If you’re purchasing a home, don’t go with just any real estate agent: Get a full-time buyer’s agent.

One of the advantages of working with a buyer’s agent is that you’re less likely to have conflicts of interest.

Unlike agents who represent buyers and sellers, buyer’s agents won’t steer you toward a home that one of their [...]

The best deals on home loans remained as good as they were in September.
The lowest rates for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage ranged from 5.125% to 4.875% in the 10 cities we surveyed this month, almost identical to the 5.125% to 4.625% range we found in September.

That definitely beats the best deals we were seeing over [...]

The best home equity lines of credit are a little more costly this fall than they were in early summer.
Back in June, a number of lenders were offering HELOCs for less than 4%. Now only a couple have deals that good, and most borrowers will pay 4.25% or more.
You also need to remember that [...]

The best deals on home loans are considerably better than they were last summer.

The lowest interest rates for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan in the 10 cities we just surveyed range from 5.125% to 4.625%.

That’s a little better than in August, when the range was 5.125% to 4.875%, and a noticeable improvement over July when the [...]

Time is running out to take advantage of the first-time homebuyer tax credit.
To qualify you must close on your purchase before Dec. 1.
If you don’t have a sales contract in hand, and mortgage application in the works, by mid-October you’ll be racing to meet that deadline.
The homebuyer’s tax credit has been a popular part of [...]

Want to buy a home, but don’t have much cash?
Two government programs can help you make a minimal down payment.
You can still get 100% financing if you can qualify for a VA loan.
Veterans, including members of the National Guard and reserve units, soldiers on active duty, and widows whose spouses’ deaths were war-related are all [...]

The average cost of a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage fell to 5.52% this week.
But the best deals in the 10 cities we surveyed this month range from 5.125% to 4.875% for a traditional home loan.
The results are just a little bit better than our July mortgage rate survey, which found the best deals were from 5% [...]

States still have special mortgages, down payment assistance or other help for first-time homebuyers.
Some programs don’t have as much money as they did before the mortgage crisis hit.
A few states — notably Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin — have had to suspend some loan programs temporarily because of the difficulty of [...]

Mortgage brokers in at least some parts of the country tell us that lenders are starting to offer stated-income loans again.
These are the kind of mortgages that were for small business owners and self-employed professionals who can’t document their income with W-2 forms as most types of mortgages require.
Problems arose during the real estate boom [...]

Remember when the overheated housing market made it almost impossible for anyone to buy their first home?
Well, those days are definitely over.
During the first three months of 2009, nearly 73% of all homes sold were considered affordable for families earning the $64,000 national median income, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing [...]

The cost of homeowner’s insurance was 2.6% higher in February and March than a year ago, according to recent Bureau of Labor statistics.
The Insurance Information Institute projects that the average premium will rise from $820 in 2008 to $841 this year.
I’m sure the insurance industry thinks we should be grateful since it’s foisted much [...]

The letters are going out to homeowners with mortgages serviced by Countrywide Financial Corp.
“We’re pleased to welcome you to Bank of America and Bank of America Home Loans. Your mortgage is with one of the world’s largest and most trusted financial institutions.”
(Trusted? Shares in Bank of America fell 24% Monday after Wall Street saw right [...]

The government has finally confirmed what many private economists and consumer groups, not to mention millions of frustrated homeowners, have been telling us.
Lenders simply aren’t serious about modifying unaffordable mortgages.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision studied 35 million mortgages and found that only about a third of [...]

It’s a gimmick. But as gimmicks go, I like this one.
The California Association of Realtors is offering to pay first-time buyers’ mortgages for up to six months if they lose their jobs.
The program is intended to reassure buyers that they won’t face foreclosure if they lose their job during the recession, which has pushed California’s [...]

While the banks have loudly proclaimed their desire to help struggling homeowners, most of those efforts have been little more than public relations campaigns.
So any new foreclosure-prevention program should be viewed with skepticism until it proves to be worthwhile.
Having said that, Citi has a new program to help out-of-work homeowners who’ve fallen behind on their [...]

Think of this as the upside to falling home prices.
One study that compares housing costs to local incomes says homes are more accessible to the average family than at any time in the past five years.
Roughly 62% of all new and existing homes that were sold in the fourth quarter could be purchased by families [...]

Just say the words yield spread premium to certain people and you will have pushed one of their hot buttons. These people believe the YSP, as it is called in the industry, is a giant rip off.
This article doesn’t delve into its moral, ethical or political facades. That is left for each individual borrower to [...]

In order to understand the nature of a correspondent lender, a person needs to understand the other types of mortgage lenders in the market place. Everyone is familiar with banks, credit unions, thrift institutions and savings and loan associations.
However not everyone understands mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers even though they make mortgage loans like the [...]

If you have a 2nd mortgage on your home, you are one of the millions of people in a very large pool. In the “old days” a person with a second mortgage was considered financially unstable. Fortunately that perception has disappeared.
The reason you have a 2nd mortgage depends on your circumstances at the time you [...]

80/10/10 loans are easy to understand as they have only one purpose. The type of loan and rate of each loan will be determined by availability and interest rates available at the time you are in the market for a loan.
These loans are generally considered creative financing but in truth they are merely combination financing [...]

With all the ballyhoo about adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) in the media over the last six months, most people aren’t aware of a special feature in almost all ARMs. That feature is the conversion clause.
This clause presents the easiest and quickest way for a homeowner to refinance out of their adjustable rate mortgage without having [...]

Property can be owned in any number of ways. Just ask your attorney and he’ll explain the fine details and nuances. This article will look at the four most common as they exist in today’s market place.

If you are not getting any younger and you would like to experience the finer things in life, then a reverse mortgage may be able to help.
A reverse mortgage allows you to take out a loan based upon the equity that is tied up in the home. Giving you either multiple payments or one lump [...]

Home ownership is touted as the American Dream. However for some it turned into the American nightmare. You can bet these people never did a complete pro/con analysis.
Mind you, the factors you are about to read aren’t the end all be all. They are merely a start to help you frame your thoughts about buying [...]

A glossary is an alphabetized list of terms with their explanation/definition. When it comes to home mortgage loans, there are so many terms it would take ten pages to cover them all. However, I’ve extracted the most important and put them below.

Private mortgage insurance (PMI) is something people bump up against for the first time when they apply for a home loan. Unfortunately, given its inherent nature, it is quite confusing.
But, if you as a borrower understand this is insurance that protects the lender and not you the borrower, you should have no problem with the [...]

It is just common sense that anyone who qualifies under a mortgage lender’s underwriting guidelines can obtain a mortgage. Given that is true there must be a system in place to regulate those guidelines.
The good news is the United States federal government has 4 core laws that make the guidelines uniform and administered fairly and [...]

The Federal National Mortgage Association is better known by the name Fannie Mae. As you can guess, Fannie Mae is the pronunciation of the acronym FNMA.
What isn’t widely known is that the FNMA is considered a government sponsored enterprises (GSE). It isn’t the only GSE created by Congress but it is probably the best known [...]