Optional Add Ons

Your air conditioner is probably one of the greatest consumers of electricity in your home during the summer. If you want to know how efficiently it’s using that energy to cool your home, you need to pay attention to its SEER score. With some basic knowledge of AC efficiency ratings, you can be empowered to reduce your energy bills when it comes time to repair or replace your cooling system. 

Air conditioners are the most conventional means of cooling down a living space, but they’re not the only one. A swamp cooler, or evaporative cooler, can also make a room feel cooler and more comfortable, but they require specific weather conditions to really be effective.

If you’ve moved into a new space or decided to replace an aging cooling system, you might be surprised to learn that there are a few different options for home air conditioning. Not every system is compatible with every home, though, and cost, efficiency, power, and appearance are additional factors to consider.

Running the air conditioner is usually the greatest driver of home energy costs during the summer. If you think carefully about how you’re programming your thermostat, you can reduce your energy consumption and bills without sacrificing comfort.  

Your HVAC system doesn't take a day off. It runs through the first heat wave of summer and the coldest night of January, and most homeowners never think about it until it stops. Then it's the only thing they think about. That's the moment HVAC Guard was built for.

Reverse mortgage pros and cons are worth a close look before you sign anything. A reverse mortgage lets homeowners 62 and older tap their home equity without making monthly mortgage payments. The catch is that the loan balance grows over time, and you're still responsible for taxes, insurance, and upkeep.

Refinancing means replacing your current mortgage with a new loan, usually to get a lower rate, change your term, or tap your home equity. Knowing how to refinance a mortgage can save you thousands, but only if the numbers work.

A reverse mortgage is a loan that lets homeowners age 62 and older turn part of their home equity into cash without making monthly mortgage payments. You keep the title, the loan balance grows over time, and it's repaid later, usually when the last borrower sells, moves out, or passes away.

Your home makes its first impression in the time it takes to pull into the driveway. The good news is that curb appeal on a budget is very doable. Realtors know it: according to the National Association of Landscape Professionals, 92% recommend improving curb appeal before listing, and smaller projects often return a higher share of their cost than big ones. In other words, cheap curb appeal can beat a pricey remodel.

Every homeowner eventually faces the repair or replace appliance question, usually when the fridge is warm or the washer is full of standing water. The quick answer is that you should repair an appliance when the fix costs less than half the price of a comparable new model. Replace it when it costs more than half and the appliance is already past the midpoint of its life.

No matter how expensive, high-end, or well-built our home appliances and systems are at purchase, everything eventually requires repairs and replacements. We often take our home devices like washing machines,

Liberty Home Guard is a Brooklyn-based home warranty provider that has rapidly expanded since 2017 to serve all 50 states plus Washington DC. With a network of over 17,000 technicians nationwide, LHG has established itself as a leader in customer satisfaction and comprehensive coverage options.

Shopping for a home warranty can feel like navigating a minefield. Every company promises comprehensive protection, competitive pricing, and top-tier service, but the real differences only reveal themselves once you read the fine print. That's exactly what we're here to help you do.

Managing a rental property means dealing with the unexpected—appliance breakdowns, tenant complaints, and emergency repairs. A home warranty for your rental property can help landlords handle these challenges while minimizing costs and stress. But what exactly does a home warranty cover, and how does it benefit landlords?

A home warranty is a service contract designed to protect key systems and appliances in a property, such as the HVAC system, plumbing, electrical wiring, and kitchen appliances.
 

With multiple inputs, devices, smart features, streaming platforms, and audio options, TV viewing can feel unnecessarily complicated. It’s common for viewers to struggle with a range of picture and audio problems, some of which may give the impression that there’s something&

Condensation forms when a surface drops below the dew point of the air touching it. When your AC runs, supply air moves through the ducts somewhere in the mid 50s. Attics, crawl spaces, garages, and unfinished basements sit in the 80s or 90s in summer, with humidity to match. 

No matter how long you have owned your home, you will always something new come along to learn.

A water softener is a whole-home treatment system that removes the dissolved calcium and magnesium responsible for water hardness. It installs on your main water line and treats water before it reaches a single tap. The process behind it carries a technical name, ion exchange, but the mechanics are simple.

It's easy to not appreciate the convenience of a microwave until yours stop working. Simple tasks, from making popcorn to reheating leftovers, become just a little more difficult.

A home warranty can be a wise investment that saves homeowners money on home maintenance and repair, but consumers need to find the right plan to maximize their savings. Part of determining the best plan is having a thorough understanding of all the costs associated with a given policy.

The last thing you want to discover during a heat wave is that your air conditioner has broken down. But don’t sweat it. If you can determine why your AC isn’t turning on, you might be able to get it going again without waiting for a pro.

A garage door is the largest moving part in most homes and usually the biggest single surface on the front of the house. When it fails, the bill sits somewhere between a weekend repair and a small renovation. In 2026, the typical garage door replacement cost runs $750 to $3,500 installed, with most homeowners landing near $1,200 to $1,900. Four variables decide where you fall: size, material, insulation, and local labor rates.

High summer humidity makes it difficult to get comfortable in our own homes. The air feels sticky and stifling, and prolonged bouts of high humidity can adversely affect our health and slowly degrade our homes and furnishings. Fortunately, there are several simple and affordable strategies to effectively reduce indoor humidity levels.

It may sound counterintuitive, but cooling down your living space isn’t just a matter of finding the largest or most powerful air conditioner available. While an undersized AC will struggle to effectively cool off a large room, an oversized AC will work too well, bringing down the temperature before it reduces the humidity. 

A garbage disposal is one of the cheapest appliances in your kitchen and one of the most expensive to ignore. Most homeowners never think about the unit under the sink until it hums, leaks, or quits mid-cleanup. Then the quotes start coming in, and the numbers rarely match what people expect.

Reverse mortgages give homeowners over 62 a way to access equity without a monthly payment, but that convenience raises an important question for families: what happens to a reverse mortgage when you die? 

A hot housing market is great for sellers, but high home values and stiff competition have discouraged many prospective buyers. Some buyers have investigated alternative means of purchasing a home, such as buying properties through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

While HUD homes have their advantages, they are not for everyone. This article will review HUD homes for the uninitiated and outline their benefits and drawbacks.

When a major repair or renovation is bigger than your savings account can comfortably absorb, tapping into your home's equity is often the most affordable way to cover it. But choosing between a cash-out refinance vs. HELOC vs. home equity loan isn't always straightforward, since each option pulls from your equity in a different way, with different rates, costs, and repayment structures. Picking the wrong one can cost you thousands of dollars more than necessary over the life of the loan.

Ceiling fans are underrated home amenities. Their uses go beyond cooling a room in warm weather. When used correctly, ceiling fans can evenly distribute heat in the winter, keep indoor humidity levels in check, and save on energy costs because of the decreased demand on air conditioning.

We've ranked 12 of the most common home upgrades from highest to lowest percentage recouped, using national industry cost-vs-value data as a benchmark, along with typical cost ranges and estimated value added. Keep in mind these are national averages—actual figures will vary by market, home condition, and project scope.

If you're 62 or older and sitting on significant home equity, you've probably come across reverse mortgages as a way to supplement retirement income. But like most financial products, the reality is more nuanced than the ads suggest. Weighing the full picture of reverse mortgage pros and cons, not just the appealing parts, is the only way to know whether this option fits your situation.

All homeowners should engage in routine plumbing maintenance to keep their homes in working order. Water, rust, mineral buildup, and temperature changes can do a number on the pipes and fixtures in your home. Most problems are easily resolved when caught early, but even minor problems c

A whole home generator is a desirable piece of home equipment. Who doesn’t want the luxury of regaining power moments after an outage in a heavy storm? But this investment can be as expensive as it is enticing, with current whole house generator cost estimates ranging from $8,000 to $15,000 or more. Let’s run through everything you need to know before you commit.
 

Most homeowners pay between 300 and 700 dollars for a fully installed garage door opener. That's the honest range, not a marketing number, and it covers the large majority of standard installs nationwide.

Type, horsepower, labor, and a handful of add-ons decide where you land inside that range. This guide breaks down each one, then answers the question homeowners ask right after the price: does anything help cover this if it breaks.

You don't need a five-figure renovation budget to make a real difference in your home's worth. Some of the most effective cheap ways to increase home value cost just a few dollars, while others make sense to save up for over a few months. To make it easier to plan, we've organized 12 proven upgrades into budget tiers, from under $100 all the way up to under $5,000, so you can see exactly what to expect for whatever you're able to spend.

Your home is likely the biggest investment you'll ever make, so it's worth knowing what can quietly chip away at its worth. Whether you're planning to list your house soon or just want to protect your equity for the long haul, understanding the things that decrease home value is the first step toward avoiding costly surprises. Some of these home value killers are obvious, like a leaky roof, while others, like an outdated paint color, are easy to overlook until an appraiser or buyer points them out.

A home warranty proves its worth on exactly one day. The morning the water heater floods the utility room. The August afternoon the compressor gives out. Every other day of the year, it's a line item on your bank statement.

If you’re in the middle of a kitchen remodel, your choice of countertop is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. From a practical standpoint, the counter is the surface you’ll work on every day to prepare and eat meals for yourself and your family, but the countertop color and material also set the tone and aesthetic of your kitchen.

Most homeowners pay around $426 to $428 to have a septic tank pumped in 2026, with a typical range of $291 to $564. Small, easy-access tanks can come in near $200, while large tanks, buried lids, or emergency weekend calls can push past $1,200. Septic tank pumping cost swings that widely because the price is really three things stacked together: how much waste comes out, how hard it is to reach, and what the hauler pays to dispose of it.

If you're searching for what appliances qualify for energy tax credit, here's the short version: the federal credits mostly covered whole-home systems like heat pumps, insulation, and solar equipment, not everyday kitchen or laundry appliances. Below is a full breakdown of what qualified, what didn't, how to file for a 2025 install, and where to look for savings now that the federal credits have expired.

Trust isn't something you can buy. It's something you earn, one service call at a time. This month, that earning showed up in a number: 18,000 Google reviews, with a 4.7 out of 5-star rating holding steady across all of them.

Your home's foundation endures a great deal while supporting every pound of your home’s weight and weathering the elements year-round. Given long enough, these stressors will provoke enough wear and tear to compromise your foundation’s integrity.

That price tag on your new mirror, the shipping label stuck to a mason jar, the old parking permit baked onto your windshield: stickers on glass always seem easy to remove until you actually try. Peel too fast and you're left with a gummy outline. Scrub too hard and you risk a scratch you'll notice every time the light hits it.

Managing intensely hot and humid weather is more than a matter of personal comfort. Humidity can quietly take its toll on your floors, furniture, appliances, and even your home's structure. When you strike the right home humidity levels, your living space feels more comfortable and you extend the lifespan of your home and furnishings.

A home warranty is only as good as the day you actually need it. That's the plain truth. Everything else, the glossy homepage, the promo pricing, the five-star badge, is noise until a system fails and you find out whether the company behind it shows up. So let's skip the noise and look at what the two companies actually publish about themselves.
 

If you’ve been researching the 2026 HVAC tax credit, the first thing you should know is that the federal credit landscape changed significantly at the end of 2025. The second thing you should know is that change doesn’t mean your options are gone — it just means you need a clearer picture of what’s actually available before you call a contractor and before you sign anything.

Knowing when to replace your HVAC system is one of the most important and most expensive decisions a homeowner will make. Most people are familiar with the generic advice: systems last 15 to 20 years, so start planning around year 12. But that rule of thumb leaves out something critical — where you live can change the math significantly.

Your garbage disposal feels like it can handle anything you throw at it, literally. But disposals are more delicate than they look, and the wrong item can mean a clogged sink, a jammed motor, or a call to a plumber. Here's a clear breakdown of what to avoid, what's actually safe, and how to keep your unit running smoothly for years. 

Black mold isn't necessarily the uniquely devastating fungus problem that some sensationalist media would lead you to believe, but it's still something to discourage from growing in your home. Even if severe illness from black mold is uncommon, its toxigenic byproducts can cause eye or respiratory irritation, allergic reactions, and headaches. Mold is also unsightly, can cause structural damage to your home if left unchecked, and will cause your home’s appraisal value to plummet.

In most cases, mold remediation specialists can remove black mold without much trouble. If you catch the problem early enough, you may be able to get rid of the mold yourself.

A generator transfer switch is a device that connects a generator directly to your home's electrical panel, so it can safely power hardwired circuits without the risk of backfeeding electricity into the utility grid.