Dupage County Health Department > News

FOLLOW THESE PRECAUTIONS FOR FURNACE AND FIREPLACE SAFETY

Mon January 9, 2012

DUPAGE COUNTY- People rely on their furnaces and fireplaces to function properly year after year, often not remembering proper maintenance or cleaning. This is a dangerous practice resulting in thousands of injuries and deaths among Americans. The DuPage County Health Department recommends the following precautions to keep your family safe this winter:

Furnaces:

• Change or clean your furnace filter regularly.
• Have a professional check your furnace to be sure it is in good repair. Some furnace services can check to see if the furnace gets enough fresh air. Many homes are over-insulated and lack intake-air piping. This causes the furnace to burn improperly and can reduce the oxygen in your home to a dangerously low level.
• Move all materials that burn easily away from the furnace, including old rags, sawdust, wood scraps and flammable liquids such as gasoline and kerosene. (Because vapors from flammable liquids ignite easily, store these liquids in tightly capped containers.)
• Have a professional inspect your chimney and flue at least once a year and clean them if necessary. Carbon monoxide levels can become dangerous if smoke cannot escape from blocked flues or chimneys. Also, soot in flues and chimneys is highly combustible and can easily ignite, sending a ball of fire from the furnace or fireplace into the house.

Fireplaces:

• If you have a fireplace, be sure it was made to be used and is not just for decoration.
• Only burn materials designed for a fireplace. Coal and charcoal release carbon monoxide, and some products emit deadly gases. If using artificial logs, burn just one at a time. They may produce more heat than the fireplace can withstand.
• Always use a fireplace screen to prevent hot embers from popping out into the room.
• Do not go to bed or leave the house until you are sure the fire is completely out. Securely shut the fireplace screen or doors.
• Put ashes in a metal container and empty it after each time you clean the fireplace.
• Install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors on every level of the home. Test the alarms periodically and change the batteries at least once per year.

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Coyote Sightings Suggest Increased Aggression, Risk Posed for Small Pets - Darien, IL Patch

Residents report animals approaching houses, grabbing small dogs.

Coyotes are a common sight in DuPage County, but over time, they can become more aggressive, posing a problem for residents. At the Darien City Council meeting Monday, Alderman Joerg Seifert noted that in three months he has received three reports of coyote encounters from different Ward Four residents.

Click here for the entire story

Another Luxury Home Sold Neal Paskvan Baird Warner

A Tip on Keeping Cool

Something to check before you call the AC repair man

If you feel your AC is not really keeping up inside, with the hot outside, you may want to check your whole-house humidifier and make sure it is unplugged! Putting humidly into the air wile the AC is working to remove it is, well, not cool. Sometimes the humidity controls upstairs get stuck and don't really shut the humidifier down.

Neal Is a Full Time Broker Helping Home Buyers and Sellers Move ON and Move Up

Robbers Use Facebook to Rob Home

Hey Everyone... Just a reminder

Fact is.. You May Need to Sell Your House Twice

Appraisals: Why You Must Now Sell Your House Twice

by Neal Paskvan on May 24, 2011 ·

Bottom Line

Every house now has to be sold twice: FIRST, to a potential purchaser and THEN AGAIN to the bank appraiser. And, it seems that the second sale may be the more difficult of the two. Sit with a local Real Estate Professional and make sure you put together a plan for both sales.

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Banks have become very conservative when lending mortgage money today. With the current foreclosure challenges in the country, we can’t really blame them. The requirements now necessary to qualify for mortgages have gotten much more stringent and it seems will get even more stringent as we move forward. The banks want to make sure the prospective buyer has the ability to repay the loan. However, this does not just involve the borrower buying the property.
The second way a bank can protect their investment in the mortgage is to make sure that the collateral backing that mortgage is secure. That is where the appraisal comes in. The bank wants to make sure that, should the buyer not be able to make their payments, the house they will be forced to take back will sell for an amount at least equal to the balance left on the mortgage. For that reason, the banks seem to be getting more conservative with appraisals also.
This past week, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Homes Sales Report. In that report, they said:

“11 percent of Realtors® report a contract was cancelled in April from an appraisal coming in below the price negotiated between a buyer and seller, 10 percent had a contract delayed, and 14 percent said a contract was renegotiated to a lower sales price as a result of a low appraisal.”

One out of four real estate transactions was either cancelled (11%) or renegotiated to a lower sales price (14%)

Contact me if you would like an Update   630-964-1855 or E-mail at neal.paskvan@bairdwarner.com


Research  Provided By Keeping Current Matters   http://kcmblog.com/2011/05/24/appraisals-why-you-must-now-sell-your-house-twice/