It’s a rare situation that you can afford to be without home insurance. Most mortgage lenders require home insurance as part of the terms of a mortgage, and even if you own your home free and clear, insurance can be the easiest way to safeguard your investment. But home insurance isn’t exactly cheap — especially [...]

In the last week, I’ve received emails from just about every person I know who works in real estate. They all want to remind me that if I buy a house this year, the government will give me $8,000. My dad even called, telling me that he didn’t want me to miss out on this [...]

It’s been something of a common practice for lenders to sell mortgages for years now. And with some companies going under, and other buying up the leftovers, it’s possible your mortgage may change hands multiple times over the life of the loan.
Who Buys Mortgages?
A mortgage can change hands in several ways: it can be [...]

More than a few people I know have made their mortgage payments by the skin of their teeth in recent months. For some people, their next property tax bill could make the difference between managing that month’s mortgage payment and looking at foreclosure. Right now, property taxes make for all kinds of trouble: reading up [...]

I’m visiting my family right now, and every discussion these days seems to be about real estate. I suppose it’s only natural: my cousin and his wife just bought their first home, my aunt sells real estate, my grandfather is heavily invested in real estate and my dad manages real estate.
The question that every [...]

Bankrate recently ran an article titled, “A dozen ways to get a down payment.” The article was pretty in-depth, but I’d like to take a look at how realistic their twelve suggestions really are.

Set up an automatic saving plan. — An automatic savings plan is a great suggestion. Almost every bank makes it easy to [...]