we did not use a realtor in our purchase. we somehow ended up "married" to the realtor that showed us the first home we were interested in. he showed us 17 homes over 3 months. he was selling a house he had flipped and pushed it at us frequently, despite our repeated polite protests that it was nice, but not the home for us. he constantly added homes to our lists that well above our stated price ceiling, and not because he felt they would drop in to our range - forcing me to continually be saying "yes, those are lovely but we can't afford those homes". when we had questions about a property, and he contacted the other realtor, he would hoard the information he was given and only tell us parts of what they said (found this out later) and lastly he messed up an offer on a house and we lost it - and when i pointed out the errors, he said "well i think you really dodged a bullet on that house anyway, do you want to come look at my property again?" grrrrr. subsequently when i called him to let him know that we would use him if we purchased any of the homes that he had shown us, but that we had decided not to use a buyers' realtor from this point forward, he shouted at me and then hung up on me. and then continued to send me listings as though he was my realtor. grrr! i know our experience wasn't typical, and because of our inexperience we did not shop for a realtor but rather fell in with the first realtor who showed us a home - but wow! way to put me off on using realtors! from my perspective: disavantages of not using a realtor: it took time to make sure i had checked all possible sources - MLS, zillow, craigslist, courthouse walls, fanniemae/freddie mc, fsbo websites, local ad bulletin - usually daily. we also live in a small community so we had word of mouth working for us. when we actually got to the stage of negotiating the price, it would have been nice to have a "screen" between us and the buyer, so we wouldn't have had to worry so much about seeming eager. it also would have been nice to have access to the realtor's list of comps on the house so we would have had an easier time figuring out the house value, although with a little work we were able to figure out the sales prices for most of the houses in the neighborhood from the deeds of trust at the courthouse. that helped. if we had been looking at a much wider area, it would have been a daunting task, not sure if we could have kept up. so i would factor in how many potential homes you have to sift thru - advantages of not using buyers' realtor: often as we looked at a home, we were courted by the listing agent - meaning, the listing agent often considered us as a potential client to show other homes too -- and tried hard to seem efficient, helpful and knowledgable. consequently, they often were very forthcoming about their listing - in fact, i suspect their sellers would have been a little chagrinned at how much we learned about their personal and financial situations and willingness to drop on the price. (note to self: do not share that info with a realtor when selling home.) it's not a huge deal, but i think the REA also was pleased to think that they would not have to share the commission, and so were very accommodating to us as buyers. they would ask us what other houses we had looked at, and then promptly fill us in on all the history on the other listings. we learned a lot more than when we had a realtor. since i watched the mls myself, and tracked houses that matched our criteria - i felt very knowledgable about what a good price per square foot was, how much off the listing price people were selling for, how frequently and how fast homes were selling. in fact, we are closing on a home at the end of this month - and i was a little surprised to realize when i got the appraisal back that i knew the homes used in the sold comparables well. i did like knowing that the information i gave the realtor was communicated clearly to the seller, and our information transactions were faster, i think. i think if we had not decided on this home, my next step, based on the very good suggestion of a GW member, would have been to drop off postcards in my desired neighborhoods, indicating that we were looking for a home if anyone was considering selling but reluctant to because of the market. just my perspective, hth

There are absolutely no pluses about building with stellar. 2 years later after moving into our house we regret ever falling for the sales spiel. We already spent over $500 000 on that house that was built to poor standard that the real estate agent we asked to value our house said that we would be better off pulling it down and starting again rather than selling and moving. We should have raised voice when we observed that they didnâÂÂt use gravel to elevate the foundation before they dug the trenches. Again we had to spent a lot of money on replacing the vinyl windows because they start to rotten after a season. We were really disappointed by realizing how low quality products were used by them. We had to spend another $1000 dollars for the widow replacement since we hired window choice (Mississauga) for all the works. Polaris might be a good option for you so consider them. While selecting a window replacement Company, be so sure about their reputation so that you will not have to regret afterwards.

If there's any way we can afford to, we'd prefer to hire it out. Our cutting-in always looks like s*** because neither of us has steady hands (the one lingering aftereffect of DH's bout with Graves' hyperthyroidism is hand tremor, even though he's been in complete remission 10+ years), and I fizzle out way too quickly with repetitive motions like rolling. We painted (and otherwise half rebuilt) our porch this summer and it was pretty miserable. We have a friend rather like Tuesday's, kind of a jack-of-all-trades, who moved back to this end of the state after a few years away and will likely be helping us with a bunch of stuff as the budget permits, and he's agreed to try to teach DH some honey-do kind of things. He's a major hippie with a taste for the ganja (but never while working) - he's slow but quite picky about his work, and thankfully he only asks $15/hr plus materials from friends. He and I put in a lot of hours together working on the master suite-lette in the other house.

Its a matter of adhesion to the adjacent materials. Silicone adheres well enough to glass held in a frame on the inside of a tank where the water pressure is forcing the sealant into the joint but it doesn't adhere well enough to be used underwater where other forces will be involved. Think of silicone sealant as more of a gasket material than a sealant. Adhesive/sealants like polyurethane are such strong adhesives. Their greatest disadvantage is the difficulty in separating the materials later. Think of them more as adhesives than sealants. In this tight joint I felt that a less viscous adhesive/sealant would be appropriate. Its just an opinion; we don't need to debate it as if the joint were a serious waterproofing problem. In the end, whatever looks good will probably be fine. If silicone is used, protect the adjacent materials with masking tape. As I mentioned earlier silicone sealants leave a residue that’s difficult to remove, to which nothing will adhere, including fresh silicone or paint. Don't use a white silicone construction sealant in a fish tank; find a clear unadulterated silicone intended for that use. Sealant choice is not always simple or obvious. They have different properties when used with different materials in different conditions.