4 Reasons to Buy a House During the Holidays

With another Thanksgiving Day come and gone and year-end holidays  looming nearer, Americans are preoccupied with their traditional holiday  to-do lists like party planning and gift shopping. However, some  families might find this season is prime for hunting down a bargain on a  home.

According to U.S. Census data, average  home sales during the last quarter of the year between September 2008  and August 2013 dipped slightly, compared to warmer months. This is due  to a number of reasons, like the inconvenience of relocating to a new  home in cold weather. Another viable reason home sales are a tick lower  during the holidays is that the home is the central meeting place for  celebrations with family and friends – it’s a time to welcome guests  into your home, not discourage them with moving boxes.

Reading between the lines of real-estate lingo

8News Investigates: Skeletons Behind Your Closet

Study: Multiple Sex Offenders Can Affect Real Estate Values
By Lisa Fenderson

A mortgage is the biggest debt most of us will ever carry, and a home is the most expensive purchase we will ever make.

That’s why it’s so important to avoid pitfalls like making a major job change right before your home loan closes or failing to anticipate long-term home ownership costs.

These mistakes and others can cause you to pay more than you need to, prevent your loan from closing or even lead to bankruptcy.

Don’t let the unfamiliarity and enormity of the situation scare you. People make smart mortgage choices every day. They get home loans with great interest rates, low fees, and predictable, fixed monthly payments and they make a budget ahead of time so they don’t get in over their heads.

Our guide will turn you into a savvy borrower so that owning your home will be a joy, not a burden, and will help you achieve long-term financial security.

Slide show by Amy Fontinelle

Please visit interest.com for full story

Buyers should beware using  seller’s agent

By Michael  Estrin • Bankrate.com

There’s an adage that says you get what you pay for. The warning is  especially relevant for homebuyers who work  with the listing agent in a so-called single-agent transaction. “I’ve heard too many war stories about buyers who think they’ll get a better  deal by going directly to the listing agent of the property,” says Bill Golden,  a Re/Max agent in Atlanta. “Most often, they do not get a better deal, and they  end up not being represented properly in the negotiations.” In fact, buyers who use the listing agent aren’t represented at all, which is  why single-agent transactions seem abhorrent to many real-estate  professionals. “If you were being sued by someone, would you use the same attorney as the  person suing you? Of course not,” says Deb Tomaro, a Re/Max agent in  Bloomington, Ind. But data from the National Association of Realtors seems to  suggest that as many as 10 percent of residential transactions could be  single-agent deals. (The trade group doesn’t have direct figures on buyers using  listing agents, but instead relies on member surveys, which track real estate  firms, not individual agents.) Confusingly, the terms “dual agency” and “single-agent” transaction mean the  same thing, with the difference being that of perspective: The agent sees his or  her role as that of a dual agent because the agent represents both parties,  whereas a buyer would view a deal with only one agent as a single-agent  transaction.

 Why do buyers work with the listing agent?

Typically, buyers who choose to work with the listing agent say they do so  because they think they’re getting a better deal. But agents like Jon Sterling  of Chase International in Tahoe City, Calif., have doubts. “The idea that buyers can negotiate to get the listing agent to give up part  of their commission because the buyers are unrepresented is a myth,” he says.  “Sure, some people have been successful doing that. It’s the exception, not the  rule.” It also doesn’t make much sense when you consider that sellers, not buyers,  typically pay commissions, according to associate professor Eric Chen, who  teaches business at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Conn. “If the buyer is working with the listing agent, be aware of the conflict of  interest problem that exists,” says Chen. “Remember that the listing agent is  interested in getting a deal done, and the higher the purchase price, the bigger  the commission to the agent.”

Do buyers actually pay more?

Data are mixed on whether buyers in single-agent transactions end up paying  more, according to Bennie Waller, a finance and real estate professor at  Longwood University in Farmville, Va., who has co-authored two papers on the  topic. But the reason for the mixed results, says Waller, most likely has to do  with the time the property is on the market. Single-agent deals that happen  within 30 days of listing typically sell for a 10 to 18 percent premium. But  when the property sells within the last 30 days of the listing contract, the  price actually drops by 5 to 6 percent.

What’s the harm?

The problem with the single-agent deal is that it makes it impossible for the  agent to fulfill a fiduciary duty to both parties. “The agent has an inherent conflict of interest when working with the buyer,”  says John O’Brien, a Chicago attorney who handles real estate transactions. “It  is very difficult for the agent to keep his knowledge of the buyer’s negotiating  points, including their best price, from becoming known to the seller, either  directly or through the agent’s advice to the seller regarding  counter-offers.”

  Beyond price, buyers should understand that a single-agent deal creates the  opportunity for a problem on virtually every deal point, says Chen. “Because of the conflict of interest, there is a real chance that the agent  doesn’t have the buyer’s best interests in mind,” Chen says. “It doesn’t  necessarily happen every time. However, the pressure, opportunity and  rationalization are all there for the seller’s agent to act in their own  client’s interest and against the interests of the seller.” Not everyone sees an automatic conflict of interest. “There are some who feel that it is an automatic conflict to represent both  parties,” says Sterling Watkins, a broker-owner with Help-U-Sell of Folsom,  Calif. “I happen to disagree. If no confidences are violated, each party has a  chance to make a decision at every turn in the road.” Although Watkins certainly has the minority opinion on the matter, it’s worth  pointing out that most real estate firm contracts do contemplate the possibility  of a single-agent deal. But, as Chen says, “that language usually looks an awful  lot like a waiver.”

Read more:  http://www.bankrate.com/finance/real-estate/buyers-using-sellers-agent.aspx#ixzz2lVB78tLJ

Sex offenders hurt sales

Credit Score May Include Rent, Utility Payments

The estimated 50 million people who are “credit invisible” to creditors and lenders because they don’t have enough credit to build a credit score may be getting some help from Congress.

A bill called the Credit Access and Inclusion Act was referred to committee on Oct. 30, and if it’s ever approved by Congress, it would allow utility and telecom companies, and rental companies, to report their customers’ on-time payments to credit reporting agencies to establish a more complete report.

Currently, only late rent and such bill payments are reported, if they’re reported at all.

For renters and others who pay their bills on time but don’t have a good credit score, the bill’s authors argue that such on-time payments should be used to help give them a credit history.For renters and others who pay their bills on time but don’t have a good credit score, or don’t have any credit, the bill’s authors argue that such on-time payments should be used to help give them a credit history. Without it, they must pay higher interest on loans and credit cards, and often go to pawn shops or payday lenders to get cash to pay their bills, they say.

For young people trying to establish good credit, paying rent on time may be the only way they have of showing they’re dependable.

Howcr edit scores are determined

Most of the information in a credit report is supplied by lenders. Since a phone bill, for example, isn’t a loan, it isn’t reported by a lender as a way to improve a credit score when it’s paid on time.

The bill wouldn’t require phone, utilities and other companies to report timely payments to credit agencies. It just states that such reporting is allowed.

Such bills currently aren’t considered debt — a term used in calculating 35% of a credit score, says Harrine Freeman, a financial literacy advocate. In addition, 30% of a credit score is calculated based on payment history, including credit cards, department store accounts, installment loans, finance company accounts, and mortgage loans.

The downside

Giving credit bureaus more information about consumers won’t necessarily help them improve their credit, say opponents of the bill.

“This is a train wreck waiting to happen. While the intent is admirable, there will be more harm than benefit for all consumers,” says Bennie Waller, a professor of finance and real estate at Longwood University in Farmville, VA.

“This is a train wreck waiting to happen. While the intent is admirable, there will be more harm than benefit for all consumers,” says Bennie Waller, a professor of finance and real estate.Including the monthly bills of rent, cable, phone and utilities in the credit scores of financially struggling families would only hurt them, Waller says. Many people are renters because they have poor credit history, and such reporting would only hurt their credit more and make it “virtually impossible to qualify for a conventional home loan,” he says.

If such accounts aren’t paid on time, then reporting them in credit reports will lower credit scores. If a bill isn’t paid on time, service is terminated and the consumer isn’t taken to court for the unpaid bills. If the bill is passed, companies would be able to take consumers to court over unpaid bills, Freeman says.

As anyone who has asked a bank for a loan knows, it can be a Catch-22 to get one when you don’t have a good credit history with a credit card or mortgage loan already in your hands.

It’s a lot easier to lower a credit score than it is to raise it. Missing a few utility payments during a few rough months could be a lot more difficult to erase than improving a credit score with on-time payments.

Aaron Crowe is editor at The edit Solution Program. He is a freelance journalist in the Bay Area who specializes in personal finance. He has been a writer and editor at newspapers and websites, including AOL’s personal finance site WalletPop.com, WiseBread, Bankrate, LearnVest, AARP and other sites. Follow him on Twitter at @aaroncrowe, or at his website, www.AaronCrowe.net.

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