40 per cent higher than the west.

According to Richard Ellis, average prime rentals as of March are at S$3.60 per square foot per month, 3 per cent up from December.

At the end of last year, prime rentals were at S$3.50 psf/mth, up 6 per cent from the third quarter. Third quarter numbers were unchanged from the second quarter, when rentals were 6 per cent lower than the first quarter.

A recent Knight Frank study of selected apartments in prime areas gives an interesting breakdown.

For the first few months of this year, gross rents for two-bedroom apartments rose by 8.7 per cent, roughly the same amount as in 2010.

But for larger apartments, rents are rising much slower in 2011 then they did in 2010. Whereas rents for three and four-bedroom units rose by 11-13 per cent last year, they are up by about 8 per cent so far this year.

Knight Frank’s study looked at monthly rentals in upmarket developments like The Claymore, Holland Hill Mansion and Leonie Gardens.

DTZ Leung’s Dr Koh observed a new leasing market emerging for suburban developments where a nearby MRT station gives easy access to the city. “What we’re seeing is very senior management expats living in the prime areas, with middle management going for outlying areas,” he said.

“Family-sized” apartments near MRT stations could fetch $2,000-$3,000 a month, he said. A new project like Dover Parkview, due to be completed this year, should be able to lease for at least $3,000, he said.

Manhattan Beach Apartment Rentals in the prime districts are holding up and will probably stay flat for the rest of the year.

Hosting your public Web servers on a service provider’s site makes sense for a lot of reasons. Access to your data will be faster, traffic will not affect or be affected by your own internal Internet usage, and it may be easier to implement a security policy that does not mix external and internal traffic.

Carrier best hosting can be much more economical than buying, building and caring for your own system. But that doesn’t mean you can afford to take a hands-off approach to your Web servers.

All of the ISPs we examined provide simple cheap web hosting services. The hardware and system software may vary - UUNET, for example, is exclusively using Intel Pentiums running BSD/OS and a modified Apache HTTP server.

Others use large SGI machines or Digital Alphas. One vendor uses Sun SPARCs running Microsoft Commerce server. For basic Web services, it doesn’t really matter which OS and HTTPD server you are using. But if you want additional services, such as Electronic Commerce, Real Audio and database access, it does matter.

Vendors use a variety of billing strategies, making broad cost comparisons difficult.

Charges may be based on host computer type, number of customers per blog host, the amount of raw disk storage used, number of page hits and number of megabytes transferred.

In the typical configuration, you’ll be sharing a physical server with multiple companies. Usually, you will have your own IP address and domain name (except PSINet, which still does not allow for customer domain names–a major drawback to its services). For a higher fee, you can restrict the number of sites co-located on your server, or have exclusive ownership. Providing your own server doesn’t significantly reduce the price, and in fact may actually increase it.

What type of services do you get? All of the providers we talked to have at least one T3 connection to the Internet in facilities that house the Web server farm. Hosts are kept in a clean data center environment and managed on a 24×7 basis. Many of the Web providers do nightly incremental backups of all hosts, executing total backups once a week. At least one provider was vague on this point. You cannot be lax about backups. Get a service level agreement that specifies daily backups and indicates the maximum amount of time your server would be down in the event of an outage.

All the vendors reviewed had a stated plan for server fallback, mostly using hot spare hosts. What, then, if the whole site goes out? It’s not inconceivable. Only BBN, IBM and HLC offered redundant hosting facilities. Most claimed this would more than double the customer’s cost. HLC, however, offers the service for a mere 25 percent extra.

Beyond cost, redundant hosting has other flaws - Domain Name System (DNS) updates. It may take many hours for local DNS caches to clear themselves and allow your fallback server to be resolved to a new IP address. In that time, the original server may be back up again.

What is the downside of offsite hosting? It’s, well, offsite. Once you get your Web pages online you will soon find out that you need to make the site more interactive with HTML forms, e-mail via forms and other CGI applications. Many of the vendors listed allow you to create your own CGI applications and place them on the server, but you can’t install any program that has access to ROOT - a good security measure. Some providers don’t allow CGI applications that they haven’t written or certified.

Visitors to the secluded haven dubbed Hilltop must hang on tight as they bump along a narrow country lane that winds high into the clouds.

Past fields of wildflowers and a rusting 1938 Dodge, the road finally ends amid a pair of towering Peruvian cactus plants that guard an ancient granite house at the end of Castle Court Drive — where the view overlooks much of East County.

Despite its scenic wonders, few people have ventured up here since the 1992 death of Mildred Whitaker. She and her late husband, Hale, settled the hillside 50 years ago.

The few visitors situation will soon change. In what authorities call a rare example of civic generosity, the well-known Lakeside woman with a passion for Siamese cats and the color red has bequeathed her personal Garden of Eden to the public.

“She always thought that the place was just a few steps from heaven and that the best thing that could happen to it would be to share it with others,” said Lester Johnson, the lawyer handling Whitaker’s will.

County officials have agreed to accept the estate and are considering how best to preserve the house and surrounding seven acres for a park and museum, in accordance with her last wishes. The public can get an early look at the grounds, however, every Monday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. when the gates are open, although the house will remain closed for the time being.

The couple nicknamed their home Hilltop and poured their love into its creation.

Hale, a county heavy-equipment operator for 47 years, and Mildred, a longtime Red Cross volunteer and San Diego Unified Port District employee, camped out in a lean-to for several years during the early 1940s while laboriously carving their house from Granite Fresno boulders just down the slope.

They did much of the work themselves. Hale used a sledgehammer to split the rock. His wife dipped shingles in sticky creosote to protect them from winter torrents and blazing summer sun.

Over the years, Mildred — described as a strong-willed woman who befriended birds, rabbits and even skunks — planted dozens of fruit trees and cactus plants and marveled at the panoramic views of faraway landmarks such as El Capitan and the Cuyamaca Mountains.

“The good Lord made it beautiful; we try to keep it that way,” she once said.

Rick and Mary Stewart, park volunteers looking after the property, agree, saying the solitude is downright inspiring, providing a perfect spot for meditation and relaxation.

“It’s beautiful up here,” said Rick Stewart. “I’m just amazed at the initiative they had to build all this.”

A painter, pianist and member of many community groups, Mildred had outlived her husband by 12 years. She had no surviving relatives except for an elderly cousin. Few people knew her real age, a secret she took to her grave.

“She never disclosed it,” said Johnson, adding only that she was in her 80s when she died.

Much of the sanctuary remains frozen in time, much the way it was back when Hale first bulldozed the private road leading up the hill.

Weathered chicken coops still sit out in back; a massive water tank rests on a knoll. The 1,500-square-foot house is jammed with original appliances, fixtures and furniture from the 1940s