Building a new home can be an exciting process. Choosing your favorite community, the best lot, your dream plan and then selecting every little detail. Not only do I have a background in new home construction with a top Texas home builder, I also went through the building process recently and had both good and bad experiences. I was asked by a friend how they should choose which builder to go with … Can you say loaded question?

Many people fail to realize that choosing the right new home builder is far more important than having the perfect floor plan. The wrong builder means a life filled with stress and sleepless nights while the right builder will ensure your home is built to last with relatively low stress.

A friend of mine recently sold their beautiful home which resides in a wonderful neighborhood and on an amazing lot in Plano Texas. You’d think by my initial description it was easy to sell. Unfortunately it was built 20 years ago and looked like it. Meaning the appliances, wallpaper, popcorn ceilings and brass hardware dated the home. The carpets needed to be replaced and the paint needed touching up. Don’t get me wrong, they took amazing care of the home but this was making it difficult to sell their home. If you are in the same situation, you have two options here!

1. Reduce the price and sell the home.
This scenario gives the new buyers an opportunity to update the home how they see fit. Sounds pretty tempting for both parties, right?

I have had the pleasure of working with a lot of home buyers looking to buy their first home or even their second or third home. I can’t tell you how many times I meet people who are ready and willing but not able. They have a steady job with a good income and by all accounts should be able to buy that new home. There is just one little 3 digit number getting in the way. Their credit score!

It breaks my heart to tell them that they will have to wait on reaching their dream but I will never leave it there. I love to encourage my home buyers to take control of their credit score and make it work for them. It can be a 6 month process to get it under control but it’s worth it in so many ways.

1. Check your credit report at all three agencies- Equifax, Experian and Trans Union (checking your own credit is called a “soft-pull” and will not negatively affect your credit). Look for errors that may appear on your report. Each agency offers a place on their website to submit online disputes. They have 30 days to verify the information is correct or they will remove it.
2. Do NOT open new credit cards that you don’t need just to increase your available credit. This approach often backfires and will lower your score.
3. Keep your current account balances as low as possible. High outstanding debt will negatively affect your score since you will have a greater chance at missing a payment.

While looking for more information on combating junk mail (snail mail, not email), I came across some facts from New American Dream and I thought I’d share them with you. Hopefully this list will inspire you to put an end to your own overflowing mailbox.

Junk Mail Facts and Figures
-Source: New American Dream article, “Just the Facts: Junk Mail Facts and Figures”

• More than 100 million trees worth of bulk mail arrive in American mail boxes each year. That’s the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. (New American Dream calculation from Conservatree and U.S. Forest Service statistics)

Have you ever tackled a project like remodeling a single room? I can hear it now, my child giggling and saying, “funny daddy, you have paint on your nose”. A single room can be overwhelming by itself but when you’re a home buyer looking at a fixer-upper home as an investment or for your personal home, it’s easy to become flustered. This is where having a solid plan comes in and then just like any other big project, take it one step at a time. The plan you create will differ greatly depending on whether you are living in your fixer-upper or not.

Not Living in Your Fixer-Upper
Any home remodel is much easier when you’re not living in the house, but there are still some guidelines that will make things a lot easier.

Buying or selling a home provides an excellent opportunity to get rid of clutter. Uncluttering your home not only reduces what you’ll move to your new home but will help stage your home for selling. As any Realtor will tell you, uncluttering your home as a home seller is very important. Take time to sort out unwanted items since your junk may be someone else’s treasure. The following are some useful ideas to help prepare for a successful yard sale.

Regulations
Check with your local HOA or city chamber to determine if a permit is required and what the rules are for posting yard sale signs.

One of quickest ways to get “Unapproved” for the loan on your dream home is to do something that negatively effects your credit score during the home loan process. One of the first conversations we have with all clients (good or not so good credit) is notifying them to NOT make any major purchases while building or buying a home. That means NO new car, new boat, furniture, electronics, etc… until the loan is closed.

To better understand why or how this will effect you, I will give you an example of a client with good credit that buys a new car during the home loan process and the real cost of buying that new car. Oh, and the “Cost” I am referring to is not just the new payment.

Many people ask me whether they should try to sell their home by owner rather than paying a REALTOR to sell it for them. That is a relatively easy question to answer but a hard one for many home sellers to swallow. It’s always hard to give up part of your hard earned equity and unfortunately, many REALTORS fail to truly earn their commission making it even harder to let go.

If you pull up the real estate stats for your local area, you will likely find that over 80% of the home sellers that list their home as for sale by owner eventually enlist a REALTOR to sell their home for them. For the other 20%, more than half say they would never do it again. Of the other half, 7% sold their home to someone they knew so really, less than 13% of FSBO sellers actually stuck it out and weathered the storm.