Electrical Panel Or Circuit Breaker Home Inspection
Make sure your electrical panel or circuit breaker is included in your home inspection. What should you look for when inspecting an electrical panel or circuit breaker? Learn what catches a home inspector's eye when he's inspecting an electrical panel or circuit breaker in your home. You shouldn't…
Inspector Jamie Dunsing talks about what to look for in an attic inspection including the attic insulation, air conditioning and heat loss. You may get your attic inspected as part of a prelisting inspection or another home inspection when you're selling your home.
Getting A Good Home Mortgage Rate
A parent asks about selling a property to her daughter who has good credit. She wonders about home mortgage rates and whether they will fall. Even if the daughter sees high home mortgage rates now she can refinance in the future.
Real Estate Agent Should Return Down Payment Money
After a home sale falls through, a buyer asks about getting earnest money back from a real estate agency. The real estate agency cashed the earnest money check. What can the buyer do to get her earnest money back?
MLS Listing Shows Time On Market
A Baltimore reader asks about how long his home has to be out of an MLS, or multiple listing service, to get a new listing. Each area's MLS has its own listing rules. Aside from adjusting the MLS listing, Here are a few ways to help sell your home in a down market.
Contract Termination With Structural Damage
A home buyer asks about breaking a home sale contract after he learns about a cracked plaster wall. The seller wants to fix the problem but the buyer still wants to terminate the contract. The buyer does not want to fulfill the contract and buy the home with the structural issue, even after it is…
Down Payment For Buying A Home As A Gift
When you're selling a home and a buyer wants to buy the property as a gift is there anything you need to watch out for? Should the earnest money, which may become a down payment, be handled in a special fashion? It's critical that the transaction be handled with care to ensure estate planning and…
Contract Risks With Houses For Sale By Owner
A seller says he's selling his house for sale by owner. He wonders about contract risks when selling houses for sale by owner. The seller says the buyer offered to buy the home without putting money down and without seeing the home first. Sellers should have a real estate attorney help with…
No Reimbursement For Home Inspection
A buyer says he paid for a home inspection and his attorney shared the results with the seller's lawyer. The buyer can no longer afford to buy the home and wants to be reimbursed for the home inspection. He paid for the home inspection as part of his due diligence and the next potential buyer will…
Buying A Home With A Graveyard
A home buyer wonders about buying a foreclosed property near a cemetery. Could buying a home with a perceived defect lead to a lower price? Ilyce discusses pros and cons of buying a home in a less desirable location like near a cemetery or with a problem that you may be able to fix.
What are good reasons to buy a home? Saving on taxes is not a good sole reason to buy a home. Here are several financial and personal reasons that will help you decide whether to move to buy a home.
Would You Buy A House With A Cemetery In The Backyard?
David called in to say that he's been looking at bank-owned real estate and he found an expensive house he liked in Fayetteville, Georgia. But when he walked out into the back yard 30 feet, he ran across a tombstone for Mother Mary, who died in 1901.
A little more searching around and he found more…
As Ilyce just discussed on the Clark Howard Show -
Home prices fell 14 percent in the first quarter according to the the Standard and Poor's Shiller Home Price Indexes announced today. This was the largest drop in the 20-year history of the indexes. They fell 6.7 percent from the fourth quarter of…
Closing Date Change Could Cause Loss Of Earnest Money
When a seller changes the closing date and the buyer decides to pursue other properties, can the seller keep the buyer's earnest money? Does the seller have a right to the earnest money when the contract has been canceled and the closing will no longer occur? And can the seller lay claim to earnest…
Mortgage Requirements Stricter For First Time Home Buyers
Mortgage requirements have become stricter for first time home buyers. Lenders have tightened credit requirements for first time home buyers, making it more difficult to qualify for a mortgage loan. To qualify for a mortgage loan, first time home buyers need a credit score of at least 660 unless…
Buying A Home Without Adequate Income
Without adequate income, you can't qualify to get a mortgage loan to buy a home. In addition to income, lenders want to see that you have a good credit score before giving you a mortgage loan. Once you've got the income, a good credit history and credit score, you can start looking for a house to…
Experience With Real Estate Agent Varies
As with any industry, the professionals who work in real estate are both good and bad. And each customer's experience will differ depending on the real estate agent or broker he or she uses. Each real estate agent or broker will also have different expectations and boundaries with their clients.
How Do You Feel About Buying A Foreclosure?
Who's your average foreclosure buyer? A single man under age 35, if you put together a composite of characteristics revealed by a recent survey. Trulia.com, a residential real estate search engine, commissioned Harris Interactive to poll people about how they feel about foreclosures. More than 2,000…
Partnership Agreement When You Buy Real Estate Pre-Marriage
When you're about to get married and either you or your future partner has a lot of assets, you may want to sign a prenuptial agreement. If you're buying property prior to getting married, you may want to set up a partnership agreement that outlines the responsibilities of each partner. Prenuptial…
First Time Home Buyer Gets Inadequate Seller Disclosure
When you're a first time home buyer one of the choices you need to make is what kind of real estate agent you want to work with. If a real estate agent represents both the buyers and the sellers that person is called a dual agent. In addition, the sellers are obligated to tell you about any unusual…
Despite Bad Housing News, Survey Says Buy a Home
A majority of Americans think now's a good time to buy a home, according to the Reuters/Zogby poll released today. Less than 42 percent say it's a bad time to buy. The poll surveyed 1,049 Americans. But just because people say or feel it's a good time to buy doesn't mean they'll do it. They may not…
What's The Top Real Estate Web Site?
ForSaleByOwner.com recently announced that it's the most visited real estate Web site, in terms of unique visitors. In February 591,000 unique visitors checked out the site according to comScore Inc. These days home buyers and sellers look to save as much as they can and one way to save is to reduce…
Seller Disclosure And Hiring A Home Inspector
Hiring a professional home inspector and conducting a final walk-through before closing on a house will protect you from surprises in case the seller fails to disclose problems with the house. Most states have seller disclosure laws, but hiring a home inspector will further protect the home buyer…
A graduate student says he's got bad credit but wants to get a home loan upon graduation. If you get a home loan with bad credit it will cost you more. Before getting a home loan you should first fix bad credit.
Would You Buy A Foreclosed House If You Could Get A $15,000 Tax Credit?
U.S. Senate lawmakers announced yesterday that they're working on a bill to help homeowners facing foreclosure. Among the proposed measures - a $15,000 tax credit for people who buy foreclosed or newly built vacant homes.
If you look at this from a capitalist perspective this is a great idea - it…
