Real Estate Archives

Top 12 Critical Things You Should Know Before Buying A House

12 Things You Should Know Before Buying A House

The following is a guest post about what you need to know before buying a house by George Dokuchaev, a content writer at Prime Property Group. If you would like to write an article for Money Q&A, please visit our Guest Posting Guidelines page. 12 Things You Should Know Before Buying a House Buying a home can be complicated. Here are 12 things you need to know before buying a home in today’s market. It is not necessary to be a home owner. You should bear in mind that it is not necessary to become a homeowner, especially if it does not fit in with your lifestyle. Not everyone wants the responsibilities that go with owning a home. You may prefer to rent due … Read more

How to Save to Buy a Home While Barely Make Ends Meet

by Guest Contributor

Buying a home is a smart investment in your own future, and it’s an aim everyone should start with as early as possible. Nevertheless, in some cases, it does make sense to put off such an investment — such as when you are unsure of the future of your job, or your marriage, or when home values appear volatile. Saving to buy a home even when you live paycheck to paycheck is possible. Most people who put off the decision to buy a home, though, have none of these reasons in mind. They simply choose to delay the day they buy, because they cannot figure out how they might ever put together enough each month for mortgage payments, leave alone a … Read more

The Benefits Of A Home Warranty Plan

by Hank Coleman

If you do not have a home warranty, then you may want to consider getting one. Whether you are selling your home, renting it as a landlord, or living in it yourself, there are quite a few benefits of a home warranty that you can take advantage of using. Your Home Will Be Preferred By Buyers If you want to make your home a preferred home to potential buyers, then you will want to have a home warranty plan on your home to help you attract buyers. When you have a home warranty, then the chances are there will be more potential buyers interested in buying your home. A Gallup Poll revealed that 8 out of 10 buyers actually prefer to purchase a … Read more

Making Your Rent To Own Real Estate Attractive To Tenants

by Guest Contributor

The following is a guest post on Money Q&A. Would you like to write the next one? If you would like to write an article for Money Q&A, please visit our Guest Posting Guidelines page.

First impressions are very significant when renting out your property, minor things can quickly put potential tenants off, but making a few slight modifications can up your appeal and sway them in the right direction. A well-presented property will entice the right sort of tenants and help you to make your rent to own real estate attractive to tenants.

Make Sure It’s Clean

If it is clean and welcoming when they first view the property it is very likely that they will work hard to uphold this, as this is what will have attracted them to your buy to let in the first place.

Cleanliness is of upmost importance. Dust and lingering smells could quickly put any one off. Open all the window and doors before a potential tenant comes around, filling the house with fresh air will make it much more appealing. Use pleasant smelling cleaning products but don’t go overboard.

Make sure you meticulously clean the house from top to bottom, dust surfaces and make sure the bathrooms and kitchen in particular are spotless. A grimy bathroom will put anyone off, make sure the grouting is clean and mould free bleach the toilets and sinks. Make sure the kitchen cupboards are cleaned inside and out.

Reader Question: Tread Carefully With a New Home Refinance

by Hank Coleman

Why I Am Considering Refinancing My Mortgage

Here is the next installment in our the Reader’s Questions Series which highlight questions emailed to me by you, the readers of Money Q&A. Be sure to find out at the end of this article how you can receive a free copy of Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover if your money question is chosen to be featured in an upcoming week’s blog post.

If you’re not familiar with Dave Ramsey’s book, you should run right out and get it. It is one of my top ten best personal finance books that everyone should read. Now….on to our reader’s question.

Tread carefully when looking to refinance your home. I recently received a question from a reader, Benjamin, about refinancing his home.

My bank is offering a “home equity refinance” which would lower my rate from 4.625% to 3.89% and drop the remaining years from 26 to 15. It also eliminates my Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). Is this is a normal usage for home equity loans, or should I be leery of this loan offer?

Tread Carefully With A New Home Refinance

Background: Benjamin also offered this information as a little more background. “I am currently 4 years into a 30-year mortgage and have paid off almost 10% of the principal. My bank is offering a “home equity refinance” which would lower my rate from 4.625% to 3.89%, and drop the remaining years from 26 to 15.

Of course, there is a higher payment, but it also eliminates my PMI of ~$180 per month, and since I’m paying extra to get the principal down faster, it come out to about the same as my current payments.

The bank manager says that even though I only have 10% equity, once the new loan pays off the first loan, I will have 100% equity (for a split second before the new loan takes it all away again). It all sounds a little too good to be true to me because I don’t have the equity on which to base the loan in the first place. I’ve been searching for a few months about how to eliminate my PMI payment sooner, and had just given up when the bank manager offered this to me out of the blue.”

While I don’t have all the facts in front of me, there are a few things to your question that are a little troubling.

It’s Hard To Avoid PMI With Low Equity

I would be very surprised if you could avoid PMI with only 10% equity. You typically need 20% and then most states require your bank to do away with PMI when you reach 22% equity.

The whole point of PMI is to protect banks from borrowers who do not have enough equity. They want people to have “skin in the game” so to speak. PMI hedges the banks’ bets.

Also, I’d be concerned about the closing costs for refinancing. They can typically be upwards of 3% or more of your new loan balance for your home mortgage which can negate a lot of your savings especially if you may move in the next few years.

What You Need to Know in Order to Find the Best Mortgage Rate

by Guest Contributor

With UK mortgage rates at an all time low, and house prices falling by 0.1%, now may be the perfect time to consider buying a new home. But even with today’s falling interest rates, taking on a mortgage is a major responsibility. Naturally, you want to find the best deal possible.

Mortgage rates may currently be low, but that’s no reason to take the first deal that’s offered, or to pay more than you need to on the total cost of your home loan. Before you sign on the dotted line, let’s review a few simple tips to help you find the best possible mortgage for your new home.

Credit Scores

Before we go any further, we will assume that you have found a property you are interested in, and that you have a firm idea of how much you can afford to spend on your new home. At this point, before you start looking for a mortgage, it is important to know your credit score as it will have a major impact on the loan process.

Knowing your credit score ahead of time will allow you to negotiate with a lender without them running your credit history. Remember, every time a lender checks your credit history, your credit score takes a ding.