Lindsy Emery asked:




When you’re in financial distress and you own a home, it can be a scary time. Will you lose it all? Will your home get repossessed by the bank? At a time like this, you may sit down to review your options but get bogged down in the choices you have. How is home loan modification different than mortgage refinancing? Which is right for you?

First off, relax. There are lots of qualified financial counselors, information from your bank, and free online resources like this website to help you get informed. Nobody expects you to know everything right away, and it’s not really as complicated as you might think.

Home Loan Modification vs. Mortgage Refinancing, Are They The Same Thing?

While they are not the same thing, modification and refinancing are both methods for reshuffling your mortgage payments and handling them in a new way. Homeowners turn to each of them, but usually in different times and under different circumstances.

Most homeowners are more familiar with loan refinancing. In a refinance, you take out a new mortgage loan (with more favorable terms) and use it to pay off your old one. People generally refinance when they’ve built up some equity in their homes and they want to take advantage of better terms, like a lower interest rate.

When you get a modification, you’re not taking out a new loan. A modification adjusts the terms of your original mortgage in a variety of ways. The most common loan mods include:

1. extending the loan term

2. decreasing the interest rate

3. forgiving principal (in rare cases)

The goal is to end up with a lower monthly payment that you can afford. Your bank sees regular monthly payments coming in again, and you get to keep your house.

Is Refinancing or Modification Right for You?

A number of factors determine whether you should refinance or apply for a modification, and your professional financial counselor is best equipped to help you decide which is right for you.

If you have substantial equity in your home and it hasn’t depreciated more than 10% since you first bought it, you may be a good candidate for refinancing. Lenders usually require an upfront payment of “points,” where each point equals 1% of the loan and the more points, the lower the new interest rate. 20% equity is usually a good number for refinancing.

Unfortunately, many lenders won’t let you refinance if your home isn’t worth at least 90% of your current loan’s vale. Plummeting house prices have caused many people to go underwater on their mortgages, making refinancing unrealistic for many homeowners.

If you’ve had some catastrophic event in your family (such as an unemployment, death, divorce, or medical disaster) that has made it impossible to meet your monthly mortgage payment, you might be a good candidate for loan modification. If your monthly payment (including principal, interest, taxes, and insurance) totals more than 35% to 45% of your gross monthly income, you could also be a good candidate for loan modification. 

Carrie

Carrie Reeder asked:




Here are some of the benefits to doing your home loan refinance online:

Everything seems to happen faster – Online, when looking for a mortgage loan you can search around, fill out an application and a few minutes later, you can be receiving a pre-approval letter via email. There was no calling, no driving & no waiting on hold for an answer. The mortgage company will usually contact you quickly and give you all the information you need to move forward.

You will be more informed and make better decisions – People nowadays that use the internet as consumers, use it primarily to make better purchasing decisions. If you are sitting at home on the couch with your phone book calling every mortgage company listed, you are not going to know what the current interest rate is. You aren’t going to know what your contacted companies competitors are like. All you will know is what that loan officer tells you.

Online, you can view a lot of information very quickly. – After looking at a few mortgage loan websites, you will know quickly that when you refinance you have many options. Do you want to get cash out of your home? Do you want to borrow more than your homes current value? Do you want an interest only loan? And, you will know right away which mortgage companies offer these options. There are many different kinds of refinance loans, and all of these options can be learned after a few minutes of searching online.

Deal with large, reputable companies – When applying online, you should quickly be able to spot the larger, more reputable mortgage companies. I always prefer to use the companies that will submit your application to multiple lenders. That way, your credit is only pulled once, and you can receive multiple offers from up to 4 lenders. For a list of these recommended mortgage companies, see the link below.

Save money – Many online mortgage service companies can save you money by cutting out fees like origination fees and underwriting fees. You will also save money using mortgage services where more than one lender competes for your business. When you can receive multiple offers, you will know that you are choosing the loan with the lowest rate possible and the best terms you can qualify for. I usually recommend applying with about 3 different mortgage companies that will submit your application to multiple lenders and give you multiple offers. That way you can really maximize your options.

Less Commitment – You can search around online and apply to 2-3 different lenders without feeling guilty for working with more than one company. That way you make can make sure you are getting the best deal. Often when you start working with a mortgage broker in person, even if the person isn’t doing the best job for you, you start to feel obligated to continue to work with the person. This is not so online. If you aren’t getting what you want, you are free to move on with no guilt.

For a list of recommended mortgage companies to refinance with online, click on the link here: recommended
refinance mortgage lenders. The mortgage companies recommended on my website, for the most part, will submit your application to more than one lender and provide you with multiple offers.

Caroline

Joseph Kenny asked:




When you need the cash out of the equity of your home you may wonder which one is better for you – a cash out mortgage or a home equity loan. The truth is that both have their advantages – but probably one will be better for your situation than the other. This will mean that you need to know a little about each in order to make up your mind. Here are some differences between the two.

A cash out mortgage will involve refinancing your first mortgage. This could be a great way to go, especially if you can get interest rates on the refinance that are at least one percent (two percent is to be preferred) lower than your present mortgage rates. So not only could you get the equity you want, but also you will save thousands of dollars by getting better interest rates, too.

You get the equity you want in a lump sum when your cash out mortgage is approved. All you need to do is to refinance for the amount of the mortgage that is still outstanding, and add the amount of cash you want from your equity. You will want to watch and make sure that you do not refinance for an amount equal to 80% of the value of your house – that includes the equity, as well. The reason for this is simple, you want to make sure that 20% of the value of your home is left intact so that you do not need to pay the Private Mortgage Insurance. This could add thousands of dollars each year to your payments.

You can enjoy further savings if you decide to shorten the term length, too. If you make the remainder of the refinanced loan to be about 5 years less than what you have now, you could literally save tens of thousands of dollars more over the life of the mortgage.

A home equity loan is another way to get to the cash in your equity that you want. A home equity loan is a second mortgage, and you may be able to get it as either an adjustable rate mortgage or a fixed rate mortgage. While it obviously does not require you to refinance your first mortgage, it will give you a new monthly payment – and the cash you want. As a second mortgage, there will also be closing costs and other fees – with the possible exception of going through your present lender.

The interest rate will be higher than on a first mortgage, when you get a home equity loan. The interest rate, as well as the amount you can borrow, will depend mostly on your credit rating, and your ability to repay the loan. Make sure your credit report is accurate before you apply. If there are inaccuracies on the report it can hurt you and give you higher interest rates than you might have otherwise, or even cause your home equity loan to be rejected.

Before you agree to either a home equity loan or a cash out mortgage, you will want to shop around to find the best deal. It will take some time to do it right – but you are the one who will benefit from the savings. Check the various features, such as the interest rate, the fees, and the terms of repayment – including the monthly payments.

The choice is now yours. It can basically be summed up as – do you want to refinance your existing mortgage, or get a second mortgage? Both have their benefits, but only you can decide which one will work best for you.

Stella