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

>> Mortgage-free households on the rise in England
>> Paid off your mortgage? Five things to do with you
By Narayanan Somasundaram and Benjamin Purvis | Bloomberg.com

By: Anthony Kim On 23:19

7 Black Friday Gotchas

Reports of Black Friday’s demise have been greatly exaggerated, and if you doubt that, show up at a big box retailer at 3 a.m. this Friday. But it’s undeniable that the shine around shopping’s biggest day has dulled a little, and that shows up in the data. Last year, 134 million people shopped during Thanksgiving weekend, down from 141 million the year before, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF)

This drop could be good news for consumers (lower odds of getting injured by a massive crowd?) or it could be bad news (struggling retailers more likely to pounce on consumers’ wallets with tricks?). At Credit.com, we’re all about making sure you get a good, fair deal, so here’s a list of Black Friday gotchas to watch for as you get into the gift-giving mood. (We’ll leave the self defense to you.)

1. Waiting Until Black Friday

Why is Black Friday shrinking? Online shopping is growing, but so is the entire shopping season, which is creeping closer to Halloween. In fact, the NRF says 57% of holiday shoppers have already purchased a gift by now.

“Black Friday is starting earlier and earlier,” said Edgar Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org. And that leads to Gotcha No. 1

It’s inevitable. Retailers who want to “win” Black Friday change the rules, and try to get an early start. Some are making Black Friday last all November long. Walmart will make most items available online at 3 a.m. on Thursday, Dworsky says. So don’t wait if you are dead set on getting a great deal this Friday. The gift you seek might already be on sale.

2. Limited Supply

That leads to gotcha No. 2. We all know the loss-leader game, but so many of us fall for it anyway. A store offers a product below cost, generating great excitement, but only has a handful of the item available. The rest of the shoppers who stand in line are left waiting at the retail counter. What does limited supply mean to you? Unless you are really in this for the love of the hunt, you may want to skip the mad dash to the stores. Why play a game designed so most consumers lose? Taking that gamble also often leads to the next gotcha …

3. Buying Things You Don’t Want

Seems obvious. Trust me, it’s not. Plenty of folks buy things they don’t need or want, thinking they’re getting a good deal. But, if you don’t need an item, and never use it, it’s a bad deal. That impetuosity calculus is hard enough at normal times, but during gift-giving season, it’s much worse. (Overspending is rampant this time of year, and many people can get themselves into debt. You can see how your credit card spending is impacting your credit scores for free on Credit.com.)

People throw good-deal items in their carts, thinking they will decide later who might want it as a gift. Sure, that works sometimes. But admit it: Many of you have a pile of useless items bought that have been never used or gifted. And that’s a terrible deal. But it’s often a product of …

4. Panic Buying

We’ve all been there. You get up early, spend precious weekend time walking around the store, and you’ve come up empty. Nothing. You see smiling “winners” carrying their cheap TVs and oversized teddy bears out of the store and you just want something to take home. So in a panic you grab … something, anything. The Fear of Missing Out has taken hold. The urge is even stronger if you hear that the store is running out of the set of four after-shaves in a ship-in-a-bottle display. No, dad won’t like it — it’s OK to leave the dance alone sometimes.

5. Cheaper Last Week? Or Next Week?

There’s also a pretty good chance that you’ll meet that perfect gift at next weekend’s dance … and it might even be cheaper. All sales are not created equal and some won’t necessarily help you save. And a “sale” tag doesn’t always mean the item sold for a higher price last week. It’s supposed to, but it doesn’t. JC Penney just agreed to pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit alleging “fake markdowns.” (The company admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement). So make sure the great prices are really great. How? Never buy anything in a store without taking 30 seconds to do an online price reality check.

6. The Rebate Game

It’s also important to make sure the price is really the price, and not the price you pay after you play origami with box tops, fill out forms in triplicate, mail the paperwork off to the North Pole, and wait 10 weeks for a rebate check that never comes. Rebates have become more humane in recent years, so they are not the automatic disqualifier they once were. However, again, you may want to check online for complaints about a particular policy or deal before committing to a long-term investment in time. Many good deals become bad deals when rebates go missing.

7. Happy Returns?

Finally, watch for surprise terms and conditions on Black Friday. Is the return period shortened, or are you dealing with final sales in order to get that great deal? It’s a good idea to read up before you plunk down your credit card. Final sales can be OK — as long as you know the risk. And don’t forget the gift receipts, in case your dad really doesn’t like the after shave.

By: Anthony Kim On 23:11

The mortgage that comes with its own rate rise: Barclays launches stepped fixed deal where costs rise after first year

Most borrowers look to a fixed mortgage to provide security against the Bank of England raising interest rates by locking-in their repayments.
But Barclays is now offering a range of stepped mortgage, which depending on the way you look at it either comes with reduced costs for the first year – or its own rate rise.
The Stepped Fixed Rate mortgage involves a lower rate for the first year, before a move up sees your repayments increase for the rest.

So will you actually save any money over the long term, or are you just storing up extra costs once your own rate rises?
Keeping costs down is a key factor when buying a property and now Barclays claims it can ease the financial strain with the stepped range.
The lender is offering three or five-year fixed rates for a 10 per cent deposit that will start at 3.49 per cent and 3.59 per cent, respectively, for the first year, before moving to 4.19 per cent for the rest of the deal term.
The idea is that you save money for the first year – when you may improving your new home or buying furniture – but then pay more for the rest of the deal term.
This may free up some extra cash at first, but there are a number of factors you need to consider to work out if you will save money in the long term.

The biggest issue is the rate rise problem.
It may be easy to get used to paying your mortgage at one rate for a year, so even if you know its coming you may get a bill shock when you see more money come out after the first 12 months.
The rise is not immense. On a £150,000 25-year repayment mortgage over three years you would start out paying £750 before seeing monthly bills rise to £787. You will still have to find more money though, at a point when things can seem tight after a first year in a home spent buying the things you need.
Perhaps most importantly, by the end of these deals you may have ended up paying more than you needed to overall compared with other deals on the market.
We outline further below how much your costs will increase and how it compares to other mortgages.
How the stepped mortgage stacks up
Barclays’ three-year fix starts at 3.49 per cent in the first year before increasing to 4.19 per cent for the final two years.
Or there is a five-year fixed rate mortgage starting at 3.59 per cent before moving to 4.19 per cent for the final four years.
Your monthly repayments for on the three-year fixed rate for a £150,000 mortgage over 25 years would be £750, or £9,000 in the first year.
If the mortgage was priced at 4.89 per cent from the start, your monthly repayments would be £807 from the start, or £9,690 in the first year.
You would therefore save £690 in the first year of the mortgage based on the difference between making the first year of payments at 3.49 per cent and 4.19 per cent.

These rates start relatively low for a 10 per cent deposit, but once they go up you are actually paying more than what most mortgages at this deposit level charge.
Once the three-year fix moves to 4.19 per cent your repayments increase to £787 a month for the final two years.
That is only a £37 difference each month, but an extra £444 over a year and £888 over two years.
Using this three-year deal as an example, it would cost £9,000 in the first year and £18,888 in the final two, giving you a total cost of £27,888.
But there are other deals that will work out cheaper,
You can get three and five year deals at lower rates than these offers for the whole term.
Furness Building Society has a rate of 3.43 with a £499 fee for three years. A 25-year £150,000 mortgage would have monthly repayments of £745 and cost £27,330 over three years.
Alternatively, Leek United has a five-year fixed rate at 3.89 per cent with a £495 fee. A 25-year £150,000 mortgage would cost £782 a month and £47,455 over five years

By: Anthony Kim On 23:06

Why Real Estate Could Soar in 2015

Following double-digit gains in 2012 and 2013, U.S. home prices grew at a much slower pace in 2014, with the average home increasing in value by less than 3%.

>> Mortgage-free households on the rise in England

>> Paid off your mortgage? Five things to do with you

So what’s in store for 2015? While it’s impossible to know for sure what the future will hold, there are a few good reasons to believe 2015 could be an excellent year for real estate.

It’s getting expensive to be a renterAccording to a report from Zillow, U.S. renters paid almost 5% more rent in 2014 than in 2013. Some areas of the country saw much sharper rent increases. For example, San Francisco saw its average rent rise by 14% in the past year. And because home prices rose by less than 3% in 2014, it’s fair to say that rent is getting expensive faster than home ownership is.

As rent increases, it simply makes more sense to buy a home. With home prices stabilizing in 2014 and rent continuing to rise at twice the rate of income growth, we could see a lot of people decide that homeownership is the better choice.

Fannie and Freddie are creating more buyersOne big problem with the U.S. housing market is the lack ofaffordablemortgages for people who can’t make 20% down payments. FHA loans have gotten very expensive over the past few years — to the point where it makes more sense to rent in many cases.

For 2015, this is changing. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are both introducing mortgage programs that require as little as 3% down, which will open up homeownership to millions of people with good credit and good jobs who simply don’t have large amounts of cash to put down on a home. Sure, there will still be mortgage insurance, but it’s likely to be much cheaper than the FHA version.

This could be a real boost, especially to first-timers, who generally don’t have a lot of cash. According to the National Association of Realtors, first-time buyers made up the smallest share of the housing market in 27 years. And, the Federal Reserve found that 45% of renters delayed buying a home simply because they couldn’t afford a down payment.

So, the combination of high rent and easier mortgages might be just the incentive many renters need to finally jump into homeownership.

Mortgages are still cheap — but for how long?This could be the biggest “wild card” in the housing market over the next year. The average 30-year mortgage rate in the U.S. is currently just under 4%, which is still extremely low on a historical basis.

However, a lot of experts are predicting that 2015 will be the year when rates finally begin to rise. With continued improvement in the U.S. economy, it’s only a matter of time before the Federal Reserve pulls the trigger on a rate hike, and this will create upward pressure on the mortgage market.

If rates spike to say, 5%, it could definitely cause a slowdown in the real estate market. However, it’s fair to say that more people are expecting rate hikes this year than last year, so it will be interesting to see if buyers try to take advantage of low rates when this year’s “selling season” begins.

Will 2015 be a great year for real estate?With lots of renters currently sitting on the sidelines, and the new easier-to-afford mortgage programs, there is definitely the potential for an influx of new homebuyers in 2015. If mortgage rates cooperate by staying low, we could easily see a very strong real estate market in 2015. We’ll just have to wait and see.

>> Mortgage-free households on the rise in England

>> Paid off your mortgage? Five things to do with you

By: Anthony Kim On 21:13

Mortgage Loans