CATHY'S TIPS
Double Check Your Taxes!
TIP OF THE DAY: Double Check Your Taxes! Hey folks, this is especially important for those of you who have bought a NEW house this year or last year and have an escrow account. Here’s what we see happen way too often. Since during part of the year the home was built...
TIP: Look At The Whole Picture
TIP OF THE DAY: Whether it makes sense to refinance doesn’t depend on when you did it or what the new monthly payment would be. You have to take a look at the whole picture – It’s got to make sense for the long term. It’s really simple – If you can take the same...
TIP: Stay Close to Home
TIP OF THE DAY – Stay Close to Home When looking for a home mortgage, it makes sense to shop close to home. You'll usually get a better deal from someone you can go sit down face to face with. Even if you decide you don't want to do that and you prefer doing business...
Tip: Origination Fees vs. Discount Points
If you can pay the fees as a discount point rather than an origination fee, your bottom line just improved because discount points are tax deductible! An origination fee is not.
Tip: What’s better than a paid for house?
TIP OF THE DAY: A home with a comfortable payment and plenty of savings, in case of an emergency. It’s great to have a home that’s paid for, but only if you’ll still have substantial savings in the bank after paying off the house. Too many people think paying off the house is the best thing they can do, but at the end of the day, you can’t eat the house. We talk to far too many people who have a paid for house but no real savings to fall b…ack on. The most recent disaster that occurred with hurricane Harvey has hurt many people in our area, and we have received many calls from people with damaged homes that don’t have a mortgage on them. Unfortunately, in most cases, these people are lacking the resources to repair their home, that they would have had, had they not used their savings to pay off the house. Bottom line, if you want to pay your home off early, do it in stages, like an extra $500 or $1000 at a time, and as you still have money coming in, so that you don’t totally deplete your savings by paying off your home. None of us know what’s coming around the corner.
TIP OF THE DAY:
Interest rates change every day, just like the stock. The rate you can determined by WHEN you are closing, and what’s happening in the market in the 30-45 day prior to that. If you were closing on something in the next 30 days, you’d be looking at 4.125%, at PAR. That means NOT paying anything to buy down the rate. The cost of loans is in two forms, one buying the interest rate, the other being the COST to get that interest rate. As we know, nothing is free. So when I’m saying 4.125% PAR, the answer to “can I get it lower” is always going to be less BUT you’re going to pay something to get the lower rate. Rates and cost balance like a seesaw, and it can always get tipped in on direction or the other, depending on what you’re wanting to see. That’s why the interest rate, although obviously it’s important, is NOT all that will tell you whether or not you’re looking at a good deal. Make Sense?
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