An update on short sale news

An article from Bloomberg.com discusses the theory that banks are starting to approve (or at least consider) more short sales. If you recall my post on “Should I Buy a Short Sale?” you know that short sales can be fraught with complications, may not actually happen in the end and are definitely not for someone [...]

First time home buyer tip #16

Did you know that Colorado ranks as the 10th highest state for closing costs? Ouch. But, did you know that you can negotiate some of these charges? Your lender or mortgage broker is required by law to provide a “Good Faith Estimate” of your closing costs within at least 3 days of accepting the loan [...]

First time home buyer tip #11

Check out all the handy dandy online calculators available for those looking to purchase a home:

The MSN Home Affordability Calculator (how much home can you afford to buy?)

This calculator allows you to compare the costs of renting vs buying a home.

This calculator will show you the monthly payments you would need to make depending on [...]

First time home buyer tip #8

For today’s first time home buyer tip I am directing you to the HUD website where they answer 100 questions about buying a new home. I wish they had a PDF version for you to download but alas they don’t, but I still think it’s a great resource because it answers questions about how the [...]

Should I buy a short sale?

People ask me all the time “what is a short sale?” Or as my mother likes to say “There’s a house in the neighborhood for sale, I think it’s one of those quick sale things you told me about…”

A short sale is a house that is for sale but the owners owe more on the [...]

First time home buyer tip #5

Homes aren’t free! I know, I say this a lot and people always look at me strangely. Actually they look at me strangely a lot, but that’s beside the point here.

I say this because I’ve had more than one contract fall through on a home that I was selling because the first time buyers had [...]

First time home buyer tip #4

This post is a follow up to my other posts on the first time home buyer tax credit in order to clarify some details:
The credit is actually for up to 10% of the home’s price. In the north metro Denver area however you could barely buy a mobile home (that’s been purged and considered real [...]

Ins and outs of the home buyer tax credits

As expected, on Thursday night the U.S. House of Representatives passed the first time homebuyer tax credit extension and the President has signed it. The bill extends the current $8,000 tax credit deadline to April 30, 2010. You must be under contract on a home by April 30 and then close by June 30 in [...]

Update on first time homebuyer tax credit extension

The New York Times is reporting that Congress is on the verge of extending the $8,000 first time home buyer credit as well as offering a $6,500 credit to current home owners.
Supposedly the Senate may pass a version of the bill today and the House would have the chance to accept that version later this [...]

Claiming your $8,000 home buying tax credit

I think it was Milton Friedman who claimed to like all tax cuts – but some he liked more than others…
As I’ve stated very publicly before, I do NOT like all this “stimulus” that is being passed in Congress and believe that much of it will eventually lead to even higher home prices in the [...]

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