Let’s talk about home warranties. Many states require new-home builders to provide warranties. Most new houses come with ten-year warranties designed to help ease the financial burden of such calamities and protect builders from lawsuits. Click here to read more.. »
Home Warranties
Renovation and New Houses
Although renovations are usually associated with older houses, buyers of new homes may face challenges, too. A lot of people buy a new house so they don’t have to worry about renovation projects. Now, it’s true that renovating a fixer-upper might be more costly over time than buying new, but new houses are hardly maintenance free. Too often, buyers of new houses believe that, just because the house is new, all they have to do is move in, close the front door, turn on the TV, and sign the checks for the mortgage each month. Click here to read more.. »
The Difficulty when You Have Limited Budget to Rebuild Home (1)
Unfortunately, most fixer-upper buyers don’t have that luxury. Allan M. Hasbrouck, who bought a big fixer-upper in the late 1970s, didn’t. During the next ten years, he and his wife “substantially rebuilt the plumbing and electrical systems, put a new roof on the house, rebuilt the wraparound front porch, and did a complete cosmetic remake of the interior. The original workmanship was excellent, and so we really did not need, or want, to do any renovations. Restoration was what we were after.” Click here to read more.. »
Things to Consider before Doing the Home Improvement (2)
McGowan picked the right property. He had the expertise and was willing to spend the time. He had something else, something I consider more important than anything else: McGowan could see past the wreck that he had just bought to the house it could become. Click here to read more.. »
Things to Consider before Doing the Home Improvement (1)
No matter how good something seems to be, it never is. If you want to buy a fixer-upper, that should be a conscious decision. You need to take a number of factors into consideration before you make what can often be a painful leap. You should first decide whether the neighborhood and the house are both worth any money you spend, whether it is a few thousand dollars or a few hundred thousand dollars. Click here to read more.. »
Be Brave in Buying a House (2)
Before I proceed, let me say that no matter how smart you think you are, you aren’t as smart as you think. We didn’t know this house was a fixer-upper when we bought it. We had been led to believe by the home inspector that we hired—when hiring one was not as common as today—that we were buying a real charmer, a house into which the previous owner had put tender loving care from which we would benefit. Click here to read more.. »
Be Brave in Buying a House
I was dragged into homeownership kicking and screaming. My accountant stood over me, waving my 1981 federal return, telling me that if didn’t get some sort of big deduction, Uncle Sam could afford to take early retirement based on what I was paying the government in income taxes. Click here to read more.. »