What Are Home Buying Contingencies? If you're a home buyer making an offer on the waterfront home of your dreams, you might spend a lot of time thinking about home buying contingencies. Understanding what contingencies are and how they can benefit you is important. Once you know how contingencies work, you'll be able to make choices that can make your home purchase successful.

What Are Home Buying Contingencies?

Home buying contingencies are clauses in a home purchase contract that enable the home buyer to drop out of the purchase if certain conditions are not met. There are three major home buying contingencies that are used in home purchase contracts.

What Are the Different Kinds of Contingencies?

Perhaps the most commonly utilized contingencies are the home appraisal…

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When Is PMI Necessary?Lenders ideally want to see a 20% down payment from all of their applicants. This gives a new oceanfront homeowner a large share of equity in the home from the moment they move in, which makes them that much less likely to default on the rest of the payments. While 20% may have been reasonable for certain areas in certain time periods, the inflation in many cities today has been high enough that fewer and fewer people can come up with that kind of cash on the spot. Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) was the solution for these buyers to mitigate the risk a lender takes. See what the rules are before you start shopping around for lenders.

Standard Terms of PMI

PMI is a way to avoid raising interest rates for all potential homeowners. It passes…

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Or take it off the market until next year?

Less Competition: Many homeowners that consider taking their Manasquan, NJ home off the market during the holidays don’t want the hassle of showing their home. And most waterfront house sellers who are considering putting their home on the market wait until the first of the year or until spring time.  

  • Less Competition.
  • Fewer homes like yours to compete with.
  • With reduced inventory means more buyers looking at your home, in person and online.         

Motivated Buyers: Anyone who takes time out of their busy holiday schedule to shop for a home is a serious buyer now.  

  • Buying for tax reason before year end or 1031 exchange.
  • Some buyers motivated to buy now with pending changes to…

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While you may be ready to pass the cranberry sauce this season, is your tableware? No matter how skilled one is in the kitchen, without the proper serving dishes, a holiday feast can fall flat by the time it reaches the dining table. From platters to gravy boats, place your culinary accomplishments on display in these fine dishes. 

Juliska: Berry & Thread Deviled Egg Platter The patterns on this platter are both subtle and refined, making it the perfect dish to present your first hors d'oeuvres for the evening.   

Riedel: Vinum Stemware Collection

While not technically a dish, your glassware is just as important at dinner. Whether your guests prefer a glass of Chardonnay or Burgundy, this crystal collection by Riedel…

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When is a 203k Loan a Good IdeaThere are a lot of different types of loan plans available in the market. Knowing the right one for your situation as well as your goals can be confusing and frustrating for people who are new to the New Jersey waterfront market. With so many plans available to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start. One loan plan worth considering is the FHA 203k home loan. This is a loan plan that is slightly different than what many people are used to in the market. Unlike a USDA loan, this home loan program does not have location limitations, so it can be used in many more communities such as Highlands. The key difference is that buyers are able to roll both the cost of the home as well as any repairs into one loan for the home.

When Should You…

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Buying a Home with a Septic Tank Buying a home in a some areas, even luxury and waterfront homes, can often mean owning a home with an on-site septic system. With no available municipal sewer service in most rural areas, on-site septic systems provide an efficient, low-maintenance way to handle and process home waste in a sanitary manner. Although designs can vary, depending on the soil, location, and other specific details regarding the home, most on-site septic systems consist of a waste pipe, a septic tank or tanks, and a drain field to filter the resulting effluent safely into the soil. When these systems are functioning properly and have been correctly designed and installed, there is little evidence of their existence visible above the level of the soil.

Before buying a…

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When the budget is small, getting a house that's right may be a challenge––but that doesn't mean it can't be done. There are plenty of options in housing markets such as Bay Head, NJ for people who have small budgets, even when they want a waterfront property that really makes them happy and that they can love and enjoy for a long time.

By considering all the possibilities and exploring options that might not have been thought about before, the chances of getting a house that's a good fit is much higher. Before any buyer with a tight budget gives up on finding a house, they should carefully consider what they may be able to do with that particular budget.

How Tight is the Budget?

Tight budgets may mean different things to different people. For…

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Financial Ratios for Loans Prospective buyers preparing to purchase a home in Bay Head or surrounding areas sometimes focus solely on whether they can fit the payment into their monthly budget and scrape up enough cash to cover a small down payment and closing costs. But even when there seems to be enough available cash in the budget to meet a monthly mortgage payment of that oceanfront dream home, there can also be a serious debt-to-income issue capable of killing the joy of owning a home. 

To understand how this relates to your specific home buying situation, speak with your lender and/or a financial advisor.

Understanding Debt-to-Income

Basically defined as the portion of the monthly household income that is assigned to meeting debt payments, most financial gurus…

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For those who have ever closed on a mortgage before, you know that on top of all the complicated ins and outs of selecting a mortgage, there is a ton of paperwork to bring in, look at, and sign. This guide can help buyers with what kinds of documents are needed and which disclosures will be received during the process.

Documents to Gather

Prospective buyers in the Bay Head area may hear from friends and family members that it takes forever to get approved for a mortgage. The timing lies almost entirely in the underwriting process, where the lender has to verify the information written in the application. If all necessary documents are gathered beforehand and provided with the application, it will take less time.

Employment

The means of…

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Home Wish List When thinking of buying a home in Bay Head or surrounding areas, most people probably have a long list of wants for that house. The reality, however, is that it can be unrealistic to look for a home with literally everything on the wish list.

Even if a buyer can afford every desired feature, such as oceanfront, luxury, with a pool, etc..., the simple fact is it’s rare to find a home that fits that long list of requirements. As such, buyers should prioritize expectations, isolating a handful of needs from a much larger collection of wants.

Identifying Wants

The categorization process can be painful. Consider these approaches if you're having trouble:

  • Require justification for it: Having four members in the household is certainly a good…

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