What is PMI and how do I avoid it or get rid of it?

Private mortgage insurance, also known as PMI, is cursed by homebuyers when, without it, many of them wouldn’t have been approved for the mortgage used to buy their home. Yes, it makes house payments higher and, yes, it sticks around far too long. Worse, although it’s called “insurance,” it does nothing to protect the homeowner. Its sole beneficiary is the…

What happens after I sign the listing agreement?

Have you ever noticed that information and advice for first-time homebuyers is plentiful across the internet? What happens when you look for that same information and advice for first-time home sellers? Crickets While buying a home for the first time is somewhat confusing until the process is explained, selling one for the first time is even more so. This is…

Preventing Wire Fraud

Wire fraud is a very common problem these days. NAR General Counsel Katie Johnson provided a summary of the problem recently on realtor.org. She said, “Hackers are gaining access to e-mail accounts through captured passwords, and they’ll search inboxes for messages related to real estate transactions. Once they find a victim who’s in the process of buying a home, they’ll…

Luxury homeowners – check out these 5 tips to lower your homeowners insurance premium

Insurance is a necessary evil – we buy it, hoping we’ll never need it. After all, it’s a hedge against catastrophe. The sheer cost of replacing a home with custom finishes, and the fact that high-end homes may contain priceless works of art, expensive vehicles and irreplaceable values, makes the process of insuring luxury homes far different from insuring other…

Negotiating with the buyer after the home inspection

Negotiating the successful close of a home sale begins with price and contract terms and doesn’t end until the deal closes. One of the most frequently negotiated items, after the aforementioned price and terms, has to do with the home inspection results. They’re also among the most contentious negotiations. Very few home inspections are “clean,” meaning there’s not a thing…

How to keep your windows from fogging up in the winter

All those gorgeous windows that allow summertime sunshine to stream through the home are useless to view the winter wonderland outside if the glass is covered in fog. When that frosty outdoor air hits the heated glass of a window, it’s inevitable that the result will be condensation. There is a way to foil this natural process, however. What causes…

Do I Have to Use the Builder’s Lender and Real Estate Agent?

The real estate industry does a spectacular job educating first-time homebuyers. There’s so much valuable information out there that no buyer should go through the process uninformed. Buying a home in a new community – a brand-new home that no-one has ever lived in – is not only first-time homebuying on steroids, but the industry has left the homebuyer behind…


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