Category: real estate blog
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What Are Mortgage Points?
The interest rate on your mortgage will have a major impact on the total amount youll pay over the life of the loan. If youre buying a home that you plan to live for a long time, reducing your interest rate by purchasing mortgage points could allow you to save tens of thousands of dollars.…
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4 Stylish Fireplaces Perfect for Your Home
Here are four sophisticated fireplace designs to warm up any home! Peninsula Fireplace Open on three sides (hence the name), this modern design can be enjoyed from virtually any vantage point. Suspended Fireplace For a distinctly modern look, a suspended fireplace can hang from the ceiling or be mounted to a wall. Fire Ribbon Designed…
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Where Parents Can Find Money to Help Their Kids Buy a Home
There are many ways parents can help their children purchase a home: contributing to a down payment, helping with closing costs, co-signing a mortgage or allowing their kids to move back home so that they can save money. While most of these avenues involve giving your children money, deciding where that money should come from…
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6 Major Mortgage Mistakes
Whether you’re scoping out a vacation property or looking into becoming a homeowner for the first time, applying for a mortgage is a lengthy and complicated process. While your real estate agent and lender will be there to walk you through the details, knowing what possible errors could lay in waiting will help you make…
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What Is Escrow?
After a buyer has agreed to purchase a home from a seller, the escrow process begins. This is designed to make sure that all the necessary conditions and obligations are met so the transaction can proceed smoothly. Purpose of EscrowEscrow is designed to protect all the parties involved in a real estate transaction from risk…
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How to Design an Elegant White Kitchen
From traditional elegance to contemporary cool, heres how to design a white kitchen. Go Big on Marble Marble is perfect for creating sophisticated countertops and backsplashes. Warm It Up With Wood Easily warm up the ambiance and create an effortlessly timeless aesthetic. A Touch of Texture There are plenty of ways to add texture, like…
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A Background on Credit Scoring Models
Homebuyers who have a better credit history over a longer stretch of time than a shorter one may benefit by a change to the credit-scoring model used by Experian. Up until about 2016, mortgage lenders didnt use trended credit data and didnt differentiate between types of credit usage. What is trended credit data?” It’s the…
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Are You Forgetting These Home Maintenance Tasks?
In all likelihood, your home is the biggest investment you’ll make in your life. To protect that investment, you should perform regular maintenance to ensure your home runs efficiently for years to come. Although most homeowners already know the importance of maintenance and tackle the most obvious jobs, you may be surprised to learn there…
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Are You Storing Foods in the Right Places?
Not organizing your refrigerator correctly can make foods spoil faster, lead to cross-contamination and make things hard to find. Put foods that don’t need to be cooked (leftovers, processed meats, cheese and beverages) on top shelves. Store meat on the bottom shelf in a plastic bin. Put other raw ingredients on lower shelves, in different…
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Do Driveways Matter? Absolutely!
When a potential homebuyer comes by to look at your home, they will most likely park their car and walk to the front door via the driveway. And that means one of the earliest impressions they will have of your home in-person is of the driveway itself. While we tend not to think much about…
