Financing

A bridge loan lets you buy the next home before your Canton house sells. What it solves, what it costs besides the loan, and the alternatives to weigh.

The lender lends against the lower of the two numbers. That is the entire mechanic, and everything else follows from it. If you agreed to pay $450,000 and the appraisal comes back at $435,000, your loan is calculated on $435,000, and the $15,000 gap becomes a cash question rather than a price question. It does … Read more

No. Program minimums run far below that, and several require nothing down at all for buyers who qualify. The twenty percent figure is real, but it was never a requirement to buy a house. It is the threshold at which a conventional loan stops requiring mortgage insurance. Two different things got collapsed into one number, … Read more

You have a legal right to cancel private mortgage insurance, and most homeowners pay it longer than they have to because they’re waiting for the wrong number. Here is the part that costs people money. Under federal law, the threshold is based on what your home was worth when you bought it, not what it’s … Read more

Refinancing does affect your credit, and the damage is smaller than the paperwork suggests. A single mortgage inquiry costs most people fewer than five points. Inquiries make up 10% of a FICO Score, and they stop counting after twelve months. The part nobody warns you about is the age of your accounts. You aren’t modifying … Read more

Getting pre-approved for a mortgage does affect your credit, but far less than most buyers expect. A mortgage inquiry typically costs a few points and fades within months. Skipping the pre-approval costs you the house. The number people are afraid of is smaller than the risk they take by avoiding it. How much does a … Read more