Foreclosure Commercial

 

In his continuing efforts to educate and serve the community, Chip Waller talks about real estate foreclosure and what your options are in this commercial.  If you have questions about a foreclosure or questions regarding your options with a mortgage that you are having financial difficulties paying, call our office and schedule an appointment to become better informed and make an educated decision.  We are here to help you!

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What Do I Need to Do to Start a Business?

 

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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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Ask Thomas Mitchell: What Documents and Information Do I Need to Gather Before Filling Out a Will?

 

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Good afternoon.  I’m Tom Mitchell, one of the partners here at Waller & Mitchell in New Port Richey.  And I wanted to talk with you today for a few minutes about what you need to do before you come in to make out your will.  Making out a will is very important and it’s part of your overall estate plan, so you need to go back over all of your various accounts, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, other personal property that you might have, jewelry, cars, get all that information together so that you know what you have.  While you’re doing that, it’s very important to check to see how the asset is titled.  If you have a beneficiary or it’s joint with some family member, you need to understand that that asset is going to be passed to that person by virtue of the titling.

 

So if you have in your will that you want your estate divided equally among your three children, but you’ve already put one child on most of the accounts, that one child is going to get most of the accounts and it’s not going to go equally to your three children.  So it’s very important to know what those account statements say as to the titling.  Bring all that information in.  We’ll go over it with you and see what you need to do to make your estate pass the way you want it to, not just your estate through your will, but your overall estate.

 

This is Tom Mitchell from Waller & Mitchell.  Our telephone number is 727-847-2288.  We’re located in New Port Richey.  Have a good day.

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What Is An Estate Planning Lawyer’s Role When Negotiating A Marital Settlement Agreement?

 

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What role does an estate planning lawyer play in negotiations of a marital settlement agreement?  Well, there’s any number of marital settlement agreements.  There are marital settlement agreements that are entered into prior to the marriage, which is a pre-marital agreement.  There are some that are entered into after the marriage for the parties to address each others’ rights and their spouse’s estate.  And then there are the marital settlement agreements that are entered into in conjunction with a divorce proceeding.  The estate planning lawyer will want to review the agreement to verify that the spouse of your client has waived their rights to claim a portion of your client’s estate in the event your client passes away or my client passes away.

 

That would include the waiver of the elective share that a spouse has to take 30 percent of my client’s estate.  Also, as far as homestead is concerned, they waive their right to serve as a personal representative and also the right to any property that is acquired after the marital settlement agreement has been entered into and give full authority and latitude for my spouse to leave whoever they want to their property in their will or trust.  And so that’s what you’re looking for whenever an estate planning lawyer looks at the marital settlement agreement, and I usually have asked a lawyer who does domestic relations to prepare these because they are tested much more stringently or could be set aside much easier or attacked in the event there’s a divorce proceeding.

 

So if it could pass, it will almost always pass the test of not being able to be attacked after death.  So the estate plan lawyer is interested in seeing that the spouse of his client has waived their rights in his client’s estate to allow his client to leave his assets to whomever he would like, or as an alternative to be aware of what obligation he has to provide for his spouse in his will or trust.  If you have any questions, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

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