Category Archives: New Home News

Tips For Renting Your Carolina Real Estate

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Would you make a good landlord? The job description doesn’t fit everyone. You may want to check out some tips for making your role as a landlord successful before you decide invest in Carolina real estate.

There is a lot of talk about investing in real estate or renting out your real estate now due to the state of the housing market. Some people are looking into the opportunity to snatch up investment properties while housing prices and interest rates are low. Others need to move in order to follow a job, but they’re current mortgages are underwater. Rather than selling at a loss, they’re opting to hold on to the property and rent it out for a time.

The Equifax Personal Finance Blog has tips for you to remember before you make the leap into renting property. Real estate expert Ilyce Glink’s article, “Real Estate Investing: How to Be a Good Landlord,” offers the benefit of her own experiences renting out properties. She also gives a summary of suggestions offered by Robert Shemin, author of Secrets of a Millionaire Real Estate Investor.

Don’t expect to become friends with your tenants. Keep it a business relationship because friends may expect more leeway or special treatment – perhaps being late on the rent payment or requesting extras for the home.
Be very clear about expectations and policies.
Use your current good tenants to help find your next good tenants by enlisting their help.
Always run a credit check on potential renters.

And what does your perspective tenant’s car have to do with anything? You’ll have to follow the link to the Equifax Personal Finance Blog

http://www.equifax.com/blog/ to find out!

Conditions for Investing in Carolina Real Estate May Be Optimal NOW

The

Equifax Personal Finance Blog is reporting positive news in the lending environment, so maybe things are changing on the economic front. Plus, interest rates on home mortgages just moved up slightly. It may very well be that investors who want to take advantage of the sluggish market should act NOW before the cost to invest increases.

Getting started with your real estate investment business is as easy as using your personal accounts and keeping careful records of expenditures that you put toward your investment property. Then, if you find out you like it and conditions are still good, you can look at ways to formalize your business.

The Equifax article, “

Setting Up Your Real Estate Investing Business,” offers suggestions from RealtyJoin.com co-founder and 20-year investor Andy Heller. He says to start your business by talking with your accountant about your goals. He or she can then advise you on setting up the type of legal entity that will work best in your situation. Many investors, he says, choose an easy-to-start LLC.

After completing the paperwork for your business, contact the IRS to get an Employee Identification Number, or EIN. Take this number to the bank, where someone specializing in working with new business should be able to get you started with the right types of accounts. You may need to shop around to find the best fit for you.

Heller offers more tips at the

Equifax Personal Finance Blog, so check them out. The Blog also offers a way to ask questions of the experts online or to contact Heller directly. If you’re serious about this, you’d better act now before rates see another increase!

Why Mortgage Credit Insurance Isn’t the Best for Your Carolina Real Estate

With continuing news of the foreclosure crisis in the U.S., many (city) homeowners are looking for ways to protect their homes and families if they should lose their jobs, become disabled or pass away. Mortgage credit insurance ads are tempting – the product promises to take care of your mortgage in the case of family crisis. But the Equifax Personal Finance Blog offers a warning in the recent article, “

Avoid the Scam of Mortgage Credit Insurance.”

Insurance expert Linda Rey, author of the article, gives two primary reasons mortgage credit insurance is not a preferred option for most homebuyers. First, it’s very expensive. Other insurance options exist that can help with your mortgage and other expenses if needed.

Second, mortgage credit insurance covers a declining liability. As you pay down your mortgage, your policy covers less and less. But your insurer will continue charging you the same high rate.

What other types of insurance does Rey recommend? Disability and term life insurance. She says they help in several different situations and can cover expenses ranging from housing, to medical to other debt obligations.

Rey warns against using a mortgage lender who tells you that mortgage credit insurance is a requirement for your mortgage. Shop around for a lender who doesn’t use practices such as this, which Rey considers “predatory.” The legitimate insurance you may be required to buy is Private Mortgage Insurance. PMI is required on most mortgage loans that are for more than 80 percent of the home’s value. It is a protection for the lender, not the borrower.

You’ll find more information on different types of insurance at the

Equifax Personal Finance Blog, a favorite source for credit, tax, insurance, retirement and real estate information.

Many Are Making Home Repairs, But Why?

So, you’re about to make repairs to your home. Is it because you’re preventing further upkeep while you wait for the real estate market to change? Is it because you just can’t put it off any longer? Or are you preparing to sell your home in what you see as a shifting market?

The

Equifax Personal Finance Blog recently posted an article by real estate expert Ilyce Glink entitled “

Best Time of the Year to Start Big Home Improvement Projects.” Glink reports on the ServiceMagic Q3 Remodeling and Repair Index, which shows that homeowners are focusing more on necessary repairs and less on remodeling and addition projects.

These repairs are coming after a period that Equifax has previously reported as a time focused on paying down consumer debt. In fact, 46 percent of the homeowners say they have put off making repairs for more than a year, but could wait no longer. The report shows an increase in repair and maintenance services on heating and furnace systems, septic tank and well services, roofing, and window installation.

While the ServiceMagic report seems to show people making repairs as they prepare to stay in their homes for awhile longer, sometimes real estate agents will have their sellers make repairs so homes will be more attractive to potential Continue reading →