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Adding some extra warmth to your bathrooms boosts your home value while also ensuring that you’ll have a well-heated and comfortable environment for bathing and showering during winter. With these heating options, you can warm up your bathrooms as needed without having to turn up your thermostat, causing your furnace to run more often. Consider the following high-end heating ideas to keep your bathrooms feeling cozy this winter.
Radiant floor heating provides a way to warm up your bathroom floors, so you won’t be walking on cold surfaces. Whether your bathroom floors are made of natural stone or elegant tile, these materials tend to stay cool to the touch, even when you have your furnace running. Having a radiant floor heating system installed means you can have warm floors to step on when you’re getting in and out of your shower or tub.
Different types of radiant floor heating systems are available for bathrooms, including electric, air-heated, and hydronic. Each type generates heat that moves up through your floors, efficiently keeping them as warm as needed. This type of heating system also helps keep your bathrooms warmer overall, since heated air rises.
Towel warmers offer a convenient way to make sure you always have a warm towel available to wrap yourself in after taking a bath or shower. Rather than going with a standard one with a simple design and features, consider getting high-end models with more to offer. Luxury towel warmers are available in hydronic and electric models. Hydronic models connect to your plumbing to use heated water to warm up towels, while electric ones use your home’s electrical system.
High-end towel warmers often have extra features, such as heated shelves rather than racks or hanging racks and hooks for holding robes or hand towels. Some towel warmers also have a timer that you can set to turn on at certain times, so you don’t have to wait long for your towels to warm up.
Bathroom exhaust fans are a standard part of ventilating these areas of your home and preventing too much moisture from building up. You can add heat to these fans for instant warmth, as well as lighting for added safety when you’re walking around at night. Some exhaust fan combinations include an infrared lamp that provides a direct source of heat in the area outside of your tub or shower. With some models, you can automatically have your fan combination, including heat, come on as soon as you step into your bathroom and shut off when you leave.
If you’re interested in purchasing a luxury home or selling one, please feel free to reach out.
Image by June Hanabi from Pixabay
Buying a home is never easy, but it can be especially challenging if you're making your purchase from a remote location, like when you're buying a vacation home. If you're purchasing a second home or a vacation property in the next few months, these tips can help you through the process. By doing your homework, working with the right real estate professional, and by making decisions in advance, you can make the purchasing process easier on yourself. Here's what you need to know.
Mortgages for vacation homes often require a larger down payment than primary residences. In addition, some loans that can be used to purchase primary residences cannot be used to buy vacation homes. For example, you can't pay for a vacation home with an FHA loan.
You may be able to deduct the mortgage interest from your taxes, but only up to a certain amount. Your accountant can help you understand how the mortgage deduction will work before you buy the house. Call your accountant before getting into the home purchase process, so you can be fully aware of the tax implications before finalizing the purchase.
Sit down with your family before you start shopping for a home. Have discussions that will focus your search. Ask questions like: Where do we want to buy? How big will the house be? How large should the lot be? Answering these questions in advance will help you narrow your search and keep it focused on houses that are likely to make you happy.
Are homes competitive in the area where you'd like to buy? Do they go fast? Must you act quickly? What's the price range of homes you'd like to buy? What's the forecast for real estate in the area? Having answers to these questions will help you make decisions that will inform your home buying process. Some of this information can be found online, but the best and most accurate way to get a lot of this information is to work with a reputable real estate professional.
Much of the home buying process can be done remotely. PDF document signing technology has made it easy to make offers and send documents to home buyers from out of state or even out of the country. However, it's still advisable to make at least one trip to the area and see the house you'd like to buy in-person before making an offer.
Very likely, you won't find the house you want to buy in the first trip. Plan to make at least one (and possibly two or more) trips to the area where you'd like to purchase. Plan your trips carefully to ensure each trip is productive. Make a list of properties to see before leaving. Communicate your list of properties with your real estate agent in advance, so your real estate professional can make appointments to see homes before you arrive.
Work with a real estate agent who has facilitated long distance purchases in the past, and who has strategies for helping out of town buyers. To find a real estate agent, interview reputable candidates before settling on the right one for you. The real estate professional you choose should be friendly, communicative and confident in their ability to help. Working with the right real estate agent, you'll be able to get the job done, even when you're not in town.
Perhaps one of the most challenging things about buying a home is saving for the downpayment. Collecting such a large sum of money can be difficult. The truth is that most buyers actually think that they need more than they actually do to buy a home. The downpayment doesn’t need to be a barrier to your path to homeownership. There are so many programs that offer low and even no down payment home loans. Read on to learn more about down payments and programs that can help you.
First, let’s look at what a down payment is and how it can help you. If you put 10% down on a $200,000 home that’s $20,000. The downpayment minus the purchase price of the home is $180,000, and that's how much your home loan will be. The more money you can put down on the house, the lower your home loan will be and the lower your monthly mortgage payments will be. A large down payment can indeed save you in the long term. If you’re looking to move into a home sooner rather than later, saving a considerable sum isn’t always possible.
Low Downpayment Mortgages
You need to decide what type of home loan you need by the amount of downpayment you’re willing and able to put down. Some benefits go along with making a down payment, but there are some negatives.
By making a substantial down payment you may despite your savings, leaving little money for emergencies. Your mortgage rate may not be affected by a large downpayment either. It can be hard to decide what type of loan to get and just how much you really can afford.
FHA Loans
FHA loans are among the most popular type of home loans. The downpayment that’s required is just 3.5%. The requirements are simple, and you don’t have to be a first-time homebuyer to qualify.
The drawback to an FHA loan is that you cannot cancel the monthly mortgage insurance that comes along with it unless you refinance the home. Traditional mortgage insurance is canceled when you have built up 20% equity in the house, but this isn’t the case with FHA loans.
Another positive about FHA loans is that your credit score doesn’t have to be stellar in order for you to qualify. Some lenders approve FHA loans with credit scores as low as 580.
VA Home Loans
Buyers who have current or former military service status can qualify for this zero down mortgage. These loans are benefits to veterans and current members of the Armed Forces. While no downpayment is required, buyers may put down any amount they wish. The only requirements are that buyers be members of the military either currently serving for 90 days or two years of active duty service if not an active member.
The above options are great for those who can’t afford or don’t wish to put down large down payments but still hope to be homeowners.
