Greater Michigan Realty

The place where we live says a lot about us. It doesn’t have to be a sparkling mansion on the top of some hill, but it represents stability and achievement and does a lot for our inner confidence and credibility. There is nothing better than the sense of pride that we get when we think of our home and all that we are doing for our family. It’s so important to bring up your family in a safe and welcoming neighborhood and to do the right thing for them, within your powers. As human beings, we tend to want to live in places where others also populate and this puts an inevitable premium on the availability of land, due to the lack of space to set up a home. This trend has, over the decades, led to ballooning house prices. This is not a new trend, of course, but the fact is that the average home costs many times more than the average person’s annual income. This ensures that the vast majority of us cannot buy a home without resorting to financing of some kind. Well over 90% of people who are trying to buy a home in America simply do not have the necessary amount of cash to buy the house “free and clear.”

This has all led to a huge industry revolving around real estate financing and has also led to the establishment of credit scores, which unfortunately rule our lives in one way or another. The credit score is simply a number on a sheet of paper, but people’s entire lives are judged by whoever looks at the number, regardless of the fact that there are often explanations behind the figure. Conventional moneylenders look at the credit score and not beyond and this behavior is especially prevalent these days. There are many, many reasons why individuals may have lower than average credit scores and many of these reasons may have been beyond their control. It doesn’t seem to matter, however, as damaged credit can hang around your neck for years and make it so difficult to find the home that you and your family are craving for.

This is why people are looking for creative forms of home financing, because first time home buyers with bad credit or those who are simply buying a house with poor credit cannot turn to conventional methods. There are many forms of creative home financing. Some involve alternative collateral, where high equity assets, maybe a stock portfolio or valuable vehicle, are traded in return for security of some kind. In many jurisdictions, options known as “land contracts” are perfectly viable. This is especially so in the state of Michigan, where they are fully recognized and legal instruments. Land contracts bring two motivated people together – a seller, who might not want to go through the lengthy process of working through conventional selling organizations and a buyer, who may be buying a home with poor credit or with a low down payment. The number of repayments, the actual monthly repayment and the terms are negotiable and the closing costs are often paid by the seller. Land contracts are really one of the most creative home buying solutions you can find.

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