Monthly Archives: December 2009

Refinancing while you're unemployed may not be possible since lenders are requiring more documentation, and it may not be the best way to save money. If you're trying to save money while you're unemployed, refinancing is probably not the best option when you're unemployed. Closing costs will take up a good bit of cash. Anytime you're thinking about refinancing, not just if you're unemployed, make sure you're cutting down on the term of your loan and saving on your payments. Otherwise, it's not worth it to refinance.

Loan Modification: 6 Things To Do If You're In Loan Modification Hell. Bank of America knows that many Americans are frustrated with the slow pace of loan modifications. The company provided six things you can do to help speed up the process. Call your servicer at off-peak times, prepare loan documentation in advance, make the trial modification payments on time, complete paperwork accurately, be aware of foreclosure relief scams, and never make a mortgage payment to anyone other than your lender; Free books, ebook deal. See below for titles.

Herman Cain Show Notes - December 14, 2009 ThinkGlink Events/Real World Seminar events. Announcing our next event: How to Invest in 2010. Join us at Gwinnett Center for GREAT information on investing, including long-term and short-term outlooks, retirement funds, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs and your child's college education. Tonight on Herman Cain we discussed President Obama's stern words to the banking industry about lending more to qualified borrowers. He also told them to get their lobbyists in line. Was he right to say that?

Ilyce Glink Show Notes - December 13, 2009; Ilyce Glink attends the JDRF 2009 Benefit and hears Crosby, Stills, and Nash perform. The ticket window is now open for our latest event: How To Invest In 2010. Renovation Costs: Cost v. Value survey from Remodeling Magazine.

Today on the Ilyce Glink show, we discussed the Spring Atlanta event, "How To Invest Your Money in 2010." Visit RealWorldSeminars.com to buy tickets. Make sure you get the special earlybird pricing! Ilyce also discussed the latest economic news, including financial reform in Congress. A listener called to ask how she can figure out how much to spend on her renovation project. Ilyce told her to look around at as many homes in the neighborhood as she can to get an idea of what the "neighborhood standard" is. Listen to the full show here, or download from iTunes. Check Ilyce's blog for more show notes and helpful links.

What do you do when your loan servicing company stops taking calls and its website wishes you good luck? Where do you send you monthly mortgage payment? Now that many lenders have gone out of business and some servicing companies have ceased their operations, where does that leave the borrowers? The process of transferring loans from some services to others has been a nightmare for some borrowers, particularly those borrowers formerly serviced by Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Company. (You can read their horror stories on our site.)

Some people will benefit by buying a home in 2009 and qualifying for the $8000 first time home buyer tax credit. Others will be happy to sell their old homes and buy new ones and qualify for the $6500 repeat home buyer tax credit. Still others will buy more insulation for their homes, install solar panels, wind turbines or high efficiency water heaters, high efficiency furnaces and high efficiency air-conditioning units and can obtain a tax credit for those items. Some of those items must be energy star compliant to qualify. But best of all are those people that buy homes, get the tax credits, make improvements to their homes and get an additional tax credit for those improvements.

The first time home buyer tax credit has been extended, but that does not mean that you qualify for the tax credit if you purchased your home in years prior to when the tax credit was enacted. To qualify for the first time home buyer tax credit or even the $6500 repeat home buyer tax credit, you must comply with specific rules. For the first time home buyer tax credit, you must not have owned a property for the last three years (36 months) and you must earn below a certain amount to qualify. The first time home buyer tax credit is $8000. The money does not need to be repaid. The repeat home buyer tax credit allows people that have owned a property for the last five years to buy a new primary home and obtain a $6500 tax credit. Again, there are income restrictions and forms to file with the IRS.