Home buyers and sellers - please visit www.real-estate-palmdale.com or call 1-877-SCONLEY for more information on buying or selling a home ANYWHERE in the Antelope Valley and surrounding areas!

Service areas: Acton - Adelanto - Agua Dulce - Ana Verde Hills - Antelope Acres - Antelope Valley - Canyon Country - Juniper Hills - Lake Elizabeth - Lake Hughes - Lake Los Angeles - Lancaster - Leona Valley - Littlerock - Llano - Palmdale - Pearblossom - Quartz Hill - Rancho Vista - Santa Clarita - Shadow Acres - White Fence Farms - Barrel Springs - Rosamond
Please visit www.real-estate-palmdale.com for more information

Buying a Home? 8 points of advice:

1. Don't go it alone. It's wise to have your own buyer's agent.  Shop for an agent experienced in representing buyers, especially if you plan to look at homes for sale by the owner (FSBO). The FSBO owner may not know about certain restrictions and disclosure laws, and that could leave you, the buyer, open to a lawsuit.
Retain the agent before your home search starts.

2. Don't buy big-ticket items that can wait.  Draining your savings or running up credit card debt to buying a new living room set, a big-screen TV or a new car could make a difference in your interest rate and whether you even qualify for a mortgage. Avoid spending money until after the closing is completed, whether by credit card or with cash. Keep debt down and as much money in your bank account as possible. The lender will check bank and credit card accounts.

3. Don't change jobs.  Unless it can't be avoided through such things as drastic location changes, the experts say it's best not to change your employment picture until after closing. A worse move yet is to change from a salaried position to self-employment. Lending institutions like to see steady employment and generally insist that self-employers show two years of successful income.

4. Don't be too trusting.  Only YOU can protect yourself.  Do your homework, become familiar with the entire home buying process and protect your own interests.

5. Don't mess up your credit. Don't go running around "fixing up your credit" without talking to a professional. You may think you're going to bump your score up a few notches by canceling a bunch of credit cards, for example. But canceling the wrong ones for the wrong reasons can seriously damage your credit score. Credit experts say it's important not to have too few or too many open credit accounts, and the best credit is old credit. Another possible pitfall is to transfer all your credit card balances to one card to get zero balances on the others. Your credit score actually will be higher in most cases if your balances are spread out across several cards.

6. Don't pay off your bills.  Paying credit cards down to below 50 percent of the your credit limit is generally helpful to boosting your score, but paying off all your debts is only wise if you still have enough cash when it's over to take care of your down payment, closing costs and prepays. In other words, don't deplete your entire savings to pay off your credit cards.

7. Don't be less than truthful.  Lenders want to know how much cash you have to put into the house - truthfully. If you're borrowing the money for a down payment and have to pay it back, it will have an effect on your ability to meet all your obligations. If it's a gift and doesn't have to be paid back, that's fine. But whatever you do, don't borrow it from your uncle and tell the mortgage banker it's yours.  The bank may ask you to document how long you've had it in that bank and where you got it from. A lie could backfire and ruin your whole deal.

8. Don't do any spring cleaning. Don't throw out bills, bank statements, or tax returns. A better idea than cleaning out is organizing all your important papers that may well be requested by a lender, such as W-2s, 1099 income statements, recent pay stubs and tax returns for the past couple of years if you're self employed. While you're at it, round up your prior title insurance policy, and any cancelled checks, settlement statements or other proof that you paid collections or disputed accounts.


Sandee Conley, Broker of HB Land and Homes, Palmdale, California
Serving Palmdale - Rancho Vista - Quartz Hill - East Lancaster - West Lancaster - Ana Verde - Rosamond - Acton - Leona Valley - Littlerock - Canyon Country - Aqua Dulce - Sand Canyon - Antelope Acres - Antelope Valley - Bouquet Canyon - Green Valley - Lake Elizabeth - Lake Hughes - Santa Clarita and the surrounding communities of AV & Los Angeles County.


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