Real Estate Search Direct

Do you dread creating a budget?  If you are preparing to buy a home, you may be wondering if personal finance budgeting is necessary. 

Ivana Newhouse didn’t pay much attention to her spending habits.  She felt that it would be too much of a burden on her lifestyle to keep track of the occasional mocha latté and a round of drinks at the bar with her girlfriends after work. 

Ivana felt if she kept track of her bank balance, she knew whether or not she could afford to buy that new pair of shoes on sale.  But in the long run, she didn’t know how much she was spending on what.

Ivana and her fiancé, Homer, were planning to buy a house when they were married.  Homer asked Ivana to create a list of all her income and expenses in order to come up with a financial plan for their future. 

Homer felt that without a plan it would be difficult to achieve financial goals to maintain the lifestyle they wanted.  Homer was not just interested in what they could afford today, but also in their long term financial situation. After all, isn’t buying a house a long term financial commitment?

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Comments (7) Apr 27 2009

Are you trying to figure out how to afford to buy a house?  Does an $8000 gift from the government sound like it might help? 

Are you interested in getting the first time home buyer tax credit to help you buy a home?  Are you wondering how you can use the first time home buyer tax credit to make buying a home more affordable?

Homer Buyer was feeling this way.  He was engaged and planned to buy a home for him and his fiancée to live in after their wedding.

Homer and his fiancée wanted to have children so they wanted to buy a house big enough to raise them.  They didn’t want to have to sell to upgrade their home in an uncertain economy.  They wanted to buy something that they could live with for a long time.

The problem was that they weren’t sure if they could afford the down payment for a house of that size.  Homer thought the first time home buyer tax credit sounded like a great way to help afford it.

When Homer got some more information on the tax credit, he was less hopeful. He found that he could not use the tax credit as part of the down payment. As a matter of fact, the deal had to close before he could apply for the tax credit.  How was this supposed to help him afford a home?
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Comments (7) Apr 25 2009

When you are shopping for a loan it is important to know how much the loan will cost overall.  That is where a Loan Amortization Calculator comes in handy.  Have you ever used a loan amortization calculator?

Homer Buyer was looking for a mortgage when he found that there were several different options available.  He thought  a loan was a loan so he didn’t know he would have so many choices. 

One lender offered him an Adjustable Rate Mortgage and another offered a 30 year fixed.  Homer had a hard time getting a handle on the differences between the loans. 

He knew that it was important to understand his mortgage.  Do you know how he knew this?

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Comments (1) Apr 21 2009

If you want a home that is distinguished from all others in your area, you may consider a custom built home.  In building a unique home, you should start by selecting a house plan.  Are you interested in unique house plans?

While Ivana Newhouse was searching to buy a home, she saw so many tract homes where there were only a few models in each neighborhood.  One house looked just like the next and a mirror image of the one across the street.

Ivana wanted something with more personality.  As a matter of fact, she wanted her home to have her personality written all over it, but she just couldn’t find anything in the area that suited her. 

Ivana did find a lot for sale with a beautiful view and close to everything that mattered to her (shopping, church, parks, and lake access.)  The only thing it was missing was a house.  Ivana decided then and there that she would find some unique house plans and build her home on that lot.

If you are looking for house plans, check out The COOL house plans company.

Allen Davis
RealEstateSearchDirect.com

Comments (4) Apr 20 2009

Interest rates are the lowest they have been in decades, but how do you know you are getting the best rate possible?  How do you know what the current best mortgage interest rate is? 

When Homer Buyer was shopping for a mortgage to buy his house, he went to several lenders and received quotes.  He had never got a mortgage before, so he wasn’t too sure about all the terminology. 

The lenders seemed to speak a different language.  One lender had a 5/1 ARM with a 4.9% interest rate and an APR of 5.2% and 1.5 points.  Another had a 30 year fixed with 2 points with an interest rate of 4.65% and an APR of 5.3%.  Which one is the better deal?

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Comments (0) Apr 19 2009

With all the taxpayers money the government is throwing around, shouldn’t the common folk get a piece of the pie instead of giving it all away in bonuses to corporate executives?  Is there a bailout bill for home buyers?

Will it really help the economy to make sure that CEOs don’t have to give up buying their fourth Rolls Royce?  Or would it be better to help people getting a financial start to buy their home?

Of the hundreds of billions in bailout money, there is very little to help people really struggling with economic hardship.  There is one measure that helps first time home buyers.  The federal government is offering a tax credit of up to $8000 on the purchase of a home. 

Since today is tax day, this is a good time to think about what it would be like to have to pay $8000 less on your federal income tax.  So what if you don’t owe any tax?

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Comments (2) Apr 15 2009

If you want to figure out how much you can borrow you might want to check out a calculator for mortgage payment.
If you know what you can afford to pay monthly and you know what you can afford for a down payment, does that mean you know how much you can pay for a house?

Usually a house is listed for a lump sum price, not a down payment and monthly payments.  If you don’t have the lump sum to pay, you will need to get a loan to pay for the house.  This makes it possible to put a down payment and then monthly payments for a period usually 15 to 30 years.

But it can be hard to understand how a lender comes up with the payment amount on a certain loan amount.  This can be figured out with a calculator for mortgage payment.

The calculator lets you enter the sale price of the home, the down payment percentage, the length of the mortgage term and the interest rate.  It will calculate the monthly payment from these figures

You can then increase or decrease the sale price of the home to find the maximum you can afford to pay for a home and stay within your monthly budget.

You see foreclosures for sale in the news and probably in your neighborhood because people weren’t able to afford their monthly payments.  It is important to make sure your mortgage will be affordable.
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Comments (6) Apr 11 2009

After all the years of study, on completing graduate school, Homer Buyer felt he was well educated.  He had learned a lot about computer programming, economics and business.  He was surprised to realize he had no idea how to buy a house.  Do you?

When Homer first decided to buy a house, he assumed it would be similar to buying a car.  He had done that before.  He had gone to the car dealer and picked out the one he liked and applied for a loan.  He didn’t find the process too complicated.

But when he started learning about the home buying process there were many things he had never considered before.

There was a lot more than just picking a model and a color involved.   There were so many different choices to make:

• Neighborhood
• Number of bedrooms
• Number of bathrooms
• Property type (Single Family, condominium, co-op, duplex…)
• Parking (1 car, 2 car, attached garage, detached garage, carport…)
• Yard
• Basement
• Swimming pool

There was also the question of the condition of the property. If you buy a used car you should have a mechanic check it out.  If you buy a used house you need a professional home inspection.  What if he finds something wrong with the property?  Worse yet, what if there is something he doesn’t find?
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Comments (5) Apr 10 2009

When you are trying to get together a down payment to buy a house, an extra $8000 would come in handy, wouldn’t it?  But can the first time home buyer tax credit be used for a down payment?

Homer and Ivana were looking to buy a house and they could get a mortgage of $350,000 if only they had enough for a down payment.  They had some money saved, and they qualified for FHA so they only had to come up with 3.5%.  Sounds small enough, right?

3.5% of $350,000 is $12,250 and they had only $10,000 in the bank.  They had calculated all their expenses and knew what it was going to cost to buy the house. They also had to come up with closing costs, moving expenses, furniture and appliances.

They were afraid they would have to buy a cheaper house because of the down payment.  They knew that they could borrow $5000 from Ivana’s folks, but the lender wanted to see that they had the full down payment seasoned, and it still wouldn’t cover all of the closing costs.

When they heard about the tax credit for first time home buyers, they had some hope that it might be what they needed to make the down payment.  But they would have to file their 2009 taxes before they could get the credit, wouldn’t they?

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Comments (9) Apr 09 2009

When Homer Buyer started looking for a loan to buy a house he asked his fiancée, Ivana if she had a good credit score.  She replied, “What is considered a good credit score?”

Homer wasn’t able to give her an exact number.  He had heard so many varying opinions on a “good” credit score.

Homer called his accountant and asked the question, “What is considered a good credit score?”

His accountant told him, “According to Fannie Mae ‘a 740 credit score represents an excellent credit risk.’”

Homer called his bank.  “650 or above is a sign of good credit,” they said.

Homer checked online at Wikipedia. “above 720 is considered to be good credit.”

So, What is considered a good credit score?

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Comments (6) Apr 07 2009