Buy House

How to Buy a House -- A guide for first-time home buyers How to Buy a House home Learn the basics 1. The Basics 2. How much home can you afford? 3. The Down Payment 4. The Loan - Assuming a Loan - Owner Financing 5. Qualifying for a loan 6. Understand Closing Costs Do the groundwork 7. Get your finances in order 8. Clean Up Your Credit Record 9. Establish Credit if you don't have any The Process 10. Find a Lender 11. Get the bank's offer 12. Start looking at houses 13. Get the Disclosure 14. Sign a Contract 15. Pay Earnest Money 16. Have the House Inspected 17. Problems on the Inspection? 18. Appraisal, Survey, & Insurance 19. Appraisal went through? 20. Closing! After the purchase Avoding scams More about Mortgages How much loan can you get? Understand Compound Interest Paying off a 30-yr. loan in 15 yrs. Private Mortgage Insurance Other Appendices Renting vs. Buying: Financial Impacts Don't pay cash even if you can The Debt Ratio Figuring your monthly pmt. If you won't live long enough to pay off the mortgage Tax breaks are actually welfare for the rich Other Links to helpful sites Fan Mail Michael Bluejay's home page Email Me How to Buy a House VA Loans VA Mortgage Center . Loans and Refinancing here. Welcome! I'm a real estate investor. I've bought and sold a few homes so I'm in a good position to explain how to buy a house to first-time home buyers. I'm not a realtor, and I'm not trying to sell you anything. I created this site only to share my knowledge of house-buying with others; I wanted to create the guide that *I* wish I had when I was a rookie home buyer. This is not an exhaustive guide -- I don't cover every single possible detail related to buying a house. On the other hand, this site contains a lot more than a typical pamphlet or even what you'd learn from most realtors. Certainly many people have bought houses without knowing nearly this much . (Including me, when I bought my first home.) I believe everything here to be accurate, but of course it's "use at your own risk". And by the way, I have no idea whether the house-buying info listed here applies anywhere outside the USA. Ready to get started? Then go to the first lesson : The Basics of Buying a House. -- Michael Bluejay Next: The Basics If you liked this site then you might like some of my other sites: Personalized Wedding Gifts Cheap Airfare How Slot Machines Work Discount Website Design Last update: July 2005

Real Estate Loan

Mortgage Web site design & Real Estate agent website design, hosting and marketing. Mortgage Originators Over 1 Million online apps generated Over 5,000 mortgage originators choose Myers Leading clients generate over 50% of their business online Real Estate Agents & Offices Customizable, easy to use web sites Award winning lead generation tools Showcase your listings Products: :: Mortgage Originators :: Real Estate Agents & Offices :: Company: :: About Us :: Contact Us :: Employment :: Partners :: Why Choose Myers? Myers Internet has been a leader in mortgage website design since 1995. Myers pioneered mortgage web site design and is known for its mortgage banker websites, mortgage broker web sites and mortgage loan officer websites. A mortgage banker, mortgage broker or mortgage loan officer can get a Myers mortgage web site "off the shelf" or a mortgage website made to order. Mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers and mortgage loan officers can make their own changes to a Myers mortgage website, or hire a mortgage website design specialist to give their mortgage website design a unique look. A mortgage banker, mortgage broker or mortgage loan officer can choose from many mortgage web site design styles and mortgage websites products. Whether you're a mortgage banker, mortgage broker or mortgage loan officer, there is a mortgage web site design to suit your budget. What are some of the benefits you can expect with a Myers mortgage website? What are some of the benefits you can expect with a Myers mortgage website? A Myers mortgage website can take online mortgage applications 24/7. A Myers mortgage web site has mortgage calculators which other mortgage websites don't. Consumers visit Myers mortgage web sites to learn about the loan process. Potential borrowers use the mortgage web site to notify a mortgage broker about their desired mortgage interest rate. People go to a Myers website to see if they could benefit with a refinance mortgage A Myers mortgage website can help sell the mortgage broker or loan officer A Myers mortgage web site has important loan program information. A Myers mortgage website can help a consumer determine the mortgage loan they can afford. A mortgage broker or loan officer can display their interest rates on their Myers mortgage web sites A consumer can get confidential mortgage loan details at a Myers mortgage website. Consumers can enter the mortgage payment sweepstakes at a Myers mortgage web site. A mortgage broker or loan officer can create referral business at their mortgage website. Borrowers can get answers to frequently asked questions at a Myers mortgage web site. Consumers can find out about a bi-weekly mortgage at a Myers mortgage website. Myers is also a leader in real estate website design. Myers offers real estate agent web sites, real estate broker websites, REALTOR® websites and real estate office web sites. Real estate agents, real estate brokers and REALTORS® understand the importance of a real estate website which includes cutting edge real estate web site design. A real estate web site is a real estate agent's online real estate office. The benefits of a Myers real estate web site are numerous: A Myers real estate agent website, real estate broker web site, REALTOR® website, or real estate office website can all be personalized to suit the needs of the client. Our real estate web sites can include customized content. Custom web site content helps the real estate website be optimally indexed by search engines. A Myers real estate website can help convert visitors into prospects. The real estate agent website, real estate broker web site, REALTOR® website, and real estate office website all offer numerous lead-capturing tools. You can get a real estate agent website, real estate broker web site, REALTOR® website, or real estate office website which can display your and others' listings. You can get an advanced real estate website design which allows clients to save their property searches. A real estate agent website, real estate broker web site, REALTOR® website, or real estate office website can each have a Flash introduction. A good real estate web site design includes rich content. We have real estate website designs which come with over seventy-five pages of content featuring tips and information for home buyers and sellers. Myers real estate websites include practically everything a real estate agent or broker will ever need.

Home Loan

Home Equity Scams: Borrowers Beware! Home Equity Loans : Borrowers Beware! D o you own your home? If so, it's likely to be your greatest single asset. Unfortunately, if you agree to a loan that's based on the equity you have in your home, you may be putting your most valuable asset at risk. Homeowners-particularly elderly, minority and those with low incomes or poor credit-should be careful when borrowing money based on their home equity. Why? Certain abusive or exploitative lenders target these borrowers, who unwittingly may be putting their home on the line. Abusive lending practices range from equity stripping and loan flipping to hiding loan terms and packing a loan with extra charges. The Federal Trade Commission urges you to be aware of these loan practices to avoid losing your home. The Practices Equity Stripping You need money. You don't have much income coming in each month. You have built up equity in your home. A lender tells you that you could get a loan, even though you know your income is just not enough to keep up with the monthly payments. The lender encourages you to "pad" your income on your application form to help get the loan approved. This lender may be out to steal the equity you have built up in your home. The lender doesn't care if you can't keep up with the monthly payments. As soon as you don't, the lender will foreclose-taking your home and stripping you of the equity you have spent years building. If you take out a loan but don't have enough income to make the monthly payments, you are being set up. You probably will lose your home. Hidden Loan Terms: The Balloon Payment You've fallen behind in your mortgage payments and may face foreclosure. Another lender offers to save you from foreclosure by refinancing your mortgage and lowering your monthly payments. Look carefully at the loan terms. The payments may be lower because the lender is offering a loan on which you repay only the interest each month. At the end of the loan term, the principal-that is, the entire amount that you borrowed-is due in one lump sum called a balloon payment. If you can't make the balloon payment or refinance, you face foreclosure and the loss of your home. Loan Flipping Suppose you've had your mortgage for years. The interest rate is low and the monthly payments fit nicely into your budget, but you could use some extra money. A lender calls to talk about refinancing, and using the availability of extra cash as bait, claims it's time the equity in your home started "working" for you. You agree to refinance your loan. After you've made a few payments on the loan, the lender calls to offer you a bigger loan for, say, a vacation. If you accept the offer, the lender refinances your original loan and then lends you additional money. In this practice-often called "flipping"-the lender charges you high points and fees each time you refinance, and may increase your interest rate as well. If the loan has a prepayment penalty, you will have to pay that penalty each time you take out a new loan. You now have some extra money and a lot more debt, stretched out over a longer time. The extra cash you receive may be less than the additional costs and fees you were charged for the refinancing. And what's worse, you are now paying interest on those extra fees charged in each refinancing. Long story short? With each refinancing, you've increased your debt and probably are paying a very high price for some extra cash. After a while, if you get in over your head and can't pay, you could lose your home. The "Home Improvement" Loan A contractor calls or knocks on your door and offers to install a new roof or remodel your kitchen at a price that sounds reasonable. You tell him you're interested, but can't afford it. He tells you it's no problem-he can arrange financing through a lender he knows. You agree to the project, and the contractor begins work. At some point after the contractor begins, you are asked to sign a lot of papers. The papers may be blank or the lender may rush you to sign before you have time to read what you've been given. The contractor threatens to leave the work on your house unfinished if you don't sign. You sign the papers. Only later, you realize that the papers you signed are a home equity loan. The interest rate, points and fees seem very high. To make matters worse, the work on your home isn't done right or hasn't been completed, and the contractor, who may have been paid by the lender, has little interest in completing the work to your satisfaction. Credit Insurance Packing You've just agreed to a mortgage on terms you think you can afford. At closing, the lender gives you papers to sign that include charges for credit insurance or other "benefits" that you did not ask for and do not want. The lender hopes you don't notice this, and that you just sign the loan papers where you are asked to sign. The lender doesn't explain exactly how much extra money this will cost you each month on your loan. If you do notice, you're afraid that if you ask questions or object, you might not get the loan. The lender may tell you that this insurance comes with the loan, making you think that it comes at no additional cost. Or, if you object, the lender may even tell you that if you want the loan without the insurance, the loan papers will have to be rewritten, that it could take several days, and that the manager may reconsider the loan altogether. If you agree to buy the insurance, you really are paying extra for the loan by buying a product you may not want or need. Mortgage Servicing Abuses After you get a mortgage, you receive a letter from your lender saying that your monthly payments will be higher than you expected. The lender says that your payments include escrow for taxes and insurance even though you arranged to pay those items yourself with the lender's okay. Later, a message from the lender says you are being charged late fees. But you know your payments were on time. Or, you may receive a message saying that you failed to maintain required property insurance and the lender is buying more costly insurance at your expense. Other charges that you don't understand-like legal fees-are added to the amount you owe, increasing your monthly payments or the amount you owe at the end of the loan term. The lender doesn't provide you with an accurate or complete account of these charges. You ask for a payoff statement to refinance with another lender and receive a statement that's inaccurate or incomplete. The lender's actions make it almost impossible to determine how much you've paid or how much you owe. You may pay more than you owe. Signing Over Your Deed If you are having trouble paying your mortgage and the lender has threatened to foreclose and take your home, you may feel desperate. Another "lender" may contact you with an offer to help you find new financing. Before he can help you, he asks you to deed your property to him, claiming that it's a temporary measure to prevent foreclosure. The promised refinancing that would let you save your home never comes through. Once the lender has the deed to your property, he starts to treat it as his own. He may borrow against it (for his benefit, not yours) or even sell it to someone else. Because you don't own the home any more, you won't get any money when the property is sold. The lender will treat you as a tenant and your mortgage payments as rent. If your "rent" payments are late, you can be evicted from your home. Protecting Yourself You can protect yourself against losing your home to inappropriate lending practices. Here's how: Don't: Agree to a home equity loan if you don't have enough income to make the monthly payments. Sign any document you haven't read or any document that has blank spaces to be filled in after you sign. Let anyone pressure you into signing any document. Agree to a loan that includes credit insurance or extra products you don't want. Let the promise of extra cash or lower monthly payments get in the way of your good judgment about whether the cost you will pay for the loan is really worth it. Deed your property to anyone. First consult an attorney, a knowledgeable family member, or someone else you trust. Do: Ask specifically if credit insurance is required as a condition of the loan. If it isn't, and a charge is included in your loan and you don't want the insurance, ask that the charge be removed from the loan documents. If you want the added security of credit insurance, shop around for the best rates. Keep careful records of what you've paid, including billing statements and canceled checks. Challenge any charge you think is inaccurate. Check contractors' references when it is time to have work done in your home. Get more than one estimate. Read all items carefully. If you need an explanation of any terms or conditions, talk to someone you can trust, such as a knowledgeable family member or an attorney. Consider all the costs of financing before you agree to a loan. For More Information The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues , visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel , a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION FOR THE CONSUMER 1-877-FTC-HELP www.ftc.gov April 1998