What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of North Carolina? ACC basketball? The Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains? Barbeque? History? The gorgeous beaches on the Outer Banks? Those are all great reasons to visit North Carolina. They’re great reasons to live there, too. But many of the state’s ten million residents … Read more
You tell your real estate agent that you’re on a budget, and hoping to find a bargain. She tells you, “Well, there is a home in the neighborhood where you want to live, and it’s just gone into probate.” Should you be excited? Or extremely hesitant? Truthfully, both feelings would be appropriate. As you probably … Read more
You’re getting ready to sell your home – and you’re already anticipating the huge profit you’re going to make on the transaction. It may be the single largest cash payment you receive in your lifetime. And you’re going to just hand over 5-6% of that payment to a realtor? What sense does that make? For … Read more
Selling a house can turn your life upside down for quite a while. Simply making the decision to sell a house that’s been your home for a long time – and quite possibly your children’s home for their entire lives – is usually emotional and difficult. Then comes the really tough stuff: fixing up the … Read more
A mortgage loan is the biggest debt you’ll probably ever have. And for many people, it’s a debt that’s difficult to handle. In early 2021, more than two million American families were at least three months behind on their mortgage payments. That’s the highest number since the Great Recession, thanks to the Covid pandemic. Even … Read more
It used to be difficult to estimate how much your house was worth. You could make an educated guess, if someone in your neighborhood had sold their home recently and you knew how much they got for it. But to come closer to the real market value, you’d have to do quite a bit of … Read more
When you’re selling a house, you’re likely to be hit with “sticker shock” twice. The first time is when you realize that buyers may not be willing to pay as much you had hoped. The second time you experience sticker shock? It’s when you get the first draft of your closing documents. That’s when you … Read more
Once you buy your first home, it never ends. At least, it doesn’t end for most people. You have to make your mortgage payment, month after month, year after year, decade after decade. Naturally, if you buy one house and stay in it for the rest of your life, you’ll eventually pay off the mortgage. … Read more
“Mom! Dad! I just bought a house!” There’s nothing like the excitement of buying your first house – or for that matter, buying your second or third or fourth. Mortgage pre-approval may have been difficult, the search was time-consuming, and the wait to find out if your offer was accepted seemed to take forever. But … Read more
Financial experts have a few “go-to” pieces of advice they give to every client. One of the most important: never make an important financial decision when you’re under stress. That’s often easier said than done, because crucial decisions are often driven by stressful situations. For example, if you can’t afford your mortgage payments because you’ve … Read more