Real estate developer tricks with Stuart Rubin? Draining your savings. Spending all or most of their savings on the down payment and closing costs is one of the biggest first-time homebuyer mistakes, says Ed Conarchy, a mortgage planner and investment adviser at Cherry Creek Mortgage in Gurnee, Illinois. “Some people scrape all their money together to make the 20 percent down payment so they don’t have to pay for mortgage insurance, but they are picking the wrong poison because they are left with no savings at all,” Conarchy says. How this affects you: Homebuyers who put 20 percent or more down don’t have to pay for mortgage insurance when getting a conventional mortgage. That’s usually translated into substantial savings on the monthly mortgage payment. But it’s not worth the risk of living on the edge, Conarchy says. What to do instead: Aim to have three to six months of living expenses in an emergency fund. Paying mortgage insurance isn’t ideal, but depleting your emergency or retirement savings to make a large down payment is riskier.

Now that you know the “fair market value” of the home you like, it’s time to determine how much you are willing to pay. Establishing this prior to making a formal offer helps define your personal limits. You should determine how much to offer, how much earnest money you will put down, how much of the closing costs you will ask the seller to pay, when you plan to settle, and what inspections you plan to have conducted. Your agent will offer great advice for structuring your offer. Remember to ask your agent about contingencies and their importance. If you don’t fully understand something, be sure to clarify it.

Are you wondering: How much mortgage can I afford? In some markets, you better be able to pay for a big one, or you’ll be shut out. Fortunately, there are tricks you can use to increase the size of your answer when you ask yourself how much mortgage you can afford. Those are often overlooked but totally legit steps. Here’s what you’re up against. In the fourth quarter, monthly base payments for single-family existing homes ranged from $1,430 to $5,946. That was based on median purchase prices in the 25 most expensive U.S. metropolitan markets, according to HSH.com. Monthly base payments consist of the principal, interest, taxes and insurance (PITI) that comprise typical mortgage payments.

Stuart Rubin info: His hands-on experience includes regulations, standards, and leading practices pertaining to Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), cybersecurity and customer privacy, system implementation and IT governance, COSO, COBIT, SSAE 18, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and corporate investigations. He has extensive experience in assisting Deloitte’s clients in navigating the evolving digital risk universe, including cloud, digital asset management, security and privacy, third-party risk management, and robotic process automation (RPA).

Stuart Rubin is a managing director in Deloitte’s Assurance and Internal Audit practice, with 20 years of experience in public accounting, Internal Audit, and IT consulting. He focuses on assisting organizations in the Consumer, Fintech, and Services industries in implementing, assessing, monitoring, and enhancing their systems of control. Stuart Rubin regularly presents at the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), and accounting industry conferences on emerging trends in the assurance, internal audit, and security/privacy spaces.

Mr. Rubin had also been one of the founding shareholders of the Private Bank of California. At the time, the Private Bank of California had been the largest Denovo raise for a new bank when founded. Mr. Rubin served on the executive loan committee from founding through the sale and was also an active member of the board through the sale holding various board seats. The company had primarily specialized in added value acquisitions and had created a vertically integrated platform with both management, development, and disposition. See even more info at Stuart Rubin.