If you're a foreign national that wants to purchase a home in the US you should definitely stay away from mobile homes. A mobile home is just as the name suggests, mobile. They have a trailer hitch and wheels which means a homeowner can move the home somewhere else anytime that they want to. If this happens the lender is left with only the land that the home was on. So much for any collateral the foreign national mortgage lender had. Now they're left with a vacant lot.
Mobile homes are also very attractive to tornados and hurricanes because they are made out of metal. The tornados and hurricanes hone in on the mobile home parks and reck havoc. Also because they are made out of metal they are not as strong as a home made out of wood or bricks.
Mobile homes also do not appreciate as fast as a traditional home. lenders do not lend on mobile homes and most other US mortgage lenders do not want to lend on them either. Stay away from mobile homes in your search for a US in the US.
In a recent article, First Foundation Residential Mortgages told that the average apartment rental vacancy rate (taken from Canada's 35 major centres) decreased from 2.8% in 2007 to 2.6% in 2008.
Also, In Edmonton, we have seen the vacancy rate increase from 1.1% in 2007 to 3.4% in 2008.
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Mr. Bob Ross is a lead instructor and curriculum developer for The Business Broker Academy.During his career, Mr. Ross has personally trained over 500 business brokers. He is currently the President of Brokers Network Group, a professional network composed of more than 100 highly experienced Business Brokers and Intermediaries.Founded by Bob Ross, this is an association of independent co-operative business brokerage firms located throughout the U.S. and Canada. He brings more than 25 years experience in the business brokerage field, with additional general management experience as a business owner / operator.
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A Reverse Mortgage HECM, sometimes referred to as a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), is a special type of home mortgage that lets a homeowner convert a portion of the equity in his or her home into money in their pocket. Simply put, a reverse mortgage is the exact opposite of a regular mortgage. The lender pays the borrower, and the borrower's debt will increase as the equity in their home decreases. It allows individuals aged 62 and older to convert their home's equity into tax free cash to help act as a second income during retirement. A reverse mortgage is a great way to tap into the equity of your home if you are not looking to sell your home and are also looking for tax free income. You may be asking yourself, just how does this work, and when will the loan need to be paid back?
Reverse Mortgage Loan Details
Reverse mortgage loans can be withdrawn in one (or more) of three options:
1. Lump sum - funds can be withdrawn all at once if desired
2. Line of credit - at the discretion of the borrower, any amount desired up to the maximum loan amount may be withdrawn in one or more dispersions throughout the life of the mortgage.
3. Monthly Payment - the most popular choice by far, as a fixed payment is made to the borrower until the balance is depleted.
As aforementioned, the monthly payment option is chosen the most often. I have heard that some 95% of Reverse Mortgage HECM s choose this option, as folks in retirement want to supplement their monthly income, without sacrificing other benefits. Loan proceeds by the way of monthly checks are not considered income and therefore will not affect any of your Social Security or Medicare benefits. A great benefit for the loan is that no payments are due until the house is used for something other than a primary residence by any of the initial borrowers. You do not need to repay the loan as long as you or one of the borrowers continues to live in the house and keeps the taxes and insurance current.
What If My Distributions Exceed My Home's Appraised Value?
Another great benefit of the Reverse Mortgage HECM is that you can never owe more than your home's appraised value. If your loan balance ends up to be greater than the value of your home, then your mortgage insurance will make up the difference. This feature protects you and your heirs from a future debt that is greater than the value of your home, as well as making sure that you can not be forced out of your home so long as you keep paying the necessary taxes and insurance. Even if the appraised value of your home plummets, it will not affect your reverse mortgage. Any additional value acquired from the sale of the home would be passed onto the surviving legal recipients (beneficiaries).
ONE KEY POINT - in order to qualify for a Reverse Mortgage HECM, you must not have any other liens on your home. If you have an existing mortgage, it must be paid off with the proceeds from the reverse mortgage. This is generally not a problem though, as if you are 62 , it is likely that you will already own your home free and clear.
You know it's rough out there when you hear that . When I heard on the news that he is about to lose his home to I thought it had to be a joke. After all Ed McMahon was the sidekick to Johnny Carson, of The Tonight Show, for decades. He should have money that will last for generations to come. He owes about $4.8mm and is about $644K behind. He's about to lose his home to Countrywide in a actions because he hasn't made his monthly mortgage payments. He's not the only prominent person in this kind of situation. U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson, a California Democrat, recently lost a home in Sacramento to a foreclosure.
How did this happen? Ed McMahon should have been set for life after working with Johnny Carson for years and years. I read that he broke his neck about 18 months ago and hasn't been able to work since but he's 85 yrs old and shouldn't even have to still be working. McMahon's home has been on the market for the last 2 yrs and they have reduced the price but still no buyers. If Ed McMahon didn't have enough put away for retirement, what hope can there be for the rest of us that weren't on hit shows for decades?
All these foreclosures are good news for people that have money to buy these homes and good enough credit and income.
I really got my knickers in a twist recently because my bank, which was Lloyds Bank, sent me solicitors letters threatening court action for an overdraft of about £600.
They also closed my account and I was left with no means of using money other than cash. This made life impossible. I also could not open another bank account because of the blacklisting of me as having a bad credit record .
The situation seemed dire and really got to me.
The reason for the £600 overdraft ? Every penny of it consisted of Lloyds bank’s penalty fees for an unauthorised overdraft which was originally only £5. But even that £5 was part of a sum of about £160 which had been filched from my Lloyds bank account by an insurance company misusing my debit card details for a household insurance policy that was never authorised by me at all.
It was all the result of a completely dishonest mortgage broker trying to ram a dubious mortgage down my throat which I eventually declined to take up. The other part of the total sum filched from me was when I made a one off internet payment of £17 using my debit card and it continued to be debited dishonestly from my account every month for over a year. It was a deliberate theft, common on the internet.
My pleas to Lloyds bank in many letters, and personal visits to counter staff asking my bank to cease these unauthorised payments from my account fell on deaf ears. Lloyds bank told me they couldn’t stop the payments. They point blank refused to stop allowing fraudsters to take money from my bank account. How bizarre can you get?
Then I learnt about the bank charges scam and all the legal actions going on throughout the country. I discovered the banks have stolen tens of millions of pounds from thousands of people under the pretence of them being legitimate charges for unauthorised overdrafts. The whole country is up in arms about it.
Recently I learned all the banks have managed to stuff the entire World economy by virtue of extremely bad behaviour and sheer greed in manipulating money. Governments are even complaining about it. The whole World is wondering if the banks have led everyone into complete financial meltdown.
Then for three months recently I failed to pay any monthly payment to my Capital One credit card account due to an oversight on my part. I didn’t use the card and the only outstanding balance on the card was just £13. They charged me penalties amounting to £39. This works out at an interest rate of about an incredible 1200 per cent. That is pure theft.
With experiences like this and feedback from many other people suffering similar problems, I began to realise the entire financial industry had become utterly different from years ago when it had a reputation for honesty and straight dealing. Now it seemed to rely on deviousness, mis-representation and downright fraud to make money.
More and more people are openly complaining about an ever increasing tidal wave of greed as well as obvious deviousness and dishonesty coming from all sectors of the financial industry, and particularly from banks.
When I saw how many people were beginning to fight back I realised the banks had conned vast swathes of the population.
I think the banks are thoroughly dishonest, outrageously expensive to use for any purpose, and extremely damaging to the entire country. It is about time something was done about it.
If you are a first time buyer with no experience of getting a mortgage, professional advice from a mortgage broker who can use the market as a whole may potentially assist you make an informed decision on the most suitable mortgage product to meet your current needs and circumstances.
This will be probably, the biggest financial commitment you will make so helpful guidance is essential. It is important not to over stretch yourself and plan that your future borrowing can be met and suits your needs.
Subject to satisfying the individual lenders criteria a lender may offer to lend money to purchase a property in the form of a mortgage. A residential mortgage which is a loan secured on your new home means that if you are unable to service the loan they own a large percentage of your home and can repossess that property if you are unable to service that loan correctly. You will only receive a mortgage if you match their lending criteria.
This is unlike a unsecured loan for example a personnel loan from a bank. There are many issues and components to a mortgage that should be understood. For example what is loan to value, early repayment charge, stamp duty, debt consolidation, self cert, disbursements, deposit and mortgage arrears. Take note that some mentioned are actual mortgage products and options which may not be included within a mortgage as a component.
You can potentially save a lot of money by choosing the right mortgage for you, insuring it is the most suitable mortgage to meet your current needs and circumstances. . But your mortgage is a long term commitment and the deal that you take out should match your requirements. For example if you plan to only live at the property for a while due to job transfer you may consider having a portable mortgage or a home loan without early repayment charges. If you redeemed the mortgage early high penalty could be charged. As guidance how an early repayment charge can apply for example by taking out an incentivised product such as fixed rate, discounted and capped rate these could incur early repayment charges after the incentive has expired.
Most brokers understand that selling to referred clients and selling to cold prospects are so different that they can’t be compared fairly. Generating referrals, however, can be a struggle for many brokers. But if you can offer your clients a service with inherent value, you may see your referral business boom.
Most mortgage clients understand that their credit report influences their loan and its terms. For many, then, credit review and improvement can mean the world — not to mention a favorable mortgage.
For brokers, credit proofreading — or credit review and rescoring — can be an effective referral-generating opportunity. This service helps you identify errors in your clients’ credit reports, as well as ways they can correct the errors.
In fact, many FICO scores could be wrong. A 2004 U.S. Public Interest Research Group report found that 25 percent of credit reports contain “errors serious enough to deny consumers access to credit.” This could mean that one of in four
applicants may be turned down because their credit score was wrongly and unnecessarily lowered in error.
Another type of error that can deflate FICO scores and that often is more damaging involves credit-use. These errors often appear in different forms, which makes them hard to detect. Worse, consumers who seemingly make good short-term financial decisions inadvertently commit credit use errors without realizing it.
In fact, many consumers use credit in ways that needlessly lower their scores. Some have too many credit cards. Others don’t have enough. The same goes for credit balances. It all depends on how the credit fits into their profiles and how Fair Isaac and Co. interprets consumers’ new credit.
Mortgage brokers can help their clients identify these errors, however, and work toward reconciling them and increasing their credit scores. To offer a credit-review and rescoring service, you’ll likely want software that detects any hint of data or usage errors within a credit profile. The software scans an applicants’ entire credit profiles each time you order a credit report. Results are then neatly categorized by the type of error, with credit-use errors separated from
data errors.
Once detected, these tools tell you how to fix the errors and how many more points your clients will get by doing so. With the help of a credit-reporting agency, your clients often can see higher credit scores in just three days. When you position your credit review in a way that presents you as a qualifying expert, you’re moving down the referral runway. Taking the next step and demonstrating that you can improve your clients’ credit health can enhance your referrals.
People are concerned with every detail of their financial lives, and with credit proofreading, their credit profile becomes the one financial area in which you can help. And because healthier credit profiles often mean higher credit scores and better mortgage terms, many clients go out of their way to send you their friends and family members.
This blog is posted by for your convenience. Need Financing? Call Christina Felgenhauer @ 239-699-1462 or email Professional, Fast, Reliable!!
May 29, 11:41 AM EDT By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rates on 30-year mortgages jumped this week to the highest level since mid-March as investors began to worry about what the Federal Reserve will do to combat growing inflation pressures.
Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported Thursday that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.08 percent this week. That was up from 5.98 percent last week.
It was the highest level for 30-year mortgages in 11 weeks, since they averaged 6.13 percent the week of March 16.
Analysts attributed the increase to rising concerns in financial markets about what the Fed might do to battle increased inflation pressures. Financial markets this week pushed the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds above 4 percent for the first time in five months.
"Mortgage rates drifted up this week over market concerns that the Federal Reserve Board may raise short-term interest rates later this year," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist.
Richard Fisher, head of the Fed's regional bank in Dallas, said Wednesday night that if inflationary developments continue to worsen then "I would expect a change of course in monetary policy to occur sooner rather than later, even in the face of an anemic" economy.
Comments such as those have prompted concerns among bond investors that the Fed, which cut rates aggressively starting in September, may switch course and begin raising rates later this year.
Most other types of mortgage rates showed increases this week, according to the Freddie Mac survey.
Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 5.66 percent, up from 5.55 percent last week.
The five-year adjustable-rate mortgage edged up to 5.62 percent, compared to 5.61 percent last week. However, the rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage edged down slightly, dropping to 5.22 percent, compared to 5.24 percent last week.
The housing market is facing numerous headwinds at present from slumping prices, which are keeping potential buyers on the fence, to rising mortgage defaults which are dumping more homes on an already glutted market. In addition, many banks have raised their lending standards in response to a surge in mortgage defaults.
The mortgage rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The nationwide average fee for 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages and one-year adjustable-rate mortgages was 0.6 point. The five-year ARM had an average fee of 0.5 point.
A year ago, rates on 30-year mortgages stood at 6.42 percent, 15-year mortgage rates averaged 6.12 percent, five-year adjustable-rate mortgages were at 6.19 percent and one-year adjustable-rate mortgages were at 5.57 percent.
With the real estate market slowdown that is going on in the US right now, mortgage lenders are getting very picky about what condos they will lend on. If you are a foreign national that is looking to purchase a condo in the United States, I would suggest that you find out if US mortgage lenders will lend on that particular property.
A couple of the reasons that US lenders will not lend on some condos are listed below.
1. Too many foreclosures. Yes, the reason that you want to buy that condo is the same reason that the mortgage lender doesn't want to lend on it. You're buying it because the price is cheap, it's a foreclosed property and you're getting a deal on it. If there are too many foreclosures in that condo development the lender will not want to lend on it.
2. Homeowners associations may be broke. There are a few homeowners associations that don't even have enough funds to hire landscapers or pay for homeowners insurance. You don't want to buy into a condo building that doesn't have enough funds to run itself.
3. It's a preconstruction and not enough condo units have already closed. Mortgage lenders these days are not too excited about being one of the first lenders to close in a development.
Find a mortgage broker that is experienced in that you can work with throughout the buying process so that you will be able to secure financing in the US. I am finding that too many foreign nationals don't have a good and therefore haven't received good advice during the process. Alot of times this means that they are unable to secure financing on a property that they have already signed a contract on and given an earnest money deposit. Be proactive. Get your mortgage financing in order before you start shopping for a home in the US.
Finding the right mortgage professional to help you get your closed quickly and with less paperword is very important. If they don't know what they are doing, your foreign national mortgage may never close.