Home Buying
Read about everything related to buying a home, from getting a good mortgage to making your offer the most attractive.
Nine reasons selling a home is easy
January 8, 2024
Dear Monty: We are selling our home in 2024. We know of your involvement in PropBox. You state that selling a home with PropBox is easy. A real estate agent has argued that selling our home on our own is…
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A homeowner loses $410k to an insurance company.
October 24, 2023
Dear Monty: Our washing machine hose ruptured and flooded the house. Our house insurance company (let’s call it HIC) forced us to use the restoration contractor they pitched. The contractor we wanted wasn’t available for “2 to 3” months, and…
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The five-year rule risk for first time homebuyers
August 4, 2023
Dear Monty: I am writing to tell you my story. Please share it in your column to warn others. I know how the Five-Year Rule works because I lost my entire down payment. When we bought our home about three…
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Negotiations are an important key
July 4, 2023
The best way to negotiate is to create a fair “win-win” agreement between buyer and seller.
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Agent wants to show my FSBO home
June 18, 2023
Dear Monty: My house is for-sale-by-owner. I want to avoid the commission. I got a call from an agent who wants to show the house but wants to know if I will pay the buyer’s commission. For all I know,…
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Selling and buying a home today is easy
May 20, 2023
Dear Monty: We recently closed on our new home. We were pre-approved, and we shopped online for many hours using real estate websites and other websites to learn more about neighborhoods around homes that interested us. We used municipal…
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