March has been a great month for useful real estate content. We have compiled the best real estate
articles for March 2023 from the real estate industry.

If you are considering entering the housing market, these articles will give you something to consider and could save you from making a costly mistake.

What follows is the pick of the best and the latest real estate information online.

Defining Property Encroachments

Disputes with neighbors can be very difficult. If you have a difficult discussion with the neighbor and
walk away, they’re still next door, and you’ll still run into them all the time.

Property encroachments can be one serious source of disputes, and even litigation, between neighbors.

Taking a deep dive into the definition of encroachments in real estate, Bill Gassett helps you understand what encroachments are and the different types you could encounter. If you are buying a home with an encroachment, you can find out your options in this post.

Bill also looks at what you can do about encroachment on your property. He also explains the
The difference between encroachments, encumbrances, and easements can be easily confused.

While buying a home with an encroachment is something you want to avoid, it isn’t necessarily as big a problem as it might first appear.

Best Real Estate Articles March 2023

Using a Non-Occupying Co-Borrower to Get a Home Loan

Saving for a down payment isn’t easy with so many demands on your money nowadays. If you’re
trying to buy your first home, you might have student debt and rent payments to cover.

With other
demands on your income, saving for a down payment will be lower on your priorities. But a non-
occupying co-borrower could be the answer to this difficult situation.

If you have a relative willing to become a non-occupant co-borrower, it will make buying your home easier.

The FHA helps in this situation, and Luke Skar from Madison Mortgage Guys provides valuable information when this is an option for you. If this might benefit you, there are eligibility requirements that you and the co-borrower need to meet before you apply, and Luke makes these requirements crystal clear.

If your debt-to-income ratio is preventing you from getting the home loan, you want, a co-borrower
can help.

The non-occupying co-borrowers income can reduce your overall DTI ratio and make you
eligible for the home loan you need. As long as they are willing to accept the joint liability for the
mortgage, this is a great way to make buying your first home less stressful.

If your finances aren’t quite where you and your lender would like them to be, you could benefit
from having a co-buyer.

It enables more people to buy their first home and helps people avoid the feeling of wasting money on rent when there are better options.

The Limitations of Home Inspections

You don’t want to buy a home only to find a few months later that there are serious structural
problems. A situation like this would be a nightmare that will be very expensive to rectify, if it is even
possible.

So before you close on the home, you should hire an inspector to find any major defects. If
there are issues, the seller can make repairs, or you can walk away if the situation isn’t resolved.
However, a home inspection isn’t foolproof, and things can be missed.

Conor MacEvilly from My Seattle Home Search looks at the limitations of home inspections that you might not have considered. While the inspector should find most of the problems in the home, they might not report everything.

Some home inspectors are better than others; their experience will help them uncover more issues a home could suffer.

A home inspection is almost always a good idea, but it might not uncover all the problems a home suffers from.

For example, home inspectors can’t see through walls, and there could be problems lurking where the inspector can’t possibly see.

A home might also benefit from additional types of inspections, adding to the costs of buying the
home.

But it is better to find out as much as possible about the home you are about to buy, even if some issues could be missed.

Deadly First-Time Buyer Mistakes

Buying your first home can be exciting, but it can also be a minefield of potential mistakes. It is easy
to take the wrong step in the excitement or because your emotions play too large a role in your
decisions. And if you make the wrong choice, it can be deadly to your finances.

Kevin Vitali offers advice to help buyers take the right path to help them avoid exploding their
finances. His list of 12 first-time home-buying mistakes reveals the path to a more stress-free purchase of your first home.

If you aren’t familiar with buying a home, these pitfalls are easy to miss. Even if this isn’t your first home, Kevin’s list could help you avoid common problems during the buying process.

Do you understand how to negotiate with the seller? How much do you think your costs will come to
when buying a home? Are you benefiting from enough professional help? Have you researched and
toured the neighborhood you are planning to move to? Are you understanding the time frame to buy a house?

These are just some questions that will be answered when you read Kevin’s first-time buyer advice.

Affordable Homeownership with FHA Loans

Your home-buying options could be limited if your credit isn’t as good as you would like.
Conventional loans usually require a credit score of at least 620, but about a third of the population has a lower FICO score.

For those people, FHA loans could come to the rescue.

FHA loans allow borrowers with lower credit scores to buy a home. Joe Boylan with the Springs Homes blog expertly explains how this government-backed program can help a wide range of
Americans.

As this is an FHA-insured loan, lenders are protected should the borrower default, allowing them to offer loans to a wider range of buyers.

If you have any questions about FHA loans, this post by Joe should give you the answers. Joe defines the FHA loan program and how it can benefit you, but he doesn’t ignore the downsides to this type of loan either. He even discusses the history of the FHA loans program, part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1934.

Though an FHA loan might look like an ideal choice to make buying a home easier, there are some
downsides that you should know about before committing to this type of loan.

Reading this article will clarify whether you could benefit from an FHA loan.

The Pros and Cons of VA Loans

If you have served in the military, you have more mortgage options when buying a home. If buying a home without saving for a down payment appeals to you, the VA loans program allows zero down payment mortgages. You can benefit from this government-backed program if you have served or if your spouse did.

But as well as the advantages of a VA loan, there are some negatives to consider before choosing
this type of mortgage. The post by Eric Jeanette on the Dream Home Financing blog makes the pros and cons of a VA home loan clear, so you can make a more informed choice.

Eric explains the great benefits of this type of loan and why it might not make such a great choice. While a down payment of 0% will certainly be attractive, it has its downsides.

If you are considering taking advantage of your military service to make buying a home easier, you should check out this article.

How Do Land Loans Work?

It can seem impossible if you have ever imagined constructing your ideal home. But the
dream of building your perfect home can become a reality even if you don’t have the cash.

Getting a land loan could be your first step in making your dream home real. While there is much to consider when constructing a home, the first stage is buying the lot.

Paul Sian delves into what you need to know about land loans before you apply. There are
different land loans available for different situations. If you want to know which is right for your
situation, Paul gives you valuable information to help you select the right loan.

There are loans for completely undeveloped lots and land with access to utilities. If there is
road access, you will easily get a loan. Paul also guides you through getting
approved for a land loan, making your path to creating your dream home more straightforward.

When you have found the perfect lot but aren’t quite ready to begin construction, a land loan lets
you start the process. Then when you are ready to build your dream home, a construction loan
can be used before converting it to a traditional mortgage.

When Will Mortgage Rates Go Down?

Picking the right time to buy your home is never easy, and you will want to get the lowest mortgage
rate when you do.

Mortgage rates are higher now than a year ago, but when will they drop?
Predicting the future isn’t easy, but the opinion of experts can give you valuable insight into the
situation and things you might not have considered.

Vicki Moore gives you the background on why the rates are currently high and what the experts say about mortgage rates dropping in the future. This should give you a better understanding of the best time to get a mortgage if you want to minimize your interest
payments to the lender.

The experts seem to expect a modest reduction in interest rates in 2023. Opinions vary on how much mortgage interest rates will reduce, but they expect a 1% or 2% reduction at the current
levels.

If you are considering buying a home but the current interest rates are higher than you want,
waiting a while could pay off.

However, choosing the right buying time isn’t always about market conditions and the current
interest rate. You also need to remember your personal finances and whether you are ready to buy,
which could be more important in your decision-making.

Final Thoughts

The best real estate articles in March 2023 offer you important information to make buying a home
less complicated and confusing.

Many technical aspects of buying a home are easily misunderstood, and this month’s articles clear up many questions you might have. We’ll return with more valuable content next month to help you in your real estate journey.

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Look at some of the excellent advice from previous real estate roundups.

Luke Skar About the author: the above roundup of the best articles from March 2023 was written by Luke Skar. Luke is a 19+ year veteran of the mortgage industry. He strives to stay updated with the latest changes and trends in mortgage lending and real estate.

Through his mortgage blog, websites, and social media accounts, he aims to help the community with as much factual knowledge as possible that benefits all parties in real estate transactions.