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Here are four striking countertops that will up the style factor in your kitchen…

Sintered Stone

Sintered stone combines the classic look of natural stone with all the benefits of a durable, man-made surface.

Soapstone

Whether youre going for a traditional or modern look, this natural stone works well in a variety of styles.

Caesarstone

Made from a blend of quartz and resin, Caesarstone is an increasingly popular manufactured surface.

Quartzite

With bold swirling patterns quartzite is a natural stone that can make any kitchen pop.

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Between work, family and fun, cleaning your home can feel like a drag”but most of us can’t afford to hire a cleaning crew, and so the task of weekly tidying and disinfecting is unavoidable. To help, below are three daily habits to a cleaner home.

Set a timer. Every night after dinner, set a timer for 15 minutes and have your family clean around the house: arm someone with disinfectant to wipe down the bathroom, set another loose on the living room picking up clutter, and hand out a trash bag to tackle any expired goods in the fridge. If you make this a daily task, cleaning your home will always feel a bit more manageable.

Do one room a day. If the timer method isn’t your thing (or if your family is a small one), pick a room or area each day to address: living room on Monday, bathroom on Tuesday, laundry on Wednesday, and so on. Depending on the size of your room, many can be handled in 20-30 minutes or less.

Multitask. Pair cleaning with something you enjoy doing, like listening to a podcast, phoning a friend, or watching your favorite show. Fold the laundry while you catch up on television, or wipe down the counters and surfaces while you gab with your sister or old roommate.

I hope you found this helpful. Contact me for more home and real estate insights and info.

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Looking at homes for sale can be the fun part of buying a house. The real work comes when youre picking a mortgage lender that can give you the best loan for your circumstances.

After detailing your income, expenses, down payment and a monthly mortgage you can afford, a lender will run a credit check and should be able to tell you the best options for the interest rate and loan product.

Here are some questions to ask as you comparison shop for a lender:

Whats the interest rate?
This will be based on your loan and credit score, and determines your monthly payment. The lower the interest rate, the lower the payment. Improving your credit score can help lower the interest rate you qualify for.

Fixed rate or ARM?
Fixed-rate loans have the same interest rate for the life of the loan, from 10 to 30 years. Interest rates on adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, change after an initial period, such as a year, and then at regular intervals.

Ask how often an ARM rate will change, the index its tied to, and what the cap is on the interest rate during one period and the life of the loan. Make sure you can afford the higher rate. An ARM will have a lower interest rate than a fixed-rate loan, and can be a good idea if youre not planning on living in the home for long.

How much is the monthly mortgage?
Answering the first two questions will get you to this answer. Its a number you should already have in mind before looking for a house, and should be an amount you can afford.

Be sure to include other monthly costs, including insurance, taxes and, if required, private mortgage insurance, or PMI. This insurance is often needed if you dont have a 20 percent down payment and is meant to protect the mortgage company if you default on the loan.

Any fees?
One-time fees called points are due at closing and each point paid will lower your interest rate by 1 percent. Another option is to not pay any closing costs upfront and to have them rolled into the loan in exchange for a higher interest rate.

If you want to lock in the interest rate and points for a certain amount of time in case rates go up, you may have to pay a fee.

Also ask if there are fees for making extra mortgage payments so you can pay off the principal amount early. Some loans dont have prepayment penalties, but some do.

A lender should be able to help you find the best home loan for your finances. Just be sure not to sign a contract with them until youre satisfied youre getting the best deal with the best mortgage lender you can find.

I hope you found this information helpful. Please contact me for all your real estate information needs today!

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No matter the size of your home, odds are you could still spend all day cleaning. Even though life tends to get in the way of secondary chores, identifying your homes major bound-to-be-disorganized areas can help ease the clutter tension in your home and save you cleaning time.

Kitchen: With so many pots and pans and accumulated bric-a-brac, your kitchen can go from tidy to out-of-control in no time. Sometimes, you just dont have the energy to put everything back exactly where it should go. To get back on track, take one day to strategically organize everything in your kitchen.

Take into account how often you use certain items and in what areas you use them. Keep your pots close to your stove, your utensils close to your plates; you get the picture. Divide your drawers so each item you are looking for is easily accessible. The way to win at this is to think lazy. Figure out what would be the most effortless way to go about cleaning up your kitchen and follow that path.

Closets: There are never enough hangers, there is never enough space, yet you are always adding more clothes. The trick to closets is to make sure everything stays in its place. Find ways to create divisions between your clothing items, be it drawers, hanging shoe-shelves, dividers, or boxes. The point is to make sure the proper clothes are getting appropriate hangers, and that everything else is staying out of the way.

Everything thats out of season can be packed away. Neatly putting them away in a box can even open up space by creating a surface that you can stack things up on. Also, dont forget your doors. Hang jewelry or shoe racks inside closet doors, clearing up more space for your other items.

Bathrooms: Last, but not least, is the never-ending disorganization that is the bathroom. With so many products and appliances, the task of organizing never seems to end. In this case, do the same as with the kitchen. Shampoo, conditioner, soap, and scrubs: it all goes in the shower. If your shower doesnt have built-in shelves, buy hanging organizers.

Use your storage space wisely by stacking towels under the sink, getting baskets to contain your lotions, perfumes, etc., and purchasing additional storage to stow away brushes, cotton balls, and other bathroom items.

Get in touch with your inner organizer and benefit from the perks of decluttering!

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With about 56.7 million people living with a disability in the United States, according to Census Bureau data, there are plenty of disabled people who may need help buying a home.

The good news is, help is available. Here are some laws and programs designed to make homeownership more possible for the disabled:

Federal law: The Fair Housing Act prohibits lenders, sellers and real estate agents, among other housing providers, from discriminating against the disabled in the home-buying process.

They also cant be discriminated against by preventing them from making reasonable modifications to the property, such as accessibility ramps. The act requires that builders of multifamily residences meet certain accessibility standards, such as wide doors for wheelchairs.

Housing counselors from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, are available to help the disabled buy a home or deal with other housing issues.

Another HUD program ” the Section 8 Homeownership Voucher Program ” helps low-income people to rent or buy a house by subsidizing their monthly mortgage payments.

High debt-to-income ratio: Homebuyers with a low income can have difficulty getting a home loan, and people with disabilities earn less on average than most Americans.

Less income can lead to higher debt, and a high debt-to-income ratio of 43 percent can prevent borrowers from being approved for a home loan.

A disabled homebuyer with a ratio as high as 50 percent can get help through the Fannie Mae HomeReady program, which allows the income of someone else who is living in the home with the borrower to be considered household income to help them qualify for the loan.

Financial aid: Down payment assistance, such as Individual Development Accounts, or IDAs, help low-income families buy homes by giving them grants for a down payment. Programs differ by state.

Help for vets: Disabled veterans can get a Specially Adapted Housing Grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to build or remodel a home for disabled access, or to use toward an existing mortgage thats adapted for disabilities.

Buying a home for the first time can be daunting. Whether youre disabled or not, seeking help from a trusted real estate professional will make the process easier.

Aaron Crowe is a freelance journalist who specializes in personal finance topics.

Published with permission from RISMedia.