The past few weeks our First Time Buyer clients have been keeping us  busy.  Everyone has been trying to beat the deadline for the tax credit.  Well grate news the new bill was voted on this week.  The Senate and the House of Representatives have passed the bill.  The bill was then sent over to the office of President Obama.  He singed the bill this afternoon.  There are a few changes that I would like to make clear.

Changes to the First Time Home Buyer Credit

I had a smoke detector inspection today for one of my listings in Springfield, MA.  I was surprised by how complicated figuring out just where to put the smoke detectors is getting.  To make maters worse you need to have specific types of smoke detectors for specific locations in the home.  I decided that I would create a guide for Springfield home owners to make sure they have the correct detectors installed.

According to the Springfield Fire Dept handout, which you can download here,  you can not have ionizing detectors within 20 feet of a bathroom or kitchen.  You need to use photoelectric detectors if they are going to be placed within the above distance of the kitchen or bathroom.  The problem that I ran into was I purchased a smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector combination.  The unit had a ionizing smoke detector inside it so I could not use this combination unit as a smoke detector or a carbon monoxide detector within the above distances from bathrooms and kitchens.

You can be sure this will not be a problem for you by purchasing photoelectric detectors which, at least for now, can be used anywhere. Watch out for the detectors that are ionizing and photoelectric as any smoke detector that is ionizing will not be allowed near kitchens and baths in Springfield.

Finally a note about carbon monoxide detectors.  If you buy the combination smoke and carbon monoxide detector be sure that the unit speaks a warning for carbon monoxide.  Also if this combination unit is going to be installed near kitchens and bathrooms be sure that it is using only the photoelectric smoke detector and not a ionizing smoke detector (as this would make the whole unit unusable near kitchens and bathrooms).

You can check out what the NFPA(National Fire Protection Association) has to say about the different types of detectors here