What is PMI?

PMI is Mortgage Insurance that is generally required on higher risk, higher leverage mortgages that protects the lender from a home owners inability to pay the mortgage. I'm sure that didn't help, let's take a closer look.

A "standard" 80/20 mortgage means …

Yes, Oil Heat is More Expensive. But How Much Will It Really Cost a Homeowner?

In the past couple of years, my home buyers have been looking for natural gas heat homes, almost without exception. Suddenly, everyone wants Nat gas! I spent some time today gathering significant information to help …

Light bulbs? Why talk about Light bulbs?

It used to be, not so long ago, that buying a lightbulb was a very simple process. Go to the store, find the right size bulb, and purchase. All the lights were incandescent bulbs, (the ones with filament), and they lasted a while …

Massachusetts Tax Rates from Most to Least-2015 Preliminary Rates, 2014 and 2013 actuals

Here's a link to the list alphabetically....

Here's a link to last years version of this list.

These rates are reposted from the Mass.gov websites.  They are sorted by Residential rate …

Continuing with my IDEA series, we have baths on the menu today.

Here's my slideshow for baths. My thoughts are below in the captions. The full ideabook from Houzz can be found here.

Enjoy!

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Ideas to Help Get you Started on a New Kitchen

Most people are pretty clear about one thing when it comes to new kitchens. It's a lot of work to do! But I also think they have a lot of anxiety about contractors and making the decisions …

Towns see Strong Demand, Effect on Prices Can be Seen

I'm going to show you a chart. But before you go see the chart, I need to give some preliminary disclosures:

A) This chart shows the change in prices based on $/sq foot from the winter to …

There's this website I found call Houzz. It has some really great content on there. I know a picture can speak 100 words, and I can never find the right picture when I need to. I'm going to try to build some pages here of good ideas. Here …

Do I Need Flood Insurance on my Home?

Today's update is on the topic of flood insurance. Insurance is (obviously), very important for every homeowner. For many of us, insurance is something that we try to get a competitive price for, but don't really understand what we …

One of my least favorite spring-time rituals is the sighting of my first carpenter ant in my house.  Seeing a few of these pests is pretty normal, they are known to travel as much as 300 feet in their search for food.  They don't eat wood, but they do tunnel through it   Generally …