Home Buying Tips

• Is private mortgage insurance good or bad?
  Unless you are involved with real estate you probably have never heard of PMI. No. It's not a serious disease. In fact, PMI can be extremely beneficial if you are a "cash challenged" home buyer without a sufficient down payment. Continue article...
• Realtor VS. "For Sale By Owner"
  "Why do we need a real estate agent? After all, an agent will charge thousands of dollars to sell even an average home, and that commission comes right off the top! Heck, with the Internet and all, we can do practically everything that an agent would do, so why should we pay out all that money?" Continue article...
• Should I take my home off the market for the holidays?
  As we head into the last month of the year, sellers usually wonder if they should take their home off the market for the holidays. While no one has a crystal ball, there are many good reasons to consider leaving your home on the market until it sells. Continue article...
• Low price not always best value
  A home at a low price may be no bargain at all if the maintenance costs are prohibitive Continue article...
• The Perfect Escrow - Does it Exist?
  Very simply defined, an escrow is a deposit of funds, a deed or other instrument by one party for the delivery to another party upon completion of a particular condition or event. The California Escrow Law – Section 17003 of the Financial Code – provides the legal definition. Continue article...
• House Inspectors: Choosing The Right One...
  A qualified house inspector is the surest way to discover a house's not-so-obvious problems. Most professional inspectors are from some type of construction background, such as engineering, architecture or contracting. Their responsibility is to crawl beneath the floors, squeeze through the attic and generally comb the house's structure and mechanical systems for shortcomings. They give the buyer a complete report; with this, the buyer can decide whether or not the house is a good deal, or at least put together a "punch list" of items that must be fixed (it isn't unusual for this report to contain about 50 items). The fee for this service generally runs from about $300 to $500 and up. Continue article...