Mortgage Refinancing
Second Mortgages Can Cap Housing Costs
In these times of rising interest rates, second mortgages or first mortgage refinancing might be just the thing to keep your housing costs from going through the roof. In a recent article in Parade magazine, How To Save on Your Mortgage, Lynn Brenner considered the question,
Will Your Mortgage Rate Go Up?
If you have a fixed-rate mortgage, you have nothing to worry about. But millions of home owners are sitting on a financial time bomb: Their monthly payments are preset to skyrocket sometime in the next 18 months. These owners have hybrid adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs), which start with a fixed rate for three to 10 years but later are adjusted annually.
Lets say you bought a house in 2003 with a 200,000 three-year hybrid ARM. For the first three years, your rate was about 3.8% and your monthly payment was 930. But this year, your rate could be reset to 7.3%, says Greg McBride, senior analyst at Bankrate.com, a personal finance site. That means your monthly payment could jump to 1,334.
Brenner goes on to recommend that, If you have an adjustable rate mortgage thats due to adjust this year or in 2007, consider refinancing. Taking out a new loan with different terms and paying off the old one can save you money. Refinancing does not make sense for everyone, however. If you intend to move in a year or two, for example, you may not save enough to recoup the costs of refinancingusually about 1.5% to 2% of the loan.
If you plan to stay in your house 10 years or longer, a fixed-rate mortgage is worth the extra cost to avoid rate increases. A hybrid ARM is a little less expensive, but you are vulnerable to future rate hikes, so look for one whose fixed rate lasts as long as you expect to stay in the house.
Benefits of Fixed-Rate Second Mortgages
Fixed-rate second mortgages can be less expensive than refinancing first mortgages. They usually have lower annual percentage rates (APR) than other forms of borrowing and they can save on taxes because the interest on mortgages is deductible. Second mortgages are also easier to get than unsecured loans or lines of credit.
Like a first mortgage, a second mortgage payment consists of principal and interest. Unlike a first mortgage, nothing is put into escrow to cover expenses such as homeowner insurance, property taxes and Private Mortgage Insurance.
Applying for a second mortgage is often faster than refinancing a first mortgage and requires a lot les paperwork. Its safe and secure to apply online from the convenience of your own home.
Mortgages as Products
Mortgages are products, just like automobiles or new living room furniturejust a whole lot more expensive. A home is often the largest financial transaction people ever undertake. Before signing the loan papers, get information from several lenders. Compare all the important information such as interest rates, discount points, closing costs, legal fees, title and insurance, etc.
If you have bad credit, you will be charged a higher interest rate, but according to The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, you cannot be denied a loan on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status or age.
To get current rates on mortgage refinancing, visit www.easysecondmortgages.com. For a competitive second mortgage quote, check out www.easymortgagerefinancing.com.
Mortgage Refinancing for investment
Are you caught in the vicious cycle of debt? Even if you have, be assured that it is common phenomena these days and there are definitely ways to get out of it. The traditional moneylenders have metamorphosed into banks, brokerage firms plus individual brokers. These agencies can lure you into further debts or help you depending upon your needs as well awareness of how the system works. Mortgage refinancing is one such method that promises a way out of debt.
In fact, Mortgage refinancing is not only the end to a means but means to yield further profits. It usually works for -
a) Miscellaneous debt
b) And high expenditures.
Mortgage refinancing for investment is a very upcoming phenomenon. You should be very well acquainted with the norms and regulations of mortgage refinancing, if you are planning for an investment. You can gain from the equity on you mortgage refinancing for investment.
If you are planning to have mortgage refinancing for investment, you must know that it would help in:
a) Raising the monthly payment sum for loans
b) Lowering rate of interest on loans
c) Getting the equity on the mortgage loans
The professional brokers and marketers have through information about the trend of the mortgage refinancing. It would help to gain higher revenues from your investments if plan the mortgage refinancing. Some of the most important factors that would influence your revenue are:
a) Your financial records and account indirectly influences the rate of interest. The mortgage refinancing firms tend to give clients with better financial history benefits on mortgage interest. You can enjoy lower rate of interest on the mortgage refinancing amount. Whereas individuals with bad credit history and insecure financial prospects are usually allotted higher rate of interest on the mortgage. Thus, leading to a loss from the benefits on earnings form refinancing for investment.
b) A study of the market would reveal the different mortgage refinancing quotes and rates. Even if your target were solely to refinance your mortgage getting just any rate of interest would lead to loss of valuable money. Try to get the mortgage refinancing at the period when the rate of interest goes down. You can save a lot of money by paying lower premiums to the bank. Besides, the money saved from the transaction could be deposited in your savings account. You can invest the money on further purchase of bonds and equity. The excess amount can be utilized to repay the mortgage loans, educational loans, health insurance premiums, auto loans and travel insurance.
c) Finally, the tenure of mortgage refinancing would predict the rate of interest. Compare the various mortgage refinancing quotes before signing the contract. Always discuss the possibilities of an extended tenure. There are some companies that have lower rate of interest on a longer term length. Whereas most of the firms increase the rate of interest after a certain gap of time. Thus, lowering your earnings from the mortgage refinancing for investment.
Mortgage Refinancing Below 500 FICO
If you have been turned down for a mortgage refinance, especially a cash out or debt consolidation refinance, because your lender says your credit score is under 500, there are a variety of new options and strategies available which can help you get the cash you need now to pay off your credit card debts, collection accounts, and other derogatory or poor credit accounts and improve your FICO credit score to the point where you can qualify for a low interest, fixed rate loan.
First, you may be wondering why the number 500 is such a big deal. A FICO credit score is a number from 300 to 850 which is meant to represent your reliability as a borrower, and takes into account how much credit has been extended to you, how much money you owe and whether or not you pay it on time. Banks like to tell us that 99% of people in the US have credit scores of 500 or higher, and use this as an excuse not to even bother lending to people with credit scores under the magic 500 FICO score. As far as theyre concerned, since only 1% of the population has a FICO below 500, they simply dont have the time to design programs to help these people buy or refinance homes.
Weve worked with dozens of people who have come to us with FICO scores below 500 over the years, and every one of them says the same thing. I just need help right now, and everyone I talk to keeps saying NO. This is because until very recently, it was extremely difficult to get a loan if your credit score was 499 or less, and even today, only a few mortgage lenders, whether theyre banks or brokers, have the time or attention required to focus on the needs of what they think are a few unfortunate people. So until very recently, if your credit score was under 500, the only chance you had at refinancing or obtaining a home loan was if you went to a hard money lender.
If youve ever come across these individuals, you might not have been able to tell the difference between hard money or private mortgage lenders and a loan shark, and while that comparison is not entirely fair, it is to a certain extent accurate. Hard money lenders are small investors who lend only against the hard equity in your home, generally not more than 60% or 70% of the property value, the loans are generally short term, very high interest rate (12% to 15% or more), command huge upfront fees and closing costs, often up to 10% of the loan amount, and rarely if ever do they report your timely payments to your credit bureaus, making it harder to improve your credit. Why would anyone borrow money from a lender like this? In the past and even today, banks and other mortgage lenders have said no to sub 500 credit score mortgages or home loan refinances, and sometimes you just need the money that badly.
Many people have touted the benefits of credit repair services to prospective borrowers with scores under 500. The proposal often reads like this, first, give them a thousand pounds out of your pocket to fix your credit, which they will accomplish in six months, and then once your scores are over 500, they get a loan done for you. Of course never mind that 1,000 is a lot of money for most people with 700 credit scores, and very often a heck of a lot for an individual seeking a mortgage refinance to consolidate debts. Add to that the fact that conventional credit repair takes too long for most people to wait without the extra cash to pay off bills that you get with a refinance, and you can see that credit repair by itself is not a very efficient proposition if what you really need is a refinance loan today. Thats not to say credit repair doesnt work, its just that it doesnt work very well for most people who are under 500 FICO seeking a debt consolidation, refinance or home purchase loan.
Over the years weve taken a harder look at the numbers, and it turns out that the banks and credit reporting agencies may have drastically underestimated the number of people in this country whose credit ratings are actually under 500 FICO. There are literally millions of people nationwide who fit into this category, and we have spoken with our share. What do we know? That most people with credit scores below 500 are hardworking, honest people whose credit is suffering from the realities of living and working in America today. As tight as our budgets are stretched in this country today, it only takes a very short term disability or unemployment to severely damage our credit scores. And some of us might have gotten in a little over our heads when we were younger, but in the years since weve been trying to get back on the road to good credit, and were sick of getting charged sky high interest rates every time we get a new credit card, apply for a car loan, or get denied for a bank loan and wind up calling on the aforementioned hard money private mortgage lenders. We knew the banks had missed something. Our friends below 500 were not only more numerous than they had previously estimated, they were also more than some credit score, they were good people.
So we developed a strategy which we are sharing in the hopes that other borrowers under 500 can reap some of the benefits that our own clients have. Weve helped borrowers with no money in the bank, 50,000 of bad debt, and sky high monthly payments driving them into the poor house get out of debt, get some money in their pockets and eventually achieve major financial improvement in a very short amount of time.
And how does it work? First, there are a few major, institutional lenders which have programs that allow us to arrange and refinance real mortgage loans at competitive interest rates for borrowers with credit scores under 500. These are real, federally and state regulated lenders, not private investor groups who will take your last pound and send you on your way. Ask your mortgage broker about these programs, and if he doesnt know what youre talking about, get a new broker.
The typical strategy is a credit improvement strategy, where the goal is to take enough cash out of your home to pay off as many of your past due, high interest, or high payment debts as possible. We recommend taking a little extra cash from closing if possible, or to use some of the savings from your lower overall payments so that you can enter stage two of the strategy, which is third party credit repair. A good quality credit repair agency should cost less than 300 pounds overall and can clean up your credit and remove a lot of delinquencies and other items which are negatively impacting your credit. Combined with all the truly harmful items which youve paid off with your debt consolidation refinance, you should be able to improve your credit score by 50, 100 points or even more. I have seen a client go from a 485 FICO and 65K in combined credit card and auto loan debt and a total monthly payment of over 2800 to a 610 credit score and a payment of 1900 per month in less than 4 months. How did that payment get so low? Once their credit score went over 600, we were able to qualify them for a new mortgage at a low interest rate, because now our friends had good credit, and paid off the few remaining debts which they had by consolidating through refinance. Before the process, their average interest rate across all debts including home, cards and cars was nearly 22%, and afterwards, the average rate was under 9%.
We hope you find this information useful in reshaping your own financial future, and hope that you tune in for the next in this series of articles.
Mortgage Refinancing Basics
Your mortgage may have a 30-year term, but not many homeowners stay with the same loan for that long. In fact, the average American refinances his or her mortgage every four years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Thats because paying off your present mortgage and taking out a new one can mean big savings over several years. However, refinancing comes with a price in the short term, so its important to consider both the costs and benefits before making your decision.
Why refinance?
Here are some reasons to consider refinancing your mortgage:
1. To obtain a lower fixed rate. If you took out a fixed-rate mortgage several years ago and interest rates have since dropped, refinancing may lower your payments considerably. A 150,000 mortgage with a 30-year term and a rate of 8 percent, for example, carries a monthly payment of 1,100. The same mortgage at 6 percent will have a payment of less than 900 a month.
2. To switch to a fixed rate or an adjustable rate mortgage. Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) offer lower interest rates initially, but some homeowners find the fluctuations stressful. If rates are on the way up, you might consider locking in at a fixed rate and consistent monthly payment. On the other hand, if you want to reduce your monthly payments and are comfortable with the interest rate changes of an ARM, it could save you money to refinance to an ARM.
3. To reduce your monthly payments. Refinancing for a longer term will lower the amount you have to pay each month. You will end up paying more in interest charges over the life of your loan, but if youre having difficulty making your current payments, this strategy could provide some relief.
4. To turn home equity into cash. You may want to take out a new mortgage with a larger principal, in order to turn some of your home equity into cash for a major expense. This is called cash-out refinancing. The advantage of taking out a loan secured by your home is that you can get a lower rate of interest than you can with an unsecured loan or credit card. However, if the interest rate offered for your refinanced mortgage is higher than your current rate, a home equity loan or line of credit might be a better choice.
Is refinancing right for you?
If youre refinancing in order to pay less interest, you wont usually see the savings right away. Thats because lenders typically charge fees when you take out a new mortgage, and you may also have to pay a penalty for getting out of your old one. To determine whether refinancing makes financial sense for you, consider these issues:
1. How long you plan to be in your home. If you expect to move in a year or two, you may never realize the potential savings youd get from refinancing. As a rule of thumb, the longer you plan to stay in your current home, the more sense it makes to refinance.
2. The prepayment penalty on your current mortgage. Many mortgages carry a penalty if you pay them off early. The amount varies, but it is usually a small percentage of the outstanding balance, or several months worth of interest payments.
3. The costs of the new mortgage. When you take out a new loan, your lender may charge a number of fees including application, appraisal, origination and insurance fees, plus title search, insurance and legal costs that can add up to thousands of pounds. Lenders may also charge discount points, which are paid upfront to secure a lower interest rate. As a guideline, expect fees to eat up any potential savings unless your new interest rate is at least a half a percentage point lower than your current one.
To learn more about mortgage refinancing and when it makes sense, visit http:www.lendingtree.comcecyourhomeyourmortgagemortgage-refinance.asp
Mortgage refinancing 101
Managing your finances is as important as earning them. Rather at times it is more significant to administer your resources than actually find ways to earn. Since imprudent investments might result into drainage of hard earned monetary resources. Diligent management of income enables one to enjoy maximum benefits even by incurring minimum expenses. Careful analysis of financial situation is more important when credits and mortgage of house property is involved. At the time of purchasing a house due to time limits or other inevitable circumstances one might be compelled to accept loan at higher interest rates. Also there might be situations when earlier rate of interest on loan are higher than current rate charged by banks, in such a financial scenario it is always wise to reconsider all monetary state of affairs.
As economy of finance, investments and banking gets more competitive with every passing year it is the consumer who benefits from cutthroat competition. As a result of growing financial system several schemes are introduce frequently for attracting potential patrons. It might occur that mortgage companies would be ready to waive regular charges like legal fees, appraisal and application expenses incurred during refinancing. This is an ideal situation to opt for refinancing as in such situation one can avail lower interest rates without any cost involvement. Well a catch here might be that these companies would charge interest a bit higher than the current market rate. But considering ones individual financial circumstances if one stands to profit even for that higher rate it is advisable to accept refinancing form the firm.
The time span passed after accepting your present mortgage is a vital consideration. Generally if around three years have lapsed since mortgage was done refinancing of the same might be fruitful. This is so as after loan repayment for that much time the loan actually gets condensed to a lesser amount coupled with lower prevailing interest rates one can hope to achieve reduced monthly payment liability.
By passage of time paying capacity of an individual increases this may again lead to considering refinancing of funds. One might be interested in increasing his monthly payments so that he could enjoy other capital benefits. Shortening the term of mortgage is another appealing factor as it leads to faster building of equity. A shorter mortgage term at lower interests results in bigger monthly installments but at the end one benefits by paying less overall interest on total loan amount.
One more important factor that directs to consider refinancing is want of some ready cash. At specific situations one might need some extra money to fulfill certain upcoming demands. This actually is cashing out on the home equity built up during the years. Here a person refinances for more than the balance amount left on loan. This is achievable even without increasing the amount of monthly installments due to lower interest rates. Wise use of extra income made by refinancing is always important. Utilizing this revenue to pay off certain short-term loans as for example car loan or a credit card loan is one of the best way spend that extra cash.
Mortgage Rates – The Benefits of Refinancing
So you’ve lived in your home for some time now and have been content mailing off your mortgage payment every month. Yet when you turn on the nightly news you see that mortgage rates are 1% lower than what you locked into 10 or 15 years ago and realize quickly that you may be paying more money than you have to in interest rates on your mortgage. For millions of people every year, refinancing is an option they take to give their mortgage a “health check” of sorts and to help them lock in lower rates or take advantage of increased property values to make some improvements to their homes.
Nobody likes to pay more than their neighbor did for something – especially their house! Refinancing is an activity that is as much a part of the mortgage process nowadays as taking out a mortgage is to buy a new home. A smart homeowner knows that interest rates will rise and fall and that by keeping track of where they are currently they can save a lot of money over the life of their mortgage note by locking in a lower mortgage rate now, even if it means paying a little money up front. Refinancing helps millions of homeowners get lower rates on their mortgages by paying off their old mortgage and writing a new one.
Of course, as with any financial transaction, you should carefully review all the costs associated with refinancing and the potential benefits versus the risks. Typically, if you only have a few years left on your mortgage note then refinancing is not for you – you simply won’t save enough in interest to make up for the fees you have to pay to rewrite your mortgage. The best time to refinancing, according to some experts, is when at least 40% of your monthly mortgage payment is still going towards interest fees.
If you do decide to refinance it is important to remember all the tricks we’ve talked about before when shopping around for a mortgage. Get plenty of competitive bids, keep a close eye on the fees, and be sure to read and understand the risks involved.
Another reason that many homeowners refinance their mortgages is to take advantage of increased property values as to “cash out” on some of the equity. Say you have a child who is ready for college and you need a way to pay for it. Your home, with cost 100,000 twenty years ago when you took out your 30-year mortgage may now be worth 200,000. By refinancing you can in essence write yourself a check to pay for home repairs or other needs and get the money easier at a better rate then taking out a 2nd mortgage.
For those who use it wisely, refinancing can be one of the best financial tools you have. Not only does it hold the potential to help you save thousands of pounds in interest charges by getting you a lower rate, but it also lets you take advantage of increased property values to help pay for other necessary items that come up in life. Yet another reason why owning a home is truly one of the best financial moves you will ever make.
Mortgage Equity Withdrawal – The Refinancing Trend
Mortgage Equity Withdrawal is the formal name for equity refinance, reverse mortgages or simply home loans based on equity (as the security for the loan).
Mortgage Equity Withdrawal rose to 8.7 billion pounds in the second quarter of this year to its highest since the third quarter last year, official data showed (on Tuesday 4th Oct 2005).
Mortgage Equity Withdrawal is a measure of the equity Britons have extracted from their homes but which they have not re-invested in property.
Sharply rising house prices in the last few years have encouraged a trend where Britons refinance their mortgages to extract cash which many economists say has helped support spending.
The Bank of England said that Mortgage Equity Withdrawal was up sharply from 6.437 billion in the first quarter of this year although it is still well below the 14.5 billion seen one year ago, when house prices were rising more than 20 percent annually.
The Bank of England has since cut interest rates by a quarter of 1% to 4.5 percent which could support Mortgage Equity Withdrawal in coming months, particularly as there are signs that the property market may be stabilizing after a year of stagnation.
As a percentage of post-tax income, Mortgage Equity Withdrawal rose to 4.2 percent from 3.2 percent in the first quarter of the year but is well down on 7.3 percent seen a year ago.
” Mortgage Equity Withdrawal appears to have found its way into increased holdings of financial assets (equities, bonds) as much as extra spending,” said Geoffrey Dicks, UK economist at RBS Financial Markets.
“Generally the pick-up in Mortgage Equity Withdrawal is probably indicative of more `normalization’ of the housing market but while it is saved rather than spent, the policy implications are not huge.”
Official data last month (September) showed the saving ratio rose to 5 percent in the second quarter of this year from 4.5 percent in Q1 (also of this year).
Separate figures showed UK residential construction barely grew in September, putting in its weakest monthly performance since May.
But what does this mean in real terms?
There are several key points in this statement, these are:
1.People are refinancing their homes because of increased value
2.People are not necessarily spending the money on the property
3.People are not necessarily spending the money in the high street
These three points are important to all of us, not just the policy makers. Heres why.
Lets consider the first point, people are refinancing there homes because the equity has grown rapidly.
This statement tells us that the housing market although not sky rocketing as it was a couple of years ago, is none the less still rising.
The second point tells us that when people effectively withdraw this money it is not to improve the home itself, hence the equity of the property will not grow at a better rate than market rate.
The third point is perhaps most telling, people are not taking the money and spending it in a hap hazard manner but are potentially saving it (bonds, shares, bank accounts).
So what do this mean for us?
Well, its a bit of mixed signals heads up if you like.
The general population (property owners) are slipping into ever increasing levels of debt (if youre refinancing your mortgage or freeing up equity as the agents put it, you are effectively borrowing money) unless its a reverse mortgage.
People who are refinancing are not improving the quality of the property with the money and so if the market takes a fall their property will devalue as much as the next property (whereas if theyd returned some of the capital into improvements they would at least be sitting on a lesser slump in value).
Finally, and perhaps the most damming sign is that people are saving more, this is not a good sign. In a healthy economy the rate of saving is low, this is primarily because confidence is high (people arent worried about the bills or their jobs) but the fact that more people are now starting to save money rather then spending it means that the retail sector will be taking a hit, this means that the bottom end jobs will be in danger, this in turn has a knock on effect in the service sector and becomes a vicious circle the end result being market stagnentation .
But what this trend does illustrate quite simply is that you can potentially get more money back in savings interest than you pay out in refinancing interest so at the moment the smart moneys in equity refinance.