Free Financial Planning Advice » Home Loans

Find The Cheapest Home Loan

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:33:08 +0000

Of course, when you’re on the search for any type of loan, you want to make sure that you’re getting the best interest rates and overall, the best loan possible. Looking for the cheapest home loan may not be so straightforward, however. There are a number of different types of home loans, each with their pros and cons. “Cheap” will be relative to the flexibility and loan type that you’d like to have.

A Basic Loan
These loans have no frills and usually a relatively low interest rate. They’re great for first time home buyers whose priority is really in finding the cheap home loan rates. The problem is that these loans usually don’t offer features or flexibility. Making additional repayments or making repayments early can even result in types of penalties. On the most basic level, however, this is where you’ll find the cheapest home loan interest rate.

Standard Variable Rate Loans
This is virtually a basic loan with more features and flexibility. For example, there is usually a redraw option, splitting between fixed and variable rates, ability to make extra repayments without penalty, and portability. If interest rates go up, however, so will your repayments (as with a basic loan).

Fixed Rate Loan
Just like what it sounds. For a certain term (usually somewhere between one and five years) the interest rate is inflexible, so you do want to look for the cheapest home loans there. At the end of the term, you can lock into another fixed rate, switch to variable, or go for a split.

Home Equity Loan
In these loans, you use the equity in your home to finance the loan. In order to take advantage of this, and definitely to get the cheapest home equity loan rates, you do have to have a large deposit or good equity in your home. There are no set repayments. Extra funds are available without having to apply for a separate loan. Yet they usually are more expensive than a basic or variable loan… make sure that the benefits you’ll receive outweigh the cost. You’ll need great discipline and budgeting skills to take full advantage of these.

Packaged Home Loans
Special features, special products. They are offered by banks to people of certain professions or people who are borrowing over a certain amounts (very large sums). You can consult with your banks and employers to find out eligibility and benefits for your situation.

Whatever loan you choose, do ask your lender as many questions as is relevant. Look for fine print. Take advantage of features, options, and flexibility.

Bad Credit FHA Home Loan Readily Available

Chava — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:05:25 +0000

In your search for home loans, either to buy a house or refinance a mortgage, you may feel overwhelmed with where to begin. As FHA home loans is a fairly well known company, it’s a good one to investigate. Getting your toes in the water will make comparison shopping easier. Even from their website, you can collect plenty of information about home loans of all types for all people. One of the specialties is their bad credit FHA home loan. You can get a free credit report, too.

The basic FHA home loan requirements make homeownership a possibility for more people. For example, their minimal down payment and closing costs:
➢ Down payment less than 3% of sales price
➢ 100% financing options available
➢ Gift for down payment and closing costs allowed
➢ No reserves required
➢ FHA regulating closing costs
➢ Seller can credit up to 6% of sale price toward buyer’s costs.

Credit qualification is easy on FHA home loan guidelines:
➢ Minimum FICO credit score of 620
➢ FHA will allow a home purchase two years after a bankruptcy
➢ FHA will allow a home purchase three years after a foreclosure

Easy debt ratio and job requirement guidelines:
➢ Higher debt ratio than other programs for home loans
➢ Less than 2 years on the job
➢ Even self employed individuals can apply

There is a FHA home loan program for just about everyone. FHA makes programs to suit all potential homeowners; first time buyers, second time buyers, multi family homes, single family homes. Special FHA home loan rates are available for teachers and officers, as well. Programs with either a fixed or adjustable FHA home loan rate are possible.

The FHASecure Loan is the prime choice of bad credit FHA loans. If you behind on mortgage payments, are facing foreclosure due to raised interest rates, or have little equity on your home (or none), then this is the program to consider. In these circumstances, consider the FHA home loan refinance guidelines:

➢ The interest rate on your mortgage must have reset between June 2005 and December 2009
➢ You have 3% cash or equity in the home
➢ A good credit history of timely payments before the rates expired and were reset
➢ Sustained employment history of past 2 years
➢ Sufficient income to make the FHA home mortgage loan payments
➢ The new mortgage loan can’t exceed FHA home limits.

If you meet these guidelines, then it is time to request more information and application documents. Get an FHA home loan appraisal done and see what the company can do for you. It may very well be that this is the answer to your bad credit mortgage loan problems.

Purchase Home With Bad Credit? Yes, You Can!

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:38:48 +0000

If you have a history of bad credit, the idea of buying a home might seem out of your reach. Bankruptcy, foreclosure, unpaid credit card bills… none of those seem to be the kind of things that lenders want to hear about. And they aren’t. But still, if you’re trying to purchase home with bad credit, know that it is possible. While it might be more difficult and might cost more than if you were to have a pristine credit history, it can still be done.

The first step in securing bad credit mortgages is to know just how bad your credit is. Specifically, whether you’ve had a bankruptcy or not. And if you have had a bankruptcy, whether that included a foreclosure or not. Lenders take foreclosures very seriously, and will be a lot less likely to give you a mortgage if you have one in your credit history.

But there are thousands of couples that manage to purchase homes with bad credit history that includes both bankruptcy and foreclosure. One option is getting an FHA loan. If you go this route, you will have to wait some time. The waiting period after a bankruptcy is two years; if you have had a foreclosure it will be three years.

When applying for an FHA loan, its not so much your actual credit score number that will make the difference, but what is behind that number. Your credit report will be carefully scrutinized to see what the reasons for your poor credit are, and those reasons will determine whether you will receive the loan or not.

If you are unable to get approved for an FHA loan, then there are a couple other options for you to consider. These are often overlooked by people who are trying to figure out how to purchase a home with bad credit, but they are options you should think about. These are seller financing and lease-options, both of which are a step away from the more traditional “take out a mortgage” solution. While these two options are often confused as being one and the same, there are some basic differences.

When you are buying a home that is seller financed, you are basically taking your mortgage out from the seller instead of a bank or other financial institution. In a lease-option, you are renting the home, but you have an agreement that states that you may buy the house at a certain date, for a lower price than it would normally sell for. While you can back out of the deal, you will have to pay a penalty if you don’t buy, which is usually around $10,000.

If your bad credit history does not include a bankruptcy or foreclosure, you will be in much better shape. You are very likely to get approved for an FHA loan, which is most likely the best route for you to take. If you are not approved, you can try to get a bad credit mortgage from a bank. Since you don’t have a major deterrent like bankruptcy or foreclosure behind you, most banks won’t have a problem giving you a loan.

There is one thing that you should consider though. If you do take out a bad credit home loan, you will end up spending a lot more in interest than if you had a better credit score. It may be very much worth your while to work on increasing your credit score so that you can obtain a mortgage at a better interest rate.

So can you purchase a home with bad credit? Yes, you most definitely can. Whether you simply have a low credit score or have gone through bankruptcy or foreclosure there are viable options you can choose to become the owner of your own home. You will need to decide which is the right path for you, be it an FHA loan, a seller financed home, lease option, bad credit mortgage, or simply waiting a bit of time and working on improving your credit score.