Explore our blog for insights on buying, financing, remodeling, and taking care of your home.
Adding value to your home can be a great thing. You don’t need to completely renovate your property to improve your return on investment (ROI). In many cases, smaller upgrades can increase the value of a home by thousands of dollars! Let's take a look at a few of the home improvements you can make to add instant equity to your home.
Everyone knows that moving to a new home or apartment is an aggravating, tedious chore, but once you have a family, moving can become a truly daunting task. Obviously, there is a lot to be excited about with any move – more space in a new neighborhood, a new job or just a change of scenery. For young children, however, it can be a serious disruption.
Tackle your "to-do" list with our Home Maintenance Checklist Life is busy. Kids, work, meals, appointments - the list goes on. And hey homeowner, you still have to squeeze out time to clean the gutters (yuk!) and change your furnace filter. We've put together this monthly Home Maintenance Checklist to help you tackle your chores in bite-sized chunks so you have time for the bigger things in life.
Home appraisals can be one of those things home buyers get tripped up about during the buying process. In fact, we've talked about home appraisals and why they're needed before. The fact is, they're good for buyers, sellers and everyone involved. But they can also be frustrating when an appraisal comes back with required repairs.
Buying a foreclosed home can come with a unique set of challenges. We're not trying to scare you off from your decision to buy a foreclosure. However, we do want to prepare you for some of the issues you may face, the solutions available and the information needed to help you decide whether this purchase is worth it in the end.
How much can I expect to pay in closing costs? That's a common question, and a good one, especially from first-time homebuyers. Closing costs are fees that you pay to get a mortgage. These can include appraisal, title services, credit report, attorney and underwriting fees. Closing costs typically run between two and five percent of your purchase price.
Paying off your mortgage early is a great thing, and you can do it relatively easily and painlessly. You don't need to pay to join a service (sometimes a couple hundred dollars) then pay a continuing fee to have a third party company pay your mortgage payment. You can do this yourself. Bi-weekly mortgage payments work in a general sense, but the pay-services do not.
Equal Housing Lender
A division of Amerifirst Financial Corporation
950 Trade Centre Way, Suite 400
Kalamazoo, MI 49002
NMLS ID #110139
This is not a commitment to lend. Not all borrowers will qualify; contact us for more information on fees and terms.
