Interest rates are constantly in the news: they’re rising, they’re falling, they’re flat — whatever they’re doing, they keep the thought of refinancing in the forefront of the minds of many homeowners. These folks wonder if they should refinance now, or if they’d be better off to wait a little while longer. Choosing to refinance… Continue Reading
Once upon a time, there was a young couple who saved and saved for their first home. They struggled through years of horrible apartments and barely rolling cars in order to put together a fund to cover their five percent down payment and closing costs, plus a little extra for repairs (just in case). Unfortunately,… Continue Reading
As your closing approaches, it seems more and more like everybody and their uncle is crawling out of the woodwork to demand your hard-earned money. You need deposits for the utilities, a great big moving truck and even more cash for something your banker swears he told you about — your mortgage escrow account. This… Continue Reading
The glut of homes repossessed during the housing market crash have mostly been reabsorbed into the system, leaving lots of new home buyers wondering how they’ll ever find a house they can afford. If you’re looking for a bargain in the housing market, don’t despair — there’s always a good deal to be found if… Continue Reading
There are few experiences in life as exciting and stressful as buying a home. It’s a constant rollercoaster ride of thrills and fears, new experiences and cliffhangers that threaten to ruin all your dreams forever. By the time your inspections are over and your Realtor assures you there’s not much left to do but wait,… Continue Reading
When you finally decided it was time to buy a home of your own, you probably had visions of flower-filled window boxes, freshly mown grass, custom painted rooms and neat little touches that made it truly your own. You probably didn’t give a thought to things like interest rates and mortgage insurance premiums, but today’s… Continue Reading
We’ve written a lot about getting your first mortgage: what to expect, how to go about it and all the fees and different costs along the way, but there’s a significant portion of the market that we’ve been passing over made up of future boomerang buyers. Those of you who have lost your homes due… Continue Reading
You’ve endured weeks of house hunting, looking for just the right home in the right neighborhood for the right price, you went through the agony of anticipation with your home inspection and appraisal and you’re finally there — it’s time for closing. You can finally relax now, since all the hard work is done, right?… Continue Reading
There are four really important times of the year for everybody who is anybody in the financial, mortgage or related industries — they happen around the middle of April, July, October and January. These are the times when we get all sorts of quarterly reports in, and those numbers can tell us a lot about… Continue Reading
We’ve written a lot about how to get a mortgage, the buying process and what the indicators say about the current housing market, but we’ve avoided the one giant elephant in the room that must be addressed. We haven’t talked about the flip side, the troubled mortgage. Obviously, we want to educate you enough that… Continue Reading