Filed under: News, Renting, Credit

It’s probably safe to say that it isn’t having a new apartment that’s hard, it’s getting it. First, there’s the legwork, then there’s the scraping together a security deposit and first and last months’ rent. But for some people, it’s that pesky credit score that stands between them and the garden apartment with tons of light and the in-house washer and dryer.

So how can you start fixing your credit score before you find yourself crying as someone else closes on the affordable two-bedroom of your dreams?

1. What is a credit score?

A credit score is a number between 300-850 based on — primarily — a person’s credit history. The higher the number, the more reliable the renter. The credit score can be assessed by a landlord to reveal the likelihood that a potential renter will follow through on his or her monthly rental agreement.

2. Where does a credit score come from?

A credit score — also known as a FICO score (from the Fair Issac Corporation) — is derived by looking at five major categories (listed in order of the most to least heavily weighted): The renter’s payment history; what the renter still owes; the length of the credit history of the renter; how much new credit the renter has; and the type of credit the renter has used.

3. How does ones credit score go down?

When a renter does not make his or her credit or rental payments on time or they have racked up so much debt that they become unable to pay a re

gular minimum payment, their credit score might be primed to plummet. Further, if a person is a new credit holder or if they are applying for multiple credit sources, they can expect their number to appear less than stellar to a landlord. But more than any of those, filing for bankruptcy can knock a renter’s score down up to 250 points and will stay on a credit report for 10 years.

4. What number does a landlord expect your credit score to be?

When a bank loans money, according to this recent Investopedia.com article, lenders consider anything above 770 a top-tier score and anything below 620 subprime. Landlords renting homes are — in some cases — willing to overlook a mediocre credit score if the would-be tenant is able to pay a larger down payment or get a co-signer.

5. So what can you do to raise your credit score?

o. Don’t Use Credit: It might sound obvious, but the best way to rebuild bad credit is to stop accruing debt. Cut up your credit cards and go back to paying with checks and cash. It might sound old fashioned, but it will help you in the future.

o. Make a Calendar: It’s easy in the throws of the day-to-day to forget a monthly bill or two – especially if there are five or six or more bills to pay off each month. So put it on your calendar or have reminders sent to your inbox. Even better, set up an automatic bill pay so you can’t forget.

o. Have Fewer Credit Cards: Another no-brainer – why overtax your pocket book with all that plastic? The more open credit cards you have, the lower your credit score will be.

o. Stay in Touch With Your Creditors: Make sure to devote some time each month to going over your monthly statements. Catch mistakes early and report them immediately. The more mistakes you stop in their tracks, the higher your score will be – and it will keep your interest from skyrocketing.

o. Pay More: Don’t just pay what you have to, pay more. If you overpay the interest or your minimum balance on your credit cards or student loans each month, you will be improving your overall credit. So look and see what you owe, then add fifty.

Your credit score isn’t the only thing in the way of a great rental, but it’s an important one. And the good news is, it’s never too late to make it the number you know you should have.

Want to know how to deal with other rental issues? Here are some AOL Real Estate guides that can help:

• Tips for Finding a Rental Apartment
  
• Apartment Security for Renters
  
• Are You Paying Too Much for Your Rental?

 

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/01/26/renters-raise-your-credit-score-now/

default right of ingress or egress

Filed under: News, Investing

Thought Snooki and her partners cornered the market on conspicuous consumption? Then you haven’t seen this Jersey Shore mansion. With 22 rooms, a 15-car-garage and 650 feet of beachfront (provided Hurricane Irene didn’t do any re-landscaping), the place gives the reality-TV cast a run for their booze-soaked bills.

Located in Mantoloking, an uber-ritzy community “down the shore,” the home, listed at $16 million, has eight bedrooms, five bathrooms, and stunning views from multiple porches and decks, as well as a brick patio, pool and 200-foot dock.

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Robert Schwartz of Van Sciver Realtors has the listing.

Click on the pictures below to see some other mouth-watering residences in Mantoloking, N.J.:

See more Houses of the Day and other homes for sale in Mantoloking, N.J. on AOL Real Estate.

Got a tip for House of the Day? Know of an exceptional or unusual property currently listed for sale? Please email ann.brenoff@huffingtonpost.com with your suggestions and be sure to include links to listing details and photos. (Due to the volume of response, we unfortunately are unable to respond to each submission.)

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
See more celebrity real estate

 

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/09/02/house-of-the-day-jersey-shore-mansion-gives-reality-show-a-run/

encumbrance vested

Filed under: News, Advice, Buying, Financing, Foreclosures, How To, Investing, Renting, Selling

What if you could buy a house for $25,000 in a neighborhood that wasn’t a battle-scarred slum and rent it out for $750 a month as soon as the ink was dry on the deal? Where are these deals that let you recapture your investment in just three years and from then on enjoy a steady monthly income from the property?

If you said Phoenix, Las Vegas or south Florida, you’d be wrong says Paul Habibi, a principal of Habibi Properties and real estate professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Here’s a hint to the place Habibi thinks is the hottest investment around.

Yep, Habibi is humming “Kansas City” right along with Wilbert Harrison, Fats Domino and the 50 or so other recording artists who covered that tune. As for a real estate investment, Habibi says Kansas City, Mo., is ripe for the picking.

Habibi’s approach to real estate deals is not for novice investors, but it is for those who can tolerate some risk and buy into a statistician’s mind. He’s developed a matrix that filters the top 30 MSAs (metropolitan statistical areas) through their projected growth rates (increasing population is good), unemployment (the lower, the better), and whether the city has a diversified job platform (Silicon Valley won’t get his money).

He also rejects places where other investors have already scooped up the bargains (forget Florida and Las Vegas). Phoenix, popular with many investors, also fails his litmus test. It was built as a retirement community and lacks a job infrastructure for future growth, he says. And those Texas cities that everyone bandies about — Dallas, Austin, San Antonio — while their prices have remained flat and they seem to have escaped relatively unscathed from the recession, there are so many investors already there that they’re tripping over one another.

Kansas City is just about perfect, said Habibi, whose company recently concluded its first phase of buying 32 single-family homes there in “C-level” neighborhoods for a price point of $25,000 each, spent $5,000 to $10,000 on repairs and now rents them out for about $750 each. He expects to double or triple his holdings in Kansas City with his second investment fund, for which there is a minimum buy-in of $100,000 for accredited investors to participate.

Kansas City’s population grew at a faster-than-national average pace from 2000 to 2010. With an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent, it falls below the national level of unemployment of 9.1 percent. The city has a diversified industry base that includes Sprint Nextel Corporation, Hallmark Cards, the Fort Leavenworth military base, UPS and a Ford assembly plant. Google has selected the city for its ultra high-speed broadband network project. Plus Kansas City has a business-friendly reputation for encouraging retention of companies.

Habibi discourages individual investors without much experience or tolerance for risk to try to fly solo. He credits much of his success from having an infrastructure in place — people to scout and inspect the homes, screen for tenants, manage the properties on-site and swiftly deal with eviction issues.

For those who don’t want to listen to the expert, click on the images below of some homes for sale in the Kansas City area that are worth checking out:

See other homes for sale in the Kansas City area at AOL Real Estate.

Also see:
College Town Real Estate Investments Score High Marks
Upside Down on Your First House? Just Buy a Second One!
Viewpoint: Why No New Houses May Be a Good Thing

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More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Find rentals in your area.

 

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/02/where-are-the-real-home-bargains-not-where-you-think/

principal balance 401(k)/403(b)

Filed under: News, Advice, Economy, Financing, Foreclosures, Refinancing

Let’s hold off blaring the triumphant trumpets just yet for President Obama’s plan to allow holders of underwater loans to refinance at a lower rate through revisions in the Home Affordable Refinance Program.

What this change does is amend the loan-to-value ratio in a refinance. By removing the cap on how upside-down you can be, it will allow more people to avail themselves of the lower interest rates out there. You still will owe more than your house is worth, but you can pay less for the privilege.

Here’s what the proposed plan doesn’t do:

1. Reach many people.

The only homeowners who will qualify are those who are current on their underwater loans and have loans that are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (No jumbo loan holders or those with mortgages backed by the FHA or the USDA.) That’s an estimated 800,000 homeowners who can avail themselves of this. To put things in perspective, most experts say there are between 8 million and 9 million people in the foreclosure pipeline — and some put that number as high as 11 million. So 800,000 is hardly a game-changing number.

It is, perhaps somewhat ironically, about the same number of homeowners that HARP has helped to date. When the program was announced in 2009, we were told it would help 4 to 5 million underwater borrowers. To date, just 838,000 homeowners have been able to refinance through HARP. So even if this new tweak doubles the number of people helped, it’s still just a fraction of the number of people in trouble.

2. Reach the people who need it the most.

To qualify, you can have missed only one mortgage payment in the previous year and none in the past six months. The group being targeted here are those who are potential strategic defaulters — folks who go to sleep at night calculating whether it makes financial sense for them to just walk away. They have demonstrated that they can afford the loan because they are current on their payments.

The people who are not being helped here are the ones who can’t afford their mortgages anymore. These are the people at risk of losing their homes because of job loss, income reduction, illness, divorce or adjustable rate loan resets.

So to recap: If you are heading for foreclosure because you choose to be, this could change your mind. If you have no choice in heading for foreclosure, tough noogies to you.

3. Reduce anyone’s principal loan amount.

If your house is worth $200,000 and your loan amount is $250,000, you will still owe the bank $250,000 — just at a lower interest rate than what you originally signed up for. The underlying assumption here is that the housing market will recover sufficiently so that in a few years you will no longer be upside down on your loan — or if that doesn’t turn out to be the case, Obama won’t be running for re-election anymore and you become the next guy’s problem.

4. Help the unemployed.

The days of stated income — or no doc — loans are long gone. Consider them something you’ll tell your grandkids about, along with cell phones without cameras. To qualify here, you’ll need pay stubs, W-2s, tax returns and other documentation. And of course if you don’t have a job, you won’t likely be able to refinance your home into a lower-rate loan.

Here’s a little salt in the wound: Many long-term unemployed keep themselves afloat by working multiple freelance jobs. This puts them in the self-employed category — and even if they’ve managed to stay current on their mortgage, qualifying for the HARP relief would prove difficult because of their fluctuating income.

So the bank would rather keep them at a higher interest rate and wait for them to stumble than let them refinance into a lower interest rate. The fact that they have been making their payments faithfully doesn’t matter. The tweaks to HARP don’t tweak in the direction of the unemployed.

5. Pump more money into the economy.

The underlying logic behind this measure is that the money that those 800,000 lucky homeowners aren’t spending on their mortgage each month is money they’ll spend on other things — eating out, traveling, shopping — and that such spending is good for the economy.

Sorry, but this one has me laughing all the way to the credit union, which is where I suspect most of those homeowners will be headed too. First of all, their numbers are just too thin to make a statistical difference. This isn’t a “jump-start the economy” measure by a long shot. At best, it will allow a proverbial handful of homeowners to splurge on the occasional Friday night pizza, assuming there is enough left over from the “windfall” savings after they pay their health insurance and grocery bills.

Also see:
Obama’s Refinance Plan Explained
The Mortgage Fix That Can Save the Economy
Republican Candidates: Short on Housing Policy, Long on Houses

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More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.

 

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/24/viewpoint-obamas-drop-in-the-bucket-idea-for-housing/

executor mortgage life and disability insurance

Filed under: News, Buying, Refinancing

WASHINGTON — The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage dropped near its all-time low this week, making homebuying and refinancing a bargain for those who can qualify. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan fell to 3.88 percent from 3.98 percent. That’s just above the rate of 3.87 percent reached in February, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.

The 15-year mortgage, a popular option for refinancing, plunged to a fresh low of 3.11 percent from 3.21 percent last week. The previous record of 3.13 percent was hit last month.

Mortgage rates are lower because they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. Last week’s disappointing report on March job growth led more investors to sell stocks and buy Treasurys, which are considered safer investments. As demand for Treasurys increases, the yield falls.

Yet the low rates are unlikely to draw in many more people looking to buy a home or to refinance their mortgage.

Waiting, As Home Prices Keep Falling

Some would-be buyers are still skeptical about purchasing a home with prices still falling. Home appraisals that are higher or lower than the sales price have scuttled a rising number of home contracts. Many Americans are struggling with damaged credit and unstable finances.

And mortgage rates have been below 4 percent for all but one week since early December, leaving some potential buyers and refinancers unimpressed by new record lows.

“The rates have been very attractive for some time,” said Bill Armstrong, vice president of Mackintosh Realtors in Damascus, Md. “Rates going a little higher or lower is not going to have much of an impact.”

Still, the mild winter has helped lift expectations for the housing market after four years of sluggish sales.

January and February made up the best winter for re-sales in five years, when the housing crisis began. And builders in February requested the most permits to construct homes in more than three years.

Fewer Apply

Applications for new mortgages have fallen over the past month, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. But there has been a sharp rise in the average mortgage size, suggesting an appetite for bigger loans. The average size of mortgage applications has increased by $20,000 since December, to about $235,000 last month.

Home prices continue to fall. Prices tend to lag sales and millions of foreclosures and short sales — when a lender accepts less than what is owed on a mortgage – remain on the market. And the housing crisis and recession have also persuaded many Americans to rent instead of buy, which has led to a drop in homeownership.

To calculate the average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on just Monday through Wednesday of each week.

The average rates don’t include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fees for the 30-year and 15-year fixed loans were unchanged at 0.7.

For the five-year adjustable loan, the average rate fell to 2.85 percent from 2.86 percent, and the average fee fell to 0.7 from 0.8.

The average on the one-year adjustable loan rose to 2.80 percent from 2.78 percent, and the average fee was unchanged at 0.6.<

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

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See also:
Homebuying: 5 Key Steps to Your 1st Real Estate Purchase
Banks Neglect REO Homes in Minority Areas, Study Says
Home Costs: 4 Crucial Questions Reveal Hidden Expenses

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
See celebrity real estate.

 

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/04/13/30-year-mortgage-again-nears-record-low/

mortgage jumbo loan

Filed under: News, Advice, Buying, Economy, Lifestyle

Pearl and Bud Crispell hit the road in their RV the day after they retired in 1976. And for decades, that’s where they stayed, living in their 40-foot motor home and traversing the country at will.

But, as is the eventual story of all road warriors, the day came when they hit the proverbial dead end. Unable to manage some aspects of their life and care, living on fixed incomes and not wanting to become a burden to friends and relatives, the Crispells pulled in to the country’s only assisted-living RV Park, the Escapees Care Center in Livingston, Texas. The nonprofit adult day care and residency program, featured in a Columbia University News 21 profile, bills itself as a refuge for RVers whose travels are permanently ended because of age or temporarily interrupted because of an illness.

For a monthly fee of $824 per person, or $1,236 a couple, residents get a spot to park their wheeled homes; three meals a day, every day; two loads of laundry service a week; light housekeeping of their unit; transportation to medical appointments; and access to registered nurses on call 40 hours a week.

The Care Center also functions as a land-based community hub for the residents, providing daily activities, concerts, and a place to socialize. Not to mention a chance to get behind the wheel again: Last Father’s Day, residents competed in blind golf cart races. The drivers had to be legally blind or wear a blindfold while their sighted navigators yelled directions around an obstacle course of parking cones.

At 93 and 90, Pearl, a retired nurse, and Bud, a former IBM engineer, are not without age-related health issues. But her mind is “sharper than my husband wishes it was,” Pearl says. And she has no desire to trade the small confines of their RV for a bigger “land-based residence,” as Escapees call conventional houses. “We didn’t retire to entertain our family,” she says.

Right now the center’s 35 sites are all occupied, by vehicles ranging from minivans to 40-footers. Each unit has its own fresh water supply and a private septic system. While a few residents are in their 90s, most are in the mid- to late 80s, says Robert Brinton, the facility’s executive director and on-site manager. The center doesn’t have a waiting list or immediate plans to expand. Openings occur and there just always seems to be someone who wants it, he said.

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Brinton himself joined the Escapees RV Club in 2000 precisely because it has the Care Center. The 60,000-member strong club is founded on the “caring and sharing” principle, which appealed to him, Brinton says. Member donations built the Care Center, which has no mortgage and is thus able to keep expenses low.

The trend toward the “village” approach to aging in place is growing, says Nancy Thompson, senior media relations manager for AARP. She defines it as “co-housing” with a self-selected group of people who build a community together. It allows people to stay in their homes by providing easy access to services, especially transportation. Villages like this “are springing up all over the country,” she said.

Other co-housing units –also known as affinity communities — exist based on other shared commonalities. In Burbank, CA., the Burbank Senior Arts Colony is home to retired artists, musicians, actors and writers. The high-end Rainbow Vision in Santa Fe, N.M., is home to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents. In addition to its assisted living, it has a cabaret, an award-winning restaurant and a spa, reports AARP.

An AARP story notes that “With 3 million GLBT older Americans — a figure projected to nearly double by 2030 — and typically no adult children to care for them, such communities are expected to multiply.”

To watch a News 21 video featuring the Crispells, click here.

Also see:
Baby Boomers Launch Remodeling Boom
Rent Your Way to Retirement With a ‘Rental Mortgage’
Gay Housing Project Slated for Palm Springs

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Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Find rentals in your area.

 

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/28/happy-end-of-the-road-for-rvers-assisted-living-on-wheels/

effective age credit repository

Filed under: News, Buying, Economy, Other, Selling

Think the high-end of the market hasn’t been felled by the economic downturn? Guess again. Here’s a lovely four-bedroom contemporary home in Malibu, Calif., that is now being offered as a short sale with a recent price drop of $1 million. Ouch.

The 5,000-square-foot home is now listed at $2.85 million, subject to the lender’s short sale approval. So what does this really mean? It means the lender could say no to that price or it could mean someone is going to pick up a bargain. The home has been listed at $4.2 million.

The home has whitewater ocean views, top-of-the-line finishes that include Viking and Miele appliances, granite counter tops, Brazilian walnut floors and high wood-beamed ceilings. There is a fossil stone wine cellar and an 1,800-square-foot balcony made of Chinese slate stone. The property is an easy walk to the beach and membership in a private tennis club is included.

Click on the images below to see other premium homes for sale in Malibu, Calif.:

See more Houses of the Day and more homes for sale in Malibu, Calif. on AOL Real Estate.

Got a tip for House of the Day? Know of an exceptional or unusual property currently listed for sale? Please email ann.brenoff@huffingtonpost.com with your suggestions and be sure to include links to listing details and photos. (Due to the volume of response, we unfortunately are unable to respond to each submission.)

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
See celebrity real estate.

 

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/30/house-of-the-day-malibu-short-sale-with-a-steep-price-drop/

partial payment homeowners warranty

Filed under: News, Financing, Refinancing

WASHINGTON — Today’s record-low mortgage rates are out of reach for millions of U.S. homeowners who would benefit from them most.

One in four homeowners with a mortgage — 11 million people — owe more than their home is worth. These “underwater” borrowers have virtually no shot at refinancing.

Their plight is a drag on the housing market and the broader economy.

The Obama administration is hoping at least 1 million of these borrowers will take advantage of its refinancing program under more lenient rules unveiled Monday. Homeowners who are current on their payments will be eligible to refinance no matter how much their home’s value has dropped.

Still, it’s unclear how many borrowers will benefit. Lenders will remain under no obligation to refinance a mortgage they hold.

A growing number of these people are missing mortgage payments and falling into foreclosure. And the higher rates they’re locked into limit how much they can contribute to a weak economy. If they were able to refinance at today’s rates, it could boost consumer spending by tens of billions of dollars, economists say.

Underwater homeowners are paying an average 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 5.7 percent, according to an analysis of mortgage data by CoreLogic and The Associated Press. That compares with today’s average rate of 4.11 percent on a 30-year fixed mortgage. For a homeowner with a $250,000 mortgage, the lower rate would save more than $200 a month.

For many Americans, a few hundred dollars each month would mean the difference between paying their mortgage on time and in full and losing, or walking away from, their home.

Underwater borrowers are the “most desperate population in the country today,” says Barry Bosworth, an economist at the Brookings Institution.

Dan and Maggie Micoff bought a two-bedroom home in the Detroit suburb of Marine City in 2003. They paid $119,000. Eight years later, they’re underwater with a 6 percent loan.

If they could refinance, the Micoffs, both 58, could shave at least $120 from their monthly bill.

“The banks won’t work with us,” Maggie Micoff said. “We helped bail them out, and now we can’t even get a personal loan to get by. We could rent something for a few hundred dollars cheaper.”

Even among homeowners who do have equity in their homes, few are refinancing. Many have already refinanced within the past year. Others can’t meet tighter lending standards. That’s why underwater borrowers represent the best chance for refinancing to unleash spending that’s otherwise going toward mortgage bills.

With millions locked into artificially high rates, foreclosures are rising. Mortgage default notices surged nationally last month.

Whether the administration’s revamped mortgage refinancing program will reach more Americans this time is unclear, said Mark Vitner, senior U.S. economist at Wells Fargo.

“No one knows if it will spur a lot more people to refinance, but it’s a start,” Vitner said.

Also see:
Viewpoint: Obama’s Drop-in-the-Bucket Idea for Housing
The Mortgage Fix That Can Save the Economy
Republican Candidates: Short on Housing Policy, Long on Houses

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/25/obamas-refinance-plan-who-will-benefit/

easement PITI

Filed under: News, Financing, Foreclosures

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is offering some relief to homeowners who have government-backed mortgages. Under a program President Barack Obama unveiled Tuesday, the government would cut the fees it charges to insure those borrowers.

The idea is that lower fees would persuade millions to refinance their loans while interest rates are near record lows. It’s the administration’s latest attempt to minimize the damage from the foreclosure crisis and help more people keep their homes.

Here’s a look at the program:

Q: What has the administration proposed?

A: Borrowers with mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration could refinance at half the current fee. A lower fee would follow years of rising mortgage insurance premiums. FHA is also reducing an up-front premium when it initiates a loan. The FHA charges the fees on top of standard interest rates because it backs riskier borrowers.

Q: Who’s eligible?

A: The administration estimates 2 million to 3 million homeowners. Most are first-time or low-income homebuyers. The FHA requires only a 3.5 percent down payment. And borrowers don’t have to prove that they’re employed. FHA borrowers can also refinance even if they’re “underwater,” or owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth.

Q: How much will those who get the reduced fees actually benefit?

A: The fee is now 1.15 percent of the mortgage balance each year. Those fees are unappealing to many borrowers who want to refinance. The plan would cut the fee to 0.55 percent. The current up-front premium would also be lowered, from 1 percent of the loan balance to .01 percent. As a result, a borrower who owed $175,000 on their mortgage could save about $1,750 in one-time fees and more than $1,000 per year in annual fees by refinancing. The borrower could save nearly $150 a month more if the interest rate declined from 5 percent to 4 percent.

Q: Can those who are eligible be excluded from other government housing programs?

A: Most of the other federal housing programs, including its signature refinancing and mortgage modification programs, target other types of homeowners. So there’s little overlap with the FHA’s refinancing plan. For example, the administration’s refinancing and mortgage modification programs are for homeowners whose mortgages are owned or backed by government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, not the FHA.

Q: Will it work?

A: Possibly, if the reduced fees are well-advertised and borrowers are confident of saving on their mortgage payments by refinancing. If homeowners are wary of paying even a small amount to refinance, the program could fail to reach millions who are eligible. Economists said the lower fees are a modest way to help the troubled housing market but won’t turn it around. “The only thing that will do that are low interest rates and job growth,” said Susan Wachter, a professor of real estate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Stan Humphries, chief economist at the real estate website Zillow.com, predicted that a separate plan to compensate military service members who were wrongfully foreclosed upon would be a big help to that group. It’s unclear how many military service members would benefit.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

See also:
Barbara Corcoran on Refinancing Do’s and Don’ts
Homeowners Association Forecloses on Vet for $340
Foreclosure Starts and Sales Spiked in January, Report Says

 

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/03/07/how-obamas-fha-loan-plan-can-help-you-refinance/

no-cost loan mortgage banker

Filed under: Home Improvement

Kitchen: Replace the countertop.

There’s no shortage of potential kitchen upgrades, but replacing the countertop is a sure winner. Cabinetry can be prohibitively expensive. Energy-efficient appliances are great, but most people justifiably wait until the old ones break down. A new countertop will immediately improve your kitchen’s visual appeal while also adding convenience and efficiency to your food-prep routines. (Find highly rated kitchen countertop installers in your area.)


Bathroom: Upgrade the bathtub.

Maybe you want to replace the old tub with a jetted model or a freestanding soaking tub. Or perhaps you want to add a separate tub to complement an existing shower stall. Either way, the bathtub becomes the natural focal point of the bathroom. If a new tub isn’t in the budget, you can refinish the existing tub so it looks brand-new. (Find highly rated bathroom contractors in your area.)


Bedroom: Buy a new bed.

The reason to buy a new bed is only partly about the comfort and health benefits of a plush new mattress. It’s also about the advantages of modern bed design. New, high-quality platform beds don’t require a box spring. So you get a sleek, modern look plus increased storage capacity. Some styles even have a hidden storage compartment beneath the mattress.


Living Room: Change the wall treatment.

Whether it’s drywall texturing, a fresh coat of paint, crown molding, chic wallpaper, wood paneling, or just a new set of wall hangings, virtually every living room can be affordably transformed with new wall décor. And don’t discount the possibility of improving the room’s functioning, either. Adding or moving electrical outlets and switches can allow for easier access to electricity and fewer eyesores associated with running cords throughout the room. (Find highly rated remodeling contractors in your area.)


Basement: Add lighting.

This project is a great idea for both finished and unfinished basements. Because it looks clean and doesn’t compromise headroom, recessed lighting is the dominant trend for basements. But don’t just think about adding artificial lighting. By adding new windows or expanding existing ones, you can add both brightness and value to subterranean spaces. Glass blocks are another great option for adding natural light without sacrificing privacy. (Find highly rated basement remodelers in your area.)


Garage: Change the garage door.

Too many homeowners fail to appreciate just how big an impact their garage door has on home appearance and value. After all, it’s often the first thing that visitors see. It’s also one of the first lines of defense against home intruders. Your garage door needs to be handsome, sturdy and, if the garage is attached to the house, well-insulated. It also needs to have a reliable garage door opening system. As an entryway into your home, your garage door needs to enhance, not detract from, your home’s curb appeal, in much the same way as your front door. (Find highly rated garage-door installers in your area.)


The Best Project for Any Room in the House

As a bonus, we thought we’d offer up this tidbit. New flooring has to be the best project for any room in the house, whether it’s plush carpet in the bedroom, ceramic tile in the bathroom, hardwood in the kitchen, cork in the living room or laminate in the basement. Flooring is one of the only home features that people constantly see and touch. New floors can improve the value of the home: Prospective buyers are guaranteed to consider flooring when making a decision. Plus, it will enhance your enjoyment of your home every day. At a reasonable cost, this is the one can’t-miss project for any room in the house. (Find highly rated flooring contractors in your area.)


Want more home improvement ideas? Here are some AOL Real Estate guides to help you:

• Top Home Improvement Projects Under $500
• Top Home Improvement Projects Under $5,000
• Home Improvement Mistakes: How to Fix and Avoid

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Get property tax help from our experts.

 

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/09/01/home-improvement-the-best-ideas-for-every-room-in-the-house/

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