10 Resolutions You Can Keep

If 2017 is the year you plan to make your big move—whether it’s into your first home, trading up to your dream home, adding a vacation home, or starting to accumulate an investment property portfolio—here are 10 resolutions that can help you get that much closer to achieving your goal over the next 12 months.

Making Yourself at Home in 2017

  1. Review your credit scores and history, improve their accuracy by addressing any errors, and then look for ways to improve your score. If you find any errors, you’ll need to dispute each one directly with the credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
  2. Take a hard look at your spending habits. See what you can do to siphon off more savings toward a down payment, like cutting out daily trips to the coffee house? Saving $3 a day for a year is over $1,000!
  3. Resolved to save more? Try apps that make budgeting and saving into more of a game.
  4. Start planning for home-related spending by revisiting your monthly budget to accommodate any potential changes in your expenses.
  5. Invest in your home—learn more about when to attempt do-it-yourself repairs or when to look for financial options for bigger projects.
  6. When you borrow, do so wisely by working with a Loan Officer to determine the best loan structure for your situation.
  7. Repair, pare down, and prep your current home for sale or, if it’s a rental, to ensure you’ll receive your security deposit back.
  8. Consider putting your tax refund into a savings account and mark it “off limits”, or put it back into your home to offset repairs and refinements or to reduce the amount remaining on your mortgage.
  9. Build an emergency reserve so that when things happen—from refrigerator repairs to patching the roof—your biggest concern is who to call, not how you’ll pay for it.
  10. Look to the future—as you plan ahead, think about how your home equity may figure into it.

Whatever your plans for the coming year, stay resolved. Know there are resources, including real estate and mortgage specialists out there to help.Wishing you a happy and prosperous new year!