Home Improvement - Don’t Exceed Comps In Your Area
Written by Terry on July 22, 2008 – 5:26 pm -Home Improvement - Don't Exceed Comps In Your Area For most homeowners, the pride of ownership includes a consistent home improvement effort. While this makes sense, be careful you don't improve the property so much that you can't recover the costs when it is sold. Home Improvement You've picked up a heck of a deal on a home in a nice neighborhood. The purchase price was $200,000 and you put twenty five percent down [$50,000]. The comparable homes, "comps", in the neighborhood appraised for $300,000. Yes, your home is a bit run down, but that's why they have Home Depot and weekends! You'll just fix the ugly ducking up and pocket a quick $100,000 in equity when all your projects are done. What a country! This situation definitely has potential.... more
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Government Grants for Alternative Energy
Written by Terry on July 22, 2008 – 3:31 pm -Government Grants for Alternative Energy In his State of the Union Address for 2007, President George W. Bush called for a 22% increase in federal grants for research and development of alternative energy. However, in a speech he gave soon after, he said to those assembled, I recognize that there has been some interesting mixed signals when it comes to funding. Where the mixed signals were coming from concerned the fact that at the same time the President was calling on more government backing for alternative energy research and development, the NREL?the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of Golden, Colardo?was laying off workers and contractors left and right. Apparently, the Laboratory got the hint, because soon after the State of the Union... more
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Home Improvement Crisis Looming
Written by Terry on July 22, 2008 – 9:28 am -Home Improvement Crisis Looming In recent years, it seemed that you just couldn?t go wrong when improving your home. No matter what renovations were undertaken, or how much was spent, the property ended up being worth more than the original cost plus the cost of improvements. In fact, many people have been making a living from flipping houses ? buying a property, doing a quick make-over, and on-selling for a profit. On paper, just about every renovation has seemed to be profitable. And yet the reality is that many home improvements are a financial disaster without people realising it. How can this be? The answer lies in the steadily improving market prices of most properties, particularly those in sought-after areas such as California USA... more
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Hire a Contractor for Best Home Improvement Results
Written by Terry on July 22, 2008 – 8:15 am -Hire a Contractor for Best Home Improvement Results If you have home improvement in mind, hiring a contractor makes more sense than doing it yourself. Firstly, a contractor can work with greater expertise and put his experience to best use. Secondly, contractors work within fixed time and budget, which may otherwise exceed expectations. No wonder, many homeowners are opting for contractors to fulfill their home renovation needs!You can either hire a general contractor or avail services of a specialized contractor such as flooring contractor, roofing contractor and plumbing contractor. While the services of general contractor are more economical and organized (if you don?t like hassles of handling too many people), services of specialized contractor... more
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