Category Archives: Home Improvement

Buying a Home, Finances, Home Improvement, Investing in Real Estate, Selling a Home

How Long Should You Keep Financial Records

As a general rule, keep in mind the following:

Taxes; Returns; Cancelled checks/receipts (alimony, charitable contributions, mortgage interest and retirement plan contributions); Records for tax deductions taken: Seven Years

  • The IRS has three years from your filing date to audit your return if it suspects good-faith errors.
  • The three-year deadline also applies if you discover a mistake in your return and decide to file an amended return to claim a refund.
  • The IRS has six years to challenge your return if it thinks you under reported your gross income by 25% or more.
  • There is no time limit if you failed to file your return or filed a fraudulent return.

IRA contribution records: Permanently

If you made a nondeductible contribution to an IRA, keep the record indefinitely to prove that you already paid tax on this money when the time comes to withdraw. read more

Home Improvement, Home Trends

3 Tips to Reviving Your Kitchen

Are you ready for a kitchen upgrade but lacking an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kind of budget? Plenty of low-cost improvements can revive a kitchen without the need to rip out cabinets and rewire appliances. Consider these tips from This Old House and HGTV.

Color Splash: With a new coat of paint and some other accents, you might not even recognize your own kitchen. Make over dark wood or white cabinets with a cool hue, such as pale sage green, or create visual impact by painting a focal point, such as your island, a bold color. A tile backsplash, graphic prints and new hardware are also inexpensive ways to add personality. Consider a new and easy-to-clean linoleum floor in a shade such as Red Amaranth. read more

Home Improvement, Home Trends, Investing in Real Estate, Selling a Home

Return on Investment

Remodeling and replacement projects can add value to your home, but some projects recoup their costs better than others. According to Remodeling Magazine’s 2015 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report, small and exterior projects return the most value for your money.

The project that offered the best value overall was a steel entry door replacement, which recouped 101.8 percent of its costs when the home was sold. The steel entry door is consistently the least expensive project named in the report, costing about $1,200 on average. The second best value is the addition of a manufactured stone veneer, which can recoup 92.2 percent of its original cost, but be prepared to invest at least $7,000 for the improvement. read more

Home Improvement, Home Trends

Out Cold

Before the hustle and bustle of the holiday season sets in, add winter-proofing chores to your home to-do list. Protect your home from winter’s woes with these tips from RealEstate.com.

Heating Basics Replace old thermostats with programmable ones that allow you to lower the temperature when you’re away from home. Turn on your furnace to ensure it works (run it the full cycle from warm-up to blowing heat to shutting back off again). Peek into your ducts and clean away the mold, pests and debris. read more