A homeowner wonders if they may drop their mortgage insurance because they have paid more than 20% on their mortgage. For FHA home loans that originated before January 1, 2001, MI cannot be canceled. The only way to get rid of it is to refinance your home loan with a conventional lender.
A home buyer is offered a balloon mortgage. Ilyce explains how they work.
If you prepay your regular monthly mortgage payment it may be applied incorrectly to your mortgage loan. Mortgage companies usually see prepayments as extra money to go toward the principal of the mortgage loan. When the mortgage company does not then receive your mortgage payment at the designated due date they may think you're delinquent in making your mortgage payment. How can you avoid this? You can have the mortgage payment deducted automatically from your account to avoid mix ups.
A new condominium owner wonders if it is too soon to refinance. Ilyce states that it is never too soon to refinance, after purchase. The important thing is to figure out how much the refinance is going to cost you out of pocket and how long it will take you to recoup those expenses.
A couple wants to buy a new home but he is self-employed. Ilyce suggests waiting two years and paying down debt.
As you age you'll continue to have expenses but you likely won't have a job or extra income coming in. How can you meet your expenses as an elderly person? If property taxes put a big dent in your resources, you may want to consider selling your property and renting a home. Other options for retirement income include reverse mortgages and cutting unnecessary expenses.
A home buyer is having trouble getting a mortgage due to student loans. Mortgage lenders decide how much of a mortgage you can afford based partly on your debt-to-income ratio. What lenders do is simple math. A conventional lender will allow you to spend up to 36 percent of your gross monthly income on your total debt payments (mortgage, insurance and other debt).
If you're single, you can keep up to the first $250,000 ($500,000 if you're married) in profits tax free as long as you've lived in your home for two of the past five years. The capital gain does not need to be reported to the IRS unless you exceed the $250,000 or $500,000 level in profits. However, you may only take the exclusion once every 24 months.
Non-profit credit repair or budgeting services should only be used if you are on the verge on bankruptcy. Using a credit repair service when you aren't on the verge of bankruptcy can sometimes cause damage to your credit. Having debt reported as "closed by credit grantor" can be a black mark on your credit report. Finish the pay-back program, and then you can start to recover your credit.
A person used a non-profit credit repair service and now can not qualify for a car loan. Ilyce explains to use these services only if you are on the verge of bankruptcy.
