If you apply for a mortgage, your inbox, answering machine, and mailbox may fill up quickly with competing offers from other mortgage companies. Its not that the company you applied to is selling or sharing your information. Rather, its that creditors including mortgage companies are taking advantage of a federal law that allows them to identify potential customers for the products they offer, and then market to them. The Federal Trade Commission, the nations consumer protection agency, wants you to know why your application for a mortgage may trigger competing offers, how you can use them to your benefit, and how to stop getting them if thats your choice.
The unsolicited calls, emails, and letters about competing offers often are called prescreened or pre-approved offers of credit. They are based on information in your credit report that suggests you meet criteria set by the creditor making the offer for example, you live in a certain zip code, you have a certain number of credit cards, or you have a certain credit score. Credit bureaus and other consumer reporting companies sell lists of consumers who meet the criteria to insurance companies, lenders, and other creditors.
When you apply for a mortgage, the lender usually gets a copy of your credit report. At that point, an inquiry appears on your report showing that the lender has looked at it. The inquiry indicates youre in the market for a loan. Thats why mortgage companies buy lists of consumers who have a recent inquiry from a mortgage company on their credit report. Federal law allows this practice if the offer of credit meets certain legal requirements.
Clearly, some mortgage companies benefit from the practice. Consumers can benefit, too: prescreened offers can highlight other available products and make it easier to compare costs while you carefully check out the terms and conditions of any offers you might consider.
Still, some people may prefer not to receive prescreened offers of credit and insurance at all. Heres how to stop them:
Call 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) and you will be asked to provide certain personal information, including your home telephone number, name, Social Security number, and date of birth. The information you provide is confidential, and will be used only to process your request to opt out.
Opting out of prescreened offers does not affect your ability to apply for credit or to get it. Your opt out request will be processed within five days, but it may take up to 60 days before the prescreened offers stop coming. If you have a joint mortgage, both parties need to opt out to stop the prescreened offers. If or when you want to opt back in, use the same telephone number.
Put your phone number on the federal governments National Do Not Call Registry to reduce the telemarketing calls you get at home. To register your phone number or to get information about the registry call 1-888-382-1222 from the phone number you want to register. You will get fewer telemarketing calls within 31 days of registering your number. Your number stays on the registry for five years, until it is disconnected, or until you take it off the registry.
Many companies use other tools to identify marketing prospects, and that the Do Not Call Registry wont shield you from all telemarketers for example, those with which you have a business relationship. Even if you opt out of prescreened offers and put your number on the National Do Not Call Registry, you can expect some unsolicited offers.
Reverse mortgages are becoming popular among the senior citizens. They give seniors easy money in lieu of the part ownership of their home.
If you want to go for a reverse mortgage, the information below will help you:
What is reverse mortgage?
For senior citizens above 62 years, lenders offer instant cash without any monthly payments. This allows the pensioners with a home, but no cash, to get easy financing to meet their daily needs or for any other purposes. This allows them to convert their equity tied up in their home into cash.
What are the advantages and risks of this type of mortgage?
This mortgage allows you to reside in your own home. You get monthly income which will help you maintain a comfortable standard of living.
The money generated is non-taxable since it is a loan and not income. In the short term, the advantages seem to be very attractive but in the long term the risks far outweigh the benefits. Unlike a conventional mortgage, in reverse mortgages the lender pays you money based on the equity in the home. But in return the lender imposes strict conditions on you. You get the mortgage only on the primary residence. So if there is another home where you do not reside, you will not get the mortgage. If you die, sell home or change your main residence, you need to pay back the loan along with the accrued interest. To do that, you will have to sell off the home. Also, this mortgage can erode the accumulated equity in the house rapidly. Besides, if you want to leave the house as an inheritance, you will not be able to do so.
How much mortgage will I get?
You can get any amount between 10 to 40% of the value of home obtained after appraisal. It is directly dependent on your age, the present rate of interest and the value of the property.
You can get free online reverse mortgage quotes through the internet. There are lots of reverse mortgage websites, which would be useful to you.
Things such as County Court Judgements (CCJ’s) or a poor credit history can scupper the chances of you getting a personal mortgage because mortgage companies deem you a high risk.
If you are self-employed, and even have a pristine credit history, you may find it just as difficult to get a mortgage due to your circumstances, which is unfair.
However, there are more and more specialist mortgage companies that are sympathetic and able to offer bad credit mortgages to people – as well as mortgages for the self employed.
Many of these companies do not charge excessively high interest rates as they have done in the past, meaning that you should be able to get a mortgage and pay a fairly realistic interest rate.
Apart from the obvious benefit of taking out a mortgage for whatever purpose you need it for, having a mortgage can actually improve your credit scoring – making it easier for you to borrow money and get credit in the future! However, you will need to make your monthly repayments on time, and this will help improve your credit score over time.
Of course, when choosing a bad credit mortgage, do shop around. While there are understanding lenders out there willing to provide a mortgage without charging you the Earth, there are still, sadly, some unscrupulous mortgage companies.
Do your homework – get several quotes; check out the interest rate and any financial penalties you would be liable for should you pay the mortgage off early. And make sure you are fully happy with the amount you are repaying.
How the web can help you if you are looking for a bad credit mortgage
If you have a poor credit history, finding a mortgage specifically for people with bad credit can be difficult. And even if you do find a mortgage, how do you know that it is the right one for you?
Using the internet can help. There is tons of information on there relating to bad credit mortgages such as free guides, as well as access to providers of bad credit mortgages.
Going online also allows you to compare multiple providers so that you can look at all the product features and benefits to decide whether it is right for you.
There are also websites that accept online mortgage applications and there are hundreds that offer free and immediate online quotes. This means that you can see how much you can really afford to pay out for a mortgage.
If you’ve picked up a newspaper or caught the news recently, you’ve probably encountered a story about mortgage rates and the Federal Reserve banking system. Like many borrowers, you might wonder how the Fed determines interest rates and how – in the event of a rate hike – your personal finances could be affected. Here’s a quick overview:
Banks, credit unions, and other lending institutions borrow money from Fed banks. Since they borrow these funds on a short-term basis, the institutions are charged at a discount rate that is set by the Federal Reserve Board. This discount rate has a direct effect on the “Prime Interest Rate,” the rate banks charge their top-rated commercial customers for short-term loans.
The Fed’s board of directors meets each month to set financial policy, adjust interest rates, and provide an economic forecast for the future. Since June 2006, the Fed has raised interest rates several times, a move designed to stabilize the economy that could translate to tighter cash-flow in your household. If you are juggling a mortgage, a home equity loan, and any amount of credit card debt or personal loans, this is probably a good time to assess the potential damage and, if necessary, refinance your existing mortgage.
Fixed-rate Mortgages
True, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage may not be the most revolutionary option, but, in many cases, it is the smartest one. While the introductory rate on an adjustable-rate mortgage will probably be lower, payments on a fixed-rate mortgage won’t fluctuate, even if the Fed decides to increase the discount rate. For borrowers who want stability and are not planning to move within 5 – 7 years, the fixed-rate mortgage makes sense.
Adjustable-rate Mortgages
The chief advantage of an adjustable-rate mortgage or ARM is that the initial interest rate may be lower than that of a fixed-rate mortgage. However, the fact that your rate is adjustable means that you will likely see higher rates and bigger monthly payments, somewhere down the road. Some ARMs adjust on a monthly basis, but most adjust every 6 – 12 months, using a financial formula based on economic factors like federal interest rates.
Hybrid ARM
Many borrowers opt for the hybrid ARM, a mortgage that typically carries a low fixed rate for a set period of time (common hybrids are 1/1, 5/1, and 7/1), and thereafter has an adjustment interval of one year. Those annual adjustments are tied to federal rates. If you planning to live in your home for just a few years, the low introductory rates on a hybrid ARM might be a good bet, but beware the rate fluctuations to come.
So what is going on with all the mortgage companies? Either they shutting their doors down or some of them stopped funding loans. For one, it all started with Alt-A mortgage loans and jumbo loans. Alt-A are loans which were made to borrowers whose credit score was not so perfect, that is right below 640 FICO, who were self employed, could not prove their income. Jumbo loans are loans that are above conforming limit of 417,000. Any loan amount that is below 417,000 is considered conforming loan and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government backed companies are purchasers of these loans.
However; as you may have seen on TV, Alt-A loans and jumbo loans are loans that are causing problems as of right now as banks cannot sell these loans to open market, get additional funding to make new loans. So they are stuck. No Wall Street Investors are buying these loans and banks do not know what to do with its portfolios.
Subprime lenders, lenders that only specialized in Alt-A and jumbo loans could not find any investors to buy these loans and therefore liquidated their companies. So know the finger pointing starts!
Who is to blame? Banks for making these loans? Wall Street companies for buying and selling these loans even further? Or even customers that got those loans in the first place because they did not qualify for conforming loans? Or even mortgage brokers for pushing borrowers to get these types of loans.
There is no answer as who is responsible for these loans. It all started slowly with 1% loans and borrowers who started to default in a huge numbers. Than it escaladed to all non-conforming programs and jumbo loans. But there is no way to know as how far this actually spread. Yes, we are not done yet!
This may get even uglier down the road as additional adjustable rate mortgages will reset soon again and it is expected that most borrowers will default again. Fed however, took one action this week by injecting billions to open market.
So far it is slowly working. Still volatile trading as you have seen news reports all over, but Fed is trying the best. But, what if Fed just lowered the interest rate, would that fix the problem? Yes and No. This is a really tough decision for Fed to make and the injection of funds into open market showed that Fed is watching and trying to help. If Fed lowers the interest rate today and later in a month additional adjustable rate loans are resetting and more borrowers defaulting, we would have the same exact situation. The problem is no one knows how many of these adjustable rate loans will actually reset, no one know how many people will default on these loans. All we have are simply estimates.
But than there is market. Most of the big mortgage companies are traded on stock exchange that has been effected by the current conditions, and of course market will react right away to this situation. Investors get scared, start to sell quickly in every sector, and leaves you with Dow loosing 100 points easily.
Fed wants to wait until September meeting to either keep rate as is, or lower the rate. So far all indication leads that Fed may keep rates as is, but do not quote me on that.
So what is next for mortgage market? So far many banks have canceled many loan programs that dealt with jumbo loans and Alt-A loans to prevent any future risk. Some banks just simply closed its doors down without any notice. Some are still struggling and hoping that something will happen in the future to bring their portfolios back.
And above all, housing market just killed home prices and many people own more on their mortgage than their property is worth. But it not all over yet!
What you see on TV, news, etc. are banks that are mostly backed by Wall Street Companies. However many mortgage brokers work with private investors that can still do Alt-A loans and jumbo loans. Loan criteria or qualifications may have changes little bit, but it is still possible to get a loan.
Right now, everyone will wait what Fed will do and hopefully they will make the right move.
What is mortgage interest? It is any interest you pay on a secured loan when you bought your first or second home. The loans include the mortgage to buy your home, a second mortgage, a line of credit or a home equity loan. The loan must be secured debt or it will be considered a personal loan and the interest is not deductible.
For the average consumer who has managed to acquire credit card debt, car loans, and various other small debts, is the mortgage interest, especially with an interest only loan an answer to mortgage interest deductions and the elimination of non-deductible interest?
What options does the average consumer have in accommodating the tax need in relation to the housing need? What about the interest only loan option on a new house mortgage? Todays housing and mortgage market has seen a tremendous growth in mortgage packages, variety and amount. The mortgage interest deductible on the interest only loan option, once thought to have gone the way of the Edsel automobile, is back today and in use by the masses. The mortgage market has seen an unbelievable increase in the interest only loans from just a mere sliver of the market a few years ago, to around 25% of the market share today. Thats huge growth, especially when you talk less than five years to experience that growth.
What benefit does the mortgage interest (especially the interest only loan) bring to the table, and does this benefit the homeowner as a taxpayer? This is one question the mortgage lender probably wont be able to answer for you, and one you probably wont think to ask. But you should, because its one question that can make a difference to you and to your federal tax return and the amount of the mortgage interest that will actually provide you with a federal income tax deduction. A mortgage interest deduction is one of the best financial reasons to purchase a home. Who gets the deduction? You do, if you are the primary borrower, legally obligated to pay the debt and actually make the payments. If you are married and both of you signed the loan then both of you are the primary borrowers.
The interest only loan and the amount of interest you can deduct on your income tax return are one and the same if your income levels are low enough; the concern for the average consumer is the total pound value they get to take off their tax return. Quite often, the deductions for the consumer arent enough to contribute to the bottom line, because the income level the percentage of deductible interest is calculated on is simply too high. Higher pound amounts in interest will usually mean a greater possibility of a greater deduction. There can be limits to the tax deduction. Your tax deduction is limited if all mortgages on your home are either more than the fair market value of your home or more than one million pounds (500,000 if married and filing separately)
The greater deduction would be the only advantage to the interest only loan as far as the taxpayer is concerned, unless of course, they use the money saved from the interest only loan to fund a 401k, an IRA, or an MSA (thats a topic for a completely different paper). The mortgage interest and especially the interest only loan is sold to the consumer as a way to afford more house, pay off credit card debt, or provide a means to fund a savings of some kind, and if thats true, it can be used for that purpose. And if youre considering paying off those high interest credit cards, the mortgage interest youre charged on the interest only loan is fully tax deductible, while the credit cards are not; a word of caution, however, make sure you dont turn around and use those credit cards again, putting yourself right back where you started from, just with a bigger interest payment and less house equity.
Why has the market experienced such growth? Its not totally related to the income tax benefit; the home mortgages of today satisfy a common desire for the consumer: instant gratification of bigger and better. Such is the case when its time to make those needed repairs, or house expansion. A second mortgage makes it possible to retain the same monthly mortgage payment, and still pull a lot of equity out of your home. This may sound like the ultimate solution, but is it really? It also adds to the amount of interest an individual can deduct at the end of the year; and if income levels are growing, the interest expense must grow in order to keep up. Now, this is a somewhat skewed way of looking at the benefit of a mortgage, but it figures right into the same scheme as the elimination of credit card debt and saving for 401(k) s as a valid reason to borrow money against your home.
Remember that your home mortgage must be a secured loan from your main home or second home. No deduction can be made for a mortgage from a third home, fourth home and so on. The mortgage and the resulting interest are great tools, when used by the right people, in the right situation. For the average consumer and long-term homeowner, unless you think a better deduction on your tax return is worth the forfeiture of equity in your home, youd better think twice before re-financing with a second mortgage that generates more interest, but less equity.
Where does mortgage money actually come from? When you get a 500K mortgage, who actually writes the checks? Most people have no idea. Does it come from a bank? Does it come from the government or some large quasi-governmental agency like Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac? It all seems so confusing and the numbers are so big that they become abstract. But an understanding of where the cash comes from is the first step to understanding how the mortgage industry operates.
You can effectively break down the source of money into two broad categories. On the one hand, you have banks that recycle money thats been deposited into personal and corporate accounts. We all have bank accounts; checking accounts, savings accounts. That money all belongs to us and the bank pays us interest on it. But they, in turn, lend that same money out to people who want to borrow it.
These banks then charge their borrowers a higher interest rate than they offer to their savers. Thats how they make their money. They charge whats called a spread between their borrowing interest rates and their deposit interest rates. In fact, banks can even lend out more money than they physically have on deposit, based on ratios federally regulated by certain governmental agencies. But the details of that mechanism are beyond the objectives of this article. The point is that banks get money from our deposits and thats what they lend out to their borrowing clients.
The interest rates charged by these banks are heavily influenced by the decisions of the Federal Reserve. Most of us are familiar with Alan Greenspan who has been the chairman of the Fed since 1992. His term just came to an end on January 31 2006 and he is now being replaced by Ben Bernanke. At the time of this recording, the Fed has raised interest rates 14 consecutive times during the past two years to gradually tighten a highly accommodating monetary policy thats been in place since 2001.
The Fed manipulates interest rates by buying and selling bonds in the bond markets. During challenging economic times, the Fed buys bonds on the open market, and they pay for these bonds with cash. As the Fed continues buying bonds, it floods the market with cash. All of this excess cash makes money more available for people who want to borrow and interest rates naturally come down as different lenders compete for a limited number of borrowers. Think about it. If theres excess cash out there, the interest rates to borrow that money gets bid down as different lenders compete for the business. Borrowers naturally go for the lowest rate.
When the economy starts growing again, consumer confidence starts rising and people start spending money again. They buy cars. They buy stainless steel refrigerators. They buy computers. With rising demand, companies can start charging more for their products. Profits start rising and soon, workers start asking for raises and better benefits. That increases costs for companies and a vicious cycle of inflation begins.
Inflation is a complicated phenomenon but suffice it to say, it can send the economy into a tailspin. So, to slow down that cycle, the Fed can start selling bonds on the market. Buyers pay for these bonds with cash and the Fed immediately puts that money away, taking the cash OUT of the economy. With less cash available on the open market, borrowers start bidding up interest rates which dampens the feeding frenzy and keeps the economic growth at a sustainable level.
The interest rate directly affected by the Fed is whats called the Overnight Rate. This rate is what the banks charge each other. You may or may not be familiar with the Overnight Rate but most of us are familiar with the Prime Rate. This rate is simply the Overnight Rate plus 3. Right now, for example, the Overnight Rate is 4.5% so the Prime Rate is 7.5%. Every time the Fed makes a change, the Prime Rate changes at the exact same time.
There are also a number of indexes that are affected by these policy changes made by the Fed. Some of you have heard of the LIBOR index. If youre curious, the acronym LIBOR stands for the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate. You may have also heard about the MTA index. It stands for the Monthly Treasury Average and there are others like the Cost of Funds Index and so on. All of these indexes are all heavily influenced by the actions of the Fed. So as you can imagine, they have all gone up significantly during the past two years. In 2003, the Prime Rate was at 4.00%. Today, its at 7.5%. In 2003, the LIBOR and MTA indexes were both around 1.00%. Today, theyre at 5.3% and 4.7% respectively.
The Prime Rate and all these various indices govern the interest rates of all variable rate loan products. For example, a home equity line of credit is a variable rate product and is generally tied to the Prime Rate. There are also a lot of loan products these days that are fixed for the first few years, but that become variable after that. Once the fixed period expires, they are tied to one of the indices like the LIBOR or the MTA. Anyone who has a variable rate product has seen their payments go up significantly over the past two years.
We started this discussion by saying there are two primary sources of mortgage money. The first is from bank deposits. The second comes from a wide variety of investors who provide money through Wall Street. But dont think these are just a bunch of super wealthy individuals. Theyre actually Money Managers that are managing our own money. Most of us have investment accounts like Insurance Funds, Pension Funds and various Retirement Funds. Many of the accounts that contain all these funds end up housing huge amounts of cash. You can imagine the Pension Fund for General Motors or some other Fortune 500 company. Think about Insurance Companies like New York Life or State Farm. These companies manage immense sums of money; money they have accumulated from all their contributors people like you and me.
These huge funds are managed by professional Money Managers. They are always trying to maximize the return they get on this money so they look for good places to invest. For the most part, they end up putting the cash into three main areas. They buy equities; stocks of various companies that trade on the stock exchanges shares of General Electric or Google or Starbucks Coffee. They also buy corporate and government bonds. Thats the second choice. And they buy whats called mortgage-backed securities. Thats the third choice. Well, those are mortgages! Theyre bundled mortgage loans that are bought and sold on Wall Street every day.
Essentially, these various Money Managers approach the mortgage business and say, all right, you can lend out our money as long as you follow these guidelines. The guidelines theyre referring to are the underwriting guidelines Mortgage Brokers have to follow when helping someone apply for a loan. The interest you pay becomes the return on investment for these Money Managers. So thats where much of the money comes from. Now, within certain limits, many of these loans are insured by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac as long as they meet their underwriting guidelines. As you can imagine, most investors have guidelines that closely resemble the Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac standard underwriting guidelines. The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines are the benchmark for the entire industry.
Today, theres so much money out there, money that has accumulated from Baby Boomers putting money aside for their retirement during the past 25 years, that a lot of investors have widened their guidelines beyond the standard Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac requirements. This is happening through the competitive process. Theres a lot of money out there. An economist might say, theres excess capital out there. And what happens when theres excess capital? Well, you can bet on two major results. First, you can bet that interest rates will get bid down as various investors compete for the business. Second, youll start seeing more and more innovative loan programs out there.
You have all seen this in your own lives. Youve seen interest rates get bid down lower and lower with the bottom just behind us, back in 2003. Interest rates are now slowly on the rise again and you can bet theyll start rising faster when all the Baby Boomers start retiring in a few years and start drawing money out of those huge pools of investment capital. Youve also seen a flood of innovative loan programs. First came all the different Adjustable Rate Mortgages, or ARMs. Then came the Interest Only options. Now, they have these Negative Amortization loans. You know the ones: the loans that start with an interest rate of just 1%. Interest rates were never that low and they never will be. These loans allow borrower to make payments that are not even enough to pay the interest. So the loan balance actually gets bigger each and every month. Weve all seen these phenomena play out right in front of our eyes.
On the surface, it looks like all these mortgages come from a few large well known players; companies like Countrywide Mortgage, Wells Fargo, Chase or Bank of America. Yes, these guys are huge players in the mortgage business. But that doesnt mean the money is all theirs. Of course, Wells Fargo and Bank of America have all kinds of regular banking business but their mortgage divisions are generally in the business of packaging and servicing loans. They package the loans and sell them on Wall Street. In many cases, you may not even know because they continue to service the loans themselves. That means they do the customer service, they collect your payments and they pass them on to the investor that holds the actual loan, less an administration fee of course.
So again, this is all a direct result of excess capital. Theres a lot of money out there and theyre all competing for your business; your mortgage. So theyre all offering different perks to try and get you to pick them. A lower rate. Looser guidelines. Flexible new loan programs. Its all marketing, trying to get you to borrow their money rather than somebody elses.
Reviewing, there are two sources of mortgage money and both sources come indirectly from you and me. Your bank deposits get recycled and lent back out to the community. Your investment, insurance and retirement funds also get recycled and lent back out. Its all a big circle from our savings to our debts. Obviously, there are some very wealthy people out there who have huge savings and few debts. Others have huge debts and very little savings. But in the aggregate, its the entire community that lends money to itself and its the total amount of savings in the community that determines the interest rates within it.
If theres lots of money available, interest rates are low. If theres a shortage of money, interest rates rise. So the fact that weve enjoyed steadily dropping interest rates in recent years is a sign that the economy is healthy and that theres lots of money available. And the fact that rates are now slowly rising is a sign that the pool of investment capital is slowly shrinking. The soon-to-be retiring Baby Boom generation will definitely shrink that pool of money and we can expect interest rates to continue rising as a result. In the meantime, its still a great time to borrow money and we should all take advantage of it while it lasts.
If you are new to borrowing and are just looking for your first home, then you probably are unsure about how mortgages work, and what the various types of mortgages are. If you are about to get your first mortgage, then you need to know the basics of what mortgages are and their various features. Here is some useful advice on the basics of mortgage lending:
What is a mortgage?
A mortgage is the loan that you take out to pay for a property. The loan is split into the capital and interest. The capital is the amount you have actually borrowed to buy the property, and the interest is the amount the lender charges you for the privilege of borrowing. There are various types of mortgages, but in general the two main types are repayment mortgages and interest only mortgages. Repayment mortgages are ones that require you to pay back the capital and interest each month. Interest only mortgages require you to pay just the interest each month and then the final capital amount at the end of the mortgage term. Whatever type of mortgage you are looking for, there are a number of features you should consider:
Interest rate
The interest rate of the mortgage is very important, because the lower the interest rate, the less you will pay back over the loan term. Mortgage rates are lower than most other types of loans, at around 5 or 6%. However, you should shop around for the best interest rate, as even .5% difference can mean a lot more to pay back over 20 or 30 years.
Exit fees
When you take out a mortgage, you agree a length of time over which you will repay the loan, known as the mortgage term. Mortgage terms usually range from 15-25 years. However, during this long period of time you might find a better deal or want to change your mortgage terms. If you leave during the mortgage term to use another lender, then the current lender will often charge exit fees to allow you to leave. This amount can be quite high, and is usually a percentage of the amount you still owe. You want a mortgage with low interest rates, but also make sure that you are fairly free to change lenders if required.
Insurance
As with all loans, you will be offered insurance on your mortgage, in case you are ill, out of work or die and cannot make the payments on the mortgage. If you die, then having insurance will allow your family to continue to pay the mortgage even without your income. When getting mortgage insurance, make sure that you are not paying too much for it and that your other insurance policies do not already cover you. If you arent covered, then getting mortgage insurance is a good idea.
How do you get a mortgage?
Mortgages can be obtained from banks, specialist mortgage lenders and online lenders. If you are looking for a mortgage, you should shop around for the best deals before committing to one lender. In order to get the mortgage, you need to show proof of income, and how much the property you want to buy is worth. The lender will then determine how much they can afford to lend you. It is often a good idea to discuss the amount you can borrow before looking at property, because then you will have a maximum budget when looking for your new home.
A take over mortgage is a loan where the terms and conditions of the loan can be transferred from one borrower to a new borrower. The term take over mortgage is also used to refer to assumable loan.
Home buyers can assume a sellers mortgage when purchasing a home with a take over mortgage payment. The approval of the lender is usually required before you can have a take over mortgage. With take over mortgages, the interest rate and the monthly payment schedule is assumed by you. This means you can save a lot with take over mortgages, especially if the interest rate on the existing loan is lower than the current rate on new loans. However, lenders can change the loan terms of take over mortgages so you must be prepared for that.
Along with the interest rate and the monthly payments, you also inherit the liability of the take over mortgage. If for instance, you cannot make the payments for the take over mortgage, the lender will foreclose. And if the property sells for less that the balance of the take over mortgage, the lender reserves the right to sue you for the difference.
A take over mortgage is not a free ride either. In order to get a take over mortgage, you still need to undergo a pre-qualifying process. Closing fees will still need to be paid before you can get a take over mortgage. Also, a take over mortgage requires payment for appraisal costs and title insurance.
For example, a friend of yours wants to sell his home to you for 95,000 and has a take over mortgage of 90,000 with 7% interest. With a take over mortgage, you only need to put down 5,000 to assume your friends home and mortgage. Along with the 5,000 take over mortgage down payment, closing fees are applicable.
Another example is when one of your friends got a take over mortgage for 80,000 with 6.5% fifteen years ago. The take over mortgage loan balance left is 70,000. This means that the property is now worth 160,000. For a take over mortgage, you only need to come up with 90,000 plus money for closing costs.
Take over mortgages have been around the market for years. Because take over mortgages allows the consumer a chance to assume a loan with lower interest rates, take over mortgages became popular.
Take over mortgages experienced an all time high in the 1970s and 1980s when interest rates soared. Existing mortgages had interest rates at 5 percent to 7 percent but when the rates rose, the original percentage rose also, forcing a pay out of 10 percent to 15 percent in interest on deposits. These forced buyers to use take over mortgages so they could assume loans with lower rates.
If you want a take over mortgage, remember that if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Sellers offering cheap take over mortgages are also offering something of significant value. With take over mortgages, sellers are likely to charge more for their houses. This could mean that you would have to come up with more funds to cover the difference between the asking price and the take over mortgage loan balance. However, the assumability feature of take over mortgages can also give you a chance to cash out later, especially since the property you are assuming could increase in value with the growing rates over time.
Sub Prime Mortgage Lenders – How To Get Approved Online
Sub prime mortgage lenders process applications online everyday. Processing information over the internet speeds up the process and saves costs on offices and personal. In some cases, you can get a reduction in fees or rates by completing your application online. To get approved on your mortgage, follow these tips.
Sub Prime Mortgage Factors
Sub prime mortgage lenders each have their own criteria for assigning loan scores to lenders. The higher the score you get, the better the rate you qualify for. Credit history is important, but so are cash assets, your income, and down payments.
On average sub prime lenders like to have a down payment of 20% or more. However, they offer a variety of loan terms. You can even get a zero down mortgage, but expect to pay a couple of points higher.
Picking a fixed or adjustable rate will also determine how much you qualify to borrow. In general ARMs have lower monthly payments, so you can borrow more. Sub prime lenders also handle interest only loans and balloon payments.
Online Loan Application Forms
Online loan application forms are straight forward. Over a secure connection you provide your personal information, usually name, address, and social security number. If you have a property in mind to purchase, you will also need to include the propertys address and selling price.
If you requested a loan quote, you may not even have to fill out any additional personal information. Much of your financial information can be found in databases. The financing company will complete your application and ask for your approval before closing.
Finishing Final Paperwork
Mortgages usually take about four weeks to process. The sub prime lender has to verify the propertys value and your credit. An escrow company will also help you handle the exchange of money, primarily the closing costs and points.
As with a regular loan, your paperwork will require your approval and signature. Instead of going to a home office though, you will need a notary. Most companies schedule a notary to come to you at your convenience. After paperwork is received, funds should be processed in three days.