Are you preparing to buy a home or sell the one you’re in? If so, the home appraisal process will be incredibly important. If you’re selling your home, a professional appraisal can help you set a fair, realistic listing price. If you’re buying a home, your lender will require a professional appraisal to ensure it [...]
7 Steps to Take Before Buying Your First Home
Buying your first home is exciting, but it can also be a little overwhelming. Credit checks. Mortgage applications. Home listing after listing after listing. Where do you begin? With these seven steps, of course. 1. Research Prices in Your Area This is something many first-time home buyers don’t do. But skipping this step can result [...]
Important Facts about Mortgage Debt Forgiveness
Photo: 401(K) 2013 If you’ve been through hell and back with your mortgage, having part of that mortgage forgiven by your lender may seem like a blessing. Until tax time, that is. Before the housing market bottomed out and mortgage debt was being forgiven left and right, tax time could be a huge problem for [...]
The Truth About Reverse Mortgages
Reverse mortgages are a mixed blessing. On the one hand seniors can get access to the equity in their home without selling or taking on additional debt. On the other hand, these financial products are difficult to understand and often come loaded with fees. So I was glad to host a guest post from the [...]
6 Simple Tips for Home Sellers
With the real estate market showing some signs of life, many people will be putting their homes up for sale. As a homeowner and real estate investor, I know firsthand that there are simple things you can do to increase your chances of selling your home fast and at a great price. So I was [...]
How to Get a Mortgage If You’re Self-Employed
A lot of Dough Roller readers are self-employed. I know this from talking to countless folks since 2007 when I launched this site. And I’m about to join their ranks. More about that later. But as a personal finance blogger, one of the first things I thought about was my mortgage. Seriously. Will I be [...]
5 Places To Keep Your Down Payment When Saving to Buy a Home
Photo: Phil Romans Saving to buy a home is both exciting and overwhelming. When my wife and I were saving to buy our first home, I thought we’d never have enough for the down payment. But somehow we came up with the money. One of the keys to our success was saving the cash in [...]
Should You Refinance from a 30-Year to a 15-Year Mortgage?
With mortgage rates once again at an all time low, the rate on a 15-year mortgage is really tempting. According to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey, the average rate on a 15-year mortgage is just 2.63%. And that’s almost 70 basis points lower than the rate on a 30-year fixed. And the really low rate has [...]
3 Ways to Avoid Paying Private Mortgage Insurance?
When my wife and I bought our first home, the most we could put down on the home was five percent. As a result, we had to pay private mortgage insurance (PMI) to qualify for the loan. Each month our mortgage payment included the premium for PMI, and I absolutely hated paying it. If your [...]