No Major Purchase of Any Kind

Review the article titled, “Don’t Buy a Car,” and apply it to any major purchase that would create debt of any kind. This includes furniture, appliances, electronic equipment, jewelry, vacations, expensive weddings…

…and automobiles, of course.

Don’t Move Money Around

Should You Change Jobs?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Mortgage applications rose as interest rates fell to their lowest level in 14 months, an industry trade group reported Wednesday. 

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity for the week ended Dec. 1 rose 8.1 percent to 647.6, from 599.0 a week earlier. 

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 5.98 percent, its lowest level since October 2005, from 6.13 last week. 

The group’s seasonally-adjusted refinance index rose 13.7 percent to 1989.7 from 1749.6 the previous week and the purchase index increased by 4.9 percent to 426.6 from 406.7 one week earlier. 

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 50.1 percent of total applications from 46.9 the previous week. 

Fixed 15-year mortgages rates decreased to 5.66 from 5.86 percent. Rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) decreased to 5.79 from 5.87 percent. 

The ARM share of activity decreased to 23.9 from 24.5 percent of total applications from the previous week. The ARM share is at its lowest level since October 2003, the MBA said. 

The MBA’s survey covers about 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage loans. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. 

Freddie Mac (Charts) and Fannie Mae (Charts) are among the nation’s largest mortgage lenders. 

What do most people do when they see a listing without a picture.  Most of the time they move on to the homes that have pictures.  That’s what most real estate agents also do.Guess what?  That home isn’t going to get many showings.  It’s not going to have many people interested in it.  Is a light bulb going on in your head?  Isn’t this going to mean that there’s going to be less competition and maybe the seller will be a little more motivated?

No pictures might also indicate that the listing agent doesn’t take their profession seriously.  They might not be very good at negotiating or looking out for the best interests of the seller.  You can use this to your advantage. 

So it’s not good to judge a book by it’s cover and it’s also not good to judge a home by it’s lack of pictures. 

Posted by: Tim Maitski

In most cases, buying a home is the biggest financial transaction one ever makes.  Therefore, it only makes sense to know as much as possible about a property before closing.

For the buyer, a home inspection is an opportunity to discover the true condition of the property, before you own it!  A good inspector can save you from making a costly mistake, or can help give you confidence in the decision to invest.  With an idea of what problems may arise and when they may present themselves, the buyer can plan for the future.  In addition to the general condition of the property, safety concerns will also be addressed. Safety is of the utmost importance to many families and a home inspection can reveal potentially dangerous situations. 

Even if a home looks like it’s in good shape, there are often hidden problems - possibly expensive ones.  Even most new homes have several defects, and sometimes important components such as the roof or air conditioner are installed improperly or incompletely.

 From: Homewerks Home Inspection

I get many people email me about a property that states in the remarks section that the property is being sold as-is with no termite letter.  Many first time home buyers seem to get really nervous when they see these statements.  They are expecting the home to be in total disrepair.

 Most of the time these statements are in listings that are bank foreclosures or corporate relocations.  All that it means is that the bank or relo company is making no claims about the condition of the home because they don’t have any actual knowledge of past events.  They took over the home in the condition thta it is in and they are just saying that they don’t make any guarantees.

It really doesn’t change a thing.  You negotiate a contract with the right to inspect.  Usually you use the inspection clause that allows you to terminate during the inspection period for whatever reason you want.  You do your inspection and if you find anything that is significant, you just renegotiate the contract taking those things into account.

The risk you take is that if there is something that is not able to be found by doing an inspection, there’s no possibility to be able to possibly sue the seller for failure to disclose a hidden defect. 

Bank foreclosures usually never make any repairs on anything.  Corporate relo companies many times will do an initial inspection of the home before they put it on the market to allow them the possibility of fixing problems ahead of time.  Sometimes they will agree to pay closing costs in lieu of any repairs that are needed.

So don’t automatically fret over buying something as-is.  It good turn out to be a great opportunity.

Written by Tim Maitski