Entries from Searchlight Crusade tagged with 'cost of money'
Can They Force You To Pay Off Your Car or Other Debts In Order To Get A Loan?
The short answer is not only "yes" but "damned straight" I refinanced my house, and the lender put as one of my payoffs my Acura lease that I have 3 years left, whick equals about $19,000. I told him that...
Games Lenders Play, Part VII - Selling Mortgage Accelerator Programs
I thought I'd share this with you as an example of the sort of mind set to beware. This is a real email I received, with identifying information redacted. I found you through the DELETED web site and I thought...
The Lure and the Trap of Debt Consolidation - Payment Versus Cost of Interest
A while ago I did an article entitled Debt Consolidation Refinance - Doing it Wrong vs. Doing it Right. It's a good article, if I do say so myself. Nonetheless, I think there's more to say on the subject, not...
Virtues of the US Real Estate Loan Market
The scope of the problems that exist in the United States consumer mortgage market are huge. Enormously, mind-bogglingly, "How Big Is Space?" type huge. Yet, the problems are almost entirely on a retail level, when one provider works with one...
Buying Your Final Home: Payment versus the Rate/Cost Tradeoff
Hello, Mr. Melson, I am one of your legion of fans of your www.searchlightcrusade.net website, having lucked into stumbling upon it by hyperlinking from another site. It is my goal to read EVERY ONE of your archived articles before I...
Being Realistic Saves Money on your Mortgage
If you haven't heard about the thirty year fixed rate mortgage, welcome to planet Earth and I hope we can be friends. The thirty year fixed rate loan seems to be the holy grail of all mortgages. It's what everyone...
One Loan Versus Two Loans
One of the questions we ask all the time is whether to do your financing as one loan or two loans. Until comparatively recently, one loan was the default option, but people have been learning that splitting their home financing...
How Can I Lower The Down Payment Requirements So I Can Buy Real Estate?
With a few lenders starting to loosen their requirements slightly in San Diego, it's becoming increasingly obvious that the bottom is behind us. However, the issue has now become, "I don't have much of a down payment. How do...
Don't Let Cash Distract You From Cost In Real Estate
There are many ways of suckering real estate consumers, and cash as an inducement to get people to swallow a raw deal is one of the most common. From sellers (usually developers), "free" upgrades are one of the most common....
Prepaid Interest and Why You Never Really Skip a Mortgage Payment
Many people think that mortgage interest works like rent: paid in advance before you live in the property for the month. This is not the case. Mortgage interest is paid in arrears. As you begin the month, interest begins...
Unsustainable Loans You Should Not Use to Purchase a Property
You've probably heard the horror stories, and I've mentioned the possibility more than once. Some unsuspecting person is looking at properties beyond their price range, and it therefore has all kinds of attractive features that properties which are in their...
Why Cost Is As Important As Rate For Mortgage Loans
When I wrote explaining why borrowers should consider a 5/1 ARM, because the tradeoff between rate and cost is lower for that loan, and most people don't keep their loans 5 years anyway, so having a likely need to...
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....
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