After you’ve lived through a storm, accident, or natural disaster that damages your home, the stress and emotion are hardly over for you: you still have to file a claim with your homeowners insurance. This is the point where many policyholders will reluctantly take a lower payment than they deserve, just because it’s easier to […]
My wife and I recently relocated to Florida, where the streets are lined with gated communities. Most are operated by homeowner’s associations that set rules and regulations, maintain the grounds, offer services — and charge a monthly fee. The number of associations in Florida is significantly greater than where we lived before, which led us […]
Many people dream of one day owning a vacation home. The idea of having a place to get away from it all is incredibly inviting, but not many people realize that owning a vacation home can be much more expensive than owning a primary residence. Insuring your dream house on the water (or by the […]
My first apartment out of college had a consistent plumbing problem: the shower in the bathroom directly above the kitchen (which happened to be my bathroom) leaked each time it was used. My roommate and I called the maintenance department several times. Although they could see the damage to the kitchen ceiling, they could not […]
Right now, with mortgage rates at historic lows, it’s unlikely that you’ll hear of anyone choosing to float their mortgage rate. After all, most people will want to lock in the low rate now to protect themselves against the market recovery that will certainly mean higher interest rates. However, this begs the question: when is […]
The housing market seems to have turned the corner. Thanks to an upswing, prices are improving slightly, while interest rates are still low enough to encourage real estate investment. Sure, we saw a slight slip in the housing market recently, but investors are still calling for an upward movement, based on tighter inventories and lower […]
