Have You Cleaned Out Your Gutters Yet?

When is the best time to clean your gutters? It’s always a good idea to clean them in the spring, but I recommend getting ahead of the problem and cleaning them now.

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The leaves are falling and filling up your gutters. Most people wait to clean their gutters in the spring when the rain comes, but guess what?

If you clean your gutters before winter hits, snow won’t pack those leaves down and clog your gutters. It is easier to clean your gutters when the leaves are dry, anyway. If you wait until spring, the leaves will be a soggy mess.

Not only that, if we happen to have a 40° day this winter, it could rain. If your gutters are clogged, that rain will come down the side of your house. If your sump pump does not keep up with it, you’ll wind up with water in your basement.

It is easier to clean your gutters before all the snow hits anyway.

So, check your gutters now. It’s always good to clean them in the spring, too, but cleaning the gutters now should help you avoid any major problems in the winter or early spring.

If you have any real estate questions or need to hire someone to clean your gutters, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I can certainly refer you to someone. I look forward to hearing from you!

Why Do You Need to Cover Your Home’s Spigots During the Winter?

Placing an insulated cover over your home’s outside spigots can prevent them from freezing over and possibly causing your basement to flood once you turn them on again in the spring.

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One of the easiest, cheapest winter home preparation tips I always recommend is placing an insulated cover over your home’s outside spigots.

If left uncovered during the winter, they can freeze over, which can cause your basement to flood once you turn them on again in the spring. Repairing that kind of damage can cost you a couple hundred dollars to fix.

You can buy insulated spigot covers at Lowe’s, Home Depot, or any hardware store for as little as $3. As you can see in the video above, attaching them over your spigot is a simple process.

Putting a little bit of money toward your home’s preventative maintenance can go a long way.

Most of us are almost done using our spigots anyway, so you might as well do this now. Putting a little bit of money toward your home’s preventative maintenance can go a long way.

If you have any other questions about preparing your home for winter or you’re curious about what’s going on in our Kansas City market, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.

A Quick Tip on Patching Your Walls

Today I have some advice about patching your walls: never use brushes.

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Today I’m at one of my investment properties touching up sheet rock dents in the wall.

I’ve got a little spackle on it, and I’m about to sand it down. While doing this, I realized that a lot of my clients don’t realize that if you use a brush to cover a patch, the strokes will show; almost all your walls are rolled on.

For little spots like this, I use a mini tray and roller to make the process easier. Regular-sized trays and rollers make a mess and would really be overkill for a small patch. When you roll it on, the texture matches the wall around it, and when it dries, it’ll look perfect.

If you’re ever touching up your walls, use whatever sized roller you need, just don’t use a brush.

If you’re ever touching up your walls, use whatever sized roller you need, just don’t use a brush.

If you’d like one of these little roller kits, I’ll be happy to give one to you. Call, email, or text me, and I’ll bring one over to you and say hi. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Keep Up With Your Landscaping

Don’t let your yard go to the geese—it’s much easier to take care of landscaping projects yourself.

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It’s very important that you keep up with landscaping this time of year.

You don’t want to let your yard get out of control. Good, clean landscaping adds value to your house. Plus, it just looks nice.

Don’t let crabgrass take over your yard or garden beds. Your house will benefit so much from your steady upkeep. After all, it’s much harder to track down some geese to do your weeding for you than it is to just take care of it yourself in the first place.

Your house will benefit so much from proper landscaping.

If you have any questions or need a referral to a landscaping company—I do not recommend these geese—just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

Keeping Groundwater From Intruding on Your Home

Water is a home’s worst enemy. Today, I wanted to show you how to keep groundwater out of your home using my house as a live example.

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Groundwater in your basement is an issue that nobody wants to deal with, so today I have some preventative maintenance tips that I wanted to share.

Water is a home’s worst enemy and it can get in three ways: your roof, plumbing leaks, or groundwater.

To get water to shed when there’s heavy rain, you need one inch of drop per foot. As you can see in the video above, there’s a spot near my home’s downspout where water will pool and try to get into my basement when it rains.

I’ve started by adding some dirt to divert water. I’ve brought in a dump truck’s worth of dirt, but $1.33 per bag at a hardware store will take care of it too.

Water is a home’s worst enemy.

I created a nice slope that will keep water from pooling when it rains. Some people would say that this is what a sump pump is for, but the best sump pumps to have are the ones that never have to run!

If you have any other questions about preventing groundwater from getting into your house or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home here in the Kansas City area, give me a call or send me an email. I’m always here to help!

How Can You Keep Water Out of Your Home This Winter?

Most people leave their hoses attached through the winter. You shouldn’t do that. Here’s what you should do instead.

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While most people don’t think having water in your basement is an issue in the winter, there is something they should be aware of when it comes to their spigots and hoses.

A lot of people leave their hoses attached year-round, and in the winter, the water left in there can freeze. This could cause your spigot valve to bust on the inside, which will cause water to leak into your basement when you turn it back on. Here’s what you should do to prevent it:

1. Make sure to disconnect your hose.

2. Invest in a spigot insulator. They only cost a few dollars, but they will protect your spigot against the elements and prevent it from freezing.

This problem is easily preventable.

As we take a look at the inside of the home in the video above, you’ll see that the spigot valve keeps the pipes from getting cold and bursting. You don’t want water shooting around in your house when you turn it back on. Cover that spigot and you won’t have to replace anything.

If you have any questions about how to do this or any other questions about real estate, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

How to Save the Trees in Your Yard

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Pruning your trees is very important if you want to avoid unnecessary diseases. There’s nothing worse than having to cut down trees on your property, as you lose some of the natural beauty they provide, and it can cost up to $2,000.

Using an electric chainsaw is the best way to prune the trees in your yard. In order to keep your trees healthy and looking nice, go out and look for dead limbs on your trees and cut them down! Pruning is a great way to make sure you can avoid some serious problems with the tree in your yard.

If you’re not comfortable pruning your trees yourself, we do a lot of work with a great company called Arbor Masters. They’ll come out to your property and take care of your trees for you!

If you have any questions about how to take care of the trees on your property, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to hear from you!

How to Keep Your Foundation from Cracking

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Today I’m relaxing poolside at one of my client’s houses that we’ve sold, and not worrying about the foundation at all - no different than what most people are doing during the summertime. Worrying about things like water infiltration and keeping the proper grading around your foundation so it doesn’t seep in is something people usually do in the springtime. I will tell you, however, that this is a mistake.

What I mean by that is if it’s a really dry summer and the soil around your foundation doesn’t get the proper moisture, it will shrink. When the dirt shrinks, small gaps in the ground can emerge that can move your foundation and generate cracks and other damage that can be expensive to repair.

Just because it’s summer and there’s not a lot of water doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything to be worried about. It only takes a teeny bit of shrinkage for a foundation to move and give way to a hairline fracture. Make sure the soil around your house stays moist. If we get two or three weeks without rain, put your sprinklers on the ground and drag the hose around. Adding a little water to the dirt so your foundation can't move will be money well spent.

To prevent cracks in the foundation, make sure the soil around it stays moist.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you!

Is Your Sump Pump Working?

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A couple days ago after the big rainstorm here in Kansas City, quite a few of our clients called us with water problems because their sump pumps failed.

Make sure you check your sump pump. Go down and test it. You never want to have water in your basement, especially if you have a finished basement. That can be a very expensive fix. Even if your basement is unfinished, you will have to disclose that information if you sell your home later on.

More rain is coming, so make sure everything is in order. If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

Avoid Water Damage in Kansas City This Spring

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Today, I want to go over something incredibly important. Spring approaches and we’re expecting a ton of rain in the surrounding Kansas City area.

Many people forget to examine the grading around their foundation. It’s incredibly important to have one inch of fall per foot for six feet. That way, water will run away from your house and hit the ground to saturate itself. You’ll notice a bad example, with a negative slope, is in today’s video. You can bring in bags of dirt and reposition the structure.

Otherwise, rain water can creep into your home if it’s not draining properly away from your property. On a cosmetic note, I’m going to raise up the stone bed on the side of the home to level it out. It looks better leveled than on a slope.

In the second half of the video, you’ll notice the finished product. I was able to raise the grading around the house with new soil I brought in. I created a great, nice slope. I added a splash guard to the discharge pipe. I still need to work on the downspout, but it’s almost done. As you can see, I leveled out the area and made it more visually appealing. Overall, it took me about fifty bags of soil, which costs around $70.

Consider this video as a reminder to please check your home’s grading before the rainy season begins! This can prevent serious and costly water damage later on. Don’t let water into your basement this year. 

If you’re thinking about buying or selling a Kansas City home this spring, give me a call or send me an email! I’d love to serve your local real estate needs.

What Role Does Landscaping Play in Your Home Sale?

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Today I just wanted to talk for a moment about the importance of landscaping. Spring is right around the corner, and if you want to sell your home for top dollar, fresh landscaping makes a world of difference.

A buyer’s first impression is always going to be the outside of your home. You want to make the best first impression possible, so you want to keep that landscaping up-to-date, with fresh mulch added to the areas that need it.

In the video above, I’m using a big military truck to pull out some pesky shrubs. You don’t need to go that far, but if you do have something big you need to get rid of, my truck and I can help. Landscaping is so important to your home’s value, it can not be overstated.


If you have any questions for us, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to speaking with you!

Hiring Us is Like Autopilot - You Don't Have to Worry

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Today, we’ll discuss autopilot. I’m in my Tesla today on autopilot. The car steers, drives, and brakes on its own just like us. If you list with us, you don’t have to worry. You can trust us to ensure things are going smoothly and correctly. Our office has specialists for marketing, client care, and listing. We do everything to get you top dollar in a short amount of time.

We’d love to help you or someone you know list a home. Give us a call or email us today! We’d be happy to talk to you.

How Can We Solve Your House-Related Problems and More?

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On the Adam Butler Team, we'll go that extra mile to take care of you and your family, whether it's a house need, a pet need, or a question about the best place to eat in Kansas City! We have a wealth of knowledge about our area that we would love to share with you. We're always happy to help and go the extra mile!

If you have real estate questions, or any questions about the Kansas City area, we are your number one resource! Don't hesitate to reach out at any time!

Have You Checked Your Gutters Lately?

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Here in the Midwest it's been awfully rainy as of late. Because of this, I just want to remind everyone how important it is to check your gutters. When gutters don't drain water, it sits around your home and creeps into your foundation, and this can turn into serious problems.

An easy way to do this is to wait for it to rain, and then go outside and check your gutters to see if they're draining properly. You might get a bit wet, but it's all worth it in the end. I had my gutters cleaned a month ago, but a bird recently built a nest in them and clogged them up. This is why it's important to check often before your home's foundation becomes a big issue.

It's always better to act early and often on your home's foundation when problems arise, and my friends at Foundation King can help you out. I highly recommend these guys - they've helped me out many times.

That's all I have for you today, I just wanted to offer up some advice for you during the rainy season here in Kansas City.

As always, refer to me as your #1 resource for real estate assistance in the Kansas City area!

Now's the Time to Get Your Home Ready for Winter

There are many great Kansas City area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (913) 685-2326 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

The cold months are just around the corner here in Kansas City, so we have some advice on how you can protect your home from water damage. Here are 3 easy and inexpensive ways to you can do just that:

1. Plumber's putty: Apply some plumber's putty around the area the AC pipes enter your house. Water damage can crack the seal and damage your siding - adding the putty will insulate the area and protect it. A jar of the stuff only costs a few bucks!
2. Spigot protector: When you take the hose off your spigot, use another $2 item to protect it. It surrounds the area to keep the water from getting too cold and freezing. This is an extra step, in addition to the freeze plug, that will prevent your pipes from freezing and breaking.
3. Gutter screens: Another cheap item you can use to protect your home is a gutter screen. They're only a dollar a piece but they'll save you a lot of trouble down the road. Jam these screens where your gutters drop to the ground to prevent leaves from getting stuck. This way, water won't overflow and run down parts of the house it's not supposed to.

To thank you for visiting our blog today, the first person to email us and let us know they intend do these 3 things will get a $20 gift card to Lowes! That should cover the cost of doing these simple tasks. The next two people to email us will get a gift card for smoothies at Robeks.

If you have any questions about or concerns with anything dealing with real estate, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We want to be your Kansas City real estate resource!