You've decide it's time to take advantage of low home prices and low mortgage rates and jump into this buyer's market.  Congratulations!  Now let's make sure it's a good experience.  Here are a few tips on how to avoid these 3 common home buying mistakes.

1. Don't withhold any information from your agent.  Trust your real estate professional - that's why you hired them!   Believe it or not, "there's little they haven't heard before." says Elizabeth Weintraub on About.com.  

Keep the lines of communication open.  If you are feeling buyer's remorse... don't wait, talk about it with your agent "who can help walk you through those anxieties and determine if you really need to cancel and, if so, manage the transaction so you can get your earnest money deposit back." says Weintraub.

Buyers withhold information for a number of reasons, she says, including feeling it's not important enough or worried about how they will be perceived.  Or perhaps you lack confidence in who is representing you and you are seeking information elsewhere, if this is the case... find someone else to represent you!

2. Do Not Alter Your Financial Picture in Any Way before Closing:  Your  loan is based on certain credit ratios and even what you might consider a minor purchase might change your whole financial picture causing the lender to throw out or deny your loan.

"Do not buy anything on credit and/or with a credit card once you have completed a loan application." says Weintraub. 

What Not to Buy Before Closing on Your New Home

• Automobiles
• Washers, dryers, refrigerators
• Lawnmowers or garden equipment
• Expensive electronics or computers
• Furniture for your new home

3. Don't Buy the Wrong House:  What? How could I be buying the wrong house?  Even though you may be restricted by a price range, you can still be choosy when looking for your home. Keep in mind, it is your home, not your friend's or parents or even the agent's home.  You will be the one responsible for the costs of upkeep and you will be the one living with the consequences of not waiting for the right house.  (sounds like dating advice, doesn't it?)

"The very first thing home buyers should do is to make a list of priorities and  home purchase objectives." writes Weintraub. "Figure out what features and benefits are most important and which you can live without. Before you close escrow, review this list. It's easy to overlook a major factor that could come back to haunt you later."

Home buying is a huge step in your life, trust your real estate professional to guide you through the process and help to make it a positive experience.

Read more at About.com.

Read: Tips For First Time Home Buyers.

photo credit: Jonathan D. Blundell

Posted in Buyer Resources, GenX GenY, Real Estate Trends

Moving to your new home is thrilling but can be bittersweet, as well.  You are excited about all the new memories you will be making but you are also leaving cherished memories and possibly friends and family behind.  What can you do to make the move easier?

Have a Moving Party, but not the kind you think.  Sure, you might need to enlist friends for the big moving day, but THIS moving party is one last hurrah in the "old" place to say goodbye. 

Start Organizing!   The more you do before moving day, the better off you will be.  Trim the clutter, donate or resell all items you haven't used in years and won't need in your new place.  That includes personal items, clothing etc.   This will save you time and money on moving day.

Hire the Movers: Don't put this off.   Research companies online and get a few bids.  Get recommendations from friends and ask your REALTOR®. A professional moving company has the experience and the right equipment to move your belongings safely to your new home.

Plan to spend a lot of time Packing....  Pack everything carefully, using good packing supplies and make sure you label everything neatly on the top and on the side including what room it will go into. 

Pack the Essentials for your first night in the new house.  Make sure you pack a backpack or box with all the essentials you will need to spend your first couple of nights in your new home.   Pack extra clothes, toiletries and pajamas!  Do this for every member of the house, including your pets!  Make sure you have their bowls, leashes, beds and food, to help them make the transition easier.

Create a floor plan for a faster move.  Clearly mark every room in the new house, so that the movers can put boxes and furniture in the correct rooms quickly and easily.  

Enjoy it.  Once all the boxes have been moved and the beds set up, take your time.  Everything will get put away eventually.  Enjoy your new home and don't worry about making everything perfect immediately.

photo credit: E. Bartholomew

Posted in Marketing, Buyer Resources, Ownership, GenX GenY

More than 230,000 loans began the foreclosure process in January, reports Diana Olick on CNBC.  "Thousands of foreclosures that were stuck in process due to delays over the so-called "Robo-signing" paperwork scandal are working their way through a revamped banking system and heading toward final bank repossession."

Repeat foreclosures, which are failed loan modifications or loans that banks couldn't modify, also hit an all-time high in January.

Even though banks are working aggressively to modify loans, there are still almost 4 million loans in the process of delinquency that have not even begun the foreclosure process.

"The large amount of foreclosures that have been sitting out there, with borrowers not making payments for an extended period of time," says Herb Blecher from Lender Processing Services, "this may be coming to an end."

"While new mortgage delinquencies are falling, the backlog of distress is large." says Olick. "More than 40 percent of loans in foreclosure are more than two years past due and judicial states have 63 months of foreclosure inventory to work through."

Seeing an end to these large amounts of foreclosures will help the overall housing market in the long term. "This is what the market is looking for." says Blecher.

Read the full story at CNBC.

Posted in Buyer Resources, Real Estate Trends, Real Estate Market Conditions

Between saving money for the down payment and all the extra costs incurred in buying and moving, where do you find the budget to furnish your new home?

To save tons of money, writes Angela Colley on MoneyTalksNews.com, take the alternate path to buying at retail furniture stores.

"I realized," writes Colley, "that I'd have to spend $4,473 just to get the basics to furnish my (new) house by buying at retail prices."

She saved a ton of money by shopping garage sales, flea markets and clearance racks.  One big lesson she learned is that "it's not embarrassing to ask friends and family if they have furnishings they no longer need - maybe because they tend to stash the stuff in a garage or spare bedroom." They're usually more than happy to put it to use.

Here are Colley's helpful hints to shopping this way, saving you time and money:

Garage Sales:  Keep a watchful eye out for signs as you are driving near your home and peruse online websites that host garage sale ads, like Yard Sale Search and GarageSales.com.

Flea Markets:  Look for local indoor and outdoor flea markets online.  A couple of websites she suggests are FleaPortal and Collectors.org.

Online Discounters: like Overstock.com can be a great resource.  Colley found her bed frame at a huge discount.

Best Times of Year to Shop for Furniture: Everything has its season and furniture is no exception.  Back to School is a great time to find deals at most major stores because of dorm sales. Wait for just after school starts to catch the clearance sales.

 "January and July are (also) great times to find sales on furniture" states an article on About.com, "because new furniture styles hit the showroom floor twice a year (in February and August) and stores need to make room for all those arrivals."

Always look for Freebies:  Obviously friends and family are a great resource, but there are other sources available too.  Colley says she had heard of Freecycle , but hadn't used it before.  Freecycle is an online network connecting people who want to get rid of stuff with nearby people who might want it.   She signed up and got a desk and matching chair for free.

The moral to this story of Colley's is that she furnished her whole house this way for only $716.97! "It took some legwork - and a lot of early-morning garage-sale hunting -"she says.  "But considering what I was planning on spending, I saved $3,730.76 (or enough money to pay my rent for four months.) Knowing how much I saved, I'll probably never buy from a furniture store again."

Read the full story at Money Talks News.

Posted in Technology And You, Buyer Resources

A record number of investors are switching their investment portfolios to include buying real estate.

"You cannot time housing any more than you can time the stock market. "says Diana Olick on CNBC, but "investors see a ripe and rising rental market and big potential for income."

In the U.S. in January, 73% of homes sold were priced below $250K and 47% of them were considered "distressed", which means that they were a short sale or a foreclosure. 

"The $250,000 to $500,000 price range may now be the sweet spot for the market." says Olick, "Sales in January were up in this price range, and if you have good credit, you are within GSE and FHA loan limits in most markets."

Should I wait or is this a good time to buy?  You need to look at your local market.  Are prices beginning to recover?  "The trouble with the national numbers is that they are heavily weighted toward the lower end of the market and to the distressed end of the market." says Olick.

 "If February is any indication, 2012 is going to be a better year for home sales in metro Denver," said Dennis Huspeni in the Denver Business Journal. 

According to a report from Metrolist Inc. , the number of homes under contract in the Denver metro area rose 19 percent from January, which is up 12 percent, year over year.

Almost half of the homes sold in the Denver area, were in the $200,000 price range, which means that a majority of those people will be looking to buy up and there should be a "ripple effect" happening in the market.

Investing in the housing market still means predicting the future, just as it does with the stock market.  But the housing market might be a less stressful investment as home prices don't rise and fall because of the daily news or major events. 

"Supply and demand will eventually win out, even after an historic crash." says Olick. "If you can't get a good mortgage now, then perhaps it's not your time, but if you can, waiting may not buy you much."

Read the full story at CNBC.

Posted in Buyer Resources, Seller Resources, Headlines