Home fires in the US cost an estimated $11.6 billion in damaged property in 2014. in the US. What’s worse, they were responsible for the death of over 3,200 people and the injury of nearly 16,000 more.

Keeping your home and family safe from fire is of paramount importance – for obvious reasons – which is why it’s worth the time, effort, and money to do whatever you can to fireproof your home to avoid becoming a statistic. And the good news is, most fires can be prevented with a few key steps.

Here are 8 ways you can protect your home – and those within it – from falling prey to a house fire.

1. Install Smoke Alarms

One of the most important features that your home should have are functioning smoke alarms. In fact, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an average of 940 deaths occur in homes with no smoke alarms every year, and another 510 deaths happen in fires where smoke alarms are installed but fail to function.

Scary stuff, and totally preventable too. Not only should every floor in your home have a smoke alarm installed, each of them should be checked on a regular basis to make sure they work.

2. Check For Faulty Electrical Wiring

Electrical wiring is one of the main culprits behind home structure fires in the US. Whether you live in an old home, or are considering buying one, it’s always a good idea to hire a licensed electrician to inspect all the wiring to make sure the previous technician didn’t do a shoddy job, or that no wires are damaged from rodents. If any faulty wiring is detected, it should be fixed right away. 

3. Don’t Overload the Electrical Sockets

Electrical fires aren’t entirely restricted to wiring that’s on the other side of the drywall. Many electrical fires start because of electrical sockets that are overloaded with plug-ins. In fact, most electrical fires are the result of electrical appliances.

Don’t overload your electrical sockets, especially with appliances that use a ton of electricity to operate. And unplug them when they’re not in use, whether it’s before you go to bed at night or leave for holidays. 

4. Mind the Candles

Candles create a cozy ambience, but if you don’t tend to them, they’re nothing more than a major fire hazard. This is especially true if you’ve got young kids or pets running around the house, who can easily knock them over.

If you do light up a candle or two, make sure you blow them out before you leave the room, even if you’re just going to be gone for a couple of minutes. All it takes is a second for the candle’s flame to make contact with a surface and ignite a dangerous house fire.

5. Keep the Dryer’s Lint Trap Clear

That seemingly harmless little piece of mesh in your dryer can actually be a fire hazard if you don’t clean it out. You’d be amazed at how much lint collects in the trap after every load is dried. In fact, you’ll swear that’s where your missing socks are when you see the pile-up of lint on this filter.

A clogged trap can cause the dryer to overheat, and thereby start a fire. So get into the habit of cleaning the lint trap out after every load of laundry to drastically reduce the odds of setting the house aflame.

6. Stock Your Home With Fire Extinguishers

If a fire does ensue, your first line of defense is a fire extinguisher. But it won’t do much good if you’ve got only one in the house, and you can’t remember where you put it. Make sure you outfit your home with at least two or three (preferably one on each floor), and put them in easy-to-access spots where you can quickly grab them when they’re needed.

Just make sure that one of them is in the kitchen, which tends to be the spot where they’re most frequently required. And be sure to make a note of their expiration dates so they can be replaced as necessary.

7. Never Leave the Stove Unattended

Whether or not you’ve got a toddler roaming about the home, it’s still a good idea to keep a close watch on whatever it is you’ve got cooking on the stovetop. If the pan or pot catches fire, you’ll be there to deal with it.

But rather than throwing water on it (which is a bad idea), put some baking soda or a damp cloth over top if the fire is not out of control. You should also try to shut the heat source off and remove the pan from the burner safely using an oven mitt.

If these solutions aren’t possible, grab that fire extinguisher to put the fire out before it has a chance to spread.

8. Use Fire-Resistant Carpets

There are so many things in your home that can cause a fire to spread really quickly, including your carpets. This is especially true for wall-to-wall carpeting, considering how much area they cover. The major culprits are those that are made with wool and synthetic fibers. If you insist on having carpeting in your home, go for fire-resistant versions to slow the spread of a fire should one occur.

Fireproofing your home is pretty easy when you think about it. Considering the valuables that you’re protecting, it’s worth every second and every penny. And as if that wasn’t reason enough, fireproofing measures can even shave a few bucks off of your home insurance premiums.

If a good deal is what you’re looking for when it comes to buying a house, the last people you want to put off are the sellers.

The truth is, there’s a certain etiquette that buyers should follow throughout the home-buying process, and failure to follow it could actually cost you a lot of money.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to being courteous and having some common sense. Even if you mean no harm, you could inadvertently turn the sellers off with a certain gesture or comment that could potentially sabotage your negotiating power.

Stick to the following rules of home-buying etiquette to make sure the experience is a good one.

Stick With Reasonable Viewing Times

Use common sense when it comes to the days and times that you want to go see a listed home. Generally acceptable viewing times are typically between 10am and 8pm throughout the week. Asking to booking a showing at 10pm on a Tuesday night or 7am on Sunday morning isn’t going to cut it. Agents will likely get shut down if they ask the sellers for a showing at any one of these unreasonable times.

Don’t Demand Last-Minute Appointments

While your agent is working diligently to find you the right home, he or she is not at your beck-and-call. While many times agents and sellers can accommodate an immediate showing, many times they cannot.

While it doesn’t hurt to ask if there’s a last-minute time slot available, don’t demand it. The typical protocol is to book showings at least 24 hours in advance to allow the seller to make arrangements to not be home during the showing, and to have the home adequately prepped to be viewed. It also helps agents ensure that there is free time in their schedules to accommodate an appointment.

Skip the Unauthorized Photography

When you’re at a viewing, don’t whip out your smartphone and start snapping photos of the interior and exterior of the home unless you’ve been given direct permission to do so. That’s just rude and inconsiderate. After all, it’s not a public place – it’s still the sellers’ home, and it’s private property.

Don’t Deal With Any Other Agent if You’ve Already Signed With One

If you’ve already signed a contract with an agent, don’t call the listing agent of a home you’re interested in seeing. Actually, don’t call any other agent at all except your own. Even if your agent is away on holidays, proper etiquette would entail speaking with the agent who is covering for yours while they’re away. Not only is it discourteous to your agent and the other, it could even cost you money considering you’re under contract.

Be Honest With Your Agent About How Serious You Are About Buying

Don’t waste your agent’s time, nor the time of sellers with showings if your immediate intentions are not to buy anytime soon. Agents and sellers are busy enough without entertaining people who are just curious about seeing how other people live.

And even if you are serious about buying, don’t ask your agent to show you 10 houses in one afternoon. Viewing homes takes a lot of time, and taking up your agent’s entire afternoon is expensive for them. Not only that, but seeing too many homes at once will actually cloud your judgment and make it difficult to remember what you saw in which house. Stick to a maximum of only 3 or 4 home listings for each round of showings.

Make Sure You Can Afford the Place

If you’re looking at a home that’s listed for $600,000, but you can only realistically afford one for no more than $300,000, you’re wasting everyone’s time, including your own. Maybe you really do think you can afford the place, and are just naive to the whole home buying process.

That’s where a mortgage pre-approval can come in handy. This will give the lender a chance to analyze your income and current debt to see what you can realistically and comfortably afford. That way, you can focus only on the homes that fit your budget.

Many real estate agents actually require their clients to be pre-approved, and many sellers prefer to see an offer come in from prospective buyers who already have a pre-approval letter from their lender.

Be Polite and On-Time at Showings

This one goes without saying, but it’s still worth mentioning. Be polite to your agent, and to the sellers if they happen to be present. And don’t go sifting through clothes drawers or ransacking the storage closet. Looting around during a showing is definitely not polite.

In addition, make sure you’re on time for the showings. These appointments are usually only for a half hour to an hour, so you want to use each minute to your advantage to get a good sense of the home. Not only that, but it doesn’t show much respect to your agent to make them wait around forever for you to show up. They’ve likely got better things to do. 

Don’t Directly Contact the Homeowner

If a home is listed through an agent, then it’s protocol for any communications to take place between your agent and the seller’s. Under no circumstance is it acceptable to contact the homeowner directly. Not only will you seem overly aggressive, you’ll likely upset the homeowner.

Don’t Act Like the Home is Yours Until it Actually is

Even if you’ve fallen madly in love with a house, and have gone so far as to put an offer on it, the house isn’t yours until the keys are physically in your hands. Don’t show up to the home unannounced and start taking measurements for the sunroom addition you’ve got planned, or where you want the pool to go. Wait until the deal is formally done before you start making any plans.

Don’t Make Comments About the House When the Seller is Around

If the seller happens to be present when you’re viewing the home with your agent, reserve your comments until you’ve left. The homeowner might not appreciate hearing your thoughts on the outdated paint colors or the unattractive living room furniture. You’ll only hurt their feelings, as well as your negotiating power.

The Bottom Line

These tips aren’t hard to follow. In fact, they can be applied to any aspect of life. Use some common sense, be courteous, and be open and honest so that everyone’s happy.

With rent prices increasing all over the country, now may a good time to make the leap from ‘renter’ status to ‘owner’.

After all, why not put that monthly check towards your own equity rather than someone else’s? And the prices that landlords are charging these days for rent are often higher than a typical mortgage payment!

But once you’ve made the decision to forego renting in favor of buying, you’ve got to do things properly from the get-go. A home purchase is a major decision, so you want to be sure that you’ve considered every angle to make sure the choice is the right one for you.

Understand the Issue of Mobility

If there’s one benefit of renting, it’s the mobility and flexibility that typically comes along with it. Once your term date has come and gone on your rental agreement, you can literally pick up and move to a new location much faster if you rent instead of own.

On the other hand, if you’ve got to sell, there will be a lot more on your plate in terms of all the legalities and financials that you have to deal with. While this isn’t usually a problem for many, it’s something that you need to understand before you make the transition.

Consider the Long-Term Benefits of Owning

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of owning property is the long-term equity and wealth that it can help you accumulate. In fact, this is probably THE biggest advantage from a financial standpoint.

Every month that you make a rental payment, who’s pockets are you filling?

Not yours.

But if you’re paying a mortgage on your own property, the principal portion of every mortgage payment you make goes directly towards building equity in your home. And not only do you build equity by directly feeding into it with your money, you’re also building it with appreciation over time.

Of course, the exact amount that your home will be worth at any given point in the future will depend on that current housing market and the condition of your mortgage. But if you’ve been making regular payments without excessive leveraging to obtain financing, and the market is in decent condition, you can be looking at considerable gains.

Team up with a real estate agent, do some homework, crunch the numbers, and be practical about the prospective future value of your property.

Get Your Credit in Order

Don’t start pounding the pavement looking for a house just yet until you’ve looked into the state of your credit. Lenders aren’t going to hand out a mortgage to just anyone, including those who have a poor credit score on their records.

Basically, the higher your credit score, the better the odds of getting approved for a mortgage, and the lower the interest rate you’ll likely be offered. Usually, anything above 680 is what lenders are looking for.

But you’re not going to know what your credit score is until you pull your credit report. If your score isn’t as high as you’d like to to be, scan the report with a fine-tooth comb to check for any errors that could be bringing your score down. If you spot any, make sure you report these to the credit bureau right away to be investigated.

There are plenty of things you can do to improve your credit score, which should be done sooner rather than later. Don’t make any large purchases on credit, and don’t apply for any new credit cards. Make sure any loan payments you are currently responsible for are paid on time and in full every month so you don’t cause any further damage.

Within a few months of practicing these efforts, you should see an uptick on your credit score which will put you in a more favorable position to get a decent mortgage package.

Sort Out Your Finances and Get Pre-Approved For a Mortgage

How much debt are you currently drowning under? How much money are you actually taking home in income? Before you start dreaming of home ownership, you need to get a handle on your finances and identify exactly what financial position you’re in first. Lots of first-time homebuyers make the mistake of house-hunting without understanding whether or not their current finances can support this purchase.

It’s always a good idea to meet with a mortgage broker before checking out any listings to see what mortgages and interest rates you can realistically and comfortably afford. That’s where a mortgage pre-approval can come in really handy.

A pre-approval will give your mortgage specialist an opportunity to check out your credit history and determine whether or not you’d be a candidate for a home loan. Sure, you’ll have to fill out applications and submit a bunch of forms. But by the end of the process, you’ll know whether or not you’d be able to get a mortgage, and how much a lender would be willing to loan you.

This, in turn, will give you a clear idea of the price range of homes that you’ll be able to afford. There’s no sense looking for homes in the $500,000 range when you can only afford those in the $300,000 price bracket.

Shop Within Your Budget So You Don’t End Up ‘House Poor’

The last thing you want to do is dump a big chunk of your paycheck into your house. Financial experts recommend that homeowners shouldn’t be putting any more than 30% of their monthly income towards their mortgages in order to live comfortably and enjoy other aspects of life without drowning in loan payments.

Consider what percentage of your income you’d be comfortable putting towards your mortgage, and don’t go over that number.

Factor in Costs Aside From the Purchase Price

Once you buy a house, you’re no longer just responsible for the rent. The closing of the house purchase itself will come with added costs, such as home inspections, appraisals, commission fees, moving costs, and title insurance. And once you get the keys, you’ll now be paying for things like utilities, property taxes, insurance, and any fees related to repairs and maintenance.

The Bottom Line

These tidbits of info aren’t meant to scare you. Instead, they’re meant to adequately prepare you for the responsibilities of homeownership. Get your credit in check, and get your finances in order. Put a team together that includes a profession real estate agent and experienced mortgage broker who can help you get ready for your new role as homeowner. Lean on their expertise to help you put your best foot forward in the world of homeownership.