Home    •    Forum / Community    •    Free Offers     •     Classifieds     •     Gifting Program

Top

» Search

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.

read more...

Madlynn 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.
Three years ago, just before the housing bubble burst, this ratio was 4.5 times incomes.
Add in the fact that interest rates are much lower today than they were two decades ago and housing is even more affordable.

read more...

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.
And the clock starts ticking at the curb -- even before the home buyers get in the house. So how do you tilt the playing field in your favor? Increasingly, it's by staging your home.

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

read more...

Home Affordability Calculator

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.

read more...

Many Mortgage Delinquents Still Unaware There Is Help

mortgagenewsdaily.com

Freddie Mac has found that homeowners are becoming increasingly aware that there may be help out there should they run into problems paying their mortgage loans but there is still a long way to go in spreading the word...

read more...

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.
Across the country, the recession is putting the squeeze on people's pocketbooks, making every expense painful...

Whatever perk you're after, you need a plan. Landlords are business people and you need a solid business case for why they should sweeten your deal. In the following 15 tips, more than a half-dozen people who toil daily in the renting field help you build your case...

The key to having any luck in reducing your rent is communication...

read more...

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:

read more...

Top

Single Moms - find here resources on financial aid, scholarships, help with basic needs, food, prescription drugs, health care, housing, legal info, and much more...

 

“MomMatching” Home - Share Service for Single Moms

About Co-Abode.Org

 

Carmel Sullivan, Founder
Co-Abode Single Mothers House Sharing
Website: www.co-abode.org
Email: info@co-abode.com

About the Co-Abode:

A pioneering non-profit Website, www.Co-abode.org, offers a unique “matchmaking” service to provide single moms the opportunity to house share, while pooling resources and finances with another single mom of their choosing.

 

Founded by a single mom who knows the issues single mothers face firsthand. She describes the website as a source of real help for single moms where they need it the most—social support and better living arrangements for their children. “If the “It takes a village...” notion has any credence—as I firmly believe it does—then connecting single moms is the way to make it work,” says Sullivan.

 

What Co-Abode do:

Co-abode also offers single moms a way to stay in the family home by sharing its expense with another single-mom family. Moms without a home can find an appropriate housemate through the service, enabling them to afford a larger and more comfortable home together.

 

Since the launch of Co-abode the site has expanded nationally to help single moms find compatible housemates in their local area. Communities of like-minded single moms are building neighborly relationships through the Co-abode infrastructure in cities across the country.

 

More about Co-Abode:

“Single moms stagger under the burden of providing for young children without proper financial support from family or social services,” says Sullivan. “The very people who could most benefit from a stable emotional support system often go home with their children to an empty house or apartment.”

 

Through Co-abode single moms can find compatible partners in any state to share rent, utilities and food, chores and babysitting. This allows for a higher standard of living than is possible when going it alone.

 

Members choose housing partners by reading other women's profiles and contacting prospective housemates that appeal to them through the site’s secure and anonymous e-mail system. Criteria used to determine compatibility include age, location, number of children, and ability to meet financial requirements like deposits, monthly rent and utility bills. In addition to household matchmaking, the site offers a wealth of resources for cash-strapped parents—moving tips, health and parenting advice, as well a chat room and “Circle of Friends” page where moms can share the trials and tribulations of day-to-day life.

 

"I’m a far better mother because I'm less stressed."

 

In a town outside of Minneapolis, Jennifer and Simone came to each other's economic rescue. The single mothers, were desperate. Jennifer had two children, ages 4 and 3 months; a house; and a mortgage way beyond her means.

 

“For me, there’s been a tremendous sense of relief in house sharing with another mom and her child,” says San Diego-based Barbara, single parent of boys, Tyler, 11, and Kevan, 15. “At the end of the day we get in there together and tackle what has to be done; ‘you do the dinner—I’ll help the kids get their homework done.’ We have a mutual respect and admiration for each other. My kids have a playmate and are easier to manage. I now have more money to spend on them too.”

 

You can register, fill out a profile and do a search for free. To make contact you’ll need to become an Active Paid Member. Co-Abode is offering membership for a fee of $29.95.

Top

Top 8 Tips for Reducing Kids Screen Time This Summer

Reducing time spent in front of televisions and computers is one of the easiest ways to improve your family's health. Here are eight simple ways to limit screen time so you can help crank up your kids’ energy, re-charge their minds, and improve their health.

read more...

What would you change?

Weekly Column, by Annette Bridges

Change -- some people dread it, and others can’t get enough. It may be much like the idiom, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” When it comes to what we would alter or why we would make a modification, the answers vary because we all have different things we value, want, need and consider important.

read more...

Being a Role Model

by Laurie Cesario-Overton

If I had to choose one sentence that would best describe what I feel parents need to learn, it would be this: Be your child's BEST ROLE MODEL in all the ways that truly count. Be your child's HERO. Whatever you do, do it for all the right reasons.

read more...

How to Find the Best Car Loans for Single Moms

Financial Advice for Single Moms

The best car loans for single mothers might be just around the corner at your local car lot.

read more...

3 Money Rules for Stay-at-Home Moms

As we all know, life is unpredictable. We lose jobs, get divorced and even become widowed...
Here are three steps stay-at-home parents should take to better manage their own and the family’s finances.

read more...

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.

read more...

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.

read more...

Crystal Bowersox - A Single Mom And A Real American Idol

Read how the amazing Crystal Bowersox. the runner-up of American Idol Season 9, handles fame and life as a single mom, raising her 17 month old son.

read more...

5 Ways for Single Moms to Save Money

Single moms are always looking for ways to save money, and for good reason... It’s important to find ways to cut corners on the little things that perhaps you don’t think about too often, because those are usually where your biggest money drains are.

read more

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...

read more...

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?

read more...

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.

read more...

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.

read more...

Single Mothers &
Male Role-Models / Mentors

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.

read more...

Mom's Obesity Raises Newborn's Heart Risk

from the National Institute of Health

The more obese a woman is when she becomes pregnant, the greater the likelihood that her newborn baby will have a congenital heart defect, a new study suggests. The finding raises concerns because 1 in 5 women are obese at the start of pregnancy in the United States.

read more...

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.

read more...

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.

read more...

TheOnlineMom.com offers parents and consumers a guide to the top-rated, age-appropriate, kid-tested and parent-approved tech toys and gifts.

read more...

Single Moms in the News

6 Best Celebrity Single Moms
Read about Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Michelle Williams, Reese Witherspoon, Kimora Lee Simmons, Mary-Louise Parker... read more

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

by Jeff Kinney

For those wondering why tween boys don’t read very much, the answer is that more books aren’t like this...

read more...

Top

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."

read more...

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:

read more...

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.

read more...

Mortgage help: Do you qualify?

Les Christie, CNNMoney.com

Help for those seeking refinancing: This part of the program targets borrowers who have kept current on their mortgages. Many of the homeowners in this group have been unable to lower their housing costs through refinancings because of falling home prices.
Who's not eligible: Homeowners whose property values have dipped severely, putting them underwater by more than 5% are out of luck.

Mortgage modification help for at-risk borrowers: Homeowners in default or at risk of default may qualify for loan modifications, which restructure the terms of loans. Anyone with high combined mortgage debt compared to income or who is underwater may be eligible for a loan modification.
Who's not eligible: Speculators, those who bought homes for investment purposes, do not qualify for help; all homes must be owner/occupied.

read more...

Top

SingleMom.com™ Pages:   Home  •  About SingleMom.com™  •  Privacy Policy  •  Contact us

SingleMom.com™ Features:   Forum / Community  •  Free Offers  •  Classifieds  •  Gifting Program

SingleMom.com™ Sections:   Ask “Joy”  •  Education & Career  •  Help for Moms in Need  •  Housing  •  Kid Stuff  •  Parenting  •  Day to Day  •  Health & Well Being  •  Cooking & Recipes  •  Legal Issues  •  Finances

© 2005-2010 SingleMom.com™, Sponsored by Internet Genesis™ company, All Rights Reserved.
Revised: 26 July 2010.