You’ve found the Santa Cruz home you want to buy, and now you’re ready to finalize your mortgage. But the multitude of closing costs associated with the mortgage is confusing. To help you navigate the mortgage world, here are descriptions of many of the charges you may incur when obtaining a mortgage to purchase your home:

Title Costs
• Recording fees for the deed: This pays the county clerk to record the deed and mortgage and change the property tax billing.
• Other state and local fees: This can include mortgage taxes levied by the state as well as other local fees.
• Pro-rated taxes: Taxes for schools and municipalities.
• Title search costs: Usually your attorney or title company will arrange for the title search to make sure there are no obstacles to…

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If you’ve recently gone through a foreclosure, you may already be wondering how soon you’ll be able to buy another Santa Cruz home. You enjoy the pride of homeownership, and you want to buy as soon as possible so that you can take advantage of today’s lower prices.

Here are answers to two commonly asked questions about buying a home after foreclosure:

How soon can we buy a home after a foreclosure?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac impose the following waiting periods on conventional home loans, depending on the type of foreclosure you went through:

• Buying after a foreclosure: The waiting period is 5 to 7 years.
• Buying after a foreclosure with extenuating circumstances: The waiting period is 3 to 7 years.
• Buying after a deed-in-lieu of…

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If your Santa Cruz home’s bathroom is looking dull and dingy, you don’t have to wait until you win the lottery to give it a facelift. All you need is a little creativity, a lot of elbow grease and a weekend.

The best part about updating your bathroom is that it’s usually the smallest room in your Santa Cruz home, which means it’ll take less time and effort to give it a makeover. Here are seven tips to update your bathroom quickly and inexpensively:

1. Wash the shower walls: You want to remove soap scum and hard-water stains.

2. Re-grout the tub: If the grout joint, where the wall meets the tub, is damaged or discolored, scrape it out. Use a grout saw to remove the top 1/8 inch of grout from between the tiles. Wash the shower again and re-grout.…

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