Tips on buying a home

When you hear advertising for REVERSE End Mortgages and the lender says you must buy mortgage insurance to cover your loan if you can’t pay for it. Bull!

1. Before some PMI (private mortgage insurance), the home must go into foreclosure.

2. When getting loans that seem like a terrific deal, ask questions, before it becomes too late.

3. If you try to sell your home and prices are still low and your offer to purchase your home is not what you as a seller wants, ask your lender about a short sale. This means what is due against the loan. Sometimes this is doable and can be worked out and if you were told to buy PMI insurance it’s with the understanding it is a great deal for you––wrong. This is only if you can sell the home.

4. When you go searching for a loan, just remember that if you use a secondary market that is used for a lesser down payment or no down payment, the mortgage on your home is sold after 90 days or whatever pleases your lender. It could sell three to six times more (change lenders). You, the original lender, never know or you could get lucky and not be sold at all. But if it is sold, remember each time your loan changes hands, the previous lender needs to file a release at the recorder’s office in the county your property is located in, so when you choose to sell, it goes smoothly.

There probably isn’t a person who at one point in time in their life that doesn’t want to own a home! But here is some food for thought. Try the lenders in your hometown and make sure you are comfortable with the loan and the terms.

If you choose to go online or go elsewhere, check with someone who has used that lender.

I have used lenders outside of home boundaries and I interrogate them to make sure they are the quality we need to be using.

Ask every question possible when going to purchase a home, when using PMI and make very sure you don’t have to be homeless and sitting along the street or in a tent or your car, when the air has cleared.

Buying a home or an investment property is still the American dream, but make sure it’s your dream and you have good results.

The Meaning of a Buyer’s Market

In the world of real estate investing, it is very important to pay attention to market conditions for they will dictate whether it is the best time to make a move or wait things out. With all that has been happening in the housing industry and financial sector these days, many experts and analysts are saying that it is indeed a buyer’s paradise.


When you hear the term “buyer’s market”, you can safely assume that buyer’s have the upper hand. In terms of investing in real estate properties including foreclosure homes, it could mean three things: low asking prices, acceptable interest rates and large inventories.

These three factors are very important if you want your foray in the world for real estate investing to be successful. If they are present, you will never go wrong. At present, you will be delighted with the many homes for sale to choose from, the high affordability of these homes and the reasonable interest rates. Keep in mind that having a high credit score.

Of course, having the advantage will mean enjoying certain perks. For example, you can always ask sellers to lower their asking prices during negotiations. If this is not possible, you can look for a seller offering incentives like shouldering closing costs.

Considering that it is a buyer’s market, you should not hesitate to ask for such things especially because of the tough competition among these sellers. And with the foreclosure crisis still rampaging on, most of the lenders/sellers are slashing down asking prices for these foreclosed properties in order to reduce their inventory and control holding costs.

A buyer’s market should be taken advantage of considering that, sooner or later, the market will eventually balance out. In an ideal market, the buyers and sellers are on equal footing and you should definitely not wait for this to happen if you do not want to lose all those advantages.

CORRECT: New Mortgage Insurance Applications Up In June

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
New residential mortgage insurance applications rose in June from a month earlier, but the number was the second-smallest in the past seven months, according to a survey of the biggest private mortgage insurers.

Mortgage defaults grew slightly in June from May while cures fell in the same period. Defaults and cures remain elevated from a year earlier, though defaults have fallen from the highs in December and January and cures are lower than in February and March.

Insurers received 56,271 new applications for mortgage insurance in June, up 1.5% from May but 38% below June 2008.

New insurance written grew 11% to $7.65 billion in June from May but fell 44% from a year earlier.

The total amount of mortgage value that is covered by private mortgage insurance was $915.1 billion in June, with insurance typically guaranteeing a portion of that amount. In June, total insurer exposure was $209.6 billion.

Covered mortgages that went into default, or became at least two months overdue, rose 0.5% to 88,362 in June from May and jumped 30% from a year earlier.

Defaulted mortgages that cured, or were brought current after being at least two months overdue, fell 1.3% to 51,908 in June from a month earlier but were 20% more than in June 2008.

Mortgage insurance protects lenders from losses on defaulted mortgages and is typically required on mortgages obtained with less than a 20% down payment.