Article Sphere Logo

Biggest Home Mortgage Mistakes

By Expert Author: Lee Keadle | View Article Summary
Word Count: 559 words | Views: 85 view(s)
Lee Keadle

I’ve included below some of the most problems borrowers find themselves in after signing off on their home loans. The good news is that all of these mistakes can be avoided! So, don’t let these happen to you!

1) Biting off more than you can chew. This is the worst problem we see from past borrowers. Although a lender may approve you for higher loan that what you were expecting, it doesn’t mean that you should necessarily buy a home that expensive. Find out what the monthly payment will be, and compare that amount to what you currently pay for housing. Will it be a stretch to make that payment every month? It’s not worth taking the risk and having to sell the home later simply because you couldn’t afford it to being with. You don’t want to be stuck with a home that you never should have bought.

2) Opting for an adjustable rate mortgage. I think all buyers have learned from this mistake by seeing other home buyers on the news in the past year or so. Although ARMs made a little more sense back in the 1980s when rates were triple or quadruple what they are now, it’s simply better to know what your monthly payment will be for the next twenty or thirty years. Also, with the incredibly low rates we’re seeing right now, it makes sense to go ahead and lock in what may potentially be the lowest rate we see again for years.

3) Getting Mortgage life insurance. In the first few months after closing on your home, you’ll get plenty of mail telling you to get mortgage life insurance or mortgage disability insurance. Both of these kinds of policies pay your mortgage bills in the chance that you die or get disabled (and are unable to work). These policies are typically so overpriced that it’s practically a rip off. If you want to get an insurance policy to cover your mortgage, it would be better to get a general life insurance plan or disability insurance (not one specifically for a mortgage).

4) Relying on Prequalification. Many buyers confuse getting prequalified to getting preapproved. Some of these buyers learn the difference the hard way when the lender who prequalified them a month ago tells them a day before closing that they’re actually not going to be able to get the home they picked out. And, yes, this does really happen to people. Be sure to get preapproved before you make an offer on a home. Preapproval is a much more thorough and accurate process than simply getting prequalified.

5) Choosing a bad lender. Simply put, be sure that you choose a lender who will actually lend you the money when the time comes. This mistake usually ties in with the previous mistake – meaning that some lenders don’t take the necessary steps to really look into a borrower’s situation until right before closing. Be sure to ask your real estate agent for recommendations. He or she will be able to give you a short list of people you can contact who have a good history of getting their borrowers to the closing table.
About the Author/Author Bio

Lee Keadle works in the James Island SC real estate market, but he works with all Charleston homes for sale, including Summerville homes for sale.

Article Source: http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/Biggest-Home-Mortgage-Mistakes/172673

Article Submitted: 2009-01-05 | This Article has been viewed 85 times.

Comments on this Article


More "Mortgages Refinance" Related Articles

 
 

Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Mortgages Refinance" article category.

People interested in the above article "Biggest Home Mortgage Mistakes" are also interested in the related articles listed below:

 
If you had to resort to a home mortgage to purchase your property, and you are in an advanced stage of repayment, thinking about a home mortgage refinancing may give you extra money to count within your monthly budget. Many times, after a while living in a property, there are certain repairs that happen to be done. A broken roof or old plumb cannot stay that way forever, but we are always thinking about something else that has to be paid first and we leave our properties to loose bright and value with the pass of the years.
Being as it is, increasingly difficult to pay off mortgage installments, more and more people are resorting to long term mortgages in an intent to reduce the amount of the monthly payments. If there is no other option for purchasing your own property there is no much to discuss. However, if it is possible to afford a shorter term mortgage it is wise to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of closing on a long term mortgage deal with your home loan lender.
Although banks love the lawyers whose services they can buy, either as government legislators, regulators, or law firms who will lie to courts about foreclosure cases, these same lenders rarely enjoy talking to the legal representative of a homeowner.
This weekend on the radio, there was an interesting discussion among a handful of financial and mortgage experts about the banking industry's current fascination with loan modification programs. The participants in the discussion came up with some very good points about the modifications that lenders are currently offering to homeowners in foreclosure trying to lower their monthly bills and how banks use attorneys to pursue foreclosure but do not want to deal with a homeowner's legal representation.
A "Jumbo" mortgage is defined as a loan that is too large to be bought by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. Depending on the state, limits range from just under $420,000 to $730,000. When the credit crisis was at its peak, jumbo mortgages were hard to find. Lenders looked at them as an unecessary risk and these mortgages were down 70 per cent in 2008 from prior years. Now that the dust has cleared, some companies are considering the jumbo mortgage market a new opportunity. As mortgage rates continue to drop, so do rates for 30-year jumbo mortgages.
The government and the President have a new plan to help homeowners out of foreclosure. We refer to it as the "Obama Plan". Many homeowners are hoping and praying for the best, but if history has shown us anything, we know it's always best to have a back up plan.
Over $9 million was deposited into an account controlled by Bell. This complex scheme resulted in charges to 24 co-conspirators for bank and wire fraud, money laundering and corrupt racketeering activity. They had participants from real estate, title insurance, appraisal and notary public.
 
Article Directory Home All Categories Finance Mortgages Refinance
 

Can't find what you're looking for? Try Google Search!
 
 
Copyright © 2005 - by Larry Lim, Singapore - Article Search Engine Directory at ArticleSphere.com™
All Rights Reserved Worldwide. All Trademarks and Servicemarks are the property of the respective owners.
French Spanish Bulgarian Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croation Czech Danish Dutch Finnish German Greek Italian Japanese Korean Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Swedish Arabic Hebrew Hungarian Thai Turkish English US