Saturday, February 11, 2012
avoid first time buyer mistakes
Common First Time Homebuyer Mistakes
Many first-time homebuyers make simple and common mistakes that are easily avoidable.
They face multiple challenges anyway, such as finding the right home, the right agent, getting approved for a mortgage, and staying within their budget. By avoiding these common mistakes, the process of buying a home can be much less stressful.
1. Overlooking extra costs of homeownership
While some see themselves as ready for homeownership once they can afford a mortgage payment, it is important to remember the other fees that come along with owning a home. Property taxes, home owners association fees, maintenance, higher water and electrical bills, and property insurance are among the extra costs of owning a home, and should be calculated into your budget.
2. Not getting preapproved
It is very important to get preapproved for a loan before you go out searching for the perfect place. That way, you will be making financially sound decisions versus unrealistic emotional ones as to what you can afford.
3. Spending your entire savings on your down payment
This is one of the most common mistakes first time homebuyers make. Homebuyers who put 20 percent or more down don’t have to pay for mortgage insurance when getting a conventional mortgage, which often translates into substantial savings on the monthly payment. However, it is smarter to keep your rainy day savings intact instead.
photo credit: opensourcewayThursday, February 9, 2012
Great piece from Paul Kingsman a wonderful speaker
January 2012 – Do the Bare Minimum
AdvisorBlast – Quick Tips to Accelerate Your Practice
In this issue: If it doesn’t actively move you toward your goal, it’s a distraction!
How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? If you’re still going strong, congratulations! Most resolutions have already fallen by the wayside, though. Often the problem is that we try to do too many things, get overwhelmed, and so ignore everything. We’ve bought into the fallacy that the more activity we create, the more successful we’ll be. We spend tremendous time and emotion accumulating and processing more and more information and making grand plans of things to do, but a lot of that effort can be simply wasted effort on the path to success.
How do we succeed sooner? The challenge isn’t so much finding the pathway, but staying on it! We so easily get distracted, even by good things, which pull us away from where we really want to go.
We are overloaded with information constantly bombarding us. There always seems to be another article to read, another podcast to listen to or webinar to watch. Clients I’ve worked with have felt huge stress at the thought that they might miss something important they need to know, but are overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information they have to process just to “keep up,” much less become “the expert.”
Once you have more information than you can realistically process, further information actually becomes counter-productive and impedes your progress.
Often I encourage groups I speak with to do the bare minimum required to wildly succeed. The instruction “do the bare minimum” shocks people – we’re used to hearing we need to do more! But stop and think: if you do just the things that will lead to your success, the other activities are really a waste of your energy.
Be careful here! You want to know and do the bare minimum activities needed to achieve the success you want, not simply to do the bare minimum activity, full stop! The first is wise, the latter is just lazy.
Doing the bare minimum to succeed makes sense. The issue then becomes knowing exactly what it is you need to do to succeed.
So, for the first month of this year:
To your wild success in 2012,
Paul
Copyright Paul Kingsman 2012
______________________________________________________________________________
As a motivational speaker and executive coach, Paul Kingsman helps financial services professionals successfully grow their businesses by taking practical daily steps to achieve outstanding long-term results. Combining his experiences as an Olympic medalist and his background as an adviser, Paul understands how to stay focused over the long haul, as well as the unique business challenges faced by advisers. Through his professional speaking and executive coaching he equips them to overcome distractions so they can get the money they need, the clients they want, and the time to do what they love.
To find out more about how Paul can equip you or your team to achieve outstanding results, visit paulkingsman.com/coaching or email him at Paul@PaulKingsman.com
In this issue: If it doesn’t actively move you toward your goal, it’s a distraction!
How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? If you’re still going strong, congratulations! Most resolutions have already fallen by the wayside, though. Often the problem is that we try to do too many things, get overwhelmed, and so ignore everything. We’ve bought into the fallacy that the more activity we create, the more successful we’ll be. We spend tremendous time and emotion accumulating and processing more and more information and making grand plans of things to do, but a lot of that effort can be simply wasted effort on the path to success.
How do we succeed sooner? The challenge isn’t so much finding the pathway, but staying on it! We so easily get distracted, even by good things, which pull us away from where we really want to go.
We are overloaded with information constantly bombarding us. There always seems to be another article to read, another podcast to listen to or webinar to watch. Clients I’ve worked with have felt huge stress at the thought that they might miss something important they need to know, but are overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information they have to process just to “keep up,” much less become “the expert.”
Once you have more information than you can realistically process, further information actually becomes counter-productive and impedes your progress.
Often I encourage groups I speak with to do the bare minimum required to wildly succeed. The instruction “do the bare minimum” shocks people – we’re used to hearing we need to do more! But stop and think: if you do just the things that will lead to your success, the other activities are really a waste of your energy.
Be careful here! You want to know and do the bare minimum activities needed to achieve the success you want, not simply to do the bare minimum activity, full stop! The first is wise, the latter is just lazy.
Doing the bare minimum to succeed makes sense. The issue then becomes knowing exactly what it is you need to do to succeed.
So, for the first month of this year:
- Identify your key activities: What works best for you to move you toward your goal? (This might be different than the activities of your associates.)
- Schedule these activities into your calendar: Ensuring they become the central activities you begin and complete.
- Don’t get sucked into thinking that all ideas are helpful to your pursuit: No matter how sensible it might seem, if it doesn’t specifically contribute to your end goal, quickly move on. Otherwise, you’re just getting distracted.
To your wild success in 2012,
Paul
Copyright Paul Kingsman 2012
______________________________________________________________________________
As a motivational speaker and executive coach, Paul Kingsman helps financial services professionals successfully grow their businesses by taking practical daily steps to achieve outstanding long-term results. Combining his experiences as an Olympic medalist and his background as an adviser, Paul understands how to stay focused over the long haul, as well as the unique business challenges faced by advisers. Through his professional speaking and executive coaching he equips them to overcome distractions so they can get the money they need, the clients they want, and the time to do what they love.
To find out more about how Paul can equip you or your team to achieve outstanding results, visit paulkingsman.com/coaching or email him at Paul@PaulKingsman.com
From my friend Vicki garcia aka your kick ass coach
Sometimes we just don't believe or trust that we can be successful in a particular area. We tell ourselves things like, "I can't" or "I've never been good at that" or "I don't make good decisions for myself" or "I need help. I can't do it by myself"..
The truth is, you can find whatever evidence you need to back up any claim. You find what you are looking for. So, why not focus on finding the evidence that says you can be successful in whatever you endeavor?
What proof do you have that you CAN do it? Think of examples from your past when you did something even though it was challenging. Things like, graduating from college - that took perseverance and focus. What about raising kids? That takes immense skill and commitment. What about a past job that you excelled at? What about a physical obstacle that you overcame or a physical challenge that you stepped up to?
I know if you think about it you can find evidence that shows that you have what it takes to do anything you set your mind to. Yes, you have experienced setbacks and failures. We all have. Don't focus on the times it didn't go the way you wanted. You learned from it and now you're even more prepared to be successful this time.
Practice building evidence that you have what it takes and with it, self-trust. I challenge you to find at least 10 pieces of Success Evidence. If you're having a hard time with it, enlist the help of a friend or family member who knows you well. I promise you have way more than 10 pieces of evidence to the fact that you are awesome and can do anything you set your mind to.
Talk talk interest and financial markets talk get an update
There are only two pieces of monthly economic data scheduled for release this week. Neither of them is considered to be highly important, so we don’t have much to pin our hopes on or to be concerned with this week.There are two Treasury auctions on the calendar that may influence mortgage rates the middle part of the week and the second part of Fed Chairman Bernanke’s testimony to Congress, but no important economic data.
Nothing of concern is due tomorrow, so look for the stock markets and news from Europe- particularly Greece, to drive the markets tomorrow. Fed Chairman Bernanke will speak to the Senate Budget Committee at 10:00 AM Tuesday. I don’t expect him to say anything different than he said last week to the House Budget Committee, but the Q&A portion of his appearance could lead to something new. It is worth watching, but it will probably not lead to a noticeable change in the markets or mortgage rates.
The two important Treasury auctions come Wednesday and Thursday when 10-year Notes and 30-year Bonds are sold. The 10-year sale is the more important one as it will give us a better indication of demand of mortgage-related securities. If the sales are met with a strong demand from investors, we should see the bond market move higher during afternoon trading the days of the auctions. But a lackluster interest from buyers, particularly international investors, would indicate a waning appetite for longer-term U.S. securities and lead to broader bond selling. The selling in bonds would likely result in upward afternoon revisions to mortgage rates.
With little monthly and no quarterly economic reports being posted, Thursday’s weekly release of unemployment figures may end up moving the markets and mortgage rates more than it traditionally does. The Labor Department is expected to announce that 370,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week, rising slightly from the previous week’s total. The higher the number of new claims for benefits, the better the news for the bond market and mortgage pricing as it would indicate weakness in the employment sector.
The first monthly report comes early Friday morning when December’s Goods and Services Trade Balance data will be posted. This report measures the U.S. trade deficit and can affect the value of the U.S. dollar versus other currencies, but it usually does not cause enough movement in bond prices to affect mortgage rates. It is expected to show a $48.2 billion trade deficit.
February’s preliminary reading to the University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment will be released late Friday morning. This index measures consumer willingness to spend and usually has a moderate impact on the financial markets. If it shows an increase in consumer confidence, the stock markets may move higher and bond prices could fall. It is currently expected to come in at 74.0, down from January’s final reading of 75.0. That would indicate consumers were less optimistic about their own financial situations than last month and are less likely to make large purchases in the near future. Since consumer spending makes up over two-thirds of the U.S. economy, this would be considered good news for bonds and mortgage pricing.
Overall, despite being a fairly light week in terms of economic releases and relate events, it is still relatively crucial for the mortgage market. We saw the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury Note spike higher Friday as a result of the stronger than expected employment data. Stocks rallied as a result of that data, extending the 2012 stock rally that has pushed the Dow up over 5% and the Nasdaq up 11% year-to-date. Both indexes are at their highest levels since May 2008 and December 2000 respectively. This has me believing we are due to see a pullback in stocks fairly soon. If/when this happens, we should see funds shift back into bonds for safety, leading to lower mortgage rates. Keep in mind that this is more or less just speculation, but I am expecting to move to a less conservative approach regarding short-term mortgage rates in the near future.
There are only two pieces of monthly economic data scheduled for release this week. Neither of them is considered to be highly important, so we don’t have much to pin our hopes on or to be concerned with this week.There are two Treasury auctions on the calendar that may influence mortgage rates the middle part of the week and the second part of Fed Chairman Bernanke’s testimony to Congress, but no important economic data.
Nothing of concern is due tomorrow, so look for the stock markets and news from Europe- particularly Greece, to drive the markets tomorrow. Fed Chairman Bernanke will speak to the Senate Budget Committee at 10:00 AM Tuesday. I don’t expect him to say anything different than he said last week to the House Budget Committee, but the Q&A portion of his appearance could lead to something new. It is worth watching, but it will probably not lead to a noticeable change in the markets or mortgage rates.
The two important Treasury auctions come Wednesday and Thursday when 10-year Notes and 30-year Bonds are sold. The 10-year sale is the more important one as it will give us a better indication of demand of mortgage-related securities. If the sales are met with a strong demand from investors, we should see the bond market move higher during afternoon trading the days of the auctions. But a lackluster interest from buyers, particularly international investors, would indicate a waning appetite for longer-term U.S. securities and lead to broader bond selling. The selling in bonds would likely result in upward afternoon revisions to mortgage rates.
With little monthly and no quarterly economic reports being posted, Thursday’s weekly release of unemployment figures may end up moving the markets and mortgage rates more than it traditionally does. The Labor Department is expected to announce that 370,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week, rising slightly from the previous week’s total. The higher the number of new claims for benefits, the better the news for the bond market and mortgage pricing as it would indicate weakness in the employment sector.
The first monthly report comes early Friday morning when December’s Goods and Services Trade Balance data will be posted. This report measures the U.S. trade deficit and can affect the value of the U.S. dollar versus other currencies, but it usually does not cause enough movement in bond prices to affect mortgage rates. It is expected to show a $48.2 billion trade deficit.
February’s preliminary reading to the University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment will be released late Friday morning. This index measures consumer willingness to spend and usually has a moderate impact on the financial markets. If it shows an increase in consumer confidence, the stock markets may move higher and bond prices could fall. It is currently expected to come in at 74.0, down from January’s final reading of 75.0. That would indicate consumers were less optimistic about their own financial situations than last month and are less likely to make large purchases in the near future. Since consumer spending makes up over two-thirds of the U.S. economy, this would be considered good news for bonds and mortgage pricing.
Overall, despite being a fairly light week in terms of economic releases and relate events, it is still relatively crucial for the mortgage market. We saw the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury Note spike higher Friday as a result of the stronger than expected employment data. Stocks rallied as a result of that data, extending the 2012 stock rally that has pushed the Dow up over 5% and the Nasdaq up 11% year-to-date. Both indexes are at their highest levels since May 2008 and December 2000 respectively. This has me believing we are due to see a pullback in stocks fairly soon. If/when this happens, we should see funds shift back into bonds for safety, leading to lower mortgage rates. Keep in mind that this is more or less just speculation, but I am expecting to move to a less conservative approach regarding short-term mortgage rates in the near future.
get a second opinon on financing
Your home purchase is one of the most important financial decisions of your lifetime. Taking a few minutes to verify your existing lender’s offer in regards to loan structure, rates, and cost is time well spent.
The #1 reason that real estate transactions don’t close is due to financing issues, and transactions can fall apart very quickly.
Getting a second opinion is a win-win scenario. If Princeton Capital can provide a better loan value, you win. If we can’t, we can verify the validity of the other offer for you, and you win.
Contact Princeton Capital or your loan officer about it. We want you to realize the difference a second opinion can make for your home financing.
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