It’s no wonder that the majority of homeowners dream of one day being able to pay off their home loan and live a life free from the shackles of interest rates, home finance and worries about meeting the monthly mortgage payments because the largest expense the majority of us take on in a lifetime is our mortgage and each month our home finance payments take a substantial chunk out of our take home pay. Read the rest of this entry »

For all of the bailout money being given to banks, it seems that more credit should be available to potential borrowers or, at the very least, huge Wall Street firms should not have gone out of business or converted to a different type of bank. But this has not been the case — despite hundreds of billions of dollars directly handed over to the banking system, the only result has been fewer loans being made and more insolvent banks.

One reason for this seeming contradiction (taxpayers forced to make investments in banks, while lending is down anyway) is that Read the rest of this entry »

Not having a marketing plan

Not planning or understanding the marketing approach that your listing agent will use when promoting a home. When selling your home there are no guarantees that the ultimate buyer of your home will have simply walked through the front door. In many cases you may have to bring your home to the buyer. Effective marketing will help ensure that your property receives maximum exposure to attract a ready, willing and able buyer in the shortest period of time. Ask your Realtor to list for you all of the ways he/she intends to market your home and on what time-line. Also, be sure to ask if your home is being posted on the MLS listing service and advertised on the Internet. Read the rest of this entry »

One additional thing is as certain as death and taxes. As politicians and bureaucrats struggle with how to prevent the financial de-leveraging that is underway in the global economy, each and every strategy they attempt has failed and will fail to stem the tide of economic depression that is headed our way.

First is was a plan to purchase the toxic assets of failing banks. That strategy was already dead in the water when a new idea was touted – for the government to purchase shares in the troubled banks in an attempt to shore up their capital bases. The idea here was once the banks and the interbank financial system was liquid again, then much-needed funds would begin to flow.

Not so fast though. As the banks have been injected with billions of dollars of additional capital it has not unlocked the financial markets. Rather, instead of banks re-starting their lending they are holding on to their newly-available cash in an effort to fend off their own insolvency. The plan to inject money directly into banks has not delivered what was intended and now new, more aggressive, measures are being planned. Read the rest of this entry »

Many people in the United States today have bad credit, and the numbers have continued to rise. It isn’t just those who are lazy who end up with bad credit. Many hard working people who are well meaning end up in situations where their credit is ruined. The best way to avoid this is to look at the different warning signs that can indicate that you’re headed towards a situation where your credit can be destroyed. Read the rest of this entry »

You have seen those ads on TV. Companies specializing in bad credit debt consolidation. These companies claim that they can help you consolidate your debt in spite of your bad credit, no matter how much debt you have or how far behind you are. Yep, they claim to have the magic answers to your financial problems. After they’re done with you, you’ll be left with, ” just one easy monthly payment!”

There are some companies who legitimately want to help people with bad credit consolidate their debt. These companies usually charge a reasonable up-front fee, avoid making extravagant claims and will offer professional references upon request. Read the rest of this entry »