Olena Keene

Shopping For a Home Loan in the Memphis area.

Choosing a Loan

Now that you know the components of your home mortgage and the types of home mortgages you can choose, how exactly will you make a final decision? This will depend entirely upon your personal situation. As mentioned previously, the length of time you plan to live in the home is a key factor. You should also consider your career and salary for the length of time you will have your home mortgage. Do you expect your salary to remain the same or increase the length of your loan? Are you comfortable with the uncertainty an ARM can present as far as monthly home mortgage payments?

Also consider the cost of the loan. What is your interest rate for the loan? Consider also the fees charged by the lender. You may be able to negotiate a waiver of some of the fees. Ultimately, you want to pay the least amount of money for a home mortgage loan.

There is a lot of free information available to you about buying, selling or investing in the Memphis TN area real estate. For complete information about the Memphis TN real estate market including current homes for sale, property values and more please visit the most complete website online dedicated to everything Memphis TN area real estate. So please feel free to contact me with any of your mortgage questions and I will me more than glad to answer you queries. Call me on my cell at (901) 277-5324 or email me at Olena@OlenaKeene.com.

Shopping For a Home Loan in the Memphis area.

Next to shopping for the home in the Greater Memphis TN area itself, shopping for the home loan can be just as cumbersome. For such a large amount of money, you want to make sure you are getting the best deal possible.

Loan Elements

There are four key elements of your home mortgage payment: the principle, interest, taxes, and insurance. The principle is the amount of money your are borrowing, less any down payment made. The interest is the cost of borrowing, expressed as a percentage of the total amount that you borrow. The money for your property taxes are put into an escrow account until it is time to pay them. Home insurance is required by most lenders. If your down payment was less than 20 percent, you will also be responsible for paying private mortgage insurance.

Types of Loans

There are several different kinds of home mortgages from which you can choose. The major factor to use in the decision of which home mortgage to borrow is the length of time that you plan to be in your home. For example, if you plan to remain in your home for a long time, a fixed mortgage is perhaps the best mortgage to choose.

The two major kinds of home mortgages are fixed-rate and adjustable-rate. As the name suggests, a fixed-rate mortgage, FRM, has an interest rate that doesn't change over the life of the loan. Your monthly mortgage payments will never change. FRMs are typically available for 15, 20, or 30 years. With an adjustable-rate mortgage, ARM, the interest rate varies depending on current market rates. A balloon mortgage is yet another type of home mortgage loan that you can obtain. This type of loan has a lower initial interest rate for five to seven years. After that time, the entire balance of the loan is due, hence the term "balloon" mortgage.

There is a lot of free information available to you about buying, selling or investing in the Memphis TN area real estate. For complete information about the Memphis TN real estate market including current homes for sale, property values and more please visit the most complete website online dedicated to everything Memphis TN area real estate. So please feel free to contact me with any of your mortgage questions and I will me more than glad to answer you queries. Call me on my cell at (901) 277-5324 or email me at Olena@OlenaKeene.com.

Renting to Tenants...

The biggest mistake a landlord can make is not doing a thorough credit check on the prospective tenant.

Always make sure to do a credit check on any applicant that is interested in your house. Make sound business decisions on who you rent your house to. You will hear every sob story in the book on why you should rent to one individual over another.

Waiting for an individual or family that has decent credit and rent history can save you hours of headaches and hundreds or thousands of dollars. If you don't believe me wait until you have to pay for your first eviction while continuing to make the underlining mortgage loan.

Here are some good tips to follow when renting your property:

Always get a damage deposit. When tenants move out they will do a much better job of getting the house back to move in condition so they can get their deposit back.

A damage deposit should be between one half a month and one months' rent

Take many photos of the property before the tenant moves in that shows the good condition of the property. Show the tenants that you have these photos in your file and that you expect the house to be returned in like condition. Just the fact that they know you have the photos may help them take better care of the property.

Go through the complete rental agreement with the tenants before they move in. Too many times contracts are hurriedly signed on the car hood so you can take the money and get it in the bank.

You schedule a time to go through the contract fully with them even if it takes an hour or so out of your life, most times it will save you countless hours and dollars in later frustrations.

Let your tenants know this is a business you are running and that you expect them to fully follow the agreement.

Make sure they understand you will be collecting late fees if the rent is late. Let them know you expect the property to be treated as if they owned it themselves.

Walk through the property with the tenants before they move in. Have them make note of anything that is in disrepair and write it down.

It is easy to forget details so the more details you have written down the less confusion there will be when the tenant moves out.

The property is your investment, but investing some time in implementing systems for putting your tenants in the property will give you huge rewards in the future, and make your business run much more efficiently in the coming months and years.

Follow these tips and you will be starting your business out on the right foot.

Finding Good Help...

Whether you have a fixer you are getting ready for resale or a rental you are holding on to long term you are going to need to deal with repairmen and/or contractors.

Finding a dependable handyman that can do most repair work without costing you a fortune is crucial, but not easy to find. Don't go straight to the yellow pages and call the big ads. They generally have high overhead and will cost you too much for your repairs.

A good place to look for affordable in your local newspaper to under the services guide and test a handyman out on a small project before scheduling a large job.

If they work well and get the job done on time and within your budget then you have found yourself a winner but how do you know what you can afford to pay for an investment property.

Also ask around between your friends colleagues and family. Many times someone you know may know someone that does great work, but doesn't advertise his service.

Make sure they understand that you are most interested in getting a realistic time frame for your projects and that you fully expect the project to be completed within the quoted time frame.

Holding costs are your biggest enemy in the real estate game. The quicker you can get work done, the lower your overhead and the larger your profits.