Zero Debt Expert

Buying a house or trying to consolidate debt using the equity in your existing premises can cause a lot of anxiety. Mainly this is due to the array of home loan products on the market. It is incredible that we all have the choices available to us to finance our homes but unless you are a banker they can be very hard to understand. Everybody is keen to get the best deal for them and that may not be the same deal that worked for other people they know. All in all the research that is requires to ensure that the right choice is made can be quite daunting. It is important, however, that you take the time because a bad decision can really affect your monetary future.

One of the unique situations you may find yourself in occurs when you are selling one property and buying another. In this situation we all try to order things as best we can but despite our best efforts things sometimes go wrong. It is then that you may need bridging finance. It is to fill in that tricky time when settlement on the second property is pending. What principally happens is that the lender agrees to temporarily fund both your loans, one on the property you are selling and one on the one you are buying. This allows you unbelievable flexibility. These loans usually last somewhere between a couple of weeks up to twelve months. Apparently to take out this kind of loan you must show you can afford the repayments on your existing mortgage as well as the interest costs on the new loan. If this is possible for you this may be the home loan product for you.

Another product that may interest you if you are looking for a home loan product is the split rate home loan. This is an interesting loan especially for those people not brave enough to go for a completely variable loan. As the name suggests it is a half and half loan. It allows you the security of a fixed rate loan with half of the mortgage and the flexibility of a variable loan on the other half of the home loan. You need to investigate this option carefully as different conditions can apply to the two different halves of the loan and it is important that you are aware of all of the limitations.

The previous option you might want to consider is the home equity loan, this is also known as a rotating line of credit or a line of credit home loan. This is the home loan that allows you the most astonishing flexibility with your finances. It is essentially a credit facility secured against the equity in your home. It allows you to withdraw funds up to that limit at any time you like. This can be very useful if you have continuing renovations on the house or you are self in employment.

If all of this sounds very good but you still don’t feel you have a solid enough understanding to move forward on your home loan then you need to call in the experts. The people at Directmoney Home Loans are there to help you make a decision.

In the United States right now, foreclosure rates are higher than they’ve ever been. Homeowners are literally fleeing their homes and letting the banks deal with what they leave behind. Since banks are in the banking business and not the real estate business, they don’t really want the houses back. If you’re in a place where you think you’d be better off leaving your home because you can no longer afford your mortgage payment, you should first look into one of the many programs available to you! It IS possible to re-work your mortgage loan to better suit your financial needs.

Loss Mitigation, Loan Modification and Home Loan workout programs are three options you have. Many companies offer one or all of the programs just mentioned, but before signing up with any company, check them out first! Make sure they are reputable. Financial relief is possible with a successful program offered by the right company.

Here is a practical example of this type of program in action: Borrower owes $400,000 at 8% and the home is worth $340,000. After foreclosing, bank must re-list the property or sell at auction. Either method can end up costing an additional $60,000 or more in losses.

In this example, bank will lose at least $120,000 if a client decides to “walk away”. Through modification and lowering interest rate to 5.25% on a 30yr fixed term, bank will make close to $400,000 in future interest payments. The result is a win-win for all parties involved.

Homeowners can occasionally be successful at working out loan modifications on their own, however default rates with attorney-backed modifications are 5% or less. Self-help modifications are defaulting at over 50%. This is why banks prefer to work with attorneys.

More often than not, if an attorney structures a loan modification for you and it doesn’t work out, their fee is refundable. You’re likely to see incredible results from restructured loans! Loan principal reductions, interest rate reductions, extended payment terms and lower monthly payments are all feasible when you modify you loan.

We can give you a free consultation to see what can be done to best fix the financial fiasco you’re dealing with. If you’re having problems making your current mortgage payment or you’re dealing with an adjustable rate mortgage that doesn’t work for you anymore, give us a call at 1-888-282-1011 and get some more information about our loan modification program!

In the United States right now, foreclosure rates are higher than they’ve ever been. Homeowners are literally fleeing their homes and letting the banks deal with what they leave behind. Since banks are in the banking business and not the real estate business, they don’t really want the houses back. If you’re in a place where you think you’d be better off leaving your home because you can no longer afford your mortgage payment, you should first look into one of the many programs available to you! It IS possible to re-work your mortgage loan to better suit your financial needs.

These programs are referred to as Loan Modification, Loss Mitigation, or Home Loan Workout programs. You do need to exercise caution when enrolling in this type of program and make sure you are working with a reputable company, but the programs can be extremely successful and can offer great financial relief.

Take, for example, a borrower with a $400,000 mortgage loan at 8%, living in a home worth $340,000. Once the home has been foreclosed, the bank has to either re-list the home on the market or sell it at an auction. Re-listing or auctioning off the home could potentially add another $60,000 in losses for the bank.

If the bank takes the loss by re-listing or auctioning off the home, they’re looking at a total loss of nearly $120,000. A modified mortgage loan of a 30 year fixed rate, and a lower interest rate of 5.25% would instead have the bank looking forward to almost $400,000 in interest payments over the life of the new loan. Talk about win/win!

It’s best to work with an attorney to structure a loan modification, as their default rate is under 5%. Homeowners that go it on their own often default at least 50% of the time. Another perk is that banks prefer to work with attorneys.

Another perk to a loan modification is that if an attorney works out a loan for you and it doesn’t work out, your program cost is most often refundable. Amazing results are possible with restructured loans! You could wind up seeing lower monthly payments, loan principal reductions, interest rate reductions, extended payment terms and more!

We’d be happy to give you some more information about our loan modification program, so give us a call! We can be reached at 1-888-282-1011. If you’re in a financial bind or just need a way out of your adjustable rate mortgage, let us see what we can do to help you!

The meltdown on Wall Street has taught us all many lessons.

“You Better Learn To Make Your Own Investment Decisions - And Not Let Brokers Make Choices For You!”

This is a basic fact we have been preaching for years now. Many times investors either blindly throw money at the market or let a broker do it for them. With a little effort you could learn to direct your investment accounts and retirement funds on your own.

In this article we want to point you in the right direction, and give you a few crisis tips too.

ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) are an excellent alternative to mutual funds as an investment vehicle.

There are ETFs that cover every sector of the market. ETFs offer many advantages over mutual funds. Here are a few:

* Tax Advantages - ETFs seldom sell any equity positions or create taxable profit midstream. Mutual funds do this often. With mutuals, you could owe tax on part of the funds holdings (the winning stocks they sell at a profit) even though you lost money over all. A double whammy!

* Less Management Costs - Even No-Load Mutual funds have become top heavy with many “Professionals” employed and eating up GIANT parts of the profit. You might think of ETFs as Electronically Traded Funds. MUCH less management costs (in some cases no management costs) and the ease of trading them.

* Diversification - Let’s face it, this is what was attractive about mutual funds to begin with. Instead of picking out stocks on your own, you had “Professionals” (with the meltdown we can see that most of them are not too professional) putting together a diversified portfolio for you. With ETFs, you can get the same if not better diversification without the hassle of dealing with a mutual fund giant eating up all the profits.

* Easy To Trade - With true mutual funds you can only get out of a position After the market closes. You can trade ETFs just like a stock in your discount brokerage account. If you were locked into a fund when the market was in crash mode, it was not a good feeling. Had that been an ETF you could have bailed at any time (before the DOW closed down 777 points!)

We could go on with the benefits of ETFs, but you should be starting to see the picture. An even better way to call your own shots with your investments is to trade the index (or indices for plural). We are referring to the mini Dow, the S&P eMini, the mini Russell and others. (there are also ETFs the mirror the indices such as “SPY” for the S&P 500 index)

While we focus on mini-Dow trading, any index will do. With Index trading, you just follow the overall market up, or ride it down with a short position.

While we are on the subject of shorts it would be good to mention that while most US mutual funds are not allowed to short a stock, you can actually buy ETFs that do good with the market is dropping. One such fund is ticker “DUG” which does well when the Oil price is dropping (a tip we gave our readers after the big run up in oil to over $140 per barrel - at the time of this writing it has been dropping since).

You can find other ETFs that do well in falling markets. So, you don’t have to short the market (statistics show that 80% or more of investors never do short the market - but are always looking for a upward bull run), you just buy the right ETF and let it do the shorting for you. These are at times referred to as Inverse ETFs.

By now, many investors see the importance of having a strategy for making money when the market is dropping. Most investors have yet to develop this strategy. We prefer to do it with simple index trades. Whatever you do, find a way to make your own moves and don’t depend on someone else to invest your money for you. No one will take care of your money like you will!

*********************************************************** NOTE: To learn more about ETF’s visit Yahoo Finance and look under the Investing Tab at the top of the page - then select ETFs www.finance.yahoo.com ***********************************************************

A time comes when you begin to consider refinancing your mortgage. Maybe you want to take advantage of a downturn in the market rates, and save on the interest you are paying. Or you are faced with a number of small debts and the repayments are becoming unmanageable. It will be worth your while to consider some important points when you debate this issue.

If you are facing a difficult debt repayment situation with a number of repayments to manage every month, then it is definitely a good idea to put all your loans under a single ‘roof’ and deal with a single repayment issue. Just make sure you choose the repayment plan that suits your monthly cash flow. The question of saving per se does not arise here, since you are refinancing for a different purpose.

Most people think that the interest they pay on mortgages is unjustifiably high, and seek ways and means to reduce the interest burden. This is intelligent thinking. The point to consider is whether the market rate is showing every intention of reaching for the sky. If it is, and if your present mortgage is based on the variable market rate, then this is a good time to opt out of the present mortgage and refinance the mortgage with a fixed interest plan, where the interest rate is lower than the average market interest rate computed over the duration of the mortgage.

Whatever the reason for refinancing, you should study all aspects of this important decision very carefully. The one thing you should understand is that while refinancing your mortgage could save you a packet, it could just as easily cost you a packet. Refinancing can hurt you in certain situations.

The problem is that when you go to a refinancing agency they fail to mention the actual expenses you will have to incur to refinance your mortgage. Their excuse is that these are ‘external’ expenses and not their concern. Therefore you may be lulled into believing that the refinance scheme is going to save you a hefty sum over the mortgage period. Too late you find that you have to pay a number of incidental fees, charges and penalties, which can set you back quite a lot, and may nullify the savings you’ve counted on. There is no point in changing your financier if it is not going to save you any money.

When you consider refinancing, the first thing to do is to survey the market. Find out all the plans and schemes being offered by different companies. Make a comparison chart showing all the salient features and savings of each plan. Don’t restrict your survey to just your local companies. Go online and get information on various plans offered in your area.

Find out all the penalties and fees that refinancing companies may extract from you upfront. For example, there is an origination fee or points, which is taken before the refinance plan becomes operational. There might be a plan where the interest rate is slightly higher but you don’t have to pay origination fee. This may turn out to be better for you.

Refinancing is advisable if your net savings is significant. If not, you may as well keep the current mortgage going. Don’t go in for refinancing if you think you may have to move before the fresh mortgage period has time to play itself out. Such a move will require you to foreclose the fresh mortgage which entails a huge penalty!

Mortgage refinancing is a good way to save money by taking advantage of reduced interest rates. It is also a good way of dealing with a troublesome debt repayment position. But you must be aware of all the costs that are involved. Not knowing the true costs leaves you open to nasty surprises later on. Many people who went in for mortgage refinancing without proper analysis found that they had actually lost money instead of making the savings they had counted on!

There are people who are willing to own property for a second time while others are first home buyers. For people who are out to buy homes for the first time need not rush, because there is a lot to be taken into consideration before finally settling on your preferred choice. One need to consider the long term benefits that comes with the home.

Internet technology has come with so many benefits to man in that the potential home buyers can search for home listings online and a homer buyer is able to view all the features of the property that they want to buy on from virtual tours. All this they can just do from the confines of their homes.

This has been instrumental in giving prospective home buyers the necessary information such as the type of home and neighborhood before getting to the real estate agent’s office.

Buying a home is a major decision that also involves a lot of economic expenditure. Therefore, it requires a step by step analysis of the implications of each decision that is made. Your income, budgets and expenditures should adequately reflect your ability to go home buying. Affordability of the home to buy depends largely on such factors as personal income, credit rating, current monthly expenditures, interest rates as well as the required down payment.

The home industry is a complicated one that needs complete understanding of the rights of both the seller and the buyer as well as the legal requirements of such a transaction. The requirements of fair housing for all as well as equal opportunities for all should be properly implemented. Other rights to be observed are borrower’s rights, predatory lending and real estate settlement procedures Act.

This is followed by shopping for a good loan deal. A home buyer should do a bit of homework to choose a lender with the package that suits your needs. This is done through talking to several lenders, comparing of the costs and interest rates and negotiating for the best deal.

A home buyer should be able to seek loan programs that offer low down payments. These are the best for first time home buyers. The next step would be to hunt for a home of your choice. This is largely determined by the kind of neighborhood you want and the house choice.

Home shopping is followed by making the offer to the real estate agent. This involves negotiations and sale agreements. Inspection of the desired house will be needed to verify its condition. Inspection can be carried out by the owner or a hired professional home inspector.

In cases where it is deemed necessary, the home buyer should have a homeowner’s insurance cover. This could be the lender’s requirement for issuing a loan to the borrower. The final step involves the voluntary signing of necessary settlement papers and closing the deal. It is imperative for home buyers to read through the papers carefully before signing.