A "bill Of Rights" For Homebuyers

• A borrower has the right to clear and forthright explanations of the terms and conditions of a loan.
• A borrower has the right to timely and truthful disclosures regarding the rates and costs of the loan.

• A borrower has the right to accurate disclosure of final annual percentage rate and amount of regular payments at the time of loan/closing settlement.

• A borrower has the right not to be subject to deceptive marketing tactics.

• A borrower has the right to obtain credit counseling prior to closing on the loan.

• A borrower has the right to have a lender consider the borrower's ability to repay the loan before such credit is extended.

• A borrower should receive an identifiable benefit when charged a fee or a higher interest rate to refinance a loan.

• A borrower has the right to not be subject to a requirement that he or she finance any portion of points or fees.

• A borrower has the right to decline credit insurance in connection with a loan.

• A borrower has the right to a fair and equitable resolution to any disputes related to his or her loan.

• A borrower has the right to have favorable information reported to credit bureaus on a timely basis.According to the "Borrower's Bill of Rights," homebuyers have the right to a clear and understandable explanation of the terms of a loan.

Aged Citizens Reap The Benefit Of Nevada Reverse Mortgage

The Nevada reverse mortgage also offers the benefit of a second or third reverse mortgage on the same property if after a time it increases in value over and above the initial home equity. However the only criteria to be maintained in the United states and some other places is that the reverse mortgage taken on the property must be the first and only mortgage on that house. Nevada reverse mortgage has managed to simplify life for the senior citizens in multiple ways. It offers a guaranteed monthly income and a line of credit or a lump sum payment of money. It could also be a customized solution that offers a combination of all of the above options. It is also a loan that is assured for the entire lifetime of the borrower. The borrower is not required to repay the loan as long as he continues to occupy the house as a primary residence.

Nevada reverse mortgage also ensures that the title of the property remains in the name of the borrower. The property can be sold at any point of time and the amount of reverse mortgage can be paid off completely. Considering all these options it can be said the Nevada reverse mortgage is indeed a silver lining for the senior citizens of Nevada.

Save Money On Your Mortgage

To save money on the long term, this would be the first factors to consider if you are in a mortgage deal. Most lenders may not notify when the introductory period is over, this will initially lead homeowners to pay a higher interest rate.

Your first step would be to find out about your current mortgage deal. Your current status may now be greatly different from those when you at first took the mortgage deal on, indicating that a similar product or timescale may be more suited to you. You may feel you are finically all right and want to deposit more towards your mortgage, you may wish to reduce your term, the opposed being the case if you are rebellious to make your payments.

You may be in a job where your income fluctuates, you could benefit from flexible options offered by many products on the market, this way you could make overpayments, including huge lump sums, to your mortgage. Homeowners with poorly performing repayment vehicles, may wish to review alternative options, things like adding a part and part option, this is where you pay back a part of the capital to help make up some of any possible shortfall.

All-in-one Mortgages

In effect, an offset mortgage puts you in a position where you are devoting the bulk of your savings to reducing your mortgage. This can save thousands of pounds off the cost of your mortgage and could mean you pay off the loan early. You still have the flexibility to divert your savings instead to other uses, in which case you give up some of the mortgage cost savings.

Of course, you don’t need an offset mortgage to pay off your loan early. You could have an ordinary mortgage and a completely separate savings account. From time to time, you could use your savings to pay off a chunk of your mortgage. That too would save you thousands of pounds in mortgage costs and could mean paying off the loan early. But, unlike the all-in-one mortgage, your savings would not earn the mortgage rate of interest, you would have to pay tax on the savings interest and, having paid off part of the mortgage, it would be more difficult to change your mind and use your savings for some other purpose after all (because you would need to take out a new mortgage to ‘get back’ your savings).

The drawback of all-in-one mortgages is that the mortgage rate of interest is often higher than deals you could get elsewhere and, in particular, there are often no special deals, such as a low discounted rate for the first few years. If you have only a low balance in your current account and little in savings, the benefits you get from combining the accounts may be too small to outweigh the extra cost of the mortgage. And combining your finances in this way could be confusing, especially in the case of a CAM where you have just a single account for both your mortgage and current account. You need to be the sort of person who can efficiently keep track of their money.

If you are good with your finances, generally have a high current account balance, have reasonably high savings and you are a taxpayer (particularly a higher rate taxpayer), an all-in-one mortgage could be a good choice. But check the mortgage is reasonably priced and has all the features you want.

Scaling Down: Moving Into A New, Smaller Home

Start with the items you will be giving away. Move through each room of your house, and pull out these select items.

Before you host a neighborhood garage sale, start with your own children and other close friends and relatives. Could any of them use your unwanted furniture or other accessories?

One recent empty nester stored several boxes of old dishes and table linens in anticipation of her daughter graduating college and furnishing her first apartment. Not only was it a great way of getting her daughter into her first place without the expense of dishes, it also helped her daughter feel more at home because she was using items she recalled from her childhood.

Also provide your children with boxes of personal items that have special meaning to them, but won't be a part of your new home. Items like curios, schoolbooks and papers, and mementos from growing up can all be added into these boxes.

Next, begin to assess your existing furniture once you've purchased your new home. Not only will you be decreasing the amount of space you have, but the style and size of the rooms will change as well. A country look in the suburbs may work well; yet not have a place in a new high-rise condo.

When you finally decide on a new place, look carefully at the dimensions. There are many software programs to help you with placement of furniture. Or simply record the dimensions of each room on graph paper, and work with the dimensions of each piece of furniture. Decide which pieces to keep and which to give away.

Also remember that some pieces of furniture are flexible, and can be used in a variety of ways. That comfy chair from your family room may be the perfect addition to the nook in your new bedroom. Or the sofa table in your living room may be a great accent piece in your new hallway.

And every move deserves to have a few new pieces purchased exclusively for the new home. When nothing else seems to fit, head out to the stores and find something new. If you've been dreaming of a new entertainment center complete with plasma TV, splurge and have fun with it. It will make your move more exciting, and give you something new to enjoy as an empty nester.

Finally, live with your choices for a few months, and see how things work out. After every move, there's always a piece or two of furniture that just never seems to fit. Move it to different locations, or if it just doesn't fit in, move it out of your home.

New Home Purchase Mortgage

Most family's refinance a home bank loan in uniformity save cash by enchanting benefit of a reduced advantage rate. By way of refinancing, you tail off monthly payment, allowing you to use cash for outflow that you may need to make nearly. Others reward of second mortgage refinancing in regulation to merge the principal and subsequent loans into a unattached mortgage expense. Others also refinance home equity loan in classification to lean-to or shortening the expressions of payment. Other also refinances their home loan in purchase to advantage of a minor attention rate.

Mortgage refinancing allow borrowers especially first time home buyers to reduce monthly payments and exchange the current terms for a much better deal. In the long run, it also allows home owners to refund any improvement that they made on the house that could increase the price of the property and save up cash for other purposes.

Having a house of your own is a very good opportunity for the ordinary person to make investments that could turn into wealth over time. When buying a house, this should be the goal that one has to keep in mind. A house of your dreams is not simply just finding a place to live in but living out your hopes, lifestyle and values.

Offset Mortgage Explained

Offset mortgages are also flexible without a penalty. You can make extra payments, under payments and have a break from payments as long as you have made sufficient overpayments over the years.

Not all offset mortgages are the same. The competition among lenders is increasing and as a consequence the borrower has more options to choose from. This can include: free property valuations and free legal work, using two nominated saving accounts to be offset, and additional borrowing facilities. Depending on your lender, the saving accounts of family members can be combined to offset against one person’s mortgage; this is a popular choice for parents who want to help their offspring purchase their first home.

There are some disadvantages to an offset mortgage. Most offset mortgages allow the borrower to have a credit limit; if you are not disciplined about paying this back, then at the end of your mortgage period, you could be left with a big loan to pay. Thus, it takes a lot of budgeting and self-control to ensure the current account mortgage works effectively. Interest rates are different for the current account, savings and mortgage, so you do not have the opportunity to save money at the Standard Variable Rate like you can do with a current account mortgage.

Offset mortgage originally started in Australia and are fairly new to the UK market, however they have quickly gained in popularity. Originally, mortgage lenders only targeted the wealthy but they have now widen the market for customers who are charged basic tax and have savings. As a rough guide, a basic taxpayer needs around £20,000 in savings behind a £100,000 mortgage to make the offset deal better than a traditional mortgage. For a higher rate taxpayer, the savings requirement is about £10,000 although those figures will change as interest rates vary. If you are looking for a mortgage, an offset mortgage is something to seriously consider, particularly if you are a higher rate taxpayer and/or have substantial savings to offset. While the basic concept of an offset mortgage is simple, it does get complicated. This clearly underlines the need to talk things through with a mortgage advisor. It is their job and responsibility to ensure you get the right type of mortgage and the best deal.

Three Steps To Finding A Bad Credit Mortgage

So how do you go about it?

1. Find an independent mortgage broker and check that he/she deals in bad credit mortgages. It’s very important that you go to someone like this rather than just going to your bank. The broker can help you avoid getting further rejections, which will make your credit rating WORSE.

2. Be honest. The broker can’t help you if you don’t disclose ALL the relevant information. It may be embarrassing but it’s nothing the broker hasn’t heard before – in fact he/she has probably heard a lot worse stories than yours. Answer all questions fully and honestly. If the broker knows your exact situation, he/she should be able to scour the market to find a bad credit mortgage lender who will accept you. If you conceal information because it doesn’t show you in a good light, you risk further rejection which will certainly not help you.

3. Listen to advice and be realistic. You may find that the type of property you have set your heart on is beyond your means. If the broker points this out to you, don’t storm out in a rage and go somewhere else. If you are having financial problems, the last thing you need is to over-extend yourself even more. A bad credit mortgage is already more expensive than a standard mortgage, and you don’t know if interest rates are going to go up even further. So let the broker help you work out what you can REALLY afford and stick with that.

However bad your situation is, there could be a bad credit mortgage out there for you. But you really do need the broker’s help to find it.

Money Merge Account Review - The Truth About The Money Merge Account

In order to build equity more rapidly, you must have a lender that will immediately apply each 1/2 monthly payment upon receipt. If the lender waits until the second payment has been received before crediting the loan, you won’t see the benefits. When worked properly, this is a decent plan and is effective in reducing your amortization schedule. One of the downsides of this is that there is no built-in plan to come up with the extra money.

Another method to paying off mortgage and other debt is the debt roll-down. The idea here is to set aside a certain amount for debt repayment and continue to maintain the total monthly amount you pay in debt reduction even after the first debt is paid off. You would then target each debt you have in the order of highest interest rate. This is effective, requires a lot of discipline but does not employ the concept of interest arbitrage, or interest cancellation.

The Money Merge Account is neither a bi-weekly or debt roll down. With the Money Merge Account, the homeowner would set up a specific type of HELOC (Home Equity Line Of Credit) that would be open-ended. In this case the interest would be charged on the average daily balance rather than month-end principal balance and would act as a primary checking account allowing monies to be deposited and withdrawn using checks, debit or transfers. Rather than using a standard checking or savings account where your money sits, waiting to be spent and doing nothing for you; you would use the functionality of the HELOC to compress the principal balance in which the interest is calculated (on an average daily balance).

Taking into consideration the structure and interest rates of the HELOC and the first mortgage, your income and expenses; the Money Merge Account software would prompt you periodically to make extra payments to your first mortgage. This prompt would be a specific dollar amount, to the penny and applied on a specific date as to maximize interest cancellation. Once the payment is made, the balance owed on the HELOC would go up, you would then deposit your paycheck back into the HELOC driving the average daily balance and interest charges back down canceling interest until it’s time to pay expenses again.

By using this method, you are using a portion of your discretionary income which includes the offset interest from the HELOC. The extra payments to your first mortgage would not necessarily be applied every month; it would depend on your particular cash flow situation. With this method, the average homeowner will pay off their home in as little to ½ to 1/3 the time.

So with the cooling real estate market and ever increasing demand for solutions to mortgage debt, many ideas will emerge, as necessity is truly the mother of invention. Whereas the concept of interest cancellation is not new, the systematic approach of the Money Merge Account software definitely is and worth a second look as a viable option.

I hope you have found this article informative and interesting. Feel free to contact me if you have questions.

2nd Home Mortgage - Home Equity Vs. Refinance

Home equity loans of all types have the advantage of low to no closing costs, especially if you take advantage of one of the many advertised deals that abound. In a financial emergency, every bit of savings can help and choosing a home equity loan can keep initial costs to a minimum.

The best rates overall are usually found on smaller, short term home equity loans. If you do not need to borrow an especially large amount of money and the funds that you need are covered by the equity in your home you may be an ideal candidate for a home equity loan.

Another important point to consider is the interest rate on your first mortgage. If you were one of the lucky homebuyers who took advantage of recent rock bottom mortgage rates, it would be silly to refinance your mortgage and get stuck paying a higher interest rate.

Who is Better off With a Mortgage Refinance?

A mortgage refinance is another option to get cash in an emergency situation by using your home as collateral. You can choose to take what is called a "cash out refinance" loan on your home. What happens in a cash out refi is exactly what it sounds like, you refinance your mortgage and take cash out for emergencies or any other purpose. In a cash out refinance loan, you can only get as much cash as you have equity in your home.

This is also the case with any loan, equity or refinance. The benefits to a cash out refi is that if you are paying a higher rate of interest than you can get now, you can actually save money on your monthly payments while getting the cash you need now. Because the cash you take out is rolled back in to the loan over the full 15 or 30 years, the differences in your monthly payment is negligible and in some cases still lower than where you started.

A cash out refinance loan is ideal for a homeowner who has a mortgage at a higher rate than what they could currently get if they were to refinance. The downside to a refinance is that you start all over again as if you had just taken the mortgage. Also, refinance loans often have a significant amount of closing costs involved. Still, if you are in need of cash and are in a position to lower your interest rate at the same time, a cash out refi may be the best choice for you.

By reviewing your current mortgage rates and equity figures, you should be able to see which option would be most cost effective in your situation. When in doubt, run the numbers and compare the scenarios on paper. This due diligence can save you money in the long run and prevent you from making a bad decision over your mortgage options.

Holiday Homes – Dare To Be Different

• Log cabins. If you want a holiday home for year-round use, rather than just a few weeks in the summer, you actually could hardly do better than a log cabin. Solid wood is a great storer of thermal energy, so the log cabin will be cosier in the winter than a brick or stone building. And the fire risk is no greater than for an ordinary house as they have to be built to very strict safety standards. So these are a good buy – they are cheaper than conventional houses and are often located in very scenic areas. Traditionally, lenders have been reluctant to lend on log cabins, but now an increasing number are willing to consider them. Ask your holiday home mortgage broker to point you in the right direction.

• Holiday park home. Again, holiday park homes are more affordable than conventional properties, and are located in some of the most stunning areas of the country – areas where ordinary house prices have rocketed. Despite being more affordable, holiday park homes have numerous advantages over “ordinary” holiday homes. For instance, they are luxuriously appointed, so you don’t have to do any alterations before you can start using them, and the parks are managed, so there are no worries about security when you’re not there. What’s more, they aren’t liable for Council Tax, or for Capital Gains Tax when you sell! It used to be the case that you couldn’t get a mortgage on a holiday park home, but now there are some specialist providers who will consider lending on them. Again, you need to consult a holiday home mortgage broker for advice as to where to look.

• Unusual properties. You may have set your heart on a unique and special property for your holiday home – a windmill, a church or chapel, or a light-house, for instance. These can be enchanting and make your friends really envious! But can you get a mortgage on them? Some lenders are reluctant to lend on a property of this type because of uncertainty over its resale value. But there are an increasing number who will look seriously at properties of this kind, subject to various considerations such as resale value. Your holiday home mortgage broker will be able to help you find the right type of lender.

The holiday home market is different from the “ordinary” property market and many types of homes need specialist lenders. Your holiday home mortgage broker has the knowledge to help you find the right lender, however unusual your holiday home idea may be.