As inflation raises the market value of the home, the size of the available loan rises, thus providing a hedge against inflation. Since the homeowner and lender already have a relationship, transaction costs are typically less than applying for a loan elsewhere. Home mortgage and home equity credit is the...
Modular homeowners are always excited on the day of construction. Their homes are delivered by truck), and usually set in a day's time. Jeff and Sandra Mohler had no problem waking up early the day their home was brought to their Baltimore, Maryland build site. Modular homeowners spend more time...
For homeowners planning to build or replace a deck in the backyard, a common question is what kind of wood should be used to build the deck. Some contractors would advise that pressure treated wood is the only way to go. However, this article enlightens and explains that although pressure...
A standard homeowner's insurance policy includes four essential types of coverage. They include coverage for the structure of home, coverage for personal belongings, liability protection, additional living expenses in the event a person is temporarily unable to live in his home because of a fire or other insured disaster. The...
The article describes about treated wood that contains chemical preservatives to protect it from water damage, fungal decay, and insect infestation. A cause for concern, however, is that one of the most common preservatives contains high levels of arsenic - a known carcinogen. This is the popular preservative Chromated Copper...
Bank of America's proposed purchase of troubled lender Countrywide may have hit a snag: An influential California consumer-advocacy group is calling for state regulators to hold public hearings on the deal so that homeowners can have their say. This is far from a threat to derail the...
For most property owners, May 31 is the deadline for filing a property tax protest. Protesting property taxes is a simple, "Owner-friendly" process most Harris county residents don't take advantage of annually. This paper explains Some interesting facts about property tax protests: in 2006, 68 percent of appeals by homeowners...
Even though most property tax appeals are resolved at the informal hearing, in some cases the homeowner will need to pursue the next step by appealing at the Appraisal Review Board ARB hearing. If a homeowner is not satisfied with the offer the appraiser makes at the informal hearing, the...
For many homeowners, the property tax appeal process can seem too difficult and therefore only about 8% appeal even though 70% of those who do appeal are successful. Most homeowners also do not realize that their appeal can be resolved at the informal hearing. This paper explains some tips on...
Homeowners must annually protest their property taxes to preserve their right to a 10% maximum increase in their assessed value. The Texas Property Tax Code provides that the maximum increase in a homeowner's assessed value is 10% per year times the number of years since the property has been appraised....
Homeowners are amazed to learn they can obtain a copy of the appraisal district's evidence at a nominal cost. This is referred to as a House Bill 201 package, and is the only information many homeowners use to successfully reduce their property taxes. Obtaining a House Bill 201 package when...
Property taxes are a substantial expense for Texas homeowners, averaging about $3,600 annually. To reduce this expense, property owners should annually review and consider appealing property taxes. While there is no guarantee that an appeal will be successful. Since the mortgage company typically disperses payments, property taxes tend to be...
With the housing market softening in many areas throughout the country, some homeowners are choosing to remodel to create their dream home rather than buy a new house, while others are opting to spruce up their homes with a fresh look in order to gain top dollar at resale. Many...
Who's got the higher credit scores - homeowners burdened with heavy mortgage debts, or renters who have no mortgage debt whatsoever? A study, based on a nationally-representative sample of three million individual credit files, concludes that it's not even close: Homeowners may lug around substantially bigger household debt loads, but...
HomeOwner Association HOA management companies retained by developers often must balance the competing interests of the developer and the homeowners. They just as often find the developer pulls one way while the homeowners pulls the other way with the manager in the middle. It is common for an HOA developer...
For many years, there were two tax concepts which helped save homeowners from paying a lot of capital gains tax: the "Roll-over" and the "Once in a lifetime." However, the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, signed by President Clinton on August 5, 1997, abolished both of these concepts. The roll-over...
The cost of insuring homes is expected to rise by 2.8 percent in 2004, the smallest increase in five years, said the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). The projected increase represents a substantial slowdown from 2003 when homeowner's insurance costs rose by an estimated 7.4 percent, the I.I.I. observed. The average...
The paper found that the nature of homeowner's insurance losses is significantly different for each of the policy forms, and that the perils have significantly different impact on the losses for those forms. The claims and loss costs vary significantly by geographical areas within Michigan and these geographical variations are...
From decisions on the type of window framing materials (vinyl, wood, aluminum, composite?) to the inspection of manufacturer warranties (10-year, 20-year, lifetime?), homeowners have lots of research to do when deciding which windows to place in their homes. Since the lifespan of windows in a home is generally 20 years,...
This paper gives suggestion for insurance claim against the property loss to homeowner. As many parts of the country experience frigid temperatures, it's important for homeowners to prevent weather-related damage to their property, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). Standard home-owners policies will cover most of the kinds of...
