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When looking for a new home, the characteristics of the house are obviously important, but you should also focus on the neighborhood. If you and your family currently have a healthy lifestyle, youll want to find a new home where you can stick to positive habits. If you have not focused on your health as much as you would like, think of buying a new home as a chance to start on a healthier path.

Look for Opportunities to Exercise
Staying active is an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. You and your family will be more likely to get out and exercise if there are places where you can do so safely. As you look for your next home, take a drive around the area and talk to your real estate agent about places where you and your family could get some physical activity.

Walking or biking to get to work, to run errands or simply to get some fresh air and physical activity can help you stay healthy. Look for a neighborhood with sidewalks, bicycle lanes on roads and walking or hiking trails. Ask your real estate agent about traffic patterns at different times of the day or visit the neighborhood at various times to see for yourself if you could walk and bike safely. You can also gather valuable information on noise, air pollution and traffic congestion to help you decide whether you would want to live there.

Seek out a neighborhood with green spaces, such as parks, playgrounds, public gardens and dog parks. Not only are those excellent places to exercise and get to know other members of your community, but being around nature has been proven to benefit physical and mental health.

If you and your kids prefer more structured forms of exercise, look for a neighborhood with appropriate facilities. Depending on your interests, you may want to search for a home in an area with athletic fields, pools, basketball courts, tennis courts and gyms.

Focus on Other Factors That Could Help Your Family Stay Healthy
Search for a neighborhood that is free of litter and where people seem to take pride in their homes and community. A home near supermarkets or farmers markets could help you stock up on nutritious foods. Buying a house near convenience stores and fast food restaurants might encourage you to make less healthy food choices.

Talk to Your Real Estate Agent and Current Residents
Before you decide to buy a house, learn as much as you can about the community. Talk to your real estate agent about local facilities that promote a healthy lifestyle. Ask what people do to have fun and relax, and what types of amenities the community has to offer so you can figure out if it would be a good fit for your family.

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When looking at real estate listings, it can be easy to fall in love with the idea of living in a house with a specific design or features, but you most likely wont be able to get everything on your wishlist. Focus on things that you couldnt change and differentiate between needs and wants so you can make a list of top priorities to guide your search.

Things to Prioritize
Location is important in real estate, but people have different priorities. Figure out if having a short commute, living in a good school district or being near restaurants and entertainment is important to you and your family.

Focus on the condition of the house. If you buy a home with a cracked foundation and you wind up with expensive repair bills, you may come to regret your decision. Make sure that major systems, such as plumbing and electrical, are in good shape so you dont have to make costly repairs after you move in.

You may have a long list of things that you would like, but that are not necessarily requirements. For example, you may prefer a two-story home, but you may be willing to buy a one-story house if it has everything else you want. Size is important, but a smaller house that is well designed may have more usable living space than a home with more square footage.

You might find a house with fewer bedrooms or bathrooms than you would like, but you could build an addition later. Other things, such as a pool or a patio, could be added in the future.

When making your list of priorities, consider potential downsides. For example, a house with a huge yard may seem ideal, until you think about the amount of time you would need to spend on lawncare or the amount of money you would have to pay someone else to handle it.

Hash It Out
Make a list of features that are most important to you and others that would be nice to have. If someone else is buying the house with you, that individual should make a list independently. Work together to narrow them down to the top 3 – 5 priorities, then another list of things that would be nice to have.

Be Realistic About Price
If you got preapproved for a mortgage, you should not necessarily spend the amount you were approved for. The lenders calculations may not have included significant expenses, such as property taxes, private mortgage insurance, homeowners insurance, maintenance, repairs, childcare and healthcare.

Talk to Your Agent
Once you have identified your top priorities, share them with your real estate agent. After you begin looking at houses, you may realize that some things on the list arent as important as you thought they were, and that some things you thought would be nice to have are actually top priorities. If that happens, revise your list and discuss it with your agent.

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These ideas will restore order in the bathroom and create a whole new look and feel.

Short on counter space? Attach wire crates to the wall and use them to store items that clutter up the sink area.

Adhere flat-backed suction cups to the inside of your medicine cabinet door.

Fill them with cotton swabs, tweezer, hair clips and other small items.

Stack towel bars on the back of the bathroom door to organize towels in one spot.

Add a shelf above your medicine cabinet to store paper goods, soap and cleaning supplies.

Remember, having a great bathroom isnt about more spaceits about using the space you have wisely.

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If youre thinking about buying a house, you probably know that you should shop around to find a loan with a competitive interest rate. When you visit lenders websites, you will see mortgage interest rates advertised, but you might not be offered the same rates if you apply for loans from those lenders.

Advertised Rates are Based on Assumptions
Many factors can influence a mortgage interest rate. The rates that lenders advertise are based on a series of assumptions, including loan amount, loan term, loan-to-value ratio and credit score. Advertised rates are for single-family homes, but rates are higher for borrowers who purchase vacation homes and investment properties.

When you look at advertised rates, check the fine print to find the assumptions underlying those figures. If they differ significantly from your situation, you will not get the advertised rate.

Compare the assumptions that different lenders use and their advertised rates. If several lenders make similar assumptions, but their rates differ significantly, you can figure out which lender would be most likely to offer you a good rate, even if it was higher than the advertised rate.

Interest Rate and APR
Its important to understand the difference between the interest rate and the annual percentage rate (APR). The APR includes the interest rate for a mortgage, plus closing costs and other fees.

The fees included in the APR are optional and lenders decide which fees to include. They generally dont provide a breakdown of the fees included in their APRs until after a customer has applied for a mortgage. You may have to request mortgage quotes from several lenders to get detailed information so you can make a meaningful comparison.

How to Qualify for a Lower Interest Rate
You may be able to take some steps to qualify for a competitive interest rate. Pay all your bills on time. Focus on paying down credit card balances and other debts to boost your credit score and lower your debt-to-income ratio.

Dont open new accounts before you apply for a mortgage and dont close old accounts, even if you dont use them. Doing so could shorten the average age of your accounts. It would also reduce your total available credit, which could increase your credit utilization ratio and hurt your credit score.

Making a larger down payment could reduce your loan-to-value ratio and help you qualify for a better interest rate. You may qualify for a down payment assistance program.

You could pay extra money at closing to purchase mortgage discount points and enjoy a lower interest rate over the life of the loan. One discount point equals 1 percent of the mortgage amount.

Get the Best Rate You Can
Apply for loans from multiple lenders. When you receive the loan estimates, look carefully at the terms and the fees included in each so you can compare apples to apples.

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