Housing

Seven years ago, we looked into refinancing the small balance left on our “dream home.” With no credit cards and original financing by the previous owner, we ran into some roadblocks. A couple of the lenders we contacted said that we had “Insufficient Data” in our credit report and wouldn’t consider us for a loan. We finally did find a source — our bank, where we had a long-standing history of deposits. But our options were limited. The same type of problem occurs with young people, those who are recently widowed or divorced, legal immigrants with no U.S.

The housing market is in a free fall in many parts of the country, with prices dropping between five and 20 percent, depending on the region. In some areas, foreclosure filings are 90 percent higher than this time last year.

Ever consider selling your home yourself? An average pre-owned home can sell for as much as $200,000 to $500,000 depending on where in the U.S. you live. Finding a way to save 3.5 to 7 percent in real estate commissions could put tens of thousands of dollars back into your pocket. Sound tempting? The prospect of saving lots of money may be attractive, but if you aren’t mentally prepared for the challenge you could easily end up regretting your decision and writing us a nasty letter — and we don’t want that.

This sheet is a great tool when interviewing companies for home repair or improvement projects. Fill out one sheet on each company you interview. We've used a sheet like this for many projects around our house and it always makes the research easier!