Ever Heard Of The HARP Program?

by Gilbert AZ Mortgage Expert

If you are in the unfortunate situation where you owe more on your home than your home is worth, you may be wondering what options you have to lower your mortgage payment. If this is the case with you, have you heard of a program called HARP?

HARP stands for the Home Affordable Refinance Program. Several years ago, the federal government started the HARP program to help homeowners refinance their home mortgage if they were in the position of owing more than their home was worth.

While this program is a great program for some mortgage holders if you fall into several categories you will have to look at other alternatives to refinance your mortgage. Unfortunately, if you have a VA loan and were looking ot take advantage of the streamline low VA rates program, or a FHA mortgage you will not be able to use the HARP program to refinance your home mortgage.

But if you have a conventional mortgage (a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage) and you are updside down, you can look at the HARP as a possible answer to refinancing. Below are some of the main basic requirements of the HARP program to help you determine whether you should try to qualify for this program.

You must have been ontime with your most recent mortgage payment – or also known as you must be current with your mortgage payment.
You can’t have missed or been more than 30 days late with your mortgage payment over the last 12 months.
You must be in a better, more stable financial situation like lowering your monthly payment or converting a more risky adjustable rate mortgage or an interest only mortgage into a fixed rate mortgage.
You must have no equity in your home and not have your mortgage balance be more than 125% of the value of your home.
You must have sufficient income and proof of the financial means to repay your new mortgage payment

With these simple requirements in mind, you may or may not think that you can qualify for HARP. The best advice is the call a mortgage lender to find out. You can call your current mortgage company first and then call a few other companies to see what kind of answers you get. You ought to call several companies anyway to give you a range of offers to compare. At the very least, you’ll know where you stand with a refinance if you are upsidedown.

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Buy Your Dream Home Stress Free With These Tips

by Gilbert AZ Mortgage Expert

Whether you’re a first time home buyer or have real estate experience, purchasing a home can be overwhelming. There are many homes available on the market, and even more things that trip up the home buying process. Thankfully, there are plenty of things you can do to make buying a home a little easier. Here are a few suggestions.

When leasing real estate you need to be aware that professionally managed real estate companies and individual homeowners generally come under the same rules, but many individuals may not know that. If you rent from an individual, make sure they are aware that they have to keep your deposit in a separate account that would not be touched if they filed bankruptcy or lost a lawsuit.

Build a strict set of goals when selling or buying your real estate. This will help you to establish boundaries in not only monetary terms, but also in other areas such as locations or features. It will also help you setup due dates for success. In the end, this will enable you and the other party to “get on the same page.”

If one likes fishing, boating, swimming, or any other activity involving the water they should consider buying real estate that is bordered by a lake. The right property could even come with its own boat launch and dock one can use at their will. Real estate around water can ensure one always has something to do.

To get the best value when buying real estate you should start by looking for older homes. In many areas the pricing for the size home is lower than newly built homes and if you have to do repairs or redecorating to make the house more modern you can still save thousands of dollars.

When buying a home in the fall, remember to use closing as an opportunity to save even more money. You want to make sure not to turn the seller off by suggesting a price that is significantly lower than they want. However, you can save additional money through something called seller concessions; seller concessions are when the seller agrees to cover some of your closing costs. These are usually around two to nine percent of the purchase price.

As the government is subsidizing your home purchase, buying a home not only provides housing to you and your family, but it has tax advantages too. All of the property taxes and mortgage interest you pay on the property can be deducted from your gross income, which may significantly reduce your taxable income.

As you prepare to buy a home, try to pay down any large debts that you have. Lenders want to know that your monthly housing costs are not going to be higher than 33 percent of your gross income. Your total debt payments each month should stay below 38 percent. Do not incur any new debt for at least half a year before buying a home.

When you’re looking for a new home, there’s a lot to take in. You’re making a decision that will effect your life in a major way, and it’s not one to take lightly. As you look for your new home, keep the tips from this article in mind. They’ll help make your experience a little less stressful.

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