Focus Professionals, Inc Real Estate Blog

Financing the purchase of your home is perhaps the most important aspect of the purchase process, at least for those of us who don’t have the ability to pay cash for a house. There are several aspects of getting a mortgage that you have some degree of control over. For this post, we will focus on your credit score, or FICO Score, as it is known in the industry.

There are three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. Your FICO Score is calculated from these sources, and includes other parameters as determined by Fair Isaac, the company that produces the FICO Score. Mortgage lenders tend to use what is known as the Low Middle Score, or middle score. So if your FICO Scores are 710, 708, and 689, the mortgage company will use the 708 score. Most people don’t realize this.

Many factors go into the calculation of the score. Among these are Payment History 35%, Amount Owed 30%, Length of Credit History 15%, New Credit 10%, Types of Credit Used 10% See http://www.personalmortgagebrokers.com/FICO_scores.php for more detail.

We have home buyer clients come to us with scores of, say, 599, looking for 100% financing. Unfortunately, to qualify for this Zero Down loan, lenders generally require a score of more than 600, and since this is an automated calculation, you should know that your loan officer has little control over the approval if you do not mean the minimum criteria.

But there is a way to deal with this: you can do some quick fixes that can boost your score. We have dealt with buyer clients who, when executing the recommendations we advise them to, they boost the score by 20 points in as short a time as one or two weeks. This small effort and short time enables this particular client to achieve the loan criteria, and thereby purchase the house of their dreams with Zero Down Payment.

Ask us to assist you in this sort of credit fix. http://www.personalmortgagebrokers.com/contactus.php

Statistics from the National Association Of Realtors newly released now show that nearly 80% of home buyers begin their search on the internet. This has huge implications for sellers, and for agents listing homes. The old way of promoting the sale of a home is no longer the best way… used to be, we would secure a listing agreement with a seller, and spend most of our energy and marketing dollars advertising in local newspapers. It appears that now the best way and most effective use of marketing time and money is spent on the World Wide Web…

This is not to say that ads in newspapers and other print media should be discontinued. Some resources should still go to this effort. But a reallocation of the marketing resources, limited as they are, should be considered by any listing agent. There are now a wide variety of resources online to find houses. From REALTOR.com to GoogleBase, and Yahoo Real Estate. These require time to post listings on, and require money for adequate or enhanced listings.

If your listing agent is not up to speed on current marketing trends, you may sit on your home for sale for quite some time, especially in this market environment, where Average Days On Market have climbed to more than 90 days, compared to a year ago when houses sold, on average, in 30 days. Also, for your listed home to sell, you should allow that the listing agent will need more than the typical 3 month listing agreement, common a year ago. This is because it takes time to get the listing viewed, to get interested buyers, and generally to market the property in the current environment.

We will post more on this topic in the coming days.

See http://www.HomeSalesRI.com/sellers_corner.php or http://Sellers.HomeSalesRI.com for more information about selling your home.

Copyright © CAROLYNE REALTY CORP. 2005
Disclaimer: Laws vary from state to state, province to province and sometimes even within tiny jurisdictions. Study your local laws and base your decisions accordingly.

First you must understand what representation means – there is Buyer representation and there is Seller representation, and you must decide whether you want representation and just how your representation will be implemented; how agency is employed in your local area. There are many rules and regulations that must be adhered to. Your agent most likely will come prepared with reading materials on this topic. In some areas you will be asked to sign off or initial that you have been provided with this information, that you have read it, and that you understand it. This is for your protection as well as that of your “agent”.

So, which agent are you going to hire to help you buy a house? Did anyone else you interviewed cover these topics with you?

(more…)

Current Law: In order to take mortgage interest deductions (MID), taxpayers must comply with the following rules, where applicable.

1. Debt on a principal residence and a second home, combined, may not exceed $1 million. (If mortgage debt exceeds $1 million, interest on the increment above $1 million is not deductible.)
2. Debt on home equity loans (or lines of credit) may not exceed $100,000.
3. All debt (mortgage debt and home equity debt) must be secured by the principal residence or the second home for which the deduction is claimed.

(more…)