When you cook, using “mise en place” means you have all your ingredients cut, measured, peeled, grated, sliced and you have your bowls, utensils, and pans ready to use before you begin the cooking process. This gives you the opportunity to inventory the ingredients and observe if you have everything you need. Using this method, […]
Used cars: it is not usually a good idea to spend a bunch of money to fix up a used car before you trade it in. You won’t recapture the money you spent on the repairs. Dealers can make repairs less expensive than you can. And you are selling to a wholesaler who then needs […]
CoreLogic analyzed national homeowner equity. This equity grew in the 4th quarter of 2020 by $1.5 trillion or 16.2 percent year-over-year. The study was done on homeowners who have mortgages on their homes. In the fourth quarter of 2020, we also saw the number of mortgaged residential homes with negative equity decreased by 8 percent […]
The monthly affordable rent as a percentage of monthly income is what we call the rent to income ratio. Tenants should keep this ratio within 30 percent of their monthly gross income. With a shortage of rental units in some areas, it may not be possible. In this situation, a tenant would have to spend […]
Having insurance is always debatable. The debate centers on having to pay for something that you may never use so it is worth it or a necessary evil. Mortgage Insurance benefits the lender if a borrower who puts down less than 20 percent defaults on their loan. The problem is that most conventional mortgage loans […]
Many newer homeowners are paying for two types of insurance with their mortgages and only one of these products protects them. A homeowner’s insurance policy covers damage to the property and losses from fire, burglary, vandalism, and natural disasters. When you have a loss, you will file a claim with your insurance company that will […]
Most homes in most neighborhoods have sprinkler systems for their yards. And with a sprinkler system comes a somewhat manual sprinkler controller that lets you turn it on, turn it off and punch tines next to numbers for when you want it to auto sprinkle. This controller offers just a basic functionality and is sometimes […]
For one reason or another, there are hundreds of thousands of people who believe that they cannot afford to buy a home right now. For whatever reason, some of these people may not be ready to buy. It would be very surprising to know that of the people who can buy now, how many got […]
June, July and August have more people grilling in them than any other month during the year. Because of this, there are more injuries and fires due to grilling accidents in those months. Even though Labor Day happens in September, we still need to be vigilant about safety. Due to injuries involving grills, about 20,000 […]
Our parents’ and grandparents’ goal in life was to prepay their mortgage on their homes. It can provide peace of mind and can be a worthy goal. But is it the best thing for you to do right now? Here are some things to think about before you decide to pay off your mortgage. Do […]
