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Mortgages

A Friend, A Home, A Mortgage

by Linda Reynolds

There comes a time over the course of any renter’s time in a particular piece of real estate where it seems that the payments are providing a great stream of income for a landlord but little for you. Indeed, as incomes begin to creep up and the ability to handle at least a portion of a mortgage becomes a possibility, more and more renters are beginning to feel that way and enlist a friend to make their home ownership dreams happen.

There is a time in life where particular income levels can outgrow renting but perhaps be too small to take on a full mortgage. As a way to either bridge that gap or land a home above a single person’s income level, friends are beginning to team up in greater numbers to operate as co-owners on a home. As with any real estate transaction, these deals require a bit of care and, more importantly, asking some tough questions of yourself and your prospective co-owner.

Why Do You Think Co-Ownership Is For You?
Everyone that ponders co-ownership needs to be sure about why it seems like a good idea. Problems can arise when you and your friend are not on the same page about the benefits you hope to see through co-ownership and that discord can harm the search for an actual home.

Are you looking for tax benefits on the new property? Are you looking to upgrade your surroundings by sharing the mortgage burden? Are you hoping to build equity and sell the home in five years? These types of motivations are common and the only way to be sure that you and your prospective co-owner are on the same page is to go ahead and ask them. It may seem silly, but this step has to come before ever going to a showing or looking at an open house as your target will change based on what you are trying to accomplish.

What Happens If You Get That Dream Job Offer?
Any plan needs contingencies and getting involved with a co-owner is no different. What happens if you get the job offer of a lifetime in a different state? Discussion needs to take place about the possible options that face both of you if one of you decides to leave town. There are a number of options available should that occur.

Of course you can both go your separate ways and sell the house but sometimes this ruins your goal of building equity if that is what you set out to do. Another option is to buy out your friend and pursue someone else as a new co-owner. No matter what your decision, it should be made before ever getting involved in the transaction to ensure a seamless transition should the time come.

How Much Do I Trust You?
While it may seem crass to ask this in regards to how you feel about your prospective housemate, the fact of the matter remains that a significant portion of your financial future is tied up with this person. If you have doubts about whether your friend has the ability to make regular payments, that should send up a red flag and end the discussion there.

Often, the loans given in these types of situations make both parties entirely liable for the entirety of the loan. That means if your friend skips town without paying, your bank can hold you solely liable for the entire balance of the loan, not the half you planned on paying. Be sure of who you get involved with for co-ownership as it could save you financial headaches in the future.

Co-ownership can be a great way to solve the problem of wasting money on rent and wanting to build equity without the income level to do so. However, before ever traveling down that path, you need to ask you and your prospective housemate these questions to make sure that you aren’t getting in over your head. Stay careful and you will ultimately find the right living situation for you.

This is another original article by Joe Lane, co-owner of The Lane Real Estate Team at http://www.joelane.com/. Are you looking for an experienced Tri City WA Real Estate agency? With 20 years of service based, business experience, Joe and Colleen Lane work hard to serve home buyers and sellers for Tri Cities WA Real Estate, Kennewick Real Estate, Richland WA Real Estate, Pasco Real Estate, and surrounding areas. Website and SEO by 1stPageSEO.com

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Find the Lowest Rate

by Linda Reynolds

So you’ve got your new home picked out and you’re ready to embark upon the long process of securing a home loan and ultimately taking ownership of your dream home. Armed with that excitement, you take to the Internet in hopes of uncovering a hidden interest rate nugget, that low rate that other people have overlooked and that you have found through persistence and effort. Well, as you embark on that trip, there are some things to keep in mind during the pursuit for the lowest interest rate possible.

There are probably thousands of web sites offering financial data that can be pertinent to your search, so it is important to quickly cut through them all and pick one that seems to be at least somewhat reputable and has easy-to-access information. You’ll probably want to focus your search on a 30-yeark, fixed-rate mortgage to get a barometer of the interest rate climate initially.

There are many sites out there that will go into detail on interest rate fluctuation but finding one with graphs that can show you the trend of that rate over time will provide you with a great piece of ammunition when trying to determine what the short term market might do and what kind of interest rate would, in the end, be a good one for the time frame you’re looking at.

In addition, there are scores of financial articles written every day about the state of the real estate market and doing some reading on the current state of the market will help you greatly in your pursuit for a low interest rate. Sites like the Wall Street Journal online and other respected newspapers usually publish their full financial sections online. Google News and other outlets can additionally offer a slew of recent financial articles with a search or two.

Each loan has its own special set of financial aspects, so comparing them can be difficult at first glance. Thankfully, there are sites out there that will do it for you and doing a search for financial loan comparisons will give you a few good results. By putting in some information about you and your financial status, you can get some loan offers back that are tailored to your situation and can be compared against each other. This is a great step to help save time that might otherwise be spent deciphering the many loan options available through a multitude of lending agencies.

Finally, be thorough in your search. If you are truly looking to get a full picture of the loans available to you, contacting your local institutions (banks and credit unions) is a great step in the process and sometimes the added benefit of supporting local business or having a nearby branch office can make up for an interest rate shortcoming. It is up to you to assign priority to something like that.

Interest rates are important but while you’ve set out to pursue the lowest rate possible, you might find that there are other benefits you haven’t considered that are important as well. These aspects should also make their way into your loan comparison as things like convenience, reliability and other factors differ from lender to lender. Decide what is important to you and what concessions you would make to accommodate one of those other desires.

Finding the lowest interest rate possible is a noble goal and with the avalanche of online information at the fingertips of anyone with an Internet connection, finding that rate is easier now that in the past. However, as you go through your search, keep in mind that a mortgage is more than just an interest rate and remain open to other benefits that might offset a bit of a higher rate.

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Prepayment Penalties Erode Your Worth

by Linda Reynolds

When a home buyer gets involved with buying a home, thoughts usually tend to center on staying in that home for a lengthy period of time, building both a family and equity. However, as we all know, your life can change in an instant and you never know when the next great job offer or life change will be presented, prompting you to leave town and seek a new beginning. It is those opportunities that prepayment penalties prey on and you should be well aware of what you’re getting in to if they are a feature of your mortgage.

Prepayment penalties typically state that if you decide to pay off the balance of your mortgage within a period of time (generally a few years from the start of the mortgage), you agree to pay a sort of penalty that is usually derived as some percentage of the interest on your mortgage over a period of time. The penalties serve loan agencies well as they seek to get some profit out of your loan even though an owner has decided to end it early, but they do a disservice to the home owner.

Naturally, you should be aware of all of the aspects of your home loan, but the section discussing prepayment penalties is perhaps one area to pay special attention to. These penalties can cost as much as a handful of monthly payments, so they do represent a significant cost. Every loan is negotiable and it is up to you and your realtor to make prepayment penalties at the very least a topic of discussion.

Much of the time, eliminating the prepayment penalty from your loan may be too difficult or the bank may ask for too much in return, so negotiating down the lengths and amounts involved could be a workable solution for both sides. Negotiating a smaller window of penalty or a smaller amount of penalty can at least make you feel that you’ve addressed the situation and if you negotiate down the window enough, can probably make you feel safe from having to pay a penalty.

If you are currently paying on a mortgage with a prepayment penalty and have a lot of that time window left to go, you may think about getting creative with how you deal with the penalty should you have to endure it. If you have a new home with new financing set up, you can elect to roll that prepayment penalty cost into the amount of your new loan to possibly get interest benefits if rates have gone down.

You can also contact your lender or real estate agent if the window is close to expiring but not fully up to see if the cost can be waived and, if so, what the bank would want in return. Perhaps financing a new property through the same bank will entice them to waive the prepayment penalty in favor of getting your repeat business. You’ll never know until you ask or your realtor pursues the matter, so it is always best to at least give it a try.

As with every step of the home buying and home ownership process, having full information with leave you better equipped to make decisions in the future. There are hundreds of little items that must be at least thought about and the presence of a prepayment penalty in your mortgage is one such item. Ask the right questions and make some attempt to negotiate down the terms of the penalty if your lender insists on making prepayment penalties a part of the mortgage. You’ll be glad later if a life-changing opportunity comes along later and you are free to pursue it without enduring the added cost of mortgage prepayment penalties.