Real Estate Search Direct

President Obama is working on making homes affordable for first time home buyers.  Have you looked into government grants for first time home buyers?

With all the new legislation to help the economy, there is a lot of help for home buyers. One way the government helps is by offering government grants for first time home buyers.

Grants are money that the government has allocated to help economic growth and development.

Much of the money comes from the federal government, but is often distributed through various local agencies responsible for a particular area.  Some goes to cities, counties and states to be distributed where it is most needed.

Ivana Newhouse suggested to her fiancé, Homer, that they should apply for a grant.  Of course what she meant was that Homer should apply for a grant for their home purchase.

Homer had his research cut out for him. He spent several days looking for grant programs and determining eligibility requirements.

There are thousands of different government agencies offering grants, the hard part is to find out which agencies offer a grant for the right purpose that you are eligible for.

Homer gave up his search after a week without any luck finding a suitable program.  He told Ivana that there were no programs that they were eligible.  Or were there?

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Comments (2) Apr 06 2009

When you are looking at properties you may have noticed many listings are advertised as bank owned.  It seems like they are promoting the fact that it is bank owned as a selling point. This may pique your curiosity as to why anyone would want to buy bank owned homes.

Homer Buyer was just starting his search for a home when he first noticed the term “Bank Owned” posted on a property.  He was driving around looking at “Open House” signs when he saw that several for sale signs also had a small placard stating “Bank Owned” attached to several of the signs. 

Homer wondered what the significance was of a property being bank owned.  What difference does it make to a buyer who the seller is?

Homer thought it should be possible to get a great deal on a bank owned property, but he didn’t know what was involved in buying a house from the bank. 

He figured it should be the same as any real estate purchase.  After all, there are laws regulating the real estate industry, aren’t there?

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Comments (2) Apr 05 2009

That’s exactly what Ivana Newhouse asked the mortgage broker,  “I want to buy a new house – how much can I afford?” 

Ivana was planning to buy a house with her fiancé, Homer Buyer.  She wanted to start looking at properties right away, but there were so many on the market.  She wanted to find out how what she could afford to buy. 

When she gave the broker information on their income, cash for a down payment, debts and credit scores the broker came up with a figure of $480,000.  Ivana was very pleased with that number.

But then she asked what the monthly payment would be for a $480,000 house.  He told her it was about $2500.  Ivana didn’t understand this.  She had sat down with Homer the night before and they had made a budget.  Their budget only allocated $2000 for a mortgage payment.

She asked the mortgage broker, “How did you come up with those figures?”

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Comments (0) Apr 03 2009

Mortgage brokers and lenders used to keep a laminated chart on their desks to check the payment amount for various loan amounts and interest rates.  This was called an Amortization Chart.  Have you checked and amortization chart lately?

Nowadays, amortization charts are computer generated and they will detail each and every mortgage payment, including how much is paid in interest and how much in principal throughout the term of the loan. 

Today’s amortization charts are much more flexible than the old style.  You can enter different loan terms,  various payment periods, discount points, balloon payments, pre-payments, any interest rate you can think of in many of the amortization chart calculators you find online.

You may wonder why you need an amortization chart.  After all, won’t the lender calculate your payments for you?

An amortization chart is the best way to see the total cost of the loan for comparison with other loans.  If you want to make sure you get the best loan, you have to be able to compare the overall costs.

You can calculate your own amortization charts with the Real Estate Search Direct Mortgage Payment Calculator. 

If you aren’t sure how much you can afford, you can start by creating a budget.  Money Tree Budget software will help you categorize your spending and set financial goals step by step.  You can get Money Tree Here.

Allen Davis
RealEstateSearchDirect.com

Comments (1) Apr 02 2009

When you are looking at homes for sale what do you bring with you?  A lot of people go viewing homes empty handed.  Is a home inspection checklist really necessary? 

Homer Buyer and Ivana Newhouse went looking at homes one Saturday.  They had already looked through three rooms of a house when they got to the master bathroom.  They suddenly realized they were looking at the same house they saw the weekend before.

Homer and Ivana had seen so many homes lately that it was hard to keep them straight.  Have you ever felt that way?
 
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Comments (0) Apr 01 2009