home warranty benefits for homeowners

6 Home Warranty Benefits for Homeowners

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A home warranty is the best way to protect your home and your investment. Home warranties can help keep your home looking its best and ensure everything in it, like appliances, is in working order. Whether your home is new or old, discover these six home warranty benefits for homeowners.

Home Warranty vs. Home Insurance

First and foremost, note that a home warranty is not the same as home insurance. A home warranty is a contract between a homeowner and a home warranty company that provides discounted repair and replacement services on a home’s major appliances, including your HVAC system, furnace, plumbing, electrical and other appliances.

Home insurance, on the other hand, protects your home against unforeseen damage caused by natural disasters. This can be damage caused by hail, high winds, rain and more. However, it will not help cover normal wear and tear on your home.

Reasons To Have a Home Warranty for a New Home

Your home warranty coverage does not change based on the age of your home. But your reasons for a warranty may vary depending on the age of your home. For new homeowners, check out these three reasons to consider a home warranty.

Protect expensive appliances.

Many new homes come with new appliances. A home warranty can help protect those appliances if something stops functioning or needs fixing. With this coverage, many household appliances can be repaired or replaced with a comparable item.

Home system repairs.

Although new homes may have fewer issues than older homes, they still have maintenance concerns. For example, if your garage door isn’t working, your toilet won’t stop running, or your garbage disposal is clogged, your home warranty can help cover the cost of a service visit or repairs.

Handyman services.

Not sure who to call to repair an appliance? Your home warranty company has agreements with approved service providers. If one of your appliances breaks and is covered by your home warranty, contact the home warranty company. They will send a technician to assess the situation. Once your coverage is confirmed, they will arrange for the repair or replacement of the appliance for a small service fee.

Reasons To Have a Home Warranty for an Older Home 

Older homes may have more pop-up and planned maintenance projects than newer ones. To account for this and other cosmetic details that may arise due to age, here are three home warranty benefits for homeowners of older homes.

Repair of aging home systems.

Certain components of your home systems can deteriorate, even with routine maintenance. If a home system dies due to age, a home warranty can often help with the repair or replacement expenses.

Replace older appliances.

Are your aging appliances suddenly not keeping up with household demands? It may be time to replace them. Fortunately, a home warranty can help pay for new appliances without disrupting your household budget.

Home exterior maintenance.

If the older home you fell in love with needs some exterior work, a home warranty means using their handyman services to assist with the upkeep of your home’s exterior, from pressure washing to landscaping.

Summary

Even though a home warranty isn’t the perfect solution for every risk or hidden cost of owning a home, there are many home warranty benefits for homeowners. Ultimately, things can go wrong, and a home warranty can be the difference between draining your savings or paying a small fee and avoiding unexpected expenses.

Need guidance? Connect with a Lee County Association of REALTORS member, and continue reading our blogs for more.

safety tips for homeowners and buyers

7 Safety Tips for Homeowners and Buyers

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Whether you’ve lived in your home for years or just moved in, review these seven safety tips for homeowners and buyers to better protect your family and property.

Research an area before you buy a home.

A good place to start when it comes to researching a city you may move to is with a local expert, like a Realtor. They will have the knowledge and resources readily available to help you find a neighborhood and home you will feel comfortable in.

You can also find helpful search tools, data, tips and more with online resources like SafeWise, for example.

Get to know your neighbors.

This is one of the safety tips for homeowners and buyers that is also good for your social life! In general, neighbors who get to know each other tend to look out for each other.

Not only is a sense of community created among friendly neighbors, but it also creates a safety network. Your neighbors could be the first ones to notice if something isn’t quite right, including signs of a fire or unfamiliar faces roaming around your home.

Stay diligent with your home security.

Staying safe does take a little effort. For instance, it’s a good idea to keep windows and doors locked while you are home or away. Ask your neighbors to keep an eye on your property if you are going out of town.

Leave a light on, whether you are home or away. Another good safety tip is to keep your location secure by not tagging it on social media accounts when you are on vacation or just out and about around town.

Improve the lighting around your house.

This is a simple, yet effective home safety tip. Consider adding more outdoor lights to protect your property. Options include motion-sensor lights and automated lights connected to your home security system.

Store hazardous materials safely.

From cleaning supplies like laundry pods to gasoline for the lawn mower, remember to safely store any chemicals and hazardous materials away from children and pets.  

Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

As soon as you move in, walk through your new home and find all of the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. If there aren’t any carbon monoxide detectors, consider adding a few.

After finding the detectors, double check the batteries or go ahead and replace them. Remember to check all your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors regularly.

Work with a Realtor.

Finally, when it comes to safety tips for homeowners and buyers, working with a Realtor is a good place to start! Think of local Realtors as your local experts in terms of home security and community safety. Oftentimes, they can connect you with additional community resources.

Summary

Are you asking yourself where to start when it comes to finding that local expert in Lee County? Start with us! You can search for Realtors, find other community resources and learn more about the local real estate market by reading our blogs.

potential homeowner tax breaks for 2022

5 Potential Homeowner Tax Breaks for 2022

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The due date for taxes is April 18, 2023. But before you file, be sure you are aware of the tax perks of homeownership. Check out these five potential homeowner tax breaks for 2022.

Mortgage interest 

The mortgage interest deduction is an itemized deduction. This means that for it to work in your favor, all your itemized deductions need to be greater than the standard deduction.

Note that for the 2022 tax year, those standard deduction amounts increased. For individuals, this deduction is now $12,950, and for married couples filing jointly, it is now $25,900. For the head of household, this deduction went up to $19,400. And if you are 65 or older, you can add on an extra $1,400 per person if you are married and filing jointly or an extra $1,750 if you are a single filer.

And remember—the more recent your mortgage, the greater your tax savings will be.

Property taxes

Property taxes are on that itemized list of all your deductions that must add up to more than your standard deduction.

Taxpayers can take one $10,000 deduction. This deduction is capped at $10,000 for those who are married and filing jointly.

Note: If you have a mortgage, your property taxes are built into your monthly payment.

Interest on a home equity line of credit

If you have a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, the interest you pay on that loan is deductible only if that loan is used specifically to “buy, build or improve a property.”

Essentially, you will have some cash if your home needs repairs or upgrades. But you cannot use that money for things such as weddings or college tuition.

You can deduct up to the $750,000 cap—this is for the amount you pay in interest on your HELOC and mortgage combined. But note, if you took out a HELOC before the new 2018 tax plan for anything other than improvements to your home, you cannot deduct the interest.

Home offices

Are you self-employed, with your home office being your principal place of work? Good news! You can deduct $5 per square foot, up to 300 square feet, of office space. The maximum deduction your home office can receive is $1,500.

For those taking this deduction, know that there are very strict rules on what constitutes fully-deductible home office space.

In addition, understand that if you are still working remotely, you are still a W-2 employee and are not eligible for this deduction under the CARES Act.

Home improvements

To receive the home improvement tax break, your improvements have to exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.

Deductible improvements can include widening doorways, lowering cabinets, fixing electrical or adding stairlifts. For some homeowners who plan to add renovations such as wheelchair ramps and grab bars in the bathrooms, for example, the cost of improvements can result in a nice tax break.

You will need a letter from your doctor to prove that these changes were medically necessary.

Summary

Be sure you keep these potential homeowner tax breaks for 2022 in mind when filing your taxes in 2023. These breaks and homeownership tax perks can save you money!

Finally, continue reading our blogs for more real estate tips and news.