Category: Guest Blog Posts

Effective Tips To Help Buy Energy Efficient Homes

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

In the last few years, the cost of energy has significantly increased. As a result, people have been troubled because of high energy bills and are trying to lower their costs all of the time. Thus, many people have been looking to buy energy-efficient homes. Buying eco-friendly homes is not just a trend anymore. It has become a desire for most buyers. Unfortunately, most buyers don’t have proper knowledge about energy-efficient or ‘green’ homes. If you are one of those buyers, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will give you some tips for buying an energy-efficient home.

High-Ranked Energy Star Heating Systems

An energy-efficient home should have a high-ranked energy star heating system. Such systems allow you to choose rooms that you want to heat at a particular time. For instance, if you spend most of your time in the bedroom, there’s no need to heat the whole house and raise your energy bill. It is also worth mentioning that gas heaters are more economical than electric heaters. On the other hand, electric underfloor heating can prove to be quite expensive. Therefore, you will have to choose an alternative. You need to choose a heating system as per your needs and requirements.

Proper Insulation and Seals

Before buying a home, you should make sure that it is properly insulated. If your home is insulated properly, an appropriate temperature will be maintained in your house. Heat won’t be lost through your home’s windows, ceiling, walls, and so on. Thus, you will not have to keep the heater on at all times. With proper insulation, your home will save a lot of energy. Before you buy a home, make sure you check the draft seals around doors and windows. The home should be properly insulated. If it is not, you will have to ask your home builder to make the necessary modifications.

Buy A North Facing Home

North-facing homes are always better because of passive solar heating. Due to this, your home stays warm during the winter season. If you want to buy an energy-efficient home, a north facing home will be your best choice. If it’s a new construction, ask your home builder to construct a north facing home, as you can always make new requests concerning your home building as most builders have their home building privileges and codes.

Energy Efficient Hot Water Systems

In most of the homes, hot water is one of the major reasons for raised energy bills. Thus, you should buy a house with energy efficient or star rated hot water systems. It is better to use a solar water heater. It significantly reduces your energy costs. As mentioned earlier, a gas water heating system will be more economical than an electric water heating system.

Solar Heating for Pool and Spa

If you have a pool or spa in your home, it will be economical to use solar heating with it. You can also buy certain covers to make sure the temperature of the pool is maintained. This way, you will not need an additional booster. If you can’t avoid a pump, make sure you buy an energy efficient model.

All the factors mentioned above will have a major impact on energy consumption. If your home lacks these features, you need to consider installing them. This will help you save a lot of money and make your home more comfortable.

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Tips And Tricks For The Transnational House Mover

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Relocating to a new place is always a challenging task, but when you’re planning a transnational move it becomes all the more difficult because there is so much to take care of! Shifting to a new country can be a very new and startling experience, so we have put together a number of tips for you to help you become the most efficient cross-border house mover ever!
Do Away With Everything That You Don’t Need

When you are moving internationally, you really cannot afford to be a pack-rat and take everything along with you. You must be pragmatic about what you decide to take along because it is going to add considerably to your load and your expenses. And except for things that are very useful, very expensive and very important to you, you should get rid of everything else. After all, you can probably buy everything again in the new place, and get newer models at that, and even so you’ll be spending less money than you would on shipping and airfreight.
Make Sure You Have An Account With A Major International Bank
This is one of the first things you should do when you learn of your impending move. If you have been using a local or regional banking service up until now you should most certainly shift to an internationally popular, well-known banking chain, after making sure that it has branches in the city you’re about to move to. You don’t want to find yourself stuck with a bank account and ATM card that are more or less useless in the new place. And you might even be able to make do with the same for a short time, but when you are relocating you will have to ultimately transfer to a bank that’s fully functional in your new city.
Make Scanned Copies Of All Your Important Documents
Photocopy and scan all your important documents and arrange them neatly in a single folder with other important items. Make sure you keep some electronic versions of all your documents too, so that if you are to misplace the folder or you can’t find it immediately in the new place, you have another option to fall back on. It’s important to have multiple, clear copies of all your identification documents, banking documents and other official and useful paperwork.

Hire A Reliable Moving Company That Specializes In Transnational Moves

It is nearly impossible to plan a transnational move all on your own. Even the most basic tasks require the attention of someone who has experience and first-hand knowledge about how to get things done. There is a lot of paperwork and many formalities involved with moving to a new country, and working with a moving company that specializes in international re-locations can help you overcome a lot of hurdles with ease.
When you are planning to relocate to a different company, not only do you have to take care of the removals process itself, but also attend to other tasks such as getting all your paperwork and documentation processed, making travel arrangements, making sure everything is set up at the new place, and doing some of the other things we mentioned in this article. In the midst of everything that you will have going on, won’t it be a relief to delegate the responsibility of packing and moving to a team of professionals who are known to be good at the job?
The most important tip that we can share with you is this: whatever you are planning and need to do, make sure you begin well ahead of the move. A transnational move is a large-scale project and you will need all the time you can get! Don’t wait until the last month to start the process.

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Lesser Known Tips To Help You Sell Your Home

Posted on by Jenny Zamora
Mirage Sapele Natural

 

Tidy your home, move some of the clutter away and always keep your home looking ‘show-room-ready’ on the off chance that someone will turn up for a last-minute viewing. These are very common tips you’re told from the very start when you first decide to pack up and sell your home. But what about the tricks you don’t get to hear about so much? We’ve uncovered some lesser-known, yet invaluable house selling tips you may not have come across before.

Learn Which Rooms Sell

What’s the most important and saleable room in the house? That’s right, it’s your kitchen! A remodel of your kitchen will work wonders on your selling potential and it doesn’t have to cost you the earth. Look into updating the cabinet doors, or freshen up the room with a lick of paint. Think about how you can make it look more spacious. Buyers know themselves how expensive a kitchen can be to re-decorate, so if they see yours and hate it; it could knock thousands off their offer.

Build up some interest

Imagine that you’ve seen a rail of beautiful coats in a sale, but no one else seems interested – would you buy one? Maybe.  But you can’t say it wouldn’t cross your mind as to why no one else is taking an interest. Buying a house is much the same thing, except on a much bigger scale. With houses, buyers are all vying for the same types of property, but only one person can get each house. Competition is fierce, so you need to make sure your house is the main contender. Consider asking your friend to pop over while you have another visitor round, to pretend they’re interested in buying it. Build up a ‘buzz’ around your house, and don’t forget about marketing it yourself online.

Lighting

Lighting is far too often overlooked when it should be one of the most important house-selling considerations. How a buyer sees your home in that one quick nip around, is how they will envisage their lives in the property every day. No one wants to walk into a dingy house – no matter how tidy it is! Let as much sunshine in as you can. Keep the blinds up, turn the light around to put its focus in the center of the room, or even change some light bulbs to increase the wattage. These are some quick fixes you can take into account, but if you want to make a real difference – consider investing in some stylish lighting options. It doesn’t cost much and will be well worth the investment in the long run!
It’s the little things that count so try to think outside the box. Don’t just look at furnishings and the general look of the house either, check-in the nooks and crannies to see if you can spot anything that a potential buyer might not like – because this is what they’ll be doing too!

If you have any other lesser-known tips for selling houses in Orlando, be so kind as to share the juicy details in the comments section below.

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Organize your kitchen once and for all

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

No matter whether you are moving to a new place, remodeling the old or just want to redecorate things in your old kitchen you should finally put everything in its place, you’ll benefit from our few tips on how to successfully do it. In fact, as you already know, good preparation is half the work, and beautifully arranged things in the kitchen will attract you to cook more delicious and hot meals. Therefore, let’s go.

Throw or store everything you do not need

That is, take out all the stuff from the kitchen cabinets and pantries. What has not been used for years and you do not intend to use give to relatives and friends, donate to the Red Cross or store it in a rented storage unit. Admit it – when was the last time you used that old toaster and what on Earth do you need your two water cookers for?

Replace things that do not work

Electric stove for tea is in its place, but you have not used it for months because it just does not cook properly? Then it’s time to take them to get repaired or simply discard. If you really want to give it to get repaired, do it as soon as possible because you do not want it to take up space for another half year, and not be used.

Put similar things in the same place

Let the pan be placed with pans, pots with pots, plates with plates. This will all help you keep track of your dishes and they will be easily accessible in the heat of cooking.

Put the things you use often in places where it is easy to get to them

If you push them somewhere behind the shelves or even cluttered with other things, it is certain that you will forget about them and not use them, or you’ll go crazy every time you try to take them out from under the pile of other things. What you really need is to have everything you need at your fingertips.

Your working surface should be free

This part of the kitchen is very important, almost everything from chopping, mixing, and serving up dishes is done there. It is best for the cooking surface to be free, with no objects which are meant to be on it.

And certainly do not forget

Have a place to write notes about what to buy. For example, it can be a binary block with a magnet that you can hang on the refrigerator and you’ll be able to write household items that need to be purchased.

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Moving House Without The Hassle – Here Are Our Top Tips!

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Nobody relishes the idea of moving house. Although (hopefully) you are moving on to bigger and better things, the inconvenience and stress of the house move is enough to make people want to stay where they are and put up with what they have got. However, the good news is that with a little careful planning it is totally possible to conduct the house move from start to finish with zero stress – now that has got to be worth thinking about! Here are our top tips for keeping your cool when you’re moving home:

Plan, Plan, and Then Do Some More Planning

Moving house successfully is all in the planning. Make a list of things to do which should include packing each room up carefully, and also notifying all of the service providers of your change of address. Of course, there will be many more things to add to the list – that’s just a start. However you will feel very much in control when it comes to ticking things off the list – you’ll be able to sleep easily at night knowing that everything has been taken into account. Keep the list by your bed just in case you wake up with cold sweats, worrying about something you have forgotten!

Choose a Removal Company That You Trust

Your removal company is pivotal to the success of the move, so make sure you choose one that you know you can rely on. Ask your friends who they would recommend, and look online to see what people are saying about them in the forums. Negotiate the deal early on so that you know exactly what service you are getting – the more you pay, the more extras they will lay on. Make sure that they are happy to provide removal boxes – you’ll need loads of them. Don’t try and improvise with boxes that you have acquired from local supermarkets – they won’t be strong enough and they’re likely to fall apart right at the wrong moment.

Look Into Storage Companies

Many people find that when they move house they are left with a surplus of furniture and other belongings that they are not sure what to do with. This could be because they won’t fit into the new house, or the style doesn’t match; either way a common temptation is just to give stuff away. Don’t do this – you will end up regretting it. It is very easy and cheap these days to put the things you don’t currently need into storage – have a look online to find storage companies that are local to you. Not only will your belongings be safely locked up, they will also be protected in temperature-controlled rooms so they won’t get affected by dampness. It’s a great way of making sure your belongings are safe while they are not in use.

There you are – three tips to get you started! How many other ways can you think of reducing the stress associated with your move? The more organized you are the better, trust us!

Author Byline:

The author of today’s post, Jonathan Lowe, is a freelance blogger who enjoys sharing his experiences online. He often writes for Key Storage, a company offering extensive storage solutions for homes and businesses. His other hobbies include hiking and kiteboarding.

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