Archive for March, 2011
4 Keys When Buying a Home
Posted by: | CommentsOn today’s market, every savvy seller wants to know what turns buyers off, so they can get their homes sold as quickly as possible, for as much as possible. But buyers, take note – there is a minefield of seller turn-offs you can trigger that hold the potential to keep you from getting the home you want at the best price and terms. Here’s a few of the most common buyer-perpetuated seller turnoffs
1. Trash-talking. Trash-talkers are the home buyers who think they’re going to negotiate the list price down by slamming the house. This strategy never works; in fact, when you attack a seller and their home, you only cause them to be defensive, and think up all the reasons that they shouldn’t sell their home to you! Work with a qualified Realtor.
2. Being unqualified for mortgage financing. When a seller signs a buyer’s offer, most often the seller agrees to effectively pull the home off the market, forgoing other buyers who might be interested. As such, the only thing worse than getting no offers on your home is getting an offer, getting into contract, then having the whole thing fall apart when the buyer’s loan falls through. Find out how much you can afford at www.XPressMortgageQuote.com
3. Making unjustified lowball offers.. Sellers generally know the ballpark amount that their home is worth, as well as what they need to sell it for to get their mortgage paid off. But just throwing super-lowball offers out at sellers hoping one will hit the spot is not generally a successful strategy, especially if you really, really want a given property.
4. Misleading or setting the seller up. Being misled by listing photos or very fluffy property descriptions was high on the list. Offering way over asking with the plan to hammer the seller for a reduction when the house doesn’t appraise at the purchase price? Making an as-is offer planning the whole time to come back and ask for every penny ante repair called out by the inspectors? Be fair and real from the start
Free Credit Report
Posted by: | CommentsToo many consumers are confused about credit scores. Most did not know who makes credit scores available, what is a strong score, nor the financial cost of a poor score.
Your credit score is a numerical rendition of your creditworthiness. It indicates how well or how poorly you’ll repay a debt. The higher the number, the more likely you’ll repay on time. Credit scores are important, influencing whether consumers can purchase a wide range of important services and at what price, including mortgages.
Basic information to know about your credit score:
• Mortgage lenders and credit card issuers use these scores to determine whether to extend credit and/or at what price. Many non-financial services — such as cell phone companies and landlords — use credit scores to determine whether to offer a service and/or at what price.
• The three main credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — collect information on which credit scores are most frequently based. The survey also advises, an individual has many different credit scores, which are either generic or lender-based. Generic credit scores are available from many sources — not just FICO and the three credit bureaus but also many other websites.
• Three key ways to raise a credit score or maintain a high score are making all loan payments on time, for each credit card keeping balances under 25 percent of the card’s credit limit, and avoiding opening several credit card accounts at the same time
• A large majority of consumers correctly understand the following about scores: Missed payments, high credit card balances and many applications for new accounts at one time are factors used to calculate credit scores. It’s a lot more difficult to raise your score than it is to lower it. Making a couple credit card or mortgage payments late may take a year of on-time payments to restore one’s old scores.
Like the mortgage industry, much needed disclosures are coming for credit scores. You are entitled to one free credit report a year from each of the credit reporting bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — from the only federally-sanctioned web site for free reports AnnualCreditReport.com.