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June 3, 2015

Buying a House: Unlike Any Other Shopping Expedition!

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As most Myrtle Beach homeowners would agree, buying a house is dissimilar from any other kind of shopping—and that’s not just because of the price tag.

When you set out to shop for most everyday items, you usually pick which store you’ll visit first, then survey what they have to offer. If the goods aren’t what you had in mind—or the price seems too high—you hit the next store. We do this without a second thought.

For more important purchases, you’re apt to do some research first. You might search on the web or read magazine reviews to see which brands have the features you want. You may check out customer comments, paying more attention to the ones which sound reliable. You compare prices and delivery specifications, then buy online or find the nearest Myrtle Beach store. When you have the time, this kind of spadework pays off in the quality and value gained.

Buying a Myrtle Beach house differs considerably. If you have any doubts about that, it’s easy to verify. Just compare the process of buying a house with how you approach any other major purchase. Think about buying a new car…

Representation.

When you’re in the market for a new auto, unless your brand loyalty is unshakeable, you’re likely to visit several car dealers, check out prices and features, take a test drive (or many test drives—given today’s prices, that’s not a bad idea!); then sit down and talk turkey with the showroom salesman. If you’re a seasoned buyer, you’ll probably wind up having it out with the sales manager before the deal’s done.

When you’re buying a car—even a Rolls-Royce, which costs more than some houses—no one brings along their agent. When buying a house, you should!

It’s true that some buyers consider letting the seller’s agent put together the deal, but that’s bound to be a huge mistake. That agent is employed to represent the interests of the seller. As buyer, your interests are hardly the same. If someone were suing you, you’d never consider hiring their lawyer to represent you—but when one agent is in charge of the whole process, that’s what happens. It doesn’t make much sense, especially since having your own agent costs you no more (both agents’ commissions are paid from the seller’s proceeds).

Inspection.

When you buy a new car, if you insisted on having your mechanic check out the engine, the dealer would wonder what part of “new” you fail to understand. He would think you’d lost your mind. Yet buying a house without providing for your own thorough inspection would be a very risky move. Although skipping the inspection might save a little money, Myrtle Beach home buyers expose themselves to an array of future problems when they do so.

Pre-Approval.

It’s awkward to go about financing a new car before you know what you want, which is part of the reason dealers have a financing department. When you’re buying a house, the opposite is true. Since some people have an unrealistic idea of their total financial picture (and an incomplete understanding of lending practices), it makes any buyer stronger to appear with pre-approval in hand. Sellers know you’re for real!

If buying a house in Myrtle Beach is on your agenda, having me in your corner will help make it one “shopping expedition” that’s both a pleasure and a success. I hope you’ll call me! (843) 325-5985

Posted in Real Estate Tips
May 29, 2015

Now or Later: When Is the Right Time to Buy a Myrtle Beach Home?

4-1-15-buyahouseA few weeks ago, an eye-catching article surfaced on the Investopedia web site—one with the arresting title of “When is the Right Time to Buy a Home?” I have always assumed that for prospective Myrtle Beach home buyer, the answer to that question varies by the individual circumstances. But if there is a more cut-and-dried universal answer, it would certainly be good to know it. Definitely worth reading.

Despite its name, Investopedia is not an encyclopedic history of investing. Its own history is interesting, though—it started in Canada, was acquired by Forbes, then sold a short while later to ValueClick for $42,000,000 (talk about good investments)!

The article that was to supply the answer to “When is the Right Time to Buy a Home?” did turn out to have the right answer, though it’s a little less definitive that you would hope—prospective Myrtle Beach home buyers don’t get the simple “NOW” or “LATER,” which would be most useful. However, before the final answer is presented, scattered between the many ads and other clickbait that apparently pay for Investopedia are some interesting current facts and observations, and several cop-outs.

When it comes to the big question, “When is the Right Time to Buy a Home?” by halfway through the article, it’s looking a bit more like “now” than “later.” It cites The National Association of Home Builders’ Housing Opportunity Index, which now finds that nationally, the majority of homes are affordable for families earning a median income of $63,900. True, most Myrtle Beach families don’t earn exactly $63,900, but still, it’s good to know. Reading on, we learn that this level of affordability has been better in the past, and might be better later “unless mortgage rates move higher in the future.” Since elsewhere on the site we find that “the consensus is that interest rates will rise,” it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to deduce where “When is the Right Time to Buy a Home?” is leading.

Or so you might assume, before the article quotes a saying on Wall Street: Don’t try to time the market, which Investopedia advises also applies to real estate. Oddly enough, it also says, “If you’re looking for an edge, interest rates are near historic lows so now appears to be a better time than most for purchasing a home.”

That’s a pretty strong hint, but the answer isn’t spelled out. Yet. There follow some bits of good advice (hire an inspector prior to purchasing a home; don’t buy a car while your credit is being checked; inquire about taxes) before we get to the ultimate heading, “THE BOTTOM LINE.” It took a while, but here is the advice Myrtle Beach readers would have been looking for all along, bottom-linewise.

Investopedia’s answer for “When is the Right Time to Buy a Home?” is a lot more sensible than most: “When you can afford it.”

I couldn’t agree more. Even if all the other factors weren’t as positive as they are today, being able to make a good fit financially is at the top of the list.

If now is that time for you—or if it’s time for you to put your own Myrtle Beach home on the market—it’s also a good time to give me a call (843) 325-5985! 

Posted in Real Estate Tips
May 20, 2015

Myrtle Beach Spring Real Estate Selling Season: It's Sprung!

 

4-8-springWhen the first spring day comes along (as opposed to the first day of spring), a goodly proportion of Myrtle Beach’s residents feel the annual pull toward the garden store aisles. Even those who’ve stoutly resisted ordering seeds, gardening tools, or any of the other back yard paraphernalia the catalogs kept hawking all winter can succumb to this particular Call of Nature.

Burpee, Scotts and Miracle-Gro shareholders can relax: spring has sprung.

The Myrtle Beach spring real estate selling season starts stirring, too, pretty much in lockstep with the appearance of the tulips. Whether or not the tulips have succeeded in poking up out of the ground, it’s a cinch that by this time they will have made colorful appearances on store shelves everywhere, just like the Peeps and chocolate bunnies. Unlike the rest of the early spring’s trappings, though, the spring real estate phenomenon doesn’t disappear from sight once Easter Sunday is a memory. In fact, it picks up steam.

There are any number of explanations why spring real estate in Myrtle Beach is always expected to ramp up. Part of the reason is the calendar. For families with children, if a move is going to involve a change in school districts, summer vacation is the least disruptive time of year for it to happen, so spring is the time to start house hunting. Part of the reason is due to the comparative difficulty of selling a home in wintertime: not only can foul weather make it harder to keep a home at its showy best, it also can throw a monkey wrench into property maintenance and the few cosmetic fixes that almost every home could use before it hits the Myrtle Beach listings. The result is a certain amount of bottled-up inventory that bursts onto the scene all at once—and springtime is the single time of the year when that happens.

Then there is the automatic momentum effect. When you sell a Myrtle Beach home, most families need to turn around and buy the next. The National Association of Realtors® tells us that the spring real estate selling season may actually be stronger than the numbers indicate, because many sales that really did begin “in season” don’t actually close until summer begins. Spring real estate as a phenomenon is “real” enough that you can’t blame them for lines like “Spring brings rain and flowers—and possibly extra green in the final sales price of your home.”

The spring real estate selling season is indeed underway, so if you are planning on listing your own Myrtle Beach home anytime soon, now is a great time to give us a call at (843)796-2111 or visit our website at http://www.plantationrealtygroup.com/. It’s the best way to take advantage of the traditional boom in prospective buyers!

Posted in Real Estate Tips
May 5, 2015

What Improvements Add the Most Real Estate Value?

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“The best real estate value in Myrtle Beach!” is certainly a little bit over-the-top when it’s used in a listing, but in truth, that’s pretty much what most prospective homebuyers in every price range actually hope to find. For homeowners planning to list their own Myrtle Beach homes, it’s good to keep in mind. When home improvement projects are going to be part of the preparations, adding real estate value without inflating the asking price is a goal worth pursuing. 

Since there are so many improvements that could add to a Myrtle Beach property’s real estate value, comparing how they have fared recently when it comes to the bottom line is worth doing.

The Home Office: Myth?

Home office conversions haven’t appeared near the top of major Return On Investment (ROI) analysis lists for very long, so their performance is ambiguous. According to the yearly “Cost vs. Value Report” by Remodeling magazine, home office remodel projects don’t even break the 50% ROI mark. That’s a precipitous fall from earlier projections. I would guess the reason is that the analysts pegged the average cost at $28,000—but with the proliferation of laptops, tablets, and home Wi-Fi, why should a home office cost that much? (As a side note, it’s probably a reasonable guess that the same technological progress has incrementally lessened consumer demand for designated home offices).

Cost Matters in the Kitchen

The kitchen remodel is what most people picture when they think of big home improvement projects, and rightly so. But it’s here that planning pays off: not all kitchen upgrades register as equally good real estate value boosters. The kitchen is already the most complex room in your home, and it’s also a place where you can spend a fortune on fancy appliances and sleek cabinet replacements. The numbers don’t lie: when it comes to kitchens, your best ROI comes through limited budget-conscious projects. Leaders in cost recouping: new sinks, replacement counters, and highly targeted improvements like backsplashes.

Energy-Saving Doors = High Value

Replacing the front door with an attractive, energy-saving variety remains the top dollar-for-dollar investment. It makes sense when you remember how important curb appeal is. A properly insulated and sealed door will also save money by cutting down heating and cooling bills—savings that show up in utility bill receipts when you’re queried on the cost of running your home.

Before you hit the hardware store or call a contractor, remember that maximizing the real estate value return is the ultimate goal. Some home improvement projects won’t add as much value as one might assume, which is why I keep an eye on the latest cost vs. value reports—and share them with my clients!

Posted in Real Estate Tips
April 23, 2015

Energy Prices Drop; Myrtle Beach Homeowners Cheer

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Just about the last thing Myrtle Beach homeowners expect is for the price of something we use every day to drop precipitously. It isn’t just that we’ve grown skeptical about the way official inflation numbers are formulated (although we have). It’s simply that when it can cost more than a dollar for a Coke, we’ve drawn our own conclusions. To quote The Wall Street Journal’s front page last Tuesday, “Basic Costs Squeeze Families.”

So it’s been slightly disorienting to experience what has been happening with energy prices in Myrtle Beach. It’s not your imagination—as you drive past the neighborhood gas station, the prices on the sign really have dropped nearly 30¢ a gallon over the past month or so. As December began, prices from coast to coast were at their lowest since December of 2010. And home heating oil prices were following suit, leaving one to wonder if electricity and natural gas couldn’t be far behind.

Myrtle Beach homeowners should be among the most pleasantly surprised, for a number of the reasons pointed out last week by Molly Boesel in an Insights blog titled “An Unexpected Windfall.” Ms. Boesel is the Senior Economist at CoreLogic, and like any card-carrying member of the economists’ trade, was able to draw up a number of graphs and charts to bolster her point—which was that lower energy prices might well stimulate housing demand. It’s not just that more money remains in drivers’ and homeowners’ wallets as gasoline and heating/cooling expenses sink. There is another less obvious factor.

That factor is VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) per capita, and there seems to be a strong relationship between it and homeownership rates. The logic is that as prices for gasoline and diesel remain low, homebuyers are encouraged to move further and further from urban cores (or wherever their jobs are located)—out to where they can buy bigger and more expensive homes. If that sounds like a bit of a leap, history suggests otherwise. VMT per capita rose steadily alongside the increase in homeownership rates from 1994 to 2004; after which “the trend then reversed from 2005 to 2014, with homeownership rates and VMT per capita falling back to 1994 levels.”

So the possibility exists that if the present energy price levels remain low (more precisely, if future homebuyers believe that’s likely), it could “incent buyers to again” move to larger and more expensive Myrtle Beach digs, heedless of how far their personal commute becomes. It increases the number of potential Myrtle Beach homebuyers.

If common sense tells us, “wait a minute-what about the effect of the housing bubble burst?” Ms. Boesel has an interesting take. She points to an earlier working paper (2012) by three researchers entitled “How High Gas Prices Triggered the Housing Crisis: Theory and Empirical Evidence.” That title was enough to keep me from actually reading it—I was content to just ponder the idea that it was gas prices—not big-time financial manipulations—that caused all the trouble! Leave it to economists to come up with that one…

At any rate, for Myrtle Beach homeowners musing about what they can expect when they put their homes on the market, the possible effects of lower energy prices has to be heartening. Not to mention, another good reason to give me a call to discuss Myrtle Beach’s current real estate market!

Posted in Finance
April 7, 2015

Buying a Home in Myrtle Beach: Retirement Myths Abound

12-10-retirementThat housing needs change as people get older goes without saying. For Myrtle Beach Baby Boomers, the “getting older” concept has gradually morphed from the distant abstraction it seemed in the 60’s and 70’s to a more immediate concern. And of all the decisions that will have the most impact on those nearing their golden years, buying the right Myrtle Beach home—one that makes the most sense for the future—tops the list.

Boomers have heard and read much advice about buying a home; advice having to do with downsizing, mobility issues and the like. Most of it is cautionary…and not very cheerful. But suddenly weighing into seniors’ “buying a home” deliberations is a contrary point of view: one that many of them have apparently begun to suspect on their own. It’s news that could be of considerable importance, not only for their own age group, but for younger adults as well:

Growing older doesn’t seem to be nearly as dire as everyone has been led to believe.

Last Monday, “Why Everything You Know about Aging is Probably Wrong” led The Wall Street Journal’s special insert on planning and living “in the new retirement.” Its lead article dissected the most common preconceptions Americans have about aging, including the expected declines in mind, body, productivity, and stereotypes of growing loneliness and depression. “Everyone knows that as we age…life becomes less satisfying and enjoyable,” the Journal reported…followed by what a wide range of research shows: “Everyone, it seems, is wrong.”

Among the scientists quoted was the former director of a Baltimore study that has been underway for three decades. Of the widespread notion of the aged as being depressed, cranky, and irritable, etc., he says they constitute no more than 10% of the older population. The remaining 90% are “not like that at all.” Another Stanford study showed that as participants aged, their moods improved!

This may or may not change how we approach buying a home for our latter years, but to the extent that it’s a 180-degree reversal from what most of us have always believed about what to expect next, it should warrant at least a thoughtful examination of how we choose.

  • Common wisdom: Downsizing. Baby boomers who stay in large houses are probably spending more money than necessary; cleaning unused rooms may be too physically taxing, etc. Second thought: “Extra” rooms may be needed to accommodate new hobbies, visiting children and grandkids.
  • Common wisdom: Mobility. Must be a single-level home; mobility issues are paramount. Second thought: Stairs provide regular mild exercise; greatest threats to physical well-being are inactivity (and over-exercise).
  • Common wisdom: Budgeting. A budget showing exactly how much can be afforded when renting or buying a home is critical. It should include taxes, insurance, maintenance, and other expenses. Second thought: No research changes this one: buying a house in retirement should always be based on solid budget realities.

Whether you’re retirement-bound, buying your next Myrtle Beach home sets the table for the coming years in so many ways it’s vital to base your selection on reality rather than myth. Once you’ve set your course, I’m standing by to help find your dream house in all the many ways that I can put at your disposal. We hope you won't hesitate to contact us! Trust in your local Myrtle Beach Real Estate Experts at Plantation Realty Group! (843)796-2111

Posted in Real Estate Tips
April 1, 2015

Obvious (and Less Obvious) First House Buying Tips

12-3-firsthomeFor Myrtle Beach renters who are beginning to investigate the possibility of buying a first house, the prospect can look like more than just a steep hill to climb—it can look more like a cliff! Just last month, the Daily Real Estate News cited recent research that indicates in most places (512 counties surveyed, in fact) it can take the average family more than twelve years to save up for a 20% down payment. When you consider the significant financial advantage that a first house brings its Myrtle Beach owner, the situation seems like a Catch-22. How can you save any faster when that big tax advantage goes only to the existing homeowners?

If a decade-plus wait sounds unreasonable, there’s a lot you can do to trim the delay—

1) (Obvious) Cut excess spending

If you take notes for a month or so about how you really spend your money, you find that the little things really add up: morning coffee, daily lunches, planned and unplanned shopping expeditions all put serious dents in your wallet. Spot the expenditures, you can cut back on, then reduce or eliminate them as soon as possible.

2) (Less Obvious) Create a ‘First House’ account

Create a separate savings account with the single purpose of holding your first house down payment. Watching it grow month by month will more than make up for the inconveniences caused by scrimping on daily and other spending.

3) (Way Less Obvious) Pick up extra work

You may never have considered it, but sometimes moonlighting is a great way to add additional income that quickly build your First House account. If you have a hobby that lends itself to web sales, think of starting a store on sites like Etsy or Amazon.

4) Reduce your current bills

There are those bills that you can't quite get rid of -- cell phone, credit cards and other bills don't just go away because you're saving for a new Myrtle Beach house. For some bills, though, there are options for slimming down your monthly payments. Try negotiating a lower APR or reducing your phone or cable plan.

5) Make (and stick to) a budget

Those notes you made up there on 1) can be the raw material for making a detailed budget that separates necessary expenditures from extras like gifts, trips and special nights out. Find creative ways to entertain yourself and get together with your friends. Hosting movie nights, finding free concerts, and moving cocktail hour to home are all surprisingly doable.

6) Downsize

It may seem counterintuitive: why would you decrease the size of your current digs? If you can temporarily scale back, the lowered rent can materially boost your savings. If it’s at all practical, living with relatives might move the process along even more quickly!

The kind of scaling back that builds for a local first house down payment is a lot more fun if you can see quick progress. And the possibility of qualifying for a smaller than 20% down payment is also currently increasing. We hope you won't hesitate to contact us! Trust in your local Myrtle Beach Real Estate Experts at Plantation Realty Group! (843)796-2111

Posted in Buying
Feb. 4, 2015

One Key Element that Distinguishes a True Myrtle Beach Luxury Home

When you are selling your Myrtle Beach12-3-luxury homes luxury home, you are marketing to a narrow niche of the home-buying public. They’re high-end customers, certain to be very smart, business-savvy—and they will know their own mind. They will be hunting for value, of course, because the asking price warrants it. But they will also be looking for a property that has elements that are unique—that appeal to buyers who hope to find a residence not duplicated elsewhere.

Because of that characteristic of the market, there can be no one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach that will be uniformly effective as a sales approach. There are, however, a few hallmarks that the most successful Realtors® have discovered are shared by the most appealing luxury homes. They boil down to value, exclusivity…and to story-telling.

The exposure element is the more straightforward. It used to be that the only important element was to be had in print media: magazine, newspaper, brochure and flyer. Still important, today the much wider reach is had through internet and social media. Like all Myrtle Beach real estate prospects, buyers interested in the current crop of luxury homes are most likely to investigate using at least some online research before scheduling an in-person visit. And what they experience on the web will be influential in how eager they will be to make time for that visit.

It goes without saying that for every Myrtle Beach luxury home web presentation, the quality of the imagery has to be first-rate—Professional real estate photographers do more than highlight key room features shot from eye-pleasing angles. The best know how to paint with light—to shape viewer experience by selecting the time of day and color of light and shadow that will convey mood. Sometimes a true online video tour, complete with well-produced music and narration tracks, can also be the most effective tool—as long as the online viewing experience is brief, intuitive and easy to navigate. But no matter which medium and format is pressed into service, the goal is always to create a viewer experience that is unique and memorable.

And it should have a story.

That ‘story’ could be anything from an interesting history to a setting or view that is, literally, unique. It can be an overpowering constellation of luxury home features, or a history of owners that includes prominent community or cultural luminaries. It can be standout architectural innovations, landscaping worthy of a Homes and Gardens centerfold, or a layout that just happens to be perfectly well-matched to a particular client’s family—any and all can qualify. The single indispensable part of the mix is that the property’s unique character comprises a story worth retelling. It’s human nature, after all every Myrtle Beach luxury home buyer, whether they realize it or not, would like to be able to tell friends and colleagues about their new luxury home!

If you have a Myrtle Beach home with its own luxury story waiting to be told—or if you’re in the hunt for one—We hope you won't hesitate to contact us! Trust in your local Myrtle Beach Real Estate Experts at Plantation Realty Group! (843)796-2111

Posted in Selling
Feb. 4, 2015

Reverse Mortgage Rule of Thumb—Look before You Leap!

You’re at home in Myrtle Beach, watching TV and trying to unwind, when all of a sudden here comes another baby boomer celebrity, looking into the camera, giving you his most sincere, trustworthy look, then assuring you that a “Reverse Mortgage” really isn’t too good to be true (even though it sounds like it is).

What could be better? Any Myrtle Beach homeowner 62 or older can apply: then the bank pays you instead of the other way around! You could even use part of the tax-free proceeds to pay off the other mortgage! Or go to Monte Carlo and break the bank! (The trustworthy celebrity only hints at that one). You don’t have to pay back the loan until blah blah blah, the property remains yours, etc. etc. etc. What could go wrong?

Short answer: quite a lot, actually.

Long answer: if you don’t plan for the long term consequences, this can be a potentially disastrous maneuver. As a quick and painless way to raise cash, it often is too good to be true.

For openers, the actual name of this loan is not ‘reverse mortgage’— it’s an HECM, Home Equity Conversion Mortgage—a much more descriptive name. It allows 62+-year-olds to ‘cash out’ the equity they’ve built in their Myrtle Beach home. Not all of the equity; just some. As soon as they no longer live in the home, the loan must be repaid in full. The problems are all in the details.

Detail 1: Payback

Suppose a husband and wife live in a Myrtle Beach house owned by the husband. He applies for reverse mortgage, dies 11 years later, leaving the house to his wife. Because the reverse mortgage becomes payable when the mortgagee (the husband) “leaves” the property, the loan becomes due and payable. So the spouse may be forced to sell the home in order to repay the loan. But it’s also possible that the same thing occurs when the mortgagee is permanently relocated to a nursing home.

Detail 2 (and it’s one you really have to take into account): Interest

Most often, no payments are made on reverse mortgages. Unless the trip to Monte Carlo ended well, it’s likely that the balance owed remains. However, interest accrues on the loan at the “prevailing rate”—which may be a misnomer, because reverse mortgage interest rates are often high. Over the long run, the amount owed could eat up most of the value of the house. The spouse could be left with very little to live on.

Details 3,4,5...etc.

While the fees charged for a reverse mortgage are capped by the government, they’re still much higher than those for traditional loans (possibly why the trustworthy boomer celebrity got involved in the first place). Because credit scores aren’t used to determine eligibility, higher fees are charged to help cover lender risk. Then there are requirements for keeping up the property (what if illness causes a temporary lack of attention?), paying taxes on time…and other circumstances that could cause the loan to be called in, forcing sale of the home.

Yes, a reverse mortgage can be a valuable resource for some Myrtle Beach retirees on limited incomes. However, before even thinking about committing, it’s vital to sit down with a trusted financial adviser. If it turns out that selling or downsizing makes a lot more sense, calling us is the next step! We hope you won't hesitate to contact us! Trust in your local Myrtle Beach Real Estate Experts at Plantation Realty Group! (843)796-2111

Posted in Finance
Dec. 31, 2014

Clean Up Your Credit Report, then Buy that Myrtle Beach Home!

For anyone who has looked into buying a Myrtle Beach home several times—but kept getting discouraged every time because of a negative credit report—read on!

You probably already know that you are not alone—but so what?—it’s small consolation, especially when you consider how much financial ground you lose every year you continue to pay rent (the entire amount of which has zero tax deductibility). Many people mishandle credit in their teens and 20s, not knowing how it can come back to bite them when credit reports determine their credit worthiness. In Myrtle Beach, we see the fallout in the form of mortgage application turndowns or discouraging interest rate proposals.

But that just makes it all the more important that you stop letting past errors continue to keep you from getting the loans and rates you want. You can choose to take action now to clean up that credit score. Not only will it speed the moment when you become eligible for the significant benefits of home ownership—the actions you take now will serve to set you in the driver seat when it comes to credit management. You will become aware of any apparently minor oversights that can depress your credit score for years to come. It will put you ‘in the game’ of credit report management, instead of continuing to be a passive outsider.

Steps Myrtle Beach consumers can take now:

Review your credit file for accurate information

The credit reporting bureaus’ job is to report the most accurate information possible, but in the past the Federal Trade Commission has found that 5% of reports have at least one mistake. Get your current credit report from any number of services (start with a free one: you can always subscribe to a paid service later). Check all the accounts and verify that the amounts reported and the account statuses are correct. If a creditor reported your information incorrectly, file a dispute through the credit bureaus’ online sites to get the inaccuracy fixed. The same FTC report says that 13% of consumers who reported an error saw a boost in their credit score.

Get old negative accounts removed

Credit reports carry negative information like missed payments or a collection account for seven years, but are required to delete it after that. If an account is lingering past the seven year mark, use the dispute tools available on credit bureaus’ websites to mark the account as too old for reporting. Note that the seven-year time period is calculated from the date of first delinquency, not the date the account was first opened.

Talk to collection companies about their input

Even when you pay off collection accounts, that history continues to hurt your credit score. Some lenders look solely at those details when starting the process, so even paid collections can disqualify you for a loan. Instead of dealing with this frustrating problem, while you are negotiating with collection agencies to pay off a debt, ask that they put in writing that they will remove their report as part of their part of the bargain for your satisfaction of the debt. Some agencies will and some won’t (but it can’t hurt to ask).

Once you have acted, and begun to see the negatives dropping off your current credit report, your path to local home ownership will open up markedly. We hope you won't hesitate to contact us! Trust in your local Myrtle Beach Real Estate Experts at Plantation Realty Group! (843)796-2111

Posted in Buying, Finance