Money

There is no question the first half of 2020 has been strange. COVID-19 really threw a curve ball at the economy and many industries. Much of our state was shut down March thru May, which is normally our busy season (for buyer showings and listings) in real estate. Traditionally, the number of listings and active Read More

Are you an experienced real estate agent with an established business working for a big name brokerage? If so, how much of your commission is your broker keeping every year? How much are they charging you in fees every month? Yes, some of the big names have a few helpful services and software packages, but Read More

We often get many questions from first time home buyers about what kind of expenses they can expect when they purchase their first home. Of course, every situation is different and the numbers are dependent on the services and providers chosen, but here’s a good budgetary summary of what you can expect. Upfront Costs: Earnest Read More

I’ve been asked several times by potential buyers “Do people really put 20% down on a house? How does someone save $40,000 or more?” It’s not really necessary or the norm these days to have a 20% (or more) down payment, but it is possible and people do it all the time. Let me start Read More

I love the Holidays, It’s a time of year when people seem to be happy to give and help others. In fact, we’ve rung bells for the Salvation Army at Millers & Sons Supermarket twice in the recent weeks, and I’ve been amazed at the generosity of people in our small town of Verona! Although, this spirit of giving, Read More

There’s been a lot of discussion in the news about the fiscal cliff lately. In case you aren’t already familiar, the fiscal cliff is a combination of several laws which would result in tax increases and spending cuts starting in 2013. So, how does any of this relate to real estate? The Mortgage Debt Relief Read More

Since moving recently, we’ve been working on getting our address updated every time we get a piece of forwarded mail. It came to the credit cards and we decided, “why update the address, let’s just close them!” I know, I know, many of you are probably thinking closing your credit card accounts will hurt your credit score, Read More

A couple weeks ago, we wrote a step by step guide to home buying, and step one is making the decision to buy. So, you’ve been thinking about buying a home, but aren’t quite sure if you’re ready. It’s a big decision, and now is an amazing time to buy. Prices are still low, the Read More

This is a Guest Post by Ryan Huemmer, the lender we use on our own rental properties. As an owner of investment properties, I get no greater joy than helping someone purchase their first investment property.  I’ve worked with AnchorBank for almost 8 years and the world of investment property financing has changed dramatically.  With Read More

This is our 100th post! In the short time we’ve been blogging, we’ve seen our readership numbers drastically increasing and we are approaching our 10,000th view. Thank you to all of our readers for paying attention to what we have to express. We hope you are enjoying our information on real estate, finances, investments, and Read More