• First, Pay Off Old Debts| Leave a Comment
  

  If you are looking into purchasing your first home, you might be tempted to start saving every penny you can for your down payment. But in reality, there are some other payments you should be making first…
  If you have any outstanding debt, the time to pay it off is now. Not only will a reduced [...]

• Good News: Home Buyer Tax Credit Extended| Leave a Comment
  

  If you haven’t already heard, Congress has extended and expanded the home buyer tax credit. This means extra time for those of you who weren’t able to close by the original December 1, 2009 deadline, and an added credit if you’re a current homeowner looking to purchase.
  Why is this such good news? Because there has [...]

• Experience Homeownership with an FHA Loan| Leave a Comment
  

  Purchasing a home loan is not always an easy feat, and people with lower incomes, including first-time homebuyers, often have a hard time getting approved for a home loan. So what are the options? For individuals who need a little extra help, an FHA loan might be the answer you are looking for.
  Where do I [...]

• Catching and Understanding Closing Costs| Leave a Comment
  

  So you have selected a house, and now you are getting down to the nitty-gritty on what it will really cost you to get into it. Your lender is required by law to give you a “Good Faith Estimate” of your closing cost expenses along with a booklet from RESPA, outlining “closing” or “settlement” fees. [...]

• Goals Toward Homeownership| Leave a Comment
  

  Owning a home has long been a primary goal for most people. And the good news is that homeownership has become more available in the past twenty or thirty years. So if you dream of owning your own home, I’d like to share some smaller goals you can work on to achieve it:
  Organize. Start right [...]

• First Time Home Buying Credit Almost Over| Leave a Comment
  

  If you are interested in buying your first home, you may not want to wait any longer. The end is in sight for the $8,000 first time home buyer’s credit offered by the Federal Government. It will officially end on December 1, 2009 and your home must be purchased and closed on or before that [...]

• Advice on Buying a First Home| Leave a Comment
  

  The housing market has always been a bewildering place, especially for those who have never purchased property before, and the credit crunch/sub-prime lending crisis has only added to the confusion. On the one hand, I have found that many first time buyers are finding great opportunities with house prices falling significantly.
  However, buying a home is [...]

• Defining Different Types of Home Sales| Leave a Comment
  

  If you’ve always wondered the difference between different types of home sales, you’re not alone. People in the industry love to throw around “buzz words” like foreclosure, shortsale, bank owned, etc. But if you don’t know what they mean, it doesn’t do you any good. Here’s a quick breakdown to help you see the difference:
  1) [...]

• Avoiding Risky Home Loans| Leave a Comment
  

  Nobody wants to get stuck in a situation where you buy a home and then later loose it to foreclosure. If I can offer any advice, it would be to always be careful BEFORE getting a loan by making sure you understand the terms, and seeing that it fits your budget the best it can.
  Here [...]

• I Hear It All the Time, But What is Real Estate Escrow?| Leave a Comment
  

  Well, if you want to get technical, Escrow is defined as “a legal arrangement in which a neutral third party holds an asset during the period in which the conditions of the deal is being finalized by the other two parties.” But that doesn’t really help much, does it? Unless you are working with these [...]

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