If you are a first-time home buyer, there is a lot to learn about buying a home. The most misunderstood part about home buying is — home financing. We are going to help shed some light on this topic. We are going to go over the top first-time home buyer loan options. You will learn… Continue Reading
Alright, you have selected the house you want to buy, found a mortgage lender to meet your financing needs and they have presented you with a rate quote that looks pretty enticing. You love the offer, and your dream of homeownership is coming to close but there’s just one thing. You notice an extra charge… Continue Reading
A credit score is arguably the single most important factor for lenders when determining whether you qualify for a mortgage or not. Not only that, but your credit score will also determine what type of loan you can get when finding financing for your next home purchase. The score is important to lenders because it… Continue Reading
When buying a house, it is critical that every borrower research each loan program to know the ins-and-outs of each type of financing. Knowing what loan is best suited for you and your family will depend on your individual financial situation. Perhaps nothing is more important than trying to determine how much cash you will… Continue Reading
With the uncertainty surrounding today’s mortgage market and skyrocketing prices to buy real estate, buyers are having to come up with more and more cash to cover the costs of closing and buy-down their interest rates. As of the time of this writing, the average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage is 5.95%. By comparison,… Continue Reading
Approximately 34% of US households do not currently own a home. According to the National Multifamily Housing Council, there are over 43 million households in the United States occupied by renters. There are a number of reasons of course for not owning a home. However, one of the biggest perceived obstacles to homeownership is: Lack… Continue Reading
If the last time you shopped for a mortgage was over a decade ago, then you might be surprised by how much the menu of loan offerings has changed. Immediately following the housing crash, mortgage meltdown, and economic recession of the late 2000s, loan programs began to disappear and an overhaul of industry guidelines and… Continue Reading
Since I read this article by Maggie McGrath over at Forbes in early January, I’ve been turning it over and over. If you didn’t see it when it exploded onto social media, the gist is that most of America doesn’t have $1,000 in liquid cash at any given time. By the majority, I mean, 56… Continue Reading
There are few dirtier words to the average home buyer than “mortgage insurance.” Article after article has been written on ways to avoid mortgage insurance and on why it’s an awful, terrible thing, but I’m here to tell you something new. Mortgage insurance isn’t always a horrifying scar on your mortgage paperwork. In fact, mortgage… Continue Reading
If you’re in the housing market for the first time, the mounting cost of everything can get pretty overwhelming, even if you’ve been saving carefully. After all, everybody knows to save five to 10 percent of our dream home’s cost for a down payment, but fewer people know that we need to be saving another… Continue Reading