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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.
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.
Paying rent with a credit card usually loses money, because rent portals charge close to 3% for a card payment and even a 2% cash-back card can’t cover it. Put rent on your card only when the fee is waived, the payment earns a sign-up bonus, or it bridges a short cash gap you’ll repay in full.
When you sell your main home, up to $250,000 of profit is tax-free if you owned and lived in it for two of the past five years, or $500,000 on a joint return if your spouse lived there that long too. Time your sale to pass that test, and keep every improvement receipt in case your gain tops the cap.
Over 30 years, half a point off your mortgage rate can save more than a $10,000 price cut. The longer you’ll keep the loan, the more the rate matters, so negotiate it as hard as the price. Raise your credit score before you apply, get quotes from several lenders, and ask each one to beat the best offer.
Hire your own home inspector before closing, even if the seller offers a report or a hot market tempts you to skip it. Keep the inspection contingency in your offer. Until it expires, it lets you renegotiate or walk away with your deposit if the inspector finds a problem.
A mortgage pre-approval shows how much a lender is willing to lend you, and sellers often won’t accept an offer without one. Line up pre-approvals from two or three lenders in the weeks before you tour homes, so you can make an offer the day you find the right house.
The mortgage payment your lender quotes leaves out upkeep. Before you buy a home, add 2% of its price per year for maintenance, plus any homeowners association dues, and check that the property tax estimate uses your purchase price. Then bank the gap between that total and your rent for three months to test whether you can carry it.
If you own a home in Texas or one of the eight other states Ownwell covers, sign up before your county’s appeal deadline. It costs nothing unless your bill drops, the Texas fee is 25% against a typical 40% to 50%, and its edge is widest on homes under $250,000.
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