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Understanding Financial Gifts
 Getting a little help from ol' Mom and Dad to help buy your first home? Lucky you! For most first time homebuyers, coming up with the money for a down payment and closing costs is the biggest challenge. But getting a bit of a financial windfall will go a long way. Just know in advance how lenders view and treat financial gifts when qualifying for a home loan. What's important?
One of the things to know is that lenders will want to 'source' the financial gift to make sure it's from a legitimate source. For instance, when you provide your bank statements to the lender, they'll match up what appears on your paycheck stubs with deposit verification from your bank statements.
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MORTGAGE RATES
U.S. averages as of November 2024:
30 yr. fixed: 6.72%
15 yr. fixed: 5.99%
5/1 yr. adj: 6.18%
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If you get paid on the 1st and 15th, there should be deposits shown on those dates. But if you get a financial gift, the money will simply appear in your account. Lenders will want to know
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What Does The Home Seller Owe?
 Buyers are looking for ways to get an edge over sellers. One way is to find out how much sellers owe their lenders on homes for sale. With this knowledge, they can gauge how much negotiation room the seller might have.
In a seller's market, knowing what the seller owes can help the buyer formulate an offer the seller will accept, avoiding an expensive bidding war with other buyers.
In a normal market or a buyer's market, the buyer hopes that the seller will accept an offer that is lower than current market value, but high enough to allow the seller to get out of their mortgage debt without bringing money to the closing table.
Short sales are a little different. Short sales are more
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Is Your House Making You Sick?
 Your home is supposed to be a sanctuary, but what if it’s quite the opposite? What if your home is making you sick? That’s the situation for some people, and the following are some of the most common ways you could be impacted if your own house is making you sick.
Is the Humidity Too High?
When your home has humidity above 60%, it becomes mold’s breeding ground. If your humidity levels get high enough, it can allow mold to spread behind the walls. We know mold can cause various health issues, including chronic sinus conditions, and even damage your nervous system.
When a house is too humid, it can also be a welcoming environment for dust mites, causing sleep disorders, allergic reactions, and stomach problems.
Of course, on the flip side, if your home isn’t humid enough, it can cause respiratory irritation. A home with humidity that’s below 40% is considered too
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6 Benefits of Using Vintage Furniture in Your Home
 Vintage or antique furniture can be a great addition to your home design. When you mix in older pieces, it can help your home feel curated. There’s that sense of timelessness that comes with older furniture, and you avoid having a space that feels too sterile or like you just went into a furniture store and chose a package already put together.
We often use the terms vintage and antique interchangeably in home design, which is similar, and the difference is in how old the pieces are. A vintage piece is usually anywhere from 30 to 100 years old, and an antique piece of furniture is technically more than 100 years old.
The following are six benefits and advantages of mixing some vintage or antique pieces in your home.
1. It’s Not a Fleeting Trend
When you shop at today’s furniture manufacturers and companies, the pieces are often trendy and designed for the moment. That’s fine too, but when you invest in a vintage or antique piece, it will stand the test of time. They’re never going out of style, and many modern companies will try to replicate or modernize vintage
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Wondering What Your Home Is Worth?
