Texas Property Insider- Austin Real Estate and Texas Coastal Real Estate Blog

Welcome to Texas Property Insider. The purpose of this blog is to provide accurate and helpful information about market trends and issues important to property owners in Central Texas and on the Texas Coast. You hear a lot of talk out there. You see the statistics, read the stories in the newspaper and you see practitioners regurgitate those same stories and statistics. There is more information available then ever before. But why is it, even after all of the stories and pundits have had their say, you still feel you can’t grasp what’s really happening in the real estate market?


There is a lot more to it than simple statistics and market info. These numbers are helpful and vitally important, but if taken at face value they can be misleading, even deceiving. As Mark Twain once said, “There are lies, damned lies and then there are statistics.” I created this blog to pull back the curtain on Texas real estate, interpret the market information and present it to you in a format that is both pithy and easy to digest.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Debunking Real Estate myths...


Are you aware that a lot of what you know about buying your first home might be wrong? According to a national housing survey conducted by Fannie Mae, there are widespread misconceptions and gaps in consumers’ knowledge of the home-buying process. Here are a few examples:

  • Forty-four percent of all Texas adults believe they need a 20% downpayment to get into a house. That couldn’t be more wrong. There are programs out there that will allow you to put lower down-payments. The days of "0 down" are over, but there are still some screaming deals out there. Especially when you consider currently low interest rates.
  • Nearly 40% of Texans believe they need at least five years on the job to qualify for a mortgage. Wrong again! There are many lenders out there willing to qualify consumers with less than two years of employment.
  • More than 30% of all adults believe they need a perfect credit rating to get into a home. This is also a myth. Lenders today look at more than just your credit score. There are non-traditional methods of analyzing consumers’ credit, and some lenders will even compile a credit profile, varying weight of credit accounts by importance.

The fact is that myths abound in the real estate industry, particularly for consumers who have yet to get their feet wet. Talk to us about what you can do to get into your first home today.

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