Home Buying Tips

• Manufactured Housing Sheds Stereotype
  Forget the term "mobile home" - it's so 26 years ago. 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...
• Over Improving May Hurt Resale
  Resale value is very important if you plan to refinance or sell soon. Many factors affect it, including economic and housing market conditions, quality of the house, and desirability of the neighborhood. One measure of a home's resale value is the length of time it spent on the market before you bought it. To improve resale value, consider improvements such as landscaping or an updated kitchen. But be careful not to over-improve for the neighborhood. You may scare off buyers and you aren't likely to recoup much of your improvement costs. Continue article...
• Do You Know The Real Price Of Your ARM?
  Adjustable-rate mortgages are complicated instruments. No one characteristic fully describes one. Continue article...
• Traps all home buyers should avoid
  At the beginning of a new year, it's natural to make resolutions. For instance, you may have been putting off buying a home. Now you've resolved to buy before interest rates rise and you're priced out of the market. Before forging ahead, consider the following tips and traps. Continue article...
• How would a truly flexible mortgage work?
  Lat week I had little good to say about Fannie Mae's new Payment Power Program (PPP), which allows a borrower to skip up to two mortgage payments in any 12-month period, and up to 10 over the life of a loan. A skipped payment results in an additional loan, equal to the payment plus a healthy access fee, tacked on to the balance. As an emergency source of funds, it is much more costly than accessing a home-equity line of credit (HELOC). Continue article...