Long Beach, Ca. While the economy continues to wind down, American families look for anyway possible to save money. The question is: How can I save money on my next loan transaction? To help you we have listed several ways below on how to lower your costs:
- Shop for a home mortgage as if you were shopping for any other product. That is, compare the Good Faith Estimate of at least two retail loan companies to get an idea of what is the least expensive way of finding a mortgage.
- See if the lender is offering any special discounts. There are sometimes programs wherein the lender rebates up to $1000.00 in fees to assist clients get into a property.
- Ask you real estate agent to make sure that the Seller absorbs your closing costs; that is, the Sellers legally can pay for a portion, if not all of your closing costs but you have to write that and negotiate it into the transaction.
Meanwhile, on the big scene, AIG asked for a fourth round of government assistance, threatening that if they did not receive it that their could be a systemic collapse in the credit markets. Excuse me, didn’t that already happen? The favorite joke going around my clients’ is that everyone’s 401-K has been adjusted to a 201-K considering that many have already lost 50% of last years equity value. Then you have Obama claiming that stocks are a great value and that everyone should be investing? What the #@*!!!!
Rumors have it that AIG may need up to an additional $200 billion dollars on top of the $160 billon that they have already received to squash the insurance needs that its clients have on defaulting Mortgage backed Securities and Collateral Debt Obligations.
You see, what we had was a super sized insurance company insuring high flung financial bets placed by Investment banks on paper products known as: “DERIVATIVES.” These “products” were given AAA ratings by companies like Moodys and Standard and Poors, who were lobbied with millions of dollars by the same Investment Banks hocking the paper. Then one day, surprise, the whole house of cards(derivatives) came down and the American tax payer got left with the bill! Is this really what the founding fathers had in mind?
What does this all mean to a family attempting to purchase a new home? Bottom line is to get your money into hard assets like real estate. Real estate has always been a natural hedge against inflation in that no matter how much the dollar is inflated, the real asset still has utilitarian value (you can live in it, but you can’t live in a stock portfolio).
Kirk Mulhearn, a Long Beach real estate broker manages, “The Bixby Knolls Office,” of Prudential California Realty and co-manages a GEM Mortgage net branch which specializes in originating FHA, VA, and Conventional Financing.
You may contact him at: 532-989-4608 ext. 110
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