Archive for December, 2008
West Hartford Yoga New Year’s Eve Benefit for Our Companions
December 30th, 2008 categories: Central Connecticut News & Information, Pets & People
Looking for something other than the traditional party for New Year’s eve. How about yoga?
West Hartford Yoga is offering a free yoga event on New Year’s eve from 10 pm - 12 midnight. In exchange for the event, a Yoga Mala (or 108 Sun Salutations), participants will be encouraged to make a donation to Our Companions Domestic Animal Sanctuary.
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Home Buying 101 - Step Two: Know Thy Credit
December 30th, 2008 categories: Home Buying 101
This is the second in my Home Buying 101 Series, now updated for 2009.
If you answered yes to the question I posed in my first post of this series, Should You Buy? And When?, then the most important thing you can and should do for yourself is find out what lenders know about you. And almost everything they care to know is in your credit reports (Note: you might also want to type your name in Google and find out what comes up because your lender can and may do the same thing).
Why is good credit important? Your credit report is a record of all your credit transactions whenever and wherever you’ve used credit to purchase goods and services. Your credit will have a big influence on whether or not you can get a mortgage, the terms of that loan, and the interest rate. If you have good credit, you may have a much wider range of mortgage offers with lower rates.
Your credit report will also affect the rates you pay for auto and home insurance. Some employers are also running credit reports - think of it as your financial resume.
What is in your credit report? Your credit report includes your current debts, paid debts, and payment histories for credit cards, loans, medical bills, leases, anything reported to a collection agency, liens, and a bankruptcy. It will also include the number of times someone pulled your credit report, called an inquiry. Read the rest of this entry »
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CTMLS vs. Fairfield County Multiple Listing Services
December 29th, 2008 categories: Central Connecticut News & Information, Real Estate Industry
Connecticut Business News Journal published an article earlier this year about the trouble CTMLS, the almost statewide multiple listing service, is having convincing agents, brokers and local realtor associations in Fairfield County to give up their local MLS service in exchange for a united, statewide MLS.
I was reminded of this when I received an e-mail from CTMLS announcing that Westchester-Putnam MLS has signed a reciprocal agreement with CTMLS, allowing the sharing of information listings between Litchfield, Hartford, New Haven, Middlesex, Tolland, Windham and New London counties in CT and Westchester and Putnam counties in NY.
Notice I left out Fairfield County, which is home to four multiple listing services, none of whom share their listings with the CTMLS or Westchester-Putnam MLS. Realtors and brokers in Fairfield county who want to expose their listings to buyers outside the county, must join the statewide MLS in addition to their local MLS, creating competition where there should be cooperation.
Five, Count ‘Em Five, Multiple Listing Services in CT
Until 2007, there were six different multiple listing services in all of Connecticut.
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Take the Money and Run - Is it Time to Refinance?
December 22nd, 2008 categories: Mortgages & Finance
Last week, 30-year mortgage rates dropped to their lowest in decades and mortgage lenders are seeing a huge spike in refinance applications as a result. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey last Wednesday, 30-year fixed rates averaged 5.18% with 1.13 points. Also read MarketWatch.
One of the mortgage blogs I read regularly, The Mortgage Reports Blog, suggests that people considering a refinance should take the money and run, predicting that mortgage rates will actually rise in the next 30 days, not decrease further.
‘To the tuned-in rate shopper, sharp drops in mortgage rates are signals to buy, not signals to “start shopping”.’
And I’ve been getting e-mails from Connecticut-area lenders all week with news on their programs and the rates are pretty darn good in some cases. It all depends on your credit, your current rate and how long you plan to stay in your current home.
I don’t know what rates will do in the next few weeks but the gettin’ seems pretty good about now.
And for home buyers, CHFA’s rate is now 5.25%. Go on, take the money and run.
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How a Dilbert Cartoon Explains the Mortgage/Financial Crisis Best
December 17th, 2008 categories: Random
Courtesy of The Real Estate Bloggers, but too funny not to share.
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