Considering Your Home Refinance Options
By Joshua Suffie
A home is one of the biggest investments that most people make during their lives. Being able to pay for your home will most often dictate a need for a mortgage to pay for the home over a period of time. There may come a time when you want to refinance your home loan, however, and knowing when you may need to do this is important. What are some of the cases where you would want or need to refinance your home?

Changing From An Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) to Fixed Rate Mortgage

If your ARM loan has an interest rate that is higher than what is being offered for a fixed rate mortgage, you may want to refinance. This is most dependent upon how long you are going to stay in your home. If you only plan to stay for a couple more years, you can stick with your ARM loan in most cases, but if you plan to stay long-term, you will want to look into a fixed rate mortgage.

Lowering Your Monthly Payment

A drop in mortgage interest rates can make a significant impact upon your mortgage payment. By looking into home refinance, you may be able to decrease your mortgage payment. There are three conditions where you can lower your monthly payment through home refinance options, including getting a lower interest rate, changing the term of your mortgage, and getting an interest only mortgage loan where you pay only pay the interest for a specific amount of time.

Need Extra Cash

If you have built up equity in your home, you can undergo the home refinance process and borrow against the value of your home to get cash for home improvements and other needs. This can be a very viable option, especially if you have a need for additional cash and have equity in your home.

Consolidating Credit Card Debt

If you have quite a bit of credit card debt or have a high interest rate on your credit card debt, you can consolidate the debt in with your mortgage loan if you have equity on your home. If your home’s value is more than the loan balance, you can take the equity and pay off your credit cards. This is considered much “healthier” debt and the interest can be taken off of your income taxes.

Changing From A Fixed Rate Mortgage to an Adjustable Rate Mortgage

If you are not planning on being in your home for a long time, you may want to consider changing to a lower Adjustable Rate Mortgage Loan. This can save you a significant amount of money in payments to give you more money for other things in your life. This is a viable option if you are not going to stay in the home for more than a few years, because you will not have to worry about the interest rate increasing.

Deciding on a home refinance option will take some time and thought. To be sure that you make the best decision for you and your family, you will want to make sure that you carefully consider the ramifications of this decision. With careful thought and planning, you can refinance your home to make your financial situation stronger and more secure.

Please visit our website Refinancing Right for more unbiased and helpful articles on refinancing your home loan. We pride ourselves on providing up to date, well researched home loan information.

Don’t wait until you are in front of a mortgage broker for your education as they often have their own agenda. Refinancing can get complicated. Make sure you have the required knowledge before making decisions. Have a look at our refinancing calculator and our guide to online refinancing on our website.

Foreclosure - Help Preventing it - Mortgage Negotiation Service Solves 7 Problems
By Toni Tanner
Trying to avoid foreclosure? Help preventing the loss of your home could be closer than you think. A little known area of financial expertise can solve 7 of the major problems that lead to foreclosure. It includes the art of negotiating with your current lender on your behalf to address problems which would otherwise cause you to lose your home. The best strategy for using this mortgage negotiation service depends in large part on which of these 7 problems is your greatest home ownership challenge.

1. Are your mortgage payments too high?
If your payments are too high, it could be due either to the loan balance or to your interest rate. If it’s because of your loan balance, it may be possible to lower your payments by reducing the principal loan balance.

2. Is your interest rate too high?
Maybe your payments are too high primarily because of the interest rate. If you find the interest rate overly high - even if you are current on payments - the bank may be willing to consider lowering your interest rate.

3. Is your mortgage upside down or is there too little equity to refinance?
This is a common problem: particularly in hard hit states like Ohio, Florida, and California and some major cities like Baltimore, MD. If you have been turned down for a refinance recently because you didn’t have enough equity, I have good news for you: a mortgage negotiator can help persuade the lender to work out an agreeable solution.

4. Are you behind on your mortgage payments?
Depending on the situation, your lender may not take your case seriously until you are several months behind. However, there are certain other solutions available to you only if you are current on your mortgage payments. Hence the importance of enlisting this service as early on as possible. You need help to keep all your options open as long as possible.

5. Are you are recovering from a crisis?
Were you recently between jobs, or are you recovering from an illness that caused you to fall behind on your mortgage payments? Do you believe you could keep up with your mortgage payments and other bills from now on? Your lender may be willing to work out agreeable terms to keep you in your home.

6. Are you retired, on a fixed income?
Were you turned down recently for a reverse mortgage? Were you told that you don’t have enough equity? It may be possible to overcome these hurdles and qualify for a reverse mortgage after all!

7. Has your refinance been denied?
No matter the reason, it may be possible to work something out with the lender on the current loan so that the terms become tolerable and there is no longer the pressing need to refinance. New government loan program requirements may deem you eligible for refinance once again. Your negotiator should be able to point you to the right mortgage broker with expertise in this area.

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, mortgage negotiation service may be the answer to your problem. You can benefit from the services of a financial professional who will evaluate your situation, help you come up with an effective strategy, and negotiate with your lender on your behalf for the best possible outcome in your situation!

Toni Tanner is a real estate and financial professional who can help you with avoiding foreclosure and saving your home. Go to http://www.save-us-homes.com/ for more information and a free consultation. If you want to avoid foreclosure, help preventing the loss of your home with mortgage negotiation service is available to you. Toni will be more than happy to help you evaluate your options.

This article can be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog, or website. The author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

Mortgage Strategy For Investment Properties
By Lin Miller
Investment properties have historically been a safe and reliable investment strategy for many people. Some have purchased investment properties solely on appreciation value. Most however, purchase investment properties with the strategy of having a renter pay most or all of the mortgage.

The U.S. housing crisis and mortgage meltdown has forced lenders worldwide to review their lending practices and here in Canada is no different. We have always had safer lending policies and guidelines than the U.S., however, over the past couple of years we loosened our guidelines somewhat to allow more Canadians to purchase investment property. That is changing rapidly and we have adopted more stringent rules.

Although you can still technically purchase an investment property without a down payment, most lenders like you to have 10% - 25% of your own money going into the purchase of an investment property. Their rationale is if there is a downturn in the market or economy, an investment property will be much easier to default on than an owner occupied property.

The big difference however is being able to purchase an investment property with a “stated income” mortgage. A stated income mortgage is one where you don’t need to prove your income if you are in business for yourself. We simply “state” the income needed to make the TDSR (total debt service ratio) work. Stated income mortgages are popular with business owners because we know they write off as much as possible to pay the least amount of income tax but this lowered taxable income meant they didn’t qualify with traditional lenders.

Stated income mortgages are now mainly used if the owner is going to live in the unit. Stated income deals are still available with non-traditional lenders but you will find the rate to be substantially higher.

Another item lenders don’t like to see are properties that are going into a “rental pool”. This situation is commonly found at ski resorts or golf resorts or at condo complexes in destination cities. Again, the lender rationale is rental pool properties are more likely to suffer from multiple renters coming for just a few days. It is fine if you want to find these renters yourself, just don’t let the lender see “rental pool” on the contract of sale or MLS.

If any of the above has raised a question, don’t hesitate to give me a call and I will be delighted to assist. Or go to my link to find out more.

http://www.conexa.ca

Home Loan Rate - How Do Closing Costs Affect Home Mortgage Rates?
By Julian Lim
First time home buyers or borrowers are often rather unpleasantly surprised at the time of closing or just prior when the good faith estimate of closing costs is received. These closing costs can sometime add a significant cost to the dollar amount that the borrower is expected to provide to clear the escrow account at the time of closing or shortly thereafter. The home loan rate is not directly tied to each of the closing costs, but indirectly, you will pay the closing costs. You should make sure you realize and understand each of these costs and how they impact your total cost of the loan.

Definitions

‘Closing costs’ is just one of the definitions that you should understand when considering obtaining a home loan. The ‘home loan rate’ is another. Closing costs are expenses related to the obtaining of the loan, such as document preparation, title search, appraisals, and various other expenses. These costs are typically listed as part of the closing process on the loan. The closing of the mortgage at the title company or with the loan officer will spell out each of these costs and who is responsible for payment of the cost at closing.

Title search

One of the responsibilities that must be met is a search by a title company of court records to insure that the ownership or title to the home in question is clear. They will be looking at sales and deed records to determine that the sellers actually have the legal authority to sell the property. There is a fee charged by the title company to conduct this search. The clear title means that the title company can guarantee the title is correct and that you will have a clear title to the property in question after closing. The title company actually provides a type of insurance, known as title insurance. The cost of the title insurance is one of the closing costs built into the home mortgage rates.

Origination fees

Another factor in the home loan rate is that of origination fees. These are costs associated with the work the lender or broker does in opening an application file and working to collect and pass on all the necessary documentation required to complete the loan according to the contract. These fees can be sizable or modest, depending upon the broker, but in most cases are negotiable also that fact is not commonly known.

Points

The borrower may be required to pay ‘points’ as part of the loan fees. There are two types of points that you may be asked to cover. Origination points are the fees you pay your broker or lender to secure the loan while discount points are essentially interest that you prepay in order to manage the best interest rates on your loan. Both types of points are usually paid at the home of closing. Payment of the discount points can significantly lower your home mortgage rates meaning thousands of dollars less in cost over the life of the loan.

In order get more information about Home Mortgage Rates, visit the website located at Home Loan Rate. Here you can learn about interest rates, types of mortgages and related subjects in an easy-to-understand format.