Renting Versus Buying A Home
Renters are often in a quandary as to whether it makes sense to continue renting or buy a home. Buying a home makes more sense, particularly when taking a long-term view. Yes, even in the current hot real estate market.Renting AdvantagesRenting can have a few advantages depending on the part of ... more...

Asset Searching for Recovery Actions - The Decision Maker's Tool Part 2
In Part One of this article we took a look at some minimum recommendations for asset searches as a recovery medium. This discussion is based on the assumption that an asset search has already been determined to be sanctionable by, for example, a loan in default, a judgment that has been rendered, a ... more...

Negotiating the Sale of Your Home
Negotiating a successful sale of your home requires an environment that sustains the buyer's interest and trust during the process. Many of our clients have been very experienced negotiators, and from them we have learned that the goal is to reach a "good agreement" - one in which the underlying ... more...

Cash Now For Your Real Estate Contract
BACKGROUND AND FUNDAMENTALSThe private mortgage industry is a relatively young business with roots that can be traced directly to the emergence of seller-backed, or owner, financing. Prior to the very high interest rates of the late 70s and 80s, seller-backed financing was not a common financing ... more...

Real Estate Tip: Escrow Accounts -- Do You Really Need Them?
If you have a mortgage on your property, whether it's for your personal residence or a real estate investment, chances are you have an escrow account. But if you are working on building wealth through real estate, you may want to take a hard look at your escrow account (or accounts, if you own more ... more...

How to Finance and Build Your Dream Home
If you have always dreamed of building and living in the home youve helped design, its time to seriously consider putting your dream into action. In todays mortgage market, a specially designed loan for just such a homeowner, the construction to perm loan, includes the construction loan to ... more...

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
FHA loan programs:FHA AccessFHA Cal GoldFHA Rural GoldFHA Mutal Mtg. InsuranceFHA 203 (k)FHA 203 bFHA 251FHA Title I programFHA MIP RefundThe Federal housing administration was created by Congress in 1934 as part of the national housing act. The purpose of the act, and of the FHA, was to generate ... more...

Basic Home Loan Terms Explained
The wonderful world of home buying can sometimes overwhelm the first time homebuyer. They are inundated with information riddled with terms of art. ARMS, points, interest rates, good faith estimates, pay-downs, lock-in dates, so on and so forth. Though some or all of these terms may seem ... more...

Do You Qualify for a Loan?
Like most people, you will probably wait until submitting a purchase contract on a home before applying for a mortgage. By then, not only will you know the specific property you want, but also how much you need to borrow. At that point, the lender will require that you fill out a loan application ... more...

Credit Scoring: What it is, and How It Affects You
If you have applied for a mortgage in the past five years, youve probably heard of credit scoring by now. Perhaps you were told that your credit scoring was wonderful, or needed work. Or maybe your mortgage would have been lowered by several points, if you had better credit scoring.Credit scoring ... more...

Spanish Mortgages - New Mortgage products that really can save your (financial) life!
That was pretty much the headline of an article I wrote some months ago but, following my comments in the Property Posts last edition, I thought I would expand upon the theme of 5 Reasons why you need a Spanish mortgage and introduce some new mortgage products that are here already or due for ... more...

Need Mortgage? Alternative Finance Often Masks Predators, Who Want to Steal Your House
So, your bank had just turned you down for a mortgage application. The same thing also happened, when you went to other banks in your area. How can those banking people be so blind? Don't they see that you are a hard working person? That you intend to repay them every penny?That blemish on your ... more...

Ending Your Private Mortgage Insurance Early
Private mortgage insurance, or PMI, is the safety net of the lender. PMI benefits lenders because it guarantees payment on the balance of loans not covered by the sale of foreclosed properties.If a borrower makes a down payment of 20% of the cost of the home, the lender can generally trust that he ... more...

Why Are Mortgage Notes Discounted Anyway?
When real estate note brokers purchase partially paid notes, they pay the note holder a discounted price after factoring in the time value of money, the payer history, and property condition.If there is still a significant period of time left for the payer to make payments, the future payments are ... more...

Keep Your Eye Focused On Treasury Bond Rates To Adjust Your Current Mortgage Rates
Mortgage rates typically are based off the current rates of treasury bonds. Most lenders set their long term mortgage rates in line with 10 and 30-year treasury rates. The reason that they do this is quite simple. Treasury rates are the rates that are used as an index to represent what the future ... more...

Are You Ready for a 40-year Mortgage?
Real estate prices have been increasing steadily over the last five years, particularly on the East and West coasts. In parts of California, homes are selling for 33% more than they were a year ago. This has made it more difficult than ever for first-time homebuyers to purchase a home.Over the ... more...

Subprime Mortgage Lenders - Differences Between Subprime and Other Lenders
Subprime mortgage lenders specialize in offering financing to people with poor credit or riskier loans. Conventional lenders focus on low-risk loans and borrowers. While you will find better rates with conventional lenders, suprime companies offer more flexibility in requirements and loan terms ... more...