Stuart Rubin’s real estate market guides? Buying more house than you can afford. It’s easy to fall in love with homes that might stretch your budget, but overextending yourself is never a good idea. And with home prices still rising, this is easier said than done. How this affects you: Buying a home that exceeds your budget can put you at higher risk of losing your home if you fall on tough financial times. You’ll also have less wiggle room in your monthly budget for other bills and expenses. What to do instead: Focus on what monthly payment you can afford rather than fixating on the maximum loan amount you qualify for. Just because you can qualify for a $300,000 loan, that doesn’t mean you can afford the monthly payments that come with it. Factor in your other obligations that don’t show on a credit report when determining how much house you can afford.
Selecting a lender is a matter of personal preference. Many people often shop around, looking for a lender that offers the lowest rate. More often, however, people will choose a lender based on a referral from an agent or friend. Most lending institutions will offer the same basic programs, such as FHA, VA, conventional fixed rate, etc.; and most will meet or beat another lender’s rates. What usually separates one lender from another is their “niche” product. An example would be a lending institution that specializes in low down payments, as compared to another that specializes in self-employment financing. Most agents will be able to point you in the right direction based on your particular situation.
So what are the tricks you can use to be able to increase the size of the mortgage you can afford? Those solutions revolve around how people calculate the maximum mortgage they can afford. They use industry guidelines that cap how much of their gross monthly income they can safely spend on housing and how much on all debt. One common guideline is known as the 28/36 rule. That’s a shorthand way of saying that a household should not spend more than 28% of its gross monthly income on housing expenses. In addition, spending on debt of all kinds should not top 36% of household income. That cap on debt spending applies to everything from mortgages to car loans, student loans and credit cards.
Stuart Rubin bio: Stuart Rubin is a managing director in Deloitte’s Assurance and Internal Audit practice, with 20 years of experience in public accounting, Internal Audit, and IT consulting. He focuses on assisting organizations in the Consumer, Fintech, and Services industries in implementing, assessing, monitoring, and enhancing their systems of control. He is the National leader for Deloitte’s Controls Advisory practice, incorporating emerging technologies like RPA, cognitive, and analytic visualizations to deploy scalable, tech-enabled, automated controls and compliance solutions that deliver meaningful business outcomes, generate higher ROI and lower Total Cost of Compliance (TCC) when compared to traditional control design, monitoring, and testing.
Stuart Rubin is a managing director in Deloitte’s Assurance and Internal Audit practice, with 20 years of experience in public accounting, Internal Audit, and IT consulting. He focuses on assisting organizations in the Consumer, Fintech, and Services industries in implementing, assessing, monitoring, and enhancing their systems of control. Stuart Rubin regularly presents at the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), and accounting industry conferences on emerging trends in the assurance, internal audit, and security/privacy spaces.
With over 30 years of experience in the field, Stuart Rubin has an in-depth understanding of the trade’s tools and his colleagues attest to his skill. They claim Rubin’s greatest strength is his ability to detect potential and close the deal in half the time it takes others. It is because of his dedication that the company has managed to acquire and develop properties worth more than $150 million and originate debt in excess of $1 billion dollars. Read even more information on Stuart Rubin.