Wanner's Site on Real Estate

Holidays Tips for Property Management

The holidays are rapidly approaching us and unfortunately that also means so is the potential for insurance claims. One particularly common (and risky) holiday activity is deep frying a turkey.

The number of fires reported on Thanksgiving Day are higher than any other day of the year, many of which start in garages or patios and account for over $15 million in property damage each year. Since we don’t want you to have to file a claim on your home this holiday season, we rounded up tips for keeping your house safe if you plan to deep fry your holiday bird.

Choose your location wisely.

You should NEVER use a fryer on a wooden deck or patio. You should also avoid using a fryer inside any enclosed space such as a garage or shed. Fryers should only be used outside on a hard level surface far from surrounding structures.

Read the instructions.

One of the biggest mistakes people make this time of year is not reading the safety instructions to their fryers. For example, over filling the fryer with oil and not fully thawing the turkey before placing it in the fryer can both lead to cooking disasters and injury. Make sure to read the all instructions and warnings that come with your specific fryer before the first use.

Keep a safe distance.

Not only should you keep the fryer a safe distance from structures, it is extremely important that you keep all children, pets and non cooking persons away from the fryer, even after you stop cooking because the oil in the fryers can stay dangerously hot for hours after use. While you should keep unnecessary people away, be sure the fryer is not left unattended while cooking. The temperature can continue rising until it catches fire without a thermostat control.

Use recommended safety equipment.

This one should be a no-brainer, but make sure to take necessary precautions during the entire process. It’s a good idea to wear well insulated oven mitts, long sleeves and safety goggles while cooking. You should also keep an ABC fire extinguisher nearby in case things get out of control.

Drop it like it’s hot.

My favorite recommendation is to “drop” doing the task yourself. Lots of local restaurants will let you preorder deep fried turkeys for pickup. Why put yourself and your home at risk, when you can let someone else “take the heat”. I for one would, rather spend my time watching football.

Whether you want to give frying your turkey a shot or hand it off to a pro, I hope your special bird is absolutely delicious!

If having all the family over on the holidays make you feel like you have outgrown your current home, gIve us a call! We’d love to help you find a new home perfectly suited to your growing needs!

Homebuyers' Walk-through: Reasons to Buy a Home

Buying your own home requires commitments in shape of finances, efforts and time. If you are able to manage all of these then do not think too much. Just buy a new home. It is time to settle down. There are also some marvelous financial and emotional benefits of buying a new home which is rundown here.

Benefit from Appreciation

Property prices fluctuate and appreciated with the passage of time. The homeowners who do not sell and buy their properties quickly, get the benefit from the appreciation. The fact is with the passage of time the building depreciates because of the tear and wear. The life of the infrastructure is short. The building’s value becomes down while this is not the case with the land. With the passage of time, the value of the land become increases. The land is the factor which appreciates your home’s value. That is why location is always very important in buying a home. You should always consider the area and the location of the home. So, you are able to sell your home at a good price in the future.

Gains on the Capital

You can gain maximum exclusion if you meet some basic requirements. If a married couple filing it jointly they can exclude $300,000 of gain on the $600,000 amount. But, for the gain exclusion you should meet the following requirements which are:

1. Ownership.

You must have possessed the ownership of the house for the minimum time period of 2 years and the total time duration should be 5 years.

2. Residence.

From these 5 years of time duration, you would have lived in for at least 2 years as a primary residence.

3. Look-back.

You are not allowed to eliminate the gain from the sale price of your any other home.

Increase in the Home Equity

Equity is important to know if you want to buy your own house. The two key factors in buying homes are mortgage amount and the current fair market value. You can differentiate between them by the value of home equity. Because home equity represents the difference between the value of both of them. With the time, you pay the mortgage and property appreciates. When you pay monthly mortgage installment, it decreases the total amount of your debt because of the principal balance. If you want to sell your home after a few years of buying, you can build the equity in the property but if you wait for a longer time you are able to maintain good home equity.

Deduction of Mortgage Interest

A heavy amount is required to pay mortgage interest every tax year but you can reduce it. You can deduct a huge amount by filing a form 1040. Another thing is you have to make payments on your main home or any other second home. That is usually called a qualified home. There is an amenity of special tax laws for your qualified home. You can deduct the mortgage interest amount from your only one qualified home. It may be a second home.

Deduction in Your Moving Expense

If you find a new job somewhere else, far away from your home. Or you want to move away for any other reason. You are an employee or self-employed, it may deduct some moving expense. In order to gain benefit to reduce your moving expense, you should follow these basic requirements.
Your distance should be on 50 to 60 miles. This distance is specified by IRS. Your new workplace should meet this distance requirement.
In the year you are moving, you should work for 39 weeks in the one whole year.
Time and space should be closely related to the start of the new work.

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