April 2007
Monthly Archive
16 Apr 2007 07:03 am
Accessing Your Credit Report Triggers Offers
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Can you put a stop to those postal mailed mortgage offers that begin arriving soon after you apply for a mortgage? Or is it easier to simply let them keep coming until you find a better deal? Much to the chagrin of some consumer advocates, when you apply for a mortgage and the lender pulls your credit report, your file lights up like a runway for other companies with money to lend. It’s not that the original lender is selling information about your every move, creditors are taking advantage of federal law that allows credit bureaus to identify you and other mortgage applicants to companies that want to pitch their product to you often in the form of “prescreened” or “preapproved” credit. |
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search for : mortgage offers, credit report
15 Apr 2007 06:35 am
Mortgage terms modified to avoid foreclosure
| Loan modification represents just one approach that mortgage servicers can use to stem the tide of foreclosures. Other techniques include: Repayment plans that reduce unpaid balances over time through small, regular add-ons to borrowers’ monthly payments. Forbearance agreements whereby principal and interest payments are reduced or even suspended for a period of time, enabling the borrowers to get their finances under control. Then the regular payments resume, along with gradual reimbursements of balances in arrears. |
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search for : Loan modification, mortgage servicer, tide of foreclosures, monthly payments, Forbearance agreement
14 Apr 2007 08:08 am
Credit Unions: The Silent Source
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Credit unions which are run as nonprofit cooperatives, typically do not have enough money to market their mortgage offerings, and their mortgages are not offered through outside brokers. So consumers often overlook some highly useful alternatives that credit unions offer. About 200 credit unions affiliated with the Credit Union National Association have offered a low-interest Home Loan Payment Relief mortgage since late 2005. The program is limited, with some exceptions, to borrowers with household incomes at or below their area’s median income. |
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search for : Credit unions, mortgage, Credit Union National Association
13 Apr 2007 06:36 am
Assessing the best way for you to buy a home
| Because there are more houses and condos listed for sale in most communities than there are qualified buyers, that is known as a “buyer’s market.” The buyer is king. Unfortunately, many buyers (especially first-timers) are not aware of the best ways to buy a home to get the best price and terms. The place where more than 70 percent of today’s home buyers start their search is on the Internet, usually at www.Realtor.com and other large Web sites showing most local listings available. After searching local residence listings available and perhaps visiting a few open houses, the next step for savvy home buyers is to get preapproved in writing by a mortgage lender. The reason for this key step is to avoid disappointment later if you discover you have credit issues or can’t afford to buy the home you want. |
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search for : buyer’s market, home buyers, www.Realtor.com
12 Apr 2007 07:54 am
Good advice for the first-time renter
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Are you leaving the nest and becoming a first-time renter? He’ll have lots of company. According to the 2005 U.S. Census Community Survey, more than 36 million rental units are rented out in the United States. That’s a lot of first-time renters who have found a place to call home. Leaving home to become a tenant is a big step towards adult responsibility. For many, it’s the first time their behavior impacts permanently on the future — from credit and personal reference history to negative legal possibilities. What do landlords look for? “I like to meet the parents,” explains Jim Stilton, who manages more than 500 units in Los Angeles. “Meeting the parents gives me a sense of their involvement and responsibility.” |
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search for : first-time renter
11 Apr 2007 08:15 am
Coping With Alt-A Loans
| Losses in loans made to the riskiest borrowers have raised fears that lenders would cease making many of the exotic loans that have become popular over the past few years. Nearly 40 percent of all loans made in 2006 fell into the subprime or Alt-A category. Like most mortgages, Alt-A loans are sold by lenders to Wall Street investments banks, which package those loans into bonds called mortgage-backed securities. Mortgage-backed bonds are then sold to investors. Bonds based on he Alt-A loans are potentially riskier because in many cases borrowers do not prove their income, or have very little invested in their house. |
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search for : exotic loans, subprime, Alt-A category
10 Apr 2007 08:19 am
Are You Feeling The Effects Of “Subprime Borrowing”?
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As hundreds of billions of dollars worth of these loans “reset” to higher monthly payments, many so-called subprime borrowers — historically those with shaky credit histories — are sitting on financial time bombs. They’re finding out the hard way that the paperwork they signed may have buried them under a crushing debt load they can’t sustain. For some, the lesson learned is: “buyer beware.” But a series of interviews with subprime borrowers, mortgage lenders, appraisers, current and former regulators, and the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development paints a different picture — of a widespread pattern of questionable lending practices and outright fraud that has already sparked a wave of criminal and civil actions against various players in the $10 trillion market for residential mortgages. |
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search for : subprime borrower, residential mortgage
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