Ben Nicolas - Articles

Why Mortgage Preapproval Pays
Prequalifying for a mortgage is based on estimates and is not a guarantee that you can get a mortgage for a particular amount. When you are preapproved for a mortgage, you are guaranteed that the bank will cover you for a specific amount based on documentation of your income and expenses. Read
By: Ben Nicolas | 16/11/2009 | Mortgage

Home Sales Still Struggling This Fall
As the interest rates offered for mortgages have begun to rise a little, there have been more potential buyers showing hesitancy to purchase homes becoming apparent. The 30-rate for fixed mortgages has risen almost 0.05% since March of this year and combined with rising unemployment, has some potential buyers a little spooked about months to come. Even more distressing for many home buyers, the fixed rate for 15 year mortgages has risen 0.07% in a week. Read
By: Ben Nicolas | 29/10/2009 | Real Estate

Creating More Privacy for Your New Home
It’s also good to keep in mind the difference between how your yard is going to look in the summer to how it will look in the fall and winter when many trees will lose their leaves. Creating a balance of evergreen and deciduous trees can give you a nice balance whereby you give up some of your privacy in exchange for more light in the dim winter months. Read
By: Ben Nicolas | 29/10/2009 | Landscaping

Foreclosures Still a Confusing Force to be Reckoned With
Between the banks’ slow response in helping people renegotiate their mortgages and homeowners continuing to lose their jobs, the number of families involved in foreclosure is up more this quarter over the rate experienced across the country in the previous quarter even though the government is struggling to help all the qualifying home owners who have mortgages in default. Read
By: Ben Nicolas | 15/10/2009 | Real Estate

Buying a Condo: Working with Condo Associations
You will also want to see at least the last few months meeting minutes so that you can see if there have been any problems brewing that you should know about. Try to attend an association meeting to see what they dynamic is with the committee members; you can sometimes see problems in person that don’t get noted in the meeting minutes. Read
By: Ben Nicolas | 15/10/2009 | Real Estate

The Short on Short Sales
The bank should then order the Broker’s Price Opinion – someone appointed by the lender to evaluate the property and name a figure that they think the home would go for. If the offer for the home matches around what the BPO says, the bank approves the short sale. Then, the transaction should go like any other real estate transaction. Read
By: Ben Nicolas | 20/08/2009 | Real Estate