Housing prices have generally decreased 20 to 30 percent, depending on where you live.  Due to the uncertainty of selling/buying the 2 homes, you may want to consider how comfortable you are with owning two homes, or you could consider getting renters to your current home.  The rental income will need to be sufficent enough to keep your debt-to-income ratios low when you add on another mortgage payment to responsibility.

Most of important of all, in this market, you do not want to buy before you sell.  Make sure to get a very strong offer on your house before putting an offer on anything else.

Recommended Reading:

• The Complete Guide to Locating, Negotiating, and Buying Real Estate Foreclosures: What Smart Investors Need to Know – Explained Simply

What are the options after a home inspection?

Ask for repairs – Most standard sellers will be open to a few repairs to the property to ease the buyer’s concern.  The property is privately owned so the owner does not have to do any repairs, and some won’t.  It all depends on the motivation and disposition of the current owner.  It is common practice for buyers to ask for items listed as health and safety issues to be “cured” before proceeding.  Items such as exposed wirting, broken glass, unstrapped water heaters and other hazards would be commonly asked for in repairs.

You can ask for as much as you like (you are not just limited to health and safety items) but generally 5 to 10 items is average.  Again, the chance of getting these items fixed, will depend on many factors including: negotiations, sellers feeling towards buyer, market conditions, and overall condition of the property.  A seller who has undergone many price negotiations leading up the escrow may have ill feelings towards doing any repairs to the property and may want to sell the home “as is”.

Ask for Credit -Sometimes in addition to or in lieu of asking for repairs, the buyer may ask for cash credit to fix the problems.  Cash credits can be advantageous as the buyer will be able to fix the problems in a way that doesn’t make them worried about the seller picking an unqualified “low ball” contractor for a quick fix.  The buyer is not bound to use the money for repairs, they are free to spend the money as they see fit.

Proceed with Sale -The above solution can lead to a continuation of sale when both parties can arrive to an agreement.  After a home inspection, it is acceptable to continue with the sale of the home with zero talk of repairs.

Cancel Escrow – Every one in a while an inspection can reveal more problems than the buyer is willing to handle and the buyer can simply cancel escrow w/o penalty and continue looking at other properties.

Banked Owned and Short Sale Property -With REO (Bank Owned) properties, the property is sold “as is” from the the onset.  Banks will very rarely acknowledge any information about the property since it was acquired through foreclosure and are unwilling to vouch for its shape.

Occasionally, banks will offer some cash credit but are under no obligations to do so.  Most of the time, the banks will price the properties very competitively to receive multiple offers and may be unwilling to accommodate a buyer with credit since there are many backup offers.

Short sale sellers may be more willing to do repairs and credits, but most of the time, they will not have the cash to do so and the home ends up being sold “as is”.

When you are ready to buy a home, the lender will crunch the numbers and offer you a few loan options, some of which may carry prepayment penalties. These loans may have lower interest rates because the lender is guaranteed a certain level of profit if the house if sold or refinanced.

A prepayment penalty is a fee that lender charges you, should you decide to end the contract early. The fee is a percentage of the loan balance, which usually declines over the life of the loan and often disappears by the 5th year.

It can save you big bucks in interest payments, at usually a quarter point lower than comparable mortgages without penalties.

Most lenders will only offer loans to risky borrowers if a prepayment penalty clause is accepted to lower the total risk to the lender.

Placing your home listing with an online service is a great option since 60-70% of real estate buyers find their home on the internet from personal research. Home buyers are being more decisive in their decision-making prior to buying a home and will spend many hours looking for homes prior to visiting the home in person. Maximizing your home’s exposure on the internet will increase the number of potential buyers looking for their next or first home. Both for sale by owners and real estate agents are able to include 6 detailed photos of the home plus any description (very important to include – utilize the added marketing).

Unfortunately, the number of foreclosed homes are on the rise and in some areas as much as 700% over the past couple months. Many sites that are displaying foreclosures online have been popping up over the internet to cater to those interested, especially to those looking for the perfect home within their budget. Even though the market is going through some strain at this time, buying a home is still out of reach for many but real estate foreclosures could pose as a great option to achieve owning a home.

The site not only covers homes for sale and bank homes, but also a variety of helpful tips and related real estate articles from renting, mortgage deals, movers, mortgage definitions and information on buying home foreclosures to speed up the process with little issues.

Choosing the wrong mortgage can be an overly expensive mistake. It can make your upgraded and discounted home not seem like a hot deal anymore.

Your best bet before entering a deal with the builder is to check out loan rates and products with other lenders. You are allowed to choose your own lender, so don’t feel pressured by the salesperson to go with their chosen lender.

What is in it for the builder to have a preferred lender? Builders cannot take a kickback fee from the lender but if the builder has an ownership stake in a lending business, the builder can share the profits but this has to be revealed to you early in the deal.Â

Another reason why the builder would want you to sign on with their lender is to ensure closing is on time. Construction can be delayed many times and the builder wants to be paid on time when the home is ready to be moved into.

Builder’s incentives can be worth a lot of money nowadays (ranging from $10,000 to sometimes $100,000) and some of those deals may be linked to signing up with their lender (they want to entice you into the deal).  So try to negotiate with them on these incentives if you decide to get a loan with a different lender. In this market, the builder may just want to close any deal, if you have a solid loan approval.