All posts by Settles Team

buying, commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, Team work, tips

Stop trying to buy a home you can’t afford!

Just because your best friend just bought a home does not mean that you are financially ready to purchase one yourself. 

You do not know their full true financial situation and unless you have set down and written down all your own expenses and income, you do not know if you can afford buying a home yourself. Just because you think you can make a certain house payment does not mean you can.  

Moving Day
So, before you start looking for your dream home you need to look at your personal financial information.

Yes, I understand you want to move out of your apartment or parents’ house and finally have your own house, but you first need to look at your own financial plan before purchasing your brick and mortar home. So, before you start looking for your dream home you need to look at your personal financial information. 

What are my bills? This includes your monthly expenses like utilities, rent, insurance, credit cards, food, gas, clothing, automotive repair and maintenance expenses, and any other monthly expense you have. When you need to pay child support or have judgments you are paying on, you need to include them. Garnishments will show up on your paycheck as deductions. 

What is my income? Pull up at the minimum 3 months of current and consecutive paychecks. This will give you a good average of your income situation. 

Have you looked at your current credit report? I don’t mean looking at your credit score. I mean looking at the things that are listed in your credit report. Every time you are late with any form of payment it is being reported to the credit reporting agencies.  

Financial Situation
After looking at your entire financial situation, you can then determine if you can afford a mortgage payment of no more than 25% of your monthly take home pay.

After looking at your entire financial situation, you can then determine if you can afford a mortgage payment of no more than 25% of your monthly take home pay. That mortgage payment needs to include the insurance and taxes on the home you are planning on purchasing. If the proposed payment of a house you are considering causes you to need a 30 Year mortgage, you may need to consider the size of  home you will purchase, or you need to pay off some of the current expenses you may have. 

Why should anyone try to acquire a 15-year mortgage for your home purchase? Very simple. You should be able to own your home free and clear and not have a mortgage payment for the rest of your life. 

buying, commitment, education, planning, selling, tips

Buying a home in a changed environment

Our world has changed at lightning speed, and that goes also for the real estate world as well. What you need to consider is that many sellers, since the time that covid-19 began, are a little reluctant and very nervous to let buyers into their home. Some of them have gone so far as to pull their home off the market and wait until a later time to sell their home. 

Due to this, may sellers have decided to do virtual showings. This will reduce the amount of physical buyer visits to a home, and a seller will feel more comfortable in keeping or putting their home on the market for buyers to enjoy. 

I totally understand there are buyers who are still would like to see the home in person. Nothing beats the “scratch and sniff” test. When a seller agrees to show a home to a buyer through an in-person-visit a buyer needs to be prepared for some possible restrictions the seller puts on the buyer and their agent. 

Some sellers have asked to show the home only to adults over the age of 18, or only buyers who have been given a fully approved pre-approval letter and they have viewed the seller’s disclosure statement. Buyers also have been asked to take their shoes off during a showing, to wear booties over their feet or shoes, to wear gloves during the showing, and to sanitize their hands prior to entering the home. Also be prepared that the sellers asked the REALTOR for you not to open any drawers, touch light switches, or doorknobs.  

In our high-tech world, many sellers have installed interior and exterior cameras to be certain a buyer and their agent do what they have instructed them to do. 

Any buyer who does gets upset about the seller restrictions needs to understand that you don’t know the seller’s current situation and the sellers also had been instructed to thoroughly clean and disinfect their home and any high touch surface before a buyer enters their home.  

education, Inspiration, planning, tips

A forbearance will not forgive a loan

I have daily headlines coming over my news subscription feed about more and more consumers asking their mortgage companies for a forbearance. 

First, what is a forbearance? In simple terms, and per “The American HeritageÂŽ Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition”, a forbearance is “The act of giving a debtor more time to pay rather than immediately enforcing a debt that is due.”. 

In short, you’re asking to postpone paying the monthly debt you owe your mortgage company. You still owe that money and you’re just asking the mortgage company for more time to make that payment.  

What I am finding is that many confuse forbearance with debt forgiveness, or loan modification. 

Debt forgiveness is a cancelation of all or part your debt. Your creditor, in this case the mortgage company, relieves a debtor from a debt obligation. 

A loan modification in simple terms is when a change (modification) is made to your current loan. This change could be temporary or permanent. It could be a reduction of the interest rate, longer repayment plan, or even a different type of loan.  

To find out what options you have, you need to contact your lien holder directly. The one thing not to do is nothing, especially when you cannot make your debt payment in time. 

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Timeshare or not

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canal_1Going on vacation and being bombarded daily to purchase a timeshare. In this particular hotel where I was staying, they offered timeshare units. I decided to do a little more research on the pros and cons of timeshares.

Wikipedia definition of a timeshare:

A timeshare is a property with a particular form of ownership or use rights. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each sharer is allotted a period of time (typically one week and almost always the same time every year) in which they may use the property. Units may be on a partial ownership, lease, or “right to use” basis, in which the sharer holds no claim to ownership of the property [1]

Personally I have seen how many timeshare sales people entice a potential timeshare buyer into buying “the dream”.

Before you jump onto the timeshare ownership wagon, there are several things you should consider. Continue reading Timeshare or not →

commitment, education, Inspiration, tips

Why it is a good idea for renters to have renters insurance

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movingLet me first throw in that I am not an Insurance professional and this is not to be considered professional insurance advice. This is just collected from years of experience within the rental field.

Having insurance on your car, truck, boat, or motorcycle is a necessary evil and we have no problems getting our wheeled toys covered. We might not to be able to replace them when something drastic happens, or when we have a mishap on the road.

Face it, it could happen to the best drivers.

So, why do many of us who are renting a home feel that insurance is not needed for their personal possessions they have inside their house or apartment that they rented? Continue reading Why it is a good idea for renters to have renters insurance →

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We love spring but hate the allergies that come with the season

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allergy-season-louisville-kentucky-ftrMany of us dread the coming of spring because we already know that the allergy problems that will come with the season. There are some facts and myths about allergies, especially seasonal allergies.

One Myth is that hay fever comes only from hay. Hay fever is actually caused and triggered by either grass, tree, and weed pollen and some mold spores. Continue reading We love spring but hate the allergies that come with the season →

commitment, Communication, Inspiration

Look at this ugly house in our neighborhood

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Ugly HouseWhile driving through several neighborhoods, many times you can spot the homeowner who cares about their property and the ones who don’t.

Just because a property looks like it is not very well cared for does not mean it is owned by an investor who does not care, or is overwhelmed. There are also many homes that are owned by owner occupants who may be either physically or financially are no longer able to care for their home. Continue reading Look at this ugly house in our neighborhood →

buying, commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, tips

Not every home renovation is building equity.

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When you are renovating or rehabbing a home consider reusing and recycling some of the original materials. It will many times save you money in the long run.
When you are renovating or rehabbing a home consider reusing and recycling some of the original materials. It will many times save you money in the long run.

When buying a home many of us are looking to make changes to turn that house into our home. We need to ask ourselves some questions prior to making these changes because these changes may have a negative effect on our long term goals.

For instance:

Are we planning on living in this house for a longer term or do we plan on moving in 2 to 3 years? Continue reading Not every home renovation is building equity. →