The process of shopping for a home can be overwhelming, especially for first-time buyers. Inventories of homes for sale are still very thin in most markets and have yet to return to pre-housing bust levels. Particularly hard to come by are so-called “starter homes” because they are being scooped up by investors in addition to [...]
When you finally find your dream home after weeks, months, or even years of searching, the first step you must take to make it your own is to make the seller an offer. Unless you’re a real estate professional, chances are it’s not every day that you make an offer for hundreds of thousands of [...]
More and more homebuyers need to be prepared for bidding wars in today’s real estate market. When they arise, people can end up paying much more than the original listing price. Real estate bidding wars are often the result of first-time buyers and investors looking for the best price and coming across a deal that [...]
Down payments have always been the greatest barrier to first time homebuyers—and, unfortunately, they still are. For a brief period ten years ago, lenders marketed mortgages with no money down, which made it possible for buyers to circumvent the down payment requirements that would have kept them out of the market. When home values plummeted, [...]
As the travel season heats up, many Americans will make their annual trek to the family timeshare, perhaps on a secluded lake or a scenic beach. The American Resort Development Association, a trade organization for the timeshare industry, reports that there are currently more than seven million timeshare owners. Deciding to buy a timeshare Whether [...]
How to buy your parent's house. When they're ready to move out and you're ready to move back in, here's how to go about buying your parent's house. Your parents are ready to move out of their house. They want to sell it to you for cheap, so they get a little cash and you [...]
You’ve done all the right prep work to buy a home. You saved for a down payment, cleaned up your credit, and got pre-approved for a mortgage. You found a home that you can afford, and now the days are ticking down to closing—and everything seems too good to be true. Unfortunately, it could be. [...]
(Scroll down for video) If you’ve been thinking about buying your first home, this could be the year to finally pull the trigger. But with all the information out there about the real estate market, it can be difficult to determine what it all means for a first-time homebuyer like yourself. Before plunging headfirst into [...]
The housing market right now is a “crapshoot.” Economist Karl Case—co-founder of the heavily-followed S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices—told CNNMoney that today’s housing market is nothing like the predictable pre-crash housing markets, where you could bank on small but reliable price appreciation every year. "You've got much more negative vibrations in the housing surveys about homeownership [...]
Growing up, I was constantly told that buying a home was the American Dream. When I was in the military, I was sometimes looked down upon because I was a renter, but it just made more sense for me at the time. Here are four reasons you might consider renting rather than buying a home: [...]
