I remember the last time I insulated my garage door. It was a nice hot summer day. My wife had kicked me out of the house until I got the job done. (“Who paid for this thing,” I thought to myself.) SO I walked on down to my local hardware store and bought two garage door insulation kits, one for me and one for my neighbor, Ted.

When I got back I opened up the kit and began to follow the directions. Well wouldn’t you know it was easy as pie. I got that garage door insulation up in no time, and then my wife let me back inside. We have saved untold amounts of money on energy costs since then. Plus, now I know how to seal off the garage.

When you are buying a new house, you have a lot of things to consider.  Is it the right house for you?  Can you afford it?  Is it in the right part of town?  Are you getting it for a good (fair, according to the market) price?  Is the house in good shape, or are there any hidden defects?

Some of these questions only you can answer, such as is it the ‘right’ house for you.  Others involve professionals who will help find the answer in order for the deal to go through.  For example, between a home inspector, an appraiser and the mortgage lender, you should have a good idea of the quality and value of the home before you buy it.

However, be aware that there are certain things that won’t come up in this research.  Things that, most likely, won’t be applicable to your particular house, but you might want to be aware of them anyway.  For example, if any serious crime has occured in the house, such as a murder, rape or suicide, that information is not required to be disclosed up front.  However, if you ask if anything like that has happened, the seller and/or agent must answer you truthfully if they know of such occurances.

The good news for first time home buyers is that while the government decided against allowing the $8,000 tax credit to be used as the down payment on a house, they are still allowing access to that money, today, in such a way that it can seriously help out.

For example, once you show up with the necessary 3.5% down payment, (which by the way, can be in the form of a gift to you by family, friends, or pretty much anybody) you can use the $8,000 to increase the amount of your down payment.  If you do this, you will ultimately be getting a smaller home loan, and therefore your monthly payments will be less for as long as you have the loan.  And with today’s low interest rates and housing affordability still at extremely good levels, there are a lot of great incentives to become a home owner today.