Homeownership Programs

Please Note:  Will you receive a Federal Homeownership Tax Credit?   If you need information on the first-time home buyer tax credit, please visit www.irs.gov.

You may want to consider using your tax credit to pay off all, or a portion, of your House Key Plus Second Mortgage. You could save money and reduce your monthly mortgage payment. See examples below:

Please contact the Housing Finance Commission at 800-767-HOME or 206-464-7139 for more information
regarding this option.

Welcome to Homeownership!

SEASONAL NEWSLETTER – FALL / WINTER 2009

This Seasonal Newsletter is provided as a tool to remind you of those routine tasks and maintenance on your new home. This newsletter is not intended to cover everything a new homeowner should look for but act as a guide to help get you started.  

• Maintenance Tips
• Green Tips
• Safety Tips

Maintenance Tips for Your New Home

It’s already Fall and before you know it Winter comes upon us faster than we realize. Suddenly we are scraping ice off our car windows and looking for a matching pair of gloves. Don’t let your home get caught off guard by the cold weather.

Here are a few tips to help make sure your home can weather the storm and keep out the cold:

• Cover your outside faucets and pipes
• Unhook outdoor hoses
• Check the weather stripping around doors and windows
• Check and change your furnace filter monthly during winter months
• Clean your roof gutters, remove leaves and moss
• If you have a ceiling fan, check for a reverse switch. Changing the direction of the fan can force warm air down during the winter months.
• Check under sinks in the kitchen and bathroom and in the basement for gaps around pipes, and fill them in with an insulating foam sealant. Small gaps can be effectively sealed with caulk.
• Winterize your lawn mower and store yard tools in a dry place.

Green Tips for your new home

In today’s society we are becoming more conscious of our precious resources. We are looking for ways to conserve and save. Many tips for helping to decrease our “footprint” on the earth’s resources can also save us money. These “green” tips not only help conserve resources but may also save you money:

• Convert to the compact florescent light bulbs (a bulb at a time…)
• Use biodegradable cleaning products
• If you are not already recycling paper, glass and plastic– call your disposal company and ask for recycling bins
• Recycle your yard waste, contact your disposal company or purchase a bin
• Use less water - flush less often, use your dishwasher, wash full loads
• Use less energy – unplug small appliances, turn off computers, use timers on outdoor lights
• Unfortunately, traditional wood burning fireplaces tend to lose more energy than they produce, pulling heated air out of the house and sending it up the chimney (and burning wood adds to air pollution). If you have natural gas or propane heating, consider having gas logs installed.
• Replace shower heads. Choose a low-flow unit and you'll get virtually the same sensation of water flow while saving money on your water bill.

Safety Tips for your new home

It goes with saying how important safety can be around the home. Even so, we tend to put off those routine tasks that can be critical in case of an emergency. Take a few moments and walk around your home, inside and out, and make sure that you have checked for those obvious hazards.

Some safety and hazard-prevention tips that can be important this time of year:

• Keep de-icer or salt handy for icy driveways and walkways
• Remove icicles that form on overhead gutters 
• Keep a small fire extinguisher near kitchen (never use water to put out a grease fire) 
• Check and change your Smoke and Carbon Monoxide detector batteries at least twice a year 
• Unplug coffee pots, toasters and small appliances when not in use 
• Make an emergency plan that includes a meeting place and escape route 
• If you use a wood burning fireplace, have it inspected and cleaned once a year to prevent build up of sticky, smelly, highly flammable creosote.

If you have questions about Homeownership, please call us at 800.767.4663 or email askusHO@wshfc.org.

This page was modified on 11/24/2009.