Closing Costs With Your Mortgage
Posted by: admin in Real Estate, tags: Applying For A Mortgage, Appraisal Fees, Closing Costs, Escrow Fees, Escrow Instructions, Insurance, Money, Real Estate, Rest Of Your Life, Thousands Of Dollars
When applying for a mortgage, it is important to understand that you are going to be responsible for paying costs associated with it. The fees are known as closing costs and can add up quickly.
If you have never applied for a mortgage before, you may be under the impression that it is a simple scenario where a lender gives you a big chunk of change and then expects a monthly payment for the rest of your life. In fact, the lender is going to want some money paid up front. This money comes in the form of closing costs and they can accumulate pretty quickly. While closing costs vary from real estate deal to deal, here are the ones you can expect to run into.
Lender’s Fees can be a harsh wake up call when it comes to closing cost. A lender is going to charge you fees for the origination of your loan and they can be very high. The fees can be attributed to process, underwriting, credit checks and a host of odd little tasks. They can add up quickly to thousands of dollars, so make sure you get a written quote from the lender before applying.
Appraisal Fees are a near constant when it comes to closing costs. As the name suggests, these fees are paid to an appraiser who values the home you are going to purchase. Technically, the fees are not really closing costs because they are paid at the time of the inspection, but they are generally grouped as such when closing costs are discussed. The amount of the fee depends on the property and part of the country you are in. Fees of $300 to $600 are pretty typical.
Title and Escrow – These two fees are nearly always present in any real estate deal. Title refers to the title insurance a lender will require you to obtain. Escrow refers to an independent third party that will act as an agent to hold document and money and issue them as well per the escrow instructions agreed upon by the parties. The fees for title insurance depend on the property while escrow fees vary from area to area.
Impound Accounts are not per se a closing cost, but they are something you should be aware of. The exact nature of an impound account depends on the lender’s requirements. In loaning you money, a lender may require you to pay PMI, homeowner insurance premiums and property taxes in to an impound account. Obviously, these numbers can grow pretty large, particularly with property taxes. It is important that you gain a full understanding of what will be required of you in this regard as buyers can be cash poor after escrow and run into trouble trying to meet the impound obligations.
If it is your first time applying for a mortgage, don’t be startled by all of the fees mentioned above. The key is to educate yourself on what is required for your specific situation and then go into the deal with your eyes open.
By: Raynor James
Combine Mortgage Prepaying and Equity Lines of Credit and Save Thousands
Posted by: admin in Real Estate, tags: Equity Line Of Credit, Home Equity Line, Home Equity Line Of Credit, Home Equity Lines, Home Equity Lines Of Credit, Home Loan, Low Interest Rates, Reliability, Thousands Of Dollars, Unexpected Situation
Mortgage Prepaying
Mortgage prepaying consists on cancelling part or the total amount of the mortgage loan remaining debt. If the type of mortgage loan lets you pay part of the principal and not only interests, then you’ll be saving money by prepaying your mortgage.
The reason why prepaying part of the principal can save you thousands of dollars is that interests are calculated as a percentage over the principal. If the loan’s capital is reduced, the interests charged will also be reduced.
Since the interests are the lender’s earnings, many lenders penalize these practices either by not letting you prepay the mortgage or by charging prepaying fees in order to discourage these practices.
Home Equity Lines of Credit
The difference between the property’s value and the remaining of the home loan debt constitutes equity. And the equity you’ve build on your home since the mortgage loan was agreed, can be used to obtain further finance in the form of a home equity loan or line of credit.
A home equity line of credit is guaranteed with the same asset as the mortgage loan. This line of credit usually carries lower variable interest rates which let’s you take advantage of good market conditions and get money at probably the lowest rates on the private financial market.
Combining Both
Prepaying itself let’s you save thousands of dollars in interests. But in order to do so you need to save a significant amount of money and make a lump mortgage payment every 4 or 6 months in order to reduce the principal. You’ll then get fewer interests and thus, lower monthly payments that will let you save even more money each month.
However, you can’t always save enough money to make such payments and if you want to have any reliability in your finances, you’ll probably want to have an extra amount available for any unexpected situation.
At this point is when home equity lines of credit come in handy. Since they carry low interest rates, these lines of credit are the perfect solution for solving the problem of unexpected situations. Even if you haven’t save enough money, you can turn to them in order to get extra money and make a mortgage payment to keep canceling the principal.
You’ll then destine the extra money to repay the amount you borrowed from your home equity line of credit. Moreover, if anything unexpected comes to happen you’ll have more cash available on your line of credit and won’t have to apply for a loan and wait to be approved.
In order to see if this is the solution for you, you need to go through your mortgage loan terms and check if there are any penalizations for prepaying your home loan. Then compare the amount you’d save on interests with the prepaying fees and the home equity line of credit costs. If the overall transaction saves you at least a couple of thousands and reduces your mortgage length, then seize the opportunity and start prepaying your home loan.
By: Mary Wise
