Real estate tips by Stuart Rubin? Waiting for the ‘unicorn’. Unicorns do not exist in real estate, and finding the perfect property is like finding a needle in a haystack. Looking for perfection can narrow your choices too much, and you might pass over solid contenders in the hopes that something better will come along. But this type of thinking can sabotage your search, says James D’Astice, a real estate agent with Compass in Chicago. How this affects you: Looking for perfection might limit your real estate search or lead to you overpaying for a home. It can also take longer to find a home. What to do instead: Keep an open mind about what’s on the market and be willing to put in some sweat equity, DiBugnara says. Some loan programs let you roll the cost of repairs into your mortgage, too, he adds.

Develop A Mortgage Shopping Cart. One of the biggest decisions to make before putting a contract on a home is how to finance the purchase. Lenders aggressively compete for your mortgage business in a variety of ways. Today, you can apply for a loan over the Internet or even use a mortgage broker to shop for your loan with hundreds of lenders. When choosing a lender, compare fixed rates to fixed rates, not fixed rates to ARM’s, etc. Create a chart that lists different types of loans, fees, and at least five mortgage providers (including a mortgage broker).

So what are the tricks you can use to be able to increase the size of the mortgage you can afford? Those solutions revolve around how people calculate the maximum mortgage they can afford. They use industry guidelines that cap how much of their gross monthly income they can safely spend on housing and how much on all debt. One common guideline is known as the 28/36 rule. That’s a shorthand way of saying that a household should not spend more than 28% of its gross monthly income on housing expenses. In addition, spending on debt of all kinds should not top 36% of household income. That cap on debt spending applies to everything from mortgages to car loans, student loans and credit cards.

Stuart Rubin bio: Stuart also serves as a talent leader for Deloitte’s Risk & Financial Advisory consumer industry practice. This includes programming and sponsorship designed to attract, retain, develop, and advance a diverse workforce and strengthening our inclusive culture where all our people can connect, belong, and grow. Stuart 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.

Stuart Rubin also serves as a talent leader for Deloitte’s Risk & Financial Advisory consumer industry practice. This includes programming and sponsorship designed to attract, retain, develop, and advance a diverse workforce and strengthening our inclusive culture where all our people can connect, belong, and grow. Prior to joining Deloitte, he was a co-founder of a leading cyber services consultancy where he launched a managed services platform for providing ongoing monitoring of network devices and assessing and reporting on the impact of cyber-related events.

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. Read extra info at Stuart Rubin.