U.S. Inspect Blog

Submitted by: Martin Cooley, U.S. Inspect, Dallas, TX

Now that the weather is so nice, we are all spending lots of time outdoors. When little ones are around, this is especially fun, but also requires some extra effort to make sure our outdoor playtime is just as safe as it is indoors. Toddlers especially love to explore and can wander off to dangerous places very quickly. We talked about pool safety last week, this week I wanted to talk about garage door safety.

So the next step for us, now that we have moved in, was to claim our $8,000 first-time home buyers tax credit. I expected us the be forced to jump through a series of fiery hoops to get our money, but it wasn’t difficult at all. Rather than waiting until we file our 2010 taxes, I discovered that we could just file an addendum to our 2009 taxes and get the credit this year.

Curb appeal upgrades are one of the best ways to increase the value of your home. Whether you make smaller changes before listing your home, or go all out for your personal pleasure, great curb appeal can put a smile on your face and buyers too!

As a tribute to all the Dads out there on this Father's Day weekend, we thought it would be fun to get some fatherly advice about home purchasing, ownership and maintenance from some of the Dads right here at U.S. Inspect! We also have some words of wisdom employees received from their Fathers about home ownership. If you have some fatherly advice of your own, please add it in the comments below--Happy Father's Day, all!

Home sales continued to surge this month with the approaching home buyer tax credit closing deadline (Buyers wanting to take advantage of the first-time home buyer tax credit had to close by June 30th). But the big question on the minds of many when I posted on the topic earlier this month was: Will home buyers realistically have enough time to close?

It has been over a week now in the new house and we couldn’t be happier. That’s probably because our first mortgage payment isn’t due until August 1st! I can’t wait to get home every day and just be there. We have most of our things unpacked and all of the empty boxes thrown out. We still haven’t hung any pictures on the walls, but I like the look of a clean slate.