Video Summary

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.

Video Summary

What role does an attorney play in a real estate transaction?  Well, the attorney gives you peace of mind that you have someone looking out for your interests.  We usually start with the contract.  That’s probably the most important time where you can get input from the attorney because he can provide safeguards for you in purchasing the property and put certain contingencies in the contract so that if the property fails an inspection or you don’t get your financing, then you don’t have to go through with the transaction and you can get your deposit back.

The real estate attorney will also educate you as to what certain matters mean such as husband and wife, the legal context, the meaning of tenancy by the entireties, and what does that mean to a married couple?  There’s any number of practical matters that the attorney can talk to you about such as the getting insurance and whether or not it’s in a flood zone, windstorm, sinkhole coverage.  Also home inspections to see if a property has previously been repaired as a sinkhole.  Just any number of matters that are probably more of a practical nature than a legal nature.

And of course reviewing to make sure that the title you receive is a clear title, meaning that there are no liens or second mortgages against the property.  And looking at the title commitment and advising you of code assessments and things such as that or road assessments on the property and making sure you’re not responsible for those when you close.  Also another aspect is utility bills, unpaid utility bills.  Are you responsible for them?  Most of the closing documents you see say that the title company is not responsible for any unpaid water bills.  So the role of the attorney is to protect you, give you peace of mind that you have someone that’s working for you and knows what they’re doing.  They’ve been there before and looked at, in my case, thousands of real estate transactions.

So if you have any questions or you’re buying a house or real property, well give me a call and I’ll be glad to review your contract for you and represent you in a real estate transaction.  Please call me at (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

Will the bank reduce my interest rate on my loan?  Well they just might do that.  What you need to do is to see if you’ve made every payment for the past 12 months.  If you made all your payments on time and this is on your home loan and you took your loan out before 2009 and it was sold to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae then you can go to your bank and ask them to modify your interest rate, and they will not require an appraisal or they won’t look at your credit, and you should be able to get your interest rate reduced.

Now if you missed some payments well then there’s another process that you may be able to get a reduction but it’s a lot more time consuming and if you want an interest rate reduction on property that is not your home there’s more expense involved but I urge you that if you have made your payment and you’re looking for some relief, particularly if you owe on your property than what it’s worth and you’re looking for some relief as far as your interest rate is concerned you need to check into that possibility.

You can go online to determine whether or not your own is owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae and, if it is and it was purchased before the date in 2009 and you made your payments then you can contact probably any bank, Sun Trust Bank, Fifth, Third Bank, and they will see about getting you an interest rate reduction.

If you have any questions on mortgage modification, well, give me a call and we’ll be glad to try and head you in the right direction.  My phone number is 847-2288.  Thank you.

Video Summary

How does buying a house affect my income taxes?  Well, once you buy a house you can deduct off your income tax the interest that you pay on any mortgage.  That deduction will go away as your income rises, and at a certain level you won’t get that benefit. 

You are also in a position to deduct your real estate taxes.  If you obtain a loan and you have to pay any closing costs or points on your mortgage, that’s considered an interest deduction and can be taken for the year in which you obtain your loan. It’s a prepaid interest charge, and it can be computed if you tell your accountant about it on your income tax for the year in which you buy your home. 

So as a result to purchasing a home you have certain income tax deductions that you can take for your real estate taxes and any interest that you pay on any mortgage that you have (although that is limited or starts diminishing as you make more and more money).  So if you have any questions about that, give us a call at (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

  What is PMI?  PMI is Principal Mortgage Insurance.  It is insurance that a lender obtains from an insurance company (which I believe AGI, at the government bailout, was one of the largest providers of mortgage insurance) and they ensured that the lender would not lose any money as a result of lending more than 80 percent loan to value in the event that the mortgage went into default.

  Well, you can imagine the mortgage insurance is busy paying off these days with all the loans that have decreased in value.  And so the lenders who have mortgage insurance for loans that exceeded 80 percent loan to value make a claim on their mortgage insurance once they conclude the mortgage foreclosure action, and they are entitled to be paid by whoever gave them the insurance.

  Some borrowers believe that mortgage insurance is for their benefit, since they paid for it.  Mortgage insurance is not for the benefit of the borrower- it’s for the benefit of the lender, and you pay for it because you’re getting a loan that’s in excess of 80 percent loan to value.

  Some folks think that mortgage insurance is like credit life insurance, so that if you die then the loan would be paid off, but that is not the case.  It’s something that lenders obtain if you obtain a loan that’s greater than 80 percent loan to value.

  So if you have any questions about it, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.  Thank you.