Whether you plan to sell your home in the near or distant future, the right home improvement projects will not only boost your home’s appeal but also its value on the market.

Jeff Kaliner, founding partner of Power Home Remodeling Group, recommends beginning with your home’s exterior as it is responsible for making your home’s first impression. Power shares the following tips to stay on trend with home improvements this spring and summer:

• Energize your exterior – Projects like updating siding, window replacement and refreshing entry doors can have a dramatic effect on your home's curb appeal for a relatively low cost. In fact, seven of the top 10 home improvement projects for 2012 are exterior projects garnering anywhere from 69 to 78 percent return on investment—the highest of any other projects this year.
• Choose bold and bright finishes – Fiberglass entry and garage doors are a popular alternative to their pricey wooden counterparts in 2012. A fiberglass door is weather resistant, durable and, above all, maintenance free. This material allows you to achieve the stylish look of an elegant craftsman or rustic design with decorative glass at the fraction of the price. Bright, bold exterior colors are also popular this year. Make your curb appeal pop by choosing a shade of tangerine, yellow or deep purple for your entry door to give your home a cheery look heading into spring.
• Energy efficiency is still supreme – The top green home trend for 2012 is renovating to reduce your home's heating and cooling costs. Making the most of an empty attic space by adding a bedroom, or at least finishing it with insulation, is a great way to keep conditioned air from escaping through the roof. Updating the attic also happens to be this year's third most cost effective home improvement, garnering a whopping 72 percent return on investment, and adding living space without increasing the home's footprint is an eco-friendly way to gain more square footage.

Source: http://www.powerhrg.com

Published with permission from RISMedia.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

1. Stay Connected. Carry extra batteries, and battery powered chargers and adapters. Bring a high-quality hands-free set for your phone so that you can answer calls in noisy places and still be heard. Also consider getting a long-battery-life laptop with an extended battery, which can provide you with six to seven hours of battery life.
2. Bring back-up. When you can’t connect to the Internet, be ready with reserves. Since you can’t always get to everything you need from your laptop or smartphone, print back-ups and/or put important documents on a memory stick.
3. Travel light. Minimize the stress of last minute packing by keeping toiletries, technology kits and other basics ready to grab and go. Consider investing in a tablet, which gives you access to books, magazines, newspapers, games, movies, music and more all in one convenient, easy-to-carry place.
4. Appoint a troubleshooter. Designate someone to coordinate what you can’t manage while traveling and have set times to check in and deal with questions. This will give you peace of mind that things are moving smoothly back at the office and help you avoid dealing with a fire drill while on the road.
5. Tune in to your time zone. Seasoned travelers recommend changing your watch at take-off when traveling to another time zone. This will put you in the right mindset from the get-go. Once you arrive at your destination, try and stay up until the hour you’d normally go to bed. This will help your internal body clock reset more quickly.
6. Plan time to recharge. Pushing relentlessly can be counter-productive, so be sure to make time to recharge, whether that be going for a run or taking in a local sight.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

• Are seeking payment on a debt for a loan you do not recognize
• Refuse to give you a mailing address or phone number
• Ask you for personal financial or sensitive information
• Exert high pressure to try to scare you into paying, such as threatening to have you arrested or to report you to a law enforcement agency

• Stop speaking with the caller. If you have the caller's address, send a letter demanding that the caller stop contacting you, and keep a copy for your files. By law, real debt collectors must stop calling you if you ask them to in writing.
• Do not give the caller personal financial or other sensitive information. Never give out or confirm personal financial or other sensitive information like your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number unless you know whom you're dealing with. Scam artists, like fake debt collectors, can use your information to commit identity theft – charging your existing credit cards, opening new credit card, checking, or savings accounts, writing fraudulent checks, or taking out loans in your name.
• Contact your creditor. If the debt is legitimate – but you think the collector may not be – contact your creditor about the calls. Share the information you have about the suspicious calls and find out who, if anyone, the creditor has authorized to collect the debt.
• Report the call. Contact the FTC and your state Attorney General's office with information about suspicious callers. Many states have their own debt collection laws in addition to the federal FDCPA. Your Attorney General's office can help you determine your rights under your state's law.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

• 33 percent of respondents expect home prices to increase over the next 12 months, a five percentage point increase from last month, the highest level over the past 12 months.
• On average, Americans expect home prices to increase by 0.9 percent over the next 12 months (up slightly since last month).
• 39 percent of Americans say that mortgage rates will go up in the next 12 months, a five percentage point increase from last month.
• The percentage of respondents who say it is a good time to buy rose by three points to 73 percent, the highest level in over a year, while the percentage of respondents who say it is a good time to sell rose one point to 14 percent this month.
• On average, respondents expect home rental prices to increase by 4.1 percent over the next 12 months, a significant increase since February, and the highest number recorded to date.
• 48 percent of respondents think that home rental prices will go up, a three percentage point increase from last month and the highest number recorded to date.
• 66 percent of respondents say they would buy their next home if they were going to move, up one point since last month, while 30 percent say they would rent, up one point versus last month.
• The rise in confidence in the economy's direction leveled this month, with 35 percent responding that they think the economy is on the right track, consistent with February's total. The percentage who say the economy is on the wrong track rose slightly from 57 percent to 58 percent.
• Only 12 percent think that their personal financial situation will worsen in the next 12 months, consistent with February as the lowest value in over a year, and tied with January 2011 for the lowest to date.
• 21 percent of respondents say their income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago, up 1 point versus February, while 63 percent say it has stayed the same - consistent with February's values.
• 34 percent say their expenses have increased significantly over the past 12 months (a slight increase of one percentage point).

Published with permission from RISMedia.