Home Buying Content Index - Page 1

Buying a home is often the biggest single purchase you'll ever make. But it isn't just choosing a home to buy that's complicated. You've got to think through neighborhood issues, size issues, and cost issues. Buying a home can also include legal issues, construction or building concerns, and have serious tax implications. Financing your home purchase is another big topic of interest for most home buyers. From this topic page, you'll be able to find articles and videos that help you understand how to balance what you want in a home with what you can afford to spend. You'll also be able to refine your search about buying a home by using the topic cloud on the right navigation.

**Jobs, Foreclosures, The Stock Market And More Thoughts About Our Wacky World.** If we don't have jobs, it's awfully hard to pay a mortgage. More foreclosures may be on the way, according to the one person who I knew correctly called the financial meltdown.

**$8000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Extended and Expanded: Questions and Answers** With the extension and expansion of the $8000 first time home buyer tax credit, lots of our readers are happy. But some are rather angry. Some of the people that would have benefited from the expansion of the tax credit have purchased homes and won't get the benefit of the tax credit. Others want clarification to see if they will qualify for the "new and improved" home buyer tax credit.

**Low Appraisal Caused By Declining Home Values Results In Change To Loan Refinance Terms** If you apply to refinance your loan and get quoted terms, can you force the lender to abide by those terms? What if your property received a low appraisal? What if declining home values caused your home value to drop below what you owe on your current mortgage? And what if you decide not to go forward with the loan refinance, can you get your application money back?

**Unpaid Property Taxes Found One Year After Land Contract Signed** Land contract -- also known as installment contracts for deed -- are complicated documents. If you are not careful, you could end up in a mess. Some issues that can lead to problems in a land contract are title issues, including unpaid real estate and property taxes. But unpaid taxes could be the lesser of some of the title problems you can encounter using a land contract. This reader found unpaid property taxes from years earlier about a year after entering into the land contract.

Ilyce Glink Show Notes - November 1, 2009. How has the credit crisis and recession changed you and your spending habits? I want to hear from you. Free books and ebook deal. This week, our latest ebooks, on investing in real estate, will be released on ThinkGlink.com as will our podcasts from our How to Profit From Foreclosures event. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter to get the latest information, discounts and deals.

**Title Insurance May Solve Encroachment Issue** If you are buying a home and find out you may have a title problem, you should talk to the title insurance company to determine if the title problem can be insured over by the title insurance company. Many real estate properties have minor title insurance problems that are small enough that the title insurance company may be willing to give you peace of mind with coverage under the title insurance policy.

Winterize Your Home And Get a Tax Credit. The IRS has advised taxpayers that the Expanded Recovery Act Tax Credit will help homeowners winterize their homes so they can save energy and save money at the same time. But the IRS cautions homeowners to check the tax credit certification before they buy winterizing tools.

$8,000 Tax Credit: Administration Calls on Congress To Pass $8,000 Tax Credit And Other Pro-Housing Measures. The White House supports three pro-housing measures including the extension and expansion of the $8,000 tax credit, continuing an expansion of the loan limits, and support for the Housing Trust Fund. These pro-housing measures were announced by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan at a press conference Thursday morning.

**Taylor Bean and Whitaker Trouble: Continued Mortgage Bankruptcy Hearing Update** Mortgage borrowers are scrambling for answers as their funds have been frozen; What do you do if you receive letters from two different mortgage servicing companies claiming that each one of them is going to service your Taylor Bean and Whitaker loan? We've received an update and past court documents from the United States Bankruptcy court detailing Taylor, Bean Whitaker trouble.

**$8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit: Trying to Buy and Inherit a Home At The Same Time** The first time home buyer has all kinds of restrictions: income, how long you must live in the home, how long you couldn't have owned a home and who can sell you the home. There are even restrictions on whether you can qualify for the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit if you plan to rent the home or receive the home by inheriting it.