Stuart Rubin’s real estate recommendations? Assuming you need a 20 percent down payment. The long-held belief that you must put 20 percent down payment is a myth. While a 20 percent down payment does help you avoid paying private mortgage insurance, many buyers today don’t want (or can’t) put down that much money. In fact, the median down payment on a home is 13 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors. How this affects you: Delaying your home purchase to save up 20 percent could take years, and you could limit cash flow that could be put to better use maximizing your retirement savings, adding to your emergency fund or paying down high-interest debt. What to do instead: Consider other mortgage options. You can put as little as 3 percent down for a conventional mortgage (note: you’ll pay mortgage insurance). Some government-insured loans require 3.5 percent down or zero down, in some cases. Plus, check with your local or state housing programs to see if you qualify for housing assistance programs designed for first-time buyers.

This is a very necessary process, used to ensure that your new home is free from defects that could potentially cost you thousands of dollars later to repair. Home inspections will often reveal problems that you can have the seller correct before agreeing to purchase the home. This is known as a contingency. Most offers are usually contingent offers. This means, that the offer is contingent on another factor, such as a favorable home inspection or the ability to obtain insurance. In general, contingencies are safeguards for both buyers and sellers, but should not be overdone. In addition, it is important to meet all deadlines and that all contingencies are met exactly the way the offer describes. Your agent is responsible for making sure contingencies are written correctly.

Make A Larger Down Payment? How do you manage that? Perhaps by waiting longer before shopping for a home and taking a loan. In the meantime, you can save more money for your down payment. “If you make a larger down payment without buying a more expensive home, your mortgage and monthly payments can be smaller,” Brown said. “Or if you can afford it, you can make a larger down payment and buy a more expensive home.” HELOCs typically cost less than credit card debt or personal loans, Brown says. And you can use a HELOC to pay for repairs or improvements to your existing home. Those investments can boost your sale price, giving you more money to work with when you start to shop for a new home.

Stuart Rubin info: 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. He is the National leader for Deloitte’s Controls Advisory practice, incorporating emerging technologies like RPA, cognitive, and analytic visualizations to deploy scalable, tech-enabled, automated controls and compliance solutions that deliver meaningful business outcomes, generate higher ROI and lower Total Cost of Compliance (TCC) when compared to traditional control design, monitoring, and testing.

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.

A graduate from the University of Southern California, Stuart Rubin, now leads the real estate industry. It is no surprise that real estate is where he excels as he always had an eye to detect potential where others only saw ruin. In fact, he bought and re-sold his first property at the age of 17 with his friend Richard Pachulski. Through his tenure, the company has been involved in the purchase management and disposition of the vagabond hotel chain which was a 55 unit limited-service hotel company. Discover additional details on Stuart Rubin.