Why You Should Get a Home Warranty When You List Your Home
by John Cobb
Home warranties aren’t just for buyers anymore. In the past, buyers have asked sellers to pay for a home warranty to give the them a year of protection after it sells on roughly 16 major systems in the house including things like the electrical system, appliances, hot water heater, furnace, etc. Overall, it makes sense because the first time claim on a home warranty for most buyers runs around $1,100 - $1,200 including the $75 deductible that comes with making the...
Read MoreHow to get qualified to purchase a home for no money down
by John Cobb
Even with all the insanity that happened during the mortgage meltdown and all the changes that resulted in how money would now be lent to buyers, there are still some amazingly affordable loan programs out there. Included among them, believe it or not, are no-money-down options for buying a home. Here are some of the best programs that are out there today and how you need to get qualified to purchase a home using them to buy a home for no money...
Read MoreHow to get the home with the furniture included
by John Cobb
So you like the dining room table in the house you want to buy, but your agent tells you it’s not included with the sale. What do you do? In short, you ask for it. Well, you negotiate it as part of your offer to purchase the home from the seller. To effectively get the home you want with the furniture included, you should identify in advance any furniture that you are interested in buying and let the seller (or your agent) know...
Read MoreHow much money will go into your pocket after your home is sold?
by John Cobb
It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep that matters. This holds especially true when it comes to the sale of your home. The sales price you see at the top of the closing paperwork is rarely, if ever, the amount of money that ends up in your pocket as the seller. There are often a variety of costs and fees associated with getting a home sold, so it’s important that you understand exactly what you’re going to walk away with before you...
Read MoreHow much should you offer on the home you fell in love with?
by John Cobb
You’ve spent the last few months looking for a home and now, the only thing that stands between you and having the right to negotiate full ownership of the home of you fell in love with is preparing an offer that will be acceptable to the seller. The purchase and sales agreement iis the first formal communication that leads to the final deal and eventually a closing when it’s time for you to take ownership of the property. The total agreement...
Read MoreWhen is the best time of the year to sell?
by Mike Hill
You want to sell your home, maximize the amount you sell it for and get it sold in a reasonable amount of time. While there’s no horrible time of the year to sell your home, there are better times of the year to put it on the market to get the best results for yourself. We’ve done the research and the results are in. Here’s the best time of the year to sell. And the winner is… Life happens and sometimes, you just don’t have a say...
Read MoreTop deal breakers for a home under contract and how to fix them
by Mike Hill
Selling your home, while exciting, can also be extremely stressful. Even the best of real estate agents have to deal with complicated issues that arise with a home sale. In fact, you’ll find that even when seller and buyer get along great and the sales process is humming along smoothly that challenges can crop up requiring lots of negotiations and may delay the transaction weeks before you can close on the transaction. Conversely, some deals are complicated...
Read MoreWhy you should wait to buy that car until after your home purchase?
by Mike Hill
Getting preapproved for a mortgage is a major step in buying a home. When done properly, it’s like having cash in your hands so you can negotiate effectively with a seller to buy a home. It’s easily one of the most important things you can do in order to buy the home of your dreams. But its name gives you a hint as to how fragile this financing instrument can be. You see, it’s a “pre” approval, which means you’re...
Read MoreWhat does a real estate agent actually do?
by Mike Hill
Being a real estate agent requires you to employ a significant number of skills to complete a variety of different tasks on a daily basis. Trying to put what an agent does each day in one or two sentences is virtually impossible to do. It would be like trying to tell you what a chef does “cooks food” or what a nurse does “takes care of patients”. There’s a lot more that goes into what they do than just “helping people buy or sell properties”. If...
Read MoreWhat is your debt to income ratio...why should you care?
by Mike Hill
Any time you have more income and less debt, you’re in good shape in life. That said, there is an ideal ratio between your debt and income in order to qualify for a good mortgage. When your debt to income ratio is on the high side, you run the risk of not getting a good loan (or not getting a loan at all) if your income were to take a hit during right before or during the loan funding process. Conversely, having no debt can work against...
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