Another month, another rent payment that’s helping your landlord pay off the house or apartment where you’re living. Another month, another rent day spent pondering just how much equity you could have paid down on your own house by now. So, why not you? Why not now? Sure, buying a house can be complicated and intimidating, but your mortgage professional and Realtor will be there every step to help.
Now that it’s officially winter, it’s definitely time to be thinking about how you’re going to heat your home this year. Some parts of the country are just now starting to feel the cold, others have been chilly for some time, but everybody should be getting their systems in shape for the coming blasts of arctic air. If you’ve not yet gotten started prepping your central heating system, there’s no time like the present. We’re here to help!
So, you’ve closed on your house and it’s time to figure out what the next step is. Don’t load up the moving van just yet -- this is the perfect time to do a real deep clean on your new home! After all, you have no idea when the last time the place was cleaned or what the prior owners may have done inside or what residues remain. Without furniture or boxes in the way, deep cleaning will be a cinch, so let’s get to it.
Shorter days and chilly nights can mean only one thing: it’s time to fire up the fireplace. Before you get too far ahead of yourself, let’s talk about fire safety. It’s boring, possibly even a little overly dramatic at times, but the fact is that before you start that first big scorcher, there are quite a few things that you should know. This goes double if this is your first wood-burning fireplace.
Icicles hanging from power lines, trees and other people’s homes can be absolutely gorgeous, but when those delicate frozen water daggers are hanging from yours, it may make your stomach do a barrel roll. Why? Well, it’s just one of many signs that your home is at risk for ice dams.
Standing under the giant gold umbrella of foliage that covered your majestic shade tree this fall was like wandering into a painting, but now that the leaves have all fallen and the stately guardian is beginning its winter rest, it’s time to consider the clean up. You’ve already mulched the leaves on the lawn, but that’s only the beginning. Your gutters were also gracious receptacle of those golden flags -- they’re going to need a good cleaning to keep working like they should.
There’s nothing quite as solemn as watching the garden and landscape start to wind down for a long winter’s rest. It’s part of the never-ending cycle of nature -- and landscaping chores -- that you’ll find yourself participating in as a homeowner. Shed a small tear for the beauty of the cycle, then head out to the garage because you’ve got a lot of work to do to get your garden and landscape ready for winter.
Jennifer just closed on her very first home, a cornflower blue and white bungalow with a big front porch on a tidy cul de sac. She’s ecstatic as she thanks her Realtor for all his help, he opens the lockbox from her home for the very last time and gives her the key. Her key to her own house. After work, Jennifer loads up her car with some small items to take over to her new place. Her mind is racing. Is she really ready to be a homeowner? Her parents always seemed to know how to fix things and who to call if there was a problem they couldn’t handle -- everything just seemed like it came to them naturally. How did they know all this stuff? How was she going to learn it all at once?
When Mike and June spotted the two-story Victorian home nestled on its quiet, tree-lined street, it was love at first sight. Walking up the front steps felt just like coming home to a place they’d lived in forever. They made an offer that night and after the endurance test that was their race to closing, the happy couple breathed a deep sigh of relief. This would be the perfect house for their future kids to grow up in, it even had an adorable breakfast nook with a built-in booth, what more could they want?