Posts with tag 'first time home buyers'

If you're new to buying property, navigating a mortgage can be a bit of a learning curve. Often, potential new homeowners on the market for their first property will wonder about the specifics of a pre-approval. And they may wonder, is it possible for their pre-approval to turn into a rejection at the time of the offer?

The short answer is yes. You can be denied a mortgage even after a pre-approval. But that isn't something to fear if you know how to avoid it from happening to you. While a pre-approval is a preliminary assessment, it is not a final loan guarantee, and the circumstances that contributed to the approval can shift and turn it into a denial if you're not careful. It can easily be revoked...

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Buying a first home is a big milestone. If you have plans to purchase property in 2026, it's wise to start your financial planning early. Boosting your credit and saving for down payments and closing costs should typically start right away.

Hopefully, you may have started at least a few months ago. But if you haven't, don't worry. You could start now and spend the year preparing to purchase nearer the end of the year if you want to get your finances more in shape.

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When the weather outside starts to get cooler, the real estate market tends to follow along with it. You will likely see fewer new listings than you would in spring and summer. But a slower period can actually be beneficial when buying property.

Here are some reasons why you should take advantage of the winter lull to purchase your next home.

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My sister and brother-in-law bought a house over the summer, and from the start, they have wanted to change and update the kitchen. It is dated both in appearance and somewhat in functionality. While I was visiting them for Thanksgiving, my sister told me that she opted to get Thanksgiving dinner from a local restaurant rather than cook at home because her oven is so small. This is true; the oven itself is tiny, though the entire stove and oven unit itself is normal-sized. This had us talking, and put us on the topic of finding out just how old the oven truly is.

After some quick research, we determined her oven was a model made in 1982—making it over 40 years old! Albeit small, that oven works completely fine, and so does the stovetop. It reminds me of my late grandmother's house, which was a scene ripped out of a magazine from the 1970s. Each one of her appliances was that Coppertone brown from that era, but they all still worked: The fridge, dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer were all still in operation when I last was in that house, which would have been sometime in the 2010s, right before she sold it.

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The weather has been hot lately, with no end (or rain) in sight. On one hand, it's a nice break from the early summer rainfall we were seeing through June and most of July, with thunderstorms rolling through every single weekend, but it feels a little unbearable to exist in temperatures hitting over 90 degrees every day. I am not much of an outdoorsy person in the summertime anyway, but even the most simple tasks like preparing to take recycling and garbage to the dump can feel like something better suited for the early morning or late afternoon, just to avoid even fifteen minutes of walking to and from the car and house in the heat.

I recently met some folks from Arizona, and they were commenting that even though th...

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