April 2007
Monthly Archive
21 Apr 2007 07:14 am
A 2007 Tax Benefit For Homeownership
| Finally, good news for homeowners. Under a new law, certain borrowers who take out a mortgage for purchase or refinance in 2007 are eligible to write off all or a portion of their mortgage insurance premiums for the year. It’s a tax break many in the industry have sought for years because the insurance is often regarded as a cost akin to mortgage interest or points. Mortgage insurance is required for borrowers who make less than a 20% down payment; its purpose is to protect lenders from losses if the borrower defaults on the loan. The insurance is cancelled when there is enough equity built up in the home. |
|
click here for article
search for : mortgage, refinance, mortgage insurance premium
20 Apr 2007 06:55 am
The Importance of A Warranty Funded by Seller
 |
You just spent thousands of dollars to get into your new home. You were able to negotiate a lower price, closing costs and a buy-down on the mortgage from the homeowner, who at this point is more than willing to hand over thousands of dollars to you to convince you to buy his house. Then — against all the common sense that I can understand — you don’t ask them to lay down $300 - $500 to put up a home warranty that’s going to protect all your appliances, heating/air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, garage door opener, door bell, sump pump, well pump, swimming pool or spa, or washer/dryer. |
click here for article
search for : mortgage
19 Apr 2007 06:19 am
Cellar or Basement Dry? You Still Need to Be on the Defensive
| The risk of living next to a body of water is obvious and should be considered when buying or building. Where the risk isn’t obvious is on drier ground, where there is no watercourse within several miles of the house. That seems to be more of an issue at times such as this. If you live in a house in an area where the water table is high, you either forgo a basement or build a whole series of safeguards into the cellar to keep it and whatever you are storing there dry. |
 |
click here for article
search for : water table, basement, cellar
18 Apr 2007 07:17 am
Rescue plans rise along with foreclosures
 |
As the number of foreclosures rise around the country, the number of companies offering help is increasing, too. Many are negotiating terms the homeowner could fairly easily obtain on their own, while others are doing even less and simply exploiting vulnerable homeowners. Experts recommend that homeowners screen offers carefully, and take the following precautions: don’t pay upfront fees to any person or organization promising help, don’t sign anything without having an independent lawyer review it, seek out accredited financial counselors, using lists such as those kept by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. |
click here for article
search for : foreclosures, financial counselor, Department of Housing and Urban Development
17 Apr 2007 07:53 am
Selecting Amoung The Four New Real Estate Tools
| About 80 percent of all home buyers begin their quest online, according to the National Association of Realtors. Usually, they visit sites such as Realtor.com, which contain most of the listings available within a specified area. Those sites, however, usually answer only a few of the myriad questions that prospective buyers have about houses. They often don’t address subjects like: How is the neighborhood? Is it on a busy street? Is there any nearby place for the kids to play? Zillow is attempting to expand the conversations centered around the home listings by providing an online forum for exchanging that kind of information. |
 |
click here for article
search for : National Association of Realtors, Zillow
16 Apr 2007 06:58 am
Hundreds of New Houses, What That Means for You
 |
Even though builders have cut back on the number of new homes they’re starting, they are finding themselves saddled with an unusually large inventory of finished or nearly finished homes. Those empty houses are expensive for builders to carry, thanks to construction loans that won’t be paid off until the home is sold. So builders are getting serious about unloading them. Why should you care? Because if you are thinking about selling your house, new-home builders are your competition. And if you are thinking about buying a house, you should be aware of what is out there. |
click here for article
search for : construction loan, selling your house
15 Apr 2007 06:31 am
Our Homes and appliances are supersized for a reason
| The things inside our homes are getting bigger, as a trip to an appliance store will quickly confirm. Like those colossal baby carriages, appliances are being pumped up to SUV-like proportions. Many washing machines and dryers, for example, are now raised up on huge pedestals for “convenience,” not to mention being slathered with enough fake chrome to shame a Lincoln Navigator owner. The typical wall oven, which used to be made in a modest standard width of 24 inches, has been incrementally larded up to 27 inches and now 30 inches. Presumably, this is necessary because turkeys are now 25 percent larger. And where single ovens were once widely thought to be up to most baking tasks — my father is still happy with his, and he’s a professional baker — nowadays double ovens are considered de rigeur. |
|
click here for article
search for : Lincoln Navigator, wall oven, double oven
14 Apr 2007 08:05 am
When Starting With an Empty Lot Is The Best Option
 |
Why buy a house when you can build one? At first, that didn’t occur to Keith Strand. After all, who builds a house in Manhattan? But when he could find no affordable houses to renovate, he did what an architect would do. He abandoned the hunt for a house and instead went looking for a plot of land to build on. Mr. Strand, 53, who grew up in Colorado Springs, first came to New York in the 1970s with the group Volunteers in Service to America to work on Bronx housing projects. |
click here for article
search for : affordable house
13 Apr 2007 06:30 am
Who Really Owns the Fence Line?
| Property line issues have suddenly cropped up in the emails I’ve received in the past few weeks. It appears that homeowners are more aware of their property lines (specifically if a neighbor is violating it) during the spring and summer months than at other times. As we get out there and trim limbs (from the neighbor’s big oak tree), mend the fence (which is actually the neighbor’s), and try to clean up unsightly encroachments on the line, we become aware that the guy next door hasn’t kept up with his property and now the problem is personal. Keeping up with local fence laws, good neighbor regulations, even your local home owners’ association rules can keep relations between you and your neighbors a lot more healthy. |
 |
click here for article
search for : Property line issues, property lines, good neighbor regulations
« Previous Page — Next Page »