Lump Sum Payments on a Mortgage and Alternative Investments

This one came from a search engine: 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 smart. The question is if there’s a better way to get a return on that money, wither by …

Losing Property Value with Highly Leveraged Properties

In one of my articles somebody wrote in the comments about going upside-down on their mortgage: What happens if the property value falls and becomes far less than the loan ammount? (POP) Lets say you get a loan for $280,000 on a home that was $330,00 and then three years later is is only worth …

Loan Rate Sheets: An example, and the games lenders play

This is something I probably should have covered quite some time ago, as it’s part and parcel of the system that’s abused. Here are sample rates from one A paper lender, picked at random, that were in effect a few days ago. These are Fannie and Freddie conforming 30 year fixed rate mortgages with full …

“Banks Give Better Deals Than Brokers”

Better deals for the bank, that is. Ken Harney has a recent article Study Shows Loan Brokers’ Better Side But now a new, independent academic study has concluded the opposite: According to a team of researchers headed by Georgetown University’s Gregory Elliehausen, home mortgage applicants with less-than-perfect credit pay lower financing costs when they obtain …

Loan Qualification Standards – “Loanbusters”

This is definitely not a “Who you gonna call?” I’ve done a couple articles in the recent past on the two ratios, debt to income and loan to value. Nonetheless, there exist a plethora of reasons why someone can be turned down for a loan even though they make it on the ratios. The first …

Mortgages and RAMs in Later Life

“Should People in their sixties take out a mortgage?” The short answer is “Not if you don’t have to.” Now if I suddenly vanish, the explanation will be that the loan industry put a contract out on me. Success in loans, and sales in general, is often attributable to selling people stuff they don’t need. …

What Drives Loan Rates?

Supply and Demand. Now that I’ve given the short answer, it’s time to explain the macro factors behind interest rate variations. But I’m going to keep referring to those first three words. It is a tradeoff between the supply of money and demand for it. The most obvious thing influencing loan rates is inflation. This …

Is This Supposed to be Helpful Legislation? (Illinois)

A reader named Terri at Educating the Wheelers sent me an email giving me a heads up on the antics of the state of Illinois. here is the link. Here is the original article at blackprof. The link to the original source is broken, but here is the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, …

Impound Accounts Facts and FAQs

I’ve seen a fair number of questions on impound accounts in the last several months. An impound account, also known by the confusing term escrow account because the lender is holding it in escrow, is money that you give the lender in order to pay the property taxes and homeowner’s insurance on the property. The …