Home Finances

The financial side of home life as well as financial aspects of remodeling, renovating, renting and also buying and selling homes.

Don’t Let Your Boiler Devalue Your Home

Don’t Let Your Boiler Devalue Your Home

The boiler is the heart of the home. Particularly as winter approaches, our boiler becomes an ever more valuable member of the family. However, it comes as news to nobody that the boiler is not the most attractive of household appliances. What may surprise you is that an exposed boiler can actually devalue your house!

Finding The Best Product Comparison Websites

Finding The Best Product Comparison Websites

If you're like a growing number of consumers these days, you like to do your research online before buying products for around the home to make sure you're getting a good deal, but with so many recommendation, review and comparison sites out there, how can you know which ones to trust?

For example, you might be looking for a Leaf Blower, Smart Locks, or a safety device like a Carbon Monoxide Detector*, so you type something like "best outdoor gas grill" into a search engine and go from there.

But how do you know if you're getting good advice?

Is Rent to Own a Good Idea for Buying a House?

Is Rent to Own a Good Idea for Buying a House?

I recently published an article by Nicholas Brown who works for JustRentToOwn.com and it got me thinking, why do buyers enter into rent to own arrangements, and are they a good idea?

Before we delve into the question it would probably help to ensure you know what I'm talking about so I'll briefly explain what Renting to Own actually is...

Expert Advice on Preparing Your House for Sale

Preparing Your House for Sale

Last week I wrote about some of the ideas my cousin and I came up with to quickly get her house ready to sell. Fortunately for most people a rushed process isn't necessary, so with a little bit of planning and effort you can prepare your house for sale in ways that will maximize your sale price.

An important thing to keep in mind is that you're not trying to make your home a better place for yourself, you're trying to make it more attractive to others.

Remodeling - Does it Make Financial Sense, And Does it Need To?

When Does Remodeling Make Sense Financially? And Does it Need To?

I am continually being sent proposals to publish articles or infographics about how you can make money by remodeling your home.

The reason you don't see many articles of this nature on Totally Home Improvement is because when I ask the authors to produce facts and figures to back up their claims, they are nearly always unable to do so.

Five Ways To Own A Home For $50,000 Or Less

Five Ways To Own A Home For $50,000 Or Less

You may have seen it in the news. Home buying numbers in the United States continuing to rise after a shaky recession that turned many potential homeowners into renters. The last U.S. Census data showed home buying is up 17.0% in September 2014 from what it was a year earlier, with over 467,000 new single family residential sales in September of 2014 alone! (U.S. Census Bureau)

Replacing a Door - One of the best Remodels based on ROI

Replacing a Door - One of the best Remodels based on ROI

If you're a regular reader, then you'll know I've been talking about doors a bit recently - fixing sliding doors and drooling over frameless glass doors, and all this got me to thinking about replacing any of the entry doors to your home - both the front and garage doors - and what kind of Return on Investment (ROI) you can expect from taking on a project like this.

I'm not going to kid you - all the best data suggests that on average there are no remodeling projects that turn an instant profit - in fact any time they immediately increase your resale value by more than 70% of their cost, you're doing well. Of course, this assumes you pay a contractor to do all the work - DIY projects have a much better ROI (except when they go wrong and you have to bring in a contractor to fix it up).

5 Practical Ways to Save on your Energy Bills

5 Practical Ways to Save on your Energy Bills

With all the new appliances and gadgets that our fast-evolving technology has been spurting out in just the past few years, it’s no wonder why our electric bills have gone up. Finding ways to save on them can not only benefit us, it also benefits our environment. Let’s discuss the ways of minimizing costs on our energy bills.

An Overview of the Different Types of Home Insulation

An Overview of the Different Types of Home Insulation

You would have to have been living under a rock for the last few years not to know that good home insulation can save on your energy bills, but what are the different types of insulation best suited for your home?

The main things you want to consider when deciding which type of insulation to use are:

The Pros And Cons Of A Home Mortgage Short Sale Process

The Pros And Cons Of A Home Short Sale

Back in 2007, when the financial industry collapsed from underneath the American economy, dragging down millions of Americans with it, a lot of people became wary of investing their money. People started to save any extra money they had, going to extra lengths to cut costs and pinch pennies. As people lost their jobs and unemployment spiked, the stock market plummeted as more investors pulled out their money. But lately the economy is showing new signs of strength, the numbers are usually getting better instead of worse, and people are beginning to think about investing their hard earned money back into the stock market. However, not all investments are good ones, and it can be a challenge learning to be able to tell the difference. One kind of investment that a lot of people are eyeing is the short sale.

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