Archive for December, 2008
So You Want to Buy a Home – Now What?
Congratulations! You’ve actually taken the first step towards home ownership: thinking about buying a home.
While many people “wish” they could someday own their house, fewer than you’d think actually get past that step.
Note: regardless of what you read in the newspaper, see on TV, or hear on the radio, people are still buying homes! In [...]
Word of The Week: HUD
We’re back to acronyms with this real estate term definition. Again, we in the real estate business are lazy and love making acronyms for everything. So today, it’s HUD.
HUD is an acronym for the Department for Housing and Urban Development. The department of HUD does a lot for home owners, such as provide payment assistance for low [...]
$7,500 First Time Home Buyers Credit
So by now, you’ve probably heard about the $7,500 First Time Home Buyers Credit that may be applicable to your recent or upcoming home purchase. I’d like to dispel a couple myths about the tax “credit” and set some facts straight for you – before you get too excited.
Myth #1: “All buyers between 4/9/08 and [...]
Word of The Week: FHA Loan
Today we are going to dive into a hot topic for financing in today’s market: Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Loan.
Let’s start with the basic definition – what is the FHA Mortgage?
A Mortgage that is insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
Well that’s pretty vague, isn’t it? So let’s get more in depth.
Here’s the common misconception: the [...]
3 Secrets to Buying a Home: What The Experts Don’t Tell You
OK, I know what your thinking: if I’m a “First Time Home Buyer Specialist” then wouldn’t I be considered an “expert”? Well, yeah I guess. But nonetheless, I’m going to give you some secret advice I tell my clients when we are making an offer, and getting ready for closing.
1. Ask for Seller Paid Closing [...]
8 Mistakes Most First Time Home Buyers Make
Avoid these pitfalls and you will save time and money with your first home purchase!
Using a Lender who doesn’t specialize in Special First Time Home Buyer Programs. Our partners, Cornerstone Mortgage, take pride in being educated and having access to exclusive loans and credit packages in the State of Minnesota. Only a handful of mortgage [...]
Buy a Home in the Winter and Save Money!
I know we live in Minnesota, Land of Ten Thousand Ice Rinks, but why would you buy a home in the winter?
Simple: to save money.
If you analyze market trends in the state and metro regions, you’ll find that every year the number of listings on the market drops during the colder months. But what also [...]
Word of the Week: Appraisal
Today we examine the questions: “What is an Appraisal?”, “Who is the Appraiser?” and “What is Appraised Value?”
What is an Appraisal?
An appraisal is the report given to your new lender which will tell the lender how much they think the home is worth. This is the breaking point of most financed home purchases, since the [...]
5 Reasons To Buy Your First Home – NOW!
These are the Top 5 Reasons to buy a home in Minnesota at this time:
Prices have come down from all-time highs in 2005-2006. Almost every market in the country has declined in the past few years, and although prices may fall further still, we’ll never know until they’ve started coming back up. Factoring in prices [...]
First Time Home Buyers: Foreclosures’ Where It’s At
I’ve noticed something over the past year in the real estate market, and thought it would make a great topic on the blog.
A lot of the First Time Buyers I’ve worked with recently have been buying foreclosures and short sale homes. I know that these homes are about 50-60% of the entire market sales lately, [...]
