The Debt Advice Online Blog

One of the biggest decisions all adults will face at some point in their lives is whether to purchase a home or continue to rent. Second only to the decision to marry or have children, renting versus owning is a big decision everyone needs to make at some point in their lives. The decision to purchase a home greatly affects your month to month finances as well as your ability to acquire future wealth. Because the decision to purchase a home, or to not purchase a home, such a big one to make, there are many factors which you should take into consideration whilst making the decision which is right for you.

The Advantages of Buying a Home

Buying a home is a form of investing your money for the long-term. By buying a home, and paying off your mortgage over time, you end up in a position one day of owning an asset worth a lot of money. No matter what the purchase price of your home, and the appreciation rate over the years you own it, if you pay off your mortgage your home will be a large asset in your financial portfolio.

When you purchase your home you are not at the mercy of your landlord when it comes to the upkeep and modifications to the property. This means that when you want to change something about your home you are free to do so any time you wish. Additionally, you do not have to ever worry about your landlord deciding to sell the property and having to move out whether you want to or not.

The Disadvantages of Buying a Home

The biggest disadvantage of purchasing a home is that you will be responsible for all repairs and upkeep the home needs. Rather than be able to call up the landlord when a pipe breaks or your roof leaks, you will have to pay for the repairs to the home yourself. If the home you choose to buy ends up requiring a lot of repairs this can run into a lot of money very quickly.

Another disadvantage of owning your own home is that you are tied to where you live much more than if you choose to rent. If you are a renter and are unhappy with where you live, or you simply decide that you want to move to another area, you are much freer to do so. When you own your home you will have to go through the process of selling your home, or renting it out, before you can pick-up and move to another place.

As you can see, there are distinctive advantages and disadvantages to owning your own home. However, by taking the time to understand each of the factors which effect your decision, you can make the best decision for your own situation. Whether you ultimately choose to rent or own is a decision that only you yourself can make and it is a decision you should take time and care in making.

Technorati Tags:
buying a home, homes for sale, rent our your property, renting property
Add to: | Technorati | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

There are many ways and means to borrow money today, especially if you want to consolidate your loans, because there is a demand for it. With a high percentage of individuals in some sort of debt and 2 million of those struggling to manage financially at all, there is a real demand in the market for debt solutions that offer good value for money and can purposefully consolidate debts, thus helping you to get out of debt in a much shorter space of time than would otherwise be possible. There are a number of reasons why debt consolidation works so well and this is evident in most debt consolidation products, no more so than in remortgages.

If you own your own home then remortgaging for debt consolidation is an option for you. The only stipulation on obtaining a remortgage is indeed owning property to begin with. You must own your own property if you want to remortgage it, but that goes without saying. Remortgaging is literally where you borrow more money on your mortgage account by switching providers or renewing your mortgage with the same provider and borrowing more money. This money can be used to fund all sorts of things but, at the minute, it is more popular for consolidating debts than anything else.

There are a number of advantages that remortgaging your property would have over other types of borrowing when it comes to consolidating debts. They include the following:

• A better rate on interest – A better rate of interest can indeed be had on a mortgage account than on any other form of borrowing, This is largely because high street banks and lenders do make more money out of mortgages over a period of time and, as such, can afford to keep rates much lower than with other borrowing. This can help you if you do have heavy debts because you will not end up paying so much back than if you continued with the same credit cards and loans.
• A more manageable debt – With one monthly payment every month, it is much easier to manage a remortgage than several every month. You know where you stand and can budget accordingly rather than facing varying payments that could make your finances messy. It is much easier to keep up with repayments and you may find that you are paying less back each month than you currently are with mortgage payments and debts combined.
• Maintaining your credit score and even improving it in some cases – With one debt rather than several, it is easier to keep up with repayments and doing this month after month would improve your credit score, as would having less than £10,000 personal debt because the mortgage would not count towards this. If your credit rating is already good then this would maintain it. However, if it needs a little improvement then this could easily help you to get on the right track

However, you should always be a little wary of borrowing money on your home and should work finances out accordingly in advance. There is nothing worse than overstretching yourself financially and this can indeed lead to problems further down the line because you have secured the debt on your home. You could end up losing your home if you do not keep up repayments, so it is essential that you plan out your finances in terms of what you can afford to pay back over the coming years. It is most definitely worth considering the option of remortgaging for debt consolidation, but not if your home depends on repayments that you cannot afford.

A Quick Guide To Selling Your Endowment!

Endowment mortgages have been in the news quite a lot over the past ten years or so as a result of a financial scandal that rocked the mortgage world some time ago now. Endowment mortgages were very popular in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of their perceived ability to pay for a homeowner’s mortgage. If the homeowner took out an interest only mortgage then an endowment would have gone with it in order to pay the debt off. As a result of this premise, endowments were extremely popular and the persisted for a number of years so that a high percentage of homeowners actually had one!

An endowment was effectively a savings plan that incorporated life insurance as well. The idea behind it was that individuals would actually contribute a monthly sum to the policy and then that would actually be used to pay off the mortgage when its term was up. The majority of policies were also designed to have a little left over so that they represented an investment as well. Many people opted for endowments in order to begin a retirement fund as well as paying off the mortgage as a result

However, many now want to sell their endowments because there have been warnings that many are performing poorly and will not cover the mortgage that it was designed to pay off in the first place. They are no longer popular and many compensation claims have actually been made against policies that were misold to begin with. Shortfalls are expected for many of the remaining endowment policies out there and so if is no surprise that a high percentage of those are looking to sell their policies before it matures.

There are various options for you if you have chosen to surrender your endowment policy. The first is cashing it in with the company that provided it for you in he first place. This is of course the easy option and they will most likely give you a good price for it, but that is not to say that they will offer the best price possible. It is worth getting quotes from a number of companies before finally settling for one.

The first company that you should contact is always the provider of the endowment policy. The quote they give you for surrender value is the one that provides the benchmark for comparison. It should be the figure that your company gives you that every other quote is compared to, but first you have to get the quotes that you need!

You should get as many quotes as possible. There are a number of companies that specialise in endowments and will be only too happy to take them off your hands. If you want to get the quotes yourself so that you do not have to pay commission then you can find a number of companies via a quick Internet search. They often have forms that allow you to fill your details in for an automatic quote. However, you will have to call some for a quote and to discuss your options.

If you do not have time to get the quotes yourself then you can employ a policy comparison purchase company that will actively negotiate with purchasers for a quote that you like. Many will report to you with quotes every day and will continue searching if you are not happy with the ones that they have initially returned. This is the most time efficient way of doing it because they will then prepare all the papers and act as an intermediary so all you literally have to do is signed on the dotted line when you are happy! This option suits everyone as these companies often have access to far more purchasers than you do. You can just sit back and relax!