Mortgage firm fined by watchdog
A County Down mortgage broker is fined for failures which led to fraudulent mortgage applications being submitted to lenders.
Read more on BBC News
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Minnesota mortgage broker based in Edina Minnesota-a suburb of Minneapolis St Paul. The Twin Cities mortgage market presents opportunities for financing programs utilizing FHA mortgage loans, VA Veteran Loan, Conventioal loans, and Hard Money.Kindle blogs are fully downloaded onto your Kindle so you can read them even when you’re not wirelessly connected. And unlike RSS readers which often only provide headlines, blogs on Kindle give you full text content and image… More >>
There are many stresses associated with home buying – both financial and emotional. And frankly speaking, it doesn’t help that the process comes with its very own foreign language. While your mortgage broker can help de-mystify these terms, it helps to have a bit of a primer on what some of these terms mean. After all, it’s your money and your home we’re talking about; as a Mortgagor, you have a right to understand what you’re reading. (You didn’t know you were a mortgagor? Read on…)
We’ll start with Amortization” and “Term”. Both refer to periods of time in the life of your mortgage, and you’ll want to be sure that you understand the difference.
The amortization” of your mortgage is the length of time that would be required to reduce your mortgage debt to zero, based on regular payments at a specified interest rate. The amortization period is typically 15, 20 or even 25 years, although it can be any number of years or part-years. You could establish that you are able to make a certain payment each month of say $950 for your $130,000 mortgage at 5.5%. In this case, your amortization period will be just under 18 years. Or you could tell your broker that you’d like to be mortgage-free in just 10 years. With an amortization period of 10 years at the same interest rate, your $130,000 mortgage will cost you about $1,407 per month. That’s a tougher monthly payment, but you would save thousands of dollars in interest. (More than $35,000, in fact.) As you arrange your mortgage, then, keep in mind that your amortization period may be fairly long — although the shorter you can make it, the less you’ll wind up paying for your home in the long term.
The “term” of your mortgage will typically be shorter. The “term” is the duration of your mortgage agreement, at your agreed interest rate. This will be a very specific length of time, although you will have several choices. A 6-month mortgage is a very short-term mortgage. A 10-year mortgage will be one of the longest terms, generally with a higher rate of interest to represent the higher degree of uncertainty in the economic outlook. After your mortgage term expires, you will need to either pay off the balance of the mortgage principal, or negotiate a new ontario mortgage at whatever rates are available at that time.
Now, back to the term “Mortgagor”. This is one of three very similar terms: “Mortgagee”, “Mortgagor”, and “Mortgage”. A Mortgagee is the lender of the money: a bank, company, or individual. A Mortgagor is the borrower: the person or persons (or company) that is borrowing the money, and who will pay it back to the mortgagee. The Mortgage, of course, is the legal document that pledges the property as a security for the debt.
Still confused? Speak with a mortgage professional. Get the best mortgage suited to your needs and all your questions answered in plain talk.
The House Team is commited to providing quality information to help people make informed decisions about their mortgage financing needs.
Compare Ontario Mortgage Rates with the traditional banks.
Need a mortgage calculator? Click Here Mortgage Calculator Ontario
Refused credit mortgages set to “grow and grow”
14/08/2006 16:25:00
The sub-prime and near-prime mortgage market is tipped to grow and grow following new research.
A survey commissioned by Alliance & Leicester indicates greater demand for refused credit mortgages could be forthcoming, with four in five brokers expecting the market to grow.
The top reasons for borrowers to seek out a sub-prime or near-prime market are defaulting on debts or credit cards payments or simply having a bad credit rating, the research found.
Figures indicate that Britons are increasingly struggling to manager existing debts, suggesting that the potential market for sub-prime mortgages could swell.
Around two lenders in five report that the typical sub-prime customer is likely to be struggling financially, with many on a low income.
More than 85 per cent of brokers also report that customers are now realising that a sub or near prime mortgage can help rebuild a poor credit score.
Mehrdad Yousefi, head of intermediary mortgages at Alliance & Leicester, said: This market is becoming increasingly competitive with more lenders offering these specialised mortgages.
It is encouraging to see that brokers say their clients know the value of these type of mortgages and that it is a good way of getting potential buyers on the housing ladder while enabling them to repair their credit history by maintaining regular payments on their financial commitments.
Datamonitor estimates that 9.1 million people were refused credit by mainstream lenders in 2005, further indicative of potential growth in the refused credit mortgage market.
Personal debt has already crossed the £1 trillion barrier and the rising insolvency rate suggests that borrowers are struggling to cope, indicating a growing demand for refused-credit mortgages in the future.
As traditional lenders were tightening their criteria, the refused credit market could prove ever more attractive and other high street lenders were also likely to start catering for those with a ’slightly lower credit profile’.
As more lenders capitalise on this growing market, the increased competition could see better deals for mortgage holders.
TML-Mortgages offer Refused Credit Mortgages for people who have been turned down for other remortgages.
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Until recently, there were only two main ways you could get cash from your home: sell it or borrow against it and make monthly loan repayments. Reverse mortgages offer a third way of getting money from your home. If you are a homeowner, age 62 and older, you are eligible to apply for a reverse mortgage loan that converts your home equity into a tax-free income. With The Complete Guide to Reverse Mortgages, you’ll learn all you need to know to earn the supplementa… More >>
The Complete Guide to Reverse Mortgages: Turn Your Home Equity into Instant Income!
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The only guidebook that shows you how to finance any property–with or without bank approval
Would you like to discover all of the many ways that you can finance real estate? Want to learn how to cut your financing costs, avoid pitfalls, and negotiate the best terms? Then let Gary Eldred’s 106 Mortgage Secrets All Borrowers Must Learn–But Lenders Don’t Tell, Second Edition guide you. Fully updated, this practical guide explains how today’s changing m… More >>
106 Mortgage Secrets All Borrowers Must Learn – But Lenders Don’t Tell
“Lower than prime,” you heard someone say. Like most Canadians, you were probably first skeptical and then confused. We tend to think of the prime lending rate as the invisible “floor” of lending rates. The very best customers can get very close to that floor. It is theoretically possible, we reason, to actually be ON the floor, but not possible to be below it.
Nevertheless, Canadian lenders offer mortgages at prime minus 0.5% to even minus 0.7%. So the floor isn’t the lowest you can go. There’s something under the “floor”. The rate known as “prime” has been the popular benchmark for lending in Canada. When business reporters talk about interest rate movement, they usually talk about what’s happening with prime. But there are other benchmarks in money rates, though they are typically for use by professional money managers. The most significant of these is the Banker’s Acceptance rate.
While “prime” is a set rate which is offered to a lender’s best customers, the Banker’s Acceptance is the rate which financial institutions use to lend money to one another. And it’s typically well below the prime rate. Look for the “Money Rates”section of your favourite newspaper, and you can compare Prime with the Banker’s
Acceptance rates for yourself. “Interesting,” you think, “but why does it matter?” Well, as new lending institutions begin to offer a slate of innovative new loan options, a new mortgage has emerged that is based on the Banker’s Acceptance rate: offering a mortgage rate of 1% over the 3-month Banker’s Acceptance.
If you compared the rock-bottom prime-based variable mortgage rate – prime less 0.5% to 0.7% – with the new adjustable BA-based rate, you would find that the BA-based rate would have delivered significant savings over the past several years, as rates were dropping. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the BA-based rates have historically been considerably lower than prime. Secondly, the prime rate tends to be “stickier” in an environment where rates are falling. Often, the more fluid, market-based BA rates deliver the rate change more quickly.
Any variable- or adjustable-rate Ontario mortgage is an excellent option when interest rates are either dropping or stable. Not surprisingly, they’ve been a very popular choice in the past few years. There are some rumblings now that rates may begin to increase, but flexible-rate mortgages still remain an excellent choice for those looking to save some interest.
As always, you should consult with a mortgage professional to find the mortgage that suits your personal financial needs. An independent mortgage broker can provide you with information on a broad range of mortgage options from a wide variety of lending institutions, so you can compare features and options at a glance.
And remember, it’s worth taking some time to look beyond prime and explore what’s “under the floor” in mortgage options!
The House Team is commited to providing quality information to help people make informed decisions about their mortgage financing needs.
Compare Ontario Mortgage Rates with the traditional banks.
Need a mortgage calculator? Click Here Mortgage Calculator Ontario
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The mortgage meltdown: what went wrong and how do we fix it? Owning a home can bestow a sense of security and independence. But today, in a cruel twist, many Americans now regard their homes as a source of worry and dashed expectations. How did everything go haywire? And what can we do about it now? In The Rise and Fall of the U.S. Mortgage and Credit Markets, renowned finance expert James Barth offers a comprehensive examination of the mortgage meltdown. To… More >>
Invesco Mortgage to Offer 7M Shares
Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. will commence a public offering of 7 million shares of its common stock. It will grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1.05 million additional shares to cover over-allotments.
Read more on Zacks.com via Yahoo! Finance
For most Canadians, buying a home is the largest financial decision they will make in their lifetime. Yet, consumers across the country are more likely to painstakingly review dozens of investment possibilities for their portfolios than to scrutinize their mortgage choices. The mortgage world – like the investment world – can sometimes be confusing. There is a vast array of choices – open, closed, fixed, floating, long or short amortization, prepayment options, portability… and of course, the rate itself.
Making the right mortgage decision can have a huge financial impact over the long term. Many Canadians have an investment advisor to help them sort through their choices. Now, Canadians are also beginning to turn to mortgage brokers to help them make better mortgage decisions. Canadians are just now catching up with their counterparts south of the border, where mortgage brokers already arrange approximately 70 per cent of mortgages for U.S. properties.
So what is a mortgage broker? The role of a mortgage broker is to understand your mortgage needs, seek out the best options for your situation, and guide you through the lending process. A mortgage broker does not work for any individual institution or lender, but is independent, and has up-to-the-minute loan rates for a wide array of banks and other lending institutions.
There was a time when the banks exercised the view that they “owned” their customers, and mortgage brokers were perceived only as a last resort for home buyers with poor credit history. But times have changed, and home buyers in every bracket are learning they can benefit from the professional advice of a mortgage broker.
A good investment advisor can make you thousands of dollars. But a good mortgage broker will SAVE you thousands of dollars. Whether you are buying a home or renewing a mortgage, consider making a mortgage broker part of your financial plan this year.
The House Team is commited to providing quality information to help people make informed decisions about their mortgage financing needs.
Compare Ontario Mortgage Rates with the traditional banks.
Need a mortgage calculator? Click Here Mortgage Calculator Ontario