are As tax refund season is now upon us, more individuals and families are receiving larger refunds than anticipated partly due to minimal tax reform incentives from the current administration. Many home owners will just squander the tax refunds away on expensive toys and luxuries. A few of the wise families will save and make safe investments.
One of the few truly safe investments has been and still is one’s home. It would be foolish to dump all of a tax refund into any one thing, however, a portion of that refund can easily be put towards any variety of home improvement projects. True, the current real estate market is depressed, but history has never failed to show us that property values always come back and any home improvement project or home repair is never a waste of money.
Many common and popular home improvement projects undertaken in the second half of the winter season has been adding a deck, fence, or converting the existing patio into a screened in patio. With the economy experiencing a recession, home owners may attempt to make these projects into a do-it-yourself experience. A majority of the time the experience is learned the hard way.
Fencing, decks, and screen patios are nowhere near as simple as the home improvement books would indicate. Different regions of the country and different ground types require specific methods. An example would be the sandy soil conditions and poor drainage conditions in Florida as opposed to the hard packed ground that granite provides. Building codes can also vary greatly from county to county.
Should a home owner’s budget be thin, one answer to this predicament can be to coordinate with a local handyman company to perform much of the more difficult tasks and labor, leaving the simple final touches like painting or molding to the home owner to complete at their leisure.
The only word of caution to this possible solution is most home repair or handyman service companies will not guarantee their work if the home owner makes any changes to the materials or labor provided. The best solution in this case is for the home repair or handyman company to explicitly explain in detailed writing the guarantee or warranty on materials and labor provided before any services commence. The role of the home owner in any coordinated project should also be spelled out in detail in order to eliminate any potential confusion or disagreements in the future.
