Saturday, January 24, 2009

Upside Down on Your Home?

The Hope 4 Homeowners (H4H) program is aimed at helping homeowners that have found themselves owing more on their mortgage than their home is worth. The lower monthly mortgage payment is the result of the program reducing the principal balance of the current mortgage.

Will this work for me?

The home can be refinanced based on the current value with the Hope to Homeowners program. A Hope 4 Homeowners’ loan will be 90% of the current value of the home. There are some negative aspects to the forgiven balance. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and your current lender will share in any profits of the house when the homeowner sells their home. This is necessary to offset the forgiven balance. {The reduced loan amount results in a lower montly payment}.

Brief Summary:

Let’s say that your current mortgage balance is $400,000 and your home is now worth $250,000. More and more homeowners find themselves in this scenario. The current mortgage payment is based on the old value of the home. The Hope to Homeowners program will finance a new loan based on 90% of the home value today. This results in a new loan amount of $225,000. That is a reduction of $175,000 in the principal balance of your mortgage. The new mortgage payment will be based on this new loan amount of $175,000.

How is the New Payment Calculated?

The principal reduction of your mortgage is not the only benefit to this program. The Hope 4 Homeowners’ mortgage payment will be reduced as well. Let’s say the current mortgage is $400,000 at 6% on a 30 year fixed (the benefits are even greater if you are in an adjustable rate mortgage). The current payment is $2,398. Even with the same interest rate as your current mortgage. $1,348 would be the payment for the Hope to Homeowners loan. That is a reduction in monthly mortgage payment of $1,050 a month. There are obvious benefits.

There are some qualifying factors that homeowners need to understand. Now that you understand the benefits of the Hope 4 Homeowners program it is time to do a bit more research and find out if you can qualify for this program. You need to realize that there are some negative aspects of this loan. You may give up some of the equity that your home builds when you sell your home. This program will however help many Americans keep their homes. The H4H program can and will provide some much needed hope to homeowners that are upside down on their mortgage.

Find out more about the Hope to Homeowners program if you are interested. H2H

Bad Credit Home Loan Score

You Can Get Good Home Loans Even with Bad Credit Ratings

Getting a home loan is just like getting recognition at the end of each academic year in school. Before you are awarded for any recognition, you must comply with the requirements for such recognition. For instance, before you will be given an academic award, you must first satisfy the required general weighted average on each or all subjects. Other awards also will follow particular criteria before it would be awarded to deserving students at the end of the school year.

You can also think of this on the same lines of getting a home loan. Before you are able to secure a home loan, there are certain requirements that you must meet. One of the most important is that you have a good credit rating score.

Even though in today’s market there is a vast amount of homes available, many people are unable to get a home loan because they have a poor credit rating. They are not fully aware that any delinquency in paying their outstanding loans caused the "stain" in their credit record, thus they could be having a hard time securing a good home loan.

In other words, possessing a bad credit score simply means you are giving the lender reason to get more money from you, because they often give people in this situation home loans with high interest payments. Most people do not have enough money to finance the purchase of a new home and if they have a bad credit score, but still take on a home loan, can quickly find themselves in a very difficult financial situation. This is not something I recommend getting yourself into.

Fortunately, there are still loan options for you despite your current condition of a bad credit score. With some research, you can find any number of commercial lenders that will work with individuals, that have a bad credit score and are finding it difficult to get a home loan because of it. Keep in mind that most companies and lenders will still consider you a ’risk client’ because of your bad credit score.

The company you decide on, will work out a financial payment plan that will work with your budget in a way that you will be able to repay your home loan over a certain amount of time.

Having a bad credit score is something that is never a good situation to be in and it can take years to fix it, however, you can begin today by making better choices. You may need to convince your preferred lender that you are still worthy of another chance and will not be a risk to them. How to do it? Have a look on the following guidelines and make sure that you will follow them.

1. Do your research and find a financial company that is willing to offer you a good deal, even though you have a poor credit rating. You may prefer visiting various commercial lenders and financial institutions in your local area to know their terms and conditions as well as their rate of interest for home loans with bad credit score. If you know of someone who already works within a financial assistance company, you can use them as a point of contact.

2. Improve your credit rating while there is still time for you to do so. If there are incorrect entries posted in your account, it is best that you call the attention to the companies customer service authority and have them clear your record of any incorrect rating. You may also ask for some certification from your previous lenders clearing you of any financial obligations. This will work to your advantage on showing your efforts to restore your credit rating back to a good level.

Getting a home loan with a bad credit score, can really be a daunting task. However, if you are able to work hard on improving your credit rating as quick as possible, then you should be able to secure a good home loan that will not be an additional financial burden.