Home Financing Tips

It's no walk in the park.

Here's how to regroup.

You thought doing your taxes was a nightmare? Wait until you apply for a mortgage.

From final walkthroughs to contingency clauses.

Here's how to make it happen.

No amount of planning could have prepared me for it.

There's more to know beyond their low down payments.

Heated floors, anyone?

Here's home equity lines of credit work.

Here's how to budget for it.

Here's the lowdown on interest rates.

Here’s what you should be doing right now to protect your house.

Mortgages are already confusing without all the conflicting advice.

Hold your horses on a career change, for one.

Two finance pros share the questions you should be asking yourself before you decide.

Budget better, one day at a time.

Ever hear of debt-to-income ratio?

Because, of course, nothing is perfect!

Don't let a good market pass you by!

“Millennials may perceive home buying as more risky than previous generations because we were raised on infinite choice, frequent change, and came to age with a lot of financial volatility.”

Plus, how to know if this myth is keeping you from buying a home.

I know perfectly well that there's a point when enough is enough and a home becomes functionally obsolete... but I just can't help myself.

The more appealing a home is on the market to the majority of buyers, the higher price it may fetch.

Turns out, the 30-year mortgage is so not the norm.

That three-digit number isn't always as stable as you'd like it to be.

There are no “hacks”, per se, when it comes to reaching a perfect credit score, but there are habits you can start now that will pay off over time.

While you may think your proximity to cauliflower gnocchi and Candy Cane Joe Joe’s is draining your bank account, a new analysis says it may actually be making you money if you own a house.

Though adjustable-rate mortgages have gotten a bad rap post housing crisis, experts say they can actually make financial sense in certain situations.

We went through all the credit score-focused articles we've published in the past year and rounded up the best tips experts have shared with us. Here, the best of the best credit score tips and tricks.

It seems quite absurd now that this sealed the deal for us, and lead us to close on the biggest single purchase of our lives.

To me, the math was clear: The longer I paid mortgage payments, the more that house was going to cost.

Finance is boring, but our Real Estate Editor, Liz, sure isn't! In our new series called Liz$plaining, Liz will guide you through all your toughest financial questions.

Potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars and years off your mortgage with these smart payment tricks.

The countdown to buying your first home is innately defined by one thing: the balance in your savings account. Unlike car loans and the too-expensive shoes you put on your charge card, you can’t exactly buy a home with zero money down, so most people who have their sights set on homeownership begin by saving for a (sizeable) down payment.

While some folks just cannot get enough of all things Fixer Upper and Chip and Joanna Gaines, others are cooling on the couple and their Magnolia empire in Waco, Texas — including, it would appear, local home buyers. A few years ago, after Fixer Upper was well into its third season, each real estate listing for a home featured and fixed up on the show could command a bidding war, but now the same or similar inventory sits on the market, even seeing reductions in price.

“House Hunters” first premiered in 1999 when I was 12 years old. I devoured episode after episode. And since they don’t teach you these practical things in school, I thought I had learned everything there is to know about home buying from the popular HGTV show. But fast forward 18 years: I got married, then pregnant. Suddenly I was eager to trade the nearly-windowless rental basement my husband and I considered home for one we could call our own.

While you may love your barn red kitchen, a new report released today by Zillow finds that it could cost you when looking to sell your home someday. The report found that painting your front door, kitchen, or bathroom with certain color palettes can drastically depreciate your home value by more than $2,000.

After years of renting in San Francisco and Oakland, we bought a home in Walnut Creek (a small city in the Bay Area) for $545,000 in 2010—when the market was relatively slow. The house was the smallest model in a 1960s neighborhood at 1,445 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. But it sat on a spacious 9,375-square-foot lot. It was a dream cosmetic fixer. Over seven years, we made it our own.

Beloved family sitcom “Full House” ended back in 1995, but thanks to reruns and a spinoff that debuted on Netflix in 2016, fans continue to be enamored with the Tanner family. Almost as iconic as the show’s characters is the beautiful San Francisco home they lived in.

Real Talk: The chances that you could commit mortgage fraud unknowingly are minimal. The industry has become much more highly regulated in recent years to prevent issues like this. “If you’re working with a reputable lender or a bank and you’re a fairly savvy consumer, it’s probably not something you’ll come across,” say Ed Deveau, a realtor with Century 21 Mario Real Estate in Boston.

These are super useful, real estate agent-approved reasons all happy homeowners should spend time at open houses in their neighborhoods.

"You only have one credit score." True or false?

While stuck in the middle may not sound too appealing, it's exactly where you want to be when it comes to real estate.

Every year, you’re entitled to a free credit report. You can consider it a financial wellness exam of sorts as the comprehensive report details your credit activity, getting into the nitty-gritty details of on-time payments and credit limits. But, this all-encompassing report won’t just automatically arrive in your mailbox. You’ve got to ask for it. Here’s what you need to know about requesting your Annual Credit Report, and what it all includes.

If you’re under 30, buying a home might sound like a far-fetched dream: Fewer people between ages 25 to 34 are buying homes now compared to older generations at that age, according to a July 2018 report from the Urban Institute.

No doubt, credit can be confusing. Not only are there various factors that make up the anatomy of your credit score, there are also different credit scoring companies. Making things even more convoluted, achievements like paying off your student loans can actually cause a drop in your scores, plus there’s plenty of myths circulating about credit. Suffice to say, people have a lot of questions about credit.

The real estate process begins well before you make your short list of dream homes and start attending open houses—and it can end there, too, if you’re not prepared. Many people worry about saving enough money for the down payment, but there’s more to learn about the process of buying a home, requirements for loan approvals and how to overcome obstacles to home ownership. Weigh your financial history carefully, because with the right knowledge comes home-buying power.

Have you ever wondered what your real estate agent is thinking — like really thinking? Well, now’s your chance to find out. Agents have to stay pretty neutral with their buyers—there are legal protections governing some of what agents can and cannot say in order to ensure buyers are making their own decisions. But we reached out to a few real-life agents to learn the truth: What’s the one thing you wish you could tell your clients?

If you’re in the market for purchasing a home, looking into foreclosures and short sales might seem like a more affordable way into homeownership. The properties can be quite inexpensive in comparison to the traditional housing market, and if you’re a seasoned buyer, the idea of a fixer-upper might sound appealing.

In this modern era of home improvement TV, where homes go from beast to beauty in the amount of time it takes to do a quick scroll through Instagram (what? It’s called multitasking), what often gets lost is the immense amount of work and money that goes into an actual home renovation, let alone building a home. Beyond that, many of the everyday issues that DIYers, developers, and owners run into are edited out of the final cut—making things seem a lot rosier than in reality.

Turns out, millennials aren’t spending all their money on that infamous avocado toast. However, they are a lot more spendy than all other living generations. According to a new analysis from GOBankingRates, millennials spend $208.77 each day, on average—about $44 more than the average American, who spends about $164.55.

Establishing credit poses a tricky Catch-22: You need credit to get credit. This can prove to be quite a conundrum if you’re trying to rent an apartment, buy a home, or, heck, simply need car insurance but don’t qualify because of a thin credit file.

Whether you’re a serious buyer or daydreaming to pass the time at work, a common part of buying a home is trying to predict your monthly mortgage payments. Is it going to end up being cheaper than your rent? Are you going to need to downsize a bit? You probably want a ballpark number before you call your mortgage lender and hire a real estate agent, so you plug the numbers into an online mortgage payment calculator.

You see homeownership in your future. But, after looking into your crystal ball—err, savings account—are you envisioning yourself at the closing table in the next month? Year? Five years? TBD depending on if you win the lotto? Fewer than four out of 10 millennials own homes, according to research from the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based social and economic policy group.

As far as credit is concerned, there are no hacks that can cause your score to magically skyrocket overnight. (Ahem, we’re wagging our fingers at schemes promising you a “new credit identity.”) But, what does exist is good, sound credit advice that advocates for responsible borrowing and takes into account the anatomy of your credit score, like utilization and payment history.

In the world of credit, establishing a credit score of 850 is like being granted a lifetime achievement award. Both FICO and Vantage—widely used credit-scoring models—consider 850 to be the highest possible credit score. The score is perfect. Exceptional. Untarnished. But… is it possible? The short answer, according to experts: Well, yes. But an 850 credit score takes time and strategy.

You consider yourself responsible with credit: You pay your bills on time and you don’t rack up any major credit card debt. And since you’re looking to apply for a mortgage sometime in the near future, you’ve been actively monitoring your credit. But since you’ve checked last month, your score has gone down. What gives? Why is your score acting so sensitive? Sheesh.

Even if you’ve just started to save for a big purchase like a home or for retirement, you’ve probably already run into plenty of bad advice. Everyone, especially your family, seems to have an opinion on where your hard-earned money should go. But not everyone knows what they’re talking about. (Sorry, Nana!) Luckily, five money experts weigh in on the worst savings advice they’ve ever heard.

Maybe you’re afraid of racking up too much debt. Or, perhaps you fall into an “anti-credit card” category who loathes the potential of paying interest. It could just be that your debit card is at the front of your wallet and, by default, gets swiped far more than your credit card.

Coming up with a down payment for your first home is no easy task. In fact, according to a recent study from HotPads, renters spend about six and a half years saving up before they have enough. (I personally predict I’ll be eligible for AARP before I could build up a nest egg hefty enough to become a homeowner.) Finding clever ways to cut back and save everywhere you can is helpful, but at a certain point, you may realize that you simply need to rake in more dough.

It’s not unusual to live with a roommate to cut down costs. Hey, life is expensive! But 2018 demonstrated that an unlikely population is taking on roommates in order to make ends meet: married people. Economists at Trulia determined that in 2018, over 280,000 married couples (or 0.46 percent of all married U.S. households) lived with a roommate or boarder. Now, you may think that number sounds minuscule. But it’s a serious jump compared to just over 20 years ago.

You know a strong credit score will help you get into your next home. To get specific, if you’re renting, landlords like to see a score of at least 650 before they start asking for extra deposits and guarantors. If you’re taking out a mortgage, a score that’s 760 or above is the magic number that will get you the best interest rate on a home loan. But establishing and maintaining a good credit score isn’t just necessary for keeping a roof over your head.

Before you know it, your down payment savings account will be a bit more full.

Any renter with an internet connection and a passion for painting the walls dark green (or black or maybe just wallpapering a bit) can attest to the bit of confusion you feel when first encountering a mortgage calculator or payment estimator online. You approach the thing with some very rough estimates researched in haste about what a modest little 2-bedroom in an up-and-coming neighborhood might cost.

When my husband and I decided to take out a home equity line of credit for a renovation, we assumed we’d get a great interest rate based on our good credit scores. We’ve always paid our bills on time and don’t maintain any credit card debt. There’s just one demerit on my report; a medical bill in collections I’ve unsuccessfully disputed. But even with that blip, the credit monitoring service I use—CreditWise—said my score hovered in the high 700s!

It’s no secret that the dream of home ownership is increasingly a daunting prospect. From overwhelming student loan debt, to less-than-stellar credit scores, to steadily-climbing home prices, there’s no shortage of factors keeping a lot of us from achieving that hallmark of adulthood. However, some markets are tougher to pull off this particular aspect of “adulting” in than others.

We’ve all heard it. If you’re looking to buy, you should always go for the worst house in the best neighborhood. But have many of us ever stopped to question that conventional wisdom? I thought I was bucking convention when I bought one of the lowest priced houses in a neighborhood that many locals steer clear of (and to my eternal frustration that Uber drivers tell my Airbnb guests they should avoid) — but is it true?

You’ve saved a good chunk of money, or at least are on a path to do so. Now, you might be wondering what’s better: Invest in real estate or put your money in the stock market? It’s a question you can wrestle with to no end since several factors come into play. Helping to frame the debate and lend advice below are a host of real estate and finance experts. Here are six questions they suggest you ask yourself if you’re exploring your investment options.

Sure, there’s plenty of parental advice that will never grow old: Learn to prioritize your time. Follow the Golden Rule. Wear sunscreen. But when it comes to financial tips, some of those age-old lessons fail to fit in with a millennial’s reality.