BillySoldNJ

Happy Friday!!!!

It’s pizza Friday everyone!  I have another awesome recipe for you all to try this holiday weekend. I will definitely be firing up my pizza oven during this long weekend.  I decided to do a meatless pizza for all my veggie lovers out there.  You can of course add any type of meat you want to this though.  The pizza I am sharing today is roasted garlic and mushroom white pizza.  This pizza is delicious.  Now I didn’t create this recipe myself, it came from Alison’s Allspice.  Check out the link below for more of her great recipes!

Below is the ingredients used and instructions:

Prep time

8 mins

Cook time

52 mins

Total time

1 hour

Ingredients:

▪   6 garlic cloves (unpeeled!)

▪   splash olive oil

▪   8 oz mushrooms, sliced

▪   1 tsp white wine vinegar

▪   1 TBS each: butter and all purpose flour

▪   ½ cup milk of choice (I used soy milk)

▪   ¼ tsp each: salt, pepper, dried basil, onion powder

▪   3 TBS Parmesan

▪   1 whole wheat pizza dough recipe

▪   1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

▪   ½ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated

▪   2 TBS minced fresh herbs (I used parsley)

Instructions

1.     Preheat your oven to 400 F.

2.     Toss unpeeled garlic with a splash of olive oil. Wrap in a piece of foil. Roast garlic in the preheated oven for 40 minutes.

3.     Meanwhile, prep your pizza dough.

4.     Add mushrooms to a large skillet and cook over medium heat until the liquid is released and evaporated. Stir in white wine vinegar and set aside.

5.     In another small skillet, whisk together butter and flour over medium heat. Let this mixture bubble for 1 minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in milk, and stir until thickened.

6.     Mix salt, pepper, basil, onion powder, and Parmesan.

7.     Peel roasted garlic and add to the sauce. Transfer to a mini food processor or use a hand blender to blend the garlic cloves into the sauce. Set white sauce aside.

8.     Increase oven temperature to 425 F.

9.     Press dough out into a 12 inch circle. Spread white sauce evenly over dough. Top with mozzarella, parmigiano-reggiano, and sauted mushrooms.

10.  Bake in the preheated oven (preferably on a pizza stone) for 12 minutes, or until the cheese is starting to turn golden brown.

http://www.alisonsallspice.com/roasted-garlic-and-mushroom-white-pizza/

Hey everyone!

Happy Friday!

I hope you all are getting excited and ready for that weekend to start. One of my favorite weekend activities is firing up my homemade pizza oven.  Rain or shine, and no matter what time of year, I’m always making pizza. Today I wanted to share a great recipe with you.  It’s a grilled prosciutto, spinach, and burrata pizza.  If you’re not a meat lover just skip the prosciutto.   It’s a simple recipe and it’s DELICIOUS.  If you don’t have a pizza, don’t worry, you can pop this in your oven.

Here’s your ingredients list:

Pizza dough

Cornmeal

Tomato sauce (you can make your own or you can buy from the store).

Prosciutto

Spinach

Shredded mozzarella

Burrata (It’s a soft cheese you can find at the grocery store, it’s similar to mozzarella).

You may want to pick up a pizza stone if you don’t have one.

Ok so this is how you’ll prepare it:

1.Roll out the dough (follow the directions on the package).  Then you want to place a thin layer of tomato sauce and mozzarella onto the top of the pizza.

 2.Place your pizza stone in your oven. Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Place the pizza onto the stone and close the lid.  Cook for about 4 minutes, or until the crust begins to brown (Be careful to check on it, so the bottom doesn’t burn).

 3. Top the pizza with small portions of prosciutto. Make sure they are small enough so they are bite sized. Place the pizza back in the oven and cook for 30 more seconds. Remove from the heat once again and add a handful of spinach.  Place back into the oven and let cook for 30 seconds.

 4. Remove the pizza from the oven and add the burrata onto the pizza. Serve your homemade pizza immediately.

Times may be different depending on your oven.  Make sure you constantly monitor and add more or less time if needed.

Check the link below for the full recipe:

Happy Wednesday!

I hope you all are having a great week, but that was some crazy weather we had yesterday!  Unfortunately the rain is here to stay for the week.  I thought showers were in April not May!  Speaking of May, usually we are having great weather by now and it’s personally one of my favorite months.  Aside from the weather, it’s also the best month to sell your home.  Research shows that if you sell your house in May you get an average of 5.9% above the estimated market value.  June is a great month too with an average of 5.8% above the estimated market value. Research even shows specific days in May that are the best to sell on.  According to the research, May 29th is 8.2% above the market and May 31st is 8.3% above the market.  Some may be surprised that May and June are the best months to sell in.  Truth is that during this time, it’s actually called the Spring Buyers Season.  This means that buyers are really motivated and bidding wars happen all the time.  The warmer weather also brings a higher turnout for buying and selling homes.  So basically what I’m saying to you is if you’re thinking of selling your house, now is the time to get the best value on your home.  If you have any other questions about this feel free to give me a call.

 For the full article check out the link below:

Hey Everyone, 

I hope you all had a great weekend, and a wonderful Mother’s Day!  I found something really cool over the weekend that I wanted to share with you. As you all know I’m a motorcycle guy. I love all kinds of motorcycles too, whether they are big, small, American, British, or German, it doesn’t matter to me as long as it has that cool factor.  I was looking at electric bikes over the weekend and discovered one from BMW that I really want.  Have you ever heard of a self-balancing motorbike?  Well if you haven’t you need to click on the link below and check it out. This blew me away.   I’m working on getting this in my driveway.  I mean it’s just too cool not to have.  What do you all think?

Happy Friday! 

I hope everyone is getting excited for the workday to end and the weekend to begin.  Mother’s day is this weekend and you haven’t gotten a present yet, I have some ideas that will surely make her smile.  Everyone always gets flowers, or makes breakfast, or goes to brunch, and while that’s really nice and appreciative, I think it’s time we get creative.  The first idea is a day at the spa.  Who doesn’t love a massage and pampering all day?  You can look up some packages online of spas that are nearby your home. Now this can run on the more expensive side.  If you’re looking for a great idea but still wanting to stay within budget, you should go for a Greetabl Mother’s Day Box.  It’s a really cool idea.  You choose your own pattern, a small gift, and some photos from your computer, and write a short message.  It’s a cool idea and priced really well.  Check out the link below so you can create your own Greetabl.  I hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there!!!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

           Today, I want to share a great article that our mortgage advisor, Anthony Rosamilia Jr. shared with me.  I think it will help to answer some questions that you may have about the current housing market.    Housing prices are on the rise and it may feel like we are back to 2006 in a housing bubble again, but we are not.  There are four factors that will explain that we aren’t going back in time.  These factors are home prices, mortgage standards, mortgage debt, and housing affordability.  Let’s jump right in.  Home prices, yes they are on the rise like they were in 2006, but it’s because of inflation.  Were talking about a 12-year difference from 2006, so inflation was bound to happen. Mortgage standards are giving people an uneasy feeling because they think that the banks are doing the same thing, lending loans easily.  This isn’t the case.  The standards aren’t anywhere near what they were. “…standards today are much tighter on a borrower’s credit situation and have all but eliminated the riskiest loan products” (Keeping Current Matters).  There a great graph to check out that explains this in the link I have shared below.   The next factor is mortgage debt.  In 2006, homeowners were using their home to take out equity and would spend that on anything and everything.  This piled on their debt for their mortgage and guess what?  People couldn’t pay their mortgages because of the debt that accrued.  This isn’t happening anymore.  There’s a great tool called the debt service ratio.  This is used to calculate the mortgage debt a person has and it shows what the percentage of disposable personal income is.  “At the height of the bubble market a decade ago, the ratio stood at 7.21%. That meant over 7% of disposable personal income was being spent on mortgage payments. Today, the ratio stands at 4.48% – the lowest level in 38 years!” (Keeping Current Matters).  The lowest in 38 years is pretty awesome, if you ask me.  The last factor is housing affordability.  Due to rising home prices, some buyers may feel that they possible afford houses they want.  This simply isn’t true, remember when I talked about inflation, well houses are more affordable now than they were than before (Keeping Current Matters).  Check out the Housing affordability index graph in the link!  I hope this cleared up some concerns some of you may be having.  It’s a great time to go look at houses!!

For the full article please click this link: 

Hi all,

I hope everyone had a great weekend and got caught up on some R & R. While poking around the Internet this weekend, I found a really interesting article about happy hour.  I mean who doesn’t like happy hour right? You’ve had a long day at work, and a good way to kick back is to have a beer or two at your local hang out. I thought so too, until I read this article. There was a study done with 600,000 participants and they discovered that the levels of alcohol that we once thought were harmless could actually lead to an earlier death.  There’s been studies done that have showed that alcohol isn’t always bad for you, that some of it can actually be good for you. These studies say that moderate drinkers would be less likely to have diabetes or heart disease.  These studies don’t make too much sense only because they were comparing drinkers to non-drinkers and light drinkers to heavy drinkers.  Those are actually pretty opposite.  The researchers are now trying to take that into consideration.  New studies say that two drinks for men per day and one drink per day for women is a better normal (Belluz, 2018).  Now does this mean you can’t go to happy hour? No, of course not, everything in moderation.

Good Afternoon Everyone,

           I hope that you all are having a great end to your week and getting ready for that weekend.  It actually looks like we’re supposed to have a pretty nice weekend, hopefully it stays like that.  One thing I love to do with my time off is DIY projects.  It’s a lot of fun and it’s easy!  My whole backyard is a DIY project.  People ask me all the time where to find ideas for easy and low cost projects.  Today I’m sharing some of these ideas.  I have five DIY ideas for you.  These are great to try this weekend to get that spring update going.

           The first idea is to fix up your entry way to your home. Your front door is usually the first place everyone goes to get into your house.  Adding a fresh coat of paint and a beautiful wreath will make it look like a whole new door.  Don’t be afraid to add color since spring and summer are upon us.  Remember that phrase first impressions matter?  Well this is also true with doors.  

           The next idea is to change out your cabinet hardware. Cabinet hardware can get dated, and it’s an easy, and cheap way to give your house a modern flair.  You will need to decide what you want your style to be, and make sure to do some research.   You can look online and see what types of hardware are out there.  There are great deals online.  If you do look online, make sure you take off your old hardware and you compare it to what you are seeing, they will need to match.  You can also run to your local Home Depot or Lowe’s to see what they offer.  If you do go to the store, I suggest you bring the old knob with you for reference.

`           The third is to plant some flowers in your front yard and back yard.  Flowers make a home look beautiful and really brighten it up.  Planting flowers is fun too, even if you don’t think you have a green thumb.  Run to your local garden center and see what deals they are having.  You may also want to think about planting perennial plants. They are long lasting and will pop up again next year.  Small trees are great ideas to plant as well if you are looking for a bit more privacy.

           The fourth is to paint a room that has been looking a little drab.  A new coat of paint can really liven up a room.  Don’t think you have to change your whole room’s look just because you painted it.  You can pick some neutral colors that still give a nice pop.  My new favorite wall color is light grey.  It goes so nicely and it really does brighten up a room.  

           The fifth is to add a new kitchen backsplash.  This might sound expensive but it really doesn’t have to be. There are so many low cost ideas out there.  Some people paint their own tiles, while others use wallpaper, and tin ceiling tiles.  This really makes your kitchen look like a whole new place with minimum cost.

        The first thing that they suggest is to go to a hardware store, if it’s in your area, called ReStore.  This store sells gently used and sometimes even brand new products.  They have great prices and all the proceeds from the store go to Habitat for Humanity (Mandell, 2018).  That’s a win all around.  You can get good products for a lesser cost and it goes to a great cause.  I think I’ll head on over to one today.  

        The next idea they give is to use prefab cabinets.  The quality is great and Property Brothers use them and just make them look like they are custom.  Homeowners can then use some of that extra money from the cabinets to purchase quartz countertops.  These are beautiful and the best part about them is that they don’t need to be resealed (Mandell, 2018).   Who doesn’t love when things are easy? Another win from the Property Brothers!  Aside from these great ideas, there are plenty more that homeowners can use when redoing a kitchen.  Give me a call today and I’ll point out a few for you!

Mandell, L. J. (2018, April 05). Exclusive: Property Brothers Reveal How to  Save Tons of Cash on Kitchens! Retrieved from          https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/property-brothers-habitat-for-         humanity/?iid=rdc_news_hp_carousel_theLatest

Here is the next step for building your DIY pizza oven. 

Hey sorry for the delay things are blowing up at work, crazy busy....

Lets get back to building your DIY Pizza Oven.  The next phase is to start laying out all the bricks dry, exactly how they're going to go in. Next, decide how you want the floor. The floor is set on sand so it could be replaced in the future.  I went with diagonal layout and it worked out the best.  Now it's time to install the perimeter bricks.  Start with a 1/2 bag of mortar mix (I add a 1 shovel of Portland cement for extra strength).  Make the mix the consistency of stiff icing (this takes a little practice, and you can always add water if it's too thick).  Take your time and don't rush.  Make sure all the bricks are evenly spaced and that mortar joints are consistent.  When you're finished let it set up for an hour or two before moving on.

Before I start the instructions for day 3 I need to make a correction to day 2’s instructions.  I wrote 5X8 sheet of plywood when I meant 5/8th plywood.  Sorry if this affected anyone’s DIY pizza oven.

Moving forward to day 3′s instructions

So now that we have a concrete slab completed I'll have to try to pick them up off the garage floor. Well…that wasn't so easy.

 DIY Pizza Oven

Day 2

Instructions:

DIY Pizza oven

Day 1

Instructions:

Happy Thursday everyone!  It’s almost the end of the week and it looks like the weekend will be nice! WOOHOO! No rain and no snow?! That sounds like a great weekend to me.  Today I want to talk about ways to improve your credit score.  Credit scores can take years to improve but why not start now.  Your credit score is a big part of buying a house.  If you have a bad credit score, you probably won’t be able to get a lender to set up a loan for you.  Below are some tips to get that credit score up so you can get that house of your dreams. 

Pay down your balances.  If you have outstanding loans or credit, start paying them down.  If you have a lot of credit cards try to pay off the ones with the lowest balance first, than only start using one or two cards.  You may want to only get credit cards that have a low balance for example, $1000.  Try not to go near the limit and when paying your monthly payment, pay more than the minimum payment. 

Don’t try to get old debt removed from your score.  Even if you paid off that student loan or car your credit score will automatically delete those old debts after 7 years.  It’s not a good idea to call and try to argue to take them off.  Debt that is paid is good for your credit score. 

Pay your bills on time.  This is one of the most important things to do to help your credit score.  A good way to help pay bills on time is to set up automatic payments, just make sure you have enough money in your account to cover all the bills. 

Get a copy of your credit report.  You should get a copy to make sure all the information is correct and to see exactly what you’re working with.  You can do this for free on a number of websites.

Think about renting.  Renting an apartment or home can help rebuild your credit score, just make sure you pay the rent on time.  This is a great way to improve your score and help you prepare for buying a home.