Posts about:
Shopping for a house can leave you exhausted and spiritually broken, especially when that dream home is proving tricky to find in your price range. Even though you’ll eventually find the right one, you may also find yourself cutting it close on cash if you didn’t properly prepare financially. So it’s time for your pre-purchase cha-ching check.
When you’re shopping for a home, it can feel like you’re hemorrhaging money. You’ve got all sorts of things to pay for, from loan application fees to home inspections, so when the issue of earnest money comes up unexpectedly, it can be a “slam on the brakes” moment. Now that the days of low to no down payments are largely past and markets everywhere seem to be running thin on inventory, earnest money may well be the most important negotiating tool you’ve never heard of.
When rates are low, it can seem like the ideal time to refinance your mortgage. After all, who doesn’t like a lower interest rate? There are lots of good reasons to refinance your mortgage, such as adding on or trying to streamline your expenses, but what’s really involved in the process?
According to the Brookings Institute, about 42 million Americans (one in eight) have a student loan, totaling about $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. Only 30 percent of Bachelor’s degree recipients graduating in 2011-2012 managed to escape without a student loan; another 30 percent accumulated $30,000 or more in student debt. All this adds up to a whole lot of potential borrowers who have to navigate the added complexities involved with buying a house with student debt.
In uncertain times, it can be easy to sit back and worry your time away hoping things will work out eventually. Although worrying will absolutely give you something to do, it won’t get you anywhere. So if you’ve been wanting to buy a home or refinance this year, don’t discount the possibility just because your income may have dropped. It’s true that qualifying for a mortgage is getting trickier for many potential borrowers, but you still have plenty of options and opportunities for a home loan.
Refinancing a mortgage is a powerful tool that can help you to save money on your home payments. Refinancing your mortgage takes advantage of your positive payment history and may enable you to lock in lower interest rates, obtain more agreeable repayment terms, or lower the amount you pay each month. You may even be able to add in the cost of needed home repairs as part of your new mortgage loan.
It’s well known that the housing market is heavily influenced by the economy -- especially local economies. When the economy is strong, people have more money for large purchases and investments in real estate. When things are tighter, though, a lot of prospective homeowners may start to ask whether they’re really ready to take on such a potentially large debt.
Most of the time, if you think about taking out a loan to purchase real estate, you’re likely picturing a single-family home. Depending on your needs and the properties available in the area you’re searching, though, you may find that other property types are actually a closer fit for you. Multi-family properties such as duplexes and similar units might end up being a better choice, or you could wind up shopping for a condo. You might even be in the market for a property that contains both commercial and residential aspects. Regardless of what you’re looking for, though, you should have options for financing your purchase.
Veterans sacrifice a lot for this country. To help honor these sacrifices, special programs were put in place to aid vets in getting and keeping a home. Unfortunately, not all veterans know that these programs exist. Even for those who do, they may not realize exactly what options are available for them and may apply for a program that doesn’t really match their situation ideally.