5 Facts Everyone Should Know About Home Loans Before Applying

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Home Loans|5 Facts Everyone Should Know About Home Loans Before ApplyingUnless you’re one of the lucky few to win the lottery, it’s a safe bet that when it comes time to buy a home, you likely aren’t able to pay for the whole thing with out-of-pocket cash. In order to afford your first home, you’re going to need a home loan—more commonly called a mortgage. Whether through a bank or a credit union, like Rivermark Community Credit Union, home loans are a necessary step for homeownership.

Before you look into applying for credit union home loans, there are important things to keep in mind. In this blog, we’ll examine the critical details to know before you apply for a home loan. We hope this will help make the process of applying for a home loan more intuitive and less complicated as you continue on the path to homeownership. Here are five facts about home loans.

Fact #1: You May Qualify for an FHA Insured Loan

During the Great Depression, the US federal government set up a program through the Federal Housing Administration to help struggling homeowners afford insurance on their homes. Over the decades since, FHA loans have become standard and more complex, offering people the chance to afford homes who might not otherwise have the chance to afford them.

The chief purpose of FHA-backed loans is to make it easier for people with lower incomes to afford bank and credit union home loans. The backing of the government eliminates some of the risk borne by the lending institution, meaning that they can waive certain fees, demand less money upfront, and overlook certain income requirements they might otherwise have.

If you aren’t sure whether you qualify for an FHA-insured loan, you can always ask. Do note that while FHA-insured loans make it possible for lower-income people to obtain a home loan, you will typically need to have decent credit to successfully apply.

However, also note that it’s ultimately up to a given lending institution to set the relevant terms, so things like rates, credit scores, and loan terms can vary from lender to lender, on top of what the federal government requires.

Fact #2: Debts May Not Be Disqualifying

One concern we often hear from people coming to us for a credit union home loans is that they have debts they’re working to pay off: credit cards, medical debt, student loans, and more. These aren’t actually deal-breakers, as it turns out. Lending institutions often overlook medical debts in collections, and student loan debt is, actually, typically considered an indication that you may have higher income in the future than you do currently.

Even credit card debts or other accounts in collections can be acceptable by home loan underwriters. The overwhelmingly important thing that lending institutions will look at is your credit score. If your credit score is solid, this indicates to them you’re trustworthy, even with some collections on your account.

If you’re in debt, talk with your lending institution to see what sort of expectations, if any, they may have for you.

Fact #3: You Can Reduce Your Total Payment by Paying Extra

As with all loans that rely on compounding interest (that is to say, nearly all of them), having a longer payment period typically means two things. You pay less month-to-month, but you wind up paying more in the long run since there’s more time for the interest to compound. Play around with one of the many online mortgage calculators, and you’ll see this as plain as day.

For that reason, paying extra on your mortgage if you come into some extra money can reduce the overall length of time it takes to pay the mortgage back, and consequently, you’ll pay less overall. So, if you get a major bonus at work or receive an inheritance, putting it toward your bank or credit union home loans can be an excellent idea.

However, not all lending institutions will permit extra payments. Some may insist you hold fast to the agreed-upon payment plan. Discuss this with your lending institution ahead of time to see what options are available to you.

Fact #4: Money in the Bank (Probably) Won’t Count

When a mortgage underwriter is assessing the sort of funding they’ll be able to make available as part of a home loan, if you have considerable assets saved, you might be tempted to think that this will count in your favor. However, most modern underwriters consider assets negligible in terms of assessing your ability to pay back your loan. The reason for this is that they care more about your ability to pay in the long-term, and a nest egg can be depleted, even a sizable one.

For this reason, regular income is significantly more important than fixed assets or cash in the bank. However, one way in which this can be beneficial is that it will allow you to put more money down, reducing the amount you must borrow, which reduces your total financial obligation, as discussed in Fact #3.

Fact #5: Self-Employed? You Might Have a Rough Time

One of the nice things about the US tax code is that it allows—even encourages—business owners to write off expenses on their taxes in order to foster entrepreneurs. However, when it comes time to apply for a mortgage, this same benefit can backfire.

The reason for this is that one of the key documents underwriters use to assess your income and your ability to pay is your tax return. If you’ve made $200,000 in one year, but you’ve written off $170,000, the underwriter will see you as having an income of just $30,000, which may not be enough to apply for a home loan. This may be the case even if they know you make enough money through your business because underwriters often have their hands tied by executive decisions, particularly when they work for large, nationwide banks.

It’s for this reason that if you’re self-employed, you may want to consider credit union home loans instead. Credit unions, as local entities that serve specific communities, often have more freedom to work with their members than those employed by big banks.

Here are some additional fun facts about home loans. Did you know the term “mortgage” comes from a French term mort gaige, meaning “dead pledge”?

How to Start Your Own Online Business?

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Start your online business|How to Start Your Own Online Business?It is never too late to start afresh! Considering the experience your business has, this time leaves no space for mistake. Online business requires strong determination, as there are certain risk factors. The completion is tough. Among almost 1 billion websites, if you want to set an example, you must be organized, disciplined, and strategic. When you are sure about your business domain, consult the best eCommerce development service to get your job done.

We, at StrategyDriven, help you to adopt the pre-eminent format and objectives to guide you through your journey. The foundation of your business is the website you conduct. Best eCommerce development company caters you a list of advancement like:

  • Advance technology Suppor
  • Increase customer engagement
  • Enhance conversion rate
  • Promote brands and services online
  • Focuses user experience
  • Agile networking
  • Smooth functionalities
  • Protection against cyber attacks
  • Online marketing
  • SEO optimization

Before you dive into the market, get a detailed analysis of the present market trends. Keep an eye on the contemporary business propensities to have a clear idea about how to start your journey? Success needs a lot of dedication and persistent effort if you are ready to endure all the ups and downs, let’s not waste any more time and give it a try. Take a glance at the steps to earn a long time success!

A Consolidate Business Idea

Entrepreneurs leap towards branding and web development first before having a healthy business plan. Sit with some experienced business personalities or go through the portfolios of a top business tycoon. It is equally important to know your potential before you start mapping the boundaries. Ask yourself, can your business run solely online? Online learning or other SAAS business do not require to have the physical infrastructure, but, eCommerce platforms requires shipping and physical setups.

Validation is essential

When you are confident about your business goals and infrastructure, get validation from an expert hand. The initial days of your business might not be too hectic, as you would not have enough customers. At this stage focus your attention to gauge the comments of potential visitors of your landing page. If the business concept neglects the primary pitfalls, you will lose your place in the long run. Organize a digital survey to acknowledge your loopholes. Try to enlarge the email list and send them questions. This feedbacks can do wonder to introduce new possibilities on your websites.

Understand Technologies Suits Your Business

You are going step in a tech-oriented world. Running an online business demands you to know specific technical jargon at least from the surface. You know your potential and successfully mapped up the objectives. It’s time to understand with technology, that can do wonder in your business. There is no doubt in saying that the best eCommerce service takes this responsibility; however, there is no harm to know on your own.
For an eCommerce business, it is best to choose Shopify, for content management WordPress. Investing in a web designing firm is a good option, but it is better to build out the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) site first, it might not be perfect, but you can test your hypothesis.

  • Build a cross-platform mobile-friendly website.
  • Do not trap your website with terrible stock photos that can hinder performance. The 1997-esque image would not do any favor.
  • A blog page is essential for all industry types. Publish informative blog weekly-basis that serves the queries of a broad audience.
  • FAQs are essential for a better understanding of your brand and services.
  • Keep the ‘contact and email us’ part visible, so that customers find it easy to reach you. Using ‘pop-ups’ is also a good choice.

Set Up Your Website

Once you are done with the previous steps, you are ready to move forward. This is the most crucial stage of your online business. Never compromise with quality over expense and time. It takes a few days of effort to develop a website; this choice can make or break your business. All website development company promises you quality and efficiency. Be wise to go for the one who can serve better service according to your business domain. If you are looking for an online eCommerce platform, it is better to for expertise which meets your goal.

  • Do market research and examine the companies portfolios then choose the right one
  • Spend a fair amount of time with the management and explain to them what features are trending in the market that suits your budget.
  • Confirm how efficient they are to support our platform.
  • Make sure to have a straightforward UX design for better customer experience.
  • Focus on the content and graphic, especially on the landing page.
  • Try not to put complex features for online payment options.
  • The website should be storefront and customer-friendly.

Spend on SEO

Here comes the competition! No matter how advanced your website is, how coveted your brand or service is, if you cannot go with SEO, there is no success. Success comes with mastering the technicalities of search engine optimization. There is no point to appear at the fifth or sixth page of the search result. No customer spares a time to navigate your site. Either you stand at the first page, or you forget optimization. It requires high skills and deliberate research.

  • Google change their SEO rules and regulations frequently, so stay updated with that.
  • The content of your website should be clear to the audience and try out keyword-based meta titles and descriptions for your website.
  • Do not compromise with speed. It reduces half of the burden of SEO. Google never rank a website having 2.05 secs or more loading time.

Many established business owners struggling hard to keep up their position in a search result. Industries invest vast capital in digital marketing agencies, and some choose to acquire their strategies on their own. Remember, SEO helps your business to generate more traffic; therefore, it increases the conversion rate.

Maintaining Your Business

Shift your focus now from the foundation to legal matters. Go through online business laws. It generally comprises of the security of the customers’ data and securing your business position. Decide how would you set up the legal structure. You can register your business through an LLC form. There are specific state-related requirements that may vary. Visit the local secretary of state office’s website for detailed information.

Now, you are ready to go ahead. In every online business, setting up sounds relatively easy, then maintaining it with real dedication. You can take the help of experts. Visit our website to check the business plan at small, medium, and big budgets. A professional business plan helps you to reframe the loopholes of strategies

About the Author

Yakshit Bose is the Senior Developer at leading Custom WordPress Development Services Company CMARIX Technolabs Pvt. Ltd. He is an experienced, WordPress developer. He likes to share his thoughts on Web development, CMS development, and Technology News.

How To Ensure Your Resume Stays Top Of The Pile

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Resume|How To Ensure Your Resume Stays Top Of The PileIn order to get the job you want, you need to have the skills that are required. You need to be able to fulfill the employer’s needs and do what they want. At the end of the day, you’re going to be a valuable cog in their well-oiled machine. If you don’t have what’s necessary, then you won’t get picked – it’s quite simple. There is another thing you need to do, though. You must ensure that you’re looking very attractive to them. Before they actually choose you, they need to fall completely in love with you and realize that there is nobody better for the position. If you can do that, then you’re golden.

You’ll get a chance to do this in an interview and during a trial period, but before any of those take place, you’ll need to grab their attention with your written communication. Your resume (or CV elsewhere) should be eye-catching and to the point. They need to love what they see and what they read. Here’s how you can make sure yours stays top of the pile for good:

Don’t Overthink It And Be Too Extravagant

It’s easy to want to write an awful lot about how good you’re going to be for them. While it’s counterintuitive, you’re going to want to write the fundamentals about yourself and leave it there. Too much detail and too much bragging won’t do it. It’s not an awards ceremony or a professional development plan; it’s a resume. They might become bored with all of the details or see it as trying too hard.

Get All The Right And Relevant Details In There

There’s nothing quite like reading something that wastes your time. For some reason, a lot of people like to put information in their resume that is just completely irrelevant to the situation.
Make sure you’re talking yourself up, but don’t talk about something that nobody really knows nor cares about. If you’re applying for a mental health position, then perhaps you should mention a masters of counselling degree, but don’t talk about something that is the antithesis of the profession.

Think About The Way It’s Presented

The look of it matters a lot, too. The content needs to be on point, but if it is presented in a terrible fashion, then minds are going to be made up very quickly. The way you present your resume says a lot about how you are and how you act as a person. Make sure they are excited to meet you.

Check Over For Mistakes A Few Times

The chances are that you will have made a few errors throughout the writing. That’s okay as it’s something everyone does every single day. Just make sure you look over it all a few times in order to wipe out any issues. You never know, there may be a zero tolerance for this kind of thing at the firm you’re looking to work in – they may see a small error and throw it in the trash immediately.

Top Tips For Growing Your Franchise

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Franchise|Top Tips For Growing Your FranchiseWhether you’re an aspiring, emerging, or well-established franchisor, these simple tips on how to build and grow your concept still apply and always will. For development experts who know it all, it’s always a good idea to review the basics.

Franchising your company is a good way to earn more revenue, grow your brand, and take on exciting new opportunities. People often assume their franchise’s growth will come naturally, but businesses don’t grow on their own. You need to be willing to put in the work to make sure your franchise grows.

  1. Have a teacher’s mindset. There are lots of reasons that people decide to start and grow a franchise. Whatever your origins reason, remember that you need to be a teacher above everything else. You must be willing to teach others how to run a business so they can copy your model for success and use it to create a duplicate of your business that is just as successful. Without this mindset, you won’t do well.
  2. Start by perfecting your business model. The first thing that you need to do to grow a franchise is to work on perfecting your business model. Your business model needs to be clear-cut, successful, and easy to follow and share with others. Franchise management software can help to keep this consistent. The stronger your plan is, the better your organization will be able to run.
  3. Let things happen naturally. Don’t force growth. Let it happen naturally. The success of the establishments that you have should convince others to open a franchise. If you push it, then you’re putting new franchises at risk of failure, which will damage your name and reputation.
  4. Foster franchise relationships. For the organization to grow as a whole, the individual francises need to be successful. Create a culture of positive franchisee relations. Individual franchises need to be able to operate independently but rely on one another for help and advice.
  5. Build strong brand identity. If you want to grow your franchise, your brand identity needs to be strong. It should be recognizable throughout your industry. The stronger your brand identity is, and the easier it is to recognize, the better off your franchise will be.
  6. Create a balance between local and national. You could have a national franchise, with location all over the country, but there still needs to be a balance between your national name and the local establishment. This means that each establishment should stay in touch with the community it is based in, do local marketing, attend community events, and act as though it is a normal small business. You can’t just rely on national marketing for the whole franchise.
  7. Put strong franchise owners in your establishments. A franchise is only as good as the individual establishments, so it’s essential that you put strong franchise owners in place in each one. You will need to take the time to make sure that the right people are running each of your establishments.

What are the Best Sectors to Invest in the UK Stock Market Now 2020?

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StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Article |UK Stock Market|What are the Best Sectors to Invest in the UK Stock Market Now 2020?There’s no doubt that global stocks have endured a difficult time in 2020, largely on the back of the coronavirus outbreak.

The categorisation of Covid-19 as a global pandemic certainly sent shockwaves throughout the global marketplace, with the FTSE 100 crashing by a third from a peak of 7,634 in mid-January to below 5,000 on March 23rd.

Despite a subsequent and sustained rebound throughout Q2 and Q3, experts are now predicting a steep correction and further crash as the threat of a second wave of infections rises throughout the world. With this in mind, what are the best sectors to invest in and why are they poised to deliver a viable return?

Why are Stock Options Still Viable in 2020?

In simple terms, the stock market crash of March undermined and devalued a number of high-profile shares, without challenging their status or profitability in the long-term.

This trend was best observed amongst tech stocks, with relevant indexes such as the Nasdaq Composite tumbling by more than 4% recently and yet to scale their pre-pandemic highs. The S&P 500 also declined by 2.8% last week, as tech stocks faltered and saw their value proposition falter.

Despite this, the big-tech market and its individual stocks are fundamentally strong and well-established, which means that such equities will once again grow in value once normal market conditions are restored.

This creates a small but tangible window of opportunity for investors to buy variable cap stocks at a significantly reduced price, before selling these on for a profit in the future.

Sectors and Caps – Picking the Right Investments

Of course, not all sectors and markets have been created equal, which is why some have performed significantly better than others during the last six months, and determining the best stocks to buy now will depend on market trends.

For example, supermarkets and e-commerce brands have achieved huge growth since the start of the pandemic, with the virus thought to have added £5.3 billion to online sales in 2020 so far. Both of these of these sectors are also poised to deliver growth in the long-term too, so they’re ideal for investors with a more patient outlook.

Some technology markets have also thrived during the coronavirus outbreak, particularly those based in remote communication. Take Zoom, for example, which has forecast a potential 300% revenue increase in 2020 and represents the ideal short-term option.

Beyond this, you may also decide that midcap stocks are ideally suited to the current investment climate, with these entities having performed demonstrably better than others since the FTSE 100 crash on March 23rd.

This is part of a wider and more historic trend too, with dedicated research showcasing that midcap stocks have also performed consistently better than others during periods of ‘systematic risk’ since the mid-1990s.

As a result of this, investing in mid-cap stocks (which boast an average market cap of between £2 billion and £10 billion) is a great way of optimising profits and minimising risk during significant peaks and troughs.

Choosing Equity Funds Over Indices and Individual Stocks

One of the best ways to target mid-cap stocks is through an equity fund, which offers considerably less risk and higher potential profits than both indices and individual shares.

The reason for this is simple; as such funds are naturally diverse and feature multiple holdings from an array of carefully selected markets, while they’re also carefully managed and directed by skilled managers such as Downing’s Rosemary Banyard.

With this example, you can also access a fund that’s focused primarily on small and mid-cap stocks, while simultaneously targeting UK stocks that are capable of delivering sustained and tangible returns.

Of course, the key is to identify the right equity fund to suit your risk profile and outlook, while also seeking out an option that’s tailored to your profit expectations.