For most American homeowners, the costs associated with homeownership make up the largest portion of their spending. Along with monthly mortgage payments, they must pay taxes and insurance. Updating their homes and fixing serious problems like broken plumbing and roof … [Read more...]
10 Best Money Market Rates: How We Reviewed The Best Money Market Rates?
Many individuals consider where to store the down payment as they save to purchase a new home. When you try to save up 10 or 20% of a home's value, you can end up with a significant amount of cash on hand. One ideal vehicle for storing that money is a money market. The … [Read more...]
How and When to Hire a Real Estate Attorney
You don’t always need a real estate attorney for a transaction-related question. More often than not, your realtor can provide you with the answers you seek; however, agents and brokers are not licensed to practice law. So, if you find yourself in need of negotiation … [Read more...]
What Is the Fannie Mae HomePath Program?
Home buyers active on the market before October 2014 might fondly remember the Fannie Mae Homepath program. It was discontinued, as the American real estate market picked up and saw the number of foreclosures drop dramatically, compared to post-bubble numbers. Today’s post … [Read more...]
How Much Should I Pay for a Termite Inspection?
You’re on your way to buying a house, you’ve run a check of your FICO score, got pre-approved for a mortgage, and also deposited some earnest money (usually held in escrow, typically by the company that will conduct the closing). Now is the time for a general inspection of … [Read more...]
Why You Need a Radon Inspection if You Want to Sell Your Home
If you’re looking to buy a home, or to sell the one you own, it’s important to be aware of the existence of a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas called radon. The (very) bad news about radon is that it’s radioactive and causes thousands of lung cancer deaths in the U.S. … [Read more...]
The Short Guide to Buying a Fixer-Upper
You don’t even have to be a fan of old homes. You needn’t even be on the lookout for buying residential real estate. The appeal of fixer upper homes has transcended such limited niches in the past few years. They owe their popularity to runaway reality TV shows like HGTV’s … [Read more...]
The Naked Truth about the Short Sale Process
Is the short sale process really more advantageous for the seller, or is foreclosing the safest route to take? What criteria should a homeowner meet, in order to qualify for a short sale? How do short sales really match up to foreclosures?—and, after all is said and done, … [Read more...]
Is It a Good Idea to Pay Mortgage with Credit Card?
You’ve got a mortgage and a credit card—join the club. That makes you very similar to roughly two thirds of the wage earning American population. Now, if you’re a member of that extended category, you’ve probably already asked yourself a common question: ‘can I pay my … [Read more...]
The 2 Main Options for Selling your House When You Can’t Make Mortgage Payments
It’s unpleasant and potentially dramatic, yet the recession and its aftermath saw quite a lot of it: borrowers failing to meet mortgage payments and being forced into a foreclosure. When a property is foreclosed, the lender takes over ownership of it and the borrower gets … [Read more...]