10 Tips For Selling Your Home More Quickly

1. Get a local broker.

2. Read the sale agreement and make sure you understand what's in it.

3. Know the marketplace. Recorded sale prices frequently don't tell the whole story. Area real estate professionals know the innards of recent transactions and are in a good position to provide negotiating advice.

4. Know your terms. Rather than a given price, it's best to think of a home as a package of price and terms. For instance, in a slow market it may be better to pay a "seller contribution" to help buyers off-set closing costs than to lower the sale price.

5. Reduce deposit requirements.

6. Throw in additional items, such as washer/dryer, etc.

7. Update MLS photos to match the current season.

8. Review the marketing plan. Is it being followed? Does it need to change?

9. Visit open houses for other properties. What are other sellers offering?

10. Don't sweat the small stuff, if a buyer is interested. It costs a lot more to locate another buyer.

Source: Realty Times

Making the Most of Your Rewards Points

SmartMoney shares strategies for racking up (and spending) credit card points:

Pay off your balance. The more you spend on interest, the less your points or miles -- and eventual rewards -- are worth.

Be loyal. The more credit cards you're using, the fewer points you'll accumulate on each. (The exceptions: Citibank and American Express, which combine points from several credit cards into one account.)

Avoid annual fees. In rare cases, credit cards that carry an annual fee can boost the value of your rewards. But for most consumers, it's just an added cost that eats away at their value.

Save up. Resist the urge to spend your points as soon as you rack them up. Issuers tier their programs -- the more points you have, the sweeter the reward.

Seek out point promotions. If you're earning just one point or mile per $1 spent, you're really missing out. Look to your credit card statement and your issuer's Web site for bonus-points offers.

Mortgage Troubles Even for "Good" Risks

From the New York Times: Countrywide Financial said Monday that more borrowers with good credit were falling behind on their loans and that the housing market might not begin recovering until 2009 because of a decline in house prices that goes beyond anything experienced in decades.

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Having trouble making your adjustable-rate loan payments? You may be able to refinance to a fixed-rate loan at more favorable terms than you're paying right now. Contact Charley Farley at Compass Mortgage at (603) 472-2272 for details.

Your First Down Payment

USA Today reports on the unusual measures to which some home buyers are resorting, in order to purchase their first home.

Cautions the article:

The tighter mortgage market is not only shutting out borrowers with weak, or subprime, credit ratings. It's also putting pressure on first-time borrowers, who sometimes share financial characteristics with subprime borrowers: meager savings, a new job and a brief credit history (which, in effect, is equal to a poor credit history). They also may have relatively large debts, such as a car loan or student loans, which can reduce the amount that a mortgage lender will give them.

Unlike the people featured in the article, you don't have to go to work in Baghdad, cash out your 401K, or move back in with your parents to get the money to purchase a property. Compass Mortgage offers a number of no-money-down programs. Call us today at (603) 472-2272 or visit www.CharleyFarleyHomeLoans.com.

Source: USA Today

Declutter your life

The curiously-named productivity blog "Dumb Little Man" claims:

Devote a little of your time to tossing clutter from your life, and keeping things relatively clutter-free, and you'll be rewarded with much more pleasing living spaces, with a less stressful life, and with better organization and productivity.

Read more here.

Home Buying Incentives

Below are six common incentives that home sellers are using to attract buyers, according to MarketWatch:

1. Reducing the price

2. Paying points

3. Down-payment assistance

4. Help with closing costs

5. Adding a home warranty

6. Small, personalized incentives

Top Places to Live: Almost #1!

Hanover, NH was ranked second in Money Magazine's annual ranking of top areas to live.

According to the magazine:

The world-class teaching hospital Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (just a stone's throw away in Lebanon), a smattering of environmental engineering and mid-size technology firms and, of course, Dartmouth itself all attract the cosmopolitan crowd. Add a downtown dotted with locally owned shops and restaurants and a fully stocked grocery cooperative, throw in a myriad of year-round activities sponsored by the college or the town, and it's easy to see why people love it here.