Home Financing Tips

Saving up money is no easy feat, and a down payment on a home is not exactly a small amount to tally up, especially if you’re looking to buy a home in an expensive city. You could keep all your savings in one account, but having a separate savings account that’s dedicated solely to your home-buying journey can be a big help.

Thinking about buying a home? If you’re not familiar with how mortgages and down payments work—and how many different types there are—you could be missing out on choosing one that works perfectly for you. Here is a breakdown of 11 different types of mortgages, from the most common to the mostly rare, and a rundown on how down payments work.

Looking to buy a home in the near future? If you don’t have massive savings lying around just waiting to be used on a down payment, the home-buying process can be a huge challenge. The good news is, you’ve got options—between special low down payment mortgages and down payment assistance programs (and other resources, if necessary) you can make your home ownership dreams a reality, even without a huge sum saved up.

Wooed by its close proximity to our favorite beach, my husband and I bought an older home in Charleston, SC, last spring. One year and tons of cash later, we’ve learned the hard way that it isn’t always the big, glaring problems with older homes that’ll bite you right in the butt—er, budget. In our experience, it’s the little red flags that sneak up and rob you blind before you can close the front door.

What if I told you I had a 10% off coupon for your dream home? You’d grab at the chance to save that much money, right? As the old saying goes, time is money, and your willingness to wait on your home purchase could save you major cash when it’s time to buy. The financial experts at NerdWallet have just released a study that examines the best time to buy a house. They analyzed the past two years’ worth of home listings and home sales (from Realtor.

Tired of kissing your hard-earned cash goodbye every month and handing it over to your landlord? Thinking about taking the plunge and purchasing your own place? Well, hold up, young Padawan—before you apply for a mortgage on a whim, you should probably pump the brakes. If you’re really ready to shed the renting lifestyle once and for all and get serious about buying your first home, there are a few considerations you must make.

In polite company, most people prefer to steer conversation away from the topic of money. And even if you do broach the subject of, say, buying a home with your friends, it’s likely that nobody in the circle will ever throw out a real dollar amount when discussing how much they’ve saved or spent in their quest to complete the American Dream.

Potential buyers can be thrown off by the littlest things (just consult any episode of House Hunters). Even if you’re not thinking about selling your home now, you can make small improvements while you’re still living there without dedicating a lot of time or money to the cause. These 7 bathroom projects take only a weekend and a few hundred bucks, at most, but they’ll pay off in the long run when you decide to sell in a few months or a few years.