Author name: Zenify

Real estate commissions are steep real estate agent costs can significantly drive up the overall cost to both sell and purchase a home. While these costs are a hard pill to swallow, there are still several avenues that buyers and sellers alike can negotiate with their respective realtors.

Rising mortgage rates seem to be the biggest indicator and shift in the 2022 housing market so far, with the 30-year fixed-rate average mortgage rising up to an average of 3.22% interest rate in the first week of January- this marks the highest level of average mortgage rates since May 2020.

A mortgage buydown is a financing strategy that allows you to pay a lower mortgage rate for the first few years of your mortgage, typically either the first two or three years. You will pay the difference between the original or “true” interest rate and the lowered interest rate to your lender at closing in the form of mortgage points.