home value
Understanding Streamline Refinancing
Q: I was trying to do a streamline refinance of my mortgage and was told that the lender can’t decrease the interest rate on my loan without changing the number of years left on my loan. I have never refinanced …
Strategic Default: When To Walk Away From Mortgages
A reader considers a strategic default on her home mortgage loan. Q: I am pushing 73 and my house is underwater. I have a first loan of about $140,000 and a second loan of about $18,000 with a 7.85 percent interest …
Selling House At A Loss Might Have Benefits
Q: Can you please help me. I am 32 years old and earn $63,000 a year and invest 8 percent of my salary into my company’s 401(k) plan. I have $90,000 in cash in the bank. I also have a …
How Will Foreclosure Affect My Credit Score
Q: I was recently divorced and bought a home. However, I have a rental property in an area which is quite depressed and where crime has increased. Homes in that area are now selling for about $15,000 and there are …
How To Buy Earthquake Insurance
Q: Who sells earthquake insurance? I have insurance through a national insurance carrier but they no longer carry it as an extra option. Can you get earthquake insurance from a central location and still keep my current insurance carrier? A: …
Increase Property Value With Neighborhood and Community Efforts
Q: I have worked on helping my community in the past on the issue of blight as an involved resident. I have brought to my association’s board articles that state that liens can be placed on properties to enforce our …
Refinancing Options For Homeowners Underwater
Q: Our home is under underwater. We have a first mortgage with a big box lender for about $450,000 at a fixed rate of 6.5 percent and a second with a different big box lender for $100,000 at a variable …
Prepaying Mortgage Will Reduce Length Of Loan
Q: In one of your recent articles, you addressed the point of making one extra mortgage payment a year to reduce the term of a mortgage. Your response states that doing this will reduce the term of a 30-year mortgage …
Refinancing A Home Equity Loan In Texas
Q: We refinanced and took money out of our home in 2005 with a Texas home equity loan at 7.5 percent. Whenever I ask about refinancing with any one of numerous mortgage companies, I am told that any refinance would …
Delinquent Mortgage Fees Create Revenue For Mortgage Lenders
Q: I read your article my local paper titled “Mortgage Modification is Stymied” and I, too, am appalled at the treatment many borrowers receive in the modification process. Most of the large lenders simply have not staffed their servicing departments …
