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Stay Focused on Home Purchases THUNDER BAY - MONEY - The housing market is hot, in part to low interest rates and home prices that were low for many years. Given that the purchase of a home is typically the largest purchase one will make in their life, jumping into the market and competing against other aggressive bids can be intimidating. The last thing anyone would want when buying a home or property is to have regrets afterwards, especially for those first time home buyers. Here are some tips to consider for first time home buyers. Make sure to get Pre-Approved It would seem like it's a given, but many first time home buyers will assume they'll know how much they can spend on their home based on online mortgage calculators. It's important to setup a meeting with your bank or mortgage specialist, since they can provide information to you on what price range you should be looking in, and specifics to consider like property taxes, and other monthly expenses you'll want to factor in. Consider Renting for the Short-Term Despite all the good that comes in owning a house, such as building home equity, it's important to ask yourself how long you plan on staying in that house. If your long term plan is still not known because of your job, or personal situation, it may be better to rent in the short term. Buyers need to realize all of the expenses renters don't need to worry about like property taxes, and home owners insurance. This also isn't considering any unforeseen maintenance costs that could arise. Skipping the Home Inspection Many new home buyers may try to cut costs and skip out on a home inspection.

DALLAS - For years Frenchitt Collins worked AS a legitimate insurance adjustor. He wAS able to pull off a major insurance fraud by luring in victims with ads. Ultimately Collins wAS sentenced to 15 years in prison and wAS ordered to pay $700,000 in restitution to his victims. "Those P.O. boxes were rented by him (Collins), his wife, his brothers, or his girlfriends," said Bodon. In order to attract clients with ads, he would go ahead and offer them $100 or $200 to use their identifiers. Once that information wAS received, Collins went ahead and completed medical forms necessary and sent them to insurance companies. The goal of these ads wAS to lure in more victims. Insurance companies would then send Collins checks, lots of checks. Federal officials said insurance fraud is a $30 billion business in the U.S. "It is very lucrative for the criminal to perpetrate the crime because it's low risk and it's high reward and they know that," said Fred Lohmann of the National Insurance Crime Burea.

Few personal milestones compel someone to buy life insurance coverage like becoming a parent. In the event of an untimely death, life insurance can serve as a financial safety net to ensure there's money available to pay for everything from medical bills to a home mortgage and future college education costs. Many Americans have taken steps to line up such a financial cushion. At the end of 2012, 146.2 million individual life insurance policies were in effect, with coverage totaling $11.2 trillion, according to the American Council of Life Insurers. Yet the distribution model has changed during the past few decades, and fewer Americans are relying on local financial advisers in their community to look at their overall financial situation and recommend a life insurance strategy, said Brian Bulakites, national sales manager for life insurance for Henrico County-based insurance company Genworth Financial Inc. The Internet has enabled consumers to shop more widely for insurance, but it might also cost them the face-to-face advice that can be helpful, he said. "The biggest thing we see in our industry today is that people don't have advisers," he said. "You want to find an adviser that you can build a relationship with - somebody that you can trust."