Home Buying Tips

• How To Save Money On Your New Home
  Do you clip food coupons from your Sunday newspaper? Or do you take advantage of sales at your favorite department store? Then you will certainly appreciate BIG savings on the purchase of a new home! 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...
• What Type of Real Estate Makes the Best Investment?
  During the economic downturn of the early 1990s, a home in the Crocker Highlands area of Oakland, Calif., sold twice in two years. The house did not change substantially during this time, nor did its price. But, average prices in the neighborhood dropped about 15 percent during the same time. Continue article...
• Manufactured Housing Sheds Stereotype
  Forget the term "mobile home" - it's so 26 years ago. 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...