All Entries in the "Real Estate" Category
What is Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) and How Do You Eliminate it?
Tweet Buying a home is a major financial decision and one of the most important ones most people will make. Finding a home to purchase is really only the beginning. Unless the buyer has a lot of cash on hand or a lot of liquid assets, they will have to take out a loan and [...]
Making an Offer on a Home: How to Negotiate a Deal
Tweet Buying a home has to be one of the most exciting, yet stressful financial decision that most people will have to deal with. You can spend years saving up for a down payment, months touring homes looking for the right one, and weeks trying to find the best mortgage. With all of the effort [...]
Should You Refinance Your Mortgage? Rates Are Low, But It Is Still a Tough Decision
Tweet Record Low Mortgage Rates Make Refinancing Attractive Mortgage rates continue to fall to almost unheard of levels. We’re talking about 30-year fixed rate mortgages hovering under 5%, and 15-year rates at just 4%. These rates are sharply lower than just a few years ago. But just how much can you save with a lower [...]
How to Avoid the Next Real Estate Bubble
Tweet Those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it and the real estate bubble will be no exception. While we may learn a lot of tough lessons and create new regulations and put legislation in place that is supposed to minimize the likelihood of something like this happening again, people seem to [...]
Do You Really Need a Mortgage In Your Twenties?
Tweet This is a guest post from MD of Studenomics. A personal finance blog for 20-somethings that want to kill debt, make some cash, and enjoy life. If you like the article, please consider subscribing for free updates. In the North American society it’s no secret that owning a home has become apart of life. For many years the [...]
Fall Maintenance Tips for Your Home That Can Save You Money and Protect Your Family
Tweet Fall is upon us and that means cooler weather is setting in. With this colder weather comes higher energy costs when heating your home, additional chores to take care of around the house, and the potential for damage to your home thanks to the weather. So, before the really cold weather arrives you should [...]
Owning a Home Isn’t Necessary for Building Wealth – Make Sure You Buy a Home for the Right Reasons
Tweet Home ownership is part of the American Dream and many personal finance pundits insist you need to become a homeowner in order to be financially successful and create wealth. While it’s true that owning a home can be a significant key to building long-term wealth and financial stability, that isn’t always the case. There [...]
Your Home is Not an Investment – Don’t Treat It Like One
Tweet Your Home May Be Your Greatest Asset, But It Still Isn’t An Investment We’ve been taught over the years that the American Dream is owning a home. Not only that, but your home is your greatest asset and can be used to build wealth. Well, that way of thinking has made a lot of [...]
How to Find Out if You Qualify for a Mortgage Refinance Under New Making Home Affordable Plan
Tweet New Site Allows You to See if You May Qualify You may have heard about the Making Home Affordable (MHA) plan that’s part of the greater financial stimulus efforts, but what is it all about exactly? Well, the idea is to help homeowners refinance or modify their loans when in the past they may [...]
Prospective Home Buyers, This is an Opportunity of a Lifetime – Don’t Screw it Up
Tweet Even Though Real Estate is Gloomy, Opportunities Will Present Themselves The negative news in the real estate market continues. Every week it seems like a new report is out highlighting record drops in home sales, lower home prices, and more difficulties in obtaining a loan. For those who already own a home, or are [...]
How to Increase the Value of Your Home by 5% to 11% With Little Effort and Little Money
Tweet If I told you that you could increase the value of your home by 10% by doing just a few quick things that cost little or no money, you’d probably say I’m crazy. Well, I may be crazy, but you really can increase the value of your property by an average of 5-10% very [...]
How to Get the Most for Your Home When it is Time to Sell by Making a Good Impression
Tweet Selling a home in the current market conditions can be a daunting task. Since it is a buyer’s market, you need to make sure that your home is priced right and do whatever you can in order to make prospective buyers attracted to your house over the others they are looking at. It may [...]
Thank You, Yahoo!, for Perpetuating the Use of Home Equity as Cash
Tweet I don’t usually pay much attention to the junk mail that I regularly get, but I received an email from Yahoo! Real Estate that had the subject: Use Home Equity to Finance Your Next Big Dream. With a subject like that, I just had to take a look. Clearly, we are all aware of [...]
Is Generation X Responsible for the Real Estate and Mortgage Problems?
Tweet I came across an interesting article from ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) that discusses the current housing crisis and breaks down what type of person or family is affected the most. Their focus is more on the affordability of housing and rent and not so much on the declining real estate prices here in [...]
The Fed Endorses Plan to Curb Shady Mortgages
Tweet On Tuesday the Fed moved one step in the right direction towards reducing the shady lending practices that have put this country in a difficult situation. If you haven’t heard, the real estate market and financial sector has been in a lot of trouble recently due to some questionable lending practices combined with consumer [...]
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