Ep 006 – Managing Home Improvement Projects

SHOW NOTES:


In today’s episode, John and Beth talk about how to manage home improvements. We talk about the culture’s obsession with home improvements and discuss some of the most common problems that homeowners face with home improvement projects. John and Beth talk about budgets, hiring contractors, and how to make a plan for your home projects. At the end of the episode, we share several easy and important action items that will help be more successful with home improvement projects.


IN THIS EPISODE:
● [01:27] Why do people love home improvement projects?
● [6:24] New home builders
● [07:19] Projects that add value to the home
● [09:23] Home improvement problems
● [14:67] DIY vs hiring a contractor
● [18:54] How to hire a contractor and manage your budget
● [22:09] Action Step: Make a plan
● [24:08] Action Step: Create your budget
● [27:05] Action Step: How to hire a contractor
● [28:31] Action Step: Track costs during the project
● [22:50] Close out Phase

KEY TAKEAWAYS:
● Home improvement can pertain to lifestyle aspects to fit a family’s needs or structural aspects like new windows, roof, plumbing, etc.
● Bathroom and kitchen remodels are “money rooms.” They do add value to your home, but they also are very expensive.
● There are small projects that cost little but add value to your home. Like a new front door, painting your front door, making small modifications to your front porch etc.
● When choosing between DIY or hiring a contract it boils down to safety, skills, and time.
● Home improvements add value to your home, but you have to consider your neighborhood and surrounding homes. You don’t want to add so much value that you price yourself out of the market which could make it harder for your home to sell.
● Your contractor does not own your budget. You own your budget.
● Before starting a project, plan for what home improvements you want to do and prioritize them.
● Before hiring a contractor, get multiple quotes from multiple contractors. Don’t forget to check references and licenses.
● Track budget and costs during the project to maintain your budget and the project scope. Also take before and after photos to keep track of the changes.
● The closeout phase includes filing new warranties, checking with your accountant to see how new improvements impact your taxes, and lastly, updating your home insurance.

LINKS MENTIONED:

www.beasmarterhomeowner.com

www.homezada.com

Ep 005 – Are You Tracking Your Home Documents?

SHOW NOTES:

In today’s episode, John and Beth talk about how to manage the ever growing accumulation of homeowning documents. From mortgage contracts, appraisals, and home warranties to important receipts and owners manuals – the stack usually grows faster than we can manage. While the bulk of home documents may still be in paper format, there is an appealing draw to convert to a more digital strategy. In this episode John and Beth share tips on how best to organize your documents, the pros and cons of digital vs paper storage and how to take the leap into using digital storage, one small step at a time.

IN THIS EPISODE:

  • [01:57] The types of documents for homeowners
  • [8:38] How to store homeowner documents
  • [11:00] Paper vs digital document storage
  • [16:15] How to scan documents
  • [20:28] Using a mobile phone to take photos of documents
  • [22:04] Digitizing multi-page documents
  • [23:18] Where to store digital documents
  • [26:00] Protecting your digital storage
  • [28:40] The value of going digital
  • [30:38] Value of sharing documents easily
  • [32:43] Action items: developing a digital strategy

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  • There’s no right or wrong way to store home documents. Do what you most feel comfortable with and what makes the most sense to you.
  • There is value in storing items digitally, like the ability to search your documents and sharing capabilities.
  • There are multiple ways to convert items to digital – by photo, documentation apps, or by scanner.
  • There are multiple ways to convert items to digital – by photo, documentation apps, or by scanner.You don’t have to convert to digital storage all at once. It’s an incremental process. Get a strategy and take as much time as you need to convert documents and fine the best way to store them whether in cloud storage, hard-drive, etc.

LINKS MENTIONED:

www.beasmarterhomeowner.com

www.homezada.com

Ep 004 – The Value of Maintaining Your Home

SHOW NOTES:


John and Beth are here to share with you their tips and suggestions, as well as interviews with industry experts, with the goal of helping you become a smarter homeowner. Once we buy a home, we now ask ourselves the question… Now what? Today’s episode focuses on the value of maintaining your home, including home maintenance and all the different things that we as homeowners need to do to maintain our home. Tune in for advice on everything from preventative maintenance to standard maintenance, what we can save, and how to improve the value of your home!

IN THIS EPISODE:


● [02:00] Standard care of the house.
● [05:00] Health and safety, including smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.
● [10:00] Maintenance and the value of your home.
● [13:00] Increasing your replacement costs if you neglect small 30 minute tasks.
● [17:00] How to be reminded of tasks which need completing.
● [22:00] Should you be doing these tasks yourself or hire a contractor?
● [29:00] Start with the basics to figure out the typical maintenance things you need to do from a preventative standpoint.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:


● Keeping track of home maintenance will add value and save time.
● The difference between doing the tasks yourself or hiring a contractor.
● How to keep track of home tasks which need completing.

LINKS MENTIONED:

www.beasmarterhomeowner.com

www.homezada.com

Ep 003 – What is a Home Inventory and Why You Need One?

SHOW NOTES:

Welcome to the Be A Smarter Homeowner Podcast, today your hosts John Bodrozic and Beth Dodson are focusing on what a home inventory is and the reasons why they are recommended. As a homeowner, you may have not even thought about doing an inventory on your home, but if you need to make a claim it can be very helpful. Not just for insurance claims, home inventories become handy in managing money and estate planning as well. Tune in to this episode to get organized on maintaining and protecting your largest asset and expense, your home.

IN THIS EPISODE:

  • [01:00] What does it mean to take a home inventory and what should you record?
  • [04:29] Beth gives advice on ways of doing inventory on the items in your home depending on what has value and is important to you, i.e., photos, video, and spreadsheets
  • [06:35] Different tools and ways to take your home inventory
  • [13:00] The importance of a home inventory to ease insurance processes and claims
  • [21:35] Using tools to create a better relationship between consumer and insurance company and evaluating your insurance policy
  • [27:00] Home inventory for estate planning, trusts & wills

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  • There are many different ways to take your home inventory and different things to record- make sure to record what has value to you personally
  • Updating your home inventory is important, especially after remodels and updates- this includes updating the value of your homeowner’s insurance policy to value these changes
  • Technology can be a big help in the home inventory process in taking video or photos and then being able to record these items digitally- making it easy to submit to insurance companies as needed

Home inventories can also come in great use if you ever move to a new house- you can manage the move with a moving company more easily

Links Mentioned:

www.beasmarterhomeowner.com

www.homezada.com

Ep 002 – What is Digital Home Management?

SHOW NOTES:

The Be A Smarter Homeowner podcast is hosted by John Bodrozic and Elizabeth Dodson, the co-founders of HomeZada.

The word ‘home’ means different things to different people. In this episode John and Elizabeth discuss various types of homes, from farms to townhouses as well as all aspects of home management. Home management includes collectibles, the physical structure of the home and keeping track of finances and documents.

To save money and time, a digital home management system could assist in streamlining all home assets in one place.

With a digital management system, you can make the specific decisions for personal home possessions and finances that may be different to your neighbour, and HomeZada could be the solution. HomeZada does the thinking for you and is accessible via your mobile phone or desktop.

IN THIS EPISODE:

  • [01:00] Welcome to be a smarter homeowner podcast
  • [04:00] What does the collection of assets mean?
  • [08:00] Inventory tracking of your equipment and assets
  • [13:00] How many maintenance management tasks does an average home need?
  • [17:00] Maintaining paper documents in the house

 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  • There are a vast amount of types of homes and a variety of family structures and living situations.
  • There is a wide range of home assets which need maintaining, from collectables to personal finance documents.
  • To save money and time, a digital home management system could assist in streamlining all home assets in one place.

BIO:

Elizabeth Dodson is a focused technology entrepreneur with successful skills in business development, sales, marketing, and finance. Over 20 years of successful management of revenue producing partners. Great organizational skills balancing multiple roles and responsibilities as an entrepreneur. Drive and increase company revenues and user growth for a consumer technology solution with a partner solution to support the homeowner market.

John Bodrozic has start-up entrepreneur experience beginning with bootstrapping, profitable growth, securing venture and corporate venture funding, acquisitions of technology companies, and selling a business to a publicly traded company.

LINKS:

Digital Home Management