Home Buying Questions - Choosing a Neighborhood

Continuing our series on home buying Q&A, we come to another frequently asked question among home buyers: "How do I choose a neighborhood?"

This is a great home buying question to ask, because it shows you're thinking the right way about real estate. When you buy a home, you are also buying into the neighborhood in which the home resides. You are also buying into the school system, property tax situation, and other factors that affect the value of your home.

There's also the more human aspects of choosing a neighborhood. Obviously, you want to choose a neighborhood that you'll enjoy coming home to every day ... a neighborhood where other home owners care about the appearance of their homes, and the appearance of the neighborhood as a whole.

In other words, you want to choose a neighborhood that complements your home, as opposed to detracting from it.

Here are some resources to help you choose the right neighborhood before buying a home.

• Neighborhood Scout
  
• Yahoo Neighborhood Reports
  
• Helpful article on-site (scroll down to "location, location, location")
• Choosing the right neighborhood (About.com)
  

Learn More
This blog post is part of an ongoing series of common home buying questions.

Home Buying for Single Moms - New Article Posted

I frequently check the search logs for Home Buying Institute to see what people are looking for when they reach the website. In recent months, there has been a steady rise in searches for "home buying for single moms" and similar phrases.

Now, I'm no expert on home buying for single moms (as it differs from home buying in general), but I had to do something for all those people searching the topic. So, there is now a resource page (work in progress) dedicated to the topic of home buying for single moms.

Enjoy!

~Brandon

Florida-Based Mortgage Expert Finally Reveals the Secrets at a Brand New Website

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MIAMI LAKES, FL -- (MARKET WIRE) -- April 24, 2007 -- http://www.capitallinkmortgage.com/netpress This site is loaded with FREE REPORTS, a refinance kit, an informative home buying guide, mortgage calculators consumers can use to run various loan scenarios, and home buying resources you can use to save time and money before and after you purchase your home.

If you're planning to buy your next home, your first home, that dream home, a condo, vacation home, investment property or looking to refinance in Florida, you will find that this site is a complete resource full of insider secrets that will allow you to choose the loan program best suited to your financial needs.

A major problem today for mortgage applicants is knowing how to select a mortgage professional that better serves their interest; most people just blindly follow their realtor advice and go with whomever they recommend. Instead, use that person as a starting point, then make sure you do your homework. When looking for professional help there are a few questions to ask before even asking for the best purchase or refinance interest rate.

Bottom line is do not believe that the relationship with your realtor forces you to work with his mortgage broker; as long as you know you have a choice you will be OK. A good place to start is asking friends and family if they have someone in the field they are happy with. Another good indicator is after the first interview, did he or she ask you several questions about your present and future situation? Did you get the impression that there was enough information shared so they can now help you in your specific scenario?

What should I look for in a Mortgage Professional?

-- They should be a full-time professional. (very important, they should
be 100% of their time researching, and learning about new programs,
interest rates, mortgage and economics trends, etc).

-- They should have a good knowledge of the current day-to-day mortgage
market, including the type and terms of loans that lenders will fund.

-- They should be capable of analyzing, advising, restructuring,
underwriting, packaging, presenting and negotiating your loan proposal with
the lender that best suits your needs.

-- Whether arranging the purchase or refinance of your property, the
professional should know your property's current market value.

-- Most professionals specialize in different areas of mortgage finance.
Choose the broker or originator whose specialty suits your individual needs
or at least you feel they have answer all your questions.

Here is just a small sample of the secrets revealed on this site...

*Little Known Secrets That Will Show You How To Improve Your Credit Score

*Important Terms You Must Know BEFORE Obtaining A Mortgage

*Tested and Proven Strategies For Building A Better Credit Record Faster and Easier

*The Top Mortgage Questions Borrowers Must Ask Before Applying For A Mortgage, and the basic questions they should ask you (if you don't hear this in the first 20 minutes, get out of there fast!!!

*How To Finally Stop Renting And Own A Home Of Your Own

*How To Own A Home With Low Interest Rates And A Low Down Payment, Regardless Of Your Credit

*7 Things You Should NOT Do When Applying For A Home Loan

*12 Secrets To Lowering Your Homeowners Insurance Cost Your Agent Doesn't Want You To Know

Miami Lakes, Florida-based mortgage expert Ariel Baserio specializes in providing information to consumers that allows them to make informed decisions about their mortgage financing options and teaching the insider secrets that can save them thousands of dollars over the life of their loan.

Ariel Baserio is available for interviews and will welcome all your mortgage-related questions.

Call 800-727-9343 for a Free No-Obligation Consultation or visit

http://www.capitallinkmortgage.com/netpress

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House Flipping - New Section of Home Buying Institute

In recent years, house flipping has become one of the biggest fads in the real estate industry. This popularity has been fueled by highly publicized success stories, new television programs on the subject, and good old-fashioned greed.

But in order to decide whether or not flipping houses is the right investment for you, you'll need to do some thorough research ... not to mention some soul searching. We can't help you with the soul searching, but we can help with the research!

We are pleased to announce a new section of Home Buying Institute, dedicated entirely to the practice of house flipping:

House Flipping 101

Buying a Home vs. Renting a Home

One of the first questions many home shoppers ask themselves is, "Should I buy a home or rent?"

For some, this question is easy to answer, as the lure for home ownership tips the scales in that direction. But for others, it's a tougher decision. For instance, some people might prefer to rent a home to get to know the community and experiment with their budget (before taking on a mortgage).

So what are some of the advantages of buying a home vs. renting a home? Which option is best for you? Here are some resources to help you decide:

Buying vs. Renting Calculator - This tool on the Ginnie Mae website will help you compare the advantages and considerations of owning vs. renting a home.

Buying versus Renting - More information on the same website that stacks up the pros and cons of buying vs. renting a home.

The Buy vs. Rent Decision - This article by financial guru Suze Orman does an excellent job helping you weigh the advantages and disadvantages of buying or renting a home.

Buy vs. Rent: What's Right for You - Here's a helpful tutorial that will help you ask the right questions (in the right order) about buying vs. renting a home.

Happy home buying!

~Brandon

Real Estate Blogs - Good Source for Home Buying Info

These days, a lot of real estate agents are using blogs to educate their audience about home buying in their area. [Side note: definition of blogging]

These real estate blogs are often a great source for home buying information. What makes them so helpful? Well, for one thing blogs are usually a lot more current than regular websites. Blogs are really easy to update, so the blog's author is more likely to publish information on a regular basis. And in real estate, fresh information is a must.

Blogs also create RSS feeds, which is basically a content feed that you can add to a feed reader, or to your My Yahoo or My MSN page. In other words, you can subscribe to a real estate blog anonymously, without giving up private information such as your email address.

How do you find real estate blogs? It's as easy as entering your city plus the words "real estate blog" into a search engine. For instance, if you lived in San Diego, you would enter "San Diego real estate blogs" into a search engine. Do that, and you'll find the blogs of hundreds of real estate agents!

Happy home buying!

~Brandon

101 Steps to Buying a Home - Press Release

This press release will be distributed on Monday. As always, blog readers get the first look:

101 Steps to Buying a Home: The Ultimate Home-Buying Tutorial

One of the Internet's largest libraries of home buying advice recently added a new tutorial that explains the home buying process in great detail.

Round Rock, TX - April 16, 2007 -- In January of 2006, Home Buying Institute began publishing helpful advice for home buyers. Now, 15 months later, they have announced the latest addition to their home buying resource website -- a tutorial that outlines the home-buying process in 101 steps.

"101 Steps to a Smoother Home-Buying Process" is the latest article to be added to Home Buying Institute's extensive library. But it's more than just an article. It's an exhaustive but well-organized examination of the home buying process, with links to dozens of related resources.

Publisher Brandon Cornett explained his motivations for creating the tutorial:

"The mission of our website is to help first-time home buyers understand the process of buying a home. This tutorial is just another step toward that goal. I designed it to be the ultimate home-buying article ... if people only visit one page on the website, I hope it's this one."

The "101 Steps" tutorial is broken up into sections that coincide with the basic steps in the home-buying process. In turn, each section links to related resources on Home Buying Institute and elsewhere on the Web. In this way, the tutorial offers value by itself, as well as being an excellent list of required reading.

The main topics include:

• Preliminary considerations (credit report, budgeting, etc.)
• Finding a real estate agent
• House hunting
• Making an offer
• Choosing a type of mortgage
• Applying for a mortgage loan
• The home inspection
• Pre-closing considerations
• The real estate closing / settlement process

"It's a two-staged education," explained Cornett. "Just by reading through the tutorial, people will have a much better understanding of the home-buying process in general. And by following the links to the related resources I've provided, readers will get a secondary, more in-depth education on supplemental topics."

About the Home Buying Institute:

Home Buying Institute is one of the Internet's largest libraries of home buying tips and advice. The website offers hundreds of articles from expert authors, with new articles added every week. You'll also find mortgage calculators, daily mortgage news, a home-buying glossary, dozens of tutorials and more. To access the tutorial mentioned in this release, visit http://www.homebuyinginstitute.com/homebuyingprocess_article11.php