Tips

Found 205 blog entries about Tips.

There are plenty of reasons why you should boost your credit score. But if you’re preparing to purchase a house, know that an exceptional credit score can increase your chances of getting a lower interest rate on your home loan. 

If you want to raise your credit score, there are several quick, simple things that you can do. While it might take some months to see an improvement in your credit score, you can start boosting your credit in just a few hours.

What is a Credit Score?

A credit score is a number from 300 to 850 that predicts your likelihood of repaying your debt. The higher the score, the better a borrower looks to potential lenders.

Your credit score is calculated based on various factors: payment history, debt burden, length of

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Watching a movie in your back yard with your family and friends is a fun, memorable way to make the most of your outdoor space. We’re fortunate to live in Middle Tennessee, where the beautiful weather makes it ideal for cuddling up beneath the stars throughout many months of the year.

Whether you plan to keep it simple with just the essentials or go all-in making the ultimate home theater setup, we’ll walk you through your options and make recommendations to help you achieve success. 

Essentials

While there are projectors that play sound, their onboard speakers offer poor projection and lack any richness of tone. Instead, we recommend that you purchase speakers along with your projector and screen. You can use your existing digital media

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Eco-friendly flooring is a more popular flooring choice now than at any time previously—particularly within this century. Homeowners like you are increasingly motivated to ensure that their renovations and upgrades are as green as possible, with building materials and appliances remaining the most common starting points. Today, we’re sharing our top ten eco-friendly flooring options, so be sure to read through to the end before you spring for your upcoming flooring remodel.

What makes flooring material eco-friendly?

The main factors that determine how green a flooring material is are:

  • Whether or not it is made from recycled, renewable, or sustainably sourced materials
  • The nature of the chemicals required for production, maintenance,
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Being a part of a military family means you may not have a permanent address for some time. It’s common to receive orders to move to another station even if you’ve just settled into a house and neighborhood you love.

To make the experience easier, we share some tips on buying and selling your home as a military family.

Should you buy a house or not?

When you’re an active service member, you’ll receive a BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing), whether renting or buying. The amount depends on your pay grade, where you’re living, and your dependency status.

Buying a home is a good option if you want lower monthly payments than renting, but if you think you’ll get transferred in a short time, you’ll probably want to hold off a bit. The reason is

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Purchasing your own home may be the largest purchase you can make. The median monthly mortgage payment in the U.S. is $1,100, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau — and this doesn’t include other costs related to homeowners insurance and property taxes. 

If you want to save thousands on your home purchase, there are multiple ways to reduce your total cost. Read on and discover four ways to save money on your home purchase.

Expand Your Search Area & Criteria

If you’re searching for a house in the city center or a specific area, but you now realize it’s very much out of your budget, you may want to try broadening your search area. By re-prioritizing, the items on your wish list can give you opportunities you didn’t even think about, which

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Power outages are an unpredictable (thankfully rare) challenge that most of us have experienced at least once. The degree of inconvenience you will experience during a power outage is determined by how prepared you are when it occurs. For this reason, we strongly recommend that every homeowner learn about how to prepare for a power outage, and then stay prepared at all times.

The type of preparations you’ll want to undertake to prepare for a power loss in the peak of summer will be different from one that arrives on the winds of a winter storm. Our suggestions will include helpful tips for each season.

Stock an Emergency Preparedness Kit

An emergency preparedness kit is an essential safety step for all homeowners. While the items your

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As a renter, you weren’t responsible for performing routine home maintenance, let alone dealing with repairs and emergencies. As a homeowner, however, it’s essential that you are financially prepared to handle each of these unavoidable events. While facing repairs and emergency expenses will still be stressful, being prepared for them will ensure that your financial position isn’t threatened by the unexpected.

As you read through our recommendations, keep in mind that they are developed with the average expenses faced by a homeowner in the US. If you have purchased a new home, your repair fund will not need to be as large. If you’ve purchased a home that is over 30 years old, plan for roof, plumbing, window, HVAC, and electrical issues that are

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While house hunting, you might have seen some listings of homes sold “as is.” Home buyers might find these types of homes attractive because they’re typically priced lower than similar houses. Before you purchase an “as is” home, you must be able to decipher if the home is sketchy or not.

Here’s what to watch for if you plan to purchase a home as is.

Potential Foundation Problems

Correcting foundation problems is one of the most expensive repairs you can do to your property. The foundation of a house is one of the most, if not the most important, part of a house. Purchasing a home with a faulty foundation can cause you thousands of dollars to fix the problem.

All poured concrete foundations will crack sooner or later, but hairline cracks

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One aspect of home ownership that we appreciate most is the ability to choose a home that perfectly suits our needs. A growing family will often choose to upsize, perhaps making room for children, pets, crafting areas, or a home office. At a later stage, however, homeowners may begin to recognize several signs it’s time to downsize.

There are plenty of benefits to be gained by downsizing. Still, we recognize how difficult it can be to leave behind a home in which your most precious memories have been made.

Let’s go through several excellent reasons to downsize.

You Plan to Age in Place

Aging in place has multiple proven benefits, including improved physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being metrics. Still, if your current home

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In the US, 60% of people say they play video games at least once per day, and 70% of gamers are over the age of 18. The average gamer is now 34 years old, meaning that millennial homeowners are statistically very likely to be invested in gaming on at least one of the popular platforms. Today’s blog post is all about creating the ultimate gaming room here in Middle TN!

Spring for High-Speed Internet

While 5 Mbps may be sufficient when you’re streaming HD content online, it’s the bare minimum for online gaming. We recommend that avid online gamers (especially those who share their internet connection with other family members who game or stream content at the same time) invest in the best internet speeds available.

Pro Tip: Make sure the

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