Finance

Sept. 11, 2022

5 Tips for Home Buyers Who Need To Manage Debt

Ideally, homebuyers would go into a home purchase with no debt and a healthy nest egg saved up to cover emergency expenses. However, with Experian studies showing that the average American carries $92,727 in debt, this scenario is not the reality for many homebuyers. Fortunately, there are steps you ...

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Posted in Finance
Aug. 15, 2022

How To Avoid Mortgage Fraud

Fraud in its simplest form is deliberate misrepresentation and deception. One party deceives another by misrepresenting information, facts, and figures. So, mortgage fraud is not just predatory lending practices that target certain borrowers. Housing or mortgage fraud can be committed by individuals who intend to occupy a property as a ...

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Posted in Buying, Finance
June 5, 2022

What Does a Mortgage Lender Look for

What Does a Mortgage Lender Look for

What do mortgage lenders look for when deciding whether to give you a loan? Knowing this can help you get a step closer to your dream home.

Let’s begin with bank statements since they contain a lot of things that lenders will look at. It is also important to know ...

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Posted in Finance
Oct. 18, 2021

5 Ways to Get Free or Easy Money for a Down Payment

Buying a home is a big deal, and coming up with that down payment is not as easy as it sounds. Strike that, it doesn't sound easy at all. Coming up with $10,000 for a down payment is nothing to sneeze at. In today's market, having a ...

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Posted in Finance
July 2, 2021

How Your Credit Score Can Affect Your Mortgage Rate and Monthly Payment

How Your Credit Score Can Affect Your Mortgage Rate and Monthly Payment -  Your credit score and credit history directly influence your mortgage rate and your monthly payment deals. You might be wondering how it does. Here is a breakdown of how credit score impacts your mortgage and monthly payment ...

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Posted in Finance
Feb. 22, 2021

6 Tips for Finding the Best Lender for First-Time Buyers

6 Tips for Finding the Best Lender for First-Time Buyers

Buying a home for the first time is exciting as well as quickly overwhelming when taking the first steps of looking for a mortgage lender. Where do you start? Who can you trust? Are there lenders that are better for first time buyers than others? What should you know before ...

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Posted in Finance
Jan. 25, 2021

New Mortgage Qualifying Requirement for Small Business Owners During COVID

Self-employed workers hoping to apply for a mortgage will find some tougher qualifying requirements from lending banks since the beginning of the pandemic. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest mortgage backers in the country raised their basic qualifying parameters for home buyers that own their own business or are ...

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Posted in Finance
Nov. 2, 2020

Are Adjustable Rate Mortgages Making a Comeback?

Are Adjustable Rate Mortgages Making a Comeback?

Adjustable-Rate Mortgages(ARMs) have been pretty much non-existent over the past few months as applicants that can qualify for conventional loans due to lower rates sought out fixed-rate mortgages instead. Recently the common 5/1 ARM (where borrowers sign on for the first five years at a fixed rate and ...

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Posted in Finance
July 23, 2020

Personal Finance Guide for Portlandians During COVID-19

Homeowners and renters alike have seen struggling finances during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have been worried about missing payments and even mortgage or rental payments even with the stimulus check and/or unemployment. While many of us are working from home, some are finding themselves struggling to make ends meet ...

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Posted in Finance
July 6, 2020

Is it Getting Harder to Buy a House?

Is it Getting Harder to Buy a House?

There are many new regulations that are making it a little bit more difficult to buy a home. While the subprime mortgage crisis is history for most Americans, federal regulators have implemented new rules to avoid this housing meltdown again. The economy and the housing market have both stabilized in ...

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Posted in Finance