If you have an underwater mortgage, i.e you owe more on the mortgage than the home is worth, you can still refinance your underwater home. Some underwater homeowners with government-backed mortgages might be able to refinance through federal programs, such as the Home Affordable Refinance Program.
Lenders or Underwater Mortgages
The Home Affordable refinance program or HARP is US government backed program and it is only provided through government lenders.
- Fannie Mae
- Freddie Mac
Those looking to refinance through programs offered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government buyers of home loans, will first need to find out who holds or services their mortgage so they can determine whether they qualify.
If your loan is owned by Fannie or Freddie, you may qualify for the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP. Some 2.5 million to 3 million homeowners may be eligible to use HARP, according to government estimates — provided, among other things, that they have not been late on their payments more than once in the last 12 months.
Be carefull when trying to get underwater mortgage refinance
Apart from lenders such as Fannie and Freddie other banks have come up with underwater mortgages refinancing option. But be careful when dealing with them because they might take advantage of your situation to give you a bad deal.
written by Constantine Njeru
\\ tags: Banks, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Harp, Home Loans, Lenders, Mortgage, Refinance Mortgages, underwater mortgages
Mortgage statistics show roughly 11 million U.S. homeowners — about 23 percent of Americans with a mortgage — are underwater. What this means is the owners owe more on the mortgage than the home is worth.
How Underwater home owners Can Get Help
Some underwater homeowners with government-backed mortgages might be able to refinance through federal programs, such as the Home Affordable Refinance Program.
Conditions For Refinancing Underwater Mortgages
- If your loan is owned by Fannie or Freddie, you may qualify for the Home Affordable Refinance Program.
- Underwater mortgage finance is limited to those who have lost no more than 10 percent of their home’s equity.
- Underwater homeowners must also have not been late on their payments more than once in the last 12 months
It’s tough to refinance a loan these days, but don’t be disheartened. If your home is already underwater you have nothing to lose by talking to your lender. After all, talk is cheap!
written by Constantine Njeru
\\ tags: Mortgage, Refinance Mortgage, Refinancing Mortgage, underwater homes, underwater mortgage
In this Wall Street Journal article Christopher Jones, a New York financial planner has some clever ideas on how to allocate money during this period of low interest rate.
Mr. Jones is advising clients who can afford to pay cash for a home to take out a mortgage instead and invest the funds in a diversified portfolio. “If you look at where the market is now and where it could be five to 10 years from now, the return potential is significant,” he says. Ideally, investors would want to borrow at rates below 5% and invest the money in a well-diversified portfolio aiming to return 8% a year over 10 to 15 years.
Read the whole article at Wall Street Journal
written by Constantine Njeru
\\ tags: 10 Years, Christopher Jones, Clever Ideas, Diversified Portfolio, Financial Advice, Financial Investing, Financial Planner, Interest Rate, Investing Advice, Investors, Money, Mortgage, Street Journal Article, Wall Street, Wall Street Journal
One of the simplest saving idea is to treat saving as one of your bills. When your paycheck comes in each month, you pay your bills, right? So treat investing like a bill.
Some of your monthly bills are rent / mortgage, food, clothes etc. On that list include saving on it.
You can allocate a percentage of your pay for saving, it could something like 10%. That 10% can be deposited into a savings account or an investment account. You can collect your money yourself and deposit it into the account or If you want to make it easier, then go to the finance office and set up an automatic allotment from your paycheck and you’ll never think about it again.
When you treat saving and investing as part of your bill it forces you to budget for it. When you start looking at saving from this angle you will never again complain how it is hard to save or you dont have money to save.
To your success
written by Constantine Njeru
\\ tags: Allotment, Budget, Clothes, Finance Office, Investment Account, Money Saving Ideas, Money Tips, Mortgage, Paycheck, Savings Account, Young Adults
Burton Malkiel is the author of the classic investing book, A Random walk down wallstreet, his latest book is Elements of investing.
The following is an index of some of Burton Malkiel Investing ideas and investing tips.
- Burton Malkiel Number one Investing Idea is simple – It all starts with saving. The earlier you do it the better.”
- Burton Malkiel Advise on Buying a Bigger Home – It is not worth it. Buying a bigger homes means spending more money to service the mortgage and less money left for saving and investing.
- Burton Malkiel Advise on managing risk – To make money you need to take some degree of risk and the way to reduce risk is by being very well diversified.The best way to go about this is to buy index funds.
- Buy and Hold – just like many other investment advisors who started their careers in 1970s, Burton swears by the mantra of buy and hold – over the long haul the stock market will do what it’s always done: namely be in a long-term up trend.
- Take advantage of tax efficient retirement funds.
written by Constantine Njeru
\\ tags: 1970s, Burton Malkiel, Careers, Degree Of Risk, Elements, Index Funds, Investing Ideas, Investing Tips, Investment Advisors, Long Haul, Managing Risk, Mantra, Money, Mortgage, Random Walk, Retirement Funds, Stock Market
If you have taken out a mortgage to invest in a rental property you will be responsible to paying the mortgage, taxes and cost of maintaining the house.
The owner of the real estate has two options on how to charge rent, In option one he charges enough rent to cover all of the above costs. In option two the real estate investor charges more in order to produce a monthly profit.
Although the temptation is on option two: to get a profit. It is not the best strategy, the best strategy is to be patient and only charge enough rent to cover expenses until the mortgage has been paid, at which time the majority of the rent becomes profit.
written by Constantine Njeru
\\ tags: Invest, Mortgage, Option One, Property Investment, Real Estate Investor, Rent Property, Rental Property, Taxes, Temptation
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