7 Potential Red Flags To Watch Out For When House Hunting
Buying a home is exciting and challenging. You'll get to see different properties, each with its own features and personalities. But purchasing a home is also a huge financial commitment—you can’t just get carried away due to excitement at the cost of overlooking important details ...
A First-Time Home Buyer's Guide to Down Payment Assistance Programs
What is the most difficult part of buying a home? For many first-time buyers, their biggest hurdle is coming up with enough money for the down payment. In the National Association of Realtors® 2019 Profile of Home Buyers And Sellers, buyers cited that student loans, credit card debt and ...
Don't Forget to Ask These Questions During A Virtual Home Tour
Open houses and home tours are quickly turning into virtual events as part of the “new normal” during this pandemic. If you need to buy a home soon yet still can't attend in-person showings due to state or city restrictions and social distancing, a virtual home tour is your best ...
5 Best Practices For Home Buyers to Make The Most of Virtual Showings
The real estate industry is slowly bouncing back in many states. However, many brokerages and offices continue to keep the business as contactless as possible. Likewise, buyers may still feel hesitant walking through a stranger's house, and sellers may be wary of allowing other people to enter ...
The Home Buying Process In The Time of COVID-19 Pandemic
The real estate industry is adapting quickly to the outbreak of coronavirus. Many real estate agents, brokerages, and even mortgage companies have shifted their business virtually. Different states and localities have employed various restrictions and revisions to real estate transactions in ...
How to Continue Your Home Buying Journey While Staying Safe at Home
Before the coronavirus crisis, what were your home buying goals?As the current pandemic impacts our lives and businesses, we're all left wondering how long will it last. Many families are affected, our frontline workers are risking their own health to save lives, and the economy is expected to ...
5 Things You Should Never Do After Applying For A Mortgage
Finally, after months of browsing at homes online and attending open houses and showings, you found the perfect home to buy. Congratulations! You've applied for a mortgage and now you can’t wait to settle and decorate. However, until you’ve closed on the house and have the keys in ...
Which Real Estate Documents Should You Keep After Closing?
When you purchase a home, you need to sign an enormous pile of mortgage and closing documents, where each document can total hundreds of pages or more. The huge dilemma: they will likely take up a huge part of your storage space, so you may not want to file all of it. However, you also don't ...
Here's What You Need To Know About the Mortgage Underwriting Process
When going through the mortgage approval process, one aspect you need to keep in mind is underwriting. Once you've been pre-approved for a loan your application moves from the desk of your loan officer to the mortgage underwriter who will further investigate your financial profile to make sure ...
7 Signs You're Ready To Stop Renting and Finally Buy Your First Home
While there's certainly a huge debate on renting vs buying a home, no one could argue that it’s a major decision for many people. Some say renting is like throwing money down the drain and you’re just paying off someone else’s mortgage. Others insist that there’s no way ...
Practical Tips on Home Buying from 5 Awesome Movies
Without a doubt, our favorite movies are the ones we can relate to in one way or another. And whether you're buying a home or starting your house search, it’s a good thing to know that there are movies you can definitely relate to. A lot of movies touch on real estate, even if they do so ...
6 Bizarre Real Estate Laws Across the U.S.
When it comes to laws in the United States, every state is different, especially when it comes to real estate and property management. But there are also real estate laws that are nothing short of bizarre or just downright weird and humorous. If you're looking to move to any of these cities or ...
Here's Everything You Need To Know About Mortgage Pre-approval
Even if you're not in a competitive real estate market where you need to do everything to stand out, a mortgage pre-approval is your key to understanding your budget, help you speed up the process, and prove to the real estate world that you are serious about buying your dream home. ...