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(Even though pluralizing FYI gives me grammar chills) Buyers’ agents are FREE There are still buyers out there who think they have to pay to use a realtor. UNTRUE!! Anyway, back to the tip – buyers’ agents are free. Yes, we still get paid, but the money comes out of the total purchase price from the seller’s side. It’s not an additional cost you pay to use my services. Also, everything else I do is free, basically, too. Want my advice? Free. Want a market analysis to see what

You’re really interested in buying a house, but, oh shoot, you don’t have 20%. As you hopefully know, you do NOT need to put 20% down on a house. Many loans can go as low as 3 or 3.5% down (and VA loans can sometimes be 0%!) What happens instead, though, is you’ll incur a PMI (private mortgage insurance) payment if you don’t put 20% down. How could you do this to me, PMI? But wait! There’s a way you could mitigate the PMI payments AND avoid putting 20% down. If you’re getting

You may have heard of an appraisal before and you might know it has something to do with the value of the home, but what do appraisals mean for you? How will they affect your purchase (or sale?) Appraisal of this blog post What’s an appraisal? An appraisal is an un-biased opinion of the value of a home, done by a professional appraiser. Back when I was studying for my real estate license, I thought being an appraiser sounded interesting too…until I looked at the educational

According to a recent article from CNBC, rates just dropped to 3.69%, the lowest they’ve been since October of this past year. That’s a fantastic rate. If you’re thinking about buying, it might be a good idea to act fast, rather than waiting for the summer to approach, even though there could be more home options available. When I bought my house about 2.5 years ago, the rate was hovering right around 4%. Not terrible in the grand scheme of things, but it’s now gone down near

You’re thinking of buying a house. You find an interesting listing, send me an email that says “This looks perfect! It’s got 4 beds and 2 baths and it’s $450,000. Can we go take a look?” Whoa nelly. It does look perfect…but you have no idea what you can afford! That’s where the pre-approval comes into play. “A pre-approval? My mom says I’m a catch.” Not quite what I mean… What is a pre-approval? A pre-approval is a process/document that states how much money you’re able to bo