Spot Problems with Home Inspections

When you buy a house, it doesn’t matter if it is a new track home from some big business developer or a home from the 1960s that may or may not be haunted. 

Home buying is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make, and somewhere down the line you might find yourself regretting it do to some astronomically priced repair that you wish you had known of before buying the home.

It’s for reasons like these that we always recommend a home inspector when buying a home. After all, you don’t want to go in blind and find out later that you just bought a ‘money pit.’ 

This blog post illustrates why it is important to get a home inspection.

The Importance of a Home Inspector

Sure, when you see that it’s going to cost you a couple hundred extra dollars out of pocket you might find yourself thinking, “No.” 

However, when you think about what a home inspector can save you from in the long run it is definitely a well spent few hundred bucks.

Here is why it might be a good idea to work with a home inspector:

• When you hire a home inspector, you are no longer blind. With their help, you will learn every dark secret about the home – from the foundation to the attic and everywhere in-between. You will learn the repairs that are needed and just how worthwhile your investment is not to mention it can give you a great number of reasons for backing out of the deal at the last minute should anything turns out to be too major.
• It’s a safety thing. For instance, a home inspector tests for carbon monoxide and other things that can potentially hurt you.
•  It can even help cover legal issues. A home inspector will be able to tell you if some sort of work was done to code or if it was even reported at all.
• You will get an idea of future costs for repairs that could be needed, such as how much longer the roof or plumbing may have left before it is time for replacement.
•  It puts negotiations on the table. If you discover this massive problem, you will suddenly hold a card or two and that brings up bargaining and getting the house at a cheaper price.

As you can see, that investment of a few hundred dollars is well worth it, considering how much time, money, and hassle it can save you in the long run, showing you upfront whether your dream home is still a dream or has suddenly become a nightmare!

Spot Problems with Home Inspections

When you buy a house, it doesn’t matter if it is a new track home from some big business developer or a home from the 1960s that may or may not be haunted. 

Home buying is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make, and somewhere down the line you might find yourself regretting it do to some astronomically priced repair that you wish you had known of before buying the home.

It’s for reasons like these that we always recommend a home inspector when buying a home. After all, you don’t want to go in blind and find out later that you just bought a ‘money pit.’ 

This blog post illustrates why it is important to get a home inspection.

The Importance of a Home Inspector

Sure, when you see that it’s going to cost you a couple hundred extra dollars out of pocket you might find yourself thinking, “No.” 

However, when you think about what a home inspector can save you from in the long run it is definitely a well spent few hundred bucks.

Here is why it might be a good idea to work with a home inspector:

• When you hire a home inspector, you are no longer blind. With their help, you will learn every dark secret about the home – from the foundation to the attic and everywhere in-between. You will learn the repairs that are needed and just how worthwhile your investment is not to mention it can give you a great number of reasons for backing out of the deal at the last minute should anything turns out to be too major.
• It’s a safety thing. For instance, a home inspector tests for carbon monoxide and other things that can potentially hurt you.
•  It can even help cover legal issues. A home inspector will be able to tell you if some sort of work was done to code or if it was even reported at all.
• You will get an idea of future costs for repairs that could be needed, such as how much longer the roof or plumbing may have left before it is time for replacement.
•  It puts negotiations on the table. If you discover this massive problem, you will suddenly hold a card or two and that brings up bargaining and getting the house at a cheaper price.

As you can see, that investment of a few hundred dollars is well worth it, considering how much time, money, and hassle it can save you in the long run, showing you upfront whether your dream home is still a dream or has suddenly become a nightmare!

Posted by Alison at 1:34 PM No comments:

The Benefits of an Escrow Account

As a homebuyer, unless you are very wealthy, it is a more than likely chance that you will be dealing with a lender to take out a mortgage to pay for homeownership over time – typically 15, 20, or 30 years. Essentially, after everything has been approved, you will be paying the lender back for covering the cost of your new home.

In addition to paying your mortgage loan, you are also required to have (and pay for) what is called hazard insurance and property taxes. Unlike other bills, these bills only come once or twice a year and, when they do, they are often large.

At closing, you are given two options for handling these bills (sometimes only one, depending on your financial situation). The first option is to open an escrow account that bills you monthly so that you have a substantial amount of funds to pay off the bills when they come. 

The other is to go it alone and save on your own and then pay off the bills when they come.

Indigo Mortgage suggests that escrow accounts are usually the best solution and this blog post explains the benefits of selecting an escrow account.

Ease of Use

It’s true really -- with an escrow account, the lender takes care of everything. All you have to do is keep up on the bills. Speaking of the bills, how does paying into an escrow account quite work? Say you have $12,000 a year in hazard insurance and property taxes. Every month, you will be billed $1,000 by your lender.

In actuality, the lender may require a bit more to ensure the account has padding in case the hazard insurance and property tax bills increase. 

During the year, the lender will send a payment to the hazard insurance company as well as well as to the property tax department of your city or state.

The benefit is that it is stress free for you because it is handled for you and all you do is pay a slightly higher mortgage bill each month to collect that necessary money for those payments.

The only downfall is that your mortgage lender gets to keep any interest earned on that money while it sits in the account because you are technically paying into their account.

Money Management

Another benefit of an escrow account is the fact that you will be able to do much better with your money management. It is easier to keep up with smaller payments than to save to make one large payment. 

After all, if you were saving up to do the one big sum, it really takes quite a bit of discipline to not spend the money you are saving in the first place.  

Help is Here!

At Indigo Mortgage, we must stress that handling hazard insurance and property taxes on your own may not be the best idea and is not actually allowed on a mortgage where there has been no down payment or a down payment of less than 20% is made at purchase. 

Our mortgage professionals are here to help you by explaining the escrow account process and why it will help you keep up with all your obligations and enhance your money management skills.

Posted by Alison at 1:26 PM 1 comment:

 

The Benefits of an Escrow Account

As a homebuyer, unless you are very wealthy, it is a more than likely chance that you will be dealing with a lender to take out a mortgage to pay for homeownership over time – typically 15, 20, or 30 years. Essentially, after everything has been approved, you will be paying the lender back for covering the cost of your new home.

In addition to paying your mortgage loan, you are also required to have (and pay for) what is called hazard insurance and property taxes. Unlike other bills, these bills only come once or twice a year and, when they do, they are often large.

At closing, you are given two options for handling these bills (sometimes only one, depending on your financial situation). The first option is to open an escrow account that bills you monthly so that you have a substantial amount of funds to pay off the bills when they come. 

The other is to go it alone and save on your own and then pay off the bills when they come.

Indigo Mortgage suggests that escrow accounts are usually the best solution and this blog post explains the benefits of selecting an escrow account.

Ease of Use

It’s true really -- with an escrow account, the lender takes care of everything. All you have to do is keep up on the bills. Speaking of the bills, how does paying into an escrow account quite work? Say you have $12,000 a year in hazard insurance and property taxes. Every month, you will be billed $1,000 by your lender.

In actuality, the lender may require a bit more to ensure the account has padding in case the hazard insurance and property tax bills increase. 

During the year, the lender will send a payment to the hazard insurance company as well as well as to the property tax department of your city or state.

The benefit is that it is stress free for you because it is handled for you and all you do is pay a slightly higher mortgage bill each month to collect that necessary money for those payments.

The only downfall is that your mortgage lender gets to keep any interest earned on that money while it sits in the account because you are technically paying into their account.

Money Management

Another benefit of an escrow account is the fact that you will be able to do much better with your money management. It is easier to keep up with smaller payments than to save to make one large payment. 

After all, if you were saving up to do the one big sum, it really takes quite a bit of discipline to not spend the money you are saving in the first place.  

Help is Here!

At Indigo Mortgage, we must stress that handling hazard insurance and property taxes on your own may not be the best idea and is not actually allowed on a mortgage where there has been no down payment or a down payment of less than 20% is made at purchase. 

Our mortgage professionals are here to help you by explaining the escrow account process and why it will help you keep up with all your obligations and enhance your money management skills.

All There is to Know about Construction Loans

Unless you are made of money and you want to build a house or some sort of commercial structure, chances are you are going to need a loan. 

The type of loan you will need to attain is a construction loan, which is similar to home loans in that they are used to fund a property but the funds actually go toward the materials and development of a structure from the ground up.

This blog post covers all there is to know about construction loans, including terms and how to qualify.

A Breakdown of the Construction Loan

Let’s start by clearing the air -- there is no generic construction loan. Like home loans, every mortgage company you talk to is going to approve you for a different amount and interest rate. 

At Indigo Mortgage, we always seek to deliver the best possible rates, but sometimes the determining factors do not always allow for the lowest interest rate available.

We do offer our Traditional Construction Loan, which our informative staff would be very happy to fully brief you on. In the meantime, here are some general terms about our construction loan products, which typically apply to all types of construction loans:

• Upon the completion of the construction loan, the remainder that is needed to be paid off will convert to a permanent finance loan, keeping things simple.
• You only need to qualify once. After the construction is completed, you don’t need to re-qualify to see if anything has changed where your interest rate and eligibility are concerned.
• There is only one closing.
•  The construction rate is based on interest only.
• A permanent 30-year rate is locked in at the beginning of construction; however, you are allowed to have a free float down option. This means that, if you are eligible, your construction loan rate could be reduced at some point over the construction period.
• With up to 90% loan to value, you may be eligible to borrow a majority of the cost to build.
• You can also buy land with the construction loan.

While this doesn’t quite fall under the construction loan, we also offer a rehab loan that is for remodeling homes if that is more of what you are looking for from a loan. 

For more information on the rehab loan and how that works, please feel free to contact us at Indigo Mortgage.

Posted by Indigo Mortgage at 3:24 PM 2 comments: