Entries from Searchlight Crusade tagged with 'payment'
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...
Don't Allow Yourself To Become A Victim of Bad Real Estate Practice
This woman made herself a victim stayed in a hotel for 7 weeks looking for my "Dream Home." And, when I found it, even though it wasn't in my price range, I knew I would do anything I could to...
Probate and Foreclosure and Planning Ahead
This question brought someone to my site: If my house is going into foreclosure but the house is also in probate, can the lender actually go forward with the foreclosure sale while the house is in probate? The short answer...
Real Estate: Getting From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be
When I'm driving, and get to busy main streets, I hate turning left onto major streets unless there's a light there. Traffic is coming hard both ways, usually at high speeds, and with only intermittent breaks in each direction. If...
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...
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...
How Do I Get Rid of Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)?
"How do I remove PMI?" was a question that I got. First off, a definition. Private Mortgage Insurance, often abbreviated PMI, is an insurance policy that the bank may make you buy in order to get the loan. It is...
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...
Lump Sum Payments on a Mortgage and Alternative Investments For the Same Money
This visitor came from a search engine on this search: amortization of real estate loans early payoff based on a lump sum payment This is one of the smart things you can do. Not necessarily the smartest, mind you, but...
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...
How to Tell If You Can Afford This Property
Note: Since this article was originally written, there have been changes in the loan marketplace. The negative amortization loan is no longer available and the damage it did has finally become obvious to everyone with pretense of a functioning brain....
The New, Allegedly Improved Good Faith Estimate (Page Three)
This is the conclusion of the series begun in Page One and continued in Page Two Page Three is where the most blatant lies of this whole piece take place, and the first part of page three is where...
The New, Allegedly Improved Good Faith Estimate (Page Two)
Continued from The 2010 Good Faith Estimate (Page One) The next section is on origination charges. Indeed it is titled "Your adjusted origination charges" It starts with "Our origination charges" saying this is the charge for doing the loan....
The New, Allegedly Improved Good Faith Estimate (Page One)
I had a great rant about the limitations of the Good Faith Estimate all planned out in my head when I when I was in the very first stages of planning this website in my head. It was the first...
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....
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