Tag Archives: home buying

To Buy a Home or Not

Is it financially better to own a home or rent? This is an interesting question. Let’s put it to the test. To truly compare, let’s look at the benefits and costs of each one. Then you will have to balance these out with your own individual goals and priorities. Home Ownership: Benefits: • Income tax breaks on mortgage payments. • The money you spend each month goes towards your investment dollars, not someone else’s. • A house can be a good asset for your total net worth. • A home can often be leverage for other borrowing. • Owning a … Continue reading →

Budgeting for a First Home

Do you want to buy your first home, but have too much debt? An overload of debt can hurt your ability to buy a home in many different ways: cash flow, credit score and loan approval. If you desire the opportunity to buy a home, try this plan to help you get there. Start by first determining the amount of money you will need to borrow in order to buy a home in your area. Basically preview the prices of homes you think you could be satisfied with, and deduct any amount you have saved for a down payment. Then … Continue reading →

Are You House Poor?

When it comes to buying a home, there are so many emotions and dreams wrapped around this purchase that it can become difficult to make a level headed decision. Many people have their dream home already in their minds, and it can be frustrating to realize that you may not be able to afford every feature that you want right away. You may be tempted to go over your original budget, but be careful because you do not want to end up house poor. Being house poor means that you are putting too much of your income into your house, … Continue reading →

Five Additional Expenses to Consider When Buying a Home

If you have never bought a house before, or you are considering moving up in house size and price, there are several factors that you will need to take into consideration. It is important that as you take this important financial step that you do not overextend yourself, and end up in a negative situation. Here are five things you should consider. 1) The bank will be willing to loan you more than you can really afford. Most experts feel that housing should not take up more than twenty five percent of your budget. If you make $2000.00 a month … Continue reading →

Our Condo Story Part 3… The Conclusion

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Part 1 covered our pursuit of our dream of homeownership and Part 2 touched on the horrors of mold. Okay, so listen what happened next… The water damage was along our common wall so we notified our neighbors. They were not having any leak problems. We thought the water must be coming from the roof since there wasn’t any other places it could have come from. We’d had over a month straight of rainy days. With everything that had happened so far, we were not excited about going into the attic. We thought either we’d find a body, drugs or … Continue reading →

Our Condo Story Part 2… The Money Pit

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Our first problem with our new home was worked out thanks to our new exterminator friends. Our condo was affectionately referred to as the money pit from this point out. We updated our kitchen and proceeded to work on the bathrooms. So far everything was looking beautiful and new. But there was a problem. When we pulled out the counter where the sink was, there was black mold and rot on the floor! We then had a new floor put down. There was an issue with the caulking though. It wasn’t drying. We switched to baths thinking it didn’t have … Continue reading →

Our Condo Story Part 1… New Home Owners

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Like many others, my husband and I desired to be home owners. We were not sure what kind of home we could afford or how we would come up with money for closing costs and the down payment. We were in our young twenties and my husband was the provider for our then family of two. We found a mortgage broker who we trusted and were pre-qualified for a home around $100K. We searched the Portland metropolitan area for something that would be habitable (and believe me, not all homes we saw were!) and in a neighborhood that didn’t require … Continue reading →

Differences Between Buying vs Renting

When you weigh the pros and cons of renting versus owning a home, you will find advantages for buying winning. The first thing is that you need to determine how much of a house you can afford, which would mean taking a good look at your income, savings, and monthly expenses. Then of course, you would need a down payment but with so many excellent programs on the market, you can be sure there is something for you. For savings, often you will discover that the amount of your monthly rent is the same or even less than what you … Continue reading →

Welcome to the Real Estate Blog at Families.com

I am a licensed realtor in New Jersey, and have worked in the residential market with resales, representing both buyers and sellers. Real Estate, investing, buying and selling a home, these are all very important money matters to most people. A home is often a family’s largest and most important asset. What’s happening with the market, interest rates, how to find a realtor, how and when to sell on your own, what to do to make your home more marketable, the process of buying your first home – these are all topics that will be covered here. Ask me your … Continue reading →