EstaR mortgage Blog

Many homeowners don’t realize the impact of today’s seller’s market in housing.  Housing supply is running at 2-3 months in many parts of the country… especially in neighborhoods and areas with affordable price points.  This means that it may be a great time to consider selling your house.  Here ...

In the last 10 years, students themselves have gone from paying 30% of college costs, to paying close to 50% of their own college costs.  This has resulted in driving up the outstanding student loans in the US from $350 billion to a staggering $1.2 trillion over the past 10 years.  The interestin...

1 – What is it?“Trended Credit Data” is an analytical tool that helps lenders better evaluate your spending habits.  It’s a detailed analysis of the last 24 months of your credit history, including: Month-by-month balances on your credit cards and other debts; and, The difference between your sch...

      1 - House Price Appreciation The average rate of house price appreciation in the US over the past 20 years has been over 3% per year.  This means that if you bought a vacation home 20 years ago for $100,000, it would likely be worth over $180,000 today.  If you used a 20% down payment, your...

The Opportunity Cost of Paying Cash   When you pay cash for a property, you are missing out on the opportunity to earn a rate of return on that cash. In the illustration below, Option 1 is to pay cash for a $200,000 house.  Option 2 is to use $100,000 of cash, and a $100,000 mortgage.  If you go ...

Here are five of the most common pitfalls associated with buying a home: House shopping before getting a solid mortgage approval: low housing inventory in many markets means that you'll be competing with multiple offers when you find a home that you like.  Getting a solid mortgage approval BEFORE...

The tax break for forgiven mortgage debt expired January 1, 2017. This means that you will be required to pay income taxes on any mortgage debt that's forgiven you. For example, if the lender forgives you $50,000 in debt, and your income tax bracket is 25%, you would owe the IRS $12,500!   The "I...

Many homebuyers today are facing a shortage of available housing inventory.  This is putting a lot of extra pressure on you, as their real estate agent.  Here are three potential solutions that we can explore: 1. How to Find More Sellers.  Many real estate agents don't spend any time on database ...

A 1031 Exchange could allow you to defer the capital gains tax on the sale of investment property if you roll over all the sales proceeds into a new investment property. Here's how it works: The buyer of the investment property that you're selling gives his/her funds to a "qualified intermediary"...

  Mortgage Planning is the process of carefully evaluating your mortgage options and choosing the right mortgage strategies. Your mortgage is most often your single largest debt, and your home is most often your single largest financial investment.  That's why mortgage planning should not be a do...