Clay Lee
Broker/Realtor®
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Market Trends Category
What is Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)? Not Everyone Can Get It!
June 23rd, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Foreclosures, Market Trends, Mortgage Help
PMI has been a mystery to home buyers for as long as it has been in existence. It’s that insurance that almost every home buyer has to get in order to buy a home with less than a twenty percent down payment. It is essentially insurance for the lender that covers the amount between what you put down and eighty percent of the value of your home. The larger your down payment, the less PMI you need. As your home increases in value or you pay down your mortgage, it’s important to keep an eye on how much you owe on your home compared to what it is worth. Once your owe eighty percent or less of your homes value, you need to contact your mortgage company about having the PMI coverage removed from your payment. This could save you a significant amount every month. The bank will require an appraisal and the process may take a month or so, but it’s well worth it.
In the past PMI seemed to be available to Read the rest of this entry »
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Thinking of Buying or Building? Make a Book First
June 18th, 2008 Categories: Buying Real Estate, Home Improvement & Design, Market Trends
How many times have you looked through a magazine and spotted something you would love to have in your next home? Have you ever driven by a house and taken a picture of the outside because it was exactly what you wanted? We have all done it, but how many times do we actually rip those articles out and organize them in one place?
A house book is one of the best ideas I’ve ever used to help clients decide what they really wanted in a house. If you are thinking of buying or building, how do you plan on telling your REALTOR, architect, builder, or interior designer what you want? Pictures are worth a thousand words, and having those ideas in one place makes it a snap.
To get started, you will need a large 3 ring binder, several tabbed dividers, some blank plain paper, a 3 ring hole punch, a glue stick, and some clear sleeves that fit in a binder. Label the dividers with different headings like floor-plan, kitchen, exterior, pool, master bath, home theater, audio-video, and others that suit your taste, you can always add more tabs. However, the tabs just help keep it separated. You don’t have to have them Read the rest of this entry »
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