Archive for the 'Calculators and tools' Category
I know you hate PMI, Private Mortgage Insurance, but -
Sometimes you can get lower payments by getting a home loan with PMI.
The concept of PMI often brings men to pistol dueling. The just want to kill somebody when the think about paying PMI.
I learned a long time ago, the man who vocalizes his hate for PMI, is hard to talk to. So let me just do a little seed planting. The way around PMI is to put 20% down. Once you have it, it takes a lot of work to get it off, but if you truly have enought equity now, off it can go.
In purchasing, without a 20% down payment the common trick is to use a first and a second mortgage, the first mortgage being 80% of the purchase price, the second can go up to 100% of the purchase price. So doing it this way, hooray, you have no PMI. But what is the goal? Lower payments? Sometimes you defeat this goal by the no PMI option. How so? Interest rates. The rate on the second won’t be cheap. The rate on the first may even be higher than otherwise available.
Suze Orman makes a point of this here: An Emmy award-winning author, recently on The Suze Orman Show, she emphasized the importance of knowing your options when getting a mortgage, warned consumers about piggyback loans.
If you love, love, love Suze - the site has a video. I just respect her, don’t love her, didn’t watch the video.
My suggestion is to have your lender show you the options you have. Comparing the payments between these options is the only way to know you are making the best decision for the bottom line.
Or you can actually do this yourself now on line. The mortgage insurers have a calculator on their sites. Click here and do the math yourself.
Larry Cragun
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How much house can you afford?
This Fannie Mae Calculator is more informative than most. CLICK HERE
Example of strong: A lot of cash reserves or a large down payment.
Example of weak: Credit issues
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Do you know where the best on-line aerial maps of homes can be found?
Local.live.com
In some cities they have what is called a birds eye view.
That is really the best.
The site sometimes is slow in loading, but worth it.
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