Author Archives: Jay Butchko
6 Home Features That Give Buyers the Ick
Everyone who has successfully bought a house or condo unit knows that getting emotionally attached to the property that might become your new home before you have closed on the purchase is a recipe for disappointment. Real estate purchase deals can fall apart for a variety of reasons. Buyers or sellers can inexplicably get… Read More »
Are Portable Mortgages a Thing?
Even though Canada is right on the other side of the border, we in the United States tend not to think about it much, but there is a lot to admire about our northern neighbor. For example, Toronto has a vast network of underground walkways where you can stay warm when you don’t feel… Read More »
Managing Without Long-Term Care Insurance
No estate plan is complete without documents that will enable you to access the care you want in the event that you suffer long-term health. We never know when our health will take a turn for the worse, and healthcare costs, from hospitalizations to home health aide services to prescription drugs to nursing homes,… Read More »
Estate Taxes and Inheritance Taxes in Maryland
There are plenty of reasons to love Maryland. Its weather lasts long enough in each season for you to enjoy them but not for the weather to become tiresome; we get enough snowfalls to allow for a few snowy selfies, but not enough that you feel you are enduring month after month of dreary… Read More »
Cheaply Renovated Properties Are a Trojan Horse
Of all the picturesque animal-related metaphors to emanate from inside the Beltway, “herding cats” is one of them. Anyone who has tried to get two or more children ready for school at the same time knows the feeling, even though here in D.C. we tend to use the metaphor in a workplace context. We… Read More »
An Old Year’s Resolution for Your Estate Plan
The fact that you are thinking about your estate plan can make you feel old, but not nearly as old as you feel when you tell your younger coworkers or family members that you have made a New Year’s Resolution. Young people are so used to uncertainty that they are incredulous that an adult… Read More »
What To Know About Whole Life Insurance
Estate planning often begins with wishful thinking. You look at the websites of financial planners who advise seniors on their finances, and you daydream about all the knee replacement-friendly hiking trips you can take and all the affordable 55+ communities where you might buy a modestly sized house. Once you get to the stage… Read More »
The ROAD to Housing Act
The biggest challenge regarding affordable housing is that someone else must bear the cost of the discounts that the landlords offer to tenants and that real estate developers offer to homebuyers, and there are only so many resources to go around. Tax incentives by local governments offset the costs, but only enough for developers… Read More »
Disputes Over Joint Homeownership
Money can cause conflict even between people whose temperaments are compatible under almost any other circumstances. Friendships have ended when the friends started a business venture together, but the business project fell apart before it got off the ground. Spouses who were each other’s strongest supporters when times were tough have turned against each… Read More »
Back to School Estate Planning
Once the school year starts, the feeling is anticlimactic, and you don’t know what to do with all this free time. Take a few moments, before the major school assignments start coming due, and work on your estate plan. Planning for the worst helps you stop sweating the small stuff, at least temporarily. If… Read More »
