You're a homeowner now, what's next?

If you're procrastinating or simply don't know …

WHERE to start or WHO to ask for help?

Most houses today are “stick built” and unique, making it difficult for builders and manufacturers to provide information online for every homeowner scenario. That's why our personalized help is so valuable. We can help you become the smart, savvy homeowner you want to be, by addressing topics like these.

Home Maintenance & Repairs

Sometimes you need help pinpointing where the problem lies, or a reminder that you need to fix the problem at it's source before you make needed repairs.

• Finding and matching the right contractor to your home repair. For example, by talking to a plumber about a sump pump problem, the homeowner avoided the cost of extensive exterior drainage which was estimated between $1,500 and $2,200.
• Finding solutions to  repair and prevent, future water damage, which is so costly. For example, a small bathroom remodeling project estimated at $1,800, had added costs of $1,200 for a new window and extensive repairs on an exterior wall where a water leak had been ignored for more than five years.
• Tips on how to deal with too much snow on your roof, deck, walkways and more.
• Explaining the benefits of a home warranty (less than $1,000, typically paid by seller) versus a new compressor costing $3,500 or a new refrigerator for $1,500 or more.
• Discussion about home owner associations (HOAs) and how to work with them.
• Home maintenance questions — what's needed to keep your home values high and prevent disasters before they happen.

Remodeling & Decorating

• Secrets to painting your house over several evenings.
• Picking a low maintenance, light fixture with a finish that you love.
• Sharing DIY projects and learning when to hire a professional.
• What you need to know before buying new appliances. Tips on calculating appliance capacity save several hundred dollars in the purchase price of a new refrigerator, and more important — a warning about not keeping the old refrigerator resulted in savings of $115/yr.
• Help with remodeling challenges like finishing an art studio over the garage (Ramona) and adding a second laundry area to create an in-law apartment (Gayle). A creative solution using stacking washer/dryer in the kitchen, avoided re-routing plumbing and custom cabinets which resulted in savings of almost $900.

You, Your Family & Life at Home

• Tips on the right way to capture family memories you love.
• Sharing information about toys (GoldieBlox) to teach our daughters about tools.
• Tips on integrating multiple generations of family members during the holidays — including help determining which family traditions still work and suggestions for creating new traditions.

You can look for these answers online by crawling through 5 to 10 articles and videos for every project you'll tackle as a homeowner. But even after you search, you'll find that much of the information is incomplete, misleading or wrong.

We Understand Your Challenges, and We Have Your Solutions!

Did you know that more than 20% of first time home buyers are single women? Then there are the life events (divorce, parents illness or husband's death) that leave women with responsibility for their homes at some point in their lives. The Savvy Homeowner Club is a resource to help women manage their homes — from routine maintenance, repairs and renovations, to larger remodeling projects and even building a house.

The Savvy Homeowner Club Can Support You Through Every Step of Your Homeowner Journey

If you're like me, you like to research products and projects before starting. You can google anything, but that assumes you already know the terminology for what you want. But what happens when you can't find the right information, or make sense of it?

The articles on Home Tips for Women began as emails, following conversations I had with women calling my handyman business. Most women want to understand what's happening and why, while men just want to schedule the repairs.

Running a handyman business is like getting a college degree in home maintenance. Learning the technical how, what and why is easy. Discovering why homeowners don't maintain their homes or run into problems with remodeling projects is the real challenge, and why I decided to focus on serving women homeowners. I want to learn where women get stuck, help them find solutions and go beyond that to preventing the problems from occurring.

Join Our Community to Build Better Homes & Better Lives

I want to show women homeowners how to build a relationship with their homes. I also want to help builders, remodelers and contractors work with women to give them what they want and need. I also plan to forge relationships with manufacturers and service companies — products that meet our unique goals as women.

By joining the Savvy Homeowner Club you're making a commitment to yourself and our community of women homeowners. We want you to be part of our club, and we look forward to meeting you.

Savvy Benefit #1 – We save you time, by helping you find the right information quickly. We also give you advice about when it's worth your time to do the job yourself and when it makes more sense to hire a contractor because noone says you have to do everything.

Savvy Benefit #2 – We help you reduce risk, by identifying the different solutions available to you. We also try to help you understand the risk and added costs of deferring repairs. For example, wood rot can run into thousands of dollars.

Savvy Benefit #3 – We can help you manage your budget, by outlining and exploring the many costs that go into home ownership. You'll get checklists and real homeowner stories about the savings they've realized. Simple steps such as changing your filters and getting your heating and air conditioning systems tuned up each year, add dollars to your pocket in the long run. We explain why.

Savvy Benefit #4 – We show you how to pick the right home improvements with the best return, so you can enjoy your home more while building financial equity for future gains.

Savvy Benefit #5 – We give you a community of like-minded women who want the best for themselves, their families, their home and their lives.

“Tina has been an incredible resource for me with many home maintenance and repair projects. She gave me advice when my kitchen ceiling fell down ($1,100 for repairs), handled siding repairs (about $7,000 to replace clapboard siding and trim) after the new roof was installed and suggested moving my washer and dryer upstairs when remodeling the kitchen.

Having someone like Tina for advice and support makes being a homeowner easier, and I love Tina's Savvy Homeowner Club.”

Kendall, Single Mother and Homeowner on the NH Seacoast

Here's What You Get as a Member of the Savvy Homeowner Club  

Savvy Club Feature #1 – Member only access to a growing database of homeowner questions and answers. The database has Q&As from our Savvy Club trial program with 25 women homeowners. Our focus is to give you the information needed to keep moving forward with your project,

• Short tips on how to make a decision or a list of the choices you have.
• We may refer you to an article on Home Tips, or elsewhere on the web if we don't have what you need,
• Sometimes we'll give you links to one or two videos that offer the best information online.
• Other times we'll suggest the type of contractor you need to call to get the information you need, maybe a roofer or animal control expert for nasty critters in the attic.

Savvy Club Feature #2 – Direct answers to your questions about your home challenges. We'll add these to the database as often there are others with the same question. What's great is that as far as we're concerned, there are no dumb questions! We might re-frame the question or ask for clarification and yes, there is a limit of five (5) questions per month.

Savvy Club Feature #3 – Easy access to all of our homeowner checklists (1-2 pages) that make it easy to complete many projects. Even better, you can request a new checklist although we can't promise when it will be done.

Savvy Club Feature #4 – A 20% discount on all Homeowner Guides. These are e-books that help with some projects such as developing your home maintenance schedule or remodeling a bathroom that take more than a few pages to explain.

Savvy Club Feature #5 – Photo sharing and a monthly project review. Members will be encouraged to share photos of their projects, and one will be picked each month for review with Tina Gleisner, our resident home expert.

Tina's Homeowner Story   

When buying my first house, I'd just begun my technology career at IBM. Who would have guessed it was the first step in my future career to help hundreds of women find success as homeowners. We moved a lot, living in five states plus three years in Tokyo. We built a house, remodeled several kitchens and more. I learned a lot, often through the school of hard knocks, about home maintenance and remodeling.

Tired of living on airplanes, I retired and started a handyman business (eight years and more than 2,000 customers) thinking I knew enough. Wow, was I wrong! It took six months just to learn basic concepts and terminology from talking to customers, technicians, other contractors and hours of online research. I learned so much about the challenges women homeowners face, from simply not knowing home maintenance basics to discomfort explaining and negotiating with contractors in this primarily male-based industry.

You're not going to run a handyman business but you can certainly benefit from what I've learned. That's why I started the Savvy Homeowner Club. I want you to benefit from everything I've learned so that you can love your home, keep your lifestyle and still build a financial asset that can help protect your financial future.

To become a savvy homeowner, you've got to invest time and money. The Savvy Homeowner Club gives you access to unbiased answers from experts, who aren't trying to sell you anything. It addresses the concern many women share with us, that they don't know who to trust or how much to pay.

We know that investing in the club (your time and membership dues) will give you a positive return, and peace of mind that you understand your home and the actions that need to be taken. If you're not ready to invest in our one year membership, you can sign up for a monthly membership. We hope you join us.