If you have a mortgage on your home, your total house payment may include 1/12 the cost of the annual taxes and insurance.  Those amounts are held in an escrow account so the lender can pay them when they become due. The most common reason an escrow account shortage occurs is that taxes and insurance […]

Each type of showing plays a valid and necessary role in marketing the home.  Some buyers look at a home online leading them to drive by the home to see if it continues to be what they’re looking for before they will make an appointment to look at the inside of the home.

Now that the standard deduction is increased to $12,200 for single taxpayers and $24,400 for married ones, many homeowners are better off with the standard deduction than itemizing their deductions to write off their mortgage interest and property taxes.  There was some speculation that without the tax advantages, homeownership is not the investment it once […]

Most homebuyers probably know that their FICO mortgage score can determine whether they qualify for a loan, but they may not be aware that it can determine what interest rate they’ll pay. The same $300,000, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage can have a principal and interest payment that ranges from as low as $1,340 or as high […]

Nearly a third of American households were labeled cost-burdened last year because they are spending more than 30 percent of their total household income for housing.  The report done by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University looked at both homeowners and renters. Today’s low mortgage rates help the cost of housing in […]

If you’re looking to list your home this year, we have some good news—2020 is forecasted to be a seller’s market, which means most properties will sell quickly and for a higher price than normal. Although buyers are scrambling to find somewhere to settle down, even the most desirable homes still need some marketing to […]

Reverse mortgage loans are like traditional mortgages that permits homeowners to borrow money using their home as collateral while retaining title to the property.  Reverse mortgage loans don’t require monthly payments. The loan is due and payable when the borrower no longer lives in the home or dies, whichever comes first.  Since no payments are […]

A mortgage lock-in is a lender’s agreement to hold a specific interest rate for a stated period for a loan at the prevailing market interest rate.  This provides the borrower some protection against the interest rates going up during the lock period. If you think the rates are going down, the advantage would be to […]