For Sale by Owner

You always have the option of listing your home for sale without the help of a real estate agent.  This is probably the most time consuming method of selling your home, but you will keep more of your home’s selling price because you aren’t paying a real estate agent a commission.  You will need to figure out the asking price and deal with marketing your home so potential buyers can find it; and then negotiate with people who are interested in buying your home.  Another drawback of listing your home as a for sale by owner is that you may have your house on the market for quite a while before it gets sold.

You can post your house on a multiple-listing service for about $300, which will make sure everyone searching for homes in your area and price range will find it.  The listing fee is nothing compared to what you’d pay in realtor commissions.

Make Your Home Look like a Bargain

Right now, the real estate market is overflowing with foreclosed properties.  It can be hard to compete with prices on some of the foreclosures, but if you set your asking price about 10% below what comparable homes are selling for in your neighborhood, you will make your home look like a bargain.  While you may lose a few thousand dollars with this method – you have a very good chance of selling your home quickly and not having to deal with having a house on the market for months.

When your home is bargain priced, you also encourage bidding wars – with multiple buyers trying to buy the home.  The listing price is just the asking price – buyers who really want your home will often offer above your asking price, in hopes of beating out other buyers for the same property.

Use an Agent and Negotiate the Commission

If you aren’t up for the challenge of listing your home for sale on your own, and don’t want to list it for well below its value, you might decide working with a real estate agent is your best method for selling your home.  Many real estate agents will negotiate their commission from the standard 6% down to 5% or so if you agree to list an aggressive home price and prepare the home so it can be listed as move-in ready.

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Mortgage calculators may have once only given you rough estimates, but they are very accurate by today’s standards.

These mortgage tools, which include mortgage repayment and mortgage affordability calculators, are great for getting an idea of how much you can afford to borrow.

A good mortgage calculator will base its result on your earnings, the length of the mortgage, the current interest rate and the total amount borrowed.

Websites like moneysupermarket.com offer two types of calculators. These include a calculator that helps you determine how much you need to repay per month to pay off the balance and a calculator that shows you how much money you will be able to borrow based on your income and down payment.

Although these calculators will give you an accurate projection based on the information provided, keep in mind that their results are only an indication and do not take into account individual lender requirements.

Each lender is different and has their own assessment policies and requirements for determining how much you qualify for and how you should make your monthly payments.

The best way to maximize mortgage tool effectiveness is to contact lenders about their interest rates and use that number in the calculator, since their interest rate may vary from the state or national average.

Remember that the amount of money you save for a down payment will change the calculated result, so if you won’t be able to afford a certain result, recalculate the numbers with a higher down payment amount.

It may take longer to save more money for the down payment, but you will end up saving money in the long run since you will ultimately be borrowing less.

To use mortgage calculators, have an accurate idea of your current income. Include your spouse’s income if you plan on buying as a couple. The more accurate your information, the more accurate your result will be.

Don’t forget about lender fees that are never considered in mortgage calculators. This means closing costs. Closing costs not generally considered by mortgage calculators include appraisal fees, underwriting fees, fees for the lender to obtain your credit reports, flood certification, tax service fees and processing fees.

Non-standard fees may also apply. These include an origination fee which is a charge associated with sub-prime loans, a commitment fee which is a redundant underwriting fee, application fees, discount points, broker fees and loan lock fees.

Many of these non-standard fees may be waived if you fight for it and some are simply bogus, like the loan lock fee. There is no need to pay redundant fees, so state that up front with the lender.

Other fees, like the commitment fee, are pure profit for the lender, especially if you are paying it on top of a processing fee and underwriting fee. Negotiate these fees out of the agreement before going any further.

Once you realize how many additional fees are involved, a mortgage tool can only make you better prepared for entering into a loan agreement.

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Changing Mortgage Terms
Many people choose to refinance their mortgage in order to change the terms of their first mortgage, generally to lower their interest rate or their monthly payment.  This is fairly easy to accomplish and straightforward to understand, with the homeowner basically taking out a new mortgage to cover the rest of the money that is owed under the old mortgage.  This type of refinancing is only good for the homeowner if the change in the payments is significant, often more than $200 per month.

Extracting Equity
Another reason that a person may choose to refinance their home is to extract some of the equity in the home to be used for other purposes.  In these cases, a mortgage is taken out in an amount that is higher than the amount that is currently left on the original mortgage and the person uses thismoney to pay off the original mortgage with the extra money being placed into a bank account to be used for other purposes.  Taking the equity out of the home in this way can extend the length of time that you will need to make payments on your home, but you will have the money that you need to handle your immediate financial situation.

Many homeowners choose to extract equity from the home in order to make repairs or upgrades to the home, which will increase the value of the home for appraisal or future sale.  Other homeowners choose to take equity out of the home to pay for a child’s college education.  One of the worst reasons to extract equity out of the home is to pay for an expensive vacation because you may have a good time on your trip, but fun is the only benefit you are getting for your money and the money that you have taken out of the home will take a long time to rebuild.

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Different Types Of Mortgage Products

There are a number of different mortgage products that can be chosen by a person that is looking to purchase a new home or refinance their mortgage. Some of the mortgage products are considered to be traditional, meaning that they are the ones that have been used by many people over the course of the last several decades. Some others are considered to be more exotic, meaning that they have been created in the last few years to satisfy certain financial requirements or use different mortgage terms. Many people consider the traditional mortgage products to be the safer bet over the long term and much of the financial havoc that has racked the nation in recent years has been attributed to the widespread use of exotic mortgage products.

What Affects Interest Rates For Mortgage Products?

There are many different factors that may be used to determine the interest rate that you are offered on your mortgage. Your credit score and your credit history will be a large part of the calculation, but the lender that you choose to obtain your mortgage from will affect the interest rate of the mortgage as well. It may be best for you to shop several different lenders to see who will grant approval for the mortgage and provide the best interest rate before deciding to sign for a mortgage with a particular lender.

Mistakes To Avoid

One of the biggest mistakes that many people make is signing up for a mortgage without completely understanding the mortgage and what will be required to satisfy the terms of the mortgage. Many of the people that are facing foreclosure today are in that position because they took out an exotic mortgage without understanding how the mortgage actually worked. If you are considering getting a mortgage to purchase or refinance your home in the near future, it is important for you to learn all that you can about these mortgages so that you can make an informed decision about which mortgage product to choose.

The Best Mortgage Deals

The best mortgages available and the the best mortgages for self build available are fixed interest rate. Do not get a variable interest rate loan. Interest rates will invariably go up over time. Also get a 15 year loan if you can. You’ll save much more on that mortgage than you would with a 30 year mortgage.

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Assess Your Financial Situation

Before you begin shopping for a mortgage loan, you should take a long, hard look at your financial situation to determine what you can afford. Examining your finances should include obtaining your credit score from the three major credit reporting bureaus, reviewing your income and earning potential, and evaluating the amount of debt already carried. As a general rule, the amount of your mortgage payment, including taxes and insurance, should be less than 30% of your average monthly income after taxes.

Review Mortgage Loan Options

When choosing a mortgage loan, most people choose one of the two main types of mortgage loan – fixed rate or adjustable rate. Fixed rate mortgages carry the same interest rate for the entire life of the loan, ensuring that the payment amount remains constant until the home is paid off, refinanced, or sold. Adjustable rate mortgages have interest rates that fluctuate according to the terms of the mortgage agreement, which means that interest only mortgage payments can increase or decrease when the interest rate adjusts. Reviewing the pros and cons of both types of mortgage loans can help you make an informed decision about which type of mortgage loan is best for your needs and your financial situation. Generally speaking, the best fixed mortgage deals available are 15-year fixed-rate mortgages with low closing costs.

Get Multiple Mortgage Quotes Within 30 Days

Many borrowers only obtain quotes from a few mortgage lenders during the mortgage shopping process because they believe that having multiple lenders checking their credit will cause their credit score to decrease. Due to rules put into place by the federal governments, borrowers now have a 30-day window in which multiple checks of their credit will not affect their credit score. This means that you can get as many quotes as you want within that 30-day window and you will not be penalized for it.

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If you are in a situation where you need to refinance or need help with your mortgage, there are options available. If you are not underwater on your mortgage, seek out fixed rate mortgages from a reputable mortgage broker. If you’re in trouble, check out the Making Home Affordable program or visit with a mortgage counselor.

How To Spot The Unscrupulous People
Con artists today have a big advantage with technology. There are many ways to make their “company” look legitimate and official. Keeping tabs on what’s real and what isn’t is no easy task. One red flag should be companies that name their company or use a URL address that is similar to the various governmental programs available set up to help homeowners. Some even go so far as to say they are affiliated with the governmental assistance.

Here are a few tips for evaluating different loan modification assistance companies:

• If you are contacted by phone, do not hesitate to ask for a call back number, which can help you confirm the companies identity when you call them back. If the representative declines to give you that number, hang up and do not divulge any personal information.

• By phone, email, or mail, if you are asked to pay upfront fees or give out personal financial information, it’s a big red flag. Legitimate companies would never ask you for any of this information without the proper paperwork or signed agreement.

• When reviewing websites, look for URL addresses that end in .gov. Even if a site has the word “government” or other related terms in their address, does not mean they are legitimate.

• You should never have to pay for assistance. There are HUD approved counseling agencies that offer free advice and assistance with preventing home foreclosures.

Keep in mind that the marketing tactics scam companies employ can be very good and easily misleading. They are very aware of how impatient and desperate people are to keep from going into foreclosure and they will capitalize on that desperation in every way they can. The money you are handing over will be stolen instead of used for saving your home. Visit a legitimate agency for help or check out the Obama administration’s Make Home Affordable website for more information about saving your home.

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The new rules became effective May 1, 2009 and were meant to reduce the occurrence of fraudulent appraisals where the home valuations were inflated. Lenders are now required to follow the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) with regard to conventional or conforming loans being sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Make. FHA loans are not affected by these guidelines because they are insured by the Federal Housing Administration, and neither are VA loans, which are guaranteed by the US Department of Veteran Affairs.

Helps and Hinders Borrowers
For home buyers, the new rules will help prevent them from paying inflated prices but those who are going through the refinance process and were hoping for a higher home value, the chances are greatly reduced. Typically, there are two types of appraisers that evaluate the true price of a home. One such group is considered to be the quick-service kind that produces appraisals based on minimal research. The other are the more reliable ones that do a lot of legwork to ensure the home is values accurately and fairly. Borrowers who once thought the appraisal process wasn’t much of a big deal, really do need to pay attention to the appraisal process because oftentimes a lazy appraiser can go too low and have a serious negative impact on a loan’s approval or sale price, as well as netting a higher interest rate. Borrowers should also be concerned about an appraisers ability to conduct the appraisal in a timely manner. In order for borrowers to lock in a decent interest rate and satisfy contract terms, an appraisal needs to be conducted and completed within a specified time frame. If an appraiser fails to come through, it can cause the loan approval to be declined.

Higher Costs

Another concern borrowers should note about the new appraisal rules is that the cost of an appraisal may be more expensive now due to additional regulations. Appraisals are more labor intensive and therefore, more costly. Borrowers may also be required to pay appraisal costs upfront, adding to their out-of-pocket expenses regardless of whether or not the loans comes to fruition. Plus, if the first loan attempt fails, borrowers may find they have to foot the bill for a second appraisal for a new loan application. Although appraisals might be more expensive, there are still a lot of cheap mortgage deals to be had. Mortgage rates are the lowest in history, so if you need to refinance, do it now!

What To Do
If you are in the market for a home loan, experts advice that you speak with the lender at length before applying for a mortgage loan to find out whether a appraisal will be in line with the proposed loan. Borrowers can also do their own research by comparing sale price and home valuations and other trends in their area before applying for a loan to have a better idea of what to expect. Otherwise, a borrower may face significant disappointment and frustration at being turned down for a loan. It helps to have a good mortgage lender work with you through all the steps of the home loan approval process.

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What is a No Deposit Mortgage?

As the name implies, a no deposit mortgage is one in which you do not have to have the large portion of the mortgage as a down payment. Since lenders typically ask for 20% of the total value for a down payment, many potential buyers are scared away before even beginning the process. With a no deposit mortgage, you can take out two different mortgages at the same time – one for the deposit and another for the remainder. This allows you to pay a minimal upfront fee for your home, while also getting your in the front door.

Who Can This Mortgage Benefit?

At first glance, it seems like everyone can benefit from this type of mortgage, some might even consider it one of the top mortgage deals. Because you do not need to have any money upfront, you can begin the home buying process as soon as you find a home that you like. For those without a lot of savings, this is an ideal arrangement. It is also a good loan agreement for those that want to take their savings and invest in stocks and high interest accounts, rather than using the money for their mortgage payments. In the end, these high interest accounts will help the person save up more money than they would have saved by using it toward the house itself. And for home buyers that might not have the best credit rating, these loan agreements can help them get back on solid financial footing.

What are the Problems with the Mortgage?

The main problem with no deposit mortgages is that applicants that don’t have a strong financial background are at a higher risk of defaulting. This is often why these mortgages are accompanied with higher interest rates than typical ones. Another concern with this type of mortgage is that even if you do receive a low interest rate, you still might end up paying more interest in the end. This is due to the borrower essentially being responsible for two mortgages instead of one. For instance, say you get a no deposit mortgage and you then eventually get an ARM mortgage (adjusted rate mortgage), you might end up having to pay a much great sum since you are carrying two loan agreements.

If you know that you can be disciplined about paying off your mortgage and beginning a savings plan, then the no deposit mortgage is certainly something to consider. Just be sure that the arrangement needs to work out for you in the end too, not just for the lender.

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In recent months, some of the largest US banks have been doing the best they can to reassure investors on their portfolios. They have taken the stance that their costs in association with faulty foreclosures are within their realm, and investors should not be concerned.

“I’m sure the banks are ready to put this past them and investors would certainly like to but this is not an issue that is going to go away,” Blake Howells, an analyst at Becker Capital Management Inc. in Portland, Oregon, said in an interview. “There will be more lawsuits that come down the road.” Becker Capital oversees $2.4 billion.

In all 50 states, attorney generals have been investigating foreclosure practices to determine if they were legit. The investigation came after allegations that banks were foreclosing and seizing homes without going through proper foreclosure procedures. Homes were found to have been foreclosed on without proper documentation to do so.

US regulators from the Dept of Housing and the Treasury Department may be imposing up to $20 billion in penalties to the banks that were found to have followed unlawful foreclosure procedures. To date, banks have still not been informed of whether or not they will be part of the fines.

Litigation costs are expected to be high for both Wells Fargo and Bank Of America. Wells Fargo is estimating on the high end that their costs could be upwards of $1.2 billion and that figure is above and beyond the amount that they already have set aside in reserves. Banks of America estimates that their losses could be even higher and expects that they will come in right around $1.5 billion.

Resource:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-26/bank-of-america-wells-fargo-see-fines-actions-on-foreclosures.html

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Getting Information

One of the best ways to learn about the mortgage loan market and determine if the time is right to get a mortgage loan is to talk with a mortgage loan consultant from a mortgage loan office or banking institution that you have done business with in the past. A mortgage loan broker can accomplish the same thing and give you the information that you need to make an informed decision about whether it is right time for you to obtain a mortgage loan, whether you’re looking for a conventional mortgage or a bad credit mortgage.

The mortgage loan market fluctuates up and down regularly and different times of the year will have different numbers set as the prime interest rate. Changes in the interest rates will change the amount of money paid on top of the principal of the mortgage loan.  It is important to look at the mortgage loan market with your mortgage loan consultant to find out what is the best option for your needs.

If the mortgage loan market is doing well, interest rates will be higher because there are more people borrowing. Therefore, the mortgage loan companies can to make more money because they are in a better position with so many people borrowing. However, if there are less people borrowing, then there will be lower interest rates because the mortgage loan lenders want to entice people to borrow. Look at the mortgage loan market and time your loan request to ensure it is made at the right time.

You should also look around for mortgage companies, whether you’re looking for a traditional loan broker or a bad credit mortgage company, make sure that you get quite a few quotes before locking in,

How to Learn About Mortgages in 2011 was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The program, as described, will be set up to allow the bank to reduce the principal of mortgage holders if they face trouble. Payments may also be able to be extended and rates can be increased. The goal is to allow military members serving in active duty less worries about their homes when they are away from home. Military members will be encouraged to contact the bank as soon as concerns come about.

There have been several reported incidents where soldiers serving overseas had been working with Bank of America to meet mortgage payments but later on the bank ended up seeking back payments on amounts due or homeowners would have to face foreclosure. Time and again soldiers faced the task of calling and re-calling the bank but only wound up getting transferred from one unhelpful representative to the next. One soldier in such a quandary reached out to ABC network show Good Morning America for help when he couldn’t get the bank to assist him. GMA and ABC News contacted Bank of America who eventually fixed the error with the soldier’s mortgage arrangement.

The soldier stories struck a cord with the bank who then decided to launch the program to help other soldiers facing the same problems meeting their mortgage payments. The bank feels it is their obligation to defend the homes of those defending the homeland.

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Homeowner Difficulty

The recent recession has caused many homeowners across the nation to seek out assistance from financial lenders to help with homeownership costs.  Buying, selling and keeping a home have become more difficult than it has been in past years.  Between the declining prices for selling a home and the increasing prices to buy and maintain an existing home, Americans look to programs that can assist them in managing costs and avoiding foreclosure.  HAMP is one alternative but not the only one. 

While HAMP is one option, it is not the only program in existence that provides financial assistance to existing homeowners. Given the recent reports on the limited success of HAMP many are looking to other modification programs that offer more attainable and successful outcomes.  The Bank of America is one of many financial services that offer alternative modification programs for homeowners. 

Reports show that the discounts that the HAMP program attempts to provide is not enough for many homeowners, or they do not initially qualify for this particular program.  Statistics and data collected from November 2010 Making Home Affordable Program reports indicate that an alarming number of homeowners involved with HAMP were held in trial modification for an extended period of time. Typically the time frame in trial modification is double the amount that it takes a homeowner to negotiate a permanent foreclosure prevention arrangement.  These facts alone indicate that in many cases other program options would be a better choice than HAMP. While the program may work for some, others need more immediate assistance.

Alternatives

Homeowners needing assistance with affording their home should be looking beyond the HAMP program at the other modification programs available. According to the data, even homeowners who were denied HAMP services or had their case held in trial modification were able to secure an alternative program that would work towards preventing home foreclosure, either through a financial lender, HUD or the Making Home Affordable Program. 

It is fact that there are still homeowners who cannot meet the payments despite the aid provided by any assistance program, however the sooner the program starts providing assistance the higher the success rate for the homeowner to avoid foreclosure.

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The state Supreme Judicial Court has upheld a judge’s decision that two foreclosures were not valid since the banks could not reasonable proved they owned the mortgages. The reason was due to the inappropriate transferring of mortgages into mortgage-backed trusts.

Wells Fargo, the fourth largest bank in the US according to assets saw stocks drop as a result of the ruling. Such cases of bank and loan issues led to a nationwide investigation of foreclosures during the collapse of the housing market. The investigation was started after JPMorgan Chase & Co and Ally Financial Inc stated they would cease foreclosure repossessions in 23 states that have court supervision of home seizures. Bank of America also began freezing foreclosures in the US.

The updated decision follows one made by Judge Keith C Long, Massachusetts Land Court Judgge, who voided the foreclosures in March 2009. Judge Long found that the transfers of mortgages were done months after the house sales. Long refused to bank’s request to reverse his initial ruling in October 2009 after the banks fought back with documents showed the mortgages hand transferred back to them.

In light of the decision, it is expected that securitization documents be required to show the proper transferring of mortgages. There will need to be a process and documentation offering proof that assignments were made by a party that held the mortgage.

Neither US Bancorp or Wells Fargo representatives have commented on the judge’s decision in the Massachusetts case.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) Loses Big-Time Foreclosure Case in Massachusetts was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

In the biggest year-over-year decline since December 2009, the S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values fell 0.8 percent, exceeding the 0.2 percent drop predicted in a survey by a median forecast of economists.

With large numbers of foreclosures still waiting to hit the market, the pressure on home prices will remain throughout 2011. Federal Reserve policy makers pointed to “depressed” housing and high unemployment as putting the brakes on consumer spending.

This has prompted a plan to extend further the record monetary stimulus experienced over the past twelve months or so, as Federal officials believe that economic growth is “insufficient to bring down unemployment.”

Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York expects the market to stay in negative territory for several more months, forecasting a year-on-year drop of 1.3 percent. There is no indication in any of the data that there will be a substantial pick-up to buoy the housing market.

This is a setback for house values which had recovered earlier in the year after an $8,000 homebuyers tax credit was offered to purchasers, getting them back into the market.

Taking seasonal variations into account, there was a 1 percent fall in October which matched the larger than estimated September drop.

Of twenty cities in the index, only Denver and Washington gained in prices. The other eighteen cities showed price decreases in October, with the highest a 2.1 percent drop in Atlanta, and 1.8 percent decreases in Chicago and Minneapolis. At its peak in July 2006, the 20-city index was 30 percent higher than it is now.

The October data is influenced by August and September transactions as the Case-Shiller gauge is worked out on a three-month average.

Even though there are solid signs of recovery in the broader economy, the housing market is still bogged near recession levels. November housing permits fell to the third-lowest level on record, while the Commerce Department reported on December 16 that starts rose for the first time in three months.

After the release of the report, stock-index futures staged a brief retreat, then went on to rally on an increase in holiday sales which raised hopes of a rise in consumer spending.

Reference:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-28/u-s-property-values-decline-more-than-forecast-in-s-p-case-shiller-index.html

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As told about in USA Today, Anthony and April Soper applied for this mortgage adjustment with Bank of America, their mortgage servicer. Bank of America put them on a trial payment plan and cut their monthly payments from around $4,000 per month to around $3,130 per month. They state that they made all of their payments early, and did everything asked of them. Yet, they did not get the permanent modification, and still don’t know why.

The Sopers are now suing Bank of America because they are currently $8,000 behind on a mortgage that was current 12 months ago, and their credit scores have each dropped by about 100 points. Bank of America has also allegedly threatened them with foreclosure. As April told USA Today, “We jumped through all their hoops, and they did nothing but cause us heartache.”

The couple’s home may be saved based on the outcome of a legal strategy that is aiming to join struggling homeowners together that have had similar experiences in the HAMP program, in a class-action lawsuit against Bank of America.

This class-action lawsuit is similar to ones against other major mortgage services such as JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. These cases show the high frustrations with mortgage servicers’ treatment of the HAMP borrowers and with the modest results they are getting when “helped” as well. As stated in USA Today, “Permanent modifications, which lower mortgage payments to 31% of a borrower’s pretax monthly income for five years, have been given to only about a third of the 1.3 million borrowers in trial plans since the program’s launch in April 2009.”

The majority of the lawsuits allege that the three to four month trial payment plans are contracts, and their servicer broke them by not giving them permanent modifications who made their trial payments on time and also provided all of the necessary documentation. However, the servicers say the trial plans are not contracts, and that because courts have dismissed earlier HAMP related lawsuits against mortgage services, that they are doing what they should be doing.

Now, lawyers are taking a different strategy and going with the argument that the servicer directly broke the contract made with homeowners. The court ruling on this lawsuit might decide how these cases end up for all of those affected by this in the future.

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Citibank has been working very hard to find the formula that will reel in mortgage customers and it seems that their hard work just might be paying off. Citibank has started advertising heavily in metropolitan markets like New York, Chicago, Los Angelas and San Francisco. They are hitting potential affluent customers and relying heavily on jumbo mortgages, which account for 30% of their current applications.

Jumbo mortgages are large sum mortgages, and Citibank has been reeling in the applications in this department through heavy advertising and very competitive rates. While their competitors are offering rates about 5.5%, Citibank’s current jumbo rate is 5%.

Even though Citibank is offering these great rates, they are still being careful not to steer away from new high standards for loan approvals. They are keeping stringent criteria in their loan underwriting, but still believe that most of the new mortgage applications will be approved. According to Brad Dinsmors, the head of Citi’s North American retail banking business the real estate crisis is not over yet, but at the same time banks in order to remain competitive must cautiously stay in the business.

“If you are a full-service retail bank, you have to be a player in the mortgage market. It allows us to build a much deeper relationship” with retail banking customers, Mr. Dinsmore said.

Citibank’s current rise in applications is mainly from large markets and about 30% of the applications are actually for new homes not refinances. They realize other areas are going to be a challenge to break into.

Citibanks largest competitor is JP Morgan in the New York City Metropolitan market. They still have the edge on Citibank when it comes to the jumbo mortgage market. It appears though that they may be able to overtake them in the future, as JP Morgan is still struggling to come back from economic meltdown troubles. Citibank has turned around quicker and during the last several quarters has seen declines in troubled mortgages.

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The amendment was presented by Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and accepted in a 60-37 vote that will extend the closing deadline to September 30. This extension is only good for first-time homebuyers who had a contract signed and in place before the original April 30 deadline. The deadline before the extension was June 30 in order to qualify for the $8000 tax credit. Existing homeowners who are purchasing a new residence are eligible for a tax credit of $6500. It is estimated that more than 180,000 homebuyers had contracts signed in time but would have missed out on the credit because they did not close by the June deadline.

Because there was not an extension granted for the original contract period past April 30th, there is not impact on new home sales expected. Homebuyers need to already have their contract completed. When the initial tax credit was issued, settlement offices where flooded with closing appointments by buyers who were anxious to beat the deadline in order to qualify for the tax break. There are no current plans for the government to restart the Homebuyer Tax Credit. The initial credit allowed the market to rebound and the government now has other issues that have become the focal point.

The tax extension was part of an amendment to a bill that also extended unemployment insurance benefits for individuals without jobs through the end of November.  Additionally, the bill extended some of the popular business tax breaks being offered. Reid is about to face a difficult re-election campaign and Nevada is currently holds the record in the nation for the highest foreclosure rates.

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On Wednesday, June 2^nd, Bank of America Corporation announced it contacted 10,000 borrowers about the new loan forgiveness program which will reduce mortgage principle up to 30%. Eligibility requirements for the program require that the homeowners have missed at least two monthly payments and owe a minimum of 20% more than their home is actually worth. In addition, only certain types of mortgage loans originally issued by Countrywide Financial Corp (and later purchased by Bank of America) qualify for the program.

According to a statement issued by Bank of America, eligible loans for principal forgiveness programs include subprime, Pay-Option ARM and prime-quality two-year hybrid ARM loans originated by Countrywide on or prior to January 1, 2009.

The borrowers receiving mortgage principal reductions must make all future monthly payments on time under the plan in order to maintain eligibility for the loan forgiveness. The total portion of the principal to be forgiven will be deducted over a period of three to five years depending on each borrowers unique situation.

According to American Banking News:

“Our tests have shown that many homeowners who are severely underwater on their mortgages will respond positively to a modification offer that includes reduction of their principal balance, increasing the rates of acceptance of HAMP trial modification offers, conversion to permanent modifications and long-term success of the homeowner,” said Jack Schakett, credit loss mitigation executive for Bank of America Home Loans.

Forgiving mortgage principal will surely cost Bank of America money, but it’s predicted that the loss through the forgiveness program will be less than what would have been lost if all of the troubled homeowners eligible for the program were to foreclose on their homes. The federal government will pay 18% of total forgiven principal by Bank of America.

Bank of America expects to contact 45,000 customers over several years to participate in the program. Bank of America was first to join HAMP and to consider a principal reduction program as a viable option to help underwater and struggling borrowers remain in their homes instead of foreclosing.

After the announcement, Bank of America shares increased 18 cents to $15.61 in midday trading.

10,000 Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Borrowers Contacted About Mortgage Forgiveness Program was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The Making Home Affordable program was developed to help the large amount of homeowners who were suddenly unable to meet the demands of their monthly mortgage due to the flailing economy, the high rates of unemployments, or the downfall of the mortgage industry. While Citigroup may be finding success, overall there are still many issues causing homeowners to still worry about their mortgage loan. With the rates of unemployment and the amount of people who are upside down on their home loans due to the real estate market, the Obama administration is looking to expand their mortgage assistance options.

New programs are set to be used over the next few months by a collection of lenders. Two such programs include assistance for principal reductions of mortgages and an underwater forbearance program. As homeowners are still struggling to make their monthly mortgage payments, there are some lenders who are not very keen on the new plans. Specifically many take issue with principal reductions. These lenders however are likely to offer programs in-house to help customers who can’t pay their mortgage bill each month.

One group that has used a principle reduction program is Citigroup. The company plans to continue with the program and providing their customers with solutions for assistance when they do not qualify for the Making Home Affordable program. Customers are continually seeking solutions that are quick and effective at solving their mortgage payment problems.

For homeowners who are looking for help, experts advise that consumers speak directly with their lender and inquire about the available programs. Many lenders are using a variation of different programs to help customers but not all homeowners will be eligible for each program. Homeowners are also advised to act quickly before falling behind on their debt, otherwise assistance may not be available down the road or the homeowner may not be eligible to receive help if too much time has passed.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) Successful in Modification Program was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The proposal for this program will need regulatory approval and as of now the bank is not sure if or when the approval will come. If approved, this move will allow those collecting unemployment to have zero mortgage payments for a period of nine months until they have the ability to pay or the nine month allowance period ends. In the event a homeowner can not make payments after time runs out, Bank of America would provide additional assistance in the form of $2,000 to help pay moving expenses when leaving the home.

Critics are already wondering if Bank of America is just running a show because the homes they foreclose on would probably have been foreclosed on anyway. However, others think the bank is making a credible effort to help borrowers who are in serious financial straits. Industry experts believe the plan could potentially stand to serve as a model for the industry and have said Bank of America’s program may be the most creative method yet established to repair the damage of high unemployment which is the driving force behind the foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies.

For families who need fast relief from money problem, the 9 month period could make a real difference. For the bank, the move can save millions of dollars in collection costs and expenses pertaining to foreclosures. To date, the $75 billion dollar federal mortgage aid program announced by President Obama in February 2009 has not exactly met the President’s idea of helping million of homeowners. So far, only around 230,000 families were receiving final mortgage modification under the HAMP program.

Bank of America’s plan would be the first large-scale zero payment plan that will last for some time. Most lenders are only offering payment reduction plans known as a forbearance that last for three months. The bank’s plan could catch on, allowing more families to come out on the other side once the economy has had more time to recover. Currently the stock market is doing well but the market of housing and jobs are still running weak.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) To Propose Mortgage Help? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

“It was a Wild West little mining town about 100 years ago. At one time there were about 1,000 people and several hotels,” said Daphne Fletcher, who owns the town of Wauconda.

According to the eBay auction description, the auction winner would become the owner of:

Restaurant/Bar – a turn-key operation with 60 seats includes all equipment and fixtures in a newly remodeled commercial kitchen. Pizza oven, gas, grill, range. The bar serves beer, wine and liquor. There are three dining areas within the restaurant, a pool table, a piano, and room for live bands. The building has a new floor and roof.

Convenience Store and Gas Station – established in 1898, the gas station received a new underground storage tank and new gas pumps in 2006. It cost $160,000 to install the new tank and pumps. The store purchase includes inventory, cash register, equipment and coolers.

Post Office – established in 1902, the government leases this post office with zip code 98859 and has recently renewed a 20 year lease.

Owners Home/ Ranch– behind the businesses is 4 acres of fully fenced in property – perfect for horses. The home is 4 bedrooms with a large master bedroom. The house has recently been remodeled. The property consists of a 3-stall barn with hay storage, a creek, thousands of acres of riding trails. There is room on the property to build a motel or you could turn the home into a bed and breakfast (thanks to it’s proximity to the towns restaurant right around front of the home). There is also a converted log cabin which is now a garage or workshop.

Other than the post office, all other businesses have been taken over by the owner. They can be leased again or owner-run, depending on what the new owner decides. All businesses were successful with good earnings. The property is not in foreclosure. Businesses were recently leased for about $3,000 per month. Property is located on busy State highway 20 with 10,000 cars per day traveling in the summer. The area is located in a recreation area near lakes, fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, hiking, gold mining, hunting. Gold has been found in the creek on the property. Omak, Washington is located 40 minutes away and has a movie theater, Home Depot and walmart. Find out more: www.waucondastore.com

Washington Town of Wauconda For Sale on eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

According to the February numbers reported by the Make Home Affordable Program, Wells Fargo has seen an increase in the number of homeowners who are delinquent, with close to 22,000 more homeowners falling behind in the month of February. A total of 379,357 Wells Fargo mortgage holders are now delinquent, even though the number of permanent loan modifications that have been approved are increasing. These numbers move Wells Fargo from 38% to 37% in standing for the number of loan modifications made in comparison to the number of homeowners who may qualify for loan modifications.

As more borrowers fall behind in mortgage payments, it increases the difficulty for lenders to modify existing home loans. Since the inception of the program, many lenders have improved their participation in the program, but not without complaints from homeowners who claim lenders are not doing as much as possible to help them remain in their homes. There have been complaints in the past about some lenders who do not provide written contracts or regarding paperwork that has been mishandled resulting in homes that go into foreclosure despite homeowners belief that they are enrolled in a program that will halt foreclosure.

If you are having trouble keeping up with your mortgage payments but feel a loan modification could make your mortgage more affordable, it is important to discuss your options with your lender. Homeowners cannot simply ignore the problem and hope it will go away, instead you are encouraged to contact your lender as soon as you realize you cannot make timely payments. Wells Fargo may have slipped slightly in standing within the program, however all hope is not lost. Wells Fargo has increased the number of loan modifications that are approved and hopefully will continue to do so for the thousands of consumers worried about losing their homes. If you are considered for a loan modification, understand that you must meet all requirements outlined by your lender as well as pay all payments on time during the trial period. Contact your lender for more information.

Wells Fargo Falling Behind In Make Home Affordable Program (NYSE: WFC) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

According to Marc Jahr, the current president of the NYC Housing Authority, Citigroup has partnered with an affiliate to purchase 13 of the 21 projects. The projects in question are considered some of the worst, run-down apartments out of the group. Citi is taking on $360 million of the debt and has plans to re-market the rest. In addition, Citi will invest over 200 million dollars of equity into the 13 projects which should result in tax credits of $255 million off their federal tax bills.

All 21 projects were build with city and state funds after the second World War. As time has passed, the city and state stopped subsidizing the projects requiring the housing authority to use federal dollars set aside for other projects to pay for the upkeep. Over the years, the projects have fallen into disrepair making modernization necessary to bring the projects current with the times.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has stated, “Nothing is going to change except for the better” and reminding people that “No one will be displaced. The land these developments occupy will always be used for public housing and nothing else.”

The renovation of these projects comes at a perfect time when the city’s unemployment rate is exceeds ten percent. With hundreds of renovations needed, this will provide jobs for countless workers. In addition to the repairs needed for the 13 projects that Citigroup is involved with, there are also 8 other projects which will be renovated through the New York City Housing Authority and the New York City Housing Partnership. It is expected that just under 500 million dollars will be issued to the New York City Housing Development in a period of three years in the form of tax-exempt bonds.

Citi To Help Rebuild New York City Public Housing (NYSE: C) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Bank of America had ordered Snyder Property Services to ‘enter, seize, padlock’, ‘winterize’, and ‘take possession’ of the woman’s home because they believed it to be in default. The property service followed instructions and turned off the water, cut the power, and filled the drains with antifreeze. After the home was taken care of, the woman’s parrot was then taken from the home.

The woman, Angela Iannelli of Pittsburgh, arrived back at her home and found new locks on the doors, furniture and carpets that had been damaged, and her belongings strewn about. Most devastating, the parrot was gone. The plaintiff had been making her mortgage payments on time but contacted Bank of American, who did confirm the seizure of the home. They also admitted to knowing where the bird was located. The plaintiff states in her lawsuit that she continued to call to claim her bird but Bank of American told her to stop calling and hung up on her because they were ‘tired of hearing from her’.

It took a week before Bank of American would confess to making a mistake about seizing the wrong house. They also admitted the location of the bird, a three hour drive away which the plaintiff made to get the bird back.

In the lawsuit, the woman alleges that Bank of America was knowingly deceptive and does not have policies to prove foreclosure validity or to stop a wrong seizure from occurring. The plaintiff said that Bank of America did try to make offers to repair her damaged belongings once she obtained the services of a lawyer. Spokespeople for Bank of America declined to comment on the Allegheny County lawsuit.

This isn’t the first time Bank of America has foreclosed on the wrong house. There are several other lawsuits in other cities that allege improper foreclosures. In one such case, the contractor hired by Bank of America had the wrong address. In most other cases, the foreclosure mistakes were seemingly avoidable.

Bank of America Hijacks Parrot, Forecloses Wrong House was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Bank of American has been pressured by the Obama Administration to increase efforts to help homeowners through the Home Affordable Modification Program. In the past month the number of mortgage holders who have a permanent Home Affordable modification has increased from 3,200 to 12,700 according to Bank of America. In addition, close to 14,000 loan modifications are pending which means the final terms have been approved and Bank of American is waiting for customer signatures to finalize the loan modification.

While this is good news for many trying to get a handle on their own personal finance situation, there are many more homeowners who have expressed frustration in their dealings with Bank of America in the past. ConsumerAffairs.com has reported that homeowners have complained about customer service issues as well as having to repeatedly provide documents necessary to move forward with a loan modification. After jumping through proverbial hoops, they discovered their modification loan was denied or worse the property had already gone into foreclosure.

Another complaint reported by a April of Albuquerque, N.M. included being offered new mortgage terms on a trial basis where the homeowner made three consecutive payments while under the impression that the loan would be modified if payments were made as directed. At the end of the trial period the homeowner discovered there was no record of a loan modification offer and nothing else could be done to help them with more affordable payments.

This information is disturbing for many homeowners who are struggling to keep up with mortgage payments. Many Americans are dealing with severe financial hardships from loss of income or other factors making it almost impossible to keep up with all financial responsibilities. Hopefully the Obama administration will continue to put pressure on big banks that literally hold the future of many families in their hands.

Bank of America has said they will continue to take “extraordinary measures” to help homeowners provide the necessary documentation required by the deadline to avoid foreclosure. If you are facing a financial hardship and have fallen behind on your mortgage payments it is imperative you speak to your lender immediately to see what options are available to you. Delaying the inevitable conversation will only waste valuable time that could be used to work with you lender to reach a solution that will keep you in your home.

Homeowners Frustrated With Bank Of American Loan Modifications was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Falling home prices have lead to homes being sold for less than what is still owned. Homeowners who have lost their jobs or their ability to pay back mortgage loans often sell quickly through a short sale for less than what is owed out of desperation. Those who find themselves in foreclosure may think they are better off than sellers because the debt has been relieved only to find out later there is a delinquency judgment against them for a remaining balance after the home has been resold for less. Oftentimes, the thousands of dollars in delinquencies are more than an individual can financially bear, forcing them to file for bankruptcy.

Will It Happen to You?
You may still be responsible for the costs of your foreclosed home but it will depend on a number of factors. First, it matters what state you live in. To date, 30 states can pursue deficiency judgments including in Florida, Texas, and New York. California is one of the state that do not allow such judgments. It will also be influenced by your other mortgages or property liens. However, once a judgment is rendered, your financial life can be heavily investigated. You may be required to turn over all of your financial records, have money garnished from your pay, and you can even wind up in jail per a judge’s orders. If you are looking to do a short sale on your home before it goes into foreclosure, seek the assistance of a real estate attorney to ensure you are protected from future financial obligation.

What Happens If You Are Delinquent?
Some lenders will not pursue you immediately. They may monitor your financial situation until they know you are again stable before pursuing the debt with interest. Depending on your state, a lender may have between 5-20 years to collect on a debt. In other cases, many banks and lenders quickly turn over the account to a third party, who may be an aggressive debt collector ready to pursue the debt at all costs. Experts caution sellers to pay close attention to what documents they are signing for the sale and be sure there are no agreements included that state the seller is still liable for remaining debts. Since many people follow the orders of a realtor without asking questions, they have ended up implicating themselves with a single signature.

With foreclosures and judgments coming fast and furious, it is advisable that consumers seek legal assistance before making a move to sell or when dealing with a foreclosure. By checking the laws in your own state, you may be able to prevent a delinquency judgment on your home now and in the future.

Lose Your Home To Foreclosure? You Might Still Get A Bill was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Obama’s Relief Program

While President Obama has attempted to offer some relief to homeowners facing foreclosure, the program is not without its downsides. Obama’s program called Making Home Affordable can be found at www.MakingHomeAffordable.gov. This program was created to help homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments or are struggling to make their mortgage payments. They offer loan refinancing or loan modification. The program aims to lower mortgage payments to 31% of the borrowers income.

The program suggests that the delinquent borrower first talk to the lender. If they feel that they are unable to do that, they may ask for a HUD or U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development certified housing counselor. These counselors are free of charge. Making Home Affordable warns homeowners that if a counselor asks for money up front, they may be a scam.

The mortgage modification program gives delinquent homeowners a trial loan modification for 3 months. Once the homeowner has paid the reduced mortgage amount in full for three months, they should qualify for the permanent loan modification program. The delinquent borrower cannot be evicted from his home during the trial period.

The program has received a great deal of criticism. For starters, it does require a great deal of documentation for the trial loan modification with additional documentation required when applying for the permanent loan reduction program. Many potential borrowers have lost their chances for the loan reduction by not properly filling out the multitude of documents required or failing to return the documents requested in a timely manner. In addition, many lenders are not properly following the rules for loan modifications or properly aiding borrowers in trouble in reducing their mortgage loan rate. Finally, the Making Home Affordable programs, as well as most lenders face a backlog because so many mortgages are facing imminent foreclosure.

Hopefully the crisis will eventually slow down, but for now it looks as though this crisis has a long way to go before it is over.

Is The Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis Over? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

In November of 2009 the program was extended because so many Americans did not take advantage of the credit.  Despite the economy looking better, there is still a national decline in the housing market. The first time homebuyer’s credit is an incentive to encourage potential homeowners to take advantage of the credits that are available.  The deadline for the credit has been extended but the clock is ticking quickly. 

Criteria to qualify for the first time homebuyer’s credit:

• You have to be a first time homebuyer of a principal residence. Your principal residence is considered the home where you live for the majority of the year. 

• You cannot qualify if you are listed as a depended or claimed by anyone else during the year of your home purchase. 

• You must be 18 or older to claim the credit. 

• The contract to purchase must be signed on or before April 30th of 2010.

• The home must be closed on or before June 30th 2010.

• The credit does not apply for any home that exceeds $800,000.

• The home has to be your principal residence meaning a house, condo, trailer or houseboat.  Vacation and rental properties do not qualify.

• The credit does not apply if you purchase your home from a close relative or a close relative of your spouse.

• The credit is given up to 10% of the purchase price of the home not to exceed $8,000. 

How to claim your credit:

• You cannot claim the credit until you have formally closed on the home.

• Once you’ve closed on your home you are eligible to claim your credit on your income taxes. You must ensure that you have met the criteria for the program and done so within the timeframes outlined. 

 • You can claim your credit the year following your purchase. For example; if you close in February 2010 you can claim your credit when you file your 2010 taxes in 2011. 

• You can claim the credit when you file your taxes for the following year. For example; if you purchased a home in November of 2009 and closed in December of 2009 you can claim it on your 2009 taxes. 

• If you file your taxes early and then close in 2010 on a home you purchased in 2009 you can amend your taxes to show the credit on your 2009 tax returns.

 The criteria for qualifying and the steps to claiming your first time homebuyer credit are simple and straightforward. As with any tax related information if you have questions you should consult the IRS website or your tax advisor.

The First-Time Homebuyer Credit: The Clock is Ticking was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

This upward swing in new home sales could be a sign that consumers are feeling more confident in the economy as we move forward post recession. Another reason more people may be buying both new and existing homes is the extension of the first time home buyers credit. First-time home buyers are eligible for a maximum tax credit of $8,000 that does not have to repaid for the calendar years 2009-2010. For those who qualify, this tax credit is a good reason to buy a home now versus later.

Another incentive for people to get out there and purchase a new or existing home would be the low mortgage rates that are currently available. Back in 1991 Freddie Mac began keeping track of weekly interest rates and how they fluctuated. Fifteen-year mortgage rates have hit 4.29 percent in November, the lowest in 18 years. The same is true for 30 year mortgage rates, which came in at 4.78 percent which equals the lowest rate since 1971. What this means for potential home owners is lower mortgage payments which in turn increases the number of people who will qualify for a mortgage.

If you are thinking about purchasing a home, now might be a good time to make your move. It is important the everyone, especially first time home buyers goes into the experience knowing what to expect. Financial lingo and mortgage terms can quickly become confusing or overwhelming to a person unfamiliar with the process. Before signing on the bottom line consider the following tips:

• Become familiar with loan types and basic language used in the mortgage process- You can’t make a smart decision without all the facts. If you don’t know what your lender is talking about, you are at a distinct disadvantage going into this arrangement.

• Understand the process- Buying a home can be a complicated and drawn out procedure fraught with obstacles many home buyers never anticipate. Similar to understanding loan types, it is equally important to educate yourself on the entire home buying process. Know the roles of your real estate agent, loan officer, loan processor and anyone else involved in the purchase. You should also have a solid understanding of your own role and responsibilities as a borrower and home buyer.

• Buy what you can afford- There is a difference between what you are qualified to borrow and what you can afford to spend. Consider the impact on your budget carefully before buying a home that will limit your ability to live comfortably and reach other financial goals.

If buying a home wasn’t on your to-do list before you might want to wait until the time is right for you and your family. Conversely, anyone who was previously contemplating becoming a home owner might just find enough incentives in the current market to take the next big step. Whatever your position, buying a home is a serious investment and one that should be not be taken lightly regardless of what everyone else is doing.

Home Sales Are On The Rise was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

During an open house, criminals may work in tandem with one of the criminals distracting the realtor while the other rifles around the house looking for jewelry and other valuable items. Often, the criminals may arrive separately within minutes of one another and sometimes they may come pretending to be a couple.

The Washington Post recently reported on an instance where over $43,000 in jewelry was stolen during five open houses in Fairfax County, VA. A group of two men from Maryland traveled down to Virginia and worked in tandem pretending to be a father and son duo looking to buy a home. Police think that the two criminals involved had stolen from more than 20 different open houses.

When selling your home, the best bet is to avoid the possibility of theft in the first place. When selling your home, rent a safety deposit box off the home where you can stash away jewelry and other important valuables. Any important financial papers should also be locked up to prevent identity theft.

Most people that come to an open house at your home will be honest, hard-working potential buyers, but you do have to protect yourself from the few and far between criminals who aren’t. Fortunately, it’s easy to avoid this scam by securing easy-to-steal valuables, such as jewelry, cash, financial documents, small electronics and family heirlooms.

Thefts at Open Houses Return to Real Estate Market was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

These containers are not only accessible but they are also convenient. These containers are especially recommended for people who want to move at their own pace. This means that you would be able to load your container with ease by taking as much days as you like to do so without having to feel overwhelmed by trying to meet the moving company’s deadline.

Moving containers are excellent for relocating locally or abroad and the great part about it is that after you have loaded the container you can then call the moving company to take it to your new location. Similarly there are some container moving companies that would store your container at their establishment should you not be in much of a hurry to move.

Usually with a moving truck you have to be packed and ready to go in a mere two days time. But with a container a mover is allowed up to one month to store and pack before calling the movers to take the container away. Of course for anyone who has chosen to use a container to move they are obviously trying to save the money that it would cost to have movers load and unload a vehicle.

Other ways in which you can save money while moving is to choose the time of the year that you move should you be using a moving truck and company. So if you are not required to move out at any specific time the best time to move is undeniably around the fall and winter seasons. The rates are always cheaper then especially when compared to that of spring and summer time.

Even before making a decision, it would be best if you were to shop around and compare moving services. Moving experts would tell you to get moving quotes in writing from at least five companies. And when it comes to renting your moving containers, it would be best to guesstimate the amount of furniture that you have which would determine the size of container you should get. In some cases especially if you are moving out of state, the best method of moving would be through a moving company simply because the rates are cheaper because of shared labor between state moving companies.

How Portable Storage Containers Make Moving Easier was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Although there are some signs of recovery, the market will likely hover near the bottom for some time to come. The reason for this is that during the real estate boom, many more homes were built in the United States than were actually needed to meet the natural demand of population growth. Some estimates state that anywhere from 2 million to 10 million extra homes extra housing units were built that were not needed in the United States.

Most economists are predicting that the recession will end sometime during the second half of 2009, but the housing numbers will likely take longer to recover because of the relatively high unemployment rates. People that might otherwise be purchasing homes are either unemployed or underemployed. Other people who are gainfully employed fear the possibility of unemployment, so they save as much cash as possible and avoid major purchases such as buying a home.

Although it may take a few years for a full national housing recovery, there is significant opportunity for investors. Individuals looking for a rental property, a second home or a retirement home have a chance at purchasing a home at a steal. Currently 13% of mortgages are in default and there will continue to be a large number of foreclosures. These distressed properties will be able to be acquired by investors at a significant discount and sold for a profit, if managed properly, when the housing market recovers.

Signs of Housing Recovery May Be Premature was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

When someone signs up for Netflix, they can choose to receive one DVD at a time, or up to four. They pay monthly for an account, and then sign on and look through the list of thousands of DVDs that they have available. You choose 1-4, and then they are shipped straight to your door. Is this worth it? Well, it depends on your lifestyle. If you only occasionally watch movies at home, the monthly cost may be more than you need to be paying. But if you watch at least 3 movies a week, chances are you’ll be saving a lot of money in a very short period of time.

Blockbuster continues to raise the prices of renting their DVDs in store, but they have also developed a system similar to Netflix. The only difference is that when you finish the DVDs that were shipped to you, you can bring them to blockbuster and trade them in. This makes the price of Blockbuster’s program more expensive than Netflix, but if you want the convenience of in-store trade in, Blockbuster may be the best bet for you.

Another company that has become popular lately is Gamefly. Gamefly works the same way that Netflix does, except they send video games instead of DVDs. Video games can run upwards of $60, depending on the game system. Instead of buying all of your games, it may be more cost effective to rent them, especially if you have the tendency to beat games in a short period of time.  If you have children that play video games on a regular basis, you should look into Gamefly. It may save you a lot of money on games… especially since kids tend to have a short attention span. Instead of wasting your money on a game they’ll get bored of, you can send it back when they’re done and just get a new one!

If you rent a lot of movies or games, look into these companies. Having your entertainment delivered directly to your door is convenient, and can save you a lot of money.

Renting Fun – The Best Way to Go? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

During the housing bubble, many people bought up houses at ridiculously low prices. They would then turn around and sell these homes for much more than they originally paid. Once the bubble burst, people that had bought up these homes were stuck with them. No one wanted to buy a home in a time where their prices were steadily declining. On top of all of this, many banks had loaned to these “bubble-buyers”, and once the bubble was gone, the buyers were unable to pay back their loans. Because of this, many banks are hesitant to loan to prospective home buyers in these tough times.

For those of you that are still in the market to buy a home, it is possible to get amazing deals as long as you look hard enough and do the right research. Most people think the best type of home to buy is a foreclosure property, but this is a common misconception. Many buyers came in to new developments and bought up the new homes, and then could not find a tenant. Because of this, there are many brand new homes sitting empty, ready to be moved in to for low prices.

Research New Homes First
Because many of these homes have been sitting for a long period of time, their owners are desperate to unload them quickly. This means that their price could be the same or less than many of the foreclosed houses on the market.

Find Long-Time Listed Homes
If a home has been on the market for a long period of time, usually more than 90 days, their owner will probably be more likely to make a deal on the property. If this is the case, bid lower than is originally listed.

Look Into New Developments
Certain places have new developments sprouting up everywhere. Many of these developments had been in the works for a long time, way before the bubble burst. Now that the homes are built, they need people to move in. Some of these places may still be unreasonable, but if you look hard enough you may find a great deal.

While these economic times can be scary, if you use them to your advantage, you could find a great deal on a new place to live. Be careful, do research, and be smart about anything you sign.

New Homes: A Better Deal than Foreclosures? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Cars and trucks. Could this be the best time to buy a new or used car or truck in the last decade or longer?  Probably, because sales are so slow and dealers are almost starving.  Some dealers are combining incentives to get you into the showroom to buy.  You might be able to find low interest rates along with cash back and even special deals on leasing.  Be sure to stay within your budget and purchase a vehicle that is fuel efficient which will help if gasoline prices skyrocket again.

Vacations. Popular vacation spots are hurting because of the lack of tourists that keep their local economies running strong.  You can find great deals on lodging and even transportation to and from those locations.  Cruise lines are booking shorter trips and dropping their prices.  If you ever wanted to go to places like Las Vegas or Atlantic City, now would be the time to check out the prices.

Houses.  With the mortgage crisis has come lower prices on homes across the board, but some locations are worse than others.  On top of that, interest rates are still very low and there is the stimulus incentive provided by the federal government that allows for $3,000 for first time home buyers.

Large appliances. With sales off up to 30% from last year, retailers are feeling the pinch to move inventory.  Some manufacturers are offering rebates.  Make sure that these are the instant variety which comes off at the time of purchase.  Haggle your way to the best deal possible.  And, look for Energy Star rated appliances that are eligible for tax incentives and rebates.

Electronics. Everything from televisions to digital cameras and cell phones are good buys right now.  Make sure that you compare prices to ensure that you are getting the best prices.  Compare on the Internet for the most competitive deals.  Watch for specials on last year’s models – but make sure that they are new and not re-furbished with a lesser warranty.

Furniture. You can find some great bargains on furniture right now.  Many of these retailers have been hit hard and are looking to move practically everything they have at bargain basement prices.  Watch the quality of what you are interested in, however.
Using these tips, you can find some great buys right now and re-stock and replace items that you have been meaning to but were unable because of money.  Just be sure to pay cash in order to avoid interest and other charges.

Bad Economy Means Good Buys was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The Department of Treasury’s website also mentions that the Home Affordable Refinance program will be available to 4-5 million homeowners who have shown a solid payment history on existing Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgages. The program may make many of them eligible to refinance their loan to take advantage of today’s lower rates for mortgages or to refinance an adjustable-rate mortgage into a more stable 30-year fixed rate mortgage. The plan will also help 3-4 million homeowners who are at risk to avoid foreclosure proceedings and reduce their monthly mortgage payments.
Hardship Assistance

If you are a homeowner who is finding it hard to make your mortgage payments on time, you should check out the program. If you want to know if you qualify to participate in this program, you can check out the Department of Treasury’s website, FinancialStability.gov and find out more information about the program. The website provides a tool for self-assessment of your situation. There are also guidelines and other information to get you started and show you how the program may work for you.
Proceed Cautiously With Other Programs

Be aware that in light of the new plan for homeowners, there are also counterfeit programs that have already been established to scam you out of money. Remember that the Making Home Affordable Program is free and if you encounter a website that is advertising foreclosure relief programs, be cautious. You can easily lose big-time money by dealing with a scam group, which will cause you further financial problems. Do not send money to any person who is charging a fee for housing counseling. In addition to the Home Affordable plan, any counseling performed by HUD-approved counselors is also free. Do not make mortgage payments to anyone other than your direct lender. Never sign over the deed to your home to anyone, regardless of the situation you are in or what promises that person makes to you regarding your home. While it may seem obvious that you don’t involve yourself in such things, there are many people who are in financial dire straits who are willing to do just about anything to save their homes.

Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan and What It Could Mean for You was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Getting your first apartment is an exciting and liberating time! Chances are, your first apartment will be about the size of a closet, but that’s the least of your worries. Getting your first place is probably your biggest financial responsibility so far, so it’s worth the time and effort to try and do it right. Here are common mistakes that first-time renters usually make – avoid them and enjoy a smoother transition!

Getting More Apartment Than You Can Afford: Depending on where you live in the US, rent prices vary drastically. A typical 1 bedroom apartment in the suburbs of upstate NY is going to run you around $700 a month (and that doesn’t normally include utilities), while the same apartment in PA would run around $350 (often with utilities included). Before you can select an apartment, you need to know how much you can afford to pay for rent.

Forgetting That Apartments Cost More Than Rent: Renting costs more than your monthly rent! First of all, moving into an apartment requires more than one month’s rent in almost every situation. Most will charge an application fee (so they can run a credit check, yikes!), a security deposit which can be any amount, but is typically equivalent to one month’s rent, and your first month’s rent. Are you keeping track? A $500 per month apartment might cost you $1040 just to get in the door($40 application fee, $500 security deposit, $500 first months’ rent).

Don’t forget you’ll need some utilities. Electricity, cable, and phone usually all require a deposit to turn on service, and even if they don’t – you need to budget for them on a monthly basis. If your apartment uses gas for heat or hot water, you’ll want to figure out how much that will cost you, too.

Is parking free? Some places charge for parking.
Do you have furniture? Hopefully you can bring whatever you sleep on now, and you have friends and family to help out furnishing your home with hand-me-downs, but if you don’t – furniture is expensive! You might want to live on blow-up furniture for a few months while you get your finances in order if you don’t have a sizable savings account (this is a better option than financing furniture, by the way).

Finally, you’ll need food and some essentials (soap, cleaning supplies, garbage pails, garbage bags, dishes, etc). These things are easily forgotten when figuring out how much money you need for an apartment, but they sure do add up when you are trying to get everything you need. Don’t forget the dollar store for some of these essential items.

Not Reading the Lease Agreement: Before you sign your name on the lease and hand over the money to rent the apartment, actually read through the lease agreement. This is a legally binding document, and by signing it you agree to abide by whatever rules are in it, or risk being kicked out of the apartment. How long is the agreement in affect? What are the policies for painting or making alterations to the apartment? What do you do if something needs to be repaired? All of these questions should be covered in the lease.

Common Mistakes First Time Renters Make was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

With money being tight and budgets being strict, every decision we make concerning money can mean financial life or death and if you are facing the decision about fixing up your home or trading it in, there are many things to consider, both good and bad.

The Pros and Cons of Staying Where You Are/Cons of Buying New

• If you are leaning towards staying in the home you already own, you may end up spending less money to fix it up than to move to an entirely new place. If you need a loan and have sufficient equity in your home, you may be able to take out a small loan to cover expenses at a low interest rate.
• If you stay in your home, you do not have to deal with the frustrations and expense of moving and selling your home.
• You obviously will save money on new home costs, such as closing fees, loan charges, inspection services, and realtor fees.
• There will not be a long, drawn out process to qualify for a new mortgage. As more and more industries are making it harder to make any financial transaction, it may save you a ton of money and time by not having to qualify and secure a loan during such rocky times.
• Fixing your home generally allows you to make it a multi-step process. As funds and time become available, you can make improvements to the home while still living in it. If your money situation changes for the worse, you don’t have to worry about not being able to afford the new mortgage payment each month.

Pros of Buying New/Cons of Fixing Up the Old

• Because the housing market is so unstable, it is essentially easier to find a good deal on home prices, as there is currently an excess of homes for sale. Builders will also offer deeper discounts on new homes in order to stay in business and avoid the costs of maintaining empty homes.
• While it may take a little more than usual to qualify for a home loan, the interest rates you can receive once approved may be the lowest they have been in all-time.
• Unlike with a home improvement job, buying new may require a lot less maintenance and repair initially, allowing you time to save up money for emergencies.
• There is no inconvenience of remodeling projects in your daily life. You don’t have to worry about your family’s health or safety during construction.

Overall, your biggest decision and concern should be if you can truly afford either project. You need to understand the consequences and know you are secure with your employment and your family’s general welfare before making any financial decisions concerning your home.

Is It Worth It to Fix What You Already Got? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Home staging is not a new concept.  Popular tv shows on HGTV, including “Get it Sold” and  ”Designed to Sell” show how designers Sabrina Soto and Lisa LaPorta and team declutter and depersonalize homes so other people can imagine living in them.

If you’ve ever walked through a newly built, never been lived in home, you’d be walking into a “staged” home.  From the place settings and floral arrangement on the dining room table, to the fresh towels in the bathroom – everything you see was carefully selected to stage the home for sale.

If you are looking to sell your home, you want to stage it so it’s most visually appealing to the largest number of buyers – in a way that they can’t help but envision themselves living in your home.

Here are some tips to stage your home to encourage  a fast sale:

• Paint all rooms in neutral colors
• Remove personal photographs from walls and shelves, and keep only a few decorative items
• Rearrange furniture to make rooms look bigger and replace broken or old furniture with nicer furniture
• Declutter.  Anything that you don’t absolutely need should be packed away for your new home, leaving just the essentials of living and a few tastefully decorative items

If you can afford it, hire a professional stager to help you set up your house for an open house (and then keep it set up that way for every open house you have until it sells!)  If it’s outside of your budget; your realtor can also give you some good tips for staging your home for sale.

Stage Your Home and Sell it Fast was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

1.  Install an alarm system.  Most insurance companies will provide you with a discount if you have an alarm system installed in your home.  Discounts range between 5% and 30%.

2. Combine all of your insurance policies.  Look for an insurance company that offers multiple lines of insurance policies and then insure everything with one provider.  For example, your home owner’s insurance, automobile insurance, and life insurance can all be with the same company which will likely result in a “multiple line discount”, typically 10% off your total insurance premium. Look for a mortgage list brokers which can help you get a list of providers in your area, specifically ask for their direct mail mailing lists which will contain all of the latests ads and offers.

3. Disaster Protection and upgrades.  In areas that are prone to natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, etc) you can often install features like reinforced roofing or storm gutters and gain a discount.  Sometimes upgrading your heating and electrical systems will give you an insurance premium discount as well, so check with your company to find out if any of these home upgrades will result in a discount.

4. Stop smoking.  Not only is smoking bad for your health, but it’s one of the leading causes of home fires.  Smokers pay less for home owners insurance than non-smokers.  Quit smoking and call the insurance company to update the record for a lower insurance premium.

5. Raise the deductible.  Just like automobile insurance, homeowner’s insurance premiums have deductibles.  This is the amount of money you pay if you submit a claim; the insurance company pays for damages above and beyond the deductible amount.  If you can afford to raise your deductible from $500 to $1000, for example, you can experience savings of around 25%.

6. Raise your credit score.  It seems more companies are relying on a credit score to determine how much people should pay for certain policies- and home insurance often relies on your credit score as a determining factor in how much you’ll pay for home owner’s insurance.  Agree with it or not, the best thing you can do is raise your credit score.

7. Forget about the land.  Most disasters will cause damage to your home, and very little to the land.  Decide to cover your home only and you’ll save considerably on your home insurance premiums. Many marketers that collect new homeowner lists will specifically market home-only insurance. If your land is in a hot area, you don’t need to insure it.

7 Ways to Reduce Your Home Insurance Premium was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Many homeowners will consider selling to get out from under their mounting debt; however, with the slump in the housing market, selling may be the last thing you want to do to keep your head above water. Financially strapped families will simply not be able to afford to sell their homes. Some may consider moving out of their homes and renting their place to make some money but along with renting comes a long list of considerations as well as financial changes in insurance and local zoning laws. Renting may end up costing more money than you would be making as a landlord. Plus, the added responsibilities of keeping tenants pleased with repairs and maintenance is both draining and time consuming.

So what other options do homeowners have when it comes to keeping up with the bills and keeping their homes?

Consider a boarder. A boarder is someone who essentially rents space in your home. If you have an extra bedroom or a finished basement, you may be able to find someone to pay you rent for the living space as well as make contributions towards shared expenses, such as food and utilities.

Because there are so many people losing their own homes, finding a boarder may not be as complicated as you think. Apartments and other rentals will not be able to meet up with the demands and plenty of folks will be actively looking for a place to live. If you are considering taking on a boarder, the first rule of thumb is a concern for safety. It probably isn’t the wisest move to openly advertise a room for rent to strangers. Instead, start asking friends and family that you trust for referrals to help spread the word. It is likely there is someone in your own community that you are comfortable with to share your home.

Before agreeing to meet with any perspective boarders, sit down with your figures and see how much you need to recoup in boarder fees. Keep in mind you are not renting the entire house to a person so do not expect a boarder to pay hundreds of dollars for one room and the use of a kitchen. After a price has been established, write out a list of do’s and don’t for a new tenant. Starting out with a solid foundation and clear expectations of a new living arrangement will be beneficial to both parties. Never assume everyone else lives the way you do.

When interviewing potential boarders, do not shy away from asking for information. In this day and age, conducting criminal background or credit checks is common and can help weed out problem boarders. If you have a few people to select from, a simple questionnaire to address certain issues such as pets, overnight guests, work hours, and smoking may be helpful in the decision-making process. If the potential boarder is already a close friend, have a frank discussion about expectations because living together can damage even the best friendships.

If you have contemplated taking in a boarder but are not able to find a boarder on your own, it may be worth your while to research the Homesharing Program through St Ambrose, which is a nationwide program developed to aid people interested in taking in a boarder. The agency will conduct background checks, drug and alcohol histories and other research on potential boarders. They will also ensure that homeowners aren’t headed towards foreclosure.

Taking on a boarder means a lot of life changes and new responsibilities. If you are interested in getting the extra financial support by renting out some of your living space, make sure you have considered all of your feelings about privacy, conflicts, and space sharing before making the final decision.

Bankrupt or Boarder? Which Will You Choose? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Many people buy foreclosed homes wrong and get themselves in financial trouble because they do it without any experience or information on foreclosures. They buy homes in pre-foreclosure with money from personal lenders or on the courthouse steps. They don’t have a good idea of what they’re buying and often get a lot more than they bargained for. The home might not be in good condition when they take ownership of it or they might buy it and end up being responsible for any other debts held against the home, such as a second mortgage. When the buyer has to pay other liabilities on the home off, they end up paying more than they would if they had purchased a new home on the open market! Leave buying homes in pre-foreclosure and on the courthouse steps to the professionals!

Some companies will try to sell you a list of foreclosure properties in your neighborhood, but this is publically available information! The best way to buy a foreclosed home if you’re not an experience real estate professional is to work through the department of housing and urban development and proceed very carefully, slowly, and with a lot of research. If you visit HUD’s website at http://www.hud.gov/, you’ll be able to see a complete listing of foreclosed homes that they have available for sale. Some will be through the IRS, others through the Department of Agriculture, the SBA, the Customs Department, or the US Army Corps of Engineers. Each of these departments have different processes for selling foreclosed homes, so you’ll have to learn the process to purchase a home from the agency that holds the home you wish to purchase.

Buying a foreclosed home certainly comes with risk, but there are also some great opportunities to get a lot more real estate than you could have otherwise been able to afford. Make sure to get a good lenders loan, and don’t get stuck in a subprime mortgage.

How to Buy Foreclosure Real Estate Without Going Broke or Getting Ripped Off was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

There are several things to think about before signing a commitment with a realtor. Going with the wrong person or company can end up costing you more money that you ever anticipated. Selecting a realtor will require a little work on your part. It may be necessary to essentially interview several before making a final decision.

Here are some things to look for in a realtor:

Reputation – If you live in a smaller community, it may be a little more cut and dry to evaluate a company on personal reputation. You may have family, friends, or business associates that can recommend someone that is good. You may also have the advantage of knowing who to avoid.

Exposure – If you live in a larger area that may have access to many realty companies, you may have to base your choice on advertising. There may be certain companies that are all over the television, radio, or billboards but it doesn’t mean they are the best. Pick two that are very high profile and two from the phone book and compare them before making a decision. Those companies who can afford large scale advertising may be able to bring more attention to your home quickly with the right resources.

Operation – Evaluate how much commission the realtor will take after the sale. Typically, the realtor is looking for 6-7% of the sale but it may be worth your while to negotiate one or two points lower in order to get more money back in your own pocket. If you must also find a realtor to help get you in a new home, find out if the realtor will give up some more of their commission if you agree to use them to buy a home as well as sell one.

Track Record – Do not be afraid to ask for their statistics. Find out how many homes they have sold that is similar to yours. Ask if they specialize in a certain price range that is similar to yours. Inquire about the amount of homes the realtor currently has under contract at the time.

References – You should also not be afraid to ask for referral names and then make sure you check a few of them out. Check out the realtor’s membership with the local and national realtor associations.

Overall, you want to have a great working relationship with your realtor and personality does matter. Signing a contract will commit you to working with that person or company many times until the house is sold. Read all contracts thoroughly before signing anything and make sure there is a stipulation that allows you to cancel in the event you are not happy with their efforts after a certain period of time. Do not get suckered in to a long term contract and opt for a 3-6 month initial time period. If the realtor will not allow such negotiations, you may want to reconsider your commitment. While it is okay to get some advice on selling your home and setting the price, ultimately the decision should be yours and your realtor should not force you into anything.

5 Things to Look for in a Realtor was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Unlike the majority of personal finance advice columns, blogs, and books, Home Equity Secrets actually goes a bit outside the normal advice you read over and over again, and provides some original methods for using your home equity to your advantage.

Like many people, I thought a home equity loan was just a 2nd mortgage, and I never considered that they can be used as effective financial tools that help you better leverage your income, reduce the amount you pay in interest and end up saving a few hundred dollars each month.

Making a home equity line of credit (HELOC) profitable would never cross my mind.  I would just assume it’s money people use to pay for home improvements, consolidate their other debts into a single monthly payment, or maybe even use it take a family vacation or something… this book provided 6 methods you could use with your HELOC in order to earn a profit with that money instead of just spending it (and none of them included refinancing the home equity line of credit with a lower interest lender).

It’s written in an extremely easy to read format, even on the two pages that deal with understanding what you pay in interest and finance charges (and formulas to reduce what you pay for the borrowed money, too).  I’m not a mathematical person by any means, but I found it easy to follow the formulas and understand how it would all work.

As the author tells us at the end of the introduction… the Home Equity Secrets ebook: “…at about 20 pages, this book is akin to a cute girl’s skirt: long enough to cover the essentials, yet short enough to still be interesting.”

The Payground.com Offers Home Equity Secrets was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Basically, these house buying services cut out the need for a realtor when you’re looking to sell your house.  They’ll give you an offer (sometimes the fair market value of the home) and if you accept, you can literally have your home sold in about a week’s time.

These services are perfect for people who are on a tight schedule and have to move by a certain date.  Renting out your home or leasing it may seem like a good solution to an unsold house; but then you have to concern yourselves with the ongoing upkeep and maintenance, and worry about whether or not the tenants are going to make their rent payments on time so you can make the mortgage payment!  This is especially concerning for people who buy a new house and are struggling to make two mortgage payments until their house sells.

They will also recommend certain things that you can do to make your house sell much faster, like make sure it’s clean when potential buyers come to look, do basic lawn maitenance, and get carpet cleaning done before putting it up for market.

Ibuyhouses.com specializes in fast, stress free closings that can help you get your life in order when you need to sell a house quickly.  Some houses are on the market for years before they are sold, and with the market heading into a recession, it will only become more complicated to sell your house (in most cases). 

If you decide to look into house buying services, make sure the price offered on your home is one that you would accept from a buyer- although keep in mind you aren’t paying a realtor any portion of that price figure, which may help you make more on the sale of the home than you would using a realtor and a higher sale price!  Basically, the sale price of the home will be determined based on the size, location and condition of your home (the same factors that a realtor uses to determine the listing price of your home). 

If you’re in danger of foreclosing due to a change in your income or any other reason; you may also want to consider using a home buying service like ibuyhouses.com.  You can protect your credit by avoiding the foreclosure on your credit report;  and avoid having to make mortgage payments you can’t afford by selling to the service and finding a more affordable place to live.

Sell Your House Fast and Make More Money Doing It was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

If a landlord’s property which you rent can be foreclosed on too. The difficult part is that the landlord is not required to give tenants notification of such foreclosure, therefore the only notice a tenant may receive is a notice tacked to the front door of the property, disclosing the foreclosure status of the building. Once the property is in foreclosure, tenants most likely will be required to move. While the landlord is legally required to honor any signed lease, the foreclosure company is not, no matter what your legal lease states.

The process of foreclosure may take several months to complete and tenants may be allowed to live on the premises until that time. Renters will also be required to pay rent in full during the time of the foreclosure proceedings. It may be wise to contact your landlord or the property management team and request in writing the directions for paying rent during the foreclosure proceedings.

Once you receive a notice of foreclosure, it would be in your best interest to find a new place to live as soon as possible so as to not get wrapped up in any red tape. If you plan to vacate the rental property, put it in writing as per your lease agreement and make certain you will not be charged any fees for leaving the property early. If your landlord assures you that you will not face penalties for essentially breaking your lease, get that information from the landlord or property manager in writing.

In order to find a new place to live, it is essential as a renter that you always keep your credit rating to the good, as your new landlord may require a credit check prior to renting to you. Additionally, a bad credit score could initiate the need for a larger security deposit before you are approved to move into a new rental.

The sooner you can make plans to move, the more money you will save. Last minute rentals can cost you more than prior arrangements, so start making a plan as soon as you know foreclosure is imminent.

A life insurance does not cover a dental insurance and similarly a home insurance does not cover other insurance deals that fall nearby.

Renters Beware: Foreclosures Affect You Too was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Lawn Mowing

Avoid mowing your lawn at the lower blade settings.  Low-mowed lawns cost more money because they require frequent watering, more herbicide to control the weeds, and require mowing more often to keep it that short.  If you set your mower blades at a higher level, the lawn ends up thicker and has a natural ability of blocking water evaporation from the soil below.  Weeds do not grow as well in a higher lawn, so aim for a lawn length of between 2.5 and 3.5 inches during the summer.

Leave your grass clippings on the lawn as they return nitrogen into the soil.  You can use a mulching mower to break them up smaller for a nicer appearance and for better lawn health.  If you don’t have a mulching mower, you can simply leave the clippings on the lawn and mow over them again next time to break them up.

As the weather begins to cool towards the autumn months, you can lower your blade a little and cut the grass shorter.  When you do your final cut before winter, cut it at it’s shortest length as it will prevent mold from growing due to the snow, as well as prevent the grass from clumping together.

Aerate Your Lawn

The soil under your grass becomes compacted after years of use.  The compacted soil reduces oxygen in the soil, which is required by the roots of grass to absorb water and nutrients properly.  You can easily tell if your lawn is compacted by cutting out a small one square foot section that is about six inches deep.  If the roots of grass are growing less than two inches deep, you should aerate the lawn.

Aerating works best when it’s done in the fall.  You can rent a core aerator from a hardware store or rental center.  If you’d like to reduce the costs of the rental, ask around to your neighbors to see if they’d like to share the use of the machine and divide the cost of renting it.

When you first aerate the lawn, you’ll have little plugs  of soil and grass left all over the yard and it’s not very attractive.  But by spring, your grass will be healthier, and have better access to oxygen, fertilizer and water.

Lawn Watering

You don’t have to water your lawn every day, contrary to popular belief!  If your lawn is receiving an inch of rain once per week, it’s getting enough water.  If the rainmaker isn’t cooperating, you can give your lawn a drink of about one inch of water in a single watering session – best if done early morning or early evening to prevent evaporation and waste.

How to Maintain Your Lawn on a Budget was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

1. Replace your doors with weatherproof, insulated versions.  These doors offer 1.5 inch thick insulation and have been proven to keep in five times the amount of heat or cooling that a traditional wood door does.  The styles can match your home, whether you have a traditional style home or a contemporary home.  The prices range between $200 and $400 – but over the lifetime of the door you would see much more savings in your heating and cooling costs. 
2. Recycle rain water for gardening and outside water tasks.  There are specifically designed collection containers for doing this- that cost under $130 and are even outfitted with hose fittings, hand pumps and filters.  You can direct your home’s roof downspouts directly into the collection containers to harvest as much of this water as possible.  The water is better for your gardening than tap water, and it reduces your water bill as well as wasted water.
3. Create an all-natural windbreaker.    Planting rows of evergreen trees around your property border will help reduce the effect of wind blowing through and around your home- and therefore reduce the amount of your precious heating that gets carried away with it!  You’ll start experiencing savings within three to five years of planting the trees.
4. Install heavy draperies correctly.  In the winter, many families cover their windows with heavy drapes.  Not only does it help to keep the heat in and the drafts out; but it prevents people from peaking in, as well!  Along with the draperies, you’ll want to install window cornices on the top to prevent warm air from being sucked up like a vaccuum from the bottom of the draperies, cooled as it moves past the windows, and then spit out like air conditioning from the top!  The cornices will reduce the airflow that is pulled up from the back of the draperies, as will draperies that hang so that the bottoms just touch the floor.  Draperies hung correctly can save 25% of your heating and cooling bills.
5. If your home seems either freezing cold or scorching hot at various intervals of the day, it may be time to replace your thermostat.  Many older thermostats have trouble registering the actual temperature after the air conditioning system or heat has run for awhile and so the system runs longer than necessary.  An inexpensive thermostat replacement offers an easy way to conserve on  utility bills.

You Can Live More Green and Save More Green at the Same Time was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

1. Paint.  Adding a fresh coat of paint to the walls makes everything look clean and updated.  Choosing a neutral color is more attractive to a larger majority of people as opposed to painting a room bright orange with aqua stripes – so if you’re looking to sell, a few gallons of neutral colored paint and paint rollers is a good investment.
2. Bring in a professional.  You can ask an interior designer or realtor to come into your home and give you suggestions for improvements.  They might give you ideas for paint colors, how to arrange your furniture, or easy improvements to make that will increase the overall value of your home.  The hourly rate of an interior designer is typically under $100; and you can get a whole list of ideas for an hour of their time! 
3. Hire a home inspector.  Sometimes, the improvements your home requires are not cosmetic.  Things that can be occurring behind the scenes, unnoticed by you, can be the cause of a home not selling or can create costly repairs later on.  Many home problems start out as minor issues that can be repaired with a few dollars and a bit of time; but left unfixed, these same problems can result in humongous expenses. 
4. Curb appeal.  Walk across the street and turn and focus on your house.  Does it look good?  This is the first thing people see when they come to your home; and if you’re selling your home, it can make or break the deal before a potential buyer even steps foot into your house.  Simple things like flowers along the walkway, painting the front door to make it the primary focus (while taking the eye away from the oversized, unsightly garage door, perhaps!), weeding flower gardens or planting shrubs will go a long way in making your house look appealing from the street.
5. Kitchens add value.  For $100, you can’t remodel your kitchen, but you can add some improvements!  Anything you do in a kitchen will add tremendous value to your home.  Repaint the walls, add a tile backsplash, hang a new pot rack over a center island, or a new light fixture.  These are minor, relatively inexpensive things you can do in a few hours that will generate major value for your home.

Increasing the value of your home is a good idea, whether you are considering selling the home at this time or not. When you do home maintenance and improvements, keep the paperwork and records as it will show future buyers that you’ve kept up with the home and cared for it – which will give them confidence that the home is solid.  Minor improvements can also make you enjoy your home more if you plan to stay living there, and make fun family projects.

Five Ways to Increase the Value of Your Home – For Under $100 was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

1. Are your credit accounts current? If your accounts are not current now, then you are not making enough money to make your mortgage. Get those balances current before applying for a credit card.
   
2. Have all of your balances been paid on time within the last 12 months? Paying on time for 12 straight months will make you an “A-Paper” borrower, something lenders consider just as important as your score. If you are an “A-Paper” borrower, you will get bumped up to the better end of loans you credit score will qualify you for. Therefore, go 12 months with timely payments to give you that extra boost regardless of your score.
3. Do you have a lot of negatives on your credit report? Negatives are usually late payments, balances over their limits, and items charged off for collections. You can “dispute” these items on your credit report and have them removed, which will make you look more attractive in the application process and raise your score at the same time. (Plus it only takes 30 days to do.)
4. How many times have you applied for credit in the last three to six months? Too many credit inquiries lowers your score and says you are trying to get yourself into a heap of debt. Try to make it through three to six months without applying for new credit before applying for a home loan.
5. How much money do you have to pay towards other credit on a monthly basis? A creditor will figure your mortgage at approximately 50% of what you make. This number varies depending on the lender. Your credit report totals all of your payments right up front. If you are paying more then 50% towards credit cards and other loans, then you will most likely be rejected for a mortgage. Ask your creditors to lower your interest rates so that the total monthly payments on your credit report will go down. Also, try to pay down as much of your credit balances as possible so that you can get a higher pre-approved mortgage amount.
6. How much longer will you be paying your car loan? If you have a car loan, and you only have one year’s worth of payments left, mortgage lenders will usually not take that debt into account when calculating your potential mortgage amount. Therefore, if you have more then one year of payments left, pay it down to one year in order to get a higher mortgage.

Remember, knowledge is power. A pre-approval letter is knowledge and it gives you bargaining power when it comes to home loans. By cleaning your credit before applying for a mortgage, you can bargain for the best loans and make the toughest home offers. Do these things before applying for a loan, and soon you will own the home of your dreams.

What Mortgage Lenders Look For was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Protecting yourself as a renter is important. Any number of things can happen at any time. Like a homeowner, you need to look closely at insurance. Many insurance companies offer an HO-4 policy that will cover your personal property from such things as fire, lightning, vandalism, theft, damage caused by plumbing, heating, or air-conditioning problems, and explosions. Two things rental insurance will not cover is loss from earthquakes and floods. A separate policy is required for that type of coverage if you are living in a region where that would be a concern.

Insurance companies offer policies based on Actual Cash Value, which pays for what your belongings were worth at the time of the damage or theft, and Replacement Cost Value, which will reimburse you for what it costs to replace the items.  If you bought a new mattress five years ago for $1,000, ACV coverage would pay you for what the mattress would be worth today; an amount considerably less than it was five years ago. With RCV, the insurance company would reimburse you the amount it would cost to buy a new mattress today. Most insurance companies use the ACV policies, which carry lower premiums than the RCV coverage but the ACV policy also will pay out less money that the RCV. Both types of policies also will subtract the deductible first.

Like most insurance, your premium for renter’s insurance will depend on where you live and other factors. Keeping a higher deductible can keep your monthly payments lower. There are discounts available for things like smoke alarms and fire extinguishers. It is important that you keep an accurate and updated inventory of your all of your property. A good way to keep track is to videotape everything you own. Keep the video and all receipts for items in a firesafe or a bank safe deposit box off premises. In the event something does happen, you will not need to worry about retrieving your documents from your home.

ARE YOU COVERING MORE THAN YOUR RENT? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The number home homes sitting on the open market waiting to be sold jumped over 50% in the last 12 months, leaving many home-owners who want to sell wonder if they will ever be able to sell their home. You’re not out of luck if you want to sell your home, it can be done; it just might take a little bit of extra work. You need to make sure the price you are charging is based on what the home will actually sell for in the open market, not what you think it should be worth, or what you would like to get for it. You also need to make sure that your home is in the best shape it can be and is as clean as possible. If there are any problems with your home, take care of them. Somebody’s going to buy a house in your area sometime in the next few months; you just have to make sure it’s yours and not somebody else’s.

Many parts of the country are largely unaffected by the real estate bubble. If you live on one of the coasts, Washington DC, or in Florida, chances are the home prices in your area have been somewhat affected in the last year, but there are many parts of the country where a bubble in real estate just never really occurred. For example, South Dakota has the lowest number of sub-prime mortgages per capita in the nation, and home prices have actually been slightly on the up-tick for the last few years.

If you’re living in a home and have no plans of moving in the next few years, you will be wholly unaffected by the real estate slump. Chances are your homes’ value has shot up every year from 2002 to at least 2006 and is worth quite a bit more than when you originally paid for it. The price of your home might have recessed to 2003 prices, but it’s still likely worth more than you paid for it. And if you don’t have any plans to move or sell your home in the near future, you’ll have plenty of time for the real estate market to make a correction and even out again while you keep living in your home, doing your own thing, and making your monthly mortgage payment.

Worried About the Real Estate Slump? Don’t Panic. was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Stated income loans, or loans in which consumers do not have to verify their income, will be disallowed under the new set of mortgage lending rules. These loans were referred to as “Liar’s Loans” and “Fake-A-Bake” loans in the industry. By using a stated income loan, many consumers claimed to make much more than they actually did so that they could qualify for a much larger mortgage than they could realistically pay off. The mortgage companies never seem to be too concerned about people lying about their incomes on these mortgage applications because they seemed to be exclusively concerned with generating a larger number of loans rather than generating loans only with borrowers who would be very likely to pay off their mortgage.

There are also new laws in place in the sub-prime lending world. In the past, lenders would offer ridiculously low opening rates so that potential home-owners could qualify for the loans, but after a couple of years, the rates would reset to something much higher and push the homeowner’s into foreclosure. Now real estate companies will be required to qualify people based on what the interest rate will be after the low-interest rate introductory period, rather than the artificially low introductory rate that the mortgage company was advertising.

There were so many loans provided to consumers that really could not afford them in the last half-decade that one in five loans made to individuals with bad credit is now in some sort of delinquency. Many of these homeowners will have to find a way to sell their homes, some will get foreclosed, and others will limp along trying to make their payment as long as they can.

These new mortgage rules will go a long way to prevent consumers that simply cannot afford to re-pay a mortgage from qualifying for ridiculous sub-prime loans.

New Mortgage Rules Enacted to Additional Foreclosures was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Southern California, Houston, Denver, and Salt Lake City all had real estate markets which were major beneficiaries of the real estate boom we saw in the late nineties and earlier in this decade, which means they were also some of the real estate markets to fall the hardest when the real estate bubble finally popped. These markets all suffered through a major recession in their real estate markets, but they since have recovered. How did this comeback occur? It turns out there’s a major correlation between job growth and home purchases, and the employment market is doing quite well.

Currently the stock market is sitting close to an all-time high. This means that companies, such as park model homes, are profitable and investors are very happy with the rates of return companies are providing them. When companies are profitable, it’s far easier to provide additional compensation to their existing employees and expand and take upon new employees. With more employees making good money, they have the cash flow required to make a mortgage payment each month creating additional buyers in the market. When there are more buyers in the market for the same amount of houses, prices will naturally increase. Since the demand for housing is higher, people who need to sell their homes (including park models) to avoid foreclosure are better able to which will also improve the market.

While we face uncertain times in real estate, it is very important to remember that the mortgage market is a huge monolith and many segments of it are in great shape. If you have decent credit and plan on getting a traditional fixed rate loan over a period of 15, 20, or 30 years, it’s perfectly fine to go out and get a home right now as long as you plan on staying in your home for a few years. Although there are some fluctuations in the real estate market, it trends upward over the long haul. If you buy a home, chances are it’s going to be worth more 5 years from now than it is now. That’s just the way it works. If you’re in for the long haul and plan on being in your new home for a while, there’s no reason to wait on your next home purchase.

Real estate prices have faced significant drops in the last few years, but due to significant job growth many real estate markets are recovering and returning to healthy levels of growth.

Housing Prices Recovering in Many Markets Nationwide was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

In order to buy real estate, many consumers and investors used all sorts of creative financing which simply did not exist a decade or two ago. Consumers used all sorts of exotic mortgages to make their payment look lower than it should have been in reality. Some extended the terms of their loans to 50 years. Others took out mortgages where they paid a variable rate or only paid the interest on the loan and none of the principal. They were banking that home values would continue to spike up and somehow everything would work out, unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

Eventually the real estate market became over inflated and starter homes were out of the price range of first time home-buyers. The demand dried up as worries increased that real estate prices might decrease in the coming years, and home-owners wanting to sell are often stuck in their properties. Others are now realizing that they simply cannot afford their home, missing payments and avoiding foreclosure.

In fact, so many consumers are facing foreclosure that the second largest mortgage lender in the country, Wells Fargo, is looking to arrange workout plans with homeowners who can’t make their monthly mortgage payments. The reason for this is that there’s simply an overwhelming number of homeowners that are behind on their mortgages. It’s infeasible for Well Fargo to foreclose on all of these homes, so they’re looking for an alternative plan. The best candidates for their plan are homeowners who got behind but now can pay their mortgage payments again.

If your mortgage was sold, you’ll have to pay particularly close attention to your mortgage documentation if you want to do a workout plan. Many mortgage contracts have stipulations that no changes can be made to the loan terms after the mortgage was sold. If this is the case, you’ll need to get a waiver from your current loan holder (if you can find them) to get the benefits of the workout plans being offered by Wells Fargo.

Get stuck in the sub-prime mortgage crisis? We are the leader in mortgages, providing information on the latest mortgage rates and our site houses one of the largest directory of mortgage brokers around!

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Chances are your mortgage will have many different owners and servicing bureaus throughout its life, and it’s very common for some sort of error to occur with your loan balance. You can protect yourself by creating an amortization schedule and make sure the balance reported by the mortgage company agrees with what you believe it should be.

Keep a copy of every check you write that pays on your loan. This way you can demonstrate exactly how you paid in and when you paid it in so that there’s no dispute as to what your balance should be.

If you have a question or issue with your loan, make sure you get the full name of the person that you speak with. This will give them at least some level of accountability in the answers that they give you.

Take a close look at how much money your bank collects in addition to your mortgage payment for your property taxes and insurance. Lenders can legally collect your escrow needs plus 1/6th this amount of money, but many banks and lenders will intentionally over-collect this money so that they can get use of your money interest free.

It’s always a great thing to prepay on the loan. All you need to do is contact your lender and ask what process is for making a prepayment. This will save you thousands in interest by the time your loan is paid off. If you do prepay your loan, make sure that the bank is processing the additional payments properly. Many banks incorrectly apply payments as principal and interest instead of just principal which will cost you quite a bit of money over a period of time.

Many mortgage companies are offering plans that charge you $3000 to $500 to setup a prepayment system. These plans will pay off your mortgage early, but you can do the same thing without writing a check to your mortgage company or one of their marketing partners.

If you reach the point where you have 20% equity or above in your home, you can save a lot of money by asking your mortgage company to drop the private mortgage insurance (foreclosure insurance) on your home.

How to Save Money and Protect Yourself within Your Existing Mortgage was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Before you start looking for a home, get a copy of each of your three credit reports about six months before you buy a home. Take care of any errors that might be hurting your credit score, and then go find a quality mortgage company and pre-qualify for a 15 or 30 year fixed mortgage. Be realistic about what you can afford, your payment should be no more than a quarter of your take-home pay. This will give you a good budget and guarantee that you can pay for your home once you do finally find the one that you like.

Some people actually prefer apartment life because it’s a lot simpler to manage, but buy a home anyway for financial reasons. If you’re buying a house just because of the financial benefits of doing so, consider each house you are looking at just as if it were a company you were considering buying stock for.

Never buy one of the first few houses in a new sub-division. If the developer goes bust, they will be unable to complete the development and your house will be all alone and be surrounded by dirt. Make sure you know a lot about the surrounding area. Will there be future developments or roads added? Is this something that will effect you in a negative way?

When looking at a home, find one that’s sound in its construction and materials, it doesn’t necessarily need to be up to the latest design features. Look at the house while it’s raining to see how rain water flows across it. Check for signs of leaks, poor drainage, and potential flooding. Be sure to try the commute from your new home to your job during rush hour to make sure it’s not too far away.

Once you find a home you like, make sure that your offer is contingent on the home passing an inspection and that it is also contingent on that you can get financing at the interest rate you were expecting. Always hire a real estate attorney to review the closing papers. If you’re buying a new home, have a real estate attorney review or draft the purchase contract.

How to Make Your Next Home Purchase Go Smoothly as Possible was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

A short sale is when an owner owes more on his or her home than it’s worth and is unable continue making a mortgage payment. If the owner could find a buyer that is interested in purchasing the home, the lender may agree to accept less than the loan balance as a settlement-in-full for the mortgage. It seems to defy logic that a mortgage company would accept less money than is owed on the home, but it turns out that it costs the lender an average of $70,000 for each home they have to foreclose on. This makes a short-sale a good situation for both the mortgage company and the homeowner. It’s actually beneficial to the whole neighborhood, since the average selling price of a home drops 1.5% after a home in the same neighborhood is foreclosed upon.

If you’re at the point where your home is just becoming too expensive for you to keep, you should start talking to a real estate seller and start actively marketing your home. This way you’ll be able to sell your home, and avoid having go through a short-sale or a foreclosure.

If you’re at the point where you’re thinking a short-sale might start to make sense, contact your mortgage company, tell them what’s going on and see if that’s something they might be willing to do. Even if they say no today, they might be able to say yes tomorrow. Sometimes they’ll want you to have a buyer in line, and other times as market conditions change, they’ll become more willing to accept a short sale.

How to Use a Short Sale to Avoid Foreclosure was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

These products have taken a lot of different forms. With some of the accounts, you keep your existing mortgage and get a home equity line of credit, others you do a refinance and get a different type of loan. The fees vary from company to company, as does the type of loan you’ll receive. None of these plans are a great idea to put in your financial life. They’re certainly not scams, and some are a lot worse deals for the consumer than others.

The real problem with this account is that it makes paying off your mortgage the number one and sole priority in your financial life. All of your extra money goes onto your mortgage. You don’t choose to send some of your money to a Roth IRA account, some more of it to help your aging parents, some to plan for your children’s college, it just all goes to the mortgage by default. It seems to make a lot more sense to keep the money in your possession rather than send it all to the mortgage company and then borrow money on a home equity loan to pay for your expenses.

There are a number of other problems associated with money merge accounts. Often the mortgages that you will be refinanced into will have higher interest rates and variable interest rates. If you’re in a good fixed rate mortgage at 5% or 6%, you’ll end up paying a higher interest rate in the new mortgage that you are given.

Usually there’s a pretty hefty setup fee to get into a money merge account to begin with. There are many companies that are charging consumers upwards of $3,000 to start using a money-merge account. Considering that you can accomplish the exact same thing by paying off extra principal on your mortgage each month for literally nothing, $3,000 is tantamount to highway robbery.

Money merge accounts aren’t a scam, but that doesn’t mean they’re a great deal either. You’re putting your sole focus on your mortgage, which often should be secondary to other debts and obligations and paying a high cost to do so.

Ad: Simplify your business accounts with Payment Processing organized by an ACH system. Using an Automated Clearing House network for your Funds transfers can streamline your Recurring Billing Department and make accounting easier.

Money Merge Accounts: Just Say, No Thanks. was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

When dealing with a moving company, get a binding estimate in advance that specifies the cost of the movie. This will prevent the moving company from doing any sort of bait-and-switch on the pricing. Make sure that the mover that you select is a member of the American Moving and Storage Association’s Certified Mover Program. This means that they will have jumped through all of the necessary hoops to prove that they’re a quality mover and will handle your possessions with care.

In order to protect all of your possessions, buy replacement value insurance on them in the event that something breaks when the move occurs. Before you go with a moving company, make absolutely sure there’s a clear understanding as to what would happen in the event that something breaks in the move, especially when you’ve packed it yourself.

After the mover drops off the furniture at your new home, don’t sign any sort of release until you’ve carefully examined your furniture piece by piece. You don’t want to certify that your furniture is in good condition only to find out there’s a problem you didn’t realize.

If you have crystal, china, or any other valuable items which are delicate, the best way to move them is to pack them yourself, wrap them up real nice, use bubble wrap and Styrofoam peanuts. That will help protect them against any impacts that might happen. Move these in your own car, that way you know exactly what’s happening to them.

If you decide to move yourself (and risk your back in the process), be careful about what you get for moving materials. You’ll usually save money by renting a truck from a rental company and then buying your own boxes and other packaging materials form another vendor. Generally truck rentals are cheaper in the middle of the month and during the middle of the week, so if you move on one of those dates you can often save some money.

How to Move and Keep Your Possessions Safe was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Get a Home Inspection Ahead of Time – Hire a professional home inspector before you put it on the market, and then take care of any problems that the home inspector finds. Keep a copy of this documentation and show it to anyone who takes a walkthrough in your house. People buying used homes have an un-said expectation that the home they buy is in perfect condition. They won’t be surprised when their home inspector comes through and checks out the house, and will know ahead of time that you made a solid effort to take care of your home. This will create a whole new level of trust between you and the buyer.

Offer a Buyer’s Agent Bonus – Offer a $1,000 bonus to the buyers agent in your listing. People buying homes usually talk to a real estate agent when they go out and buy your home. If you offer a bonus to the real estate agent that works with the buyer who buys your home, real estate agents are much more likely to show off your home than other similar homes, because there is a financial incentive to do so. This will create more traffic and speed up the selling process.

Make Sure Your Home is Ready to Sell – Make sure that your home is in the best possible shape it can be. This means putting down new carpet if need be, painting the walls, and making sure that it’s as clean as it’s ever been. Your home should look as close to a model home as it can, and look like you don’t actually live there. Make sure there’s plenty of open space on the counters, and if you’re having an open house, bake a fresh loaf of home-made bread that day. It’ll give your home a wonderful smell that will leave a positive impact in the potential buyer’s minds.

You have to make your home much more desirable than any other homes around if you want it to get sold. If you have waterfront property for sale, or are near a park, you’ll have better luck selling. You have to make sure there’s not a problem in the house at all, that it’s in perfect condition, and give an incentive to the potential buyers and their agents. There are some markets that are doing just fine, such as Mustang Island Texas, if you live in one of them, you’ll probably be able to sell your house fairly easily.

How to Sell Your Home in a Buyers Market was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Let’s take a look at the mathematics involved. Instead of paying one monthly mortgage payment, you are paying a half mortgage payment every two weeks. This means that you’re making 26 half-payments, which is the equivalent of 13 monthly payments in a year. In essence, you’re making an extra mortgage payment on the principal balance of your mortgage each year. As advertised, you save a lot in interest because you paid extra principal on your money and your mortgage will pay off much earlier as well, however that doesn’t make it a great deal.

Since you’re writing bi-weekly checks to the marketing company who are intern writing monthly checks to the mortgage company and then paying one extra payment at the end of the year, they are essentially putting your money into an escrow account that earns you 0% on your money, and charging you a $300 fee to do so.

You can do exactly what your mortgage company is offering without paying the huge fee to set it up, and this way, you won’t be losing interest to the marketing company that setup the new payment plan. Instead, keep making your standard monthly mortgage payments, and in your monthly coupon, add 1/12th of whatever your monthly payment is in the extra principal box. If your mortgage was $1,200 you would instead pay $1,300. This way you’re still making that extra payment, saving thousands in interest and paying off your mortgage early, but by simply paying extra principal instead, you don’t have to pay an upfront fee to make that happen!

Another letter you might get in the mail from your mortgage company or a marketing company that has contracted with your mortgage company is that they’ll try to sell you a policy which will pay off the mortgage in the event that you become disabled or die. Don’t buy these plans. You end up paying about 10 times the going rate for these policies compared to traditional term insurance, it’s just not a good deal because of all of the marketing fees and profit incentives that you’re paying for with the policy. Instead, buy traditional term life insurance so that there’s money for your family members in the event of your death.

Accelerated Mortgage Payment Plans: Don’t Waste Your Money was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

For the first time since the federal government started keeping records in 1950, the median price for a home has actually declined. Many analysts believe that home prices will continue to decrease in 2008 and go even lower in 2009. There are some real estate markets that are still increasing, such as Charlotte, Seattle and Portland, but most of the “bubble markets,” including Boston, Florida, and Washington D.C. are hurting quite a bit. New York Metro is about the only boom market that hasn’t felt the pinch of a declining real estate market yet.

The average price of a home likely will decline by about 1% or 2% annually for the next few years. If you own a home now, you have absolutely nothing to fear if you have no intention of moving or selling your home in the next few years. Even though, there will be a substantial increase in the foreclosure rate in the next few years. The silver lining in this situation is that most of the foreclosures are not families that are going to be put out on the street. Most of the foreclosure will occur on speculative investors, many who have never actually seen the home that they’re losing.

In the end, the housing correction we’re seeing will actually be quite healthy for the country, because it will move the country back to a place where home prices are more affordable for the average person. If the bubble were to continue, many residents would have to pay outrageous real estate prices similar to what California residents have been paying for the last couple of decades. Home prices are far higher relative to the average income in that market, making real estate purchases out of the question for many would-be homebuyers. When real estate prices become more reasonable again and we see steady and reasonable increases, as opposed to double-digit bubble increases, a typical family will be more likely to be able to afford a home and speculative real estate investors will put their money elsewhere.

Why the Real Estate Market Slowdown is great for Consumers was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Unfortunately, sometimes these associations can go overboard. There are residents who have lost their homes over issues which involved just a few hundred dollars. There even a case where a man lost his $285,000 home over a $1.50 bill! In several states, there is absolutely no sort of judicial review before a homeowner’s associated can foreclose upon a home. In these states, a home-owners association can kick you out of the neighborhood on a completely arbitrary basis, and more often than not, there’s not much of anything you can do about it.

Does this mean that all homeowners-associations are out to get you? No, but it does mean that you need to be careful, especially if you live in a state that does not have any protections for home-owners associations. Choose your battles wisely; you don’t want to lose your home over a dispute for $250, let alone a bill of $1.50!

So what can you do to fight back if a homeowners association is abusing their power? In most states, you can’t do much of anything. If you’re in a dispute with a homeowners association, you can either sell your property, move and let the next guy deal with them or try to take over the association and change it for the better.

It’s critically important to make sure that you have a home-owners association that’s on the level before you ever buy a new home in an area that has a homeowners association. Talk to a few of your potential neighbors and ask what they think about the association. Get the minutes of some of their previous meetings and see what kind of things go on at them. If they’re having a meeting soon, you could even go there and sit in on a meeting of the home-owners association before buying your next property.

If you’re fighting with a home-owners association already, chances are there’s other people in your neighbor who aren’t too happy with the organization either. This is when it makes sense to form a bit of a political coup. Usually the director of the association is voted in by a simple majority. You might want to quietly talk to some of your neighbors, choose a candidate that will better represent you, and then offer their name up the next time a vote comes around to choose the director of the association.

How to Stop Abusive Homeowners Associations before Problems Begin was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

You have to be extremely careful when choosing a contractor to remodel your home. Don’t go with anyone who drops fliers off in your mailbox or rings your doorbell and tells you that your gutters or roof need fixing. If the remodeling job is relatively minor, you can ask your friends and neighbors if they’ve used anyone recently and how their experiences were. If your remodeling project is larger and will cost at least $10,000, get a recommendation from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), or from the Remodelers Council of the National Association of Homebuilders.

When reviewing candidates to remodel your home, ask for information about the last five homes they’ve worked on, a description of the work that they did, the date they started the job, the date they finished the job, and how to contact the owner of the home. They should have this information readily available, if they don’t have it or won’t provide it to you, go with another contractor.

Be sure to ask what kind of insurance the contractor carries. Hire people who have a current certificate of insurance to protect yourself in the event that someone is injured while work is being done on your home. You can also protect yourself by making sure there is sufficient liability coverage for anyone who gets hurt that is uninsured on your property. You’ll want to have at least $1 million in liability coverage before you consider a contractor that doesn’t have a current certificate of insurance. If you have less coverage than that, you can get an umbrella policy which will provide additional liability for practically nothing.

Do not sign the standard builder’s supply house contract for any remodeling job. They are almost always slanted in the favor of the contractor. Instead, opt for a contract from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This will make sure the contract is neutral to both parties.

If a contractor wants a large up-front payment, don’t go with them. Come up with a reasonable timeline and schedule of payment in which the contractor is paid as the work is completed. In your contract, make sure there are some penalties against the contractor in the event that they do not complete the job on time.

Remodeling your home can be an exciting experience, but it can quickly turn into a disaster. Make sure to follow these steps to keep your financial interest protected when remodeling your home.

Tips to Prevent Your Home Remodeling Project from Turning into a Disaster was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

When purchasing a home, there are some guidelines that you should follow so that you buy a home that you can afford to pay off in a reasonable amount of time, and so that it doesn’t become such a large percentage of your world that you cannot afford to do anything else.

We all know that half of our income is probably way too much, but how much is acceptable? The Federal Housing Administration has guidelines as to how much is acceptable. They use the term PITI, which is the sum of your principal, interest, taxes, and insurance payments. They then compare your PITI with your income, to figure out what percentage of your income you are paying toward your house.

In order to receive a loan from the Federal Housing Administration, your PITI should be between 29% and 41% of your gross monthly income. They will usually demand a lower PITI if you have high amounts of consumer debt. The typical family in North America today makes about $41,000. This means that their PITI would be between $980.83 and $1400.83 If your gross annual income was $100,000 your PITI would be between $2,417 and $3,417.

How do these numbers sound? They are a little high in some financial counselor’s opinions. Best selling author, Dave Ramsey, tells us that we should have no more than a fourth of our take-home pay going toward mortgages on a 15 year fixed mortgage. He is certainly one of the most conservative financial counselors out there, but it does not hurt to err on the side of caution when making a home purchase It’s better to get something you are sure that you can afford, rather than getting a house you might be able to afford if everything goes perfectly.

Don’t buy too much house so that you don’t find yourself in a situation where you have to choose between paying certain bills each month, it’s not a fun place to be, and don’t put yourself there.

How Much Home is Too Much Home? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Does refinancing make sense? If you can eliminate at least one-half point off your current interest rate, it’s generally a good idea to do a mortgage refinance. Anything less than that, and it’s not really worth putting in the effort to go about home mortgage refinancing. If you’re planning on staying in your home for less than five years, you also need to calculate whether or not you’ll pay more in closing costs than you save in interest.

What kind of loan should I get? Always search for “zero cost” mortgage rates, which means you do not pay any closing costs when refinancing. By only looking at zero cost mortgages, you are giving yourself a perfectly clear point of comparison between your existing mortgage and what you can get on the open market, simplifying the process greatly. With a zero cost home mortgage, you’ll pay a bit higher interest rate, but you won’t pay any of the closing fees.

How do you find good interest rates? Not all mortgage companies are the same when it comes to the interest rate that you’ll be able receive. When refinancing your home mortgage, Your best bet is to head on over to bankrate.com, select the type of home mortgage you’re interested and look for the lowest rate. Make sure the mortgage company is on the up and up, and go for it.

What about points? A point is equivalent to 1% of the total amount of money that you borrow when refinancing your home mortgage. The idea is that if you pay a point up front, the lender will give you a slightly lower rate, but more often than not people don’t keep their mortgages long enough for discount points to pay off.

Should I roll over my other debts into my home mortgage when refinancing? A lot of people refinancing will receive offers to roll over their other debts onto their mortgage, or take additional cash out along with their home mortgage. Generally this is a bad idea because it will likely increase the interest rate that you’re paying. In addition, if you have an over-spending habit and just clear the balance of your credit cards, you’re likely to charge them back up again, and next time you won’t have the option of rolling the debt into your mortgage.

What about Home Equity Loans? Many people choose to move their home equity loans into their primary home mortgage when they go about refinancing. Rolling in home equity loans when refinancing can give you a better interest rate and better terms than you would have received with your home equity loan.

What else do I need? Always be sure to get a good faith estimate when refinancing your home mortgage. This is a listing of all of the fees and costs that you’ll be paying along with an estimation of the closing costs and estimated monthly payment. This way you won’t be hit with any surprises when the first payment comes.

Doing a mortgage refinance can save you a lot of money if you have the numbers down and know what you’re doing, but it can also get you into big trouble if it doesn’t make sense to do a mortgage refinance, so make sure refinancing makes financial sense before you dive in head first.

Mortgage Refinancing: When It Makes Sense, When It Doesn’t. was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Forbearance. This is an agreement between the borrower or the lender that allows the lender to pay a lump sum or a series of extra payments to get current on their loan. Forbearance might also allow you to get back on your feet and pay a reduced payment for a few months. These agreements usually don’t last more than a year.

Loan Modification. A loan modification is the changing of the terms of the original notes. This could mean extending the term of the loan, re-amortizing the remaining balance, decreasing the interest rate, or the like. It’s up to the lender to decide whether they want to assist the borrower by modifying the loan. Usually this happens when the borrower’s income has decreased and can’t make it current, but would be able to keep it current after some loan terms are modified.

Mortgage Refinancing. This is where the lender will allow the borrower to refinance their existing late payment and wrap any lay payments and fees into the mortgage. They are usually given to borrowers that have a temporary setback in their financial history and have shown an outstanding credit history.

Second Mortgage. Sometimes a lender might offer you a second mortgage in order to pay for all of the back payments and fees. However these loans are usually very high fees and high interest rate, so if you couldn’t afford the first mortgage, chances are you wouldn’t be able to afford this mortgage either.

Sell the Home. If you can sell the home before the home is sold on the steps of the local courthouse, your home is brought current and then you will be able to get out of it. You have to do this very quickly though, and will generally take a DEEP discount for doing so.

Died-in-Lieu of Foreclosure. This is essentially the borrower returning the ownership of the house to the bank, so that they are not responsible for the rest of the mortgage. Generally this only occurs when there is not a second mortgage or a very high percentage of the home that is borrowed.

Bankruptcy Filing. If you file bankruptcy, this will at best delay the foreclosure. You will still have to pay for your home in most states, but it will put a delay on the foreclosure. You will have to change your habits and find a way to pay for the home though, and in most cases people don’t, and find themselves back in foreclosure.

Are you dreading those payment reminders through the post? We all need a little help when it comes to sorting out our debt. Seek debt advice now and get expert debt help in choosing the best debt solution to your money problems, such as an IVA, a consolidation loan or bankruptcy.

7 Ways to Avoid a Foreclosure was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

If you’re stuck in a sub-prime mortgage, here’s what to do:

Understand the Terms of Your Loan. Perhaps the single most prevalent problem with sub-prime loans is that people are sold them by fast talking salespersons and really don’t know what they’re getting into. If you have a sub-prime mortgage, take the time and thoroughly look through the terms of your loan. Chances are there will be some surprises in there, but you want to know what they are ahead of time so that you can plan and prepare for them. Are your payments going to jump up over time? If so, where are you going to find the extra money from? Are there any prepayment penalties? Is the interest rate reasonable? Is there a balloon at the end? Take a Saturday and thoroughly read through the terms of your loan so that you know what’s ahead and so you can prepare for any upcoming financial bumps in the road.

Refinance If You Can. Perhaps you took on your sub-prime loan when you had some bad credit. If it was a couple of years ago when you got it, have been paying everything on time and your credit score has improved, chances are you can qualify for a better mortgage than you have right now. As long as there aren’t any prepayment penalties, it’s definitely worth-while to do so. Get a 15 or 30 year fixed mortgage, and nothing else.

Be Proactive About Your Payment. A lot of these sub-prime loans that have a very high default rate are given to people that aren’t the best money managers and don’t have a lot of spare cash. After you pay for your monthly grocery budget and keep the lights on your house payment should be the next priority. Don’t pay for anything else until you get your groceries bought, your utilities paid, and your mortgage payment sent off.

If you can’t afford the mortgage, sell your home. There are some times when people have home loans they simply cannot afford. The mortgage balances might be far too high relative to their income, their monthly payments can be upwards of 50% of their take home pay, and it’s just not doable. I know you like your home, and it’s a hard thing to give up, but sometimes we just have to accept that we can’t continue to afford to live where we are now. It might just be best to try to sell your house and rent for a while so that you can get yourself in a more financially stable position so that later you can go back and buy a home and do it the right way.

If you’re in one of the sub-prime loans that are all over the news these days, you don’t have to panic, but you do have to be proactive. Carefully review the terms of your loan, and see if there’s anything you can do to get into a better mortgage or make paying for your home more of a priority. If you simply cannot afford your mortgage or your home, it’s probably time to sell it.

What to Do If You Have a Sub-Prime Mortgage was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Mortgage approval wasn’t always based on having a great credit score, but unfortunately the mortgage lending business has largely been dumbed down to the point where a good credit score is the only determining factor in major mortgage firms. There was a time when mortgage companies actually looked at the person getting the mortgage. They checked and saw if the person had a steady job, had been paying their rent on time, and had the ability to pay for their mortgage. Fortunately there are still a handful of companies that do this, and if get your mortgage with one of them, you can qualify for the best mortgage out there without them ever even looking at your credit report.

In order to get a mortgage without a credit score, you’ll need to find a mortgage company that does manual underwriting. This simply means they look at the person’s ability to repay the loan rather than solely looking at the person’s credit score. A simple search on Google will reveal a number of companies that offer manual under-writing. Don’t go with just any company. There have been dozens of mortgage companies that have gone under in the last year because the mortgage business isn’t what it used to be, and you need to make sure that your mortgage company is going to be there tomorrow.

Once you’ve targeted the right mortgage company, go talk to them and tell them that you want to do a manually underwritten mortgage. If you’ve paid your landlord early or on time for the last two years, and you can show gainful employment for the last two years, you’ll qualify for the best rate out there that people are getting right now on your mortgage. That’s all it takes, no credit score required.

How to Qualify for Mortgage without a Credit Score was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Most people understand that getting adjustable rate mortgages, mortgages with balloons, and 50 year mortgages are generally a bad idea because of all of the interest and fees you’re going to be paying with these types of mortgages. Instead most people simply rely on the tried and true 30 year fixed mortgage, because that’s what everyone else has done. Did you know that there was a period when 30 year fixed mortgages were thought of in the same way that we think of 50 year fixed mortgages today? If you take a look at the mathematics, 30 year mortgages really aren’t that great of an idea either.

If you take out a 30 year fixed rate mortgage for $200,000 at 6% interest, you’re going to end up paying 360 payments of about $1,200 to finally own your home. This means that you’ll pay a total of $432,000 over the period of 30 years to own your home. You’re literally paying over twice the amount of money that your home is worth just to own it free in clear or 116% in total interest. Imagine if you paid for your car over that period of time. Would you pay $42,000 for a $20,000 car? Of course not!

So what’s the solution? In order to avoid being stuck on the losing side of compound interest, get a mortgage that will amortize as quickly as possible. If you got that same mortgage over a period of 15 years, you’d be paying $1,688 a month instead of $1,200 a month, but you’d only pay $303,840 for your $200,000 home instead of paying $432,000. By sacrificing now, you’ll have saved yourself over $100,000 over the course of owning your home!

Not everyone will be able to do a 15 year fixed because of inflated real estate markets, but that doesn’t mean you have to default to getting stuck in a 30 year mortgage and paying gobs of interest. There’s a pretty good chance that you can get yourself into a 20 year mortgage if you go to the right company, and that’s still a much better option than paying off your home over a period of 30 years. That way you’ll still be saving over $90,000 in interest and only be paying $1,430 a month!

Remember that you don’t have to start out with your dream home. Get something reasonable that you can afford, and make it so that you will pay down your mortgage as quickly as possible by amortizing it over a shorter period of time.

Why You Shouldn’t Get a 30 Year Mortgage, Ever! was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Not Getting a Buyer’s Agent – Everyone needs someone to represent themselves in a real estate action. Don’t believe for a second that the seller’s agent is your friend and is looking out for you, no matter how nice, honest and professional they seem. You need someone in the business that’s looking out for you alone during the transaction. Real estate transactions are very complex and the slightest mistake could end up costing you thousands of dollars. Having a professional on your side will prevent you from making all sorts of mistakes and make sure that everything’s on the up and up.

Not Personally Inspecting the Home – More often than not a first time homebuyer will take a quick walk through the house and not ever do any in depth looking around and checking for problems. Instead they rely on the professional home inspector. Buyers believe that that home inspectors are the professionals and that’s their job. Even though that’s true, a home buyer should always do a thorough inspection themselves to avoid any surprises when they move in.

Not Knowing Who’s Responsible For What – Often times homebuyers aren’t entirely aware as to who’s supposed to be doing what. Seller’s agents, mortgage companies, and appraisers aren’t working for the homebuyer, but often time homebuyers think those professionals are on their side. Be very aware who’s responsible for what, and who’s representing who throughout the process. Don’t offer any information that could later be used against you to individuals who are not representing you. Often times statements made to professionals not working for the homebuyer can later be used against the homebuyer in the negotiating process.

Listening to the Bank’s Estimate of What You Can Afford – When you go into apply for a mortgage, a mortgage company or bank will often qualify you for twice of what you can realistically afford. They want you to take out a bigger loan so that they can make more money in interest off of you. Look thoroughly at your budget and determine what sort of mortgage payment you can really afford. Professional financial counselor Dave Ramsey gives a very good recommendation that your mortgage should not be more than a fourth of your take-home pay.

Ignoring Secondary Considerations – When buying a home, first time homebuyers often fail to take into account all of the other factors besides the home and the lot. Is the home in a good location? How far is it away from the free way? Is the rest of the neighborhood kept up well? How long of a drive is it from your new home to work during rush-hour traffic? What are the school districts like for the house that you’re in? Is the city planning any projects that may affect your area? You should answer all of these questions before signing any paperwork!

It’s very easy to make mistakes when buying a home, and chances are the first time you’re going to make one or two. Fortunately if you know what the most common mistakes are ahead of time, you can avoid them and save yourself a ton of money.

Common First Time Home Buying Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

A CNN report stated that home prices are at about 3% less than they were at this point last year, and chances are they’re going to get cheaper for a while to come. There’s been some fairly consistent decreases in home prices for about the last year now, no one can say for sure how long it’s going to last for, but many analysts are predicting that the real estate market might not recover for another two years.

We’re also faced with another dilemma. Mortgage lenders are already severely limited loans to sub-prime lenders and it’s likely that the number of people getting mortgages is going to decrease dramatically because there’s just less money to loan out available. This also means that the interest rate that we pay on mortgages is also likely to increase in the near future.

Unfortunately the answer lies in the details. It all depends how much prices go down and how much interest rates increase. There are all sorts of people who would love to offer you estimations as to where prices and interest rates will be going in the next few years, but no one can say for certain. Predicting such economic indicators is a very tricky business. Even if you had the best data available to you, the numbers would probably change before they are supposed to become a reality.

If you’re going to buy a home, have minimal debts and a nice down payment to do so, just go ahead and buy yourself a home. There are plenty of them available, don’t wait or not wait for two years depending on what the real estate market does. Two years from now market conditions could be even less favorable to buyers, and you’ll find yourself wanting to wait even longer to buy a home. We do know that over a long period of time, real estate prices tend to increase in value, meaning that you’re likely to not lose any money if you stay there for a decade or more.

It’s okay that the market goes down a bit in the short term, you’ll still be fine. Unless market conditions are absolutely crazy, say like they were during the Carter administration, don’t let them effect your plans on buying or not buying a new home.

Real Estate Purchases: Higher Home Prices Now or a Higher Interest Rate Later? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Change Your Address – Stop by your post office and grab a change of address form. You should do this a couple days before you move. You’ll also want to get in touch with your bank(s), insurance company, magazines in which you hold subscriptions to, or any company that regularly sends you mail (and that you want to continue getting their mail). This will ensure that you never miss a bill or other important letter.

Call The Utility Company – If you’re renting or own a home, move out, and don’t get the utilities moved off of your name, you’re still liable for any utilities that anyone else uses until you take your name off the bill. Before you move, simply stop by the utility company and tell them that you’ll be moving out on such a such date, and tell them where you’re moving to so they can get you setup at your new location. This might mean quite a few stops if you have several different companies which manage your electric, telephone, gas, cable, garbage, water, sewer and internet.

Smoke Detectors – It’s always a good idea to replace all of the batteries in the smoke detectors in your new place of living when you move in. That way you know that the batteries in them are good, and can test to see whether or not they are working.

Emergency Kit – No matter where you are in the country, you’ll always have the threat of some sort of natural (or unnatural) disaster. You’ll want to get a first aid kit, candles, some canned goods, bottled water, matches, and just about everything you would need in the case of a natural disaster.

Change The Locks – This is one of those things that 98% of the time you could not do and get away with just fine, but I’ve always thought it’s a good idea to change the locks when you move. This will prevent any previous owner or someone else who had a key from getting in. This is your house now, not anyone else’s!

Find The Circuit Breaker and Water Shutoffs – Always know where your main circuit breaker and water-shut-off is. Label all of the switches on the circuit breaker if they aren’t done so already. You never know when an appliance might go haywire and need to have the water or power cut to it.

Meet Your Neighbors – It’s kind a saddening observation that more of us don’t know our next door neighbors. On the day that you move in, go over and say hi to them. Introduce yourself, tell them who you are, and invite them over for dinner sometime. If you have a good relationship with your neighbors, they can watch your house for you while you’re out of town and it’s a lot easier to ask for a screw or a cup of flower when you know the people you’re asking!

Satisfy Government Agencies – You’ll want to go update your driver’s license, voter registration and car registration fairly soon after you move in. This way it’ll be done, and there won’t be any nasty surprises from the state government a few months down the line.

What to Do After Moving Into a New Home or Apartment was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Fixed-rate mortgages make sense because there’s no question about where the APR will go. There is the question of whether one should get a fifteen or thirty year mortgage. A fifteen year mortgage will come with a lower interest rate and much less interest paid when all is said and done, but a thirty year loan means much smaller payments each month. Ask yourself these questions to determine which is right for you.

How long are you going to be living there? If you’re going to move in for the long term, it makes sense to go with the 15 and start building all sorts of equity. If you’re going to just be living there for a few years, it might make more sense to get a 30 year mortgage to keep your finances in a more liquid position for when you do move.

How much can you afford? Not everyone is going to be able to afford the payment on a 15 year mortgage, especially some of our friends out in California. With home prices the way they are, it’s unfeasible for some people to get a 15 year mortgage. If you have plenty of money to spare in your budget, go ahead and take the 15 year mortgage. You don’t want to get a mortgage payment that’s more than 30% of your take-home pay, otherwise there just won’t be enough money in the budget for anything else.

Are you happy living in a home you can afford? You might be in a situation where you want to buy a home, but the amount of home that you can afford is substantially less than what you can consider to be a decent home. If you can’t find a home that you like and can afford, it mike make sense to not get a mortgage at all, rent for a while and save up some more money.

What are your long term plans? What are you going to be doing 10, 15, or 20 years from now? Where will your kids be at in life? Is this home going to meet your needs for the next two decades? If not, can you find a home now that will? If you know that you’re going to try to upgrade in a decade or so, it might make sense to try to build the equity in your existing home so that when you decide to go house shopping you have plenty of money in equity to start with.

The mortgage you get really depends on your situation. What can you afford? What fits best with your long term plans?

Getting a 15 or 30 Year Mortgage: Which One Makes Sense? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Seal Up Your Home – “Hidden gaps and cracks in a home can add up to as much airflow as an open window, causing your system to work harder and your energy bills to be higher. EPA recommends a process called Energy Star Home Sealing which can improve your home “envelope” – outer walls, ceiling, windows and floors. By sealing air leaks, adding insulation and choosing Energy Star qualified windows if replacing them, you can save up to 10 percent in energy costs. Learn more about Home Sealing and your home’s envelope by visiting www.energystar.gov and clicking on Home Sealing. There you can view “A DIY Guide to Energy Star Home Sealing” for step-by-step instructions for sealing air leaks and adding insulation.”

Use a Programmable Thermostat – “Use a programmable thermostat to regulate your home’s temperature when you’re home or away. They are more convenient and accurate than manual thermostats, contain no mercury, are better for the environment because they use less energy, and through proper use, they can save you about $100 per year in energy costs. You must select the Energy Star default settings that are shipped with your programmable thermostat to realize the energy and cost savings. If temperature settings are left in override or hold modes, energy savings are lost. Learn more about programmable thermostats by visiting http://www.energystar.gov/.”

Learn more - Get a free copy of the Guide to Energy-Efficient Heating and Cooling on Energy Star Web site at www.energystar.gov/hvacguide.

Ways to Save Energy in Your Home was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

First your house is an asset because if you did not own a home, you would have to pay rent. If you lived in a home with a paid off mortgage, the amount of rent you are saving is essentially equivalent of income. So in that sense it would be an asset. It would also be an asset because generally real estate appreciates over long periods of time. There may be some periods where they go down in value, but over decades, they can do quite well.

Of course there are things that make your home a liability as well. You have to pay additional expenses on your home. You have to pay for all of the utilities, property taxes, lawn care, repairs, home owner’s insurance, and the like. You also have to pay interest on the mortgage if you have one, and any money that you invest in your home cannot be invested elsewhere, so you have an issue of opportunity cost. You could have paid $700 a month for a rental and invested the rest, but instead you chose to buy a home. There is also the possibility that your home goes down in value, making it a liability.

In order to determine whether or not your house is an asset or a liability, you have to determine whether the benefits of your home outweigh the liabilities of your home. In some cases homes are assets, in others they are liabilities. Some of us think after putting down all sorts of mouse traps and humane mouse traps from mice and bed bugs, there’s no way our house can be an asset, but in most cases, it’s probably a wash.

Your Home: An Asset or Liability? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Let’s talk about it. If you have a conventional, FHA, or VA loan, you can qualify for a tax deduction each year. This tax deduction is equal to the amount of interest you paid on your mortgage for the previous year. This means that if our friend Bill had a $100,000 loan and paid $7,000 in interest last year, he would be able to deduct the amount of $7,000 from his income each year. Bill now gets to report that he has $7,000 less income then he actually does, and thus gets to pay fewer taxes. That sounds like a pretty good deal, right?

Well, it sounds kind of nice, until you actually do the math. Bill has a $100,000 conventional mortgage with an interest rate of 7%. So John gets a $7,000 deduction anymore, and let’s say he makes $40,000 a year and is in the 25% tax bracket. This means John won’t have to pay taxes on his $7000 anymore, this will have him a total of $1,750 each year in taxes, that doesn’t sound like too bad of a deal, until you remember how much money you are sending to the bank. You are giving the bank $7000 in interest each year.

The numbers begin to sound really fishy quite quickly. You are sending the bank $7000 in interest so that you can avoid sending the government $1,750 in taxes a year. This doesn’t exactly sound like a good deal. The people who propagate this myth are simply wrong.

If you are absolutely heart set on getting your tax deduction, there are a number of other ways you can prevent from sending the government the full amount of money you owe. If you donate money to charity, that will give you the exact same tax deduction as not paying off your house! I’m fairly sure most people would rather give their money to a more worthy cause than making the bank even richer.

Now, there might be some other reasons why you wouldn’t want to pay your house off early, such as investing the money that you would have otherwise sent as a house payment, but the tax write off alone is not a reason to keep a mortgage.

Learn more about getting an FHA home loan or FHA refinancing from the government loan specialists today!

Don’t Keep Your Mortgage for the Tax Deduction was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

It seems that mortgage companies and credit card companies are no longer concerned about whether you actually pay off your debt any more, and apparently people aren’t either if they continue to get suckered into high credit card debts that would take decades to pay off and 30, 40 and 50 year mortgages! These finance companies are telling us to borrow, borrow and borrow for the rest of our lives, and are seemingly unconcerned whether or not we will actually pay off our debt. It looks good on paper though for them with all of the interest that they are earning.

Most people would probably be pretty excited about the possibility of paying a mere $252.86 for a loan of $100,000! That’s a really decent payment, but what they don’t tell you is that it would take you 50 years of $252.86 payments, and even then you wouldn’t pay it off, because they were offering an interest only loan! In order to get a fully amortizing mortgage payment, you would have to pay $526.40 a month! If you moved that down to a 15 year mortgage, you would only be paying $803! For $275 a month more, you are escaping 35 years of bondage!

If you buy into a 50 year mortgage, you are making a conscious decision to be in debt for life and that you have decided that you do not need to take control of your money, and instead have accepted that financial bondage is acceptable. This might sound a bit harsh, but it’s the truth. 50 year mortgages are nothing more than financial servitude. Many Americans have fallen for the trap that debt is a way of life!

It’s time for this to change. Don’t accept that you will be in debt forever, instead fight it. Work like crazy, and put every extra penny you have toward your house payment. There is a light at the end of the tunnel! You can pay off that debt. Get a 15 year fixed mortgage, and pay it off in ten. You can do it

50 Year Mortgages – A Compound Interest Nightmare was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Usually buying brand new furniture is a very expensive proposition. Most of the time furniture sets are extremely marked up, and you have to negotiate down to get a reasonable price. A lot of us don’t buy furniture very often at all for this exact reason. Others don’t buy new furniture because when you’re just starting out and finally have enough money for an apartment, there’s very little room left over for furniture. Most people then result to buying used furniture, and taking whatever they can for free from friends and neighbors.

Usually you can get used furniture for a fraction of what you would pay new, often under 10%. People just want to get rid of their old stuff so they have room for some new furniture, but there’s a hidden danger in used furniture that a lot of us never consider, and that’s bed bugs. Bed bugs are small creatures which live in cracks, nooks, and crannies around one’s home. There’s been a real outbreak of bed bug infestations in New York recently, so its definitely something to be concerned about.

Bed bugs are almost impossible and very expensive to get rid of. Some people have to call multiple exterminators, get rid of all of their furniture and books, and wash absolutely everything they own in extremely hot water just to get rid of bed bugs. A few bugs around might not make that big of a difference, but bed bugs actually come out at night and feed on human blood. Their victims wake up with horribly itchy welts, which are not fun to deal with at all. You should definitely keep them out of your home if at all possible.

If you find that your home is infested with bed bugs, you’ll probably have to call an exterminator to get rid of them. A great way to find them is with a simple google search. Type in the pest controll followed by the city you’re in, such as Pest Control Keller or Pest Control Fort Worth, and you’ll find what you’re looking for.

If you see any random nice furniture sitting out on the curb, chances are it’s infested with bedbugs, and the owner got rid of it because of them. Don’t think that you’ve found a great free piece of furniture, when in reality all you found was a bed-bug infestation waiting to happen.

Usually used furniture is a rather good deal, but just remember that you’re taking a risk. If there’s been reports of bed bug out-breaks in your area, you should be very hesitant to pick up any used furniture. If you do get bed bugs, make sure to call a pest control company such as Pest Control Southlake.

Buying Used Furniture? Beware of Bed Bugs was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

recent study which is going to be released by Marshall & Swift/Boeckh LLC, states that 58% of houses are actually undervalued for insurance purposes, and that the average homeowner has enough insurance to rebuild 80% of their home. This means that the values on insurance policies for homes are less than what the actual home would take to rebuild, so if a disaster were to happen, the family would be in quite a bit of trouble.

How is this happening? Part of it is because insurance companies are cutting the types of disasters that they cover. Farmers Insurance is reducing the wind damage cover they have in costal regions and Allstate is cutting earthquake damage in many states. Perhaps the biggest part of the trend comes from the virtual elimination of “replacement cost insurance”, which essentially meant that even if the policy was for less than the amount of money it would take to replace the home, the insurance company would still pay the full sum of money that it cost rebuild the home. Since these policies proved to be too costly with booming home prices, companies eliminated them largely and instead pay the face value.

So what can you do to make sure you have enough insurance? Look for a policy which has an option to have “Extra value insurance” which will usually pay a fixed percentage higher than the value of your home on the insurance agreement if it is worth that. This might cost you a few extra dollars but will save you tens of thousands of dollars if something should ever happen to your home. Read your policy each and every year to see if something has changed significantly that you need to know about. Finally, make sure you have enough insurance to rebuild your home as it is and replace your personal possessions. You can have a simple appraisal done on your home to get its value, and then add up the amount of your assets to calculate this number.

Make Sure You Have Enough Homeowner’s Insurance was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Everyone’s situation is different when it comes to getting caught up on a house which is behind. First we have to determine how close to fixing your financial situation you are. If you lost a job and are starting another one in two weeks, you’ll probably be okay. If you simply cannot afford your house anymore, that’s a wholly another story. You have to be honest with your self as to whether or not the situation will get fixed in a timely basis. If not, you might need to sell your house.

If you’re in a situation where you see yourself coming out of the tunnel and into the light any time soon, call your mortgage company immediately! Since your mortgage was given to you under some very specific terms, those documents will tell you what the mortgage service company will do. So go look in your financial files, grab out your mortgage documents and see what the deal is.

Your lender really does not want to foreclose on your home, it’s a very expensive proposition. If you can get it turned around in a couple of months, they’ll definitely work with you and give you a forbearance agreement. If it’s going to take more than a few months, it might be time for some drastic measures. No, this does not mean go file bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is a Band-Aid solution to the symptom, which is debt, not the cause, which is overspending. Instead, sell stuff, a lot of stuff. This means eBay, garage sales, CashForCDs.com, you name it. Sell so much stuff the kids and pets are hiding because they think their next.

Most people get into this kind of trouble because they just don’t act fast enough, instead they hope the financial troubles will just go away. Get objective help, talk to a HUD approved counseling agency.

Your mortgage servicer can help by offering you a forbearance agreement, which the Freddie Mac website states is “an agreement to temporarily let you pay less than the full amount of your mortgage payment, or pay nothing at all, during the forbearance period.” They often will consider this when you have a lump sum of money coming in the near future.

They can also help by offering a repayment plan, which will require you to pay your mortgage and an additional amount of money to catch up on the back payments. Once all of your back payments are caught up, you will get what is called “reinstatement”, which means that your loan is caught up and you are no longer behind.

Featured Link: Need Debt help? Get quality debt advice at debt solutions.

Avoiding Foreclosure When Your Behind on Your House Payments was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

We know that according to the laws of physics that heat rises. Cold air is more dense and has more mass, so naturally it tends to stay closer to the ground, and the lesser-dense warm-air will happily sit above it. In theory, a ceiling fan will force warm air down and make it mix with the cooler air at a medium level. They stay that this will cause the thermostat to reach the desired temperature sooner, and prevent less heat from being lost through the ceiling and into the attic.

The Interfaith Coalition for Energy believes that ceiling fans should have a rather low priority when compared to other energy saving measures. The reason for this is that the effect ceiling fans have on keeping a good mix of warmer and cooler air is rather inefficient. Warm air will always settle out to rise, and cooler air will always be closer to the ground. Throwing a ceiling fan into the equation will only create an additional demand of electricity, which will cost you money.

There are plenty of other things that you can do to make your home more efficient in retaining the heat generated by the furnace in your home. You could weather-strip the windows, make sure there are no gaping holes anywhere, and the like. You should keep your window blinds open during the day to create a greenhouse effect and then shut them at night to help trap heat in. You might consider not heating un-used rooms, or perhaps making it so that the majority of your hot air comes through the vents on the lower floor. You’ll have to do some research on how to make your home more economical, and it can be done, but throwing your ceiling fans on probably isn’t the best way to go about increasing the efficiency of your home heating environment.

Don’t Use Your Ceiling Fans During the Winter was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Renter’s insurance is essentially insuring against the loss of your property inside of your apartment. If your apartment or rented home were to flood, be lost to a fire, be stolen, or otherwise damaged, there will be money there to replace those items. Usually renter’s are people with less assets and financial stability than homeowners, so if they were to lose all of their stuff, chances are they would face a huge financial hardship. If you rent an apartment or home, and don’t have renter’s insurance, you need to go out and get it by Friday. These policies are only a few dollars a month and will keep you protected if your possessions were to be destroyed or stolen.

Even though renter’s insurance is an absolute necessity, there are a lot of renters out there who don’t have this vital policy. A new survey by Trusted Choice tells us that 25 million families out of 35 million families that rent don’t have renter’s insurance. Only one third of people that should have renter’s insurance actually do. This needs to change. These people don’t have anything for insurance against a fire, against theft, or a whole myriad of things that could happen to a rental property. All it would take is a washing machine to break down and flood the home, causing thousand of dollars worth of damage to everything you own.

The fact is that you just don’t know what could happen to your apartment or home that you rent, and we have to accept that there are risks out there that we need to insure against. Get renter’s insurance if you don’t have it.

25 Million Renters Lack Proper Renter’s Insurance. was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Don’t Get Unnecessary Coverage – Not all types of homes need the same types of insurance. If you don’t live anywhere near a fault-line, you don’t need earthquake insurance. If you live in an area that’s never been flooded and is nowhere near a flood plane, chances are you don’t need flood insurance. Don’t skimp on the coverage that you do need, but if the risk of an event is zero, there’s no need to insure for it.

Get a Higher Deductible – Your deductible is the amount of money that you have to pay on a claim before your homeowner’s insurance policy kicks in and starts writing checks. If you have a deductible of $1,000 and a thief comes in and steals something worth $2,000, you’ll have to pay $1,000 and the insurance company will have to pay $1,000. If you have a lot of money in the bank, say $10,000 chances are you can afford a bit of a higher deductible. This way if something does happen, you’ll have plenty of money in the bank to take care of it. If something catastrophic happens, you’ll still have the safety net of insurance.

Multi-Policy Discounts – Many insurance companies will give you a discount if you get multiple types of insurance from them. If you get your auto insurance, your homeowner’s policy, and maybe even health insurance from the same carrier, you can quite often get a bargain. Don’t be fooled though, you won’t always get the best deal by taking the multi-policy discount. Sometimes it will make sense to get different types of insurance with different companies.

Other discounts – In some cases you can get additional discounts from your insurance company, you just have to ask. Sometimes you’ll save money if you have a sprinkler system or a security system. You might also get a discount for joining a group such as the AARP. You won’t know until you ask!

Comparison Shop – This is an absolute must! Always look around and try to go for the best deal you possibly can. Use the internet to look even further. You should check out at least five different companies before deciding on one, this way you know you are getting the best price.

Have a mindset that there’s always going to be a better deal out there, you just have to find it. Chances are you can save a lot of money on your homeowner’s policy, you just have to go out there and make it happen.

How to Lower the Cost of Your Homeowner’s Insurance was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Essentially private mortgage insurance is an insurance policy that will pay the bank if you get foreclosed on. When the bank forecloses a home and sells it, usually they don’t get all of their money back, this is where PMI kicks in. The private mortgage insurance policy that the homeowner was paying for will give the amount of money not made up from the sale of the home. If you get a mortgage and can’t afford to give a 20% down payment, usually you’ll get stuck paying PMI depending on the type of loan that you have. You can expect PMI to be about $50.00 a month for every $100,000 that your home is worth.

A lot of people who are on a road to financial prosperity want to get rid of their debts as soon as possible. Who can blame them? A lot of people develop plans to pay off their debts by paying on the one of with the highest interest rate first, or the smallest amount first, and then working their way through all of their debts. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are actively pursuing a plan like this through Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. He teaches what are called “the baby steps” which includes paying off your debts from smallest to largest.

A very frequent question among his listeners is whether or not people should try to get rid of their private mortgage insurance as part of their debt snowball by increasing their home equity to above 20%. This means making large extra principal payments on your home. After all, PMI is another payment that you have to make every money, who wouldn’t want to get rid of it?

If you’re very close to getting rid of your PMI say by a few thousand dollars, just go ahead and kick butt until it’s gone, but if you would have to pay $5,000 or more on your mortgage, you should wait to try to get rid of your PMI until you have done some other important things first. You should first get rid of your consumer debts, such as car loans, credit cards, personal loans, and the like. You should also put at least three months of expenses in the bank before focusing on paying down your PMI.

The reason for this is so that you have some cushion in your financial budget before going full speed ahead to pay off your private mortgage insurance. You don’t want to be throwing thousands of dollars a month toward your mortgage payment only to have an emergency happen and then find yourself in another big financial mess.

Overall it’s definitely a very good thing to do to get rid of PMI, but you have to put yourself in a place where you can get rid of your PMI before actually doing so.

When To Get Rid of Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

When you sell a piece of real-estate, you’re supposed to pay capital gains on any increase in the value of the home during the time that you owned it. This is just like if you were to own a stock or a mutual fund. If you buy it, and the value of it goes up, and you sell it, you have to pay capital gains on it.

Fortunately Congress enacted a law which makes your primary resident exempt from the capital gains tax. According to the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, capital gains created from the sale of your primary residence all the way up to $250,000 are tax free. For married couples, the amount is $500,000. You also have to own your home for two years before you can avoid paying any capital gains taxes.

This generous tax-cut has made owning a home much more lucrative, and now many families are moving on a regular basis, buying low and hoping to sell high in a couple of years later. People who bought homes during housing market bubble which has come about in the last few years are finding that the increases they had hoped for aren’t there. Fortunately the housing market is cyclical and will likely return to those all time highs in the net few years.

Capital gains taxes are figured by taking the sale price of your house, and subtracting the closing costs, realtor fees, and your cost basis (the amount of money that you paid for your home in addition to any major repairs). Whatever is left over is the amount of capital gains that you have. If the number is under $250,000, or $500,000 if you’re married, you don’t have to pay a dime in capital gains taxes as long as you’ve owned your home for at least two years and you’ve lived in the house for at least two of the last five years.

If you have owned your home for less than two years, in almost all times it makes sense to wait until you have owned your home for at least two years. This way you’ll be able to avoid the long-term capital gains tax rate of 5% or 15%, depending on your tax bracket. If you sell your home within one year of purchase, you’ll have to pay your ordinary income tax rate, anywhere from 10% to 35%, depending on your tax bracket.

There are a couple of other exceptions to this rule. Couples who are divorced and are selling their home can take the full exemption of $500,000 when selling their home assuming the have owned their home for the last two years. Members of the armed forces who have to move can take the full exemption regardless of how long they have owned their home.

Avoiding Capital Gains Tax on The Sale Of Your House was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Now we need to play a round robin game. Call each of the bidders, tell them what the top bid is and see if they want to increase their bid at all. This task may be very tedious, but for sellers it’s an exciting process. Once you’ve got an offer that no one wants to top, you will have your buyer! This type of real estate sale is actually increasing at a very dramatic rate. The National Auctioneer Association stated that the number of residential auctions rose 8.4% in 2005, for a total of $15 billion in home sales.

In traditional real estate deals, sellers start with a high opening bid and are negotiated down. When selling your home in a week, the process needs to turn around. You need to low ball the starting price to get people excited about the purchase of buying your home so much that your own relatives will fight over the opportunity to do so. Once you get people interested, let them start bidding on up until you have a winner.

How successful is this method of real estate sales? It actually works very well in a short period of time compared to any other options. Some real estate investors state they receive between 90% and 95% of the home’s market value by making use of this price, which is good for the amount of time the house is sold in!

How To Sell Your House in 168 Hours was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Some people try to live off of their Social Security income, but a lot of people aren’t willing to give up the luxuries that they’ve been able to have when they did have an income, so they look for other options. Some people choose to work in a part-time job for extra income, but there are those who think that they should be able to retire regardless of whether or not they did a good job saving for retirement or not. In most cases these people borrow money to finance their lifestyle, and one of the growing ways to pay for life throughout one’s golden years is through what is called a reverse mortgage. They’re some of the worst financial products on the market, and you should avoid them.

Essentially, a reverse mortgage is a loan which is available to senior citizens (people of age 62+ in the United States) that is used to liquidate the home equity the person has, but allow them to stay in the home until they sell it or pass away. Typically the loan money taken through a reverse mortgage comes on a monthly basis, but there are also instances where a lump sum is given. The borrower won’t make any payments until he/she moves or dies, but when the person is no longer in the house, the balance will be due in full.

The idea of creative financing seems like a reasonable and creative way to pay for one’s retirement until you look at it a little bit deeper. When you look at the numbers of a reverse mortgage, you’ll find that the fees and interest rate are some of the highest available on the market for any type of mortgage. Chances are you’re a lot better off just getting a regular mortgage if you think you must absolutely borrow money on your home to live.

There is also a lot of fraud in reverse mortgages. Senior citizens have long been preyed upon for financial scams; often time’s senior citizens could be on the very raw end of a deal and have their home taken from them! You personally might not be hit with some sort of reverse mortgage fraud, but given that this is a very highly targeted method of taking money from seniors, one shouldn’t even bother risking it.

Reverse mortgages are never a really desirable option. If the only wealth that you have is your home equity, it might just be time to sell your home. Most seniors will never do this because they are unwilling to face the reality that they cannot afford their home, and instead will try to keep up their lifestyle by borrowing money, because it’s the seemingly easy way out. Of course in doing so you’re throwing money away in fees and making sure that your family does not have any sort of inheritance!

It’s time to face the facts, if you find yourself in such a situation, you really can’t afford to retire. Take on a part-time job for some extra income, and consider moving into a smaller house or into a nice apartment, because as you get older, you really won’t be able to keep the house up and too much of your life will be invested in one piece of property. Stay away from reverse mortgages, they’re not the answer.

The Reverse Mortgage: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Let’s take a look at some of these frightening statistics:

Our credit card debt is increasing. The average American Family has $8,000 in credit card debt. In 1990, the average credit card debt per family was a mere $3000. (CardWeb) At least Visa and MasterCard are happy!

We have way too many credit cards! There are 1.3 billion credit and debit cards in the United States. (CardWeb) The average household has 13 credit, debit, and store credit cards. (CardWeb). Seriously, does anyone need more than one or two credit or debit cards?

Americans depend on the government to pay for their retirement! 96% of Americans will be financially dependent on the government when they retire (DoHHS). We have Roth IRA’s, Traditional IRA’s, 401K’s, 403B’s, Thrift Savings Plans, and the like for a reason!

We owe a lot of money! The total consumer debt for American citizens is $2,170,000,000,000. (Federal Reserve). Yes, that’s trillion with a T! Together we owe a lot of money! That’s about $6,000 in debt for every person in the United States!

Mortgage balances are higher than ever before. The average family with a mortgage owes $223,200 on their home (Federal Housing Finance Board). Let’s face it, homes are just more expensive than they used to be.

America: Now With More Bankruptcies! In 2004, there were nearly 465,000 chapter 11 and chapter 13 bankruptcies (Administrative Office of US Courts). There was also a recent survey that stated one out of every one-hundred Americans will file bankruptcy in their life time. Is it really so unreasonable to ask people to pay for the debts they agreed to pay?

Statistically Americans will spend more than they make. The average savings rate is currently about -1%, statistically we are spending more money than we make. The last time this happened was the great depression! This has to be one of the most frightening statistics around. If we’re not saving money, then we’re not planning for retirement, saving money for emergencies, planning for purchases, or putting money away for our kid’s college.

We need to step it up!

When you find yourself in over your head, Debt Consolidation might be worth exploring. Debt Consolidation simply means combining multiple debts into one monthly Personal Loan payment. Often Debt Consolidation can offer lowery monthly expenses and longer repayment terms. Debt consolidation only works if you also change your spending patterns and end the behaviors which got you into your financial mess in the first place.

The Typical American Family is Broke! was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

First let’s look at the economics of having a room-mate. I live in rural South Dakota, so the numbers will probably look substantially different depending on where you live. In any case, you can save a lot of money by having a room-mate. I know a Woman in town that paid $350 for a two bedroom account. She picked up a room-mate, and her rent check was instantly cut in half.

There was about a 30% increase in the utility bill, but that was to be expected. It doesn’t cost any more to heat the place, but there is an increased demand on water and electricity, but she was paying less than she was before, so all is good. They were also able to split the cable and internet bill as well, making it a very desirable situation. Instead of paying $480 for a 2-bedroom apartment, utilities and cable, she now only has to pay about $250 a month! That’s almost a 50% savings just by letting someone move in with her!

There are also less tangible economic benefits as well. You and your room-mate can share rides to wherever, saving on gas. You can buy in bulk together, and save on groceries. You two can share a movie collection and book collection so that each of you has to buy fewer books, and the like.

Perhaps the non-economic benefits are even more valuable to you than any money that you will save. If you have a room-mate, you are practicing for marriage. You’ll know what it’s like to live with someone. You’ll learn to share responsibilities and peacefully co-exist with someone before you get married. This way when you meet that special someone and tie the knot, the transition won’t be as hard!

When you have a room-mate, you have someone else to watch over the house when you’re not there, and have someone to take phone messages for you. They’ll be someone to feed your fish when you’re out of town, and someone who might even cook for you occasionally!

All of these benefits can be over-shadowed if you get the wrong room-mate. If you get the wrong person as your room-mate, you could find yourself doing the chores of two people, busting them to try to get them to pay their portion of the rent, and having to listen to them whine about their personal issues, or putting up with their unwanted parties. Don’t let yourself get the wrong room-mate. Make sure your room-mate is morally upright before you agree to live with them. Make sure that they pay their bills on time (check their credit report), that they have a good work history, and are overall good people.

If you get the right person as your room-mate, living with someone else can be a very rewarding situation. If you get the wrong person, you’ll probably want to move out! Get the right room-mate in advance, and reap the benefits.

Roommates: Can’t Live With Out Them was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The traditional way to avoid paying a down payment is by paying private mortgage insurance. This is insurance that will pay the bank if they have to foreclose on one’s home because of nonpayment. The bank will sell the foreclosed home for what they can, and the private mortgage insurance (PMI) company will write a check to the bank for the difference. You can expect to pay about $50 per month for every $100,000 of home that you have.

In order to get around paying PMI, some creative financiers figured out that they could get into a home without a down payment and avoid PMI. The way they do this is borrow 80% of the money through a traditional fixed mortgage, and then get a second mortgage off the bat for the other 20%. This way they can get into the home without a down payment, and avoid the expensive PMI fees.

It might seem like avoiding paying private mortgage insurance is the way to go by using two mortgages, but in most cases it is a better option just to pay the PMI. The primary reason for this is that the second mortgages that one will get are usually sub-prime loans. They come with higher interest rates and additional fees. When all is said and done, it is cheaper to pay the PMI than to carry the second mortgage through the duration of the loan.

With PMI, you also have the convenience of only writing one check a month, as opposed to two. You also have one loan to deal with instead of two. This way your taxes are simpler, you have less paperwork to deal with, and you need not worry about knowing the terms and conditions of both loans.

Many people used to dislike PMI because it was so difficult to get the PMI cancelled once you get into it. Fortunately federal law changed because of the Homeowner’s Protection Act of 1998, and now your PMI is dropped automatically when the Loan to Value ratio is under 78%.

The Lesser of Two Evils: PMI or a Piggyback Mortgage was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

When dealing with affiliated title companies, sometimes you will end up paying much more for title insurance from some companies than others. If they are affiliated with a realty or mortgage company, the prices will be 20% to 40% higher, so don’t just go where your real estate agent tells you where to go.

“There’s no out of pocket expenses.” They say this, but in reality, you will end up paying the out of pocket expenses whether you realize it or not. They will add substantial fees, which are perfectly legal, but very un-necessary. In addition, you will find yourself paying a much higher interest rate than if you just paid the fees at a legitimate bank. Financing companies are not out there to give you charity, they are out there to make money and will get you to pay the out of pocket expenses one way or another.

Finally, there are a lot of instances of outright mortgage fraud. In this scam, a victim’s greed of sense of hopelessness is used against them in a very big way. A very common form of this is called a bailout or equity stripping. People who have major financial problems and are close to foreclosure are targeted. The rescue company will claim to buy the property at a substantial discount, lease it to the homeowner, and then sell it back when the person is back in good financial health. In some cases, this is a perfectly legitimate business practice, in others, it’s outright fraud.

Here’s what happens in equity stripping fraud. After the homeowner signs the lease, they will realize that the lease agreement is much worse than their actual mortgage. The leaser then realizes how large their lease payment is, and has to default in the lease, and then they evict the leaser and sell the home on the open market for a substantial profit.

Be absolutely sure that your mortgage company has a proven track record. A lot of companies are honest and are trying to help you, but there are people out there to hurt you, and you HAVE to be aware of them, or you could find yourself in a sea of trouble.

The Many Faces of Mortgage Fraud & Rip-offs was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

For homeownership, on a year to year basis, you would be earning 5% or 6% on your money, which is about what real estate averages over long periods of time. In the last several years, housing has gone way up and become much more valuable, but the free ride will not last forever, and the housing market will slow down, but over long periods of time, you can reasonably assume you will earn 6% on any money invested in your home. Unfortunately most of that money is eaten up. You’ll pay about 2% of the value of your home on maintenance, 1% on property taxes, 1% on insurance, so that brings us all the way down to 2%. In addition you are paying for costly utilities, landscape management, and other fees that you would not have if you lived in an ice apartment. After all of that is said in done, the amount of money in your home is really just sitting there not doing much for you.

Does that mean we should all sell our homes and become renters? There are problems with renting too. In essence, you are not building any sort of equity, or any sort of investment when renting. But what if you could turn you being a renter as an investment?

Let’s say you owned a $100,000 home, and were not getting much of anything for a return because of all those costly property taxes, maintenance, and insurances that you have to pay for. What if you decided to sell your home, and invest that $100,000 in the stock market, and use the interest to live in a nice rented apartment or home? The stock market has averaged 12% over long periods of time, so we can reasonably withdraw 9% and still gain 3% for inflation. This means that we could have $9,000 a year just to pay for rent that’s coming off of money we already had. This would allow you to pay for a very nice $750 a month apartment, which would probably be nicer than a $100,000 home or at least very comparable to it, depending on where you live. Turn your home equity into an investment, and use some of the returns to pay for rent, and you could be better off.

However instead of you paying for maintenance, repairs, taxes, home owners insurance, now you only have to pay minimal utilities such as cable and electricity, and you can get much cheaper renters insurance instead of home owners insurance. You still have an investment and it’s still growing, and probably at a better rate of return than your home when all things are said and done.

It will not make sense in all cases, because in some areas of the country, real estate is doing well and is giving double digit returns annually. In slower housing markets though, this plan might make quite a bit of sense.

Unconventional Thinking: Renting as an Investment was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

There are two categories of home loans that will be available to you when it comes to the interest rate of the mortgage. They will be either fixed rates or variable. Adjustable interest rate (ARM) mortgages come with a slightly lower interest rate, but have so much more risk that they generally are not a good idea. If interest rates skyrocket, you are stuck paying thousands more in interest, and the interest gets so high that you cannot afford to make your mortgage payment, you lose your home. Get a fixed rate mortgage regardless of your financial situation to avoid any interest rate surprises.

Next you will want to figure out what the term of the mortgage that you want to get. How long you refinance your loan for will determine how much your monthly payment is. A general rule of thumb is that the longer you borrow the money for, the lower the amount of payments you will have. You should also consider though that the longer you borrow money, the more interest you will pay. You will easily pay two and half times the interest with a 30 year mortgage compared to a 15 year mortgage, so try to pay off your home in as short of a period as possible.

Don’t get your mortgage to be too short that the payment is astronomical and there is no way you could possibly pay the payment. Avoid having monthly payment that is more than 25-30% of your monthly take home pay. If it’s any more than that you will start to get in a realm that so much of your money is going to your mortgage that you begin to be unable to afford to do other necessary things.

There are just some types of mortgage which everyone should avoid. Interest only loans are a really bad way to go because you will be in debt forever. Often times these interest only mortgages have adjustable rates which are also to be avoided. You might hear a lot of other creative ways to finance a home, but usually they are bad for the consumer. Get a fully amortizing fixed rate loan over a period that you can afford that is a reasonable percentage of your take-home pay to get the right mortgage for you.

Picking Out The Best Mortgage for You! was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Quite often people purchase a home only to realize they cannot afford it; they end up getting behind and foreclosed on. The bank then has a house on their hands and when they sell it they often do not make enough to cover the cost of the loan because foreclosed homes are usually sold wholesale and are sold at a discount. Often the homes which have been foreclosed on because the owner no longer owns it and often leaves it in a mess when they do eventually get evicted.

Banks and Mortgage Companies have decided that they had enough of losing money. They gave customers who wanted mortgages two options. The first is that they can give at least a 20% down payment on their home. This way if the home gets foreclosed on the bank believes that they can at least get 80% of their money bank and with the 20% down payment they will not lose any money on the sale.

The other option for customers who cannot come up with a 20% down payment, have to pay for what is called private mortgage insurance (PMI). In some areas, PMI is also called lender’s mortgage insurance (LMI). Banks almost always require you to pay for PMI if you do not have a 20% down payment, otherwise they will not give you the loan. If you have PMI and get foreclosed on, the bank will sell the house for whatever they can get for it, and then the insurance company will cover the difference that the bank was not able to make on the house. This way the bank will not lose money.

Private mortgage insurance costs about $50 per month for every $100,000 of mortgage that you have. So if you had a $150,000 you would have to pay $75 a month for the insurance. You can eliminate your private mortgage insurance by having at least 20% equity in your home. You can figure out what your equity percentage is by having a professional appraisal done by a company which is approved by your mortgage company. The appraisal will probably cost about $300. If your mortgage balance is less than 80% of the appraisal, then the mortgage company is required by law to drop the private mortgage insurance.

You can get more equity in your home in two ways, you can either pay down the mortgage by giving the bank extra principal payments which is always a good idea, or if your home appreciates in value, you will also gain equity in your home. In most cases it will be a bit of both which allows you to drop PMI.

Private Mortgage Insurance Explained was created by and is property of American Consumer News.