Chủ Nhật, 17 tháng 1, 2016

When To Refinance Your Mortgage may come as a surprise, there is no limitation to how frequently you can refinance your home. You can refinance as often and freely as you like so long as it financially makes sense to do so. Here are some things to consider before you move to refinance your mortgage.

Refinance Your Mortgage And more!

1. What Are the Closing Costs?

Are you throwing good money after bad? If you recently paid fees on your last mortgage, you may lose out by refinancing again just a short time later. A big payment reduction or a lender credit refi-scenario, however, can help make things worthwhile.

2. Will There Be an Early Payoff Fee?

An early payoff (EPO) fee is not to be confused with a prepayment penalty. A prepayment penalty prohibits you from prepaying any of your principal without incurring a penalty before the specified timeframe is up. An early payoff fee is paid to the originating mortgage company on a loan that only lasts on the books for just a few short months. An early payoff fee can generally be charged if the loan is only up to six months old, but can be imposed in timeframes as short as three months. You may be able to work with the original lender, however, to avoid being charged as they can typically absorb any early payoff fee.

Mortgage Pro Tip: Mortgage companies know financial circumstances change as does a homeowner’s need to borrow money. If your financial circumstances have changed, it is your right as a homeowner to refinance your house.

3. Will You Need Impound Account Monies?

You should set up account by your lenders to pay off expenses like property taxes and homeowner’s insurance. For instance, if you are refinancing your home from Feb. 1 through April 10 or from Oct. 1 through Dec. 10, first installment property taxes will be included on your loan estimate at the closing table. Let’s say, for example, you bought your home in June. That same year interest rates dropped and you decide to refinance your house just few months later. Your closing is slated for Nov. 1. As a result, your escrow company is going to collect first installment property taxes even though they are not due until Dec. 10. Title/escrow companies are required to collect for the first installment and second installment of property taxes when refinancing in those calendar months. The previous loan transaction you may have completed earlier in the year may not have collected for a tax installment as it may not have been due at the time.

4. Will Your Closing Process Be Different?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s most recent change to the closing process now requires a borrower to be more involved. The closing process, for instance, now requires borrowers to e-consent to various consumer and financial disclosures. Additionally, a closing disclosure is now sent by the lender three days before your final settlement, which also must be acknowledged and executed online. While these changes are meant to make it easier for a borrower, some consumers might find the process of consenting to online disclosures a little irksome. However, it’s the new way mortgage loans are originated.

Here are three factors to evaluate.

Loan purpose. If you previously did a cash-out refinance in excess of $417,000, you might benefit by refinancing again into a rate and term refinance. On loan sizes greater than $417,000, there is a substantial pricing difference from a cash-out refinance loan-to-value requirement versus a rate and term refinance loan-to-value requirement.
The housing market. Your home may have appreciated in value from the last mortgage transaction, potentially moving you into a different loan-to-value parameter and subsequently creating a financial opportunity.
Rates. Even as little as a 0.25% reduction in your interest rate can make a difference — If you can negotiate with the lender to pay your closing costs, you’re likely benefiting. It helps, too, to have a good credit score, since they generally entitle you to better terms and conditions on a mortgage. You can see where you stand before you refinance by pulling your credit reports for free at AnnualCreditReport.com and viewing your credit scores for free on Credit.com.

The decision to refinance depends on your circumstances — and your ability to make a sound choice when evaluating them. Furthermore, it can help to stay in regular communication with your preferred lender. Checking in every six months can be worth the effort, as interest rates are always in flux and underwriting is slowly beginning to loosen.

Refer: When To Refinance Your Mortgage

By: Anthony Kim On 09:20

Thứ Năm, 3 tháng 12, 2015

The Safe Way To Keep Your Tax Refund

The holiday season is just getting underway, a time dedicated to finding the perfect gift for loved ones and a steady procession of festive events that ends when we ring in the New Year. Unfortunately, it is also a busy time for the commission for tax fraud related to identity.

I’ve written more extensively about this issue in my bookSwiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves, but there are a few points that bear mention this month. Among the different tax-related identity crimes discussed in Swiped, I checked one of the main reasons for this crime is increasing: information violations. Before we go any further in our consideration of the above, it’s important to drive home the one lesson to be learned here (there is only one): Tax fraud is on the rise. Tax refund fraud losses are estimated to reach $21 billion by 2016, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

The fact that you have not yet been a victim of identity-related tax fraud may not have much to do with your efforts to stay safe. In fact, it might be nothing more or less than dumb luck. We’re looking at a numbers game in the evolution of this particular identity-related crime. With more than a billion records “out there,” it is possible that the only reason you have not been victims of the bad guys did not get around to you.

The major data breaches at Anthem and Premera exposed 91 million Social Security numbers. In just those two compromises, hackers gained access to all the personally identifiable information one would need to commit tax identity theft for many years to come. While it might be comforting to say these breaches represent the main threat, it would also be inaccurate. Just because your information is not leaked in violation of the above does not mean you are safe.

How to secure your tax refund

The number one way to avoid getting “got” by identity-related tax fraudsters is to file early and beat them to the punch. The sooner you get your tax return to the IRS and your state, the better. Until the government creates better safeguards, rapid provision of information is the best measure.

What If You’ve Already Been Scammed?

If you have become the victim of tax fraud, my book has a checklist of things you can do to safeguard yourself from subsequent problems. Here is one of these you need to do.

1. Request a fraud

Contact one of the three major credit reporting agencies — Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion — and ask that a fraud alert be placed on your credit records.

Report the Crime

Calling the FTC Identity Theft Hotline at 1-877-438-4338 or File a report with your local police and file a petition with the Federal Trade Commission at www.identitytheft.gov

3. Consider Enrolling in a credit monitoring program

You might wish to purchase a combination credit and fraud monitoring service, which provides instant alerts whenever anyone attempts to open a credit account in your name. This tracking is an effective way to fraud alert.

4. Request assistance from IRS

Call the number provided on the IRS notice informing you of the fraud. To clear your tax record, complete IRS Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit. You can use a fillable form at www.IRS.gov, print it, then mail or fax it.

Close account immediately fraud

Close any credit or financial accounts have been tampered with by a thief or opened without your permission.

6. Pay your taxes

Be sure to continue to pay taxes and file your tax return on time, even if you must do so by mailing in paper forms.

7. Vigilance

You have to assume that if someone has enough of your personal information to file a tax return, they have more than enough information to commit other forms of identity theft. Read every explanation of benefits statement and be sensitive to any communication you may receive from a debt collector.

8. Stay Diligent

If you contact the IRS about ID theft taxpayers and not get a resolution, contact the Identity Protection Specialized Unit at 1-800-908-4490 for your case.

By: Anthony Kim On 09:49

Thứ Hai, 30 tháng 11, 2015

Tips for handling your second move

Buying a house can be stressful, but house hunting while also trying to sell your old property makes the process even harder.

We’ll talk you through some key points to consider and offer some tips that can make the process as stress-free as possible.

There are three ways to approach a second move:

Buy and sell at the same time
The most popular option is to buy and sell together, but it may not be the best strategy for every situation. It can be stressful to manage both a sale and a property search at the same time. And your ability to find an ideal new home at the same time your old house sells may come down to luck.

Sell first
If you’re able to, selling first may give you some significant advantages. With money in the bank from your sale, you’ll know exactly what you can afford. Also, sellers generally prefer buyers who are free from the property chain, as they would rather not wait in limbo while you try and sell your own house.

However, selling first can also carry risks. If you struggle to find something you like straight away, you may end up stuck in rented accommodation for an extended period. This can cause inconvenience such as having to re-direct mail as well as having an impact on your finances especially if you put some of your belongings in storage. The market could change in between selling and buying, leaving you able to borrow less or at a worse rate, or house prices could rise, meaning you have to pay out more for a new home even though you sold your old property for less.

Buy first
If your dream house comes on the market before you're ready to sell you may decide to buy first, especially if you have particular wants for your new home or you would like to buy in a highly sought after location. However, choosing to buy first can put you in a weaker selling position, as buyers may be aware of your need to sell, tempting them to lower their offers on your old property. If you cannot sell your existing home for a while or if you sell for less than you had expected it can leave you in a difficult situation if you had planned to use the money raised from the sale to go towards the purchase of your new house.

De-stressing your second move: key points

Research the property market

What is a realistic sales price in your current neighbourhood? How quickly are similar properties being sold? How will this affect your selling timeline and finances? Getting free valuations from multiple estate agents and online research into other recent sales in your neighbourhood can help clarify the picture.

Build a good relationship with estate agents
Talk to your selling agent about your contract needs upfront. Are you flexible, or can you only accept an offer on the condition you find a suitable place to buy? Sellers want to avoid being in a property chain, but impressing a selling agent through an in-person meeting, regular communication and being on time to viewings can tip the balance back in your favour.

Give yourself a selling advantage
Get your home ready for viewings to make sure you show your house at its best. Consider simple renovations, thorough cleaning, decluttering and creating an inviting first impression through homely smells, fresh flowers or a fire in the fireplace. Decluttering and moving some things into storage will not only boost your home’s appeal, it can also make your move easier when the time comes.

By: 24h Technology News - Latest updated technology news On 04:08

DEFINITION OF 'MORTGAGE'

A debt instrument, secured by the collateral of specified real estate property, that the borrower is obliged to pay back with a predetermined set of payments. Mortgages are used by individuals and businesses to make large real estate purchases without paying the entire value of the purchase up front. Over a period of many years, the borrower repays the loan, plus interest, until he/she eventually owns the property free and clear. Mortgages are also known as "liens against property" or "claims on property." If the borrower stops paying the mortgage, the bank can foreclose.

BREAKING DOWN 'Mortgage'

In a residential mortgage, a home buyer pledges his or her house to the bank. The bank has a claim on the house should the home buyer default on paying the mortgage. In the case of a foreclosure, the bank may evict the home's tenants and sell the house, using the income from the sale to clear the mortgage debt.

Mortgages come in many forms. With a fixed-rate mortgage, the borrower pays the same interest rate for the life of the loan. Her monthly principal and interest payment never change from the first mortgage payment to the last. Most fixed-rate mortgages have a 15- or 30-year term. If market interest rates rise, the borrower’s payment does not change. If market interest rates drop significantly, the borrower may be able to secure that lower rate by refinancing the mortgage. A fixed-rate mortgage is also called a “traditional" mortgage.

With an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), the interest rate is fixed for an initial term, but then it fluctuates with market interest rates. The initial interest rate is often a below-market rate, which can make a mortgage seem more affordable than it really is. If interest rates increase later, the borrower may not be able to afford the higher monthly payments. Interest rates could also decrease, making an ARM less expensive. In either case, the monthly payments are unpredictable after the initial term.

Other less common types of mortgages, such as interest-only mortgages and payment-option ARMs, are best used by sophisticated borrowers. Many homeowners got into financial trouble with these types of mortgages during the housing bubble years.

Refine Your Financial Vocabulary
Gain the Financial Knowledge You Need to Succeed. Investopedia’s FREE Term of the Day helps you gain a better understanding of all things financial with technical and easy-to-understand explanations.

By: 24h Technology News - Latest updated technology news On 03:15

Labour would allow councils to ban buy-to-let on new homes

Labour would hand local councils the power to ban the sale of new-build homes for buy-to-let if it wins the next election.

The report says it will allow councils to stop homes being sold for buy-to-let or if they are going to be left empty.Under Miliband’s plan councils could designate “housing growth areas” where specific rules and targets can be imposed on new homes to ensure developments benefit communities.

Unveiling Sir Michael Lyon’s report into housing today, leader Ed Miliband said housing would play a “bigger role” under Labour.

Instead it will hand councils the power to reserve a proportion of homes – such as 50 per cent – for first-time buyers for a period of two months.

The plan commits Labour to building 200,000 homes a year by 2020 alongside a target for doubling the number of first-time buyers over the next decade.

Miliband says: “We will make sure communities get the benefit from new home development by guaranteeing that where communities take the lead in bringing forward additional developments, a significant proportion of homes on those sites cannot be bought by anyone before first-time buyers from the area have been given the chance.

“This is not only a fairer system, it is also one which will encourage local communities and local authorities to support the development that our country so desperately needs.”

By Samuel Dale | mortgagestrategy.co.uk

By: Anthony Kim On 02:27

Chủ Nhật, 29 tháng 11, 2015

Mortgage Mole: Having a ball

Having a ball Mole knows mortgage sorts can be a sporty bunch but he was intrigued last week when he heard those nice lot at Coreco had found an altogether unusual way to keep off the pounds.

The brokerage has entered a team into the City’s dodgeball league. For those of you who are not familiar with dodgeball, the rules are pretty simple. The aim of the game is to hit the opposition with foamy balls from behind a designated area to eliminate them from the game.

If a member of the opposition catches the ball, then one of their teammates is allowed back into the game. Then at the end of each set, the team with the most players left on the field wins.

Moreover, Mole hears the Coreco bunch have not got off to the best of starts in their league, which is possibly the reason why they have challenged the journos at Mortgage Strategy to a game.

In case they were serious, Mole has been brushing up on his dodgeball knowledge by watching the hit US comedy…. Errr… Dodgeball.

According to one of the of the film’s stars, Patches O’Houlihan, there are only five things you need to know to be successful at dodgeball. You have to dodge, duck, dip, dive and……… dodge again, apparently.

How hard can that be?

Ryding your luck

On the topic of sport, Mole hears Complete FS director Tony Salentino has won this year’s lender Ryder Cup competition.

Salentino, captaining a mortgage and loan team representing Europe, has wrestled the trophy off fellow Complete director Phil Jay for the first time in its three-year history, winning a convincing 9.5 to 6.5.

And while Salentino can be proud of his team’s efforts, he can also boast that the day, along with fundraising at the recent Complete Lender Expo, raised £1,000 for the Alzheimer’s Society.

By: Anthony Kim On 23:39

Bank of China Plans to Double Aussie Mortgages in Two Years

Bank of China Ltd. plans to double its mortgage lending inAustralia in two years and wants to offer more home loans to locals, the bank’s country head said.

There is demand for dwellings from Australians of Chinese origin and investors from the mainland, Shanjun Hu said in an interview last week in Sydney. Bank of China hopes to reach more non-Chinese borrowers in the country through a product distribution agreement with Australian Finance Group Pty, the nation’s biggest mortgage broker, he said.

“I think more and more also the local Australians will be our customers,” Hu said. Australia’s market “needs the capital, the investment from outside,” he said.

Lawmakers are probing foreign property ownership and the central bank has signaled concern about prices even as it holds its cash target at a record low of 2.5 percent. Residential property prices across the nation’s capital cities climbed 8.9 percent in the year to October, according to figures from information provider CoreLogic.Bank of China is seeking a bigger slice of a A$1.4 trillion ($1.2 trillion) mortgage market that’s almost 80 percent controlled by Commonwealth Bank of Australia and its three largest rivals. Chinese buyers overtook Americans to become the biggest foreign acquirers of Australian real estate in the 12 months through June 2013, government data show.

Chinese Brokers

Bank of China, the fourth-largest Chinese lender by market value, held A$672 million of Australian mortgages as of Sept. 30, according to Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data. That’s up 13 percent from a year earlier, about twice the pace of growth for the Australian home-loan market as a whole.

“In the coming two years, I hope that we can double the amount” of mortgages that Bank of China currently has, Hu said.

Commonwealth Bank, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., National Australia Bank Ltd. and Westpac Banking Corp. held A$1.08 trillion in mortgages at the end of September, APRA data show.

Residential term loans from subsidiaries of foreign banks climbed 5.8 percent to A$54.9 billion in the 12 months through September, with 33 percent of those mortgages on investment properties, figures published today by APRA show.

Bank of China’s mortgage customers include people of Chinese origin who come to the bank through Chinese brokers based in Australia, Hu said. It has nine branches across four cities and about 300 employees in Australia, he said.

AFG, which signed an agreement with Bank of China on Oct. 28, is a mortgage-aggregating group with more than 2,100 brokers across Australia and which processes more than A$4.5 billion of financing a month, according to its website.

The company, based in Perth, is planning to offer Bank of China products initially through about 30 brokers in the state of New South Wales before expanding into other regions, said Mark Hewitt, AFG’s general manager of sales and operations. The first mortgage applications are likely to begin coming through within the next week or so, he said by phone yesterday.

Natural Fit

“Probably about 25 percent of the business we generate in New South Wales is for either people of Chinese origin or overseas Chinese investors, so there’s just a natural fit there with Bank of China,” said Hewitt, noting that the agreement between the two companies represented an opportunity for the Beijing-based lender to expand beyond its traditional base.

Bank of China has also lent out A$9.7 billion to corporate customers as of Sept. 30, up from A$7.4 billion a year earlier, according to APRA data. It plans to provide bridge loans and enter agriculture, food and infrastructure financing, Hu said. It currently offers clients syndicated loans as well as project and trade finance.

Total loan volumes from Chinese banks have exploded since the global financial crisis, rising to more than A$15 billion as of Sept. 30 from less than A$500 million in April 2008, APRA data show. Economic ties have deepened between the two nations over recent years, with Australia ramping up mining exports, China emerging as its largest commercial partner and the two nations agreeing to a free trade deal.

“We are very optimistic for the coming years,” Hu said. “We are ready to provide more services here.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Narayanan Somasundaram in Sydney atnsomasundara@bloomberg.net; Benjamin Purvis in Sydney at bpurvis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at csomayaji@bloomberg.net; Katrina Nicholas at knicholas2@bloomberg.net Marcus Wright, Darren Boey

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By Narayanan Somasundaram and Benjamin Purvis | Bloomberg.com

By: Anthony Kim On 23:19

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