Checklist for First-Time Home Buyers

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Buying a home for the first time can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be! Here at Benefit Title, we’ve helped countless first-time home buyers land their Florida dream homes and we can help you too. Review our first-time home buyer checklist below to get a basic idea of the home buying process, then contact Benefit Title Services at (800) 237-9190 to start the title search process on the property you intend to purchase.

1. Calculate your debt-to-income ratio

The debt-to-income ratio (DTI) is a measure of how affordable your monthly mortgage payments are. Lenders usually want a DTI of less than 36%, of which no more than 28% is from the mortgage itself. There are several online DTI ratio calculators available to help you determine your DTI ratio. If yours is too high, work on improving it by decreasing your debts or increasing your income. Read more

How To Reduce Closing Costs?

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When buying a home in the state of Florida, it is important to be aware of the closing costs that will be associated with the purchase. These costs can vary depending on the property, but there are some ways that you can reduce them. In this blog post, we will discuss some of the most common closing costs in Florida and how you can save money on them.

Review the Loan Estimate Form

The Loan Estimate form is a document that you will receive from your lender after you have applied for a mortgage. This form will itemize the closing costs associated with your loan. It is important to review this form carefully and make sure that you understand all of the fees that are being charged. If there are any fees that you do not understand, be sure to ask your lender for an explanation. Read more

Why You Need a Municipal Lien Search for Real Estate Transactions in Florida

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You’ve put in an offer on a property and completed the customary title search, which discovers any recorded liens or title issues with the property. If the title search is clear, you’re good to go, right?

Wrong. In Florida, a business or government agency can hold a lien against your property without ever actually recording it on the official title. If the property is sold to a different owner, the new owner inherits all those unrecorded liens or other title issues, without even knowing it! We know that sounds crazy, but it’s the truth, and these types of issues can leave a buyer exposed to thousands of dollars in potential repairs and remediations. Read more

Common Closing Costs for Buyers

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There are many pieces that must fall into place when purchasing a new home. If you choose to use a realtor as a buyer’s representative, the realtor will handle all the various moving parts of the deal behind the scenes with minimal effort on your part. They will interact with appraisers, inspectors, insurance companies, title companies, and more on your behalf.

Closing costs are the blanket term for all the fees for all these various services. 

To make closing costs easier to understand for buyers, Florida requires that mortgage applicants be given a Loan Estimate (also known as a Good Faith Estimate) listing the expected closing costs within a few days of submitting their application.

The most common closing costs for real estate transactions include: Read more

How to Reduce Closing Costs

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Purchasing a new home may be the largest financial transaction you ever make, so it’s important to consider all the potential expenses and how to mitigate them so that you’re getting the best deal possible. One of the easiest ways to reduce your overall real estate transaction costs is to work on lowering your closing costs.

What are Closing Costs?

“Closing costs” is a blanket term that covers a variety of different fees involved in a real estate transaction. Closing costs will be different for each real estate transaction but usually range from 3% to 6% of the total purchase price. The exact fees and charges that apply to your situation won’t apply to everyone. Closing costs for most real estate purchases contain some combination of the following items and services:
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Common Mistakes First Time Homebuyers Make During The Closing Process

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Buying a new home is exciting, but it is also a very serious financial transaction that needs to be handled with extreme attention to detail. Even the slightest oversight during a real estate sale can lead to years of frustrating issues and tremendous expense for the new homeowners. The closing process can be an especially precarious part of the deal.

Surrounding yourself with a team of experts in handling real estate closings is an important first step, but ultimately, you, as the homebuyer, must take all the appropriate steps to ensure your closing goes as planned. To make the process smoother, avoid these common mistakes made by first-time homebuyers during closing: Read more

What Are Jumbo Loans?

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When you’re in the market to finance a piece of real estate, the variety of mortgage options available can be overwhelming. Mortgages can be conforming, non-conforming, prime, subprime, adjustable rate, fixed… it’s like you need to learn a whole new vocabulary just to figure it all out!

How Much is a Jumbo Loan in Hillsborough County?

However, a jumbo loan, or jumbo mortgage, is pretty straightforward. If you imagine a jumbo loan is simply a loan for an extra large amount of money, then you’d be right! In most areas of the United States in 2022, including Tampa Bay, a jumbo mortgage is any mortgage that exceeds $647,200. The only area of Florida where a conventional mortgage can exceed this limit is Monroe County (home of the Florida Keys). Read more

How to Prepare Your Home for Buyers

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When you’ve made the decision to sell your home, (and now is a great time to do so!) you want to be sure to get top dollar. Even in today’s seller’s market, little details can make a big difference in your final sale price. 

Here at Benefit Title Services in Tampa, we’ve seen firsthand how sellers that go the extra mile get the most profit possible out of their homes. You too can get top dollar for your home by following our four C’s of home sale prep: Read more

Do You Get Taxed on Rental Properties?

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If you’re considering getting into rental properties, you need to educate yourself on all of the laws and rules that are involved, especially about taxes. The income that you make on any rental properties you own is considered taxable income. When it comes time to sell that rental property, you’ll pay capital gains taxes on your net profit from the sale. These tax obligations can quickly turn your profitable venture into a loss, so it’s very important to know how they work before you purchase a rental property.

Let’s look more into these different taxes and how they may affect you as a landlord: Read more

How Do Capital Gains Taxes on Investment Properties Work?

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Owning investment property is a dream for many people and is often seen as a way to gain passive income and financial security. The formula seems simple at first – as long as you can rent the property out for more than your expenses, you’re in the money… right?

Well, not always. Many people fail to consider the impact that taxes can have when it comes time to sell an investment property. And, if you’ve owned that property for less than a year, that impact can be quite large. Let’s take a look at how the IRS taxes your profit from selling investment property, known as capital gains taxes, and some ways you can lessen your tax burden. Read more