February 3rd, 2012 | Loans |
You don’t have to have perfect credit to get a loan. If you’re a homeowner–or the owner of a valuable asset–you can get a Secured Loan. Your asset will be used as collateral, and if you default on the loan, your lender can take your asset and sell it to cover the cost of the amount you borrowed. Secured Loans often appeal to folks with low credit scores, since even bad credit borrowers can usually qualify. One type of secured loan available to homeowners is a Home Equity Loan. Here’s how it works:
THE HOUSE IS COLLATERAL:
You tap into your home’s equity–the value of your house minus any amount you still owe on the mortgage–and receive a lump sum of cash in return. You must make monthly payments on the loan until it is paid off, or you risk forfeiting your home. Essentially, your loan is “secured” with your house.
THEY’RE OFFERED BY MOST LENDERS:
These types of loans are available from many lenders, including your bank, your current mortgage holder and online loan companies. When searching for a Home Equity Loan lender, it’s always wise to shop around to find the best deal. Your current mortgage lender may not be offering the lowest interest rates or the lowest fees. Compare costs between multiple lenders, including both regular brick-and-mortar banks and online loan companies.
THEY’RE AN INEXPENSIVE LOAN:
In general, Home Equity Loans offer low interest rates. They’re almost always the cheapest Secured Loan, offering lower rates than personal loans or loans that have been secured with a different type of collateral, such as a car or jewelry. Moreover, in many states the interest you pay on a Home Equity Loan is tax deductible at the end of the year, which also helps lower the cost.
A Home Equity Loan is an example of a Secured Loan that uses your house as collateral. Before you borrow, however, you should be certain that you will be able to make the minimum monthly payments, since you may forfeit your home if you default on the loan.
January 12th, 2012 | Loans |
The FHA loan is like any other loans, there are different options out there so that they can appeal to many different buyers. When many people think of this type of loan they think of one product and while all of these loans are insured by the Federal Housing Administration, there are some differences in the interest rates as well as in who may qualify for them. The different FHA programs ensure that just about anyone get buy a home today.
FHA Loan Options
The most common type of FHA loan is the fixed rate mortgage, also known as section 203 (b). These loans have the same interest rate and it does not change during the term of the loan. This type of loan insures the lender for the total amount of the mortgage in the case that the buyer defaults and requires a smaller down payment on the loan than a conventional mortgage would typically require. When you get a fixed rate loan of this type you can anticipate having to put down about three percent of the total amount that is being borrowed. Many borrowers like the fixed rate option because it offers them the same interest rate, and therefore the same monthly payment, for the entire term of the loan. With the fixed rate option you can choose between 10, 15, 20, or 30 year terms.
For those that don’t find the fixed rate FHA loan option appealing they may want to look into the adjustable rate mortgages, also known as Section 215. The adjustable rate mortgages or ARM’s are a great deal for those that are looking for a very low interest rate in the beginning. If you are only going to live in the home for a few years this can be a great option because you can take advantage of very low interest rates, which will keep your monthly payment lower than it would be if you had purchased the same house at a fixed interest rate.
The Federal Housing Administration also has a couple of great programs such as the Teacher Next Door and Officer Next Door FHA loan programs. These programs are extended to teachers in the United States as well as police officers. If the home is financed with an FHA loan the teacher or officer is only required to put a $100 down payment on the home and they receive a 50% discount. The program is part of the Housing and Urban Development program and it can help teachers and police officers in many areas of the country to buy a home for the first time, especially because it is known that teachers and law enforcement offers are not all that well paid based on what they do for a living. Not all homes will qualify for this program, only homes that have been acquired by HUD will qualify, but there are some really great houses out there that teachers and police offers can purchase for very little and with very little out of pocket at move in.
As you can see, there are different loan options offered by the FHA so that just about anyone can get into a home and experience the pride of home ownership. If you have always believed that you could not buy a home you may want to look into one of these loan programs. There are many mortgage brokers out there that would love to help you buy a home.
December 19th, 2011 | Loans |
Interest Rate Reduction:
This is a more effective way to get the payment down. Cutting the interest rate on a 30-year loan from 6 percent to 3 percent will reduce the payment by about 30 percent, whereas extending the term to 40 years reduces it by only 8 percent. Rate reductions are flexible, since they can be adjusted to the needs of each individual borrower. They are more costly to the investor than a term extension, and correspondingly they are more valuable to the borrower.
To minimize the cost, rate reductions in some cases are made temporary. The modification may call for the original rate to be phased back over, say, five years. This presumes that the borrower’s payment capacity will grow over the same period.
Capitalization of Arrears:
The past due payments — and perhaps late fees and other charges arising out of past delinquencies — are added to the loan balance. A new payment, which will be a little higher than the previous payment, is then calculated.
This is the most common type of modification because it has very little cost to the investor. It’s only value to the borrower is that it provides a new start by making him current. It works for a borrower who has hit a temporary rough patch and is now back on track, but not for a borrower who needs a lower payment.
Extension of the term:
A term extension is the payment reduction modification that is least costly to the investor. However, if a loan was originally for 30 or 40 years and is now only a few years old, the payment can’t be reduced very much this way. If the loan was originally for 10 or 15 years, a term extension to 30 years will reduce the payment materially, but 10- and 15-year loans make up a very small share of loans in distress.
Freeze of interest Rate:
On adjustable-rate mortgages that are close to a rate reset date, where the new rate and payment will be well above the one the borrower is now paying, a modification can freeze the rate and payment at the current level. Many sub-prime loans have been modified in this way because they carried margins of 5 percent to 7 percent, which, when added to the current value of the rate index, would have resulted in substantial increases in rates and payments.
Reduction of Loan Balance (Principal Balance Reduction):
The mortgage payment declines in tandem with the balance. A 20 percent drop in the balance, for example, results in a 20 percent drop in the payment. Unlike a cut in the interest rate, however, a cut in the balance can’t be temporary, which makes it the most costly modification for investors and the best modification for borrowers.
Balance reductions do have one major advantage for investors: They reduce the borrower’s negative equity, which increases the borrower’s incentive to do everything possible to keep the house. It is very plausible that re-default rates on loans that are modified with a balance reduction are materially lower than on other types of modifications.
Step Interest Rate Reduction:
A Step Interest Rate modification works by reducing the interest rate to a low rate that that client can afford for one or two years then the rate will be increased the following year usually by one percent then the following year by around one percent, then the following year by one percent and then may fix itself to that rate on the last year. This is common for clients that may be on a commission based structure and due to the economy, they are not making the money they were, but once the economy turns, then they will go back to making the money they were before.
Forbearance:
Typically 30% of sub-prime lenders (with high interest rates) will only offer a workout program that requires you to immediately pay at least 20% or more of the total delinquencies including foreclosure fees, plus the balance of the delinquency will be added to their regular monthly payments over a period of 6 to 48 months.
Forbearance plans do not remove a foreclosure action but simply stop it in place until the loan is current.