Q&A: Homeowner's Insurance Basics

Today we’re talking about homeowner’s insurance with Victoria Mendyka of Liberty Mutual. In particular, we’re interested in learning more about how to evaluate insurance policies to make sure the coverage is appropriate for our individual properties. Greater Hartford Real Estate Blog (GHREB): Most people don’t know a lot about homeowner’s insurance. They know that they need to have it, and that it is supposed to protect them if something bad happens at their home. Let’s

Buyers and the Home Buyer Credit

If you are a buyer thinking about taking advantage of the home buyer credit in the next few months (first time or current owners looking to move up), here are some things to think about… 1. You’ll need to have a fully signed and accepted contract in place by April 30, 2010. Given that, you most likely want to start looking at homes not much later than the beginning of February. This will give you

Nice Chimney!

Home inspectors almost always find something wrong with chimneys. They’re just not a part of the home that owners think about on a regular basis, so routine maintenance is often ignored. Sometimes they simply need to be cleaned, other times the outside needs repointing, and on occasion there are major structural issues. So when representing buyers, we’ll always sneak a quick peek at the outside of the chimney to see if it might lead to

Existing Homeowners and the Tax Credit

I’ve been getting a lot of phone calls and emails from existing homeowners during the last two weeks. They want to know if they qualify for the $6,500 home buying tax credit that was recently signed into law. The new rules for current homeowners regarding this credit are: 1. You must have lived in your current home consecutively for 5 of the last 8 years. 2. You must have a written, fully accepted contract on

What To Do With That Koi Pond

You bought a house. As part of the landscaping, it has a Koi pond in the back yard. It’s nice and all, but you’re really not that interested in taking care of the Koi and you’ve got small kids that are going to use it alternatively as a swimming pool. Not good. So, what are you going to do with these fish? And then what are you going to do with the resulting hole that’s