Realtor Archives - The Reger Group

HOW TO – BUY A HOME IN YOUR 20’s

Make sure you are READY

Making a commit to OWN a home is a big deal! It is one that takes a lot of planning, courage and maintenance. Many young people buy a home that they can afford and that fits their needs for RIGHT NOW – which is OK. Just make sure when doing so you are making plans for the future, you want to be able to make a return on this investment – if/when you decide to sell in 3-5 years. Make sure you think all the details over and over – and then maybe one more time!

Know your finances

Buying a home will most likely be the largest purchase you will ever make in your life. So, in order to do that – you definitely need to understand and know your finances. Your salary, current expenses and spending habits will be a huge factor once you meet with your lender. Remember, your mortgage won’t be your only expense when buying a home – there will be costs like […]

Craig2017-12-07T16:37:03+00:00

Home Searches Include This Elastic Parameter

Once a home search gets underway, even prospective buyers who hadn’t hardened up the prices they were aiming for begin to hone in on a target range. Even a cursory excursion into the Portland listings forces the issue. Anyone who is at all serious about finding a new home sees the correlation between the listed asking prices and ‘how much house’ is available in that range. In most cases, lower prices denote features that are, for one reason or another, not very popular. Higher prices can mean the opposite: top-of-the-line quality… (or an overly optimistic seller).

So once a home search has narrowed the field to the Portland offerings that meet at least the minimum physical requirements, the lower number of the price range is established. If a realistic family budget shows more to spare, more expensive possibilities can be explored. But first, it’s also a good idea to make at least one revision to those budgetary assumptions, because there’s one area where the actual costs of home ownership can […]

Reger2015-11-21T20:17:18+00:00

Bottom Line Impact of Portland Metro Area Mortgage Interest Rate Shifts

If you begin a search for a new home by going online to check out Portland Area listings, it’s likely that one of the first search criteria you enter will be the price range. After all, unless you are a virtual looky-loo who is just checking out how the other half lives, your budget will dictate which homes you seriously consider. If you are one of the more than two-thirds of us who will be counting on a loan to help finance that home purchase, the monthly payment amount is really what matters.

That’s why you don’t have to be a dedicated number-cruncher to be keenly interested in the direction Portland Metro mortgage interest rates are going to head. In fact, if you aren’t one of those whose idea of a good time includes working out spreadsheet calculations, it probably came as a shock the first time you realized how big a deal it is when mortgage interest rates notch up or down even a single percentage point. If you’ve never really dug in to look at the numbers, you might want […]

Reger2015-09-10T17:37:49+00:00