Wells Fargo is offering up a guide for first time homebuyer's, which comes chock full of information and explanations of the many terms associated with getting your first mortgage. The guide is free but does require that you hand over your email address to Wells Fargo. It covers the rent or buy question, real costs of ownership, mortgage and loan types as well as help on choosing a real estate agent. Just like the rent or own calculator we shared last week, this is a great tool to add to your arsenal before you head out to buy a home.

The guide is definitely geared towards the benefits of owning a home, but I am impressed that it points out that in certain cases, renting makes more sense. I don't care for the guider's description of home ownership as "Owning your own home is like having a savings account that you can live in." as that seems to be part of the problem individuals are currently experiencing with the current lending crisis. The guide even offers up a selection of the ways to find money to use for your down-payment, including using a forced savings account or selling unused items, to name a few. The guide also details interesting places you can find funds such as down-payment assistance programs or borrowing against your 401k. The latter being something I wouldn't recommend doing.

As a current renter looking to purchase in the near future I have found this guide to be a very good primer. While i still have some questions about becoming a first time homeowner, I have a few more ideas about what to ask friends and family regarding our first mortgage.The information about choosing a home and a real estate agent are also really useful for me as the right agent can make a huge difference.

Isn't it time you started reaping the benefits of your local congressman's clout? Not yet ready to ask for a letter of recommendation for West Point? Have no fear because if you are the bearer of student loans and your loan company is shafting you, your congressman may be the key to a happy ending.

Getting some satisfaction with the help of your congressman or woman is so easy anybody can do it. Granted, like all problems and lending issues, it helps if you are in the right and have been paying your lender what the terms state. But this strategy may work even if you are close to being handed off to a collection agency.

As a little background: My wife had all of her student loans through Sallie Mae, affectionately referred to around our house as the devil. Several of these private loans which Ms. Mae was holding on to were pulling in 13.25% interest! We had included some of these loans in an initial federal consolidation which never worked out. Apparently the incoming fax line at Sallie Mae was hooked right up to a paper shredder because they never received our requests to consolidate. We tried again to consolidate my wife's private loans with Wells Fargo, who, just like our federal consolidator, never received a response from Sallie Mae. Fed up with the problems we were having, I did what any rational person would, I called my local news stations call for action. This is where I found out I could contact my congressman to get some satisfaction.