USING INTERNET SAVES MONEY, EFFORT ON HOUSE SHOPPING.Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX If you are planning to buy a house this year, the following itinerary might offer a helpful, money-saving experience. All you need for this trip is a computer. So get comfortable and visit: --www.calhfa.ca.gov The California Housing Finance Agency is a good first stop. It was established 30 years ago to help renters and first-time homebuyers First-Time Homebuyer An IRA owner who is exempt from the early-distribution penalty (which applies to IRA distributions that occur before the IRA owner reaches age 59.5) for distributing funds from his or her IRA to buy, build, or rebuild a home when having had no interest in a . The agency provides financing and programs that create affordable housing opportunities for individuals within specified income ranges. The agency is essentially a bank that makes below market-rate loans through the sale of tax-exempt bonds Tax-exempt bond A bond usually issued by municipal, county, or state governments whose interest payments are not subject to federal and, in some cases, state and local income tax. tax-exempt bond See municipal bond. , which are repaid by revenues generated through home loans. So this is a good place to get financial help, but you'll have to qualify for it. For example, last Wednesday its 30-year fixed rate ranged between 4 percent and 7.5 percent. It averaged 5.72 percent in the weekly survey by the Mortgage Bankers Mortgage Banker A company, individual or institution that originates, sells and services mortgage loans. Notes: Don't confuse a mortgage banker with a mortgage broker. Association. The site is also easy to navigate, with links to programs and eligibility requirements at the top of the page. You can also sign up for e-mails for updates on the various programs. It's also available in Spanish. --www.freddiemac.com Freddie Mac Freddie Mac: see Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. is a stockholder-owned corporation that keeps the money train running between mortgage lenders and homebuyers. The site's top right-hand corner gets right to the point, offering links to buying and owning a home, understanding credit and finding properties for sale. The left side offers the company's weekly mortgage rate survey for fixed and adjustable products and tells you when the next one will be coming out. There is a link to past surveys so you can see the current rate trend. This is useful information when starting the home shopping Home Shopping commonly refers to the electronic retailing / home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar companies as HSN, QVC, eBay, ShopNBC, Buy.com, and Amazon.com. process. It, too, is offered in Spanish. --www.fanniemae.com. Don't be deterred by the mortgage giant's financial shenanigans shenanigans Noun, pl Informal 1. mischief or nonsense 2. trickery or deception [origin unknown] recently in the news. There is some useful information on the site of the nation's largest source of mortgage funds. It's at the bottom of the home page under the heading ``For Home Buyers & Homeowners.'' The first link is Homepath, which replaces the retired Web site homepath.com. It offers downloadable files of several Fannie Mae Fannie Mae: see Federal National Mortgage Association. brochures and enhanced search tools to locate Fannie Mae-approved lenders. It also offers a streamlined way to review mortgage solutions. The next two options will take you to mortgage and lender options, although the company doesn't make loans directly to borrowers. The last option, headed ``resources,'' contains an affordability calculator and links to counselors and agencies that can help initiate the ownership process. When it finally comes time to shop, here are some more sites worth visiting. --www.dailynews.com This is the paper's site. Click on the Homes tab at the top, and you end up at SoCalHomeCentral. This is nuts-and-bolts stuff. The site's front page contains links to maps of new home developments and pre-owned homes for sale. Real estate advertisements are also available, as is information on foreclosures, home finance, rentals and markets in communities across Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . Links to various news articles provide information about market trends. --www.realtor.com This is the official site of the National Association of Realtors The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is made up of residential and commercial realtors who are brokers, salespeople, property managers, appraisers, and counselors, and others working in the real estate industry. . It's also a good place to price-shop and check out markets in other parts of the country if you are considering a move as an alternative to near-record prices in Southern California. The site also features links to finding lenders, movers, market conditions and neighborhood tours. There is also a primer prim·er n. A segment of DNA or RNA that is complementary to a given DNA sequence and that is needed to initiate replication by DNA polymerase. called Real Estate 101 for buyers and sellers. And there is a link to international properties for sale if you are in the market for a real home away from home. Getting a good interest rate is an important part of the shopping process, and these two sites offer up-to-the-minute information. --www.hsh.com This company is the nation's biggest publisher of consumer loan information. The home page is packed with links that homebuyers might find useful, including daily rates in markets across the country. For example, the calculators link takes you to a page with 11 calculators related to the homebuying process. They include calculators for figuring out a simple loan, annual percentage rates, closing costs Closing Costs The numerous expenses (over and above the price of the property) that buyers and sellers normally incur to complete a real estate transaction. Costs incurred include loan origination fee, discount points, appraisal fee, title search, title insurance, survey, taxes, , sellers proceeds and whether it makes financial sense to rent or buy. There are also links to find lenders if you have perfect credit, which is actually pretty good credit, or bruised bruise v. bruised, bruis·ing, bruis·es v.tr. 1. a. To injure the underlying soft tissue or bone of (part of the body) without breaking the skin, as by a blow. b. credit. The library link takes you to a collection of articles offering advice on just about every step in the buying process. --www.bankrate.com This is another interest rate-driven site offering daily updates on a variety of loan products. The home page offers a variety of real estate related links, including one on credit scoring Credit scoring A statistical technique that combines several financial characteristics to form a single score to represent a customer's creditworthiness. and problem credit. Gregory J. Wilcox, (818) 713-3743 greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com |
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