Many condominium associations want to limit the owners’ ability to rent their unit to tenants. But doing so is often more complicated than it sounds. There are lots of reasons why condo associations might want to restrict rentals. For instance, tenants generally aren’t as careful as owners to take care of the property and respect other residents’ right to peace and quiet. Owner-landlords who don’t live in the property might be less willing to help financially

Many people wonder about how alimony and child support payments are treated when they’re applying for a mortgage. Generally, if you’re legally obligated to pay alimony or child support, you have to tell the lender, and the lender will treat these as debts that reduce your available income. So it would seem logical that if you’re receiving alimony or child support, these should be considered credits that increase your available income. However, it doesn’t always work

Most homeowner’s insurance policies don’t protect owners against flooding. For this reason, many people in flood-prone areas obtain insurance through the federal government’s flood insurance program. But thanks to a new law, flood insurance rates are set to go up, and in some cases they will see a dramatic increase. Here’s why: In the past, many people who obtained flood insurance received lower rates due to government subsidies. In effect, they were “grandfathered” at older rates

One reason many potential homebuyers find mortgages to be intimidating is that lenders send them lengthy, complex “disclosure” forms that are confusing and hard to understand. This can make it more difficult to figure out exactly what you’re getting into, and whether one mortgage product is really better than another. Now, the federal government is issuing new, simplified forms to make shopping for a mortgage easier. The new forms will make it much less complicated to

Home buyers with bad credit get help from the FHA The Federal Housing Administration is making it easier for people who have experienced a bankruptcy, foreclosure or short sale to once again qualify for a mortgage. A new FHA program will help people who have such a blotch on their credit history, but who have recovered financially and repaired their credit. These people must now wait only one year to get an FHA-backed loan, rather than

About a third of all first-time homebuyers get help from their parents or other relatives in coming up with a down payment. In 2010, some 27% of first-time homebuyers received a gift of money, and another 9% received a family loan, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors. If you’re thinking of using money from relatives to buy a new house – or giving or lending money to relatives – there are a

In a weird and unprecedented twist, “jumbo” mortgages – typically those above $417,000 – have carried a lower interest rate than standard mortgages in some recent cases. A very large number of standard mortgages are purchased or backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those government-sponsored enterprises won’t touch a mortgage above a certain amount, which is $417,000 in most areas (but can go up to $625,000 in some high-priced markets). Any loan above that is

The housing market has picked up steam lately, but one of the side effects of the sudden improvement is that home appraisals often take longer than they used to, and often come in with a much lower value than what everyone expected. This is causing a number of house sales to collapse. Appraisals are taking longer because there’s suddenly more demand for them, at the same time that far fewer people are working as appraisers than

More and more people are buying vacation homes. In fact, vacation homes accounted for 11% of all residential real estate sales last year. And most of these buyers plan to supplement their income by renting the home for part of the year. In a recent survey by the National Association of Realtors, 92% of vacation home buyers said they planned to rent the home within a year, and 76% said their purchase was motivated at least