Temperatures are rising and so are your utility bills, courtesy of that big power hog: your air conditioner. If you want to cut down your cooling costs without having to crank up the A/C, here are three tricks you can try instead:

1. Fans and ice. You can easily make a DIY air conditioner, with nothing more than a box fan and some ice. Simply put the ice into a bowl and place it in front of the running fan. As the ice melts, it cools the air around it. The fan will then disperse that wonderfully cool air all around your home.

Fans can do more than that, though. Another cooling trick is to run your ceiling fans counterclockwise—this will pull up the hot air, leaving you sitting in a cooler space. And installing a whole-house fan can literally pull out all the hot air from your home and siphon it up and out at minimal cost.

2. Green cooling. Plants do a wonderful job absorbing sunshine and reducing the summer heat. If you're planning to stay in your home for a ...

Keller Williams is here to help those impacted by Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma.


When it comes to Keller Williams, family is everything.


Our Red Relief program is dedicated to providing disaster relief to every family impacted by these storms.


Hundreds of Keller Williams agents have gone to Texas to help those in Corpus Christi, Houston, Beaumont, and more. More agents are on their way to help families from Hurricane Irma in Florida.


So far, we have seen a tremendous outpouring of love from our volunteers and donors. Rebuilding these areas is going to take more than a couple of weeks, so it’s important that we keep the energy going in the coming months as we help people get back to their normal lives.


As we work to rebuild these areas, we could use your help.



Help us provide disaster relief to those impacted by Irma and Harvey.



Please consider donating to our Red Relief program. Your contributions will help us supply food, wa ...

Today I’m joined by Brad Taylor of New American Funding to talk about a great new FHA product.
 
This new kind of FHA loan offers 100% financing. Additionally, the buyer also receives the 3.5% required to put down.  
 
All you need to qualify is a credit score of at least 640 and a back-end ratio that doesn’t exceed 43%. This is a standard FHA loan with some great perks.
 
Unlike other programs, this is not a second underwriting. The 3.5% down payment is a gift you receive from the bond program so long as your income is $80,000 or less.
 
If you make over $80,000, then you make payments on the 3.5% as a second mortgage. Brad and his team have calculate ...

I’m here with John Ragland Jr. from the Supreme Lending team, and today he’s going to give us the ins and outs of what’s going to happen with the Federal interest rates for the rest of this year.


There’s a lot of talk about the month of September. “September is the anticipated month that the Fed is planning to raise the Fed Funds rate,” John says. The Fed Funds rate won’t necessarily impact mortgage rates directly, but as the economy and financial investors see that Fed Funds rate is increasing, it will add confidence to the marketplace. This confidence will ultimately lead to home loan rates moving up.


The Fed will release a report to the marketpl ...

What's the biggest obstacle to homeownership?

According to a recent survey, "saving enough for a down payment" comes at the top of the list. A whopping 55% of prospective homebuyers cited this as their main stumbling block.

And with the continuing growth of home prices, things aren't getting any easier. In fact, homeownership rates reached a 20-year low last November.
It wasn't always like this.

A decade ago, many lenders were offering easy, no-money-down mortgages.

However, after the financial crisis, mortgage standards have become more restrictive. A typica ...