Consider, before paying cash for a home, if at some time in the future you would want to add a mortgage on the home and want to deduct that mortgage interest on your federal tax return. The current federal tax law allows homeowners to deduct the interest on up to $750,000 in acquisition debt that […]
Used cars: it is not usually a good idea to spend a bunch of money to fix up a used car before you trade it in. You won’t recapture the money you spent on the repairs. Dealers can make repairs less expensive than you can. And you are selling to a wholesaler who then needs […]
Let’s take a moment to understand the reason why a homeowner should not try to sell their home themselves, what’s the motivation? Most likely it is because the homeowner wants to “save” paying the commission. This can certainly be a lot of money. If we look back to 1981, homes that sold FSBO (For Sale […]
CoreLogic analyzed national homeowner equity. This equity grew in the 4th quarter of 2020 by $1.5 trillion or 16.2 percent year-over-year. The study was done on homeowners who have mortgages on their homes. In the fourth quarter of 2020, we also saw the number of mortgaged residential homes with negative equity decreased by 8 percent […]
The monthly affordable rent as a percentage of monthly income is what we call the rent to income ratio. Tenants should keep this ratio within 30 percent of their monthly gross income. With a shortage of rental units in some areas, it may not be possible. In this situation, a tenant would have to spend […]
There has been this stigma about new families or first-time home buyers getting their first “starter” home. For generations, people have looked for that home as a jump into homeownership. Logic suggests that starting with a smaller home, you can learn how to take care of it, learn what it costs to maintain a home, […]
Tax filing season is upon us again. A silver lining to completing that return is getting good news about a refund. This extra money could literally open the door to a new home. If you happen to be one of the fortunate, then your next decision is what to do with the refund. The average […]
As we approach the inevitable end of our lives, we all begin to get things “in order.” You may set up a will, you may want to transfer title to your home to your living relatives before you pass but this could cause an unnecessary expense for your heir. Usually, when we pass property through […]
Having insurance is always debatable. The debate centers on having to pay for something that you may never use so it is worth it or a necessary evil. Mortgage Insurance benefits the lender if a borrower who puts down less than 20 percent defaults on their loan. The problem is that most conventional mortgage loans […]
The strategy we are talking about today is not about negotiating the best price but rather about beating your competition and buying the home. The reality is there is just not enough homes on the market and when competition gets tough different tactics are necessary. This may not dawn on you until you lose a […]
