|
How to hire a good home contractor
Don't hand your home-remodeling project to an unreliable or dishonest contractor. Here are 6 things to look for.
Increasing your property value often entails remodeling. Whether you have a fixer-upper or a great house that you plan to stay in indefinitely, you'll probably hire a contractor sooner or later to finish the basement, remodel the kitchen, or renovate other rooms.
Decisions on home improvement should be made in a judicious manner. If you want to recoup your investment, choose projects that are likely to add value to your home, such as a new kitchen or an extra bathroom.
Eunice is Kid of the Month
Have home prices bottomed out? The latest housing data indicate home prices may be stabilizing, although butterflies over the economy could keep many potential homebuyers on the sidelines. By MarketWatch
Home prices are closer to stabilizing today than at any time in the past nine years.
Based on the latest data, median selling prices for new and existing homes combined now equal 2.9 times median household incomes, nationwide. This is exactly the ratio that prevailed during the halcyon days of the 1980s, when sales and construction of housing were booming.
10 tips on staging your home to sell It doesn't take long for a prospective buyer to form an opinion about your house. Here's how you can tilt the odds in your favor by making your home appeal to the widest clientele possible. Christopher Solomon, MSN Real Estate
Prospective home buyers form an opinion about the home you're selling in 15 seconds, by one estimate.
Generally speaking, staging means making your home as appealing as possible, as quickly as possible, to the broadest clientele you can.
There are techniques to pulling this off -- some of them obvious, and some not so apparent. We polled the experts to get some of their top tips.
Staging as un-decorating
How to hit up your landlord for cheaper rent, perks Treats help. But so do sleuth work and building a solid case for why you deserve a break, whether you're midlease or ready to move on. Here are 15 tips Christopher Solomon, MSN Real Estate
It's both a tough time and a great time to be a renter out there, America. The key to having any luck in reducing your rent is communication...
Many Mortgage Delinquents Still Unaware There Is Help mortgagenewsdaily.com
Health insurance doesn't have to cost a fortune. Click here for a quote.
|
How to Attain your Dreams on a Single Income
by Kelly Kennedy
|
Your 15-point tax-return checklist by By Jeff Schnepper It's time to start thinking about getting those taxes done. Maybe you're in a panic. Not to worry. Just follow Schnepper's 15 steps to getting your taxes done, and you'll be much happier. Ready? You May Have Too Much Debt But You Also Have Options How Life Works If you feel like you're in over your head with personal debt, you're not alone. Millions of Americans have become overextended, many as a result of easy credit and the recessions. Credit cards, medical bills, personal loans and raising interest rates do not make a good financial mix.
Suze Orman's Recession Rescue Plan - helps you survive in times of financial crisis OPRAH.com Do you know what your family would do if you lost your job - or worse, your home? Financial expert Suze Orman is ready to help you devise a recession rescue plan to survive - and possibly thrive - during this deepening financial crisis... Could fat babies mean fat toddlers?
A new study from Harvard Medical School found that babies who gained weight quickly had a sharply higher risk of obesity. The study followed close to 600 babies and found those in the top quarter of weight for their length at 6 months had a 40 percent higher risk of obesity by age 3 than smaller babies. The 10-Ingredient Shopping Trip By Tara Parker-Pope and Mark Bittman ... In his latest “How to Cook Everything” segment on the Today Show, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman makes it surprisingly easy to cook a week’s worth of dinners with just a 10-ingredient shopping trip. Finding last-minute tuition money There's still time to find funds for this semester's college tuition. But you'll have to move quickly.By Gerri Willis It's only a couple of weeks or even days until school begins. And if you don't think you'll be able to get a handle on your college tuition bill, here with your guide to last minute money. Annette Bridges - Weekly Column A story waiting to be heard
Are you a good listener?
Your Just-in-Case Emergency Plan by RealSimple Who do you call if you can't make it home in time to meet the kids' bus? Who do you trust to take in your mail when you're on vacation? Who do you trust with the extra set of keys to your house? How to save $10,000 By Liz Pulliam Weston If you were hoping for a list of small tweaks you could make in your spending to save $10,000 a year, sorry. The reality is that $10,000 is a lot of money. And saving big money usually means making big changes in the areas where we spend the most, such as: Housing, Transportation, Food. The Super, Sexy, Single Mom on a Budget by Renee Rayles A quick reference guide designed for the busy, single mom who has
little time to read while running the mom taxi, cooking dinner, helping with homework, and trying to fit in a date night every now and then. 32 and Counting? Finding Your Happily Ever After Today by Gi Gi The author talks about the struggles a single mom goes through and the discovery that you can have HEAT (Happily Ever After Today) just as you are, being single, taking care of your kids...
Single Mothers & Single mothers carry an enormous load of responsibility, especially those having sole and/or primary custody of minor children. They nourish, they nurture, they teach, they discipline, they shelter, they protect, and they provide… all without the assistance of another equally-invested adult.
Your 5-minute guide to protecting your identity 20 steps to protect yourself from identity theft, and seven ways to clean up things if you become a victim. TheOnlineMom.com offers parents and consumers a guide to the top-rated, age-appropriate, kid-tested and parent-approved tech toys and gifts.  
by Jeff Kinney For those wondering why tween boys don’t read very much, the answer is that more books aren’t like this...
10 ways to avoid moving scams Horror stories about sketchy moving companies abound. Don't let one take you for a ride. Here's expert advice to help. by Fred Minnick, Bankrate.com You've heard the stories. Movers load up your stuff one day and hold it hostage the next, demanding more money and threatening to dump your precious treasures if you don't pay.
You believe you've agreed upon a price, only to find out it's going to cost you a lot more than that.
...some of these outfits give the impression that "you are dealing with a moving company, but you're really dealing with an online broker who passes the job off to some local moving company in some region for a commission. So you're not even dealing with the end user. You have no control over who ends up in your home."
18 easy ways to save on your move Many people overlook obvious ways to lower the cost of schlepping stuff to a new place, but you can save hundreds of dollars. by Christopher Solomon If you're among the millions of people pulling up stakes this year and resettling in a new home, getting your goods to a new location means digging deep into your wallet, right? Not so fast.
Moving can be expensive ... steps that can save them hundreds or even thousands of dollars, moving experts say.
We've done some of the, ahem, heavy lifting for you already, by assembling these 18 tips:
2008 MSN Real Estate best bargain markets Why live in an expensive city when there are some great, affordable treasures out there? Here's MSN Real Estate's list of the nine best, livable cities where you won't need to trade the good life for the boring. by Melinda Fulmer Minimalism is the cutting edge now. My decorator calls it Dorm Chic. Wait, you'll see, everyone will have this look in a year or two. And then maybe I'll go out and get myself some overstuffed chairs." ...
Your 5-minute guide to home buying Home shopping is a high-stakes, stressful venture. Here are 24 tips to help you through the biggest purchase of your life.
Seriously consider this question: Are you really ready to buy a home? It's an expensive, long-term commitment. If you change jobs or the neighborhood declines, you can't quickly get up and go. Selling a house can take months and cost lots -- likely 10% of a home's value -- in agent fees, closing costs and moving expenses.
7 home-buying traps First-time home-buyers face an unfamiliar road and risk purchasing the wrong place at the wrong time. Here's a guide to the potholes. by Liz Pulliam Weston Buying your first home is an exercise in faith. You don't really know what you're getting into, you're awash in unfamiliar terminology and everyone you meet seems to have strong (and utterly contradictory) ideas about which way the housing market is headed. You may not be able to avoid every home-purchase mistake, but you can keep your regrets to a minimum by avoiding the following traps:
Mortgage help: Do you qualify? Les Christie, CNNMoney.com
How much house can you buy? Enter your income, the monthly minimum payment on your debts and the amount of cash you can put toward a new home. You'll need to choose an interest rate and estimate your credit rating. We'll calculate the maximum house you can afford, the size of the loan and an estimated payment, making some basic assumptions about taxes, insurance and closing costs. We'll also adjust for your credit history. These are guidelines. Lenders may approve a loan for more, but that doesn't mean the loan is a wise choice. |
