Mortgage Loan Review Place

One of my pet peeves is that so many people go to school, get their degree or certificate, and never use what they have learned in the rest of their life.  Now, if you ask me, that is a waste of their money, time, and they should have left their space in the class for someone who would actually apply what they learned.  In following this belief, I have finally decided to put my real estate investment training to use.

After I finished a number of real estate training programs,  I felt that I had a good grasp of the concepts and that it was time for me to apply what I had learned.  Though I was a little nervous, I assembled a group of advisors to help me out.  Many of these people on my team had decades of experience, so I thought that I would be in good hands.

We were looking at a handful of deals everyday, but none of them showed any real promise.  Most people would have just bought something for the sake of doing it, but I wanted to keep my emotions out of the picture and pick a property based on value and nothing else.

Just two days ago, a deal came across my desk that looked tempting.  After crunching the numbers, we decided to put in an offer.  We will know on Monday if our offer was accepted, but I feel great knowing that I was able to put my education to use.

Technorati Tags: real estate investment training, real estate training programs

You’re having trouble making your mortgage payments. Someone calls your home and offers you a loan modification for your mortgage. What a tempting offer! Should you take it?

The rule of thumb that you should follow when it comes to changes in your loan is that you should be the one calling for information and not the one taking the call. If someone is cold calling you to offer you loan assistance then you want to be wary.

There are great options available to people who want to modify their loans. You should do research into your refinancing options or your debt settlement options and then call lenders to get more information. This allows you to make smart choices about who to discuss your debt problems with.

In contrast, you aren’t making a choice when someone calls you out of the blue offering assistance with a loan. You are either interested in their offer or you’re not. How can you know this for sure unless you compare their offer with other loan offers to see if they’re offering the best deal or not? You can’t.

That’s why you should only talk to people that you’ve called in order to discuss your debt. It means that you’re prepared for the conversation.

Technorati Tags: debt settlement options

You may have noticed that the mortgage brokers you are  communicating with are all licensed.  Actually, in order to function as a broker, they have to be licensed, which is an important tidbit to know if you are talking to brokers about getting a home loan.

The licensing requirements are laid out by the SAFE Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (SAFE stands for “secure and fair enforcement”).  This act was signed into law last year by President Bush,  and sets minimums for pre-licensing education and continuing education. 

The idea is that if mortgage brokers have sufficient mortgage training, borrowers ought to be much safer taking their advice.  Makes sense to me.  After all, why would I want someone advising me on my mortgage who doesn’t know any more about financial matters than I do?

The law took effect on July 30, 2008, but mortgage brokers have a year from that date to come into compliance with the requirements.  In other words, starting in just over a month here, all the mortgage brokers you talk to should be in compliance.  If you are seeking a home loan around that time, you might want to ask the brokers you talk to if they have met the requirements yet.  The law is there for your benefit, but it can’t help you if you don’t ensure that you only deal with brokers who are in compliance.

Technorati Tags: home loan, mortgage application, mortgage training, safe mortgage licensing

Politicians in dense urban areas such as New York City are pushing to get increased loans for multifamily mortgages in their area. The goal of these loans is to be able to build new affordable multi-family housing units so that those people without a strong income can still afford to live in good housing. Many neighborhoods have been nearly destroyed as a result of mortgage loan foreclosures; these multi-family housing loan increases would allow these neighborhoods to regain some stability so that their residents can return to a normal way of life.

Multifamily housing loans are less risky to lenders than most personal loans for mortgages may be. Additionally, these loans can be backed up by mortgage insurance to further reduce the risks of lending. This is one reason that politicians in these areas are pushing for increased loan amounts for these types of loans. The neighborhoods benefit without putting the government at so much risk when making these loans. Additionally, the money for new construction would go to create jobs for those people who work in home construction which means that the economy of these neighborhoods would also be improved by the loans. It’s one possible option for helping to minimize the problems in areas still dealing with foreclosures.

Technorati Tags: mortgage loan, personal loans

I found this recent article to be very interesting: Apparently the current economy is expected to generate a rise in the number of taxpayers claiming the home office deduction, not because people are being dishonest, but for a variety of reasons:

• More people are being forced to work from home in order to make ends meet,
• More people are unable to move in order to find another job, causing a rise in telecommuting and home-based businesses, and
• People are more desperate to keep up their incomes so that they can continue to pay their mortgage

If you fall into one or more of these catagories, you might consider turning part of your home into a home office.  The advantage is that your bills stay the same, but your tax liability decreases substantially, because part of your mortgage is now considered to be a business expense.  That means less money spent on taxes, and enabling you to keep more of your income.

Of  course, it also requires that you rearrange your house, condensing the living space into a smaller area.  In order to qualify for the home office deduction, your office has to be exclusively for work — which means you can’t keep personal financial records in your desk, or even surf the Internet in your home office.  But this may be a small price to pay for a lower tax bill and the ability to meet your mortgage payments more easily.

You might also keep this in mind if you are looking for a new house.  Live work homes are becoming very popular, so if you’re looking for a new home in Carlsbad, CA, for instance, it should be pretty easy to find one that is well suited to support a home office.

Of course, planning to declare part of your home as a home office may help you better afford your mortgage, but be careful not to let this encourage you to overextend yourself.  It is still important to stay within your limits.  The home office deduction can help you save money on taxes, but it should not be used to get you into a house you can’t really afford!

Technorati Tags: home office, home office deduction, live work homes, new home in Carlsbad CA