Home ownership is better than renting. By owning a home one invests into the property, so the money that you would normally use towards rent now goes into ownership. Once you know which home you want to buy, you should make an offer. Your real estate agent can assist you with the offer. Factors to consider are: The price should be in line with prices of similar homes in the area; the condition of the home (will it cost you a substantial amount of money to refurbish); has the home been on the market for some time now (the seller may be eager to accept a lower offer); make sure you can afford the offer. The closer your offer is to the asking price, the more likely your offer will be accepted. Offers often get rejected. The real estate agent will negotiate on your behalf.

When families enter into a contract to buy or sell a house, two things are true:

• The buyer wants to own the home.
• The seller wants to sell the home.

In order for both these things to take place, the transaction must be completed. That is not an easy task in the current market.  The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Homes Sales Report yesterday. In the report, NAR announced that one out of every three contracts to purchase a home in October never made it to a closing table.  How does that ratio stack up against previous numbers? Cancellations have more than quadrupled in the last 14 months!  According to NAR, cancellations are caused by: “declined mortgage applications, failures in loan underwriting from appraised values coming in below the negotiated price, or other problems including home inspections and employment losses.”

Having someone who truly knows the market is crucial if you are planning to buy or sell a home. This expert should know what is happening in real estate, understand why it is happening and be able to simply and effectively explain each point to you and your family.  There can be consequences if you don’t have a true industry professional on your side.

No one can guarantee you won’t face challenges. However, the best agents and mortgage professionals know how to manage the expectations of all the parties involved thus dramatically increasing the chances your deal will close and you and your family will be able to move on with your lives.

Joy resounds in the hearts of those who believe in the miracle of Christmas!

Wishing you all the peace, joy, and love of the season! Season’s Greetings!

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It is always a difficult process when you are trying to purchase your first home. The buyer will find the decisions related to finance very confusing to understand. Most people do not have much knowledge or experience about real estate. But in reality the over all process of home buying is a simple one. Getting to understand the basics of real estate will help you to ease the future decisions to be made during your home purchase.

• One of the most important things you need to be careful is to not pay any pre payment penalties. Pre payment penalty is paid when you sell a home after purchasing it, but before the due date of your mortgage balance. There are many loans which has pre payment penalties and then some without it. There is no need to get a loan with pre payment penalties and any time you are offered one you should turn it down and start your search for another loan. In case your interest rate influences your monthly payment, then you will find that unpaid interest getting added to your overall loan balance.

• Getting pre approved for your home is a must do. From this the seller gets an understanding of your seriousness to buy the home. The leverage you gained this way may help you in landing a good home when there are multiple buyers trying to get it. You are going to save some significant amount of time as a result of getting pre approved. There is no point in wasting your time by checking homes out, trying to land better interest rates, bargaining to get a reduced price etc., when you cannot get pre approved in the first place.

• You should have a clear understanding of your budget and your financial limits before you buy a home. You need to spend some time and figure out what is your capacity to spend on monthly mortgage payment. If you know your financial status and if you take good care of your money, you will be able to figure this out very quickly. In case you are sloppy with your money, you may have a hard time making enough to make your monthly mortgage payment.

Never get any home equity loan after the purchase of your initial home. You may be tempted to get these loans when you are in a sticky situation financially. But these loans will add up pretty quickly and may surpass the total value of the home. This might cause you to lose your home and you should never go this route, and should try to find some other available alternatives to get a loan.

There are a lot more things you should be aware of other than these before you can get a home. But these are some starting pointers you can keep in mind when you are doing home hunting. Try to get as much information as possible on private mortgage insurance, special loan programs, fixed rate and adjustable rate mortgage etc. Once you know the tricks of the trade, then it is quite easy to buy a home. Try to get all related information on home buying from your Real Estate Agent to assist you with expertise and professionalism and you will be starting to enjoy the process a lot more.

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