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Renting, buying, selling, building, moving, property taxes, roommates, and property investing. Pay less to get a place to live and less to keep it.
Before you decide you can’t afford a home, look up the down payment assistance offered by your state’s housing finance agency and your city or county. Many programs give grants or forgivable loans that can cover most of a minimum down payment, and a forgivable loan shrinks for every year you live in the home.
Treat a rent renewal offer as the landlord’s first number, not the final one. If you leave, the landlord loses rent while the unit sits empty and pays to clean and advertise it, so propose your own rate in writing about three months before your lease ends.
Your property tax bill is your home’s assessed value, less any exemptions, times a rate you can’t change, so the assessment is the number to fight. Pull your property record, check the square footage, bedrooms, and basement against your actual house, and appeal any error before the deadline on your assessment notice.
Part of your rent covers your landlord’s property tax, and several states give renters a tax credit for it. Before you file, check your state revenue department’s website for a renter’s credit. If your state’s credit is refundable, it pays even if you owe no income tax, so claim it in years you wouldn’t otherwise file.
When you hire movers for an out-of-state move, get a binding estimate in writing before anything goes on the truck. A binding estimate fixes the price for the move it describes. A non-binding one is only the mover’s best guess, and the final bill can run higher.
If your fixed-rate mortgage payment jumped, the rate didn’t change. Your escrow did, because property taxes or homeowners insurance rose, and your mortgage servicer may be collecting a shortage too. A shortage is a one-time catch-up, but the bills recur, so shop your homeowners policy and appeal a tax assessment that overstates your home’s value.
Buying a home doesn’t put a homestead exemption on your property tax bill. In most states you have to file for it with your county, and a year you miss costs you the exemption unless your state accepts a late application. Apply as soon as you move in, so the exemption covers the first year you qualify.
Paying rent on time won’t help your credit score unless someone reports it to the credit bureaus, and most landlords don’t. Ask yours to start, or use a rent-reporting service that covers all three bureaus. Reporting helps most when your credit file is thin, and only with scores that count rent.
Before you carry a single box into a new rental, take photos and video of every room, including damage that’s already there, and send copies to your landlord that day. That dated record is your proof if the landlord later tries to charge your security deposit for a stain or scratch you didn’t cause.
Scammers who break into a title company’s or agent’s email send buyers fake wiring instructions, usually framed as a last-minute change. Before you wire a down payment, call the title company at a number you had before that email arrived, and confirm the account name and number.
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