Decision with a mortgage calculator when to foreclose

One of the best places, you hope, to sink your capital for a good return is in real estate. However, when you provide the financing for someone to purchase their own home, your capital is tied to their ability to pay back the loan. If they start to miss payments, then you need to start considering your options. A mortgage calculator which specializes in foreclosure loss helps you to decide when the time is right for starting action against the homeowners.

In theory, if you own the loan, you own the property if the mortgage you're financing goes into default. However, this doesn't mean that you will automatically see a profit - or even not suffer a loss - should you need to foreclose. There are a number of things to take into account which a foreclosure risk of loss mortgage calculator can call to your attention so that you don't allow things to get out of hand.

For example, the mortgage calculator may ask you to input the amount of interest you receive on the loan each month. Then it asks for how many months you received no interest leading up to the foreclosure. The longer you keep the non-paying owners there, the more this will amount to. You'll start seeing just where your cash flow is going.

The mortgage calculator may want to know the amount of the loan, and the value of the property (remember: this is the value now, not when the mortgage was taken out.) This should be in your favor unless the property has been allowed to fall into disrepair during the time the owners had it. Sometimes, when they can't make the mortgage payment, they lose interest in even basic maintenance.

Another factor that the mortgage calculator considers is any property taxes which are unpaid. Once you foreclose on the property, you become liable for these and if they haven't been paid for quite some time this could account for a serious deficit in your funds! First there are the taxes; and then, there are penalties; and the final total includes interest. While the mortgage calculator take these into consideration, don't forget to follow up. It is possible to check whether or not the property taxes are up-to-date prior to foreclosure by contacting the county or parish in which the property is situated.

Legal fees are another area that the mortgage calculator might remind you to take into account. No matter how long you allow the arrears to go on, the legal fees will be waiting for you. There will be the legal fees associated with the foreclosure; and then another set of legal fees when you resell the property to another buyer.

Other miscellaneous entries that may be entered on a mortgage calculator will include:

* selling costs

* any discounts that you give in order to sell the property quickly and not lose more interest than necessary

* any necessary clean-up and repair costs,

* even insurance of the property in the interim period between foreclosure and exchanging contracts with the new owners of the property

After all that, you begin to wonder if you're making a profit. Well, using a foreclosure mortgage calculator before it becomes absolutely necessary to foreclose will show you the value of working with your clients to help them stay in their home.

Be careful with 125 loans

Many borrowers think they have found the perfect loan -- the 125. But you should be cautious when considering this product.

A 125 loan is named for the amount of equity you can pull out of your home, which is usually 125%. Some of the loan is secured by your home and some of it isn't, making it a mixed loan type. The portion that is unsecured causes your interest rate to be higher than with a fully secured home equity loan.

Many borrowers turn to 125 loans because they can simply make one payment to their lender instead of several payments to many lenders. The single payment is often lower than the total of all the payments it replace, due to differences in interest rates. The rates are often much better than credit card rates, but if you roll other loans in, such as student loans, you may actually be raising some rates on your debt.

For example, you may have a car loan with a balance of $11,000. You have an interest rate of 8.5% and 4 years left of payments. You roll the note into your 125 loan, which has a rate of 11.5%. You've actually raised your interest rate.

If you roll in a credit card with a $12,000 balance and an interest rate of 19%, you are lowering your rate. But you will be looking at upwards of ten years of payments.

The real danger comes in when borrowers take out a 125, roll over their credit card debt and then go out and max out those cards again. This is called reloading. You now have double the debt to repay. You are in a worse situation now and are risking losing your home.

When you take out a 125, you have to be dedicated enough to cut up each credit card right then and there. This will help you avoid temptation.

You may be saying, but wait -- I get to deduct the interest on a 125 on my income taxes. Yes, you are saving 28 cents for every dollar you spend. Doesn't make a lot of sense. Plus, the amount of interest on the loan above the value of your home is not tax deductible. If you deduct it, it will bite you in the taxes.

You are also now upside down in your home equity. You owe more than your home is worth. You can't sell it until the value of the house increases or you pay off the loan enough to reduce the balance below the value of the house. That takes around five to 10 years in most cases.

If you are forced to sell your home, you will probably have to pay money at closing just to get it off your hands. You are paying to sell your home. If you plan to stay in your home for a long time, you may not need to worry about this as much.

But keep in mind that the unexpected happens. When you open yourself up to a lot of debt, you are putting your future at risk. Taking out a 125 loan to get rid of the debt isn't necessarily your best option. It certainly isn't the easy way out, as you may have been told. It is the same debt, just new place. Be very careful, it's your house on the line this time.

Home loan pre-qualification vs. pre-approval

Once you've decided to buy a property, the first step is not to go house hunting. Instead, you should find out what you can borrow. In doing so, it is important to understand the difference between loan qualification and approval.

Pre-Qualified

Getting pre-qualified for a home loan carries little if any weight when it comes to actually getting the loan issued. Let's take a look at why.

Its time to buy your first home and you've done the research. The first step is to find out how much you can borrow. Down to the bank you go for a sit down with a friendly home loan officer. This person asks you questions about finances, salaries, credit and so forth. You might even be asked to fill out a short questionnaire. After a surprisingly short time, the bank officer suggests a loan amount of around $300,000 is probable. Being really helpful, the bank officer even prints out a form letter with your name and the pre-qualification amount of $300,000. Wow, that was easy...perhaps to easy?

The problem with pre-qualifications is they are based on best guesses. The bank officer looks at no hard facts. When it comes time to actually apply for the loan, you can be assured the lending institution isn't going to be willing to guess. In fact, you might be told you don't qualify for a $300,000 home loan when push comes to shove. You might only qualify for $250,000. In nightmare situations, you might not qualify at all because of credit problems. In short, home loan pre-qualification is a waste of time for the most part.

Pre-Approval

Getting pre-APPROVED for a home loan is definitely your best option. Getting pre-approved for a home loan is an excellent strategy because you actually go through the process. Issues such as income, credit scores, personal wealth and so on are resolved. At the end of the process, the bank agrees to issue a loan up to a certain amount contingent on an appraisal of the home you eventually decide to buy. The lender will produce a letter indicating as much, and it is a very valuable letter.

A pre-approval letter is instant gold in the real estate market. If you were selling a home, would you prefer a buyer with a pre-approval letter or one without? The answer is obvious and leads to another advantage. In the current market, it is likely you will be bidding against other parties for property. A seller is much more likely to select your bid because they know the loan process will go smoothly. This can make all the difference when it comes to closing a deal.

Determining how much money you can borrow is the first step in the purchase process. Just make sure you get a pre-approval letter, not pre-qualification guesses.