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Six Tips for Buying a House or Condo for Relaxation and Vacation Use

If you’ve just returned from the vacation of a lifetime, you probably wish that wonderful time never had to end. When you buy a vacation home or condo, you can guarantee that you have an escape that will provide you with years of enjoyment. Before you take the plunge, though, take advantage of these six helpful tips about buying a vacation home. Choose Someplace Versatile When buying a vacation home, it’s all about getting the most out of your investment. Consider choosing a place that you can enjoy throughout the year. Your ideal vacation home will be a haven in the summer, a beauty in the fall, a refresher during the spring, and the perfect place to celebrate the winter holidays. Think About Convenience When you choose your vacation home, you will want to find a relaxing getaway that fits your lifestyle. If you love to have easy access to the grocery store and other amenities, don’t buy in a remote location. If instead you’d prefer something secluded, opt for a home that is
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Close Your Mortgage Loan Faster So You Can Start Moving In

When a seller accepts an offer from a buyer, the process of obtaining the property has just begun. The buyer now has to conduct an inspection, get approval from an attorney and obtain a mortgage – all of which can be time consuming. Here are a few ways that you can speed up the mortgage process and close the deal sooner. Make Sure That You Have Money For Closing Costs Do you have the money needed for a down payment and to pay other closing and prepaid costs? If not, you won’t be able to close until you find the funds to pay those costs – and this could delay the closing on your home indefinitely. Before you arrange the mortgage, make sure you have enough cash on hand to pay closing costs. Get Conditional Approval Before Making The Offer If you have not been conditionally approved for a loan before making an offer, you can’t be sure that a lender will give you a loan for the amount of the purchase price. In addition, starting the process from scratch could push back the closing
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Three Reasons to Consider Switching to Bi-weekly Payments

While there are differing schools of thought when it comes to whether or not a person should pay off a mortgage before the loan term ends, there may be some benefits to making payments on a bi-weekly basis as opposed to monthly basis. What are some of the reasons why it may be beneficial to make two payments a month instead of one? Here are three reasons why you should ditch the monthly fees and make payments once every two weeks. You’ll Make An Extra Payment Per Year If you’re looking to pay off your mortgage ahead of schedule, making bi-weekly payments means you’ll make an extra payment every year. Instead of making 12 large payments every year, you’ll make 26 small payments. These 26 small payments would be equal to about 13 large payments. This is the equivalent of an extra payment per year and 10 extra payments over 10 years. If you have a 30-year mortgage, you could pay it off between two and three years early because you will make your last payment 30 months ahead of sc
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The Pros and Cons of Buying a Home at Auction

Most people in the market for a new home will go down the traditional route of talking to real estate agents, searching for an auction, or looking at agent websites, to see what they have on their books. This is a convenient way to make a shortlist of potential buys. An alternative approach is to attend, or bid at a real estate auction. You can buy Grand Rapids real estate, for example, at an auction held somewhere else. There are some pros and cons to buying a home at auction. The biggest pro is that you can get really good value for money at one. The biggest downside is that auctions only take place periodically. If you are not successful in buying a home at one of them, you may have to wait some time for the next one. The procedure There are various types of auction, but they all have one thing in common – interested parties make one or more bids on the property being sold, and the highest bid will get the property.
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Understanding the Real Estate Short Sale and How This Process Works

A short sale is something that occurs when a homeowner is not able to make the mortgage payments on time due to a financial hardship. Instead of foreclosing on the property after one or more missed payments, the bank may agree to allow the homeowner to turn the home over to the bank, which will sell it to as close to market value as possible. Here’s what you need to know about how short sales work and what circumstances might call for one. Step 1: The Homeowner Provides Information To The Bank The first step in the short sale process is for the homeowner to submit an information package to the bank. The homeowner will provide information such as the reason for the short sale, an authorization letter allowing the real estate agent to talk to the bank, and a financial statement. In addition, the seller may need to provide an HUD-1 statement as well as a list of comparable homes in the area. Step 2: The Buyer Makes An Offer Once the house is put on the market, a buyer can make an offer
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Children Leaving the Nest? Advice on Next Moves For Your Mortgage

When your children are about to step out into the world on their own, you want to help them on their way. This especially holds true when it comes to buying a house. As your sons or daughters prepare to take the plunge into home ownership, make sure they follow three crucial tips that will help them during the mortgage process. Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew One of the biggest mistakes that homeowners make is choosing a home that is beyond their price range. Your children need to remember that they are going to be paying for their home for a long time. A crushing house payment could be difficult to manage. In order to find a reasonable mortgage, you need to look at the numbers. The bank, or mortgage lender, will generally look at a client’s income, debt, and the current mortgage rate to determine an acceptable amount when purchasing a home. Your children can look at their own budget, lay out all of their costs, and determine how much spending room is left for a house paymen
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Applying for a Mortgage -3 Questions Your Lender Will Ask You

Before approving a mortgage, your lender is going to have to do his due diligence to ensure that you can afford a loan large enough to pay for a house. That means your lender will be asking you several questions about whether or not you can afford a mortgage. Here’s how you can prepare to answer these questions in a way that will increase your likelihood of approval. How Stable Is Your Income? Your lender is going to want to know that your income is going to be stable over the life of the loan. This means that you should be able to document steady employment, that investment income is going to be stable or that the alimony that you receive from your former spouse will continue to come in for the foreseeable future. To document your income, you can provide bank statements, pay stubs or tax returns from the previous three years. How Much Do You Have In The Bank? A lender is going to be interested in how much you have in reserve in case you lost your job or suffer an unexpected medical
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Questions First-Time Home Buyers Should Ask

Nationwide, mortgage rates are low and home prices remain relatively low, too. This combination, plus rising rents, is pushing renters in some cities toward first-time homeownership. Buying your first home can be exciting, but you should also do your research to make sure that you ask the proper questions of the process, and make the best choices for yourself and your household. For example, recommended questions for first-time buyers to ask home sellers include : What major repairs have been made to your home? Although standard disclosure forms are supposed to provide information regarding past damage and renovation to the property, there are occasionally repairs that are omitted or otherwise forgotten. Be proactive and ask pointed questions about the roof, the foundation, and the electrical system. Some home issue have a way of resurfacing many years later and it s best to know in advance. To which school district does the home belong? As a first-time homebuyer, you may or may not h
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David Brooks, Regional Director of RealEstateAuctions.com, Michigan Hires Another New Project Manager to The Team

A big warm welcome is extended to Gaye Butler who has recently just joined the team at RealEstateAuctions.com Gaye has been in the real estate business since 2008 and specializes in providing full real estate services to buyer, sellers, community development organizations and investors. Additional services include property management and loss mitigation/short sales. She has a Master of Science in Finance from Walsh College and a BA in Political Science/Public Administration from Michigan State. Gaye has successfully sold over millions of dollars of real estate in her career throughout Metropolitan Detroit. Gaye is NOW expanding her services to include real estate auctions. In the ever changing real estate industry, it is more important than ever before to provide not only multiple services but a unique niche were you can fill a void! She has chosen RealEstateAuctions.com as the platform to provide her clients with the opportunity to auction properties throughout Michigan and particula
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