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Three Questions to Ask Yourself before Buying a Home!

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Buying a home is a major financial investment decision, a decision that can be filled with much worry and sleepless nights.

Buying the right home, at the right time, and for the right price can strengthen your financial situation significantly. Buying at the wrong time however, could hurt you financially. So, the Universal Law of risk and reward proves true yet again.

Before you begin the process of buying your home consider the following:


1. How long do you plan on living in the home you purchase? If you are unsure about your future job situation, maybe the company is unstable, or if you are unhappy in your current job this might not be the right time to buy. If you buy now and end up moving before your home has had time to appreciate in value, it could cost you to sell. Check the appreciate rate in your area by contacting your agent. The national average is between 3% and 5% per year. At this rate, it’s a general rule that you should plan on being in your home at least 3 years in order to recoup your investment and cover the selling costs of your home and buying costs of a new home. The higher the appreciation value in your area, the less time you’ll need to be on the positive side buying/selling process. Pay close attention on the average over time and not to the spikes in the market.


2. Will the home you’re considering meet your needs in the future? If you’re planning on staying in your location for five years, consider what your needs will be for those five years. Are you planning on growing your family? What will your childrens needs be as far as space in three years. If you have three children and two are sharing a room now at ages 10 and 8, will they still be friends at ages 15 and 13 in five years if they are still sharing a room? Will you need an office space of your own to have a little privacy? Plan for growth!


3. What is your credit situation? Take some time and get a credit report from a credible reporting agency. The better your credit is, the more options you’ll have when choosing a lender. If your credit is questionable you will probably still be able to find a lender, but your interest rates may be high and simply get you into more debt. Don’t rush into a purchase. Get credit healthy first.

Dirk Zeller is the President & CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 250,000 Agents worldwide each year.
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Three Common Misconceptions of Mortgage Brokers

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Some first time home buyers opt to obtain a loan directly through their local bank branch rather than employing a mortgage broker. The reason why this may occur is because there a few misconceptions associated with the mortgage broker profession. In reality, mortgage brokers and their respective brokerages have come along way from the days of selling loans simply for profit purposes. Listed below are three opposing thoughts on common mortgage broker misconceptions.

They just want to sell you a loan.
Fact is that once a mortgage broker is employed by you, he or she is simultaneously employed by your mortgage lender as well. Ultimately, however, a loan will not go through unless the future mortgagor, you, agree to the terms of the loan that your mortgage broker had set up for you with your new lender. This means that first and foremost you are their customer, not the lender’s. Additionally, mortgage broker fees are extremely competitive and they are aware of that fact. So much so that most brokers are willing to negotiate their fees with you which will, in turn, take your concern that they are just trying to make a buck out of the rest of the loan process equation.

They are old fashioned and only do business one way.
Some people picture a mortgage broker as a ‘business only’ profession. Meaning that customer service is not a high priority. On the contrary, mortgage brokers are constantly training on new and improved ways to satisfy their customers needs. Whether it is learning how to initiate a short sale on your behalf or taking seminars on what new programs lenders are able to offer you as a consumer, they are continuously finding new ways to keep their finger on the pulse of what prospective clients want and need.

They will quote you an interest rate just to get their foot in the door.
While it is true that the mortgage interest rate amount fluctuates daily it does not mean that the rate they may quote you today will be obsolete by tomorrow. Mortgage brokers are able to negotiate directly with lenders in order to lock your interest rate for a certain period of time in order to get your loan approved and closed in a timely manner. Please note that some lenders will require monies up-front in order to lock in a certain rate, however, the funds put in will be credited back to the customer at the time of closing.

Mortgage Brokers work for you and take pride in what they do. They want to know what new programs there are in order to stay up to date with our market needs as well as be able to provide you with superior customer service. Choosing a mortgage broker over a loan officer at your local bank branch has its advantages. When you decide a mortgage broker is right for you, you will get a highly skilled, well trained, and customer service oriented professional.

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Mortgage Rates: Three Tips For Getting A Good Deal

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Mortgage rates are not for the faint of heart.

In the commitment scale, buying a home ranks right up there with getting married. Taking out a mortgage can be very scary, not just because you could be stuck with the pay-off longer than you could be stuck in a marriage, but also because the money involved is no joke. For this reason, taking out a mortgage is a huge, daunting commitment. You will have to repay the loan every month, for many years to come. If you default on payments, you risk losing your home. If you are late on payments, you risk being slapped with penalties.

The Value of Research

The best way to alleviate your worries about taking out a mortgage is by picking the best mortgage rates there are in the market. By taking out the right mortgage for the right price, you reduce the dangers of getting into difficulties over the payments. The mortgage rates you have to pay vary from lender to lender. Mortgage rates may vary from one type of mortgage to another. To ensure that you get the lowest mortgage rates possible, do your research. Scour the market for options.

It is possible to make the nature of the market work for you. For example, you may have to make the choice between fixed rate mortgage and adjustable rate mortgage. Fixed rate mortgages require slightly higher payments, but it’s advisable to choose this because it provides you with peace of mind. You do not have to fear changes in the volatile market. If, however, you can absorb the market fluctuations that come with the lower mortgage rates of adjustable rate mortgages, then choose adjustable rate mortgages.

Short Term Rates Versus Long Term Rates

Mortgage rates may vary according to the duration of payments. Typically, the shorter the term, the lower the rate will be. Although this rule of thumb is not infallible, compiled data of trends show that short-term rates are always lower than long-term rates. In considering whether to choose long term mortgage rates or short term ones, think of where your interest rates are headed.

Bi-weekly Or Weekly Payments

The option of paying weekly or bi-weekly is incorporated into most mortgages. Many utilize this option because it puts them in a better position to meet payments. For one, the frequency of payments will ensure that your mortgage is paid off four years sooner. For another, it is easy to maintain payments under this arrangement because most employees are paid on a weekly or bi-weekly budget. Thus, every cash inflow is matched by an outflow in the form of mortgage payments.

In the end, what it all boils down to is that before you take out a mortgage, you carefully consider all the options at your disposal. Compare a range of mortgage rates and lenders and see which and who offer the best repayment periods, the lowest terms, and the highest borrowing power.

After all, if you took the time to date the girl before proposing marriage to her, there is no reason you cannot take your time and get to know everything about mortgaging first before taking out a mortgage. After all, you and your repayment will be married for some time. To quote an old and oft-quoted proverb, “Marry in haste, repent at leisure.”

Want to compare mortgage rates? Visit our site today and get access to home loan lender rates from various competing home mortgage lenders.

Three Bad Reasons For Needing A Mortgage Lender

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Everyone tells you you’re going places, and of course, you believe them. You’re 26. You’re a supervisor at a multi-national marketing company. You get a six-digit pay monthly. What’s more, it looks like you’re headed for greater and bigger things in the company hierarchy. Do all these mean you should get a house?

Mortgage lenders would be the first to tell you owning a house is good, and it is – in principle. In fact, owning a house is a great way to build wealth over time. What mortgage lenders don’t tell you, however, is that this does not mean everyone should be a homeowner. Homeownership entails a lot, not just monthly payments. You’d have to be dedicated to home improvements, for example, and you’d have to faithfully discharge your debts on time to your mortgage lender. So, if any of the following is your reason for wanting to buy a home, do not contact your mortgage lender just yet. Sit down, lean back, and read on.

1. A house is a solid investment.
Yes, a house is a great way to build wealth over time; and yes, you put your money to good use when you buy a house. However, if it’s only good investment you’re after, there are better ways of doubling – even tripling – your money’s worth. Stocks, for example, have an average appreciation that exceeds the inflation rate by at least seven percentage points.

Then, too, as mortgage lenders know, the value of homes could seesaw along the dollar scale. For example, real estate value nosedived in the 1990s. It took ten years for Los Angeles homes to regain their valuation. If you just bought a home and this happened, you could end up owing a bigger mortgage than your home could be sold for.

2. Paying rent is akin to throwing money away.
Is it? Rent is the money you pay for a place to stay. It’s way cheaper than monthly house payments. In some cities, in fact, rent is so cheap there seems to be no point in owning a house. If not wanting to pay rent is your only reason for buying a house, you’ve no business calling your mortgage lender. Many people stretch their finances too tautly to buy houses. They end up getting loans with exotic terms from predatory mortgage lenders. Then, as the real estate market takes a heavy beating, what had once seemed like reasonable payments become onerous. Finances are shot in the foot, and you end up not just delinquent with the payments to your mortgage lender, but also faced with the possibility of losing your home. It’s true renters are confronted by the rising cost of rental and belligerent landlords. Homeowners are not spared these problems, however. They have rising taxes, maintenance costs, and difficult neighbors.

3. I need a tax deduction.
This is the silliest reason among all reasons you could come up with for needing a mortgage lender. True, the tax break is nice, and you also need somewhere to live. But crunch the figures carefully before deciding you need a mortgage just to avail of write-offs. Here’s the real deal: your write-off is directly proportionate to your tax bracket. If you’re in the top federal tax bracket, every dollar you pay in mortgage interest only saves you 35 cents in taxes. Clearly, getting a house from a mortgage lender just to get a tax break is akin to giving someone a dollar in exchange for 35 cents or even less – if you belong to the 25% tax brackets or lower!

Homeownership is a good way to grow money and roots at the same time. Just because almost everyone you know wants to be a homeowner doesn’t mean you should be one, too.

Get a free mortgage quote today! Visit our site now and learn more about mortgage lenders and obtaining loans, such as home loans for women with bad credit.

Buying a Home – Three Mistakes to Avoid

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Buying a home is often a stressful process, because it is usually the single largest purchase of your life. Even if it isn’t your first house, it’s easy to make a mistake that costs you hundreds or thousands of dollars. Here are three common mistakes to avoid.

1. Paying Too Much

This isn’t about over-paying for a particular home. That mistake is tough to make if you will be borrowing to buy. An appraisal will be done, and the lender will probably refuse to lend enough for you to buy an over-priced house.

The common mistake here is following the advice of real estate agents, lenders and even your friends and family, who will often encourage you to buy a more expensive home than you can afford. They may call it an “investment” and claim that real estate always goes up in value, so you should get as much as you can. Of course, recent history shows that home values don’t always go up, and this kind of thinking has a lot of families facing foreclosure now.

Buy what you feel comfortable with. If you can’t easily make the payments, even after a short layoff from work, you may be overextending yourself. And watch out for lenders “solutions” to this problem (see number 2).

2. Trusting Lenders

I am not suggesting that lenders are all out to get you, or that you should look at them suspiciously, but they are not necessarily looking out for your best interest. That’s your job. Their’s is to sell loans. Buying a home normally requires buying a loan too, and as we can see now (2008), many loans are not suitable if you want a secure future. While there are sometimes good reasons for interest-only, adjustable-rate, and zero-down loans, most of the time these should be avoided.

Never mind what a lender recommends or suggests. Ask him only for facts, and do your own math. If the rate on your loan goes from 5% to 10%, what will the payments be? Can you easily afford that? If not, you are taking a risk that may not be justified.

3. Trusting Real Estate Agents

When you are buying a home, the real estate agent who helps you, like the lender, has his own agenda. It isn’t that he or she doesn’t wish you the best, but they wish even more for their own families, so the primary goals is to sell something. Also, unless the agent is explicitly working for you, she has a fiduciary responsibility to work against you if that is what is best for the seller. In other words, if she thinks you will pay more because of a comment you make, she must pass that information on to the home owner.

Even a buyer’s agent can be biased. It is nice to think that they are working for you, but they still only get paid (typically) when a sale is made. That’s a pretty motivation to push you into a home fast, whether or not it’s the best one for you.

Pay attention to whether an agent is really showing you the houses that suit your needs, rather than the ones that he or she would buy. Many real estate agents don’t listen very well, and will show you what they think you want, rather than asking you more questions. They can lead you to buy a house that doesn’t suit your needs or costs more than you want.

One final note about real estate agents: They are not experts on all things. In fact, some are barely an expert on anything. I have met agents who didn’t understand a simple seller-financing offer, and others who suggested that cracks in foundations were “no big deal,” though they knew nothing about construction. Unless an agent has specific experience in an area, take what they say with a grain of salt, and seek out other counsel.

Buying a home that actually is right for you starts with avoiding the three mistakes above.

Copyright Steve Gillman. To see a photo of the house we bought for $17,500, get a free ebook on Buying A Home For Less, and a free real estate investing course, visit: http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com