I was meeting with a client the other morning who needed to either refinance or sell her townhome to access some equity to pay off her sister. If she decides to sell, she will buy another townhome closer to work, where as it will be pretty much business as usual if she refinances. A situation […]
Title Insurance: What is it and do I need it?
There are lots of pieces to the puzzle of a real estate transaction and about all of them are complicated. It’s important to have good, scratch that, GREAT professionals on your team to help you get pre-approved for a mortgage, find a home, negotiate a good deal (whatever that means for your specific situation) on […]
Four Ways to Put Your Equity to Work: #4 – College Housing for Your Children
In this series we have talked about ways to put your dead equity to work for you. All options require pulling out excess equity (typically equity over 20% of the home’s value). The first option was to renovate / update – this allows your equity to build more equity by making your personal home worth […]
The Impact of the New Tax Law on Real Estate Owners
Toward the end of 2017 congress approved a new tax bill that was signed into law and became effective as of January 1, 2018. If you own real estate, there are several thinks you need to know so that you can make educated decisions regarding buying, selling, and holding real estate. I’ll start of with […]
Four Ways to Put Your Equity to Work for You: #3 – Investment Portfolio
In the first of this four part series, I talked about using your equity to renovate and update your home. Part two discussed taking your equity out to buy a 2nd home. In the third installment of ways to put your equity to work for you, I will discuss starting an investment portfolio. Invest in […]
The Top 6 Things That Can Delay the Closing of Your Loan
I read and article written by a Realtor about the top 10 reasons for delays in the mortgage process. I thought about six or seven were valid and the others either had little to nothing to do with the mortgage side of things or were fluffed up to get the number to 10. That said, […]
Four Ways to Put Your Equity to Work for You: #2 – Vacation Get-away
You have equity in your house and it’s increasing every month as you pay your mortgage down and as your house appreciates. What is your equity doing for you? Absolutely NOTHING. As I have written in many other blog posts (here’s one: Four Ways to Put Your Equity to Work for You: #1 Renovate / […]
Lock or Float: Where Are Rates Headed?
An important question with regard to any loan is “Should I lock?” or When should I lock?” No one ever really knows for sure. I have a pretty extensive background in investing (I was a Series 7 Licensed Representative for Fidelity Investments in the mid-90s) so I’m familiar with a lot of things that the […]
Four Ways to Put Your Equity to Work for You: #1 – Renovate / Update
Buy this… and turn it into something like this… What is the Return on Investment of the Equity in Your Home? The answer may surprise you…it’s a big, fat ZERO. This is the first in a 4-part sears about how you can put your equity to work for you. “But my equity is already working for […]
PURCHASE STRATEGIES: Delayed Financing and other strategies to help get your offer accepted
Strategies to Help You Get Your Offer Accepted I hear all the time how homebuyers have submitted offers on many homes and they are frustrated because they lose for a variety of reasons, often to cash offers. If you are waiting for your train to arrive in the form of an accepted offer, you may […]