What should you do with your mortgage when a disaster hits? What are the options and obstacles? It’s not common, it’s not uncommon. Damage to your home can occur from various disasters. Hurricane, tornado, flood, wildfire, earthquake, blizzard/ice storm. Even the most recent Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a declared disaster. When these events occur, federal as well as state declarations […]
You probably know someone who would like help understanding how to get approved. Or how to get better mortgage knowledge and a better rate, maybe the best interest rate for a mortgage. Or help understanding the reverse mortgage process. News commentary and helpful discussions can be found in the News/Commentary articles. Browse articles individually or by category of interest. Feel […]
Yesterday (June 28), the CFPB Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released new forbearance exit rules for servicers. The rules run to more than 200 pages and can have very technical compliance requirements. According to the final rule, servicers can initiate a foreclosure action only after certain events. A borrower submitting a loss mitigation application must be eligible. The borrower cannot break […]
One of the common complaints voiced by home buyers results from a property tax surprise. These come in a few different flavors. However, the most common surprise results from a change in valuation by the taxing jurisdictions. This may occur in the year of purchase. But more commonly, it arises in the year after purchase. Many real estate agents rely […]
Do your property taxes equal your loan payment for principal and interest? Do they exceed the loan payment? That’s question wasn’t even on the radar earlier. One of the major considerations in buying the right house is the total monthly payment. Obviously a buyer is looking for the right house – architecture, location, number of bedrooms, yard or not, and […]
Estimates of the number of mortgage borrowers who entered forbearance at some point over the last year range as high as 11 million. Some borrowers used it as a precaution, others had little other choice. Because there were differing reasons for entering forbearance and differing circumstances, many borrowers were able to exit forbearance. The exit would likely be from a […]
Home Owner’s Associations and Condominium Associations can rack up big assessments against an owner’s property. Can you stop paying these if you have trouble affording them? There are substantial differences between Home Owner’s Associations and Condominium Associations. In general, a Condominium Association has a substantial duty to maintain a variety of insurance coverages for common areas (walls, roofs, physical structures, […]
What’s in the title? Title insurance that is. For most buyers, not a clue. Schedule A? Schedule B? Perhaps Schedule C? Schedule D? Any mention of these likely draws blank stares. And yet, a borrower risks losing the house and potentially a lot of money by not knowing what’s in the title. Title insurance plays a different role than casualty […]
Perhaps you have found that it is possible to waive some or all escrows for your loan. Should you? Escrowing money each money for property taxes, property insurance and other items (PMI, flood insurance) is designed to make sure that the taxes and insurance is paid timely and there is sufficient money available to do that when each payment comes […]
Like everything, it depends. You can waive escrows with approval. In follow-up posts, we’ll examine whether you should waive escrows, possible problems and other factors to consider. A number of scenarios cover whether you can waive escrows. Scenario 1. You take out a mortgage and it is less than 80% LTV when you take it out. If it’s a conventional […]
It’s automatic, take out a mortgage loan and the lender sets it up with an escrow account holding your money to pay property taxes, property insurance, private mortgage insurance and perhaps other charges. We’ll examine this from different perspectives in multiple posts. Can you waive escrows? Which ones? What’s the cost? Should you waive escrows? Pros and Cons; Risks and […]
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