Monthly Archives: July 2010

If you're drowning in loan payments and in jeopardy of losing your house there are a lot of different options for trying to save the house or walking away from it. However, when your debt-to-income ratio is too high there isn't much help available. Possible options include short sale, giving the home back to the lender in a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, walking away from the home in a strategic default move, or filing for bankruptcy to protect what you do have. While refinancing may be an option to lower your interest rate, you may be unable to refinance your loan during the current home loan crisis.

Refinance an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) with interest rates as low as they are today is a wise decision. If you can't decide what new rate to pick to refinance your home loan, you have to make a decision that best fits your needs for the next five to seven years. With historically low interest rates, you need to pick the right interest rate and loan term. During the process to refinance your loan, you may want to negotiate for a better interest rate with your lender or find a new lender offering a lower interest rate and lower closing costs.

Buying a short sale can be a long and frustrating process, only made more so if the sale if held up by the lender. Lenders don't want to lose money on a short sale, so they have more incentive to hold up approving an offer on a short sale. Give the lender a deadline to approve or reject your offer to buy a short sale. If the lender doesn't approve your offer to buy a short sale, move on. There are a lot of short sales and foreclosures on the market. Don't let the lender control your future if the short sale process goes on too long.

Pregnant women and new mothers are being targeted by unfair mortgage lenders according to the New York Times. Mortgage lenders are illegally refusing to grant loans to women because of their maternity leave status. Lender discrimination is prohibited by The Fair Housing Act prohibits on the basis of sex, familial status (pregnancy or children in the family), or disability. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is investigating illegal lending practices that discriminate against pregnant women.

Going through a short sale or foreclosure after a divorce will severely hurt your credit. Dividing up debts, keepsakes and housing can be the hardest part of a divorce, but a short sale or foreclosure is not an easy solution. While a short sale or foreclosure after divorce can severely hurt your credit, you might be better off with a short sale or foreclosure rather than a bankruptcy. A good real estate attorney can help you make that financial decision and lessen the impact of a short sale or foreclosure on your credit after a divorce.

How to file a complaint against a bank when you're having loan modification problems. So many people are in loan modification hell right now, and it's not always the borrowers fault. The banks are backed up and overwhelmed with loan modification problems, and borrowers should be able to file a complaint against a bank. If you file a complaint against a bank you might have a better chance of getting the bank to pay attention to your loan modification problems.