Prepare Your Finances The first step for a home buyer is to get their finances in order. It is really important to know your budget and know the loan amount for which you are approved. Knowing your loan approval amount will allow you to set the price range and the amount of which you can afford to buy a house. You are sure to end up disappointed if you begin by looking at houses that are priced above and beyond what you canactually afford. If you are prepared and have your finances in … [Read more...]
COMMON HOME BUYER FEES
Down-payment Most homebuyers are aware of the required down-payment fee but some are not as well informed. Generally the down-payment is 3.5 to 5 percent of the home's total sales price, however there are some loan types that require lower to zero down-payment. A common belief is that at least a 20 percent down-payment is required for buying a home, but the reality of it is that there are other loan programs available to home-buyers that will require less of a down-payment. Of course buyer and … [Read more...]
Houston, Texas Mortgage Availability has Improved with Time
Whenever an unplanned and unwelcome financial situation develops, a Houston mortgage-holder can find himself or herself in the onerous position of being unable to keep up with the monthly home loan payments. If the unhappy situation continues long enough, the likely result is a foreclosure or short sale. In addition to losing the property, the impact on personal credit then takes years to undo. That means it takes that much longer for a consumer to acquire a new home and start to build equity … [Read more...]
When House Hunting by Zip Code, Assume Nothing!
If you ask anyone doing serious house hunting in Sienna Plantation - Missouri City, Texas how they are going about it, there are few who won’t point to the web (nationally, 88% use it) as at least one of the top two most useful tools (their Sienna Plantation Realtor® is the other one: 87%). Yes, yard signs are helpful, and its first cousin, the Open House, is another (they’re related since it’s hard to imagine an Open House without a yard sign or two). Both come into the house hunting picture … [Read more...]