Author: avi maxwel

Home Repair Contractors

Bullets fly into sleeping family’s home in escalating dispute with handyman, feds say

A Texas family awoke to gunfire and bullets ripping through their home — and a feuding handyman was pulling the trigger, federal officials say.

Jason Jaime Merdes, 44, is accused of targeting the family in a drive-by shooting, which stemmed from a dispute with the homeowner over a repair job, according to a Dec. 6 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Investigators say Merdes had been hired to do a home repair, but when he didn’t finish the project, the homeowner “sent legal notice to him,” according to the release.

Officers with

… Read more
Home Repair Contractors

How Your Home Can Pay For Emergency Repairs

Steve Cicero/ Getty Images; Illustration by Austin Courregé/Bankrate

Key takeaways

  • Home equity loans and home equity lines of credit can be an option to help cover emergency home repair costs.
  • Benefits of using HE loans and HELOCs include lower interest rates, longer repayment terms and possible tax deductions.
  • Downsides of home equity financing include putting your home up as collateral and diluting your ownership stake.

As a homeowner, maintaining an emergency savings account is a good way to be prepared for the unexpected home repairs that inevitably arise from time to time. With  emergency savings at the ready, you can

… Read more
Home Repair Contractors

Kitchen Remodel Financing 101: Every Loan Option to Consider

Photo: istock.com

An updated kitchen can transform the entire feel of a home from dull and outdated to sleek and modern. But whether a kitchen needs a simple appliance upgrade or a full renovation, kitchen remodeling doesn’t usually come cheap. As homeowners dream up kitchen remodel ideas, it’s important to consider how they’ll pay for those projects.

There are several kitchen remodel financing options that can help homeowners pay for their remodel projects, including home improvement loans and home equity lines of credit. Some homeowners may even qualify for government-backed loan programs. Before reaching out to contractors and kitchen remodelers

… Read more
Home Repair Contractors

How Ace Hardware Is Hammering Its Big-Box Rivals

The pandemic-driven boom in home repair, rehab, and do-it-yourself projects is over, leaving Home Depot and Lowe’s in the dust. Hobbled by high prices and interest rates, US existing home sales have plunged to a level not seen since August 2010, when the country was still digging out from the Great Recession.

Home prices remain out of reach for most and little hope of a turnaround anytime soon.

“The golden age of single-family housing is behind us,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, recently told Bloomberg, adding, “the

… Read more
Home Repair Contractors

The Trans Handy Ma’am: the home repair TikToker championing renters | Renting property

In April 2021, Mercury Stardust, a Wisconsin maintenance technician, was “cleaning someone else’s poop off myself” after a clogged toilet came apart. She happened to see a video of someone asking how to use a ratchet strap, one of those complicated-looking thingummies often used to tie down cargo. As soon as she tidied up, the 33-year-old responded as digital natives often do: she recorded an instructional video, wearing a (clean) flannel shirt and overalls while skillfully handling the tool in question.

The minute-long video introduced her signature enthusiastic and encouraging patter, ending with: “Learning something new is a triumph,

… Read more