Posts Tagged ‘refinance’

Homeowner Loans

Monday, April 13th, 2009


Bridging the Financial Gap With Homeowner Loans
by James Copper

One of the smallest, quickest and shortest terms of homeowner loans is referred to as a bridge loan. Compared with other homeowner loans such as first and second mortgages, refinances, home equity loans and debt consolidation loans that use the home as collateral, bridge loans are rare.

A bridge homeowner loan is short term and designed for the purpose of helping a homeowner bridge a cash crunch gap. Hence the name bridge loan. The most common for of bridge homeowner loans is the situation in which someone has bought a new home but has yet to sell their current home. The most common reason for this double ownership is a geographic relocation for a job.

Some homeowners will rent an apartment, condo, townhouse, mobile home or single family home for a short term while waiting for their home to sell. Others, however, see that for convenience, monetary advantage or things like not uprooting their children once again with a third move to a new school, they would prefer the bridge homeowner loans.

Short term rentals can be more costly than the interest paid on the short term bridge homeowner loans.

There is a wide variation on the rates and terms of bridge loans, however, and the origination fees can be quite high. Most bridge loans are written for six months and the collateral used for these homeowner loans is the home that the borrower is attempting to sell.

The problem with these bridge loans, besides the potential high cost, is that homes don’t always sell in six months, and markets and market values can change. Consider, for example, the difference between the market value of a home in the once thriving mining area of Allentown PA where jobs were plentiful and homes in demand.

That same property today may well be worth one tenth of what is was about 40 or 50 years ago. This kind of thing can happen overnight as plants close and industries struggle to survive.

Who would have thought, for example, that there would come a time that 20,000 IBM employees would vacate the Triple Cities (Binghamton, Endicott and Johnson City) area of upstate New York with the close of that original plant, or that Knight Ridder Newspapers would cease to exist?

Before you consider homeowner bridge loans, look elsewhere for funding.

Your best financial bet is, of course, to avoid the two-home ownership situation in the first place. If you cant stay in your current home until it sells, sell other assets such as your boat, your second or third car, or borrow against your 401(k).

You might even consider a temporarily lengthy commute or leave your family in your current home, take an inexpensive rental in your new location and fly or drive home alternate weekends.

There are plenty of homeowner loans that are smart, that are good buys, and that will save you considerable money and may actually make you some money. Debt consolidation loans are an example of the latter. Bridge loans, however, are seldom the best financial deal you can find, and are often one of the worst.

Author Resource: James Copper is a Homeowner Loans Advisor. You can get more information by visiting his site: homeowner loans.

Article From: RealEstateArticles4U.com

Technorati Tags: Bridge Loan, refinance

Should You Consider Home Refinance, or Not?

Thursday, January 29th, 2009


Should You Consider Home Refinance, or Not?
By: Jay Moncliff

Home refinance seems to be the craze these days with interest rates at all time lows.

However, you need to do some home refinance research before you will know if it is for you or not.

In general, if you bought a home when interest rates were significantly higher, have great credit, little debt, and always pay your bills on time then you should probably at least consider home refinance.

Although, if you meet any of the following criteria then you definitely need to think twice before you decide on a home refinance.

Home Refinance Tip #1 Second Mortgages
If you have a second mortgage and decide on a home refinance then you will likely find yourself paying more than with your original home loan.

If you have taken out a second mortgage on your home to help pay other bills then getting a lender to consider a home refinance for you is going to be difficult.

Home Refinance Tip #2 High Debt to Income Ratio
When you apply for a home refinance option then you will have to go through the same qualification procedures you did as when you were approved for your first loan.

If you have a high debt to income ratio then it will be unlikely you will be approved for home refinance, and if you are approved for a home refinance it is highly unlikely the terms would be worthwhile.

Home Refinance Tip #3 Bad Credit
Bad credit is generally the main villain when it comes to having a proposed home refinance application denied.

So, if you have trouble paying your bills, are making late payments, and your credit score is declining, then you definitely need to get your credit in shape before you consider a home refinance.

Author Resource: Jay Moncliff is the founder of www.generalrefinance.com a website specialized in Refinance, resources and articles.

Article From RealEstateArticles4U.com

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Mortgage Refinance: 4 Ways to Know When…

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009


Mortgage Refinance: 4 Ways To Know
Its Time to Refinance Your House

By: Nathan Dawson

You may want to refinance your home for several reasons.

1. Mortgage Rates might be lower now. The biggest reason that people refinance their mortgages is to save money.

No matter what has happened to you, there is always a good reason to start saving money.

A lower rate on your mortgage can help you stretch out the payments so that every month you are paying less to live in your house than the previous month. When interest rates are low and you had previously locked your mortgage into a higher price, it might be a good idea to shop your rate around to see how low you can get it.

The early 2000’s have been an environment of very low mortgage rates which make it a good idea to shop around to see if you can refinance your mortgage.

2. You need money and need to stretch out your payments. Maybe you’ve recently filed for bankruptcy and therefore need more money to get back on your feet. Maybe you’ve switched jobs and therefore need to refinance your mortgage in order to make your monthly payments lower.

No matter what people say, it’s always a good idea to have more money in your pocket than less, isn’t it?

Refinancing your mortgage might be a good idea in this situation.

3. There may be better deals out there than you think there are. Finding a new mortgage company or bank to refinance your mortgage might be a good idea just to kick the tires of the industry and see if you could get a better deal.

If you’ve been spending a lot of money and paying off the balances on your credit card on a monthly basis there is a significant chance that your credit score has increase recently. An overall better credit score is better for everyone including your lenders.

If a new lender sees that your credit score has increased recently, she might be in a much better position to give you a better deal on your mortgage than you think. She could refinance your mortgage by shopping the deal around at more banks and finding the best one for you. Shop your refinancing around, it can’t hurt.

4. Mortgage refinancing as a sound business decision. If you own a small business of any sort and need a capital infusion, then investigating mortgage refinancing might be a very smart thing to do. If your business is truly small and you run it out of your house, then the line between your personal and business expenses might be thinner than you are reasonably comfortable with.

Clearing up a little extra capital, through refinancing your home, every month might be the difference between investing in some new small equipment and not investing. Everything that is an expense should be lowered if possible.

Refinancing a mortgage might be a fantastic idea to increase capital reserves and to plan for future investments. Many business owners who work out of their homes constantly try to decrease their monthly payments so that when it comes time to pay their business bills, they have a little extra capital.

Always check with a CPA or attorney to determine what is deductible and what isn’t. But, more money is more money, even if you are lending it from yourself to your business

Author Resource: Find more great articles at www.marriedfinances.com a great online source for finance information.

Article From RealEstateArticles4U.com

Technorati Tags: Mortgage, refinance

Bad Credit Refinance 101…

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

Bad Credit Refinance 101: The Hows and The Whats
By: Nathan Dawson

If you are like every other home owner or general consumer out there, you need to pay for your expenses somehow. If you have bad credit, you might be limited in your options as to what you can do (or so you think - keep reading!).

This can be especially annoying to homeowners who want to refinance their mortgages to take advantage of low interest rates but have had a few debt defaults in recent years. The story is always the same: you see these low 5% interest rates advertised on TV and you know that you deserve to refinance your home loan with this low interest rate.

However, once you call, you find out that in fact you can refinance your mortgage, but it will cost you a lot more than you think. “What?” you think to yourself “Why does it cost more for me to refinance my mortgage than I thought it would?” The reason is simple: bad credit. Refinancing with bad credit can be difficult. You might have filed for bankruptcy or racked up a whole bunch of debt which you just couldn’t pay off. Debt defaults take a long time to get off your credit report (if they ever come off!) and they can affect every lender to whom you owe money.

This is because these days, lenders are very clued in to borrowers credit scores and credit history. All your credit information is stored in a giant database somewhere and if your credit is bad for some reason, it’s going to show up on a mortgage refinancing report. And banks probably don’t mind seeing a few defaults and bad credit accounts here and there. More fees for them! Your bank might like to see one of their client’s earmarked as ‘bad credit’they can raise your interest rate and you can’t do anything about it.

These days, having bad credit isn’t necessarily as bad as it should be. This is because banks are business entities too. Banks borrow money just like people do. In times of relatively low interest rates, banks need to make money by originating loans. And, a lot of new ’subprime’ lenders have opened up shop in recent years and are specifically in the business of lending to people with bad credit. They are looking to refinance bad credit accounts like yours and collect massive fees on the backend.

Many people with bad credit history look to take out loans from friends and family. While this may be a fairly good short term solution, it might not be the smartest of long term business moves. What you need to do is refinance your mortgage and lower your payment. The best thing you can do for yourself is to shop around. I’d be willing to bet that some banks will give you a better deal on a mortgage refinancing than you think they would. Find out who’s got the best rate to get the best deal on your loan. This might take a little legwork, but it could pay off. Finding that right bank to give you the right deal on your refinancing will be worth the effort.

Mortgage can last a lifetime and that extra 1% can add up to literally thousands of dollars over the years. I have friends that are in their 70s and still paying off their home loans. It’ll pay off in the long run to make sure you find the best deal possible. Don’t let bad credit stop you from refinancing your home.

Author Resource: Find more great articles at a great online source for finance information.

RealEstateArticles4U.com

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Technorati Tags: bad credit, refinance