Tips For Maximizing Your Home’s Appraised Value

A home appraisal is an independent opinion of your home's value, performed by a licensed home appraiser. Appraisals are part of the traditional home purchase process, and lenders require them for most refinances, too. Appraisers Are Trained Professionals First, they derive a base for your home's value based on the recent sales prices of homes that are comparable to yours in terms of bedrooms, bathrooms, style, and square footage. Then, accounting for features and amenities that make your home different, the appraiser applies "adjustments" to that base value. This methodology is called the "Sales Comparison" approach and the result is…
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Whatever You Do, Don’t Make These Common Mortgage Mistakes

Are you applying for a mortgage on your home? Keep in mind that a mortgage is a major financial decision and choosing one will have a significant impact on the rest of your life. Many people go into this decision without understanding all of the essential mortgage information they need to know, which means that they are likely to make poor choices that will result in paying much more than they need to. If you want to save yourself from throwing away your hard earned money, here are a few common mistakes to avoid: Trying To Bottom Out the Market…
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What Will Harp 3.0 Mean For Homeowners After 2014?

As economic influences affect the housing market in the United States, there has been the introduction and development of programs to assist with the downturn. During the 2009 economic crisis in the United States that resulted in home prices and values falling, a program named HARP was introduced to assist the many affected homeowners. Harp has since developed and a 3.0 version has been introduced. As a result, many homeowners are beginning to wonder: What will Harp 3.0 mean for homeowners after 2014? The Economic Crisis: Harp 1.0 In 2009 In 2009, HARP 1.0 was introduced. The program was designed…
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What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – May 12, 2014

Results from a Federal Reserve survey of senior bank loan officers indicated that lenders have held the line on prime lending standards and have raised standards for sub-prime and non-traditional home loans. Survey respondents represented 74 U.S. banks and 23 foreign banks. Survey respondents also said that demand for mortgage loans was lower; this could be an unintentional result of tight credit standards for mortgage loans. Analysts said that tight credit requirements and less demand for home loans could mean more trouble for the housing industry. Home Prices Rise In March, But At Slower Rate The annual rate of increase…
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