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Before you put your home on the market, its important to make sure everythings in tip-top shape in order to maximize value. One of the challenges, however, is knowing which improvements are going to make a difference. Here are five updates that buyers are willing to shell out a little extra cash for.

Updated Kitchen
The kitchen is the heart of the home, and it can often make or break how buyers feel about a residence. You dont have to undergo a top-to-bottom remodel before listing your house, but upgrading your appliances and replacing dated countertops can transform your cooking space.

Outdoor Living
High-end buyers are looking for homes with outdoor spaces where they can both enjoy family time and entertain. If your patio or deck is looking a bit tired, you can make it more appealing by adding a fire pit or barbecue area where people can envision themselves hanging out.

Eco-Friendly Features
Spend a little more money to make your home eco-friendly and youll surely see a return on your investment. Energy-efficient windows and appliances have major appeal to buyers who are looking to lower their impact on the environment while also lowering their utility bills.

Well-Appointed Bathrooms
If you want your home to fetch top dollar, you better have luxurious bathrooms. High-quality fixtures for the sinks, showers and baths are a must. It doesnt have to be a total overhaul, but refreshing the bathrooms with new tiles and countertops can go a long way in the eyes of potential buyers.

Curb Appeal
You only have one chance to make a first impression. When buyers arrive at your home, theyre going to have formed an opinion before they even step inside. A new front porch or walkway can pay off when its time to sell your home.

If youd like more insight into how to get your home ready to sell, Id be happy to discuss further and provide you with personalized advice for your property.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

It seems like theres a revolutionary new tech gadget coming out every other day, making it difficult to keep up with the latest and greatest. The home, in particular, has seen its fair share of advancements that promise to improve virtually every aspect of your daily life, from robot vacuums to smart trash cans. While many of these are considered luxuries, there are, in fact, a few that high-end homebuyers have come to deem essential.

Heres a selection of smart devices that many luxury homebuyers cannot live without:

Security
A smart home security system is never going to be considered excessive. These days there are tons of options to keep your family safe with motion sensors, cameras and locks that can be monitored and controlled via your smartphone. A home thats equipped with a state-of-the-art system like this will certainly be appreciated.

Lighting
Sure, smart lights are often touted for setting the mood when youre entertaining or having family movie night, but there are actually many more benefits, like setting motion sensors to illuminate the hallway when the kids go to the bathroom at night. Plus, you can forget about coming home to a dark house, thanks to smart lights that turn on upon your arrival.

Smoke Detectors
Do you ever wonder if your smoke detectors are even working? Upgrading your house with smart smoke alarms will deliver peace of mind thats sure to catch the attention of any potential buyers, especially those with children or pets. It may not be glamorous, but its one of those small details that make a difference.

Thermostat
Smart thermostats provide an element of convenience with their ability to automatically adapt to your schedule and keep the house just the way you like it at all hours. Hate coming home to a hot or cold house? Well, you can say goodbye to that! The biggest benefit, though, just might be the energy that you save, which could significantly cut your heating and cooling bills.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

Becoming a homeowner doesn’t equip you with the basics of household know-how, although time and experience will likely teach you how to tighten up a leaky faucet. But technicians say that up to 30 percent of their service calls require nothing more than the flip of a switch or the push of a button to ‘repair’ the stated problem.

To save you from such an embarrassing experience”not to mention the cost of a service call”Readers Digest offers tips to help every homeowner recognize and ‘fix’ common issues:

• The fridge is warm. Check to see that nobody messed with the temperature dial. Turn it up if need be, and be sure no food containers are blocking the fridge and freezer compartment vents, which supply the flow ofcold air.
• The bathroom lights don’t work. Sometimes all the bathroom outlets or several exterior lights are powered through a single GFCI (the red button in the middle of some outlets located in one bathroom). If there’s an outage, push the reset button on the GFCI, and you could be back in business.
• A kitchen appliance won’t turn on. When a light goes out in one room or a switch doesn’t turn on the coffeepot, check the main electrical panel for a tripped circuit breaker. Look for a switch that’s not in line with the others. Flip it fully to the off position, and then back on.
• The toilet is running. The most common cause is a worn flapper that no longer seals properly. The flapper is easy to replace without calling a plumber. Your nearest home store can sell you the part and tell you what you need to know.
• The paint needs a touchup. Mimic the texture a paint roller leaves on the wall without calling the painter. Dip an old washcloth in the paint, dab it on the spot, and toss it away.
• The garage is stuffed. Before you call a carpenter to add more shelving, mount a section of wire shelving to the undersides of the beams to give you a row of neat storage nooks. Unlike solid shelving, wire lets you see what’s up there. Then pick up a pack of S-hooks at a home center, and turn a length of wire shelving intoa rack for holding garden and/or cleaning gear.

Interested in more home improvement tips? Feel free to contact me directly.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

When you apply for a mortgage, a lender will decide how much money its willing to give you to put toward the purchase of a house. That doesnt necessarily mean that you should take out a loan for the full amount. In some cases, borrowing the maximum a lender will allow could leave you overwhelmed by debt.

How Lenders Decide How Much You Can Borrow
Lenders base their mortgage decisions on several factors, including credit score and length of credit history, but the most important factor is a borrowers debt-to-income ratio. This is the sum of all debts, including a mortgage, credit card minimum payments, and vehicle, student, and personal loans.

Most lenders want borrowers to devote no more than 28 percent of their gross income to a mortgage, property taxes, and homeowners and private mortgage insurance. They also want total debt payments to be no more than 36 percent of gross income. If your debt-to-income ratio is higher than these limits, a lender may reject your application or approve you for a loan at a high interest rate.

Reasons Not to Borrow as Much as You Can
A lender may approve you for a mortgage up to a high amount, but it might not make sense to borrow the full amount if your other, non-home-related debts are high. For example, if you have credit card payments that, when combined with home-related expenses, would put your total debt payments over 36 percent, you could find yourself struggling to meet all your obligations. You might have other expenses that take up a significant portion of your income. For instance, daycare costs, college tuition and medical bills could make it impossible for you to afford a high mortgage payment, even if a lender offered it.

Consider your long-term financial goals. If you have credit card bills you want to pay off quickly, you can pay more than the minimums due each month, but that might make your total debt payments too high to manage with a large mortgage. If you plan to buy a new car sometime soon, a car payment plus a high monthly mortgage payment could be hard to manage. If you want to set aside money for retirement or for your childrens college education, take those goals into account.

Dont Take on More Debt Than You Can Handle
When shopping for a home, its easy to get in over your head. Just because you can borrow a large sum of money, that doesnt mean you should. You probably have several other current and future expenses that could affect your ability to manage mortgage payments. Look at your entire financial picture and make a responsible decision that will allow you to cover all your bills and live comfortably.

This article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as professional or legal advice.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

If you bought a house with a mortgage, odds are the lender required you to pay for private mortgage insurance (PMI). This insurance is designed to protect the lender if you stop making payments on your home loan.

Although lenders typically dont require PMI if a homebuyer makes a down payment of at least 20 percent, most buyers put down less and end up having to pay for PMI as part of their monthly mortgage payments. This extra expense can add thousands of dollars to the cost of homeownership over the years.

The good news is that you dont have to pay for PMI forever. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, federal law gives you the following rights to eventually remove PMI from your loan:

Request PMI Cancellation
You have the right to request that your mortgage servicer cancel PMI when youve reached the date when the principal balance of your mortgage is scheduled to fall to 80 percent of the original value of your home. This date shouldve been given to you in writing on a PMI disclosure form when you received your mortgage.

You can ask to cancel PMI earlier if youve made additional payments that reduce the principal balance to 80 percent of the original value of your home. For this purpose, original value generally means either the contract sales price or the appraised value of your home at the time you purchased it”whichever is lower (or, if youve refinanced, the appraised value at the time you refinanced).

If you want to cancel PMI, your request must be in writing and you must have a good payment history and be current on your payments. In addition, your lender may require you to certify that there are no junior liens, such as a second mortgage, on your home. Your lender can also require you to provide evidence, such as an appraisal, that the value of your property hasnt declined below its original value. If the value has decreased, you may not be able to cancel PMI at this time.

Automatic PMI Termination
Even if you dont ask your servicer to cancel PMI, your servicer still must automatically terminate PMI on the date when your principal balance is scheduled to reach 78 percent of the original value of your home. For your PMI to be cancelled on that date, you need to be current on your payments on the anticipated termination point. Otherwise, PMI will not be terminated until shortly after your payments are brought up to date.

Final PMI Termination
There is one other way you can stop paying for PMI. If youre current on payments, your lender or servicer must end PMI the month after you reach the midpoint of your loans amortization schedule. For 30-year loans, for example, the midpoint would be after 15 years have passed. This final termination applies even if you havent reached 78 percent of the original value of your home.

Notably, different rules might apply for Federal Housing Administration and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs loans, and some lenders and servicers may also allow for earlier removal of PMI under their own standards.Contact your servicer regarding PMI questions.

This article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as professional or legal advice.

Published with permission from RISMedia.