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Cut Costs in ‘Owning’ a Home

Owning your own home is a great feeling, and owning your own home does come with a price tag. Your home is going to cost from fixing everything that possibly could break, to paying on the mortgage or paying the insurance premiums. 

For most of us, when we are working on repairing things in the home, when we own our homes, and when we want more in life, the bills always seem to mount up. Saving money and cutting back on the what we spend in and on the house is one method of keeping a home in good working order without having to work three jobs to be able to afford a house. 

Owning your home can be affordable and you can do it, all you really need to do is put yourself on a budget and to make things that you do in and for the house cost less. In this article, we are going to talk about how to save money so you can continue affording your house passed that first payment. 

Suppose you do not own your home yet, you can! What you want to do is get a pre approved loan. A pre-approved loan is going to tell you upfront how much of a house the bank or mortgage company feels that you can spend on a house from your budget. This is often a great way to start on the process to owning a home. Less up front fees, and then you only start shopping for a home that you can afford. 

If you already own your own home, and the rates are dropping, consider refinancing your home. Refinance at a lower rates, sometimes adding on a few years, or dropping the interest rates, but at the same time putting more money in your home budget because your mortgage is going to be lower. 

If you want to refinance, take out a home equity loan to pay off other bills or if you want to lengthen the life of your loan so you can lower your payments, use any of the free mortgage calculators online so you can figure what your new payments would be. 

Having a few problems in the home you are living in? Try learning about fix it yourself and do it yourself projects. Fixing things yourself is going to save you a ton of money compared to hiring someone else every time that something needs to be done in your home. Lots of retail stores have all types of books, and lots of free how to projects going on to help homeowners on do it yourself projects just like you have going on. 

When first purchasing a home or if you need to refinance your loan, it is important to always leave extra in your home budget in case something happens and your income decreases. This is going to give you the added benefits of falling back on a savings account or making the payments more manageable when something happens and you still have to make your mortgage payments. 

The mortgage and your bills that you pay on the house every month shouldn’t be more than twenty five percent of your income so you are prepared for other bills that come along with owning a home. 

When possible, make your mortgage payments in biweekly installments instead of in monthly payments. If you make biweekly payments you can save thousands of dollars in interest that you would normally pay to the bank, plus you are going pay off your mortgage even faster in the fewer number of years. 

As you pay your mortgage down, do not forget to call the bank and have your private mortgage insurance removed from your mortgage payment. Private mortgage insurance is an extra payment that you make the bank on the mortgage that you have for your home, when you have not paid eighty percent of your mortgage yet.

If you are paid down on your mortgage a bit, you have to tell the bank you want this taken off your mortgage and you will start putting that extra money back into your own pocket!

Occasionally you may come into some extra money in your household budget. If you can, make one extra payment a year on your mortgage. What this is going to do is cut the interest that you pay on your mortgage, and after ten years, you will find that you saved an entire year of paying on your home. It all adds up on the total price that you pay for your home, and well worth the extra efforts. 

To save money in your household budget, and if your children have moved out or if your family has gotten smaller, consider buying a smaller home and selling your large home. A small home is going to be more affordable, easier to heat, and it will save you money in the end!

One last way that you can put extra money in your own pocket when you own your home is that you can rent out a room, rent out half your house, rent out your garage or storage space to someone else. While you are giving up a portion of your home, or your space, the extra money can really help when you have bills that are due!