House Refinance Center
Mortgage And Home Loan Slideshow
| Questions You MUST Ask The Mortgage Lender Or Broker Not all mortgages go smoothly. There are always bumps along the road. You must find out how jump over or move around these obstacles before you sign your life away. The two big questions are one, how do I get out of this deal? And number two, how much will it cost me to cancel the deal. Why would I want to cancel the mortgage. There are a hundred reasons including, divorce, buying a different house, the current lender sucks when it comes to service, a better rate is offered across the street and "I don't have a job". Watch the slideshow. |
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| Home Buying Mistakes Buying a house is stressful. To reduce your stress level and also save yourself thousands of dollars, avoid making common mistakes. A common mistake is focusing on the house and forgetting the neighborhood. You have the visit the neighborhood at least six times. Check it out at night to see if there are corners that young people just "hang out". Go back and look at the neighborhood on weekends. Are there lots of partying? Is there loud music? You might want to contact the local police. Get some crime statistics. How often are police called to the street where you are thinking of purchasing? While you are in the neighborhood, look for abandoned vehicles, burnt out houses or houses with broken windows. You have to go slowly and check every detail. Nothing is too small to just ignore. Two places to get information is a church and the local community center. Watch the slideshow. |
| Stop Scammers Now Every day crooks are planning and working 24/7 to separate you from the money you have. There are numerous scams in the mortgage and real estate field. The latest one is playing on the negative press the big banks have been plastered with recently. You have probably heard of loan audits. The banks and lenders were called on the carpet for robo-signing, and questionable MERS foreclosures. So the crooks decided to be good citizens and protect the homeowners. They are looking for errors and flaws in the original mortgage documents. They claim that when they find these errors the homeowners will save thousands of dollars. The information will help in any future litigation against the lenders. This is all smoke and mirrors. They simply want your money. Watch the slideshow. |
| Job Loss Insurance Every Homeowner Should Have Unemployment is still at 9.2% as of July 12, 2011. Millions of Americans are afraid that they will lose their job. There were two American dreams. One, get married and have a couple children. And number two, buy a house and enjoy life with your family. Buying a house is fast becoming a nightmare. Foreclosure are rising and house prices are falling every week. The uncertainty of keeping a full time, permanent job has left potential homebuyers on the sidelines. Job loss insurance, while not solving the job issue, has soften the blow if a homeowner does lose his job. The policy pays part or all of the mortgage. Some plans would pay the principal, the interest, the house taxes and the house insurance. Watch the slideshow. |
| Property Taxes Too High? Appeal! We all have friends who constantly complain about their property taxes. "My taxes are too high". "My taxes keep going up". There is an appeal process in every state to address this issue. However, the homeowner has to initiate the process. The important thing to remember is that the tax assessor does not set your taxes. The job of the assessor is to place a current market value on your house. This is generally done every two or three years. Given the turmoil in the housing market over the last 10 years, there must be some errors. So you have a good chance of winning your case. Be professional. Do not walk into the room and start pointing fingers and laying blame at the assessor's office. Show proof. Collect recent comparables. If you have a real estate agent that is willing to assist you in a presentation...go for it. The school boards and the town boards have a lot to do with how much your are taxed. If the schools are facing shortages, and the fire department is broke, and the police need money to hire more officers, then you can expect to pay more. You need the services, you pay. Watch the slideshow. |
| Your Bank A Slumlord? Some of the biggest banks in America could be slumlord and you don't know. How can this be even possible? The housing crisis led to millions of foreclosures. Many of these foreclosed properties couldn't be sold because buyers feared losing their job and banks decided to tighten underwriting. They were no longer giving mortgages to everyone that walked through the door. So houses sat empty. The banks said "let's rent these to low income people, and see what happens". The houses were rented but the banks failed to maintained the properties. In many cases, the houses were not in livable conditions. There were rats, mice, bedbugs and lack of decent toilet facilities. This is where Los Angeles said "we have had enough, see you in court". Los Angeles is suing Deutsche Bank, the biggest bank in Germany, and also the biggest slumlord in Los Angeles. Watch the slideshow. |
| Denied A Mortgage 4 Times Times are tough and credit is tight. In defence of the banks, they are cleaning house and revamping their lending guidelines. If you were denied a loan more than twice, maybe you are not ready to buy a house. Get your finances in shape, improve your credit score, and a down payment, and try again. Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act your lender must provide you with written reasons why the loan was denied. The tighter lending policies are across all product that the banks sell. If you are applying for a HELOC or a refinance, you will be faced with the same problems. In most cases where a house is involved, the steep drop in house values has led the lenders to take a second look at loan applications. Remember, you can apply at different financial institution for a loan, but do not over apply. In other words do not apply to four lenders in the span of four weeks. Your credit score will take a beating. Watch the slideshow. |
| Loans For Our Veterans It is heartbreaking to see a veteran broke, hungry and homeless. Many might not be aware that help is available. In terms of housing, we should counsel and help every veteran achieve homeownership. If the veteran doesn't want the responsibility of owning a house and paying a mortgage, then let's help with adequate rental housing. There are countless ways that a VA mortgage can uplift a veteran and his or her family. Applying for the mortgage takes a bit of paperwork. But there are support groups and non-profit organizations that will provide guidance in completing the forms. The most important form is the 26-1880. This form is required for the veteran to get a Certificate of Eligibility. With the Certificate in hand, the veteran can go to a VA approved lender or mortgage broker, and apply for a mortgage. It is that simple. The following are a few reasons to get a VA loan: >low 30 year fixed rate >mortgage is assumable >zero downpayment. Watch the slideshow. |
| MARS: No Enforcement? MARS was created in 2009 to protect consumers from shady loan modification and foreclosure rescue scams. There were two specific areas of concern. One was the upfront fees. The scam artists collected the money and ran. The other concern was disclosure. The crooks never disclosed anything. They just promised everything under the sun. MARS corrected these two glowing mistakes. A real estate agent who tried to help a homeowner negotiate with the bank, and in return he gets to sell the house, found himself walking a tightrope. He could be sued by the homeowner or by the bank. He could even be found in violation of MARS. So this is where the National Association of Realtors stepped in. Watch the slideshow. |
| Mortgage Junk Fees There are thousands of dollars in junk fees that you can ask your lender to waive or reduce. Some fees you don't mind paying, for example, appraisals, home inspections and flood certification fees. Application fees and commitment fees are a joke. You are seeking a loan. There is no logic for paying an application fee. Same with a commitment fee. The lender checked your application and is happy to get you as a client. Why do you have to pay for him to express his joy via a written commitment? Challenge your fees and ask for a reduction whenever possible. Watch the slideshow. |
| Videos: The Mortgage Minute Tips, news and advice on mortgages |
| Fannie Mae Wants $5 Billion From The Taxpayers Fannie Mae had a loss of $2.9 billion in the second quarter of 2011. This was better than the loss it suffered in the first quarter. This was a staggering $6.5 billion. I like Fannie Mae, but it is time to cut the apron string. No more money. Learn to live within a budget. Watch the slideshow. |
