Monthly Archives: January 2010
Ilyce Glink on WSB Radio – Jan. 31, 2010
Today on the Ilyce Glink Show we discussed the latest economic news and events. We talked personal finance, real estate, and took questions from callers to answer questions on how to make the best decisions with your money. Are you joining us in Atlanta on March 27 for How To Profit From Foreclosure? Visit RealWorldSeminars.com and use discount code MONEY for a special 2 for 1 deal on full-price tickets.
Refinancing A Home When You Own Various Homes And Claim More Than One As A Primary Residence Is Trouble
When you have financial troubles, it’s hard enough managing one home. If you have multiple homes, you may have even more trouble. You can only have one primary residence. It’s at your primary residence that you have your mail sent, where you vote, where you pay income taxes, and where you spend most of your time. If you own two or more homes, only one of those homes can be your primary residence. Having multiple homes and claiming multiple primary residences will spell trouble, particularly if you are looking to refinance the mortgage on your home or want to obtain a loan modification, even if that loan modification is under the Obama Home Affordable Modification Program.
Refinancing After Bankruptcy
Refinancing today is hard enough. But refinancing after bankruptcy can be almost impossible. Years ago, lenders would refinance anybody at almost any time, even if they had a recent bankruptcy, a low credit score, or poor credit history.
You can check out your credit report by obtaining a free copy at www.annualcreditreport.com. If you do, you can get one copy per year of your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus.
If you filed for bankruptcy recently, you will find quite a number of obstacles you will need to cross prior to getting a loan approved.
First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit 2010
The first time home buyer tax credit and the existing home buyer tax credit have limitations. The first time home buyer excluded people that have owned a home within 36 months of the purchase of a new home. The existing home buyer tax credit excludes buyers if they have not owned a home for at least five out of the last eight years. That might leave a gap with first time home buyers or existing home buyers (or even move up buyers). Why? Because you can own a home and have owned it two to five years and can’t qualify for either tax credit. And if you are married, you will exclude your spouse as well from getting the credit.
How To Apply For The First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit On Your Tax Return
Now that you closed on a home, you want to get the tax credit. Be careful, you will need to send more than usual to the IRS to prove that you are entitled to the $8000 or $6500 tax credit. So before you push to e-file your tax return, make sure you understand that you won’t get the refund you were expecting unless you send in the documents required to get the tax credit. The first time home buyer tax credit is $8000 and the move up or repeat home buyer tax credit is $6500.
RightSizing Your Finances in 2010
During the 1990s and 2000s, people worked on the assumption that bigger was better. But was it? Now people have to deal with the consequences of their spending habits and borrowing demands. Now the advice needs to be on RightSizing Your Finances. That is looking at your budget, your finances, your home, and your family and deciding what is right for you. You may need to cut back on expenses, luxuries, and discretionary spending but figure out what is important to you.
Mortgage Home Loan Modification Programs When You Can’t Afford Your Payments
You might think that if you can’t afford your current mortgage payments that the first thing you should do is run to your lender and try to get a loan modification. But that may not be the right thing to do. You need to understand what your payments are on your loan before you can get a loan modification. If your payments have gone up because your insurance and real estate taxes have gone up, your lender may not be able to give you a loan modification. You might not even qualify for a loan modification under the Obama Home Affordable Modification Program or for any of the other loan modification plans.
Refinancing A Mortgage Loan Without A Job
As the real estate market worsened, mortgage underwriting requirements went from loose to tight. Now, getting a real estate mortgage is more painful than having a tooth pulled. If you don’t have a job, you had better have other steady income that you can use for your loan application. These days lenders go down their checklist looking for each item to check off. One of those items is a job. If you don’t have a job, you probably won’t be able to get a loan. If you are between jobs, you might have to start the job in order to move a loan application down the line.
Foreclosure And Your Credit Score
If you think you can save your credit history and credit score when you go through a foreclosure, short sale or other arrangement with a lender in which the lender does not get paid in full the debt owed, you’re in for a bad surprise. Foreclosures, short sales or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure will all blemish your credit history and cause your credit score to decrease substantially. Lenders do report foreclosures, short sales and deed in lieu to credit reporting companies and this reporting will cause you to go from good credit to bad credit fast. Even if you take on more credit card debt or manage other credit well, if you miss payments on a mortgage loan or you go into foreclosure with your mortgage loan, the credit hit you take will be huge.
Mortgage, Credit Card, Car Loan, And Other Debt Payments Have Changed The Real Estate Landscape
Mortgage, credit card, car loan and all other forms of debt have changed the real estate market and the outlook for real estate for 2010 and beyond. As people view the real estate market differently, real estate trends are pointing south. To say the least, real estate trends are not going in the direction they were just a couple of years ago. More and more homeowners and former homeowners are coping with changes in their lives. Rightsizing Your Finances (TM) is the way to go in 2010.
