mortgage help: Loan Modification 101- Writing an Effective Hardship Letter - 03/22/10 01:23 PM
A hardship letter is an important part of your loan modification request package. The purpose of the hardship letter is two-fold. In it you briefly explain the financial hardship that triggered your mortgage payment difficulty. That’s followed up by an explanation of how you intend to make future mortgage payments once your loan is modified.
The hardship letter plays a key role in determining whether or not your lender approves your loan modification request. Your lender won’t give you a second chance to submit an improved version of this letter. That’s why it’s crucial to write it correctly the first time. … (2 comments)
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mortgage help: Planning Your Mortgage Amidst Foreclosure News - 06/29/09 07:27 PM
Taking out a mortgage loan can be a scary undertaking. The odds are good that the news of foreclosures – and perhaps even the signs that advertise foreclosure sales in your neighborhood – may put a bit of a damper on your enthusiasm to apply for the loan. Take heart in the fact that the bank which prequalifies you for your loan trusts that you have a good chance of paying off your loan. Moreover, careful planning for your mortgage also ensures that you can meet your monthly mortgage obligations, no matter what might be coming your way.
Probably the most … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Proper Mortgage Planning for Beginners - 06/29/09 07:26 PM
Congratulations on your decision to buy a home! With the home, the initial mortgage is most likely a sobering occasion, especially considering just how much money you agree to pay over the next few decades. When you add the financial responsibility that comes with homeownership to the amount of the monthly mortgage payment, it may sometimes be a somewhat scary proposition. This is especially true for a first time homebuyer who might not be exactly certain what to expect and how to deal with the unexpected. Sure, budgeting and planning are important features for any family’s money management, but for a … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Evaluating Loan Products While Refinancing - 06/29/09 07:25 PM
Refinancing your home loan is an important consideration, especially in the face of so many different loan products. The loan you choose for the most expensive asset and debt has the power to greatly influence your overall fiscal health – either in a good way or in a negative manner. For example, if you refinance a home but do not plan on staying in the home long enough to actually realize the savings, then you are spending money on something that will net you absolutely no benefits. If your net savings are $100 per month that could be realized after 20 … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Questions to Ask Yourself Before Refinancing Your Home - 06/29/09 07:24 PM
Does a refinance of your home loan sound like a good idea to you? If so, make sure you answer a few simple questions before you get the ball rolling. Since a refinance in many ways mimics the process you went through when applying for your initial mortgage – with the exception that now you are actually already living in the home – there should be no surprises to expect, and you most likely remember how to compile papers, fill out the loan application, and probably also have a good idea about which lender or broker you might want to work … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Prequalifying for a Mortgage - 06/05/09 05:07 PM
Prior to obtaining a mortgage, consumers generally seek to prequalify. This is the process of having a lender look at the consumer’s credit profile, debt to income ratio, and from there make an educated guess about how much money the lender is willing to give to the consumer as a mortgage loan. This is usually done before the consumer ever even starts looking at homes. For the majority of home shoppers, this prequalification actually determines the price range of homes they will focus on with their buyers’ agents. What is more, such a prequalification protects consumers from bidding for a house … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Why Prequalify For a Mortgage Loan? - 05/28/09 07:08 PM
In the past it was easy to apply for and receive a mortgage loan. Lenders were open to entertaining loan applications that showed no verifiable income and that could have been rather risky investments. As the loan market tightened significantly over the last few years, prequalifying for a mortgage has become a necessity. The process itself is rather easy. Applicants contact a lender of their choice and discuss the various mortgage loans available. The applicant then gives very basic information with respect to debts, income, liabilities, and also offers permission for the lender to pull a credit report. Once all the … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Important Facts on Mortgage Prequalification - 05/28/09 07:05 PM
Obtaining a mortgage prequalification is the single most important step to ensuring that you are seen as a serious contender for a piece of real property. Moreover, it provides you, the consumer, with the amount of money that a bank is willing to lend for the sake of obtaining a home. Going above and beyond this figure requires the consumer to make up the difference between the amounts arrived at during the prequalification period and the more expensive home the consumer has chosen. Real estate sellers look for bids from those who have gone through the trouble of becoming prequalified, in … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Have Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Rock Bottom? - 05/18/09 06:56 PM
It is baffling just how many homeowners are going belly-up in their loans, especially considering that there are copious mechanisms in place to save those who are facing foreclosure or even see themselves nearing the road to foreclosure. The foregoing not withstanding, there is a school of thought that suggest that mortgage delinquencies have not yet hit rock bottom. Economists state that seven out of 100 homeowners are currently delinquent on their mortgage loans.
What makes matters is the number of those who are barely hanging on to their homes and who are being laid off, overtaken by consumer debt, and … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: First Time Homebuyers Profit from Falling Market - 05/14/09 06:20 PM
Has the housing market bottomed out? Is it possible that home prices are going to continue falling? Will mortgage rates continue to go down? Will they go up? Aspiring homeowners most likely wonder what the market future holds and whether or not they should buy now or wait a month or longer. It is tempting to jump right in and make a bid on that beautiful – foreclosed – home down the block, but is this really the best time or will the time get even better in a short period of time?
At the heart of this question is of … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Will Home Equity Make a Comeback? - 05/12/09 05:56 PM
Whether it was the artificial inflation of home values or the sudden drop in the market, home prices fell so severely that years of built up equity virtually disappeared overnight. What used to be considered a failsafe investment, for many homeowners has now become a huge albatross around their necks. Those who are upside down in their mortgages and barely hanging on are wondering how long it will take for home equity to make a comeback. Sadly, the news for those banking on home equity for their financial security is not good.
Market insiders suggest that at this point, across the … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Is the Second Shoe About to Drop in the Mortgage Meltdown? - 05/07/09 01:17 PM
The original mortgage meltdown was laid squarely at the door of the subprime mortgage market. Heavily marketed to anyone and everyone who could not qualify for a home loan with their current credit record and income to debt ratios, these subprime loans took risks that banks and investors would normally stay away from. Fast forwarding to today, banks and investors are either bankrupt or in desperate need as the mortgage meltdown sent all those who applied for and received no money down, interest only adjustable rate mortgages into foreclosures.
There is now talk that a second shoe is about to drop … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Corralling Home Appraisal Fraud - 05/05/09 05:58 PM
Who has not had that moment of nail biting when trying to refinance a property with cash out option, hoping that the appraisal will come in high enough to persuade the bank to part with the much needed equity? Have you ever wondered how it is that the appraisal came in just exactly what you needed it to be to qualify? The odds are good that you will not be surprised to learn that professional appraisers have been complaining for a good many years about mortgage brokers.
They claim that these brokers were strong-arming them into manipulating their value assessments of … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Can a Bankruptcy Law Adjustment Stop the Mortgage Meltdown? - 04/28/09 06:22 PM
With the number of home foreclosures spiraling out of control, Congress is desperate for a means to stop the hemorrhaging of the losses banks and investors undergo. At the same time, the taxpayer underwritten cash infusions are doing precious little to counteract the financial disaster and while it may seem like grasping for straws, lawmakers are now taking a good hard look at current bankruptcy codes. The problem that market watchers and opposed lawmakers see, however, is the law of unintended consequences.
For example, if Congress were to change the rules of the bankruptcy game now, could they actually be borrowing … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Is Affordable Homeownership Falling by the Wayside? - 04/22/09 05:35 PM
It is an open secret that the current mortgage meltdown finds its roots in the creation of subprime mortgages that were marketed heavily to those who would not ordinarily qualify for a home loan. This has sent minorities and the fiscally somewhat unstable in droves to eager loan brokers who would set them up with loan products that initially looked very affordable, but over the course of their existence would have the power to make the home virtually impossible to retain. Interest only loans, adjustable rate mortgages, and sometimes also a combination of the two have made it possible for homes … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Have You Heard About the Mortgage Holiday Proposal? - 04/15/09 07:15 PM
Imagine the impact a year long mortgage holiday could have on the American economy. 12 long months without the need to make even one mortgage payment; the money consumers could keep in their pockets could be used for much needed purchases and also bill payments to help consumers get back on their feet. Who would pay for such a mortgage holiday? The federal government, of course – or, to be more correct and get right back to the source, you and I.
Sure, at this point the mortgage holiday proposal is still a bit of a pipe dream and there is … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Mortgage Driven Bankruptcy Filings against the Backdrop of an Amended Bankruptcy Code - 04/14/09 07:14 PM
Bankruptcy used to be the stigma laden option for consumers who were simply too deep in debt to find a way out. In the past Chapter 7 filings could lighten the debt load for filers by simply doing away with credit card bills and other unsecured loans. In some cases, homeowners could even keep their homes and cars, depending on their ability to repay the loans and of course also the amount of equity contained within the asset.
When changes to the bankruptcy code were submitted – making it much more favorable for unsecured creditors like credit companies – and kept … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: Uncle Sam Wants to Pay 10% of Your New Home Loan - 04/09/09 03:24 PM
If 2009 is the year of your first home purchase, then Uncle Sam is ready to give you a gift that equals up to 10% of your entire purchase price. Known as the homeowner tax credit, the Obama Administration has finally figured out a way to make home buying a much more delectable proposition. Add this to the falling mortgage loan interest rates, the drop in home prices, and it would appear that Uncle Sam not only found a great way to sweeten the deal for aspiring home owners, but also tied it neatly with an irresistible ribbon.
This 10% gift … (0 comments)
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mortgage help: What The Obama Administration Offes to Do for Homeowners - 04/08/09 04:16 PM
Bailouts are in the news every single day, but more and more homeowners and those hoping to qualify for a mortgage loan any time soon are wondering what is in it for them. When Treasury Secretary Geithner finally came out with a mortgage plan and bank bailout scheme, it seemed like it might have held the answers needed, but unfortunately the wording did not help those not well versed in legalese. This keeps those with an eye on mortgage rates wonder what the Obama Administration truly offers to do for homeowners.
In an effort to explain the plans the Obama Administration … (1 comments)
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mortgage help: What is Holding You Back from Qualifying for a Mortgage? - 04/07/09 07:19 PM
While in the past the mortgage business seemed to offer a free for all on mortgages, in recent history this same industry has tightened up its standards and no longer offers home loans as generously as it did before. Plenty of hopeful would be homeowners have located a perfect home or neighborhood they would like to live in, only to find it hard – if not impossible – to qualify for a mortgage loan.
Granted, initially there were problems with the costs of homes in various locales, but since January there has been a marked resurgence in home loan apps, especially … (0 comments)
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