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"Home Buying"
Should you buy a home of your own, or just keep renting?
The answer depends on many factors, including — but not limited to — the state of the real estate market, what you can afford for a down payment, your total monthly debt expenses, your credit score, your job security, and how long [...]
From school supplies in August and cars in February, it can feel like there is a “season” for everything you might be planning on purchasing. Which of course means there is also a season when, if you are patient, you can get the deals – ever noticed there are no bargains available for lawn furniture [...]
Whether you’re buying or selling a home (or doing both at once), it’s tempting to consider handling it all yourself (apart from the legal work). How hard could it be? Everybody knows that real estate agents work on commission. Think of the money you’d save!
Sure, and you could do your own dental work, too. [...]
Thinking about buying a house but wondering how much you can afford to pay each month for a mortgage?
A good rule of thumb is that your total mortgage debt (principal, interest, taxes, and insurance) should be no more than 28 or 30 percent of your gross monthly income.
Of course this doesn’t take into [...]
The experts at Money magazine know that home ownership can be an important piece of a comprehensive financial plan. In fact, knowing when (or if) you should become a home owner, is so important they have included it as “Lesson 8” in their “step by step guide to gaining control of your financial [...]
Thinking about trading up? Scaling down? Considering just how big a house you really need?
How big is big?
According to the World Property Channel, the U.S. Census Bureau found the size of new single-family homes completed declined in 2009, dropping to a nationwide average of 2,438 square feet.
After increasing continually for nearly [...]
You’ve heard about a house you can get “for a steal.” All it will take is a little fixing up and you’ll have a) the house you’ve always wanted; b) instant equity: property that’s worth more than you paid for it; c) relatively quick profit from a turnaround sale; or d) a giant headache.
What [...]
You’ve found the home of your dreams, and now it’s time to make sure it doesn’t turn into a purchase nightmare! That’s where your home inspector comes in.
The home inspector’s job is to check out the key areas of the house and evaluate the condition of the property before you actually make the purchase. [...]
At East West Mortgage, we pride ourselves on utilizing the best technologies with the goal of improving our customers’ experience and reducing the amount of time from application to closing.
With the help of Ellie Mae’s Encompass360 system, we’ve been able to reduce our average time to close to 20 days from time of application. [...]
Thinking of buying a home? If you’ve started looking, you have probably discovered that the home purchasing process comes complete with it’s own specialized vocabulary. And in case that wasn’t enough, you may find yourself feeling tongue tied and confused by the variety of acronyms.
Case in point – Do you know what the following [...]
