Real Estate Learning Center

Here’s where you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about home buying, owning and selling, at your own pace. 

We’ll walk you through each subject area in depth so you feel totally secure and in control of the process.

Home Buying: Explanations, worksheets, calculators and examples for the critical steps of buying your home

Buying

Here is a comprehensive look at home buying: everything you wanted to know about purchasing a home and ideas on how to make it easy to achieve your dream. Read More >>

Rent vs Buy

What makes a house a home? For some people, the two words are the same thing. But for others, a house doesn’t become a home until they own it.  And you can. Read More >>

Budget for a House

Budgeting is not fun, but knowing how much you have to spend on a mortgage ayment can make a huge difference when you start looking at houses.  Most Americans spend almost 7% more than they make every month.  So it's not surprising that credit card debt keeps rising and so many people feel they can never afford to buy a home. Read More >>

Checking Your Credit

The US is a credit economy: we borrow money to buy houses, cars; we even use credit cards to buy our groceries and gas.  One of the main tools to make this widespread use of credit possible is the credit report.  Read More >>

Required Documents

Buying a home requires a lot of paper.  By the end of the process, you may feel like you have documented every aspect of your life except your shoe size, and if they could figure out a way to justify it, it seems likely they would require that as well. Read More >>

How Much Can You Afford?

This is the first question that most people ask, and the answer is often: more than you expect. There are dozens of programs to help you with down payments and loans, especially if you are a first-time homebuyer. Read More >>

Down Payment

It used to be that if you didn’t have at least 20% of the home purchase price ($20,000 on a $100,000 house) saved for a down payment, you couldn’t buy a home.  Those days are long gone, and you can now buy a home with 5%, 3% or even 0% of the purchase price. Read More >>

Closing/Settlement Costs

By the time you reach the closing of escrow or settlement table (same thing, different names in different states), almost a dozen people will have done something in the processing of your purchase. Each one wants to be paid for those efforts. Read More >>

Mortgage 101

Getting a loan to buy a house may seem like a complex and difficult process, but it doesn’t have to be.  Just spending a few minutes getting familiar with the mortgage types and process will put you way ahead of the game and make the application process much easier. Read More >>

Find An Agent

You will most likely want to have a real estate agent represent you when you buy a home.  Read More >>

Find The Perfect Home

If you are just starting to think about buying a home, all of the different styles and types of properties may seem overwhelming.  How to figure out what you really want?  Read More >>

Inspections

Most states require a clause in the home purchase contract guaranteeing the buyer’s right to have a property inspected before purchase.  Read More >>

Appraisals

The purpose of an appraisal is to confirm the sales price for the lender. Read More >>

Home Warranties

For many new owners, this is a great way to gain peace of mind about problems that they used to call the landlord to fix: ones that often aren’t covered under their homeowner’s insurance.  Read More >>

Escrow/Settlement Accounts

There are three very different accounts that are all types of escrow account.  Each requires money be deposited in a shared account and managed by an escrow officer, but they are used for unrelated purposes, which can be confusing. Read More >>

Homeowners Insurance

Most lenders will require that you have homeowners insurance in place before the closing.  This can also be called “hazard insurance” because it covers natural disasters like fire and storms, and theft. Read More >>

Title

Most buyers don’t know that you can choose which title company handles your purchase.  Often your realtor makes the selection for you, but you should know that not all title companies are the same, and which one you choose can make a difference in your purchase. Read More >>