The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Mortgage Brokers

Honesty is the most important aspect in dealing with mortgage brokers. Unfortunately not all brokers are honest. Being aware of the following good practices will help you pick the best mortgage broker and get the best refinance deal.

Habit 1: Not favoring their own loan product

You need to be aware if the mortgage broker is also a lender, i.e. do they have their own loan products? If they do, and they offer there own product, there needs to be a clear, understandable reason why their product is the best choice for your situation.

Habit 2: Unbiased lender choice

Mortgage brokers get commission from the lender you end up borrowing from. You will need to ask them to be up front about the amount of commission they are receiving from the lender. The best mortgage brokers are honest and won't mind you asking this question. The dishonest ones will think twice about doing the wrong thing by you.

Habit 3: Giving you the real cost of the mortgage

Make sure the broker provides you with the annual percentage rate (APR), when looking at or comparing any home loan products. The annual percentage rate shows you the real cost of a home loan by taking into consideration all the foreseeable fees and charges associated with the loan. This is so you can easily compare home loan products.

Habit 4: Providing all the information

You need to know the whole deal. What is the whole service provided by the broker. Do they provide ongoing service and assistance after you secure your loan? If so, find out for how long. Also, what are the fees involved? Theirs and the lender’s. The best mortgage broker will make this clear before any papers are signed.

Habit 5: Insuring client understanding

You need to understand what the benefits and the drawbacks are for you. The best mortgage brokers will explain this to you in a clear way, so you can understand it. This is so you can weigh it up and decide for yourself if refinancing is actually in your best interest. As stated in Dangers of Refinancing there are some bad practices out there, e.g. churning. Making sure you understand the benefits and drawbacks will make it impossible for you to fall victim to this practice.

Habit 6: Being insured

The brokers need to have their own professional indemnity insurance? This protects professionals against liability claims resulting from negligent work. All lenders will have it. However the brokers should not assume they are covered by the insurance of an umbrella organization. The broker needs to know for sure if they are or are not protected.

Habit 7: Being qualified

Is the broker qualified to give you lending advice? All countries have reputable organizations that regulate their mortgage industry and can provide brokers with membership or certificates of credentials, provided they undertake certain courses. Make sure the broker your dealing with has the proper membership or credentials and is qualified to refinance home mortgages. In the United States the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (AARMR) and National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) are two such companies.

Common Dangers of Refinancing Your Mortgage

The main danger of mortgage refinancing comes from a lack of awareness. If your not aware of what you want from refinancing, and the pros and cons of a recommended deal, then you are open to being taken advantage of by unethical mortgage brokers.

Does this mean you shouldn't use mortgage brokers? No, there are bad eggs in every industry. It just means you should make sure your are aware of the pros and cons of the deal you are being recommended. Mortgage refinancing is not for the uninformed. You need to pick your broker carefully.

You see to find the best mortgage refinancing deal you need to compare the pros and cons of a lot of different options, loans and lenders. To do this yourself would be overwhelming and very time consuming.

Your bank won't do it for you, as they will defiantly be biased and recommend their loan products. That's why it's good that we have mortgage brokers to do this for us. It's there full time job to do this well.

However, as I mentioned earlier their are bad eggs and bad practices. One such bad practice is called churning. Churning is where mortgage brokers refinance a loan even though the benefits do not outweigh the drawbacks for the borrower. They do this with total disregard too the borrower, just so they can get extra commissions.

Awareness is the key here. Just be aware about the pros and cons of a recommended deal. Also be aware of how these bad mortgage brokers operate.

Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) FAQs

My ARM loan is scheduled to adjust soon, should I refinance now?

You may have seen your home equity line of credit rise substantially within the past two years. As interest rates rise, many homeowners are opting to pay slightly more for the piece of mind of having a fixed rate home loan. If you took an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) instead of a fixed rated mortgage several years ago, then your credit rating may have since changed opening up more options to you. You should explore your options with a mortgage professional as least two or three months before your ARM is scheduled to adjust, especially if rising interest rates may make it harder for you to make payments.

Should I refinance to a pay option ARM loan?

Although there are drawbacks, many homeowners have refinanced into pay option ARM loans in order to take advantage of the flexibility the loans provide. One risk associated with changing to a pay option ARM is negative amortization, meaning your loan balance could go up over time. This change can occur as a result of choosing a low monthly payment option based on an interest rate that is lower than your real interest rate. The difference between the two amounts will actually be added to your loan balance. On the other hand, the pay option ARM can be a good option for you if you need to pay down credit card debt. Offering the most payment flexibility, the pay option ARM offers three to four different payment options each month.

What are the benefits of refinancing my ARM to a fixed rate mortgage?

There are benefits and drawbacks to both types of mortgages. If you decide to refinance your ARM into a fixed rate mortgage, you will lock into a stable payment and avoid the payment increase that occurs when your ARM interest rate adjusts. For some mortgage holders the monthly payment could increase by up to 50 percent making the option of locking in a fixed rate a good way to substantially reduce the monthly payment. Refinancing an ARM to a fixed rate mortgage loan will definitely reduce the stress of steadily rising payments. However, depending on how long you have had your mortgage and how long you plan to stay in your home, you might benefit from waiting until a change is absolutely necessary. Discuss your options with a mortgage professional before making a decision.

I have a sub-prime ARM loan, what are my options?

Many homeowners who used sub-prime ARMS to purchase or refinance their homes are now being hit with payments that are difficult or impossible to make. Most importantly, if you have a sub-prime ARM that has not adjusted yet, you should discuss with a mortgage professional the options you might have to switch to a different type of loan. Refinancing out of a sub-prime ARM into a fixed rate mortgage is probably the best option if you have made regular payments for at least the past 12 months.

Important Tips to Do When a Bank Turns Down Your Offer

In a struggling and down economy, there are many patterns and realities that home owners usually resort to in order to counter the stress and pressure of the overflowing market. It is quite common that home owners encounter predicaments such as short sale and foreclosure. Resorting to short sale is a common option that home owners usually venture into however not all packages are welcomed by mortgage lenders with both arms open wide. If you want to sell your property through short sale and your offer is unfortunately turned down, there is still hope for you in the process.

It is actually a very tedious and challenging endeavor to offer banks short sale especially when encountering financial and payment difficulties. However, it is not almost always possible that all short sale offers are approved especially by reluctant home loan providers who are actually at the losing end in this option.

Offers which are usually turned down have certain loopholes in the very beginning which home owners tend to neglect or take for granted. Before you try to consider another alternative, you ought to carefully look into some aspects which may have caused the said rejection.

First and foremost, it is possible that you have incomplete requirements when you submitted the necessary documents for your package. It is imperative that you needed to supply all the requirements that your lender need as basis for the approval or acceptance of the short sale offer.

Oftentimes, gaining the decisions that will give you the go signal to materialize your short sale transaction with a potential home buyer is delayed since the mitigating department of the bank still has to deal with other things and if you have missing documents to begin with, expect that they will not waste their precious time looking for your papers. In worse scenarios, you will not only suffer delay but rejection of your offer.

Banks and mortgage providers are the first ones to lose a significant amount of money in short sale schemes. Therefore, if you are offering an amount for the property which is too low compared to the amount of the mortgage that you still owe, then it is more likely that you will get rejected. You ought to understand that the lender practically bases a qualified amount with the Broker Price Opinion or BPO. Hence, if your offer is much too low than the BPO, then rejection of your offer is most imminent.

As soon as you have determined the different components and factors that may have affected and led to the rejection of your offer, it is high time to make a counter offer. Make sure that you negotiate with your potential buyer and encourage him to make a much higher offer which is closer to the BPO. Should your buyer not adhere to your suggestion, you can find other buyers who are more amenable to this idea.

Experiencing rejection from your bank or lender ought not discourage you and seize your venture towards a great deal in your real property investment but rather make you aim for more.

Should You Refinance That Adjustable Rate Mortgage?

Adjustable rate mortgages allowed many people to get moved into the house they wanted, even when it may not have been possible with other types of financing. This was very convenient at the time because interest rates were low and things looked very good. But, for some, there may be a little cloud over your head because its status may be about ready to change. Here are some things that will help you to decide if you need to refinance your adjustable rate mortgage.

Your adjustable rate mortgage has had its fixed rate portion of time, and now it is about to go to a non-stable adjustable rate. As you very well know, the adjustable rate could change every month, or at least every year. The uncertainty is there because not you, or anyone else on this planet, knows what the economic future holds.

This means that there will always be a strong amount of uncertainty attached to this type of mortgage. Refinancing is a possible solution - but only if you are planning on staying in that house for awhile. To get a new mortgage, means that you will have new expenses involved in the closing and processing of it. Refinancing will add both to your overall debt, and will probably increase your payments, too.

While only you can decide if it really is a good time, you also need to be aware that if you do wait too long, then you may not be able to get a good interest rate. Having a fixed rate mortgage, at a higher rate may not be much better than having a high interest rate adjustable mortgage. It is possible that you may not be able to afford either one. In either case, if the interest does go back down, you could refinance again. This means your best option may be to refinance when you can and get the lower rates - at least they will be guaranteed.

If you see that you can ever get a lower interest rate on a fixed rate than on what you have now - the decision should be obvious. Get the fixed rate mortgage as quickly as you can.

One of the only means that may indicate that it is a good time to refinance is to watch the market carefully. Observe the trends that reveal whether there most likely will be an increase in the interest rates. If the experts predict that rates are likely to keep on rising, then you know it is probably a good time to get a new mortgage.

The bottom line about refinancing may be something as simple as how well you sleep at night. If you are spending time worrying about it, or if your mate is, then it may be worth that better sleep to have something more predictable. Before you sign on a new contract, though, be sure that you carefully compare a number of offers so that you make sure you get the best deal available to you.

6 Reasons why you should refinance

If you're thinking "Should I refinance my house?", check out the 6 reasons as to why you may take such a decision.

• You want to save more:
  Your monthly payments will be reduced if you get a low rate or when your loan term is extended. However, with an extended term, your monthly savings will increase but you'll be paying more in total interest for the life of the loan.


• You want to pay down your mortgage quickly:
  You can shorten the length of your mortgage by reducing the loan term. Monthly payments will no doubt go up, but you will be able to save more in the overall interest payment. Moreover, you'll be debt free in a shorter time.


• You need extra cash to pay off credit cards:
  If you have enough home equity, you can borrow more than the current loan balance. With the extra cash, you can pay off high interest debts such as credit card balances or installment loans. You gain out of it as the interest on such debt is not deductible unlike mortgage interest.


• You wish to consolidate 2 loans into one:
  If there's enough equity (due to high appreciation), you can consolidate first and 2nd mortgages and refinance into a single first mortgage. The monthly payment on the new loan is likely to be lower than the combined payments on the first loan and the second mortgage.


• You want to convert an ARM into FRM:
  This allows you to lock in at a low rate. You can thus repay the loan with stable monthly payments rather than variable payments over the loan term.


• You want to get rid off PMI:
  If your current loan balance is below 80% of the new appraised home value, you can go for a home refinance and stop paying the PMI.

Refinance Advantages & Risk

ADVANTAGES

Refinancing may be undertaken to reduce interest rate/interest costs (by refinancing at a lower rate), to extend the repayment time, to pay off other debt(s), to reduce one's periodic payment obligations (sometimes by taking a longer-term loan), to reduce or alter risk (such as by refinancing from a variable-rate to a fixed-rate loan), and/or to raise cash for investment, consumption, or the payment of a dividend.

In essence, refinancing can alter the monthly payments owed on the loan either by changing the loan's interest rate, or by altering the term to maturity of the loan. More favourable lending conditions may reduce overall borrowing costs. Refinancing is used in most cases to improve overall cash flow.

Another use of refinancing is to reduce the risk associated with an existing loan. Interest rates on adjustable-rate loans and mortgages shift up and down based on the movements of the various indices used to calculate them. By refinancing an adjustable-rate mortgage into a fixed-rate one, the risk of interest rates increasing dramatically is removed, thus ensuring a steady interest rate over time. This flexibility comes at a price as lenders typically charge a risk premium for fixed rate loans.

In the context of personal (as opposed to corporate) finance, refinancing a loan or a series of debts can assist in paying off high-interest debt such as credit card debt, with lower-interest debt such as that of a fixed-rate home mortgage. This can allow a lender to reduce borrowing costs by more closely aligning the cost of borrowing with the general creditworthiness and collateral security available from the borrower. For home mortgages, in the United States, there may be certain tax advantages available with refinancing, particularly if one does not pay Alternative Minimum Tax.

As a general rule, refinancing home mortgages truly only works if the interest rates are low, and if it saves lots of money which would have else been used to pay off the monthly recurring bills on the current loan. In addition, by refinancing home mortgages one is able to get better credit because he will be able to make your payments quicker.

RISK

Most fixed-term debt contains penalty clauses (known as "call provisions") that are triggered by an early payment of the loan, either in its entirety or a specified portion. In addition, there are also closing and transaction fees typically associated with refinancing debt. In some cases, these fees may outweigh any savings generated through refinancing the loan itself. Typically, one only rationally considers refinancing if the potential for a substantial cost savings exists, or if there is a need to extend the loan due to weak cash flow or other non-recurring commitments.

In addition, some refinanced loans, while having lower initial payments, may result in larger total interest costs over the life of the loan, or expose the borrower to greater risks than the existing loan, depending on the type of loan used to refinance the existing debt. Calculating the up-front, ongoing, and potentially variable costs of refinancing is an important part of the decision on whether or not to refinance.

Definition Refinance

Definition: To swap out your old loan with a more favorable loan. The new loan pays off the old loan, so you just make payments on the newer (presumably better) loan. Sometimes a borrower will borrow a little extra during refinancing to take some equity out of an asset (known as "cash out" refinancing).

Refinancing lenders often require an upfront payment of a certain percentage of the total loan amount as part of the process of refinancing debt. Typically, this amount is expressed in "points" (also sometimes called "premiums"), with each "point" being equivalent to 1% of the total loan amount. Therefore, if the refinance option selected involves paying three points, then the borrower will need to pay 3% of the total loan amount upfront. Most refinancing lenders offer a variety of combinations of points and interest rates. Paying more points typically allows one to get a lower interest rate than one would be capable of getting if one paid fewer or no points. Alternately, some lenders will offer to finance parts of the loan themselves, thus generating so-called "negative points" (also called discounts).

The decision of whether or not to pay points, and how many points to pay, should be taken in consideration of the fact that with points, one tends to trade a higher upfront cost in exchange for a lower monthly premium later on. Points can be paid out of the cash saved by refinancing the loan in the first place.

Also Known As: Restructure, cash out

Examples:

I refinanced my loan so that I'd pay less in interest.