Thursday, July 12, 2007

Mortgage Refinancing Online

If you are in the process of refinancing your mortgage on the Internet, there are several things you need to know about online mortgage companies before applying. The Internet is an excellent tool that can save you money; however, hidden fees and markup of your mortgage interest rate could result in paying too much when refinancing. Here are several tips to help you avoid these expensive pitfalls when refinancing your mortgage online.

There are two basic types of mortgage companies you will encounter online. The first is the website of a bank, mortgage company, or the retail branch of a wholesale lender. These companies use their online presence to originate mortgage loans. The second type is what’s known as a lead generation site and has nothing to do with mortgage loans whatsoever.

Mortgage leads are big business. Several of the big names in Internet mortgages that you see advertising on television engage in lead generation and actually have nothing to do with mortgage loans. How do these companies stay in business and afford their expensive advertising budgets? The do this not only by selling the personal information of their visitors, but in some cases lining their pockets at your expense.

Computerized Loan Origination Fees

Selling leads to prospective mortgage lenders is one thing; however, one well known mortgage site that you’ve seen advertising on television takes the fees they charge too far with a “computerized loan origination fee.” Sites that charge these fees are required to disclose the fee and can be found on their Licenses & Disclosure statements.

In the case of the “Lending” site you see advertised on television, checking the Licenses & Disclosure statement reveals a $1,300 computerized origination fee that will appear on your Good Faith Estimate for their part in “arranging” your loan. Should you have to pay a lead generation $1,300 just for filling out a form with your contact information?

Don’t get me wrong, the Internet is an excellent tool for researching mortgage offers and can save you thousands of dollars when used correctly. You can learn more about refinancing your mortgage online while avoiding costly pitfalls like Yield Spread Premium with a free mortgage toolkit.

To get your FREE Mortgage Refinancing Video Toolkit, visit RefiAdvisor.com using the link below.

Louie Latour specializes in showing homeowners how to avoid costly mortgage mistakes and predatory lenders. To get your hands on this "Mortgage Refinancing Toolkit," which teaches strategies for finding the best mortgage and saving thousands of dollars in the process, visit Refiadvisor.com.

Get your free mortgage refinancing tutorial today at: http://www.refiadvisor.com

Mortgage Refinancing Company


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Home Equity Line Of Credit, Godsend Solution For Your Monetary Needs

You have tightened your belt during the time you are saving for your house. Now, that you have enough equity in that property, you may loosen up a bit by making use of your equity through Home Equity Line of Credit.

Home Equity Line of Credit or HELOC, can help you in myriad of financial necessities. It can help you have a fund when you need it and for whatever purpose you may need it.

Although, you should be careful because putting your house as collateral may cause you to loose your house if you fail to pay your debt. This should make you think many times before you embark on taking money through home equity line of credit.

However, if your purpose of taking out money by means of home equity line of credit is to pay for medical bills or children’s college education, these expenses are inevitable. Thus, taking out money by means of home equity line of credit can be your best bet.

Additionally, if you want to consolidate your debt, HELOC or home equity line of credit may also be beneficial. This is because compared to credit cards and other unsecured credit facilities, the interest rate in a home equity line of credit is somewhat smaller. Another benefit of this means of taking out money is that consumer credits interests are tax deductible.

However, having said the benefits you may have from acquiring a credit through home equity line of credit, you may also need to look at the possible consequences if you fail to pay your debt.

The most important consideration is the possibility of loosing your house to pay off the debt.

It is thus recommendable that while you are considering the flexibility of a credit line, if you need a lump sum fund, you may consider taking out a Home Equity Loan instead. This is because in a home equity loan, you pay the interest and part of the principal debt regularly.

This is in contrast to the variable interest rate that applies in a home equity line of credit. Additionally, in a home equity credit line, your payments balloons at the end when you need to pay the principal amount of debt.

The flexibility of the home equity line of credit extends up to paying only the interests and paying the entire principal loan at the end of the term.

This makes it quite hard, and if you are not ready for such balloon payment, the risk of loosing your house is intrinsic in this case.

This is the reason why financial experts recommend that before you sign any contract that puts your house as collateral, you may need to scrutinize yourself a bit.

Will you need the money lump sum? Ask about Home Equity Loan. Do you need fund periodically? Ask about Home Equity Line of Credit.

Consider also asking for payments terms, interest rates and what conditions will make the lender consider you in default. These questions once answered may help you realize if putting your house as collateral is the best solution to your monetary needs.

Out of all the investments I have done over the years, Real Estate has brought me the greatest returns. I started with just one house and rehabbed it and sold it for a great profit. Now many houses later and real estate values have just continued to rise. Visit my site for your free report on how you can profit from this Real Estate Boom. http://nelawholesaleproperties.com/ Get Free Report Now!


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Mortgage Lead Companies With Quality Mortgage Leads

With all of the internet mortgage lead companies out there on the internet, finding the one with the quality mortgage leads you are looking for may prove to be difficult and time consuming.

Here are a few things to look for in a mortgage lead company.

First, find out exactly how it is that they acquire their mortgage leads.

If it is quality mortgage leads that you are looking for than you want to be sure that the mortgage lead company is acquiring their mortgage leads through mortgage lead generation web sites that they own and operate.

Any other form of buying mortgage leads such as buying from other mortgage lead companies or spam campaigns where the customer is asked to fill out a home survey for a gift card will throw the quality of the lead into question.

Second, does the mortgage lead company you are considering allow for you to cherry pick the lead, or see the mortgage lead before you buy it. This is always a good way to gage the quality of the mortgage lead.

Some mortgage lead companies will allow for you to set up a filter specific to the type of lead that you are looking for. This is not a bad way to purchase mortgage leads as long as there is not an extra fee for the filter and the mortgage leads are being delivered fresh, or in real time.

Third, look for mortgage lead companies that allow for low minimum deposits without minimum order requirements.

If a mortgage lead companies mortgage leads are being obtained through their own mortgage lead generation web sites, than they should feel confident enough in the quality of their mortgage leads to know that you will continue to buy their mortgage leads and continue to make deposits.

So there should be no point in requiring large deposits in the mind of the mortgage lead company.

What is important when looking for a mortgage lead company to fit your needs is taking the time to do the research. Pick up the phone and speak with someone in sales or customer service. Ask as many questions about the mortgage leads you feel to be appropriate.

The key is to find the mortgage lead company that obtains their own mortgage leads and allows for low minimum deposits allowing you to spend your money as you go. They are out there. It is only a matter of taking the time to find them.

Jay Conners has more than seventeen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry. He is the owner of http://www.jconners.com a mortgage marketing and resource site for loan officers. He is also the owner of http://www.callprospect.com


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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Get Your Hands on Some Cash

Another way to make a refinance work for you is to refinance for more than the balance remaining on your old mortgage -- in effect, tapping your home equity, or "cashing out," in mortgage speak. Thanks to favorable rates, you may be able to do so without boosting your monthly outlay. For example, at 8.5%, the payment on a $200,000, 30-year fixed rate mortgage is $1,538. But at 7.5%, that same payment lets you borrow nearly $20,000 more.

The best use for the extra cash is to pay off any higher rate loans you may have. Let's say that you are carrying a $15,000 car loan at 10% and making minimum payments on a $10,000 credit card balance at 17%. Your monthly payments on those debts would total $680. Then assume you refinanced your mortgage, taking out an additional $25,000 to pay off your car and credit card loans. Result: At 7.5%, your additional monthly mortgage payment would total only $175, so you would come out $505 ahead ($680-$175=$505).

Of course, all the extra cash needn't go for paying off debts. When the Menards swapped their ARM for a fixed rate last December, they also increased their mortgage load by $34,000, from $106,000 to $140,000. They used $3,000 of the proceeds to pay their refinancing costs and another $17,000 to pay off a 10% home equity loan, which had been costing them $250 a month. Then they spent the remaining $14,000 to build a garage for Roger's antique car collection -- and they did all this for just another $19 a month.


http://rws.mortgage101.com/templateroot/articles/Refinance.asp?ArticleID=1118&pvlid=22684&

Build Home Equity Faster

Many borrowers use a refinance to shorten the term of the mortgage. And brace yourself, even at low rates, a shorter term means a higher monthly payment. The benefit is that you'll build up equity faster and pay far less in total interest over the life of the loan.

Consider Jim Neill, 48, a real estate broker and his wife Merrilyn, 55, a psychotherapist. Recently, the couple took out a 15-year fixed rate loan at 6.75% to replace an 8.13% ARM with a 30-year term. Their monthly payment jumped by $200, but now they will own their own home outright by the time they retire. In addition, the total interest on the 15-year loan will come to $95,447, vs. $222,234 on the remaining life of the ARM -- and that assumes their adjustable rate would have held steady at its current 8.13%. "This is forced savings," says Jim. "When we retire, we can scale down and take equity out of the house."

If you can't afford the payments on a 15-year mortgage, your next best means of building equity is to refinance for less than 30 years. To do so, ask your mortgage company to customize your new loan's term to match the years that are left on your old loan -- if you are five years into a 30-year mortgage, for example, ask for a 25-year loan.


http://rws.mortgage101.com/templateroot/articles/Refinance.asp?ArticleID=1119&pvlid=22684&

Refinance Once Then Do It Again

When rates fall steadily, refinancing may make sense even if you have done so once already. Bob and Michelle Barbo of Kirkland, WA refinanced twice within three months in 1998. In October, they trimmed the rate on their 30-year fixed mortgage by a full point -- from 9.13% to 8.13% -- for a monthly savings of $63. Plus, because home prices in their area had boosted their home equity, they were able to stop paying private mortgage insurance that cost them $120 a month.

To exploit continued decline in rates, the Barbos refinanced again in December. Their new 30-year fixed mortgage is at 7.375%, lopping another $55 off their monthly bill. Since the couple had chosen a no cost refinancing each time, their total out of pocket expenses came to just $400 in appraisal fees. So by the time you read this, they will already have recouped their up front costs. "Now we can use the savings to build up a cash emergency fund," says Bob.

If you are considering a second refinancing, don't overlook this potential tax write off: When you pay points to refinance, you must deduct the amount over the life of the loan, usually 30 years. But when you refinance a second time, all of the points that have not yet been deducted from the first refinancing can be written off in a lump sum. Say you refinanced to a 30-year mortgage in 1993 and paid $3,000 in points. By now, you would have written off roughly $500. If you refinance again this year, you could deduct the remaining $2,500 on your 1998 tax return. For a homeowner in the 28% tax bracket, that works out to a savings of $700 -- enough to offset some or all of your costs this time around.


http://rws.mortgage101.com/templateroot/articles/Refinance.asp?ArticleID=1120&pvlid=22684&

Refinance Considerations

When you're making your decision, there are several things to keep in mind.

If your current interest rate is significantly higher than today's lowest rates, you may be able to roll your loan costs into the loan and still get a lower rate than you have today, thereby reducing your interest payments and saving money immediately.

Second, if you are planning to stay in your home for at least three to five years, it may make sense to pay "points" (a point equals 1% of the loan amount) and closing costs to get the lowest available rate.

And third, you can avoid laying out cash and still get a low rate by adding the points and closing costs to your new mortgage. Does that mean shouldering a lot of extra debt? Not necessarily. If you've had your current mortgage for at least three years, you've probably reduced your balance by several thousand dollars. So you may be able to tack your closing costs onto your new loan and still end up with a mortgage that's smaller than your original one -- plus, of course, a lower rate and lower monthly payment.


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