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Buying a Home
Refinancing Guide
FHA Refund Guide
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• Get a copy of your credit reports four to six months before you start home shopping and pre-quaify for a mortgage before you start looking.
• If you're buying a house strictly for financial reasons, look at each house you're considering as you would evaluate a purchase of stocks or bonds.
• Don't buy one of the first houses in a subdivision. The developer may go bust and be unable to complete the development.
• Make any offer on a home contingent on its passing an inspection. The purchase also should be contingent on your ability to get financing at or below a set interest rate.
• Get an owner's title insurance policy that covers you, not the lender, if your ownership is successfully challenged.
• Hire a real estate attorney to review the closing papers and, if you're buying a house still under construction, to draft or review the purchase contract.
• Before you buy a house, try your commute to work during rush hour.
• Learn about the area surrounding a potential purchase, including the potential for new roads or new development.
• Look at a property while it's raining to see how water flows across it. Look for signs of poor drainage and danger of flooding.
• Buy a house that's fundamentally sound in construction and materials, even if it doesn't have the latest, greatest design features.
Housing market doing better than headlines indicate
Housing continues on an uptick in the United States despite the depressing headlines. I just picked up a newspaper and saw the headline, "Foreclosures show no sign of decline." If you only read the headlines, you'd think we're still in the midst of a downward spiral. But you'd be mistaken. ...
Intown housing will see recovery first
Housing is still suffering around the country, yet I believe recovery is underway. Why do I persist in saying that when the stats seem to point another way? Two reasons really. First, when it comes to the question of distress real estate, the huge losses in value we're seeing are ...
Gotchas for new homebuyers
People are buying new homes again, but there are a couple of gotchas you've got to look out for. About a year ago, I told you that Wall Street firms had been inserting a new, hidden resale fee into the paperwork when homebuyers purchased new homes from developers. The firms ...
New FHA rule regarding old debt and new mortgages
That item on your credit report that kept you from getting a mortgage might not be a problem anymore. It used to be that if you wanted to qualify for a mortgage and you had a $5 fine for an overdue library book, it hurt you as much as if ...
Look for user reviews of local services
Doing a Google or Bing search is great for a lot of things, but using a search engine can put you in the danger zone when you need a repair at your house. Let's say you're looking for a locksmith, a plumber an electrician or another kind of worker. You ...
What happens if you walk away from a mortgage?
We still have millions of people upside down in homes even as the housing recovery is starting. So what do you do if you're still sitting there staring up from the bottom of a well? I took a recent call from someone in California who was upside down on her ...
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Renters: Time for you to buy that house?
Rents are rising across the country, and there's no end in sight. Is this the right time to take the leap and buy a house? Clark explains.
New refi option for those with FHA loans
There's a new mortgage refinance option for those with FHA loans that can benefit you even if you're upside-down in your home. If you have an FHA loan that closed by spring 2009, the streamline refi program could be for you. Here's a quick overview of this program, which goes ...
Cash buyers starting to dominate the housing market
The housing market is on a glide path to recovery, more or less, and I have proof of that in a key metric from the National Association of Realtors. The key reasons for the housing crisis can be boiled down to speculative lending and overbuilding. While no one knows the ...
Clark's tips for homebuyers
Editor's note: This segment originally aired Jan. 31, 2012. One of the things we often overlook here in the United States is how great the housing stock has been. I've had the great fortune to visit Japan three times. Amazingly, one of world's wealthiest countries has the lousiest housing you ...
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