Entries from Searchlight Crusade tagged with 'planning'
The High Cost of Waiting To Buy A Home
(Note: This is a repeat and 100% financing is not currently available unless you are one of those with a VA loan available to you - but the article is still valid for those who have the required down payment...
Save For A Down Payment or Buy Now? (Part 2 of 2)
(click for Part 1 of Save For A Down Payment or Buy Now?, which deals with the basic question of how well saving for a down payment increases affordability) As an alternative strategy, suppose that instead of waiting to buy...
Save For A Down Payment or Buy Now? (Part 1 of 2)
An email asked a question I should have thought to answer a long time ago, and the answer may surprise a lot of folks. I've been vaguely aware of this for a couple of years, but I was amazed how...
Buying or Selling Subject to Existing Deeds of Trust
This is something that often happens with highly appreciated properties where the owner can no longer keep up the payments, they get hit with a notice of default, and along comes Joe or Jane seemingly riding to the rescue on...
Being Realistic Saves Money on your Mortgage
If you haven't heard about the thirty year fixed rate mortgage, welcome to planet Earth and I hope we can be friends. The thirty year fixed rate loan seems to be the holy grail of all mortgages. It's what everyone...
Buy Now vs. Wait: Some Practical Hypotheticals
The original appeared in April 2006, but has been updated for changes I am hoping to buy in the (city) area and am reviewing the possibilities. While I fear that the local market may be peaking, I intend to live...
Top Ten Reasons You Bought The Wrong House
A while ago, I wrote Top Ten Reasons Your Home Isn't Selling. It was well received so I thought I'd take it from the buyer's perspective. Once again, I'll try to inject as much humor as I can. And...
Real Estate "Pig In a Poke"
Over five hundred years ago in Europe, there was a con game that was more practiced than any other con game in the history of the world. It was simply the thing to try on the new rube in...
One Loan Versus Two Loans
One of the questions we ask all the time is whether to do your financing as one loan or two loans. Until comparatively recently, one loan was the default option, but people have been learning that splitting their home financing...
Protecting My Buyer Clients Good Faith Deposit
The buyer's deposit is always at risk. This is just a fact of real estate transactions. I could pretend it's not so, but that wouldn't keep the deposit from being at risk - it would just make me a...
Unsustainable Loans You Should Not Use to Purchase a Property
You've probably heard the horror stories, and I've mentioned the possibility more than once. Some unsuspecting person is looking at properties beyond their price range, and it therefore has all kinds of attractive features that properties which are in their...
Why Buyers and Refinancers Should Think About a 5/1 ARM
Right now, due to the problems we had with unsustainable loans, nobody wants to consider anything but a thirty year fixed rate loan. I understand why, especially as I've been preaching the dangers of things like short term adjustable...
Shop Loans By The Bottom Line To You, Not By What the Provider Makes
When it comes to mortgage loans, people get distracted by the darnedest things. Let's look at Wal-Mart. You think they got to be the largest retailer in the world by making less money than their competition? I assure you...
A Good Listing Agent's Most Difficult Task
The general public may not understand this, but the most critical parts of a listing agent's job all take place before the property hits the market. The most difficult task of an agent who wants to successfully list property is...
A Q&A for First Time Buyer Advice
(This is a reprint from December 15, 2006 that still has quite a bit to offer. There have been market changes which I will talk about but the original stands up well) This was a Q&A post from a certain...
Why You Want To Price Your Property Correctly From Day One
This article is for sellers who want to put their property on the market priced too high "just to see if we can get it." I know where sellers get this notion. A lot of people are out there...
Real Estate: Giving Someone a Monopoly Does Not Encourage Top Performance
From an e-mail I've been talking to agents lately and I ask them about the things I've learned about from your site. I thought I would say things like "I want to apply for a backup loan" and they would...
Real Estate: Know What Can Be Fixed and What Can't, What's Profitable and What Isn't
It's a well known fact that not all factors in real estate are equally important, and not all property investments perform equally well. A critical part of successfully choosing the right property, whether it's for investment or personal use, lies...
The Difference Between Note Rate (APY) and APR
I am continually horrified how many people shop their loans by APR, just as I am by people shopping their loan based upon payment. Why? Because in either case, you're setting yourself up to spend a lot of money in...
Real Estate Liquidation Auctions
Liquidation auctions were a big thing for a while there. They were just advertising one on all the stations around here. The other agents in my office asked if I was going, and I told them, "There will be...
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