Buyers who put less than 20 percent down on a home might find themselves with a higher-than-expected monthly payment. The extra money, which often takes first-time homebuyers by surprise, is for private mortgage insurance. What...
Buyers who put less than 20 percent down on a home might find themselves with a higher-than-expected monthly payment. The extra money, which often takes first-time homebuyers by surprise, is for private mortgage insurance. What...
You’ve sacrificed, scrimped and saved for the down payment on your first home. But have you saved for the whole new world of expenses that comes with home ownership? If not, you could get blindsided...
How much is a home worth? That’s the crucial question asked by home buyers and their lenders in a sales transaction. It’s up to a professional real estate appraiser to analyze the property and market...
If your dream home is a fixer-upper, but cash is tight, a 203 (k) program offered by the Federal Housing Administration could make ownership a reality. Known as FHA Section 203(k) insurance, the program allows...
Real estate commission rebates can be a great tool to help clinch a deal. What exactly is a commission rebate? How do they work? Here’s what buyers and sellers need to know. How does a...
When you buy a home, your mortgage is sold to you by a banker or broker on the primary mortgage market. When that first lender sells your mortgage to another firm, your mortgage enters the...
It seemed like the ink was barely dry on your closing papers when you received notice that your mortgage had been sold to another company. While startling, it won’t change the terms of your loan....
When searching out home-financing opportunities, it’s worthwhile to see if you qualify for government programs that offer attractive terms. The loans are usually administered through a private mortgage lender, but are insured by the federal...
If you haven’t bought a home in recent years, the paperwork you’ll be confronted with will look a little different this time around. That’s because of new regulations put in place following the 2008 financial...
The financial crisis of 2008 started with shoddy mortgage-lending practices. Congress answered this problem with the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which was designed, among other things, to tighten mortgage lending standards and disclosures, keeping consumers better...
