Entries from Searchlight Crusade tagged with 'cost of money'
A Q&A for First Time Buyer Advice
(This is a reprint from December 15, 2006 that still has quite a bit to offer. There have been market changes which I will talk about but the original stands up well) This was a Q&A post from a certain...
Mortgage Accelerator Programs: A Good Basic Idea, But the Devil Is In the Details
The recent hot thing in mortgage circles is a mortgage accelerator program. I've heard other things, most notably biweekly payment programs, called mortgage accelerators in the past, so let me take a moment to define exactly what I'm talking about....
Online Mortgage Quotes
(This is a reprint from December 2006, with a few updates. It is instructive in the wake of a certain new mortgage quote service, launched with great fanfare. The negative amortization loan is gone, but I'm seeing lots of other...
The Difference Between Note Rate (APY) and APR
I am continually horrified how many people shop their loans by APR, just as I am by people shopping their loan based upon payment. Why? Because in either case, you're setting yourself up to spend a lot of money in...
What Happens When You Can't Make Your Real Estate Loan Payment
I've written a lot here about how to manage your mortgage so that you control it instead of it controlling you. Let's consider what happens when that project fails. If you don't pay your mortgage, on time, no big deal...
Debt Consolidation Refinance - Doing it Wrong vs. Doing it Right
There's a lot that gets written on this subject, mostly by loan officers looking for business. Well, don't think I'm not looking for business, but not with this post. Or if anybody calls me because of this, at least I'll...
Debunking the Money Merge Account Scam (Games Lenders Play, Part 8)
For a couple years, Mortgage Accelerators, or Money Merge Accounts, were the thing that everyone was pushing. I got so much junk mail about this from more originators (who don't know who I am) and wholesalers (who should) that I...
Refinancing With An Expiring Prepayment Penalty
how soon should I start shopping around to refinance my home? I have a 2yr interest only and it's up in (four months) Okay, the 2/28 loans which you are describing all have prepayment penalties for at least two years....
Changing Rates and Streamline Refinancing - Reasons to Love Zero Cost Loans and Hybrid ARMs
(NOTE: AT this update, laws exist enacted in the latter part of the 2009-10 congressional session that essentially make it impossible to legally call zero cost and low cost loans what they are by requiring loan providers to count...
In Order To Deal With Looming Foreclosure, You Must Get Out of Denial
A while ago, I got a call from a hard money lender, asking what I could to to "rescue" one of his clients by refinancing. He was being about as altruistic as a drowning man. What he really wanted...
"Should I Refinance?" - Consider Overall Cost of Money, Not Payment
With the state of financial education in this country, many people shop for loans by payment, figuring the lowest payment is the best loan. As counter-evidence to that idea, let us consider the negative amortization loan. I've seen them...
Yield Spread is a Beneficial Tool That Can Be Misused
If you read the papers and the congressional record on the housing crisis, you might think yield spread is the central culprit for the entire meltdown. You would be wrong. Yield spread is a beneficial tool, offered voluntarily by lenders,...
Lender Paid Mortgage Insurance or Regular PMI?
If I am buying a foreclosed home for 220k of which 200k is being financed, and the home comes back at being valued at 285k from my mortgage company, am I still required to pay PMI? If so, how in...
How to Avoid A Repeat of the Housing Market Mess
Scapegoating mortgage brokers or anyone else is not the answer, nor is prohibiting yield spread. We've been here before (in the early 1990s), congress did something remarkably similar except a little bit more sane. It didn't work then. Why would...
Wanting a More Expensive Property Than You Can Really Afford
This is one of the biggest issues with my local real estate market. Because the San Diego market has very high demand and limited supply of property, prices are high. A reasonable two bedroom condo runs around $200,000. A 1200...
Investors Aren't The Only Ones Who Can Fix Ugly Properties
A couple years ago, I took a look at a lender owned property a few miles from my office. It was ugly. I mean ugly. The yard was a mess, there was a deck that was rotting. The facade looked...
Efforts to Rehabilitate the Negative Amortization Loan
The negative amortization loan is a very popular loan with certain kinds of real estate agents and loan officers. It has two great virtues as far as they are concerned. First, it has a low payment, and despite the fact...
Saving Money by Refinancing Your Mortgage
pfadvice talks about debunking a money myth and perpetuates one of his own. He took issue with someone refinancing to lower their monthly payment, insisting instead that the term of the loan was all important. His point is understandable in...
Refinancing Out of A Negative Amortization Loan (Or Any Other) Before The Penalty Expires
HI, My name is DELETED and my husband and I are searching for a way to get out of our Negative ARM loan before we get upside down. Our problem right now is our loan to value. Our loan right...
Down Payment At Purchase or Wait Until Later To Pay The Mortgage Down?
Got a search engine hit for do I make a big down payment on a home or should make a lump sum payment after the mortgage It's hard to construct a scenario where using it as "purchase money" doesn't come...
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