Buying a Home - The Howell Group

August 29, 2014

Getting Ready To PCS? Know Where These Documents Are

Before You PCS Get These Items In Order If you are in a military family or a DOD employee, when you are getting ready to PCS (aka Permanent Change of Station) to a different city...

July 24, 2014

Non-Realty Items Addendum: Friend Or Foe?

The Non-Realty Items Addendum Can Mess With Your Home Loan [Editor’s note: Today, we’ve brought on Jennifer Guidry, a local lender, to talk about the Non-Realty Items Addendum, which we’ve discussed before in “Does that...

June 12, 2014

Residential Contract: A Closer Look at Buying a Home Part III

The One To Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) And Buying A Home We’re back again with Part III of our series on the One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) – we’ve covered a lot...

June 11, 2014

Residential Contract: A Closer Look At Buying A Home Part II

The One To Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) And Buying A Home Yesterday, we started our breakdown of the One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) used in Texas to buy a home. We covered...

June 10, 2014

Residential Contract: A Close Look At Buying A Home Part I

The One To Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) And Buying A Home When buying a home in Texas, most buyers will use the One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) to write their offer and...

May 14, 2014

What Is An Escalation Clause? Should I Use One?

Understanding An Escalation Clause An escalation clause is phrasing in a contract that is sometimes used to strengthen a buyer’s position in a multiple offer situation. The basic idea is that the buyer offers to...

April 28, 2014

Third Party Financing Addendum For Credit Approval – Real Estate Contracts

The Third Party Financing Addendum For Credit Approval The Third Party Financing Addendum has been updated since this post was written, see the current version of the form in our post about the Third Party Financing...

April 11, 2014

FHA To Assist Former Homeowners With Foreclosures To Buy Again

FORECLOSURES MAY NOT AFFECT ABILITY TO BUY WITH NEW PROGRAM The Federal Housing Administration has extended a program seeking to help former homeowners that have recently had a foreclosure (as well as bankruptcy, deed in lieu of foreclosure, short...

February 17, 2014

Living With Multiple Offers – Seller’s Market Dos And Don’ts

Multiple Offers Becoming More Common Last year, we started seeing a few multiple offer situations pop-up, but since the beginning of the year, those numbers have increased. More and more, a home that is well...

January 17, 2014

An Open Letter To First Time Home Buyers

To All The First Time Home Buyers Dear First Time Home Buyers, I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. Something about the market last year and the things I’m seeing early this year tell...

January 3, 2014

School Ratings For San Antonio Schools

Where Can I Find School Ratings? If you are moving to the San Antonio area and have children, school ratings and rankings are so important. Where you live is very often dictated by the school...

December 18, 2013

Using An Escrow Account For Insurance And Property Taxes

Should I Use An Escrow Account? My lender insisted that I put money into an escrow account as part of the mortgage agreement. Can he do that? Yes – if you financed your home with...