All Posts Tagged With: "financing"
Are Low Mortgage Rates Over?
It’s been quite a week on the mortgage front. According to Freddie Mac, as of last week rates for fixed-rate, 30-year mortgages went from 4.91 percent to 5.29 percent, both with 0.7 points.
That’s a big jump for a seven-day period, but let’s have some context here: Last year at this time the same loan was [...]
Will You Become A Foreclosure Statistic?
You have to figure that most owners who lose their homes in a foreclosure never thought it would happen to them. It always happens to someone else — you know, the people who get sick, laid off, have an accident, that sort of thing.
So you might think: Foreclosure. That will never happen to me. No [...]
10 Ways To Buy Homes In A Down Market
At first it may seem like a no brainer, low-hanging fruit and child’s play, but purchasing in a down market is not as easy as it may seem. The problem is not a shortage of homes or a lack of sellers willing to bargain, rather it’s that buying in such a market can be risky. [...]
20Sep2008 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
How To Buy 200 Foreclosures A Year
For many people it’s not the best time to be in real estate. Markets have slowed or declined in most local areas and financing is tougher to get than a year ago. Chicago’s Joseph Varan is also cutting back — this year he expects to buy no more than 200 homes.
Varan is the president [...]
Up or Down — How To Measure Your Local Real Estate Market
The past year has seen a slowdown in real estate markets across the country — and an outright slump in many. But such terms as “slowdown” and “slump” are relative and should be used with care — as should “boom” and “hot”.
Given the localized nature of real estate, it pays to ask if there are [...]
Taking A Call From A “Helpful” Lender — And Giving Back
Recently a mortgage lender who called to say my monthly payment is late.
“Late,” I said, “What do you mean by late? Do you mean I owe you a late penalty?”
“Well no,” said the distant voice on the phone, “you don’t owe a late fee but we have yet to receive this month’s payment.” [...]
Real Estate Settlements: Public Cheated Out Of $10 Billion — Per Year!
It was in 2002 when HUD Secretary Mel Martinez told the world that consumers could save as much as $10 billion a year by making the settlement process more competitive. Martinez — now a Republican senator from Florida — offered a simple proposal: Instead of buyers and sellers purchasing settlement services one transaction at a [...]
19Sep2008 | Peter G. Miller | 1 comment | Continued
What rules prohibit discrimination in real estate sales and financing?
The federal Fair Housing Act is the major legislation prohibiting discrimination in real estate — it provides that there can be no offer to sell, rent, buy, or exchange property that contains any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, or familial status, or an intention to make [...]
1Sep2008 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Is the interest on 125 percent financing deductible?
This is a somewhat complex question.
Interest on loans secured by real estate is generally deductible if the acquisition mortgage value is not more than $1 million. Interest is also deductible for home equity loans (second loans) up to $100,000.
With 125 percent financing you have a loan that is worth more than the house [...]
Should we use 125 percent financing to pay off credit card debt?
If the idea is to finance a home and at the same time re-finance credit card debt at a lower rate then one could make the argument — at least as far as it goes — that this is a marginal financial strategy.
However, a 125-percent mortgage (or any mortgage) does not limit the ability to [...]
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