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It is a fact that home renovations adds up to the house’s market value. If a house seller wants to earn big in selling his property he has to do changes and improvements in his property. Surely setting up a garden or a parking space for vehicles would increase the market price of the property. But before getting too much excited you have to bear in mind that putting a property under renovation is a no easy task. For first time house and lot owners who plan to put their properties under renovation, it will be a wise act if you first become familiar with the basic home renovation processes. Why? Well it is because a home renovation is a costly project and I’m sure you don’t want to waste your time and money on unnecessary things. Reading books, magazines and articles online that are related to home improvement will really help a lot.

But wait there is more that matters. As what I’ve said, home renovation is a costly project so you may want to consider these questions first before putting a property under the renovation process. Each of these questions will be in detail later.

1. Is the plan for home renovation practical?
2. How much payback value will I get?
3. Is the plan for renovation flexible for future changes?

Is the Plan for Home Renovation Practical?

The idea is this! Is your plan for home renovation just for luxury? Now if your answer is “yes”, you may want to think twice. In today’s hard and deflated economy many people prefer living practical. As to what many experts say practicality is in these days not luxury! Same as through with buying a house, home buyers would not buy a property that has a very high market value. So check your house, if the current condition of the house you’re planning to sell is still good and has a good market value then putting it under renovation might not be a good choice.

How Much Payback Value Will I Get?

Is you’re plan of putting a property under renovation will be worth your money? Well this is in relation with what I said above, that is “practicality is in” but if you still prefer a home renovation you need to focus on where you can get a good payback value when the time comes that you are going to sell the property. Most of the time renovating the kitchen and bathroom will give more payback value when you sell your property. Recent statistics show that a house owner can have a 75-100% payback value when he focuses on the renovation on the kitchen and bathroom.

Is the Plan for Renovation Flexible for Future Changes?

This is what many house owners should really consider. How flexible is the plan for renovation for future changes? Let’s say you renovated the back part of your house for a garage, then after 3 years you will remove it for another change. Is that practical? Surely it isn’t. So just in case you still prefer renovating your house, make sure you create a well crafted plan that can adapt to future changes and improvements.

Have you considered taking advantage of the current real estate market and purchasing a home? If so, there are several things to take into consideration, including the following:

· Securing the best interest rate

· Getting pre-approved for a home loan

· Finding the property of your dreams

· Making an offer on your desired property

· Paying a down payment on your new home

With the current economic situation throughout the United States, many people desire to purchase a new home and may even be pre-approved for a home loan; however, the one thing that often keeps people from purchasing a new home is the dreaded down payment.

Down Payment Details

Unless you are able to secure a VA loan, most lenders require a down payment around 20%. Fortunately, some people qualify for an FHA loan that allows them to only pay 3.5% down. Therefore, if you desire to purchase a $150,000 home you are looking at a down payment up to $20,000. With the high unemployment rate and rocky economy, very few people have $20,000 in their savings account thereby making homeownership more difficult to achieve. Rest assured, there are some ways to secure a down payment for a new home.

Ways to Secure a Down Payment

Tax Refund. One of the easiest ways to obtain a nice down payment for your home loan involves increasing the taxes withheld from each of your paychecks by decreasing your number of dependents. As a result, you are able to receive a bigger tax refund each year, which can be put into a savings account or immediately used for a down payment, especially if you are able to obtain an FHA loan.

Sell Unwanted Items. Although this option may require a lot more effort than saving your tax refund, you can often sell unwanted or unused household items, jewelry, vehicles, and jewelry. You may have to spend several months trying to sell these items at yard sales or online; however, if you sell enough and continue to save the money you make off these items you will achieve your down payment and be on your way to owning a new home.

Save Wisely. The most common way to secure a down payment for a new home is often the one that takes the longest—saving money. This requires you to take out a certain amount of money from each paycheck and place it into a savings account until you are able to afford the payment.

Home insurance is a vital component of any home owner’s finances. However, many people still dismiss the benefits of such a policy, mainly due to the cost and the admin work involved when making a claim. As minor damages are usually dealt with and paid by the home owner independently to avoid the tedious process of making a claim, many assume that home insurance is unnecessary. However, this couldn’t be further away from the truth.

Buying a property is already a huge investment. Couple that with the cost involved in maintaining it and you are faced with an incredibly expensive responsibility. Home insurance is designed to financially stabilise home owners and support them in the event of theft or damage. Finding a suitable and affordable home insurance quote is easier than you think. Due to the large number of providers, prices vary significantly from company to company.

Price comparison sites are particularly popular amongst insurance seekers across the country. Although these search engines are quick and easy to use, it is not advisable to accept a deal without visiting the insurance company directly first. Minor changes within the policy may occur which may mean that the cover is not specific or relevant for the home owner.

There are, however, other ways to ensure that you get a good deal:

1. Increase Security

Installing security and safety systems in and around the home will help bring premiums down. Insurance providers recognise the measures a property owner has taken to ensure they are both safe and protected. The ‘behaviours’ will be rewarded and thus monthly payments will be lowered.

2. Join Groups

Joining community groups can seriously boost the chances of receiving cheaper home insurance. Neighbourhood Watch programs are seen by insurers as a positive behavior that needs to be rewarded.

3. Review Contents

Expensive and sentimental belongings will all need to be covered by insurance to protect them against theft or damage. However, many people fail to inform insurers of changes in circumstance that can change the amount of monthly repayments. If a piece of jewellery, electronic device or appliance is no longer used or owned then providers need to be aware, otherwise they will continue to charge for those contents.

4. Increase the Deductible

The deductible in insurance is the amount of money that is needed to be paid before a claim can be made. The general theory is that the higher the deductible the lower the monthly payments. For those who decide to pay for minor repair work with their own earnings, this is ideal. In some cases, households can save up to $200 a year.

5. Combining Policies

Contacting an existing provider of insurance is a sure fire way of improving the likelihood of a discount. Most companies will reward existing customers with a substantial reduction on their policy if they combine two or more types of insurance with them. For this reason, existing providers should be the first port of call when gathering home insurance quotes.

This is a guest post by Nicola Winters on behalf of LV, a leading provider of home insurance.

There’s nothing quite like a big, beautiful new home. It may be a life’s dream come true, your very own personal paradise. With the new home, however, come a few issues you must deal with. The best way of preventing a dream home from becoming a nightmare is to make sure your new palace is well protected by insurance. The best way to start looking at ways of protecting your home is with a good home and contents insurance quote. You can cover everything, easily, if you know how.

Home and contents insurance issues

Big home insurance needs to be considered systematically. It involves a range of basic areas to be covered:

• Building insurance: A big home is also a big building. They’re expensive to build, and they’re also expensive to repair. You need to cover the value of the building on a realistic cost basis to cover damage.

• Temporary accommodation: If your home needs repairs, you may need somewhere to live during the repair process. Good insurance policies can provide this coverage for up to 12 months.

• Legal liability insurance: This type of insurance is an absolute must for any property owner. Any accident or other incident on your property can expose you to major legal liabilities. An absolute minimum of $10,000,000 legal liability coverage is considered by experts the sum required to provide basic cover, and preferably more than that figure.

• Contents: Big homes can include a very large amount of contents, including a lot of expensive items like electronics, white goods and other high value domestic contents. Contents values tend to accumulate over time, and maintaining adequate coverage is important. It’s also extremely important to keep track of replacement cost values. (See also Theft, below.)

• Fire: A common cause of property damage, fires can be extremely expensive. An accidental kitchen fire can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars. Fire insurance is an essential part of any good home and contents insurance policy.

• Theft: Theft is one of the most basic areas to cover with any insurance policy. The fact is that theft can be one of the most expensive of all losses, and if you’ve got a lot of valuable contents, the risks increase substantially.

Please note: It’s strongly advised to make sure you keep your policy’s coverage up to date with the value of your contents.

• Accidental damage: Broken windows, accidental damage to a garage door, you name it, the costs of repairs can be considerable. Big window areas can be extremely costly to replace, and it really is adding insult to injury to take more damage to your wallet.

Insurance for a big new home is very like business risk management. You take out insurance cover to deal with known costs and values. You can insure your wonderful new home very effectively, and make sure you’re not vulnerable to the massive financial hits legal liability, property losses and damage can cause. Keep your policy up to date, upgrade your cover when required, and you’ll never need to worry about these problems.