How Can I Decide What Mortgage is Right for Me?

 

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How can I decide what mortgage is right for me?  Well, the first thing you have to do is decide how long you want the mortgage for, and for what purpose.  If you simply want a short-term mortgage and you just need it for a short period of time until you sell some other property, you may consider obtaining what they call a home equity loan, which can be closed fairly quickly and without a whole lot of paperwork or closing costs.  They’re offered at right now a very low interest rate.  Usually, it’s an adjustable interest rate, and so you can borrow money and use that for a short period of time and then pay it off with minimal closing costs.

 

If you’re buying a home and you anticipate staying in the home for some time, then you would look for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and find out what the payments are.  If you would like to get out of debt quicker, well, then you can ask them what is the interest rate on a shorter-term loan, such as a 15-year fixed rate loan.  If you want to try and keep your payments low for the initial period of time of, say, two years, you can talk to the lenders about an adjustable rate loan.

 

In fact, over the course of time, I think adjustable rate loans have proved to be less expensive than fixed rate.  But most people like to have the peace of mind knowing that their mortgage interest rate will not go through the roof so that they will be priced out of their home.  So a lot depends on your financial wherewithal, what your income is, and what you can afford to pay, and how quickly you would get out of debt, and for what period of time you would like it.  If you’re dealing with investment property, usually you want to try and get the low interest rate for as long a period as you can, and with the right to prepay your loan, which you usually can negotiate or that’s usually a factor that is included in most notes and mortgages.

 

I will say presently, the underwriting requirements for mortgages has gone up substantially, so it is very, very time consuming, tedious, to obtain a mortgage from an institutional lender, no matter who you pick.  And it takes a lot of paperwork and a lot of patience.  And usually, it takes you probably about 45 days to obtain a loan, even if you have good credit and the property appraises for the amount that you’re purchasing it for or what you’re attempting to refinance.  Usually, you can obtain a mortgage at 80 percent loan to value and not have to have any mortgage insurance.

 

However, if you have a small down payment, well then you might want to explore getting an FHA loan or a BA loan, which will require up to three percent down payment.  However, built in both of those loans will be some mortgage insurance.  Or if you just get a conventional mortgage with mortgage insurance, you can get a high interest rate, high percentage loan to value loan.  But it is gonna take some time and patience.  So if you have any questions, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

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What Do I Need to Do to Start a Business?

 

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Should I Put My Homestead Property In My Revocable Trust?

 

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Should I put my homestead property in my revocable trust?  If you ask all the estate planning lawyers as to whether or not you should place your homestead property in the revocable trust, probably half of them would advise you not to do so and the other half would tell you that it is not a problem.

 

If you do put your homestead property in the revocable trust, you will avoid probate, and that’s one of the big reasons why people set up trusts.  If you do put your homestead property in a trust, it may lose its protection from creditors unless you make specific provisions to leave your homestead property to an heir at law, and then it should continue to have protection from claims or creditors.  Hopefully you don’t have more creditors than you do have assets so it wouldn’t be an issue.

 

But if you’d like to discuss that issue, please give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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Do I Still Own My Property if I Have Filed for Bankruptcy?

 

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Do I still own my property if I have filed bankruptcy and have included the lien or the amount that I owe in the bankruptcy estate?  The answer is, yes, you still own the property even after you’re discharged from bankruptcy.  The bankruptcy simply discharges the debt, meaning that you no longer have personal liability for the promissory note.  The lender still has a mortgage against the property.  However, they must foreclose that mortgage in order to divest you from the title.  So, you should not just walk away from the property even after a foreclosure in that you can retain the property until they complete a foreclosure action.  So, you still own it until such time as they’ve completed a foreclosure action against your property.

 

If you have any questions about ownership of your property after you’ve filed a bankruptcy action, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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Does a Trust Protect My Real Estate From Creditors?

 

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Does a trust protect my real estate from creditors?  I’ve heard from any number of people saying, “Oh, well, he put his property in his trust so the creditors could not reach them.”  Well, this is a myth.  If you have a revocable trust and you transfer your assets into your revocable trust, it does not protect them from creditors and creditors can reach them just as if you owned it in your individual name.  So, by doing that, you haven’t accomplished anything.  I suggest if you’re concerned about liability as far as, let’s say, a rental property, then I suggest that you get liability insurance or what you call an umbrella policy to protect you against any potential suits by tenants.

 

If you’re concerned about creditors reaching your property as a result of an automobile accident or something like that, an umbrella policy would also be the answer.  Now, anytime the property has a secured lien, such as a mortgage, well, they’re able to foreclose the property no matter who owns the property and the lean take priority over any subsequent advances.

 

So, if you want to protect your property from creditors, give me a call at (727) 847-2288 and we’ll be glad to talk to you about how to protect your property from creditor’s claims.

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