Category: Buying a Home
New Home Walk Through: What You Need to Know
After months of watching your new home being built, it’s time for the “walk through” with your builder. This is your opportunity to make sure things are fixed before closing. Here’s a walk through of the walk-through process. Bring blue tape and a keen eye. If your builder is amenable,
Home Inspection: A Buyer’s Perspective
After weeks of home shopping, you’ve found a house and signed a contract to purchase. Then the inspector finds problems that need repair — expensive repairs. How should you handle them? You thought negotiating the selling price was all there was to the haggling. Now you have to make decisions
Does Your Home Have Asbestos? If the Answer is Yes, Don’t Panic
If you buy a home built before 1978, there’s a possibility asbestos may lurk in the building materials. Houses built from the 1800s through the early 1950s used asbestos extensively before the material was phased out. Should you be concerned? What is it and why is it dangerous? Asbestos is
Word of Caution: Check Older Homes for Environmental Hazards
Homes built before 1990 are considered “older” by today’s standards, and those built before 1920 are considered vintage or “heritage.” Owning an older home brings a whole set of challenges not found with newer homes, one of them being the use of environmentally dangerous building materials. Most environmental issues fall
A Quick Lesson on Insurance for New Homeowners
Up until you buy your first home, your experience with insurance may be limited to auto, life and health coverage policies. When you buy your first home, you’ll encounter a slew of new types of coverage, including title insurance, homeowner’s insurance, flood insurance and maybe even something called an “umbrella
How to Win a Bidding War on a House
If you live in an area where homes are selling for asking price or more, you could find yourself in a bidding war. Here are five tips to reduce your stress and come out on top. Have your money in order. Do a solid budget analysis and know precisely how
Real Estate 101: What Does a Title Company Do?
One of the biggest players in any real estate transaction is the title company. The title company serves multiple roles, all of them crucial to the closing process. Primarily, title companies exist to protect the parties involved, particularly the buyers and their mortgage companies. Here is what you need to
Homeowners Associations: Love ‘em or Hate ‘em?
Homeowners associations provoke strong emotions. Depending on who you ask, they are viewed as either the neighborhood’s protector of home values or, in some cases, a small group of residents who take community rule enforcement to the extreme. What is an HOA and why do they exist? Simply put, an
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