You could be losing money if you’re not itemizing your return.
Ask a roomful of homeowners what’s so great about owning versus renting, and you’ll hear them holler in unison: “the tax deductions!” And it’s true — homeowners who itemize their taxes are able to deduct 100% of their mortgage interest and property taxes from their [...]
Here is a nice little primer article on improving your credit score for house hunters who want to maximize their score and secure the best rate possible.
- James
There’s more to the story you referenced, “FICO points revealed.” The drop in your score you’d see if you made one of the missteps that the FICO score [...]
Not to be a skeptical, glass half-empty agent, but this number can’t be very high. Who doesn’t know someone frustrated in their dealings with their mortgage servicer or bank? Roughly only one in four surveyed has any trust or belief in the American financial system.
The Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index reports just 26% currently [...]
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The Obama administration will issue a proposal later this week recommending the gradual elimination of government-sponsored mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a White House official said Wednesday.
The highly-anticipated “white paper,” which is expected to be released Friday, will include three different options for reducing the role government plays in [...]
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Sometime, somehow, the foreclosure crisis will ease. But probably not anytime soon.
Home prices dropped 2.6% nationwide during the last three months of 2010, pushing more borrowers underwater, according to a quarterly real estate market survey from Zillow.com
Now 27% of homeowners with mortgages owe more than their homes are worth. That’s up [...]
That’s right! Hidden in the 2000+ pages of the Obamacare Health Care Legislation is a sale stax when you sell real estate. If you want to sell your home after 2012, then you will have to pay the piper to the tune of 3.8% of the sale price of the home. On a $100,000 transaction, you will have to [...]
If one of your goals this year is to make the shift from renter to homeowner, you should begin preparations now for an exciting emotional and financial adventure.
Before you start the home-buying process, make sure you are ready to buy a home where you will live for three to five years or longer, since it [...]
You would think that a company as big as Bank of America, with as much money at its disposal, including our tax dollars that bailed them out, would spend the money on a PR department that actually knew what they were doing!
-James
Just when I thought Bank of America might be turning the corner to getting [...]
BORROWERS have some weapons for keeping closing costs down, the result of recent guidelines requiring lenders to disclose certain fees, but perhaps the most underutilized consumer tool simply involves old-fashioned haggling.
Good-faith estimate rules, part of a tougher Truth in Lending Act that emerged from the mortgage crisis, mean that lenders must provide a clear picture [...]
Although this article mentions top tier mortgage rates are extended to those home buyers with credit scores over 740, don’t let that detour you. If you talk to most mortgage brokers, they will tell you that there are very attractive programs for clients with a credit score over 640. We have had several clients get [...]
