Ma Homeowners Insurance With Wood Stove

SLADE COLUMN: Adding up cost of home

Those who have never bought a home have likely heard the suggestion that renting is like throwing money away.

Why rent when you could buy? Well, there are good cases to be made for renting, or buying, depending on your circumstances.

Renting means never having to worry about being trapped in an underwater mortgage, or making expensive repairs, and you can relocate when and where you want without worrying about selling a home.

But renting also means having to move when you don't want to, rent increases, maintenance issues beyond your control and nothing to show for all the money you've paid out.

Owning a home means stability, maybe more space and a yard, the freedom to paint the walls whatever color you choose, and a chance to build equity and hopefully gain an asset that will grow in value. With housing prices down, rents up, and mortgage rates at generational lows, it looks like a good time to buy a home.

But for those who aren't certain they're going to live in a home they buy for many years, buying can turn out to be a lot like renting, but with greater risk, more headaches, and unforeseen expenses.

With a 30-year mortgage, more than two-thirds of the money spent on mortgage payments during the first five years will go toward interest, building little equity (equity being the portion of the home's value that you own).

A column on this page last week made the point that first-time homebuyers may not be aware of all the costs associated with ownership. That's a good point, but let's go one more step and put some hard numbers on it.

By my calculations, I'd say a homebuyer should assume the basic monthly expenses will add around 50 percent to 75 percent to the mortgage payment. Here's the math:

The median price of a home sold in 2011 in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties was $186,050. So if a person puts down 10 percent and borrows the rest, with interest rates at 4 percent, the monthly payment on a 30-year loan would be about $800.

This Winter Keep Your Home Safe When Using Alternative Heating ...

While summer is here and many people are worried about keeping their homes cool, in a couple of months it will be time to start heating your home again. As it has turned out to be more expensive to heat oil, plenty of people want a new way to heat their houses. The thing is that these alternate methods also feature a greater risk of causing house fires. In this article we’ll be going over several ways to keep your home safe when using these alternative heating sources.

One thing many people do is usually to go out and get an electric heater or even an electric fireplace. It could be a huge fire danger depending on how you opt to set up your space heater or electric fireplace. When you’re not home, it is significant to know that you should switch off any of these units. It’s a huge fire danger having these generally safe units on while you are not at your house. When they are running you must also never place any objects near the devices. Just about any wall or object that is flammable must be at least 3 feet away from the unit. And ultimately you shouldn’t ever plug this kind of unit into a power strip.

Of course a number of other people get themselves a wood fire stove or a fireplace. It may be a fire hazard, but at the same time happens to be a great way to heat your home. Always employing professionals to install the stove for you even though you think can undertake it yourself is the smartest decision you can make. Correct set up will result in reducing the chance of fires and saving dollars.

Also once you have the unit in place you will need to make sure that you have your wood stove and chimney inspected and cleaned regularly. Creosote is considered the major explanation why chimney fires occur and it builds up over time in the chimney and stove. Another idea to be aware of is inserting a barrier made of metal or glass in front of the wood stove or fireplace. Flammable elements or carpeting that is near will likely not have a chance to ignite if sparks land on it because of the barrier. If you’re not in the home, it is a wise course of action to shut the wood stove or fireplace off.

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