At Quicken Loans we strive to make the closing of your mortgage as quick, easy, and effortless as possible. One way we make that happen is with our current closing process. After you’ve confirmed a date, time and selected a location of your choice, we will select one of our best notaries to meet you at that location for the signing. It may seem a little odd that we would send someone whom you’ve never met to sign all of these important documents, but we want to do everything in our power to ensure this is the most undemanding mortgage process ever. Even if it means coming to your home for the closing so you don’t have to get out of your pajamas. So to ease some of your apprehension about the notion of allowing a stranger in your space, let’s break this down and not only discuss the notary’s role in the transaction but also discuss the benefits of having one.

What Are Notaries and What Do they Do?

According to Merriam-Webster, a notary is “a public officer who certifies and attests to the authenticity of writing (e.g., deeds) and takes affidavits, depositions, and protests of negotiable instrument.” In layman’s terms, a notary is someone who is legally authorized to sign documents. Once the signing is complete, the notary will take the documents, place them in a UPS box along with the UPS label that we have provided for them and send them back to us to ensure that everything was signed properly before we shop them off to the county for recording. Without the notary’s stamp and signature, your documents aren’t considered valid, and your state won’t accept the documents once they are sent for recording. You would have to resign all the documentation again.

How We Select Our Notaries

Once you’ve completed the scheduling call and have secured your date and time, our sister company who handled all of the title work (Title Source) will reach out to one of their trusted vendors to find the person with the highest satisfaction rate in your area. In order to be considered for the position the potential notary must send in their W-9’s, a copy of their notaries commission (license), go through an extensive background check as well as send us their resume with three business referrals. Pretty thorough, right? Once the selection has been made, the notary will reach out to you to make an introduction before coming to your closing location.

Benefits of Notaries

Most notaries are mobile, which means although they don’t have an office where you can meet, they are able to travel and meet you almost wherever you want. As previously stated, most of our clients prefer to close in the comfort of their own home. However if you would like to meet at a coffee shop or a library, the notary will have no problem meeting you there. Another benefit of having a notary perform the closing is their ability to bring a witness should one be required to sign the mortgage. That’s right, depending on the state that you live in, you may be required to provide a witness and have them sign the mortgage. No worries, we’re able to help you with that. Once we schedule the closing, we’ll contact our notary team and have them assign a notary who will be able to bring a witness with them if needed. Just one less thing you have to worry about.

If you have any questions regarding notaries and their role in closing you home loan please let us know in the comment section below.

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Do you think your house value is heading in the right direction? That would be up, of course.

If you say yes, you’re not alone. In fact, an article from Mortgage New Daily from a few days back says that more than half of Americans in a recent Gallup poll expect average home prices in their area to rise.

That’s up from only 33 percent just one year ago of Americans who were bullish about their home value. What’s even more telling of the optimism Americans are feeling again (it’s been awhile since many of us have felt this way) about their home values is that only 14% of homeowners polled think prices will drop further.

That’s the lowest in years.

Let’s learn some more. Here’s some great info, straight from Mortgage News Daily:

Gallup said today that more than half of Americans expect average home prices in their local area to increase over the next year. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they expected an increase, up from 33 percent one year earlier and the first time since 2007 that the positive responses to that question topped 50 percent.

Thirty-four percent of respondents expect home prices to remain the same, down from 44 percent and only 14 percent expect further declines. Last year 23 percent thought homes would lose more value and at the peak of the housing crisis in 2008 38 percent were looking for more losses.

Gallup conducted its annual Economy and Personal Finance survey from April 4 to 14, polling 2,000 respondents, more than 1,400 of which were homeowners, on various housing topics. Fifty-one percent of both homeowners and renters expected price increases however 37 percent of homeowners thought prices would stay the same and 12 percent thought prices would decrease compared to 27 percent and 20 percent of renters.

My neighborhood is slowly coming back in value. I’ve seen some sales that prove the worst days are behind us. I don’t plan on moving anytime soon anyway, so the value isn’t that big of a deal to me, but for those who want to buy or sell, things are picking up. There is still time to get some good deals in the U.S. housing market, but those times are fleeting. I wouldn’t be surprised if the market shifts completely back to a seller’s market. We’ll see.

Read the full article here and let us know what you think. Are values rising in your area?

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Are you ready for another edition of “That’s an Interesting Looking House?” Well, I hope you are because today we’re traveling out west and exploring what makes a Pueblo home a Pueblo home.

Hint: If you’ve driven by a Taco Bell or Del Taco recently, you’re already somewhat familiar believe it or not. Keep that in mind as you read on…and stop thinking about tacos – deliciously greasy fast food tacos. Moving on….

Pueblo Style: A Short History

Most Pueblo homes are found in the western and southwestern United States and draw inspiration from Native American adobe houses. These early homes had to withstand intense daytime heat and chilly desert nights. With limited resources, natives used materials around them, mostly a dried clay-mud mixture, to build their homes.

Traditional adobe homes used by Native Americans had several distinct characteristics to retain and disseminate heat. The most noticeable was the thick walls. Much like modern passive solar or earthbag homes, adobe houses utilized massive walls to absorb heat in the day and released it throughout the night – keeping occupants relatively warm on cold nights. Small windows kept the inside cool by limiting the amount of sunlight that could get in. They also provided protection from invading tribes.

Also, the lightly colored clay prevented further overheating. Think of this as wearing a black shirt verse a white shirt on a sunny day. Black absorbs light and you get hot quickly. Lighter colors deflect light keeping you cooler.

Later on, Spanish settlers infused some of their architectural elements into the Pueblo style. Arches and columns, or zapatas, reminiscent of some European architecture started to become a part of many adobe homes moving toward the mid 1800s.

Other key features:

• Irregular foot print
• Earth-tone exterior
• Asymmetrical in design
• Vigas, or wooden beams which support the roof, that protrude outside the wall
• Rounded corners and edges
• Stucco covered exterior
• Narrow, covered porches
• Small windows
• Brick or wood floors
• Kiva, or beehive-shaped fireplace

Pueblo Revival Homes

Pueblo Revival homes became popular around the 1920s and retained many of the qualities of their predecessors. The major difference though is that these houses tend to be a little more ornate in design. Bright accent colors or vibrant tiles often surround doorways and windows.

Other key features:

• Irregular footprint
• Asymmetrical in design
• Earth-tone stucco exterior
• Multiple stories
• Arched entry ways
• Tile accents around windows and doors
• Bright accent colors
• Low-pitched or flat roof
• Clay tile shingles

Newer construction homes, like the rows and rows of cookie-cutter homes in Las Vegas, may not look like exactly like traditional adobe homes; however, you can easily see the historical connection. Simple stucco exteriors, minimal décor and earth tones harken back to earlier renditions.

There you go! Now you know a little bit more about one of the most popular architectural styles in the western United States, and coincidently the architectural choice of two fast food taco places.

Having trouble figuring out which style your home fits into? Maybe one of our previous articles can help you!

That’s an Interesting Looking House: Colonial Style

That’s an Interesting Looking House: Classical Style

That’s an Interesting Looking House: Victorian Style
That’s an Interesting Looking House: Victorian Style Part II
That’s an Interesting Looking House: Prairie Style
That’s an Interesting Looking House: Bungalow Style

Is there a particular home style you’d like to learn about? Share it with us in the comments section.

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Right now is the most popular time for people to buy a home, and if you’re looking to sell or refinance your home, one of the things you’ll have to deal with is the appraisal. If your appraisal doesn’t go well, it’ll considerably drop the perceived (because perception is reality) value of your home. So, it’s really important to do some research and know what to prepare for when you’re getting an appraisal.

The basic thing to keep in mind, an MSN.com article explains, is that “Some of the advice [for appraisals] — like home valuations themselves these days — might seem contradictory. But what all the appraisers agree on is the importance of keeping the look, feel and condition of the property as updated and cared-for as possible.”

To best prep for your appraisal, you should become familiar with the appraisal process so you know what to expect so you can prepare your home accordingly.

The Appraisal

While your mortgage lender can’t conduct the appraisal, they’re the one to order it through an appraisal management company, which will then select the individual appraiser to visit your home. The appraisal will last approximately 20-45 minutes as the appraiser examines the quality, condition, size, etc., of your home.

The three parts of the appraisal

With every appraisal, you have the inspection, the comparables and the final appraisal report. The inspection is the part where the appraiser visits your home. The comparables (comps) are similar homes in your area that have recently been sold. The appraiser researches comparable homes to help figure out the market value of your home.

And, you guessed it, the final appraisal report is what the appraiser issues after he/she has inspected your home and researched the comps.

Your Home

The general appearance of your home will affect the appraiser’s evaluation of your home. Before an appraisal, spruce up your home, inside and out, so your house looks clean, neat, well-kept and appealing to others.

Start with the outside

Mow and trim the lawn, put away or organize any tools/gardening equipment and clear away any debris like leaves or sticks. Get rid of any noticeable weeds or dead plants, too. Also look at the condition of the house itself. Do you have peeling paint, cracked/missing bricks or mortar, damaged gutters or siding? Peeling paint is one of the big things appraisers look at, and some types of mortgages appraisals – like FHA – have very specific requirements about paint condition. It’s absolutely worth your time and money to repaint any worn or damaged areas inside or outside your home before an appraisal.

Now tackle the inside of your home

After you’ve got everything shipshape outside, walk through your front door and try to look at everything through the eyes of a critical stranger. Mess and clutter will project a negative image of your home and can decrease its appraised value.

Some experts say just an old TV can make an entire room look outdated. This isn’t a necessary change, but if you were thinking about upgrading your TV soon anyway, think about doing it before your appraisal to spruce up your home’s appeal.

Keep your appraiser’s comfort in mind

You don’t want to patronize your appraiser, but think about little things you can do to make the visit a pleasant one. For example, lock up your dog if you have one. The appraiser doesn’t want an excited, or angered, pet jumping up on him/her while working. If it’s cold outside, make sure you have your house set at a comfortably-warm temperature and vice versa if it’s hot outside. You want the appraiser’s visit to be as pleasant as possible.

Also keep in mind the $500 rule

Appraisers often measure home value in $500 increments. If your home needs some relativity-minor repairs, they’ll hurt your appraisal. Absolutely fix or replace all non-functioning door latches/handles, torn screens, worn out carpet and basic plumbing and light fixtures.

Effective age

Having lights, doors or windows that don’t work can affect your home’s effective age. If elements of your home are worn or in disrepair, its effective age will be higher so it will be compared to homes that are older than it actually is.

Keep track of all repairs or updates to your home

This is something you should do whether you’re thinking about appraisals or not – so that you can point them out, along with any other special features of your home, to the appraiser.

Sell the neighborhood

You’ll also want to keep track of and show the appraiser any changes or amenities in your neighborhood. If there are any parks, playgrounds, historic landmarks, unique shops, restaurants or anything else that makes your area stand out as a great place to live.

The bottom line for home appraisals is to make your house as appealing as possible but don’t stress about it too much. Appraisers are trained to be careful and fair in their inspections.

Have any questions or suggestions? Please share them with us!

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We can talk all day about how mortgage rates are looking great and holding, but what really matters is how people are responding to these low rates. Now we have some solid statistics to show us that people are just as optimistic about the current housing market as they are with our current mortgages rates. Mortgage News Daily offers an extensive analysis of Fannie Mae’s monthly telephone survey which asks just over 1,000 homeowners and renters their thoughts on everything housing related.

This month’s survey, which contains over 100 questions, shows that views on the housing market stayed almost the same from February to March, which is good because they’re optimistic. The graph used in the article indicated that 71% of individuals surveyed believe that now is the time to buy a new home, while 26% believe it’s a good time to sell; this is nearly double the percentage from this point last year.

While many of the statistics presented in this article show a hopeful viewpoint from consumers, there seems to be a growing skepticism towards the housing market staying this good for a while. There was a slight bump in the percentage of those surveyed who believe that home prices will increase over the next 12 months, and while those who think prices will go down hasn’t adjusted much, those who believe prices will stay the same has decreased five percent in the past three months. The article cites Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of Fannie Mae, Doug Duncan, with his best insight on why the consumers are feeling this way:

“While the survey shows a string of 17 positive one-year-ahead home price expectations through March, the average expected gains have remained below 3 percent. By comparison, main measures of national home prices in early 2013 posted year-over-year gains of at least double or triple that figure.”

Based on this survey, it seems people are aware the market is getting better but are also concerned with it not staying this good for the rest of the year. I’m not saying consider refinancing or locking in a mortgage while rates are this low; however, people are speculating that the market may get more competitive by the end of the year. I’ve been saying that after seeing the PMMS reports for the past month. In either case, read whole article here for more insight and an extended look at Fannie Mae’s monthly report.

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Despite persistent reminders in the media of jobs being dropped and cuts to the federal budget due to sequestration, the housing market is something to remain optimistic about. That’s the word from the Kudlow Report this past week, as the CEO of Toll Brothers, Douglas Yearley, says that the data revealed on housing starts went along with his predictions. The CEO of the “America’s Luxury Home Builder” says that housing starts rose 0.8% in February, compared to 7.3% drop they saw in January.

If you’re not privy to the terms, housing starts are the start of construction on a new house and refer to the number of new houses being made in a time period. It’s an economic indicator because more housing starts indicate building permits, implying a stronger housing market and economy.

While that may not seem like a significant jump compared to the previous month’s loss, more starts lead to more building permits which shows the housing market on the gradual road to improvement. Housing starts have risen to roughly 900,000 a month, still sitting in the shadow of the record highs of 2 million in the mid 2000’s. This is still a good sign none the less considering these numbers are the highest we’ve seen them at since June 2008, and especially when other market areas are tightening up with the looming sequestration.

This video is very much in the vein of “great minds think alike,” as you will hear Kudlow and Yearly, going into greater knowledge on the subject than I have, show how the market indicates this good news that they were optimistically predicting. You can find the video here.

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Early spring is a popular time for buying (and consequently selling) homes, so, now’s the time to get your home on the market. If you’re thinking about listing your home as for sale by owner (FSBO), there are some definite positives and negatives you need to understand before selling your home yourself. While having to pay a 5-7% commission to your realtor can make selling the home yourself seem like a no-brainer, it’s really not that cut-and-dried.

One basic thing to keep in mind is to focus on the appraised value of your home and not the tax especially, just isn’t relevant at this point.

The Pros

No commission fee. A 6% commission on the average selling price of $256,000 is about $15,000.

You’re in control. You get to pick the price, the appointment times and when/how you negotiate with the buyer. If a realtor is selling your home he/she is going to be walking people through at any time throughout the day so you’ll always have to be ready for buyers to traipse through your home.

You know your home better than any agent so you can point out all of its amenities. A realtor is going to try to remember all the features of your home along with all the other houses he/she is currently selling. There are lots of networks and venues for you to list your home. You can put a sign on your lawn with attractive flyers, put up an ad on Craig’s List, list it in local papers and on websites like ForSaleByOwner.com, HomesByOwner.com, Zillow.com and Owners.com.

The Cons

There’s the risk of selling your home for a lot less than it’s worth. Statistics have shown that the average FSBO home sells for about 15% less than homes sold through a realtor. Sometimes, though, a realtor will do a free market analysis for you, hoping to gain your business in the process.

Your home will have less visibility. While there are lots of venues to for you to promote your home, only realtors can list homes on the Multiple Listing Service, which is one of the biggest online tools real estate agents use. Realtors have more experience, and sometimes more drive, in promoting your home through ads, signs and other methods.

Preparing all of the legal forms, disclosures etc. is your responsibility, and if you’re unfamiliar with the guidelines and requirements, which most of us are, you take the risk of financial and legal liability.

You’ll have to spend a lot of time educating yourself on the process of selling a home, the current market, advertising methods and working with potential buyers.

It might be harder to weed out unqualified/uninterested buyers without prior experience. Unfortunately, people who may not be able to get the proper financing will seek out homes that are for sale by owner because they know most private sellers are pretty inexperienced. You’ll also get some “just curious” folks who aren’t serious about buying a home but like to look around. These types of inquiries will waste a lot of your time and can distract you from serious buyers.

If you’re interested in listing your home as for sale by owner, don’t be discouraged by these negative aspects. You just need to go into the process informed and educated. Do your research, prepare for the pitfalls and roadblocks and don’t spend dollars to save pennies.

I’ve collected a lot of tips for you here, but please share any comments, suggestions or information you have with us!

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This is something we’ve known was going to happen for months. Mortgage rates couldn’t stay in the historical cellar forever. They had to rise eventually.

USA Today reported a few days ago that rates have been ever so slightly ticking up for the past three weeks. The average 30-year fixed rate reported by Freddie Mac went from 3.31% to 3.5%. Many financial experts doubt they’ll get back down to their all-time lows. Bad news for anyone who hasn’t refinanced or bought their dream home, right? No so much.

Rates are still down at levels my mother (who clearly remembers the late ’70s and early ’80s, which saw mortgage rates as high at 18%) can’t believe. You can still get rates below 4%, which makes my mother chuckle. “Our mortgage was 12% and we thought we had the best deal in the world,” she told me. I smile and remind her of my 2.75% (APR 2.9%) 15-year fixed VA loan. I love my VA loan. Love it!

Anyway, lots of folks can still take advantage of today’s rates, even if the lowest rates have passed them by. And this is shaping up to be an interesting home buying season. Bloomberg reported on a house in the D.C. area that had 168 offers and sold for twice the asking price. Huh? Here’s some of the article:

The U.S. housing market, entering its busiest season, is tipped so far in favor of sellers that almost a third of listings in areas from Washington, D.C., to Denver and Seattle are under contract in two weeks or less.

One home in Washington attracted 168 offers in December and sold for almost twice the asking price. About 70 people lined up last month for a lottery to select buyers for four available houses in a San Ramon, California, subdivision where, in August, bidders camped for weeks to secure purchases.

A plunge in U.S. home listings to a 12-year low is driving up prices and preventing transactions from returning to historically normal levels. Many potential sellers are holding off until values rise more, while investors are snatching up distressed properties before they reach the market. Builders, reporting their best orders in years, can’t increase production fast enough. As buyers seek to take advantage of record-low mortgage rates, the supply and demand imbalance threatens to further limit deals as the key spring selling season approaches.

I’m not in the market to buy or sell a house, so the news doesn’t personally affect me. And frankly, I’m not sure my home is even back up to the value I paid for it back in 2008. But that’s ok. I love my house and plan on staying there for a long time. I do have some neighbors who’ve had their homes for sale over the past year or so. One family moved to another state and ended up renting because they couldn’t afford to sell it. Those days are clearly becoming something of the past.

The great news for home buyers is that prices are still lower than they were back in 2006 in many parts of the country. And mortgage rates certainly are lower than they were back then. So there are lots of great deals on homes and extremely low rates that make buying a home more affordable. Here’s an example of how rates can affect the amount of home you can afford:

Let’s say you want to buy a $200,000 home. If rates were back up around 6.5% (which they were when I started at Quicken Loans in 2006) and you got a 30-year fixed, your monthly mortgage payment with principal and interest would be around $1300.

But lets say you buy at home at today’s super low rate of, say, 3.375%, with an APR of 3.71%, your new payment, with principal and interest would be about $885…same loan amount for $400 less a month! So either you pay less for your $200,000 home each month or you could buy a more expensive home. Either way, you win when rates are this low.

Don’t wait, friends, if you think you want to refi or buy. They way things are going, you’re probably going to regret it if you do.

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Welcome back to “That’s an Interesting Looking Home!” This week we’re moving into the modern era and looking at Prairie or Frank Lloyd Wright style homes. However, be aware that not all Prairie style homes are Frank Lloyd Wright homes. Just like all bourbons are whiskeys, but not all whiskeys are bourbons, but that’s another story for another day.

Wonder what the differences are? Great question! Let’s get started at the Prairie style’s very foundation. Do you see what I did there? It was a nerdy architecture joke…moving on.

Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Style

As a reaction to what some have called grotesque Victorian style, many home builders stripped elaborate decorative elements from the design. Constructing simpler structures that blended in with their environment became more important than elaborate vergeboard on every single surface of the exterior.

Frank Lloyd Wright pioneered the Prairie style, which set the design standard for environment-centric homes. From using natural materials like wood to a low-profile design that seemed to blend right into the background, Prairie homes quickly became a popular home style around the turn of the 20^th century and remained so into the mid-1920s.

Wright even took his homes to the next level by incorporating elements of nature into the home itself. The epitome of Wright’s works that exemplify his idea of the Prairie style is Fallingwater.

Aside from the distinct look of Prairie style homes, a key feature of them is that Wright also designed the furniture and built-in features for each home. From tables, chairs, lamps, windows and sometimes even clothing, Wright wanted to ensure that every element of the home worked in harmony together.

Wright also sought to protect families from the dangers of society with his homes. One way this is accomplished is by hiding the entry door behind a wall or fence. In other cases, the entryway is placed in the back of the house. Additionally, homes are placed in the back of lots and obstructed by landscaping.

Wright’s Prairie style homes are mostly located in the Midwest and are one of the few American architectural styles not influenced by European architecture.

Other Key Features:

• Earth-tone colored exteriors
• Geometrically shaped design
• Low-pitched roofs
• Emphasis on horizontal lines
• Large chimneys
• Long, overhanging eaves
• Little decorative features on the exterior
• Open-floor plan design
• Lots of large windows for natural light

American Foursquare or Prairie Box Style

Wright’s home designs evolved into more of a colloquial usage through the American Foursquare style. They retain many of the same qualities as their older counterparts but also tend to incorporate elements from other home styles.

The American Foursquare spread in popularity thanks to the 1893 Columbian Exposition, more popularly known as the Chicago World’s Fair. Their simplicity and design made them easy and economical to reproduce. A few years later, you could purchase these homes from the Sears catalog. That’s right, you could pick out your new home and have it mailed to you. Check out this ad featuring one!

Prairie Boxes share a few similarities with their more traditional counter parts. Like their predecessor, they have low-pitched roofs with long, overhanging eaves and seemingly blend into their background with earth-tone colors.

The differences between the two are more noticeable. Wright’s Prairie homes are considerably more complex in design, unlike the simple cube shape of American Foursquare. This newer style also merged decorative elements from previous home styles to make them more visually appealing. Most notably, you can pretty much identify the main entryway of the house.

Other Key Features:

• Center dormer on the roof
• Large front porch over the entry way
• Simple floor plan
• Hipped or pyramid-style roof

Is there a particular home style you want to learn about? Share with other Zing readers and we’ll talk about it in our next post!

Want to learn more about popular American architecture? Visit the articles below:
Colonial Style Homes
Classical Style Homes
Victorian Style Homes
Victorian Style Homes II 

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2012 was a pretty great year. Here’s some stuff that went well: The NASA rover “Curiosity” successfully landed on Mars. Americans rocked the London Olympics. Here in Detroit, our favorite baseball team, the Detroit Tigers, made it to the World Series. Oh yeah, and mortgage rates went down, down, down and stayed there.

We can’t always know what the future holds, but we do know one thing: 2013 is going to be another great year to be a homeowner. If you haven’t yet taken the plunge into homeownership, it’s time to reassess your financial strategy, because there’s never been a better time than now to buy a home. Don’t believe me? Here are 13 reasons why you should buy a home in 2013.

Mortgage rates are CRAZY low
Low rates are like rainbows; they’re pretty marvelous, but when they’re gone, they’re gone. Just a few short years ago, 30-year fixed rates were above 6.00%. For December 2012, they averaged 3.35%. If you don’t speak mortgage, this means that by buying now, you’ll likely save thousands of dollars in interest, because rates can have a huge impact on your mortgage payment. Don’t wait for low rates to go the way of the dinosaur; when they’re gone, they probably won’t be coming back for a long, long time (if ever).

Protection against inflation
Landlords have a tendency to increase rent every year or two to accommodate for inflation. This won’t happen if you own your home. Having a fixed-rate mortgage means that you’ll make the same payment for the life of your loan, so you won’t ever pay more unless you want to. And that’s a pretty good feeling.

Home prices won’t be this low forever
Prices have been sitting pretty low for a while now, but this isn’t going to last: home prices are officially on the rise. 2013 could be your final chance to snag a cut-rate price before it becomes ancient history.

Save a lot on next year’s taxes
As a homeowner, you’ll be able to deduct everything from real estate taxes, to private mortgage insurance, to loan points paid on a purchase. In other words, homeownership and tax savings go together like pumpkin pie and Cool Whip. Check out this Zing blog post for more on the tax benefits of homeownership.

A sense of stability
Owning your home feels a lot more permanent than renting. Your kids won’t have to worry about changing schools, making new friends, or having to start anew in a strange city every few years. If you have kids, buying a home is one of the best decisions you can make for their mental well-being.

Build equity
You should think of your mortgage like a “forced savings” program. Yes, you’re writing your mortgage company a check each month, but that money, save the interest you’re paying, is still yours in the form of equity. In essence, the difference between renting and owning a home is that homeownership lets you build up your own monetary value, instead of your landlord’s.

Host a party at your place
Trying to entertain in a cramped apartment can be a bit of a drag. There’s not a lot of space, and there are neighbors all around you who get annoyed by the slightest noises. As a homeowner, you’ll have more space, more privacy, and a lot more elbow room between you and the guy next door.

Something to be proud of
You can’t help but feel a real sense of accomplishment when you’re handed the keys to your very first home. Your house is the physical manifestation of your years of hard work and financial responsibility. And nothing says “success story” like owning your very own piece of the American dream.

Paint the walls hot pink (if that’s your thing)
Are you sick of living with drab, beige walls? Are you itching to install a chandelier? Are you finally ready to build that in-ground pool you’ve always dreamed about? Landlords don’t generally let you do that type of thing. But if you own your house, the home improvement store is your oyster! You can paint, remodel, destroy or restyle just about anything in your home, whenever you feel like it, and you don’t have to answer to anyone. ANYONE!

Help your credit
Making mortgage payments on time will boost your credit score and show that you’re capable of taking on big financial responsibilities. And your credit score impacts so much more than your mortgage rate: It can affect the interest rate you get on car loans, credits cards, and any other kind of loan that you’ll conceivably take out in your lifetime. Good credit can be a powerful tool.

You won’t have to think about mortgage rates again for a long, long time
Lock in a fixed-rate now and you’ll only have to worry about rates as often as you refinance your home or move. So unless you do one of these things between now and the time your home is paid off, high mortgage rates will be a problem of the past.

A stronger sense of community
As a homeowner, you’ll be surrounded by fellow homeowners who are probably a lot like you. You’ll be centered in a strong community of like-minded people, which can be a valuable asset for you and your family.

The Mayans were wrong
Congratulations, you survived December 21, 2012. If the impending destruction of planet Earth was holding you back from your dreams of buying a home, it’s time to cast your worries aside and take advantage of today’s market conditions.

2013 could be your year. If you’re ready to become a homeowner, call Quicken Loans for a preapproval today!

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