Your indoor air quality can have a significant impact on your health and well-being. Allergens, air pollutants, and other particles can accumulate in your home and lead to certain health issues, such as respiratory symptoms. Maintaining good indoor air quality is an important part of making sure that your luxury home provides you with a healthy living environment. The following options can help you improve the air quality in your home. 

Whole-House Air Purifier

Air purifiers are designed to remove harmful particles from the air inside homes and other buildings. While portable models are available for cleaning the air in smaller spaces, consider a whole-house air purifier for your spacious home. This type of air purifier connects to your HVAC ventilation system. When your heating or cooling system runs, filters that are part of the purifier trap harmful particles inside your ductwork. This prevents these particles from entering rooms and other areas of your home. Having a whole-house air purifier installed helps ensure that your entire home has good indoor air quality.

Air Filters

The air filters inside your HVAC system play a crucial role in catching pollutants, allergens, and other particles. These filters prevent particles from going through your ducts and out your vents into living spaces. If you’ve been using standard air filters, such as disposable fiberglass ones, they might be trapping some of these particles while letting others through. Switching to an air filter that is designed to catch smaller particles, such as a HEPA filter, means fewer harmful particles are able to get into the air inside your home. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to change your air filters every month or every few months, since dust and debris build up on them over time.

Dehumidifiers

High amounts of moisture in your home, especially on a regular basis, can lower your indoor air quality. Too much humidity makes it easier for mold and mildew to grow. High humidity levels can also make your home feel less comfortable overall. Portable and central dehumidifiers can help you gain better control over the humidity level in your home. A central dehumidifier is set up to maintain healthy humidity levels in all areas of your home. However, if you only have humidity or moisture problems in one area, you can opt for a portable dehumidifier instead.

There is no set amount that a homeowner should spend on a smart house device. In fact, depending on the smart gadgets you purchase, you may wind up spending only a few dollars, or hundreds, on these devices. But if you understand how to shop for smart home gadgets, you may be better equipped than other property owners to find high-quality and budget-friendly smart devices for your residence.

Now, let’s take a look at three tips to help you get the most out of your smart home device spending.

1. Choose Only the Smart Home Devices You Need

Although there are many smart home devices available, it is paramount to select only the ones you need for your house. That way, you can keep your smart home device spending in check. Plus, you can avoid the risk of buying smart home gadgets you ultimately won’t need.

As you try to sort between smart device wants from needs, consider your day-to-day activities. For instance, if you require energy-efficient and economical lighting for your house, you may want to invest in smart light bulbs. Or, if you are concerned about security, a smart home security system may be an ideal investment.

2. Shop Online and at Brick-and-Mortar Retailers

Smart home devices are available both online and at brick-and-mortar stores. If you shop for smart house gadgets from a variety of retailers, you may find some that offer the optimal combination of affordability, convenience, and quality.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions as you shop for smart home devices either. Remember, your goal as a homeowner is to find smart gadgets that can serve you well for an extended period of time. If you ask questions about smart home devices, you can gain the insights you need to make informed purchase decisions.

3. Consider Pre-Owned Smart Home Devices

Smart home device models are constantly evolving, and multiple generations of different gadgets may be available. Keep in mind, however, that an old smart home device model may suit you perfectly at a fraction of the cost of a new version.

Sometimes, you may find pre-owned smart home devices that work great and won’t break your budget. If you search smart home device listings on Craigslist and other online marketplaces, for instance, you may find lots of terrific pre-owned smart house gadgets. If you browse these gadgets closely, you may discover a pre-owned smart home device that corresponds to your budget.

For those who want to buy a smart home device, it often helps to remain flexible, too. If you are open to shopping for smart house gadgets from a wide range of manufacturers, you may quickly find a smart home device that is both expertly constructed and affordable.

Ready to purchase one or more smart home devices? Take advantage of the tips above to shop for smart house gadgets, and find devices that fall in line with your finances.

Children can develop some unhealthy eating challenges that often make it difficult for the parents to solve. It is a concern, especially if your child is not gaining weight because of this picky habit. If you have a picky eater in your hands, don’t despair. Some tips can help you remedy the situation.

According to research, it takes more than ten exposures to develop a liking for new food. These results include all kinds of edibles like fruits and vegetables too, contrary to popular belief. If your child has this annoying habit, how do you encourage them to stop? Read on!

1. Fixed Time
2. New Food
3. Include Them in the Process
4. No Short Order Cooking
5. Serve Smart Snacks

Keep mixing and matching your child’s favorite things until you come up with a reasonably consistent menu for them. Speak to your doctor if you notice any weight loss or health effects.

Federal law allows you to get your credit report free once per year. To do so, go to annualcreditreport.com and request your report. You need to do this at least once a year so that you can correct any errors or missing information.

Differences Between Credit Report & Credit Score

You typically have more than one credit score depending on its use. Two of the most common are the Vantage score and the FICO score. The Vantage score uses a different algorithm from the FICO score. Places such as your employer, auto insurance company or landlord typically use the Vantage score or one similar to it. Housing lenders more often use the FICO score. FICO has as many as 60 different scoring algorithms, as does Vantage scores. 

How Are FICO & Vantage Alike?

Currently, both scores range from about 300 (low) to 850 (best). In general, both Vantage and FICO use your payment history, the age of your accounts, balances versus available credit, type of debt you hold and how frequently you seek credit based on recent applications.

Types of debt can be revolving, such as a credit card; secured, like a home or auto loan; personal debt as when you take a consolidation loan, medical and education loans.

How Often Should You Check Your Scores?

While your credit report is free once a year, your credit scores from the three leading suppliers (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian) are not. But frequently, your bank, credit union, credit card providers and other financial institutions offer the opportunity to get them free. You should utilize these promotions as often as you can to keep on top of your score.

Each car payment you make — or when you pay off a credit card — changes your score. It could change by several points overnight too. Since credit “age” affects your score, don’t close old accounts. Periodically make a charge and then pay it off to keep that account active and in the mix.

New laws make it easier to see which score a lender uses too, so if you’re denied credit or offer a higher interest rate than you think you should be getting, you can check it out. When the two scores (Vantage and FICO) differ by a lot, you need to check your credit report to see what might be wrong. While it could just be the closing day of a credit card accounting cycle, it could also be something more serious like identity theft.

Nearly all real estate investment includes some amount of debt. Debt on its own isn’t necessarily a problem but too much debt can create challenges. So, how much debt is too much? We’ll give you some solid answers below.

Quick note: If you’re already a seasoned pro, you probably don’t need our advice. This information is primarily for first-time investors, “at-home investors”, and those who are just getting started with real estate investment.

Industry Average Debt to Equity Ratios

Before you can determine what the right level of debt is for you as an individual real estate investor, it’s important to understand some industry averages. Investopedia reports that the average debt to equity ratio for businesses in the entire real estate sector is 352%, or 3.5 to 1.

This is high compared to the broader marketplace, because in real estate there are physical buildings involved. Lenders know that even if something goes wrong, they’ll still be able to recoup their losses.

The 352% figure reflects a range, of course: real estate investment trusts run higher, closer to 366%. Real estate management companies, on the other hand, come in much lower at 164%. Solo/part-time/novice real estate investors also usually come in lower.

Numbers Decoded

Unsure what these numbers mean? That’s OK; we can explain. The debt component is easy enough: that’s how much you owe on your mortgage or mortgages. Equity is, more or less, how much you own plus how much cash you have available. So, a 3.5-to-1 debt-to-equity ratio means that for every $100 in assets, you have $350 in debt.

Put that in terms of real estate numbers, and it means that if an investor holds $350,000 in mortgage debt, he or she should have $100,000 in equity. And that’s for investors that are comfortable with the industry average debt ratios.

The concept of debt to equity ratio is a tricky one. Want to know more? Here’s a deeper dive on understanding debt to equity ratios.

Good Advice for New and Small Investors

All that is just background for the real question: how much debt is too much for the new/small/solo real estate investor? The industry average is likely a little steep for people in this category. It would be easy to get overextended at that ratio, despite the security that physical real estate provides.

The exact right answer varies for every investor. One independent professional (in other words, he does this full time) seeks to keep his ratio at 300% and recommends others do the same. If real estate is a true investment for you (meaning you’re not dependent on the income for your immediate needs), then this is a good target. If you are depending on your real estate investing income, then we recommend keeping the figure lower — perhaps 200% to 250%.

Need help finding your next investment property? Reach out today!

In 2021 it is expected that many people are going to be falling behind on their mortgages. As a result, this means that there are going to be a LOT of short sales in the market.

So Real Estate Agents – you need to ask yourselves a few questions:

1. How many short sales have you successfully closed?
2. How many short sales have you successfully negotiated?
3. If it has only been a few, are you able to handle multiple short sale negotiations at the same time?
4. Ultimately – Are you confident you’re going to be able to do what is BEST for your client when negotiating a short sale?

If you’re not feeling confident it’s OKAY.

Abba Loss Mitigation is here to help!

Our team has years of experience successfully negotiating thousands of bank approved short sales.

So, if you currently have any short sales you’re working on, some in your pipeline, or, you simply have questions, please give us a call or send us an e-mail.

We’re here to help you weather the storm.