Joseph Kenny asked:




When it comes time to get the money you need to renovate your home, you have some choices to make concerning the financing of it. Both ways, either refinancing your first mortgage, or a home equity loan, will give you access to your equity. After that, though, a number of differences will clearly stand out. Here is what you need to know about these differences so you can intelligently choose the best one for your needs.

Features Of Refinancing Your First Mortgage

By getting a cash out mortgage, you can replace your first mortgage and obtain your equity. This means that you will have to pay the fees again that you paid when you bought the house in the first place. However, if you wait until the interest rates are down, you can get a better deal than you had before. The amount that you can gain could easily offset the costs of refinancing and save you thousands of dollars over the life of the new mortgage.

The interest rate for a first mortgage is always lower than what you would get for a second mortgage – which makes this the ideal choice. You also will have only one payment each month, which you could even make lower than what you have now by extending the time length on the mortgage. If you already have more than one mortgage, then this is also a good way to consolidate them and get your equity at the same time, as well as reduce your monthly payment.

If you currently have an adjustable rate mortgage that is about to run out of the fixed rate portion, then this should be the way you would want to go. Not only will it give you level payments with a fixed interest rate, assuming you get a fixed rate mortgage, but also your equity for the upcoming renovation project you have in mind. This means you could take care of more than one problem at once.

Features Of A Home Equity Loan

A home equity loan is considered a second mortgage. This means it will give you an additional payment each month. If you can afford the extra payment, this may be the way you want to go. It will also have a higher rate of interest than a first mortgage, and usually has a time frame of up to 15 years for repayment.

You can take out your equity but need to leave enough in there that is equal to 20% of the value of the house. This is true with any kind of mortgage, since you may need to pay private mortgage insurance if you go over this amount.

A home equity loan is mostly fixed rate, but some may also be adjustable. Your loan payments are fully amortizing, and money used for fixing up your home is often tax deductible. This type of loan is seeing some new variations come out recently, so you will want to see what is out there before you choose.

The Choice Is Yours

Obviously, only one of these choices will best meet your needs. After you choose a course to take, you will then want to get a few quotes – whether you choose to refinance, or get a home equity loan. You will need to look them over carefully and consider all aspects in order to find the one that is best for you.

Tom

Isaac F. Davis asked:




Many VA borrowers ask about private mortgage insurance (PMI). PMI is a lender-charged fee on mortgages with more than 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio. VA loans never require PMI, and it’s important to understand why this is such an attractive feature.

For conventional and other type mortgage programs, PMI functions as insurance against loss in case of foreclosure. VA loans are backed by the federal government, so VA-approved lenders don’t need added PMI.

The savings a VA borrower can experience by not paying PMI are big. Typical rates for PMI on a $200,000 conventional loan are around $120 per month or about $1440 per year. A conventional borrower would need to bring twenty percent cash down at closing in order to avoid monthly PMI charges. Even though VA loans require no money down at closing, they never require PMI.

PMI is a reality for most other mortgage borrowers. And, once PMI is charged, there is no legal obligation by the lender or the servicer of the loan to cancel PMI. Even if the borrower pays the mortgage down to an 80 percent LTV ratio, he or she may still be paying PMI. To cancel PMI, the request must come from the loan servicer. This will often require an appraisal to verify that there is 20 percent equity in the financed property. An appraisal may cost the borrower from $300 to $450 and is yet another expense that VA borrowers can skip by using the veterans’ home loan program.

Sometimes people in the market for a home loan can be attracted to mortgage products marketed as no-PMI loans. Buyer should be aware, that loans advertised as “no PMI required” may simply be lender-paid PMI loans with higher interest rates. In these cases, the borrower would ultimately pay for the PMI indirectly through higher monthly mortgage payments. With VA loans, a borrower will never see PMI disguised as anything else, especially not jacked up interest rates to offset the cost of lender-paid PMI.

Certain non-VA borrowers may be able to avoid PMI by utilizing a second mortgage as a piggyback second. A piggyback second can sometimes help when a borrower has less than twenty percent down. For instance, an 80/10/10 program would mean that 80 percent of the value of the property is financed with the first mortgage, 10 percent is financed by the second and the borrower puts 10 percent cash down. A common disadvantage to the piggyback-second method of avoiding PMI is that interest rates on second mortgages are typically higher than those for first mortgages.

After analyzing all the different issues associated with PMI, a no-PMI VA loan looks better and better. No PMI is just one of the many advantages associated with the VA home loan program. Some of the other benefits of VA loans include:

Zero Down 100% LTV on purchase and refinance loans Less stringent qualifying standards Low interest rates No prepayment penalties Cash-out and debt consolidation refinance Streamline rate reduction refinance.

Diane

Kevin Benner asked:




If you are trying to get the best possible rate on 2nd mortgage home equity loans, it’s a good idea to learn as much as you can about the process. You have probably seen countless websites that promise to provide you with a list of lenders that offer the best rates in your area. Many of these sites do nothing more than provide a listing of interest rates for national lenders.

A quality mortgage referral website will make it a priority to inform and educate a customer whenever and wherever possible. In the end, these quality websites want you to find the best possible terms for your 2nd mortgage home equity loans. Cultivating relationships with the top lenders, in the business of providing customers with the ideal combination of low rates and ethical business practices, allow consumers to find a good rate at the lowest cost possible in a more time efficient manner.

What to Look for in 2nd Mortgage Home Equity Loans

If you are not sure how 2nd mortgage loans work, they are designed to allow you to borrow against the equity in your home. The equity in your home is the difference between the fair market value of your home and the amount you still owe on the mortgage. Since homes typically appreciate in value over the years, you may have more equity in your home than you realized.

When evaluating 2nd mortgage home equity loans, it’s important to consider more than just the interest rate. You will also want to find out what the APR is for your loan. APR, or annual percentage rate, is a measure of the costs associated with the credit, including interest rate, points, and finance charges.

Jane