Your home is likely to be one of your biggest assets during your lifetime, as such, it is included here.
This section also covers the broad area of renting, real estate investing, homeownership, home buying and selling, home renovation, and mortgages.
Additionally, check out related articles in these sections: banking, financial planning, investing, and risk management
When it comes to buying a house, there are many things that you, as a Buyer, can negotiate with the Seller. How much you can negotiate depends mostly on the market condition, other buyers competing for the same property, and the Seller’s willingness to sell the house. Here are six things you can negotiate when … Read more
Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage Early? This is a popular question among homeowners. Some people believe paying off the mortgage as fast as possible is better, and some people believe investing the difference is better. In his book The Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step #6 advocates paying off your home loan early. … Read more
Should you refinance your mortgage? The general rule of thumb is if you can reduce your current interest rate by 1% or more, it is worth it to do a mortgage refinance. And many people are happy to follow this rule as long as it lowers their monthly payment or lets them take out some … Read more
People are divided on the topic of early mortgage pay off — some say it’s a good idea, others disagree. This topic is highly debatable because there are so many factors to consider, and even a slight change in one of these factors could swing the answer in one way or another. In any case, … Read more
Selling your home is not an easy thing to do. Most of us only get to do this once or twice in our lifetime, so there are usually more questions than answers. However, you can make this tough process easier by learning about and knowing how to avoid these five common mistakes. 5 Common Home … Read more
I began investing in single family homes with a good friend and business partner about 4 years ago. In that time, we’ve purchases and remodeled 5 single family homes, all of which are rented by reasonably reliable tenants. Over that time we’ve learned a thing or two about investing in real estate. In this article, … Read more
I am currently in the process of buying a rental property and one of the questions that came up was: is it better to buy a rental house with cash, or is it better to take out a mortgage? Personally, I always believe that it is better to borrow, especially in this low interest rates … Read more
When it comes to the costs of homeownership, most of us tend to focus on monthly payment and the size of the needed down payment. Sometimes, the cost of repairs and maintenance will come into the discussion as well, but there’s another cost that seldom enters the picture: transaction costs. We do think about transaction … Read more
When you purchase a home, you make a mental judgment about how long you plan to live there. If the time frame is relatively short, e.g., less than five years, it usually doesn’t make sense to purchase. But sometimes our mental judgments are wrong, or life circumstances force us to move away unexpectedly. It might be … Read more
A 15 or 30 year mortgage is a long time to be paying on the same bill. Even with interest rates at historic lows, a 30 year mortgage will charge you almost 100% of the home’s cost in interest over the life of the loan. For example, a $175,000 mortgage at 4% for 30 years … Read more