Gate Design. Gates should have the
same strength and safety as the fence.
Gates can be bought or built in as
many styles as fence but do not have
to be the same style as the fence. The
most common and recommended
materials are wood and metal tubes.
Easy-to-assemble kits for wooden
gates with all the hardware, including
fasteners, braces, hinges, and latches,
can be bought from farm, lumber, or
hardware stores. Horse-safe tubular
pipe steel gates (often 13⁄8-inch outer
diameter pipes) have smooth corners
and securely welded cross pipes to
minimize sharp-edged places for cuts
and snags. By contrast, channelsteel
or aluminum stock livestock gates are
not recommended for horse use due
to their less-sturdy construction and
numerous sharp edges.
Avoid gates with diagonal cross
bracing. Although this strengthens
the gate, the narrow angles can trap
legs, feet, and possibly heads. Cablesupported
gates offer a similar hazard
to horses congregating around the
gate. If gate supports are needed,
a wooden block called a short post
can be placed under the free hanging
end of the gate to help support
its weight and extend hardware life.
The use of a cattle guard (rails set
over a ditch) instead of a gate is not
recommended since horses do not
consistently respect them. Horses
have been known to jump them or
try to walk over them, which results
in tangled and broken legs.
Gates should be as tall as the fence
to discourage horses from reaching
over or attempting to jump over the
gate. Gates can be up to 16-feet wide,
with a minimum of 12 feet to allow
easy passage of vehicles and tractors.
Horse and handler gates should be
no less than 4-feet wide, with 5 feet
preferred. Human-only passages are
useful for chore time efficiency.
Fencing near gates needs to withstand
the pressures of horses congregating
around the gate, which means
it needs to be sturdy, highly visible,
and safe from trapping horse feet
and heads. Some paddock gates are
positioned to swing into the pressure
of the horse to prevent horses from
pushing the gate open and breaking
latches. On the other hand, gates that
are capable of swinging both into and
out of the enclosure are helpful when
moving horses. Additional latches are
recommended to secure the gate in
an open position, fully swung against
the fence, not projecting into the
enclosure.
Gates are hung to swing freely
and not sag over time. The post
holding the swinging gate maintains
this free-swinging action, necessitating
a deeply set post with a larger
diameter than fenceline posts. Gate
hardware must withstand the challenges
of leaning horses and years
of use. A person should be able to
unlock, swing open, shut, and lock a
properly designed gate with only one
hand so that the other hand is free to
lead a horse or carry a bucket, for
example.
Until next time......Happy Trails.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Are we at the bottom of the market?
We are a nation obsessed with looking for, hoping for and predicting The Bottom of this real-estate market. In our spare time, some may also root for — in both senses — bottoms in stocks, commodities and uncommon viruses.
Why do we peer down so hard? A bottom means things won’t get any worse. But how long the worst lasts is unknowable.
Many of us believe, even though we don’t say so, that once we’re on the bottom, things, eventually, will scoot up to where they were a couple of years ago. Or put simply: A house worth $250,000 will once again sell for $500,000 after 15 days on the market.
This is a ruinous hope. The only way to get back there quickly is to do it the way we got there in the first place. The factors that “steroided” property values after 2000 caused the tumble that we are now riding down.
The real-estate frolic was not, shall we say, sustainable, because it was the product of fraudulent appraisals, unscrupulous lenders, greed-driven speculators, individual home buyers who chose not to add or subtract, gamblers and crooks masquerading as risk managers, brokers and agents who made hay while the sun shone, commentators who blew hot air into the bubble, government regulators who did not regulate and politicians who did not want to rock a ship of self-interested fools. (If I missed somebody, it was not intentional.)
If the same players are allowed to start playing the game the old way, we will have wasted the billions in public bailouts and set ourselves up for an even bigger wreck.
We will know when real estate has bottomed in hindsight. No one can predict it in advance since many “other shoes” are out there that may or may not drop.
Recent surveys of Realtors by HomeGain and consumers by Zillow, as reported in Inman News (“Realtors optimistic about price bottom,” May 18, 2009) as well as a member survey from the National Home Builders Association (“Builder confidence continues to rise in May,” May 18, 2009) suggest a small increase in confidence in each of the three groups. Hope, of course, doesn’t hurt.
Confidence breeds confidence, which is the trampoline for any bounce. But expressing survey confidence in the future while the present is still in a slide can be rooted as much in desperation as in the first glimmers of a genuine turnaround.
All real estate is local. A bottom here may hit long before a bottom there. One can last six months, the other five years. The 50 percent asking-price reductions now seen in some parts of California, Nevada and Florida may still reflect inflated seller expectations, while 20 percent off in the northern Shenandoah Valley may be as low as it’s going to go.
When market indicators finally suggest that we had hit bottom a few months earlier, the blessed event will reflect national averages for existing home sales, new house starts, price, inventory and foreclosures. Those numbers will have national relevance, but their effect on individuals will vary. Some sellers will give up, either by bottoming their price or being foreclosed. Others will tough it out in expectation of the upturn.
The bell tolling the national bottom may be barely heard in local real-estate markets that don’t track the national average, particularly those that are smaller, less urban/suburban, more specialized and less punched up by subprime loans and foreclosures.
Rural property asking prices (and presumably values and selling prices), taken as a whole, have held up better than metropolitan residential values. But each seller, even in the strongest local market, has to be given a written offer to test his taste for a sale. Buyers don’t know what a seller will take unless they ask through an offer.
The individual seller is always the judge of his own bottom—and that’s the only one that counts for both buyer and seller. Assume that if a property is for sale in a market as weak as this, the seller wants to sell. Offers test how much a seller needs to sell.
My advice to sellers: Postpone selling if you can. Wait, if you’re able, until you see clear, modest upward trends. Then move…and don’t be greedy.
If you must sell right now, ask what you think your property is worth under a cold, hard light, but be prepared to move down as fast as you have to. Sell “as is.” Be transparent about your need to sell and don’t send mixed signals. You’ll find out the current market value of your property quickly.
My advice to buyers: Figure out what a particular property is worth to you right now given its assets and negatives, weighed against your financial resources and plans. Forget about timing the market and buying at the bottom. Come up with an offer that makes sense to you, regardless of asking price, comparables, appraisals, competitive market analyses and the opinion of your wife’s third cousin who operates a taxi in Manhattan and is widely reported to have once driven Suze Orman to a matinee.
Bottoming out will require adjusting the expectations of have-to-sell-now sellers in most real-estate markets. This will bring more pain. They will have to forget the selling prices of the recent past and lower their expectations of the anticipated appreciation rate that recovery will bring. Some comfort may be found in understanding that future appreciation rates will not be juiced-up once again by the financial lemons on which we have all soured.
A 3-to-5 percent annual gain works for all. Ten percent or more will ultimately penalize everyone again.
It’s the bottoming of expectations — seller by seller, market by market — that will bring us up and out.
Why do we peer down so hard? A bottom means things won’t get any worse. But how long the worst lasts is unknowable.
Many of us believe, even though we don’t say so, that once we’re on the bottom, things, eventually, will scoot up to where they were a couple of years ago. Or put simply: A house worth $250,000 will once again sell for $500,000 after 15 days on the market.
This is a ruinous hope. The only way to get back there quickly is to do it the way we got there in the first place. The factors that “steroided” property values after 2000 caused the tumble that we are now riding down.
The real-estate frolic was not, shall we say, sustainable, because it was the product of fraudulent appraisals, unscrupulous lenders, greed-driven speculators, individual home buyers who chose not to add or subtract, gamblers and crooks masquerading as risk managers, brokers and agents who made hay while the sun shone, commentators who blew hot air into the bubble, government regulators who did not regulate and politicians who did not want to rock a ship of self-interested fools. (If I missed somebody, it was not intentional.)
If the same players are allowed to start playing the game the old way, we will have wasted the billions in public bailouts and set ourselves up for an even bigger wreck.
We will know when real estate has bottomed in hindsight. No one can predict it in advance since many “other shoes” are out there that may or may not drop.
Recent surveys of Realtors by HomeGain and consumers by Zillow, as reported in Inman News (“Realtors optimistic about price bottom,” May 18, 2009) as well as a member survey from the National Home Builders Association (“Builder confidence continues to rise in May,” May 18, 2009) suggest a small increase in confidence in each of the three groups. Hope, of course, doesn’t hurt.
Confidence breeds confidence, which is the trampoline for any bounce. But expressing survey confidence in the future while the present is still in a slide can be rooted as much in desperation as in the first glimmers of a genuine turnaround.
All real estate is local. A bottom here may hit long before a bottom there. One can last six months, the other five years. The 50 percent asking-price reductions now seen in some parts of California, Nevada and Florida may still reflect inflated seller expectations, while 20 percent off in the northern Shenandoah Valley may be as low as it’s going to go.
When market indicators finally suggest that we had hit bottom a few months earlier, the blessed event will reflect national averages for existing home sales, new house starts, price, inventory and foreclosures. Those numbers will have national relevance, but their effect on individuals will vary. Some sellers will give up, either by bottoming their price or being foreclosed. Others will tough it out in expectation of the upturn.
The bell tolling the national bottom may be barely heard in local real-estate markets that don’t track the national average, particularly those that are smaller, less urban/suburban, more specialized and less punched up by subprime loans and foreclosures.
Rural property asking prices (and presumably values and selling prices), taken as a whole, have held up better than metropolitan residential values. But each seller, even in the strongest local market, has to be given a written offer to test his taste for a sale. Buyers don’t know what a seller will take unless they ask through an offer.
The individual seller is always the judge of his own bottom—and that’s the only one that counts for both buyer and seller. Assume that if a property is for sale in a market as weak as this, the seller wants to sell. Offers test how much a seller needs to sell.
My advice to sellers: Postpone selling if you can. Wait, if you’re able, until you see clear, modest upward trends. Then move…and don’t be greedy.
If you must sell right now, ask what you think your property is worth under a cold, hard light, but be prepared to move down as fast as you have to. Sell “as is.” Be transparent about your need to sell and don’t send mixed signals. You’ll find out the current market value of your property quickly.
My advice to buyers: Figure out what a particular property is worth to you right now given its assets and negatives, weighed against your financial resources and plans. Forget about timing the market and buying at the bottom. Come up with an offer that makes sense to you, regardless of asking price, comparables, appraisals, competitive market analyses and the opinion of your wife’s third cousin who operates a taxi in Manhattan and is widely reported to have once driven Suze Orman to a matinee.
Bottoming out will require adjusting the expectations of have-to-sell-now sellers in most real-estate markets. This will bring more pain. They will have to forget the selling prices of the recent past and lower their expectations of the anticipated appreciation rate that recovery will bring. Some comfort may be found in understanding that future appreciation rates will not be juiced-up once again by the financial lemons on which we have all soured.
A 3-to-5 percent annual gain works for all. Ten percent or more will ultimately penalize everyone again.
It’s the bottoming of expectations — seller by seller, market by market — that will bring us up and out.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Fence Posts
The fence post is the foundation of
the fence, so its importance cannot
be overemphasized. The common element
in virtually all successful horse
fences is a wooden post. Setting posts
represents the hardest work and the
most time-consuming part of fence
building and is absolutely the most
critical to the long-term success of
the fence.
Driven posts are more rigid and
therefore recommended over handset
posts or those set in predrilled
holes. Driven posts are pounded into
the ground through a combination
of weight and impact by specialized
equipment. The principle behind
driven posts that makes them so
secure is that the displaced soil is
highly compacted around the post,
resisting post movement. Even for
do-it-yourself projects, you should
contract the job of driving posts. Postdriver
equipment is nearly impossible
to rent due to liability concerns.
Under some dry, hard, or rocky soil
conditions, a small-bore hole will be
necessary for driven posts.
Wood is recommended for all
horse fence posts. The best buy is a
pressure-treated post from a reputable
dealer. The preservative must be
properly applied to be fully effective.
Initially, treated posts are more expensive
than untreated ones, but they
last four times as long as untreated
ones. Depending on soil conditions
and preservative treatment quality,
a pressure-treated post can last 10 to
25 years.
Suitable wooden fence posts are
similar for board and mesh fences.
High-tensile wire and other strandtype
fences require similar posts, but
distances between posts are often
much longer than for board or mesh
fence. Post distance on high-tensile
wire fence depends on wind influences
and topography. Round wood
posts are stronger and accept more
uniform pressure treatment than
square posts of similar dimension.
Attachment of wooden rail boards to
round wood posts is improved when
one face of the post is flat.
Exceptions to wood posts are allowed
for horse-safe steel posts typically
used on chain link fences, pipe
posts from welded fences, and rigid
PVC fence post. Hollow posts require
top caps to cover the ragged top edge,
or should be designed that the top
fence rail covers the top of the post.
Recycled plastic, 4-inch-diameter solid
posts are suitable for horse fence, but
require a small-bore pilot hole before
driving. Metal and fiberglass T-posts
are slightly cheaper but pose a serious
risk of impalement and are not recommended.
They are also not strong
enough to withstand horse impact
without bending. With a plastic safety
cap installed on the top, T-posts may
be cautiously used in very large pastures
where horse contact is rare.
How deep to set the post for structural
stability varies considerably with
soil conditions. Soil characteristics
play a major role in determining the
longevity and maintenance requirements
of a fence. Some soils remain
wet and can quickly rot untreated
wooden posts. Posts in sandy or
chronically wet soil will need to be
set deeper and perhaps supported
by a collar of concrete casing. Other
soils tend to heave with frost and can
loosen posts that are not driven deep
enough. Fences under tension, such
as wire strand or mesh materials,
will require deeply set posts to offer
long-term resistance against tension.
A typical line post depth is 36 inches.
Corner and gateposts are required to
handle greater loads and are about
25% larger in diameter and are set
deeper, often to 48 inches.-
the fence, so its importance cannot
be overemphasized. The common element
in virtually all successful horse
fences is a wooden post. Setting posts
represents the hardest work and the
most time-consuming part of fence
building and is absolutely the most
critical to the long-term success of
the fence.
Driven posts are more rigid and
therefore recommended over handset
posts or those set in predrilled
holes. Driven posts are pounded into
the ground through a combination
of weight and impact by specialized
equipment. The principle behind
driven posts that makes them so
secure is that the displaced soil is
highly compacted around the post,
resisting post movement. Even for
do-it-yourself projects, you should
contract the job of driving posts. Postdriver
equipment is nearly impossible
to rent due to liability concerns.
Under some dry, hard, or rocky soil
conditions, a small-bore hole will be
necessary for driven posts.
Wood is recommended for all
horse fence posts. The best buy is a
pressure-treated post from a reputable
dealer. The preservative must be
properly applied to be fully effective.
Initially, treated posts are more expensive
than untreated ones, but they
last four times as long as untreated
ones. Depending on soil conditions
and preservative treatment quality,
a pressure-treated post can last 10 to
25 years.
Suitable wooden fence posts are
similar for board and mesh fences.
High-tensile wire and other strandtype
fences require similar posts, but
distances between posts are often
much longer than for board or mesh
fence. Post distance on high-tensile
wire fence depends on wind influences
and topography. Round wood
posts are stronger and accept more
uniform pressure treatment than
square posts of similar dimension.
Attachment of wooden rail boards to
round wood posts is improved when
one face of the post is flat.
Exceptions to wood posts are allowed
for horse-safe steel posts typically
used on chain link fences, pipe
posts from welded fences, and rigid
PVC fence post. Hollow posts require
top caps to cover the ragged top edge,
or should be designed that the top
fence rail covers the top of the post.
Recycled plastic, 4-inch-diameter solid
posts are suitable for horse fence, but
require a small-bore pilot hole before
driving. Metal and fiberglass T-posts
are slightly cheaper but pose a serious
risk of impalement and are not recommended.
They are also not strong
enough to withstand horse impact
without bending. With a plastic safety
cap installed on the top, T-posts may
be cautiously used in very large pastures
where horse contact is rare.
How deep to set the post for structural
stability varies considerably with
soil conditions. Soil characteristics
play a major role in determining the
longevity and maintenance requirements
of a fence. Some soils remain
wet and can quickly rot untreated
wooden posts. Posts in sandy or
chronically wet soil will need to be
set deeper and perhaps supported
by a collar of concrete casing. Other
soils tend to heave with frost and can
loosen posts that are not driven deep
enough. Fences under tension, such
as wire strand or mesh materials,
will require deeply set posts to offer
long-term resistance against tension.
A typical line post depth is 36 inches.
Corner and gateposts are required to
handle greater loads and are about
25% larger in diameter and are set
deeper, often to 48 inches.-
Monday, July 6, 2009
Why doesn't my agent want to list my property?
If you’ve been interviewing agents and find for some reason that they don’t seem as enthusiastic about your property as you’d like maybe it’s because they don’t want to be the first one to list your property. Most experienced agents will tell you they’d rather be the second or third rather than the first agent to list a property.
Why would they say that? Wouldn’t anyone want to list a property first so as to have the first chance to sell it and earn a listing commission? Well yes, but that’s only if they think your property will sell. If they think the property won’t sell, and let’s be candid here most of the time it’s because they believe you want too much money for the property, they’d just as soon another agent has it first. They prefer that agent has to deal with your frustration at not getting it sold.
Most of the time that first agent will earn the wrath of the seller for “not working hard enough”, or “never showing the property”, or “not advertising it enough”, or some other fault that makes the seller certain the only reason the property did not sell is because of the inadequacies of his agent. Now there are occasions when those criticisms are fair and valid.
But if you’ve talked with several agents and they all seem lukewarm to listing your property they are telling you what you probably don’t want to hear. You are pricing your property too high for this market. They’d just as soon you learned your lesson about the realities of this market at the expense of another agent rather than them. So that by the time you turn to them you will be far more realistic about what your property will likely bring.
There isn’t an experienced agent out there, who hasn’t lost a listing, and endured a frustrated seller only to watch the seller lower the price significantly for the second or third agent, and then talk about how much better their new agent was. Sigh it’s all part of the game. But just be wary, those agents who seem unenthusiastic about your property, want the listing all right, they just want it after you’ve taken your lumps and frustration out on some other agent first.
Why would they say that? Wouldn’t anyone want to list a property first so as to have the first chance to sell it and earn a listing commission? Well yes, but that’s only if they think your property will sell. If they think the property won’t sell, and let’s be candid here most of the time it’s because they believe you want too much money for the property, they’d just as soon another agent has it first. They prefer that agent has to deal with your frustration at not getting it sold.
Most of the time that first agent will earn the wrath of the seller for “not working hard enough”, or “never showing the property”, or “not advertising it enough”, or some other fault that makes the seller certain the only reason the property did not sell is because of the inadequacies of his agent. Now there are occasions when those criticisms are fair and valid.
But if you’ve talked with several agents and they all seem lukewarm to listing your property they are telling you what you probably don’t want to hear. You are pricing your property too high for this market. They’d just as soon you learned your lesson about the realities of this market at the expense of another agent rather than them. So that by the time you turn to them you will be far more realistic about what your property will likely bring.
There isn’t an experienced agent out there, who hasn’t lost a listing, and endured a frustrated seller only to watch the seller lower the price significantly for the second or third agent, and then talk about how much better their new agent was. Sigh it’s all part of the game. But just be wary, those agents who seem unenthusiastic about your property, want the listing all right, they just want it after you’ve taken your lumps and frustration out on some other agent first.
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