In the ideal home-buying scenario, you'd have plenty of time to find the perfect home. However, this is not always possible. Maybe you are relocating for a job and have to buy a house from across the country. If this is the case, you might have to limit the time that you spend house hunting. Here are some tips to help you make your search as productive as possible. Get A Mortgage Pre-Approval Before attending open houses and searching for a home, you should get pre-approved for a mortgage. Getting pre-approved for a mortgage will help you identify the exact price range that you … [Read More...]
The perfect home has been found, the one in the right neighborhood with the right amount of bedrooms and bathrooms. The home inspection is complete, but a few issues have been found. At this point, a home buyer has decisions to make. What Repair Requests Can Be Made After a Home Inspection? Structural defects found during a home inspection are the responsibility of the seller and must be fixed. In addition, Realtor.com states that the following must also be repaired by the seller: Water penetration such as mold or wet basement/crawlspace Any code and safety violations like unstable … [Read More...]
Last week's economic releases included monthly readings on construction spending, public and private sector job growth and June's national unemployment rate. Weekly readings included Freddie Mac mortgage rates and new jobless claims. Construction Spending Rises in May According to the Commerce, construction spending rose 0.40 percent in May; public sector construction spending rose 0.70 percent and private sector spending rose by 0.30 percent. Residential construction rose by o.80 percent, which analysts regarded as a good sign for the economy. Building more homes has long been identified as … [Read More...]
Once you and the seller have negotiated an offer and you've been pre-approved for a mortgage, you might think that you are in the clear as far as your closing goes. However, that is not always the case. Many surprising things can put a halt to closing. Some may ultimately stop the closing altogether while others could simply cause a delay. Here are a few unexpected things that can derail a real estate closing: A Job Promotion While you might know that changing employers is one way to interfere with the closing, another deal-breaker can be switching positions with your current … [Read More...]
If you've decided to sell your home, you've probably paid a lot of attention to the inside of your home. You have likely cleaned and staged your living room, bedrooms and kitchen to perfection. If you were like most other homeowners, you might have forgotten to stage one of the most critical areas of your home -- the garage. Most home buyers want a perfectly organized garage stage. A clean, organized garage is more important than you might think when it comes to selling a home. In fact, the Active Spring Shopper's Report found that more than 30 percent of home buyers said that the garage is … [Read More...]
Carving out space for a home office isn't always easy, but if you have the option to work from home even part of the time, it's essential to have a space that works for you. Here are 5 great ways to meet those needs: Adapt A Closet A guest room closet with bi-fold doors can become a perfect workspace with the addition of a shelf at the proper height to hold a computer or calculator and proper task lighting. Hang a bulletin board or add open shelving on the back wall. Multiply the functionality with a small cabinet or a portable file rack. The advantage of going to work in a closet is that you … [Read More...]
