HUD-Approved Online Homebuyer Education Course
HomeTrek is an easy-to-use HUD-approved online homebuyer education course. Our course will help you learn budgeting, saving, how to improve your credit, understand home much home you can afford.
Should You Rent-to-Own a Home?
Rent-to-own is exactly what it sounds like – you rent a home with a contract that allows you to eventually buy it. There are benefits and disadvantages to rent-to-own, and whether it’s a good idea ...
What Is the Minimum Credit Score to Buy a House in 2022
“It's tough to overstate the importance of credit scores to a mortgage loan application -- they're one of the top things lenders consider,” Tabitha Mazzara, director of operations at mortgage lender MBANC, said. A credit ...
Good Neighbor Next Door Program Helps Teachers, Law Enforcement, Firefighters & EMTs Buy Homes
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development instituted the Good Neighbor Next Door (GNND) sales program in 2010. The idea remains the same a decade later: spark community revitalization by offering a 50% discount ...
How Startup Companies Are Helping Home Buyers Win Bidding Wars
In today’s ultra-competitive housing market, a number of startup companies are addressing new realities in home buying with a strategy based on an age-old truth – Cash is king. For first-time home buyers. For existing ...
How to Buy a House with Little to No Money Down
The belief that you need a 20% down payment to secure a mortgage on a home is largely a misconception. At one point it was true, but these days not so much. Before 1956, when ...
Credit Scores and the First-Time Homebuyer
For first-time homebuyers, the second most important factor (behind location) is: (A) Number of bathrooms. (B) Composition of the kitchen counters. (C) Storage space. (D) Terms of the mortgage. If you ...
What Programs are Available to Help African Americans Become Homeowners
If home is where the heart is, it’s also where wealth building frequently happens in America. That’s not a coincidence. “Homeownership has historically helped families create a legacy and build long-term wealth,” said AJ Barkley, ...
Tech Companies Provide Housing Assistance in California and Washington
What started as a housing squeeze 30 years ago is now a full-blown crisis in Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area. The median home price in San Francisco increased 90% between April 2009 and ...
First-Time Homebuyer Trends for 2022
If you turned on the news at any point last year, you've heard the housing market was wild in 2021, but what will it bring in 2022? Home prices grew fast to start 2021 and ...
How Much Down Payment Do I Need for a House?
Owning a home was part of the American dream even before there was an America. It’s true. In the tumultuous years leading to the Revolution, the Founders frequently associated acquiring and holding property as fundamental ...