Let My Experience Work For You!
Email your home loan financing questions to Kristin Abouelata, Home Loan Specialist, at question@kristinmortgage.com or call direct: (865) 567-0113 Toll Free: 1-800-489-8910. For more information visit her website at www.kristinmortgage.com Home Loans Plain Talk.
100% Home Loan Financing – Flex your Muscle
With the current ?mortgage meltdown? we hear so much about these days, your average consumer thinks that the days of 100% financing have gone by the wayside. True, you are hard pressed these days to find a bank or lender that will want to carry a second mortgage that combined with a first mortgage adds up to 100% financing. That?s because if there is a default, sitting in second lien position is particularly dicey. Too much risk is involved. And since, in recent history, that scenario of the 80/20 combo was the most common 100% financing vehicle available to a certain group of consumers (non first time homebuyers), there?s a misconception out there that 100% options are all but dried up.
But, a-ha! There is hope for someone who has great credit but prefers to invest his/her assets elsewhere when rates are so low. It?s called the Flex 100. And it can apply to purchases and refinance transactions.
I heard an analyst mention on television the other day that mortgage money is so cheap right now it?s like a sale at Macy?s. That made me chuckle, but it?s true. In which case, why not invest your money elsewhere if you qualify for 100% financing. After all, the homes are still appreciating in most areas, but not at the stellar rate we saw in the past.
The Flex 100 requires you to invest $500 of your own cash towards the transaction, so I guess it?s technically not 100% financing, but it?s pretty darn close. And no, you don?t have to be buying your first home to get this deal. You can actually have owned a home in the past three years! However, it does apply to financing your primary residence only. You can?t get this deal for that nice cabin in Gatlinburg you want to use on the weekends or for that great rental down the street you think you can get a good deal on. You?ve got to live in the house to qualify for this financing.
But you can do a refinance, as long as it?s not a ?cash-out,? meaning you?re not paying off debt or taking equity out of the property. It must be a rate term refinance only. However, you can pay off that second mortgage or home equity line of credit you hate, IF you obtained that 2nd lien mortgage when you got your first mortgage (a piggy back closing, we call it). Or to make it clearer, you originally had that 80/20 combo mentioned earlier. If you got that home equity mortgage a month or two after your initial closing to build a deck or payoff a credit card, than it that won?t work for a Flex 100 refinance.
What about your credit score? Well, it will affect the price you get, but there is no ?minimum? credit score required for this program. You just have to get an approval through the automated underwriting system required. But be realistic ? if you?ve got ?iffy? credit, you probably won?t get an approval. A borrower with a credit score below a 620 would probably have to have a low loan to value or debt to income ratio for a chance of an approval.
A Flex 100 may or may not make sense for you. But hey, at least you know it?s an option. Your lender should be able to help you determine if this opportunity to flex your mortgage muscle makes sense for you.
Home Loan Modifications and Your Credit Score
A Home Loan Modification can help you stop foreclosure and stay in your home. But if you?re like most homeowners, you?re probably wondering how it will affect your credit, and whether in a good or bad way. Unfortunately, there?s no single answer?it all depends on how far behind you are and the kind of mortgage loan modification you?ll be granted.
Best-case scenarios
Technically, since you?re not borrowing any money, a home loan modification won?t hurt your credit score. If you?re paying less in interest, you have a smaller debt burden. And since most lenders prefer an interest rate reduction, there?s a pretty good chance that a Home loan modification will improve your credit score.
The implications are even better if your lender forgives part of the principal, although this is less common. If they write off $50,000 from your loan amount, it will show up on your report as a smaller loan, which can increase your credit score.
The lender factor
Unfortunately, it doesn?t always happen that way. It also depends on how your lender reports the home loan modification to the credit bureaus. Many of them will consider it paid for less than the original amount owed, which will count against your score. If you?re already in foreclosure, the impact on your credit can be substantial. Of course, compared to a short sale or a foreclosure, a Mortgage Loan Modification is still the best way to maintain your credit standing.
Tax implications
One of the early problems with Loan modification is that the amount forgiven is usually taxable. That means if your debt is reduced by $50,000, the IRS views it as income and imposes the corresponding tax. This can catch homeowners off guard during tax season, as many of them don?t know the tax implications at the time of the modification.
To avoid such incidents, the IRS announced in 2007 that Loan modification would no longer be classified as ?prohibited transactions.? This applied to all loans originated from January 2004 to July 2007, the peak of the sub-prime boom, and those due to adjust from January 2009 to July 2012. If your mortgage falls under these categories, you won?t have to file a 1099 declaring the change as taxable.
A loan modification is much like going to court: you can save your money and get a court-appointed lawyer, or you can invest in professional representation and get the best mortgage assistance. Your loss mitigation won?t happen overnight, but if with a capable Loan Modification Attorney, you can be sure you?re in good hands.
Loan modification Department helps you legally change the terms of your mortgage so that you can pay it off better But you can’t expect lenders to make it easy. In fact, many homeowners fail to reach a reasonable settlement with their lenders, and even those who do have to settle for less-than-satisfactory setups.That’s where your loan modification attorney comes in.
How Atlanta Homeowners Can Benefit From the New Home Loan Programs
The Federal Making Home Affordable Program has created a number of home loan programs that will help keep Atlanta families in their homes, stabilize Atlanta’s communities and assist Atlanta homebuyers during these troubled times. Under these new home loan plans, Atlanta homeowners can:
- Refinance their mortgage to a new, lower, fixed interest rate.
- Refinance even with declining property values.
- Refinance with lower income and asset verification requirements.
- Refinance Multiple Investment Properties.
Each of the above possibilities require that Atlanta Homeowners be current on their existing home loans. However, for those Atlanta families that have already fallen into hard times and are behind on, going to be behind on, or have an impending ARM adjustment/balloon payment with, their existing home loans can;
- Obtain a modification on your mortgage that can potentially reduce your monthly payment, or offer other alternatives that can help you keep your home.
Finally, for those Atlanta families that are looking to purchase their first new home, or even upgrade their current home, programs are available for them to;
- Purchase beautiful Atlanta homes with credit scores as low as 580
- Purchase their new dream home with no out-of-pocket money down
The U.S. Treasury, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have developed these programs in an effort to help both troubled and current Atlanta borrowers, to get back on track and improve their current financial situations.
5 Essential Marketing Tools for Starting a Successful Internet Home Business
Lets start with this one cold hard fact: creating a successful Internet home business is not an easy task. It takes hard work and a whole lot of strategic planning. Anyone who tells you therwise is probably trying to sell you something!
Building any solid business takes hard work and planning. Why should creating a successful business on the Internet be any different? Just because you’re dealing with computers and a
world wide marketplace doesn’t mean it will be easy to construct and build a successful enterprise. It will take some work and effort on your part.
However, knowing what tools to use and some vital marketing knowledge will make your task much easier and much quicker. The Internet does have its own unique tools and methods which you should be familiar with before you start any web business. Complete knowledge of these marketing tools and information will greatly increase your chances of creating a successful Internet business.
1. Domain Name/Website
You must start with a Domain Name – most marketers either make their domain something catchy and short that visitors will quickly remember such as Digg.com, BestBuy.com, Yahoo!.com or they will directly tie in their main product or service in the domain such as Hotels.com, YouTube.com, Carloans.com and so on.
Your domain must be attached to a well designed and easy to navigate website. Preferably one that is professionally designed and equipped with all the commercial tools you need like a shopping cart and payment system. Like any business,
you must try to accept all the major credit cards and display all the proper trust building icons such as ‘Better Business Bureau’…
Most professional online marketers keep graphics to a minimum and highlight their main benefit or product in a headline at the top of your webpage. You only have a few seconds to impress your prospective customer so summarize your whole site in one short benefit-loaded phrase or slogan. Be precise and direct in your presentation.
2. Keywords/SEO Strategy
Keywords, what surfers type into search engines to find what they’re seeking on the web, are the real cornerstones of any online website or business. You must find out the exact phrases and words people are using to find your product or service and target these keywords with your
online site. Create pages and content on your site to draw in this targeted traffic. As a general rule, the more targeted your traffic/visitors are, the greater your conversion rate, i.e. the more sales you will make.
Professional online marketers do keyword research and a whole lot of testing to find the right high converting keywords that virtually guarantees sales. These marketers find the buyers at the right stage in the buying process, where customers already have their minds made up and are ready to buy. For example, someone searching for ‘cars’ is not as targeted as someone
searching for ‘2007 Ford Mustang with Shelby GT exterior design’.
Savvy marketers use professional keyword research software such as Keyword Elite or use such sites as GoodKeywords or Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) to find the number of monthly
searches for the keyword phrases they target with their sites. Many online businesses outsource their keyword/link building to SEO specialists who do this job for them. These firms develop
a long term SEO strategy of building links to targeted keyword phrases, thus building a successful business in the process.
3. AutoResponder/Opt-in Lists
The AR or AutoResponder is one of the most essential tools to building a successful online business. You must set up an Opt-in system on your site to capture the contact information
of your visitors, this will increase your traffic and dramatically improve your sales. It has been proven that it takes 5 to 6 follow-up emails before a customer buys your product or service.
It just makes good business sense. You must build a list of potential customers for your business. The AutoResponder makes this possible and is unique to the online world. You simply place
a form on all your webpages to capture the name and email address of your visitors for further follow-up and contact. Instead of a surfer visiting your site just once, you draw them back again and again with special offers, deals or a daily/weekly newsletter.
The key element that makes the AutoResponder such a powerful marketing tool is trust! The Internet is still a very distrustful place. You simply use the AutoResponder and your follow-up system to build trust and a sense of loyalty from your potential customers. Once this trustful relationship is built, running a profitable business online will be easy.
4. RSS/Blogs
Blogs and RSS feeds are essential online business tools. As we saw above, building a trustful relationship is very important to doing business online. Keeping an online Blog or daily journal
is another way of building trust and keeping in contact with your customers or clients. Everyone likes to be a part of a group, a member of the club – having a company blog will help keep everyone a member of your business.
Blog and RSS feeds are a way to instantly connect with your visitors or customers. Podcasting and broadcatching (video casting) are excellent ways to more personally connect with your clients.
Videos are all the rage right now and savvy marketers are using them in their advertising and marketing. Why should Google and YouTube had all the fun?
RSS (Really Simple Syndication, original acronym stood for Rich Site Summary) will get your sales message out to your customers quickly. With the upcoming release of the RSS powered Windows
Vista expect RSS to play an even greater role in your whole Internet experience. Make sure you have at least one RSS feed on your online business site.
5. Articles/Syndication Software
People want information first, products second. Regardless of what you’re selling or the type of online business you want to create, always keep in mind potential customers want information
first and then the sales pitch. Give people good solid information and they will more likely buy from you. You must pre-sell your online business or product.
One of the best ways to pre-sell is by using articles. Simple informative, how-to, 500-700 word articles on all aspects of your online business. Place these articles on your own site and syndicate them around the web by using article distribution software or by submitting to such online article directories as Ezinearticles.com, Goarticles.com, Ideamarketers.com and Articleally.com – make sure
you place a link back to your online business within the resource box at the end of each article.
Articles are an effective way of drawing very targeted customers to your site or business. Each article is a marketing tool in its own right. Create a whole army of these articles and you will see a marked increase in online visitors and customers.
As mentioned before building a successful online business is not an easy task. It does take some strategic planning and a whole lot of marketing tools with the knowledge to use them properly. But anyone can create a successful home business with the right equipment and the right attitude. You now have some excellent starting points,
the next step is really up to you.
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The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous niche websites, including two sites on Internet Marketing. For the latest and most effective web marketing tools try: Internet Marketing Tools If you’re trying to start a web business and don’t know where to begin,
why not try these excellent free training manuals and videos: Free Marketing Courses
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