Posts tagged "Home"
How to navigate a buyer’s market as a homeowner
There seems to be a crossroads that many homeowners reach after being in a home a few years: should you refinance your current home or buy a new one? Especially in a market like we are in now, real estate is really “on sale.” Some people struggle with staying in their current one or taking advantage of a buyer’s market.
If this is an issue you’ve been thinking about, your first task is to assess your current home. Does it still fit your needs? Will it fit your needs for the next 3-5 years? Are you planning for any financial events like children, college, retirement, job change? Do you still enjoy the location? How is the market in your area doing now? Is it feasible for you to move with your current financial situation?
Refinance
If you feel your current home will work for you for at least a 3 more years, stay put. If your financial situation needs some work, consider a refinance. It’s especially important to refinance before you miss any payments or have a significant change in income or credit. A refinance which consolidates all your debt into your mortgage could free up a lot of cash. Or ask a mortgage professional about interest only loans. You can weather a financial storm with an interest only mortgage and pay on the principal when you’ve got the available money.
Buy A Home
If you anticipate any significant events in the next 3-5 years, think about the kind of home you’ll need. Do you need to downsize or upgrade? Tired of climbing the stairs in your 2-story home? Consider a ranch-style home. Hate the commute? Talk to a real estate agent about developing areas closer to where you work and play.
Do your research before putting your home on the market. How much will you net from the sale? An appraisal or comparative market analysis from a real estate agent can help you determine your home’s value. How much will you put down on your new home? Talk to a mortgage professional about the available options for your new home and get fully approved for your new home before you start house hunting.
This common conundrum can be solved by assessing your goals and if your home fits in with them. After you do that, you can decide if it’s time to refinance or buy a new home.
Quizzle welcomes CyberHomes!
We’d like you to meet Cyberhomes - our newest friend and partner in Quizzle-land! For those of you who don’t KNOW Cyberhomes, they will be living in Quizzle and providing YOU with up-to-date home values, home details and homes that selling in your neighborhood!
A couple of the super fun new features CyberHomes offers all Quizzle clients –
- No waiting! Before Cyberhomes lived in Quizzle-land, our home value report was updated every few months. Now, every time you log-in to Quizzle, your home value will be updated to the current day’s info!
- More KNOWING! Be the neighborhood know-it-all as you can now watch all the homes in your neighborhood sell inside Quizzle! See exactly what the homes down the street from you are selling for in comparison to your home.
- Higher accuracy! If something doesn’t seem right about your home’s value or details (bedrooms, baths, square-footage, etc), you can use our partnership with CyberHomes to correct details and refine your home’s value inside Quizzle!
See, Quizzle listens! And we’ve heard your feedback over the past couple months. We realize how important your home’s value is to you and that’s why we chose to mash-up with Cyberhomes, the leading site on the web for current home values and accuracy! So, enjoy everything that Cyberhomes has to offer inside your personalized Quizzle account. Go take a look at how your new home’s value affecting your Quizzle score and… your life!!
Thanks Quizzle Q-munity for the great feedback and keep it coming! Your ideas and suggestions are being implemented into the Quizzle everyday to create the best experience for YOU!
What’s next, you ask? We’ve gotten a lot of feedback in Quizzle about helping you KNOW what it takes to live in a “Green” home and live a “Green” life. So, we are working with the Internet environmental experts to create a new Quizzle app for you that will answer the question, “How green are you?” Yep, of course you’ll even get a green grade! Stay tuned; it’s coming soon. And anytime you’ve got more ideas to make Quizzle better, just e-mail us – blog@quizzle.com.
Happy Quizzling!