A home buyer's biggest challenge is to strike a smart balance between Great Location and Great Home. Oftentimes in our real estate practice, we see buyers making the mistake of focusing too much on interior and exterior home features that fulfill their vision of the perfect home - new kitchen, big windows, finished basement, etc. - rather than the location of the property.

You've shopped around and hopefully seen lots of homes and learned about the neighborhood, schools, community benefits, etc. etc. —- and if you have shopped with us, you know we have given you a lot of information about these things — maybe too much. Now it's time to make a move. You found the perfect home. You already have a mortgage pre-approval. You make an offer.... So what's next?

There is a lot of paperwork required in real estate and you eventually need to understand what all these papers mean. The most important piece of paper, however, is the deed. The deed, as defined by the Land Title Institute is "an instrument, of various forms, by which title (ownership) to real estate is conveyed from one party to another."

Home sellers are usually unable to correctly visualize and present their home for the buyer who will pay the highest price. In turn, very capable buyers pass-up the property or become discouraged when they see it - unable to find the emotional linkage that is necessary for them to make an offer - and this is oftentimes simply because of basic things having to do with appearance. The final result is that sellers become frustrated with waiting, only to sell later for much less.

What does a homeowner do when they want to close on a new home but their current home hasn't sold yet? Well, there are a number of financing arrangements that can help bridge the gap, but this is definitely an area where we feel the banking industry could do a better job of informing consumers and create more convenient options to make the transition from one home to another a lot easier.

The odds of such a situation occurring is higher when the real estate market cools (because homes take longer to sell).

Along with the credit report, lenders can also buy a credit score based on the information in the report. That score is calculated by a mathematical equation that evaluates many types of information that are on your credit report at that agency. By comparing this information to the patterns in hundreds of thousands of past credit reports, the score identifies your level of future credit risk.