Cancelling Credit Cards to Get Cash Out Refinance. You have an excellent credit score, great credit history, plenty of equity, and yet lender wants borrower to cancel many of his credit cards to qualify for a refinance. Q: I have a situation in my mortgage refinance process and need your advice. My lender wants me [...]
If you have an FHA loan and are underwater, you may be able to still obtain a streamline refinancing with a lender. See if you qualify. Q: I purchased and closed on a home May of 2009. The house is now 30 percent underwater. We bought it for around $120,000 and now its worth around [...]
If you are trying to refinancing your underwater mortgage be careful your lender does not charge you excessive fees. Shop around. Q: We are underwater with our home. We have never been late on our payments and have good credit. We called our lender and we were accepted for the HARP 2.0 loan program. Our [...]
Sell a property or lose it in foreclosure, you may end up with phantom income and have taxes to pay taxes on the forgiven debt. Q: Will mortgage companies report to the government the loss of a foreclosed property so that the person will have to pay taxes as earned income for the following tax [...]
I grew up with a wonderful dog, Maverick (maybe why my dad loved the movie Top Gun so much). Our dog brought great joy to my family, and I couldn’t imagine my childhood without him. However, while having a pet was wonderful, now I see that there are also effects certain types of pets may [...]
New residential construction figures released this week by the the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development exhibit the effects of the ongoing foreclosure crisis. Fewer housing start projects are being completed than ever before. According to a joint press release issued yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the [...]
Gone are the days of paper ledgers and tallying up your cancelled checks. With smartphones, people are emailing, making dinner reservations, destroying angry birds, and impressing friends with their words. Now, with advancing technology and increased security for mobile apps, smartphone users are also managing their finances safely and conveniently from the palms of their [...]
Tara Holloway, the IRS Special Agent in Diane Kelly’s book, Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure, fantasized about what to do with her tax refund. She noted that the $400 she was due was “enough to pay for the bikini I’d ordered and then some. Woo-hoo!” Over the years, I’ve heard lots of great ideas [...]
What's better a Larger or Smaller Down Payment when you are buying a home and get a home mortgage. The simple answer is that it depends. Q: If I buy a home and put down $30,000 and then wait until the end of the year and pay another $30,000 toward the principal owed on the [...]
Cozy relationships with DC legislators fueled the housing crisis. The blame game goes on, you need to look to the voters to make a change. When it comes to the housing and foreclosure crisis, there’s plenty of blame to go around. But over the past few weeks, we’ve receive quite a few letters along the [...]
