Mortgage 101

By Charity Ohlund, VP of Sales & Marketing | Fountain Mortgage I get it. Waiting sounds smart. Waiting feels responsible. Waiting for mortgage rates to fall lower seems like it would save you a fortune, right? Not always. And not for everyone. Here’s the real...

By Charity Ohlund, VP of Sales & Marketing | Fountain Mortgage When you're shopping for a home, these two words start flying around fast: Pre-qualified and Pre-approved. They sound suspiciously similar. They both involve a lender looking at your finances. And...

By Charity Ohlund, VP of Sales & Marketing | Fountain Mortgage In today’s market, getting your offer accepted isn’t just about offering the most money. (Sure, money talks — but so does having your act together.) When sellers look at a...

By Charity Ohlund I’ll admit it. I used to turn my nose up at Aldi. My mom shopped there when I was a kid, and I always remembered the lunch meat being sketchy and slimy.   But Aldi has really changed during...

By Aziza Aslanova If you’re in the home-buying game, it’s time to talk about something that’s more essential than picking out your perfect backsplash or envisioning your dream backyard—it’s your spending habits and how they can play a pivotal role...

By Charity Ohlund For more than a decade, I was a devoted ‘gym class’ exerciser. While I won’t name any specific gyms, you can take a pretty good guess as to where a JOCO mom might frequent. From sweat-drenched spin...

By Charity Ohlund I’ve previously discussed the benefits of making a “secret extra mortgage payment” by simply paying half of your monthly payment every two weeks. The biggest benefits of this strategy are paying less in interest and shortening the...

By Charity Ohlund, Fountain Mortgage Have you heard of the cool way to make an extra mortgage payment every year? No, not the one where you make a full extra payment at the end of the year. That’s not a...

A homeowner association (HOA) is typically a nonprofit corporation within a community of housing. Most HOAs exist in planned multi-unit community projects such as condominiums and townhomes or in newer developments filled with new construction. Membership is mandatory and...

By Charity Ohlund, VP of Sales & Marketing | Fountain Mortgage Let’s talk about saving for a home — without the overwhelm, shame spiral, or spreadsheets that make you want to fake your own disappearance. Whether you’re buying your first home...

by Charity Ohlund, VP of Sales & Marketing | Fountain Mortgage Buying your first home feels like joining a secret society. There’s a ton of excitement, a few initiation rites (inspections, appraisals, signing your name 847 times), and a lot of...