Mortgage Loan Review Place

Even though some days I would be happy to be out of college, this year has been a great learning experience.  In fact, I would even go as far as to say that it has been fun (gasp!), and it is mostly thanks to the class that I am taking on real estate investing.

Alright, the class isn’t just about real estate investing, but rather investing in general.  For me, real estate has really caught my eye and it might be something that I will probably get into in the future.

So it should come as no surprise that I am writing my term paper for the class on real estate and it will be specifically on the historic prices of Tampa homes for sale over the last fifty years.  Now, it isn’t going to be a list or anything, but rather a study of real estate investment portfolios and their returns over the last half century.

I have found that the realtor’s that I have spoken with have been very helpful along the way and many have shared their insights on the current and past performance of the real estate market in the area.  In fact, I would say that they have not only been very helpful, but have made this whole writing process a lot easier than I would have expected.

I am hoping to present them with copies once the paper is completed as a thank you for their help.  I really couldn’t have done it without their participation.

Technorati Tags: Tampa homes for sale

Even though I was so happy to buy my dream home, I really didn’t feel too comfortable doing it.  For most of us, getting a mortgage is the biggest debt that we will ever have, and for me it felt like a burden.  I know that I needed a roof above my head, but the sheer size of the mortgage made it feel like there was a big weight on my shoulders.

But the day that I took possession of my home, I vowed that I would make a big effort to make at least one extra mortgage payment each year.  The mortgage that I had allowed one extra payment per year (up to ten percent of the original value), and I figured if I could even pay a few thousand dollars that it would shave off years in the long run.

I thought that extra payment would be easy to make, but what I failed to forget was that there are extra expenses when you live in a home.  I had never had to fix my own plumbing before, and the shingles needed to be replaced.  That meant that there was no real extra money to put down on the mortgage.

But I scrounged up some money and paid an extra $500 down on it this year.  I hope that I will do better next year with it, but at the same time, at least it feels like I am making progress – I just don’t want to be paying my mortgage for the next twenty five years.

Technorati Tags: debt, extra mortgage payment

JP Turner is an investment banking brokerage that is run by retail brokers for brokers.  Their transition team is run by professionals  and they have one of the lowest fee structures in the industry.  Their brokerage tools include a host of online tools that allow you to open accounts online, initiate account transfers, issue client checks and complete IRA distributions

Check out their video:

I recently signed up for a loan through a social lending program. My medical bills have been out of control this year. Although I do have health insurance, I’ve still had to pay a lot of money out of pocket for medications, doctor visits and hospital stays. I didn’t want to get a traditional loan to pay these bills because the interest rates that I qualify for are all so high. I decided to look into the peer-to-peer lending programs that exist. It turns out that this is a great way to get a low-interest loan to assist me with paying my medical bills.

Of course, this isn’t a long term solution to my ongoing medical costs. I also have to look into ways to reduce the cost of my medical bills altogether. I know that there’s a medical insurance Florida program called Florida Medigap which is a type of insurance that covers the extra cost of your medical bills which aren’t covered by your primary Florida insurance. I wonder if there is some type of supplemental health insurance like that available here. I’ll have to look into it but for now at least it’s nice to know that the bills are being covered by my low interest loan.

Technorati Tags: florida medigap, medical insurance florida

The owner of the barn where I board my horse recently lost one of his properties to foreclosure.  Unfortunately, it’s the property adjacent to the barn, so we’ve been using the pasture for the horses and as a makeshift riding arena.  The loss of this property is going to have a huge impact on my horse’s boarding arrangement, and I’m not sure yet whether I’m going to move him because of it.

The barn owner’s situation is a prime example of why you shouldn’t wait too long to seek help when you’re in financial trouble.  It wasn’t until he was months — and thousands of dollars — behind on his mortgage that he actually tried to talk to the bank about it.  In fact, I don’t think he actually tried to talk to them until they started calling him.  Bad move.

Because he was a landlord and the property was used for two different businesses — the house as a rental unit and the pasture for his horse boarding business — the barn owner probably should have sought out business debt negotiation to see if there was anything he could do to legitimately buy himself some time.  Sometimes business debt reduction can actually help to put you back in the black again.

The bottom line is, don’t be stupid about debt when your business is at stake.  If you are going through a rough period, talk to your lenders or get a third party involved to negotiate on your behalf.  If you don’t, and you lose property to foreclosure or have to declare bankruptcy, you will only hurt your business in the process.

Technorati Tags: business debt negotiation, business debt reduction, horse boarding business