The missing manual for owning a home

Nobody hands you the manual
when they hand you the keys.

Every new homeowner knows both feelings: the joy of finally owning a home, and the slow-building weight of everything nobody warned you about — the contractors, the bids, the claims, the costs with names you'd never heard before. There is no single source that says watch out for this. This desk is the closest thing.

Digital downloads, delivered instantly, yours forever. All sales final.
Free Guides

Start with the free answers. Twenty-four of them.

Most people arrive at this desk the same way — by typing a worried question into a search bar. The Free Guides answer those questions in plain English, completely free: no signup, no paywall, no catch. Read what you need. The Packages exist for when you want the tools and the letters, not just the understanding.

Is a 50% deposit normal for a contractor?

What deposits are reasonable, and how to counter-propose.

Can a subcontractor lien my house if I paid?

The trap nobody warns homeowners about, explained.

What should be in a renovation contract?

Clause by clause, in plain English.

The first 48 hours after a fire or flood

What to photograph and protect before cleanup.

ACV vs. RCV: how insurance values your stuff

The difference that decides the size of your check.

How to read a home inspection report

Two hundred findings, three that matter.

Browse all 24 Free Guides → or try the free tools

The shelf

Three packages for the renovation. One for the day you buy. One book for the whole house.

The core line covers the project itself — choosing the contractor, signing the contract, and getting the insurance claim paid when the work follows a disaster. One more covers the moment before it all: the home inspection. Each package is complete on its own — an exhaustive plain-English guide, working calculators with every formula visible, and the exact letters and words to use.

Most popular

The Contractor Protection Package

$39 · Contractor Contracts

You're about to hand a contractor $15,000–$100,000. This package shows you whether that contract, that deposit, and that payment schedule protect you — or him.

Protect the money →

The Bid Decoder Package

$29 · Remodel Bids

Three bids, thousands of dollars apart, none describing the same job. Decode what each bid actually includes — and where the cheap one gets expensive.

Decode the bids →

The Claim Inventory Package

$39 · Insurance Claims

After a fire, flood, or theft, your insurer asks for a list of everything you owned. What you can't document, you don't get paid for. Build the list that gets the claim paid in full.

Get the claim paid →
Beyond the reno

The Inspection IQ Package

$29 · Home Inspections

The inspection is your one chance to understand what you're buying — its real value and its future costs — and to renegotiate accordingly. Know which findings matter and exactly what to ask for.

Read the report right →
New

The House Book

$19 · Home Records

Shutoffs, warranties, paint colors, contractors, maintenance — the fill-in record system for everything your house knows and you have to remember.

Write it down once →
Best value

The Homeowners Desk Library

$99 · All five products $155

Every package, the House Book, every calculator and letter. The whole desk, one checkout.

Get the Library →
Why this desk exists

Homeownership is a series of expensive decisions you weren't trained for.

81,925Home-improvement scam reports filed with the FTC in 2024 alone
1 in 60Insured homes file a water-damage or freezing claim every year — average payout near $14,000 (Insurance Information Institute)
~$1,800Average loss per reported home-improvement scam (Better Business Bureau)

The contractor has signed hundreds of contracts. The adjuster settles claims for a living. The seller's agent has done this a hundred times. You get one shot, with your own money — and everything you find online is either a 300-word blog post or a $5 template written by nobody.

These packages were written by a homeowner who has owned, gutted, renovated, flooded, insured, and sold his own homes — the education you'd want before signing: what the documents mean, where the traps are, what to ask, and what to put in writing when things go sideways. Here's the story.

  • Exhaustive guides — 30–50 pages each, plain English, written to be the last thing you need to read on the subject.
  • Working tools — real calculators and workbooks with every formula visible: payment schedules, bid comparisons, claim inventories. Not printables. Tools.
  • The exact words — letters and scripts for the contractor, the adjuster, the negotiation. On paper, in the right order.
  • One price, yours forever — no subscription, no login, no drip course. Download it, keep it, use it for every home you ever own.

The math never changes.

Every package costs less than one hour of the professional you'd call mid-crisis — and less than a tenth of one percent of the money it's protecting. The other way to get this education is the way most homeowners get it: one expensive surprise at a time.

Pick your package Instant download · All sales final · Educational information, not legal advice
Straight answers

Questions people ask before buying

Is this legal advice?

No. These are educational guides and tools — nothing here is legal advice, and buying a package does not create any professional relationship. The packages teach you how these situations generally work so you can handle the routine parts yourself; if you have questions about your individual situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state. See the full terms & disclaimers.

Does this replace hiring professionals?

No — and it doesn't pretend to. You should still hire the inspector, and sometimes the attorney or the public adjuster. A guide to fixing a leaky faucet doesn't replace a licensed plumber; it makes you the person who knows whether the plumber's diagnosis makes sense. These packages do the same for the biggest checks you'll ever write.

Why wouldn't I just use free checklists online?

Some free checklists are decent — as far as they go. What they don't have: the working calculators, the annotated documents showing what bad clauses actually look like, the exact letters, and the step-by-step plans for when it's already going wrong. Free content tells you a payment schedule matters. The package builds one and scores it.

What's your refund policy?

There are no refunds — please read this before you buy. These are digital products delivered in full, instantly, permanently. The moment you download a package, you own everything in it forever, which is exactly why it can't be returned. Every page tells you precisely what's inside before you pay; if you're unsure, read the full contents list first or don't buy. All sales are final.

Do the packages apply in my state?

The packages teach national concepts — the payment logic, red flags, documentation discipline, and negotiation approaches that work everywhere. Where the law varies by state (lien rules especially), the packages say so plainly and tell you what to verify locally instead of pretending one form fits fifty states.