Finance Articles
Charities With Local Pickup (List) for Goods Donations as You Clean House
Following along with Jocie’s theme from yesterday, we’re in the process of reclaiming our fourth bedroom this summer. Due to a house-guest overlap coming in August, we need to convert our office back to a bedroom; and we’re taking this opportunity to purge our home of more of those items we’ve been stashing in every closet or corner “just in case we might want them someday.” We’d rather be storing only those things we actually use. Sentimentality, begone! (within reason, of course) Editors...
Your Take: Would You Demand Pro Photos From Your Realtor?
I just read this interesting article by Chris Paulis that argues the importance of employing a professional photographer when selling your home. Chris points out that it’s a real disservice when your home isn’t accurately represented to prospective buyers. He contrasts the photographs for a $1.7 million listing with a $600,000 listing (both from 2011). The $1.7 million home is probably a grand home, but you can’t tell from the pictures. Meanwhile, the $600,000 home looks warm and interesting. If the prices on these two...
Real Estate Sales Commissions Are Broken. Here’s the Fix
What’s a fair commission for selling your home? $5,000? $15,000? $50,000? That last amount is what you’ll pay on the sale of a typical $1,000,000 property in America today. For an average $250,000 house, you’ll end up spending about $12,500 in commission. Is it fair? If you ask the typical real estate agent what a fair commission is, the most common answer you’ll receive is 5-7% of the sales price. And that seems logical right? Because the “percent of sale” approach seems to align the agent’s...
Why a Pre-sales Appraisal Isn’t a Waste of $400
Selling your home is emotional business. It’s easy to measure your self worth by whether or not you get an offer, and if you do, by the size of that offer. It’s also easy to get tied up in the drama of it all–to stop thinking rationally about your home’s value, and to start focusing instead on emotionally charged aspects of the sale. A pre-sales appraisal (PSA) can help you cut through the emotion, price the home right, and sell it fast. Based on our own selling experiences, we’re believers in the PSA, especially...
Free Lease Agreement for Residential Rental Property Landlords
Our tenants recently informed us that they don’t plan to renew with us for another year, and we’re planning to sell the property. When we first started renting the place, I was in the midst of a law course as part of my MBA program. I developed the lease agreement that follows on my own based on information from that class, conversations with other landlords, and some general themes from other leases I had seen. Please note that I am not an attorney. If you use this agreement in whole/part, you do so at your own risk. ...
5% Cash Back on Home Improvement with Discover Card’s Rewards Program
Discover Card’s Rewards program rolls over into a new quarter next April 1. This quarter (April 1 – June 30) is when Home Improvement centers are on the list for 5% cash back! How Do I Sign Up? If you’re not a Discover Card member and you want to be a part of this program, you can signup for a Discover More Card here. Once you’re approved, you can enroll in the program immediately using Discover’s web site. If you’re already a Discover Card member and have online access, simply login to your...
Check Your Hurricane Insurance Deductibles Before the Storm Hits
As Hurricane Earl makes his way up the Atlantic coast, we have a tangible reminder to review our homeowners insurance policies for hurricane and tropical storm deductibles and exclusions. Hurricane insurance deductibles can have a dramatic affect on how an insurance company will compensate you in the event your house is damaged in a storm. All too many homeowners find out about these limitations for the first time in the aftermath of a storm, when stresses and tensions are already high and losses are piling up. What Are Hurricane &...
What Happens if You Cancel Your Home Insurance Policy?
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you just cancelled your homeowner’s insurance policy? Will the mortgage company let you cancel it? Will they buy coverage for you? Could you get a better deal that way? We recently switched our homeowner’s insurance from Allstate to Geico. During the switch there was some mix up with the paperwork going from Geico to Wells Fargo, the company that holds our first mortgage. Wells Fargo sent us a letter telling us that they didn’t have insurance information and they were going...
How to Market a Community Pool & Prevent Closing
Kim and I have been members of our community pool since we adopted our kids 3 years ago. Like community pools across America, it’s a great place to meet other folks in the neighborhood, cheer for the swim team, or cool off after mowing the lawn on a hot Saturday morning. We love it, and our kids love it too. Like many community pools, over the past 10 years our membership has been steadily declining, from a high of around 200 families, to only about 90 last year. The problem was accelerated by the great recession, with most of the...
Geico vs. AllState for Auto, Home, Landlord, and Umbrella Insurance
We just saved a bunch of money by switching our car insurance to Geico! I’ve always wanted to say that But seriously, we did just switch all of our policies over to Geico from Allstate. We’ve been in the “good hands” for about 6 years. Turns out that those hands are also expensive. And they’re not as good as they used to be… I wrote last year about Allstate’s new tropical cyclone deductible, which would make a homeowner pay a 3% deductible before covering any damages caused by a named storm....
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