Tips for Finding a Good Electrician

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Electricity and electrical wiring are two things we’ve all pretty much become pretty accustomed to using but know very little about. And since the majority of the homes we live in use electricity when something breaks down it leaves one with very few options for recourse. For homeowners who find themselves in a position where they need to find good electricians and know very little about electrical wiring and applicable codes, we offer the following tips for finding and hiring a good electrician.

Obviously one of the first things you want to do is ask your friends and family if they know of any good electricians that they’d like to refer to you. Bout you shouldn’t stop there even if you receive a referral from a friend or family member. If you really want to find a good electrician you’ll need to take it a step further and have at least a couple of other electricians bid on your work as well. By having several electricians bid on your project you can pick and choose the best bid/quote and assure yourself that you’re hiring a good electrician because you’ve compared him to other electricians.

If you need help coming up with more electricians to bid on your project, I recommend doing a search in Google for the name of your city plus the word “electricians.” For example if you were doing a search for an electrician in Toronto you would type in “Toronto electricians” into Google. The results page should return several electricians from Toronto along with some reviews from past clients. Look for the electricians with the most convincing positive comments and then add them to your list of prospective electricians.

Next you’ll want to evaluate the names on your list a little further. One of the first things we recommend is just typing their names or business names, whichever they use, into a Google search and seeing what comes up. Sometimes it’ll be painfully clear that you won’t want to work with some of your potential electricians but other times, you’ll think you’ve struck gold!

To take it a step further you’ll also want to look for the electricians websites. You can glean a lot of useful information from an electrician’s website… things like:

  • How long they’ve been in business
  • Whether or not they have a phone number other than a cell number
  • If they’re licensed and bonded
  • If they have insurance
  • If they belong to any trade organizations
  • Testimonials from past customers

As you can see that’s a lot at a glance and enough to give you a better idea of which electricians you would like to have bid on your project. Before you start calling electricians and start asking for bids it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself a bit with your repair job. Online forums where electricians congregate can be a great resource for anyone looking to gain some insights on how the job should be properly done. And that’s invaluable information if you need to find and hire a good electrician.

The more you know about how your repair job should be done the better able you’ll be to recognize the competent electricians apart from the wanna-bes. Knowing more about what’s wrong will also help you better describe the problem over the phone. Not all electricians do bids for free so make sure you clarify that before asking for a quote or bid.

Finally, ask for references and contact them. Ask about the quality of the electrician’s work. How has it held up over time? Have you had any problems since? Was the electrician on time? On schedule? On budget? Courteous?

And this is where getting multiple bids come into play. Now you can pick and choose the best bid and hopefully they all look good if you screened the electricians properly. If you’re still having trouble making a decision, you may want to call your local licensing board and ask if any complaints have been filed against the electricians you’re considering. Checking with the Better Business Bureau is also a good idea but in most cases.

For more tips on finding and hiring good electricians, check out: http://findlocalelectricians.net/.

Overview of the Fiancé Visa Process

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A fiancé visa, which is officially known as a K-1 visa by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), is a travel document which allows the foreign fiancé of a United States citizen to travel to the U.S. to get married. There are several restrictions and requirements for qualifying for a fiancé visa and it is treated mostly as an immigrant visa (rather than the non-immigrant visa which is what it is) since the recipient will most likely apply for an adjustment of status to a legal permanent resident within the 90 day period which is allowed under a fiancé visa.

Before you can apply for a fiancé visa, or K-1 visa, you must be a United States citizen. You will have to provide documentation in the form of a U.S. birth certificate or a naturalization certificate. In addition you will also have to prove that you and your foreign fiancé are legally free to marry and you will have to provide proof that any previous marriages have either ended in a legal divorce or death. Finally you will have to prove that you and your fiancé have met at least once in the previous two years.

If you meet those above qualifications, you are eligible to apply for a fiancé visa. In order to get the process started, you, the U.S. citizen, will have to download, complete and return form I-129F to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services office. Although form I-129F is only a few pages in length, it is a lot more complex than it seems and you will ultimately end up returning a package that resembles the thickness of a phone book! In short there are several documents you will have to gather and return as well as several forms you will have to complete. And unfortunately and mistake or omission in the process will usually result in delays to an already lengthy process. Below is an idea of some of the forms and documents you will have to gather, complete and return to USCIS with form I-129F

  • Copy of your birth certificate
  • Form G-325A which is a from that discloses your biographic information
  • Passport style photos of you and your fiancé
  • Proof that you have met your fiancé in the past two years
  • Declaration that you intend to marry your fiancé when he/she arrives
  • Proof that any previous marriages have legally ended

What some folks don’t realize is that submitting form I-129F is just the first step in the process. If USCIS approves your application or Petition for Alien Fiancé as it is formally referred to, it will forward it to the National Visa Center which will eventually forward it to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate closest to your fiancé. If USCIS, does not approve your petition, you will receive notification with a short description as to why.

The next step in the process will take place outside of the U.S. and will involve the foreign fiancé almost exclusively. The foreign fiancé will receive notification from the National Visa Center that they have received an application for a fiancé visa and he/she will receive instructions on the following:

  • Which documents to gather and return and which documents to gather for the upcoming interview
  • Directions on how and where to schedule a mandatory physical examination which must be performed by an approved physician
  • Directions on how and where to schedule the visa interview

Most couples stress out the most about the visa interview because that’s actually where it will be decided if your fiancé visa application is approved or not. The questions asked in a fiancé visa interview are pretty basic and shouldn’t be hard to answer if you’re in a legitimate relationship. The foreign fiancé should expect to be asked questions about his/her American partner, questions about the relationship and other questions pertinent to the fiancé visa like whether or not travel arrangements have been made.

Perhaps the best advice anyone can give you regarding the fiancé visa application process is to be completely honest. In addition if time is of the essence you can probably benefit from consulting with or hiring an experienced immigration attorney to help you with the process. For more information and tips regarding the K1 Visa please visit: http://k1fiancevisainfo.com/.

Tips for Finding a Good Local Contractor

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Most homeowners are usually pretty quick when it comes to deciding to make improvements to their homes. Unfortunately that enthusiasm is quickly blunted with the realities of things like extensive planning and having to find and hire competent contractors for your home improvement project. Fortunately for you the folks at basement renovations Toronto have come up with some tips and great advice for finding and hiring the right contractors for your next home improvement project.

basement renovation contractorsOne of the best pieces of advice you can get when it comes to hiring home improvement contractors is to interview and screen several contractors before you make a hiring decision. Obviously the first place you should look for contractors is by asking your friends, family, neighbors and trusted real estate agents. These referrals will probably carry a little more weight with you and there’s nothing wrong with that so long as you still screen the referrals along with any other contractors that you are considering.

Online review sites such as Yelp and CitySearch have made it much easier to find reviews and feedback for local contractors and searching online for some local contractors is a good idea as well. The great thing about searching online is you can choose the results that have the most reviews. I’ve found checking online reviews and feedback from past clients a great way to find some good local contractors.

Other ways of generating a good list of potential contractors is by visiting your local home improvement stores and asking them for some referrals or at least a list of contractors that consistently pay on time. Another potential source for some good referrals is the local building inspector who might be willing to share with you the names of some contractors who consistently pass code with their projects. And finally you might also be able to get some good referrals from trusted real-estate agents or general contractors.

The screening and vetting process should begin after you’ve put together a decent sized list of potential contractors. One of the first things I recommend you look for in a competent contractor is a contractor’s license. A contractor with a license has had his background checked by your local licensing body and has also been tested for competency in his field of expertise. In addition you can and should also check to see if any complaints have been filed against any of the contractors on your list once you’ve determined that they have a license. It’s important to note that the state licensing board is one of the first places a disgruntled homeowner will turn to to voice their complaint about a bad experience with a licensed contractor.

For this next step in the screening and vetting process you’ll need an internet connection. As I mentioned above, the internet is filled with feedback and reviews from homeowners who share their experiences to help others. To find out a little more about your prospective contractors I think it’s a good idea to search for reviews and feedback for each individual contractor. When looking for feedback, try to stick to sites that authenticate their reviews so you know they’re coming from real people.

While you’re looking for reviews and feedback on each individual contractor hopefully, at some point, you stumbled upon the contractor’s website. A contractor’s website can share a lot of valuable information and of course we’re take full advantage of that. Below are some pieces of information you’ll probably want to gather about your potential contractors and a lot of it can probably be found on the contractor’s website.

  • How long has the contractor been in business?
  • Is he licensed? Is the license number displayed on the website?
  • Is he insured? If he has employees, does he have worker’s compensation insurance?
  • Does the contractor have a physical business location?
  • Does the contractor belong to any trade organizations?
  • Are their pictures/images of the contractors work?

After you’ve searched online for some existing feedback and checked out the contractor’s website, you’re hopefully in a position where you’ve chosen some favorites that you’d like to proceed with. For those contractors I would recommend setting up an interview plus a walk-through so you can explain to them what you needs are but also so you can interview them and get a better feel for them.

Obviously in the interview you’ll want to talk about things like their experience level with your type of work but you’ll also want to ask about their license and insurance. At this point you just really need to be sure they’re aware that you’ll need to see a certificate of insurance along with their bid and that you’ll also need to verify their license number.

You’ll probably also want to discuss the fact that you’ll need to draft and have the contractor sign a  contract before work gets started. Might not be a bad idea to discuss some contractual particulars like whether or not the contractor will guarantee the work and for how long and what type of payment schedule will work for both parties.

Hiring a contractor for a home improvement or repair project can be a pretty nerve racking time but it doesn’t have to be. Treat it like you’re hiring an employee for a job (which you are albeit a temporary one), follow the tips above and you’ll be sure to find a good local contractor in no time! For more contractor hiring tips, please check out: http://howtofindacontractor.net/.

Search Engine Optimization For Small Business Owners

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If you have a business today you probably realize that advertising online is a very important aspect of growing your business and connecting with tomorrows potential customers. Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is one of the most effective methods for driving quality and targeted traffic to your business website. SEO is the practice of optimizing your website so that it is more visible to search engines for keywords and phrases that you would like to receive traffic for. A major ranking factor for most search engines is the number and quality of inbound links pointing to your website. Unfortunately that has led to many businesses sprouting up that exist solely for the purpose of spamming the web solely for the purpose of improving the ranks of their clients.

When it comes to inbound links, to put it bluntly quality matters and merely focusing on quantity these days can earn your website a penalty if you don’t know what you’re doing. Google, the most popular search engine in the world has search engine algorithms that have the ability to detect unnatural link patterns. Basically the days of spamming the Bajeezus out of anchor text links to achieve quick rankings may be coming to an end. While the practice still may work; it now only works temporarily and could earn you a penalty or permanent ban if you get over-zealous with the anchor text link-building.

So basically, be careful out there! If you’re going to hire an SEO company or consultant to do your search engine optimization for your company, you better know what they’re doing! And if you’re going to outsource outside of the U.S. be aware that you get what you pay for and that a lot of the link-building packages that some of these companies sell are now being penalized by the biggest search engines in the world.

A quality website will have a natural and diverse link profile. That means you won’t have too many keyword focused anchor text inbound links pointing to your website. How much is too much? 15-20% according to most experts. In addition to watching the percentage of anchor text inbound links you have pointing to your website, you also want to look at having a diverse link profile containing links from a variety of websites.

That’s the problem with a lot of these link building packages… they typically only include one type of links but lot’s of them! So you’ll get a thousand blog comments or a thousand directory links and of course it all looks natural right? Particularly when you have the exact anchor text that you’ve targeted for those pages, it’s easy to see how unnatural these types links can look and how they could get your website penalized.

With search engine optimization, more than ever before, you need to have a diversified approach to link-building and you also need to have a sustainable SEO plan in place. Anyone can fire up a piece of software and obtain a first page ranking for you but they will also probably get your website permanently removed from Google’s index.

If you’re a small business owner and you plan on outsourcing your SEO make sure you hire an SEO who will obtain natural links for you by creating great content and developing relationships with “influencers” in your niche. By influencers I mean bloggers and social media peeps with large followings…

I’ve seen too many small business owners get their websites torched because they hired a shady SEO company. There’s nothing worse than having to tell a small business owner that he or she is better of starting from scratch with a new website because the old site will always be tainted. Don’t be that small business owner. Don’t hire a SEO company based solely on price because you get what you apy for and sometimes more…

For a free SEO consultation, contact the Los Angeles SEO and for more SEO tips and advice check out his website at: http://dancruzinc.com.

Basement Renovations

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Basement renovations have become quite popular for homeowners who need additional square footage in their homes. Most homeowners prefer basement renovations over room additions because they take much less time and are generally much less expensive. And since there are so many options on what you can do with a basement renovation, most homeowners find the decision to be a bit of a no-brainer. Below are just some ideas for a basement renovation:

  • Home theater
  • Kids playroom
  • Home gym
  • Guest room
  • Home Office
  • Library
  • Study room
  • Family room
  • Hobby/craft room
  • Workshop
  • Wine Cellar
  • Game Room
  • Bar/ entertainment area

basement renovationsAs you can see there are several options for someone who is thinking about remodeling their basement. And while a basement renovation can be completed in less time than a room addition and with less money, there are also several concerns with basement renovations.

Lighting

Since most basements are underground there is typically a lack of lighting that you have to deal with. Generally speaking your budget will determine who you deal with the problem of a lack of lighting. If you have money in the budget you’ll probably want to add some windows to allow some natural light to penetrate your basement.

If you have a bit more of a modest budget you can tackle the problem by adding more light fixture to the basement and spreading them out throughout the room. A lot of homeowners have also had success by using light and soft colors on their walls. One final and cost effective tip to solve the lighting issue is to use a French door to your basement. You most likely don’t have a French door leading to your basement and if you have ample natural light in the room leading to your basement, you can take advantage of that by using a French door.

Moisture

Moisture can be a huge problem with basement renovations because excessive moisture can lead to mold which can be hazardous to your health. To check for moisture in your basement you’ll need a plastic trash bag and some strong industrial tape. What you want to do is lay the bag on the floor and tape all the edges of the bag. Leave the bag on the ground for at least 24 hours and when you remove it look for moisture and condensation under the bag. If you spot any, you probably have moisture getting into your basement.

Luckily if you do have a moisture problem, there are several different things you can do to help prevent it. A couple of things you definitely want to look at if you have a moisture problem is whether or not you have rain gutters installed and you’ll also want to look at the landscape grading around your home.  The grading around your home should slope down and away from your home’s walls to direct all water flow away from your home. Inside your basement you should look for cracks and fill them. You can also use waterproof and mildew resistant sealant on your concrete walls and floors and water proof and mildew resistant paint on your basement walls.

No Ceiling/ Low Ceiling Height

Finally since basements aren’t designed to be living spaces and most also house several critical ducts and pipes, most basements don’t have a ceiling and worse yet the height of a typical basement is also shorter than the average room in your house. How you deal with this problem will again depend on your budget.

Since the room height of the typical basement is typically lower than every other room in your house, you’ll either have to dig out the basement floor and create more space or work with the space you have. As far as ceiling go, the two most popular choices for most basements are a drywall ceiling or a suspended tile ceiling.

There’s no doubt about, the popularity of basement renovations is most definitely on the rise and as you can see there are several reasons for it. If you’re considering a basement renovation, it’s important to take the above concerns into consideration and plan for them in your budget. Basement renovations are some of the most rewarding renovation projects today but like with most things in life, it’s important that you plan well for it.