<p>How Much is your home worth in Austin, Texas? &nbsp;If you are planning on selling your home, that is a question you need answered. &nbsp;As your Local Austin&nbsp;Real Estate Expert, I can help you to learn the answer to that question. &nbsp;I will personally do the research on your behalf and provide you with a detailed Free Market Analysis. &nbsp;Please feel free to take a few moments to complete the basic information below and I will go straight to work for you. &nbsp;Or, if you prefer, please feel free to give me a call directly at 5129903141.</p>

How Much Is My Home Worth in Austin, Texas

<p>Have you ever considered moving to beautiful Austin, Texas? &nbsp;Austin is a desirable community &amp; great location. &nbsp;Austin, Texas&nbsp;boasts a variety of local landmarks, excellent schools, parks and much much more. &nbsp;Take a look at some of the most popular searches in Austin, Texas&nbsp;and the surrounding areas.</p>
<p>Not quite the location that you are looking for? &nbsp;That is okay. &nbsp;Through my website you can search for the exact home you are looking for in the exact city, county or community you are looking for. &nbsp;Search for your perfect home, in the perfect location by taking advantage of my&nbsp;<a href="https://www.austincastlesrealty.com/advanced-search">Advanced Search</a>&nbsp;tool built directly into this website.</p>

Have You Ever Considered Purchasing a Home in Austin, Texas

<p dir="ltr">There are so many different kinds of homes out there for families to choose from. &nbsp;Do I want to live in Austin? &nbsp;Or maybe you want to find a home in Austin. &nbsp;How many bedrooms and bathrooms do you need? &nbsp;Do you need a large back yard? &nbsp;A small backyard? &nbsp;Do I even need, or want, a yard at all? &nbsp;Don&rsquo;t even get me started on the front yard and curb appeal. &nbsp;Hardwood floors, tile, carpet. &nbsp;There are so many things to consider when looking for your dream home. &nbsp;How, then, do you find the right home for you?</p>
<p dir="ltr">The answer is to put me to work for you. &nbsp;That is what I do for my clients. &nbsp;Completing my basic&nbsp;<a href="https://www.austincastlesrealty.com/dream-home-finder">Dream Home Finder</a>&nbsp;I can immediately go to work for you. &nbsp;Of course you can take advantage of my&nbsp;<a href="https://www.austincastlesrealty.com/quick-search">Quick Search</a>&nbsp;and my&nbsp;<a href="https://www.austincastlesrealty.com/advanced-search">Advanced Search</a>&nbsp;tools to surf through all the homes for sale in Austin, Texas&nbsp;or the surrounding areas. &nbsp;By completing the Dream Home Finder, I can use additional resources at my disposal to locate homes for sale that may not be available in the public view. &nbsp;In addition you are a busy individual and my passion is to work for you to find that dream home and schedule tours for you. &nbsp;By working together as a team with your dreams and my resources, finding that dream home is only one tour away. &nbsp;It is my passion to find you that one right tour.</p>

Find Your Dream Home in Austin, Texas

<h2>Your First Step Toward Buying a Home</h2>
<p>When preparing to buy a home, the first thing many homebuyers do is look at the real estate ads in newspapers, magazines and listings on the Internet. Some potential buyers read how-to articles like this one. The next thing you should do - before you call on an ad, before you talk to a REALTOR&reg;, before you shop for interest rates - is look at your savings.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>Because determining how much money you have available for down payment and closing costs affects almost every aspect of buying a home - including how you write your purchase offer, the loan programs you qualify for, and shopping for interest rates.</p>
<h2>Mortgage Programs</h2>
<p>If you only have enough available for a minimum down payment, your choices of loan program will be limited to only a few types of mortgages. If someone is giving you a gift for all or part of the down payment, your options are also limited. If you have enough for the down payment, but need the lender or seller to cover all or part of your closing costs, this further limits your options. If you borrow all or a portion of the down payment from your 401K or retirement plan, different loan programs have different rules on how you qualify.</p>
<p>Of course, if you have enough for a large down payment, then you have lots of choices.</p>
<p>Your loan choices include such varied programs as conventional fixed rate loans, adjustable rate mortgages, buydowns, VA, FHA, graduated payment mortgages and all the varieties of each.</p>
<h2>Shopping for Rates</h2>
<p>A very important reason you need to have at least some idea of your down payment is for shopping for interest rates. Some loan programs charge a slightly higher interest rate for minimal down payments. Plus, the interest rates for different loan programs are not the same. For example, conventional, VA, and FHA all offer fixed rate loans. However, the rates vary from one program to another.</p>
<p>If you shop lenders by phone, the loan officer will be able to tell you which programs fit and quote your rates accordingly. However, if you are shopping on the Internet, you have to develop some idea of your loan program on your own.</p>
<h2>Writing Your Offer</h2>
<p>Another reason you need to have a clue about your down payment is because it affects how you write your offer to purchase a home. Not only are you required to put your down payment information in the offer, but also different loan programs have different rules that also affect how you write your offer. This is especially important when dealing with FHA and VA loans.</p>
<p>If you are asking the seller to pay all or part of your closing costs, you have to be certain your loan program allows what you are asking. For smaller down payments, lenders allow the seller to pay less closing costs than for larger down payments. Some loan programs will allow a seller to pay certain types of costs, but not others.</p>
<p>Finally, your down payment also affects your ability to qualify for a loan. When you make a small down payment, lenders are fairly strict about having you conform to their underwriting guidelines. For larger down payments, they will tend to make allowances or exceptions to the rules.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>As you can see, the down payment affects every choice you make when you buy a home. Although you should look at ads, familiarize yourself with neighborhoods, learn about prices, and read as much as you can - when you get ready to take action - the first thing you should do is figure out how much money you have available for the purchase.</p>

Your Savings and Down Payment

<p>In the olden days, when someone wanted a home loan they walked downtown to the neighborhood bank or savings &amp; loan. If the bank had extra funds lying around and considered you a good credit risk, they would lend you the money from their own funds.</p>
<p>It doesn&rsquo;t generally work like that anymore. Most of the money for home loans comes from three major institutions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Fannie Mae (FNMA - Federal National Mortgage Association)</li>
<li>Freddie Mac (FHLMC - Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation)</li>
<li>Ginnie Mae (GNMA - Government National Mortgage Association)</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>This is how it works:</strong></p>
<p>You talk to practically any lender and apply for a loan. They do all the processing and verifications and finally, you own the house with a home loan and regular mortgage payments. You might be making payments to the company who originated your loan, or your loan might have been transferred to another institution. The institution where you mail your payments is called the servicer, but most likely they do not own your loan. They are simply servicing your loan for the institution that does own it.</p>
<p>What happens behind the scenes is that your loan got packaged into a pool with a lot of other loans and sold off to one of the three institutions listed above. The servicer of your loan gets a monthly fee from the investor for servicing your loan. This fee is usually only 3/8ths of a percent or so, but the amount adds up. There are companies that service over a billion dollars of home loans and it is a tidy income.</p>
<p>At the same time, whichever institution packaged your loan into the pool for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or Ginnie Mae, has received additional funds with which to make more loans to other borrowers. This is the cycle that allows institutions to lend you money.</p>
<p>What Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, and Fannie Mae may do after they purchase the pools is break them down into smaller increments of $1,000 or so, called mortgage-backed securities. They sell these mortgage-backed securities to individuals or institutions on Wall Street. If you have a 401K or mutual fund, you may even own some. Perhaps you have heard of Ginnie Mae bonds? Those are securities backed by the mortgages on FHA and VA loans.</p>
<p>These bonds are not ownership in your loan specifically, but a piece of ownership in the entire pool of loans, of which your loan is only one among many. By selling the bonds, Ginnie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae obtain new funds to buy new pools so lenders can get more money to lend to new borrowers.</p>
<p>And that is how the cycle works.</p>
<p>So when you make your payment, the servicer gets to keep their tiny part and the majority is passed on to the investor. Then the investor passes on the majority of it to the individual or institutional investor in the mortgage backed securities.</p>
<p>From time to time your loan may be transferred from the company where you have been making your payment to another company. They aren&rsquo;t selling your loan again, just the right to service your loan.</p>
<p><strong>There are exceptions.</strong></p>
<p>Loans above $333,700 do not conform to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines, which is why they are called non-conforming loans, or &ldquo;jumbo&rdquo; loans. These loans are packaged into different pools and sold to different investors, not Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. Then they are securitized and for the most part, sold as mortgage backed securities as well.</p>
<p>This buying and selling of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities is called mortgage banking, and it is the backbone of the mortgage business.</p>

Where Does the Money Come From for Mortgage Loans?

<h2>What is a FICO&reg; Score?</h2>
<p>FICO&reg; stands for Fair Isaac &amp; Company and is the name for the most well known credit scoring system, used by Experian. The credit bureau&rsquo;s computer evaluates a complete credit profile and assigns a score, which is used to estimate credit worthiness. Each of the three bureaus (Experian, Trans Union, Equifax) employs its own scoring system, so a given person will usually have 3 separate scores. Someone with a higher score will be viewed as a better risk than someone with a lower score. Typically, scores will range from about 600 to 700 or above, although some cases will be outside this range.</p>
<h2>What Kind of Score Do I Need for a Home Loan?</h2>
<p>There are as many answers to this question as there are loan programs available. Most lenders will take the average of all 3 scores to evaluate an application. Niche loans, such as Easy Qualifier and low down payment loans will have higher FICO&reg; requirements.</p>
<h2>How is My Score Determined?</h2>
<p>The FICO&reg; model has 5 main elements:</p>
<ol>
<li>Past payment history (about 35% of score) The fewer the late payments the better. Recent late payments will have a much greater impact than a very old Bankruptcy with perfect credit since.<br />Myth - paying off cards with recent late payments will fix things. Payoffs do not affect payment history.</li>
<li>Credit use (about 30% of score) Low balances across several cards is better than the same balance concentrated on a few cards used closer to maximums. Too many cards can bring down the score, but closing accounts can often do more harm than good if the entire profile is not considered. BE CAREFUL WHEN CLOSING ACCOUNTS!</li>
<li>Length of credit history (15% of score) The longer accounts have been open the better for the score. Opening new accounts and closing seasoned accounts can bring down a score a great deal.</li>
<li>Types of credit used (10% of score) Finance company accounts score lower than bank or department store accounts.</li>
<li>Inquiries (10% of score) Multiple inquiries can be a risk if several cards are applied for or other accounts are close to maxed out. Multiple mortgage or car inquiries within a 14 day period are counted as one inquiry.</li>
</ol>
<h2>How Can I Raise My Score</h2>
<p>Your score can only be changed by the way that item is reported directly to the credit bureaus (Experian, TU, Equifax). Written confirmation from the creditor is required. It is best to make these corrections before you try to purchase a home, because you can never be sure the exact impact a change will have on your score.</p>
<h2>What Does This Mean to Me?</h2>
<p>You should have your credit reviewed BEFORE you look for a home, and work with a PROFESSIONAL loan officer to make sure your loan is based on the most accurate information.</p>

What’s a FICO®?

<h2>Mortgage Bankers</h2>
<p>Mortgage Bankers are lenders that are large enough to originate loans and create pools of loans, which are then sold directly to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, jumbo loan investors, and others. Any company that does this is considered to be a mortgage banker.</p>
<p>Some companies don&rsquo;t sell directly to those major investors, but sell their loans to the mortgage bankers. They often refer to themselves as mortgage bankers as well. Since they are actually engaging in the selling of loans, there is some justification for using this label. The point is that you cannot reliably determine the size or strength of a particular lender based on whether or not they identify themselves as a mortgage banker.</p>
<h2>Portfolio Lenders</h2>
<p>An institution that lends their own money and originates loans for itself is called a portfolio lender. This is because they are lending for their own portfolio of loans and not worried about being able to immediately sell them on the secondary market. Because of this, they don&rsquo;t have to obey Fannie/Freddie guidelines and can create their own rules for determining credit worthiness. Usually these institutions are larger banks and savings &amp; loans.</p>
<p>Quite often only a portion of their loan programs are a portfolio product. If they are offering fixed rate loans or government loans, they are certainly engaging in mortgage banking as well as portfolio lending.</p>
<p>Once a borrower has made the payments on a portfolio loan for over a year without any late payments, the loan is considered seasoned. Once a loan has a track history of timely payments it becomes marketable, even if it does not meet Freddie/Fannie guidelines.</p>
<p>Selling these seasoned loans frees up more money for the portfolio lender to make additional loans. If they are sold, they are packaged into pools and sold on the secondary market. You will probably not even realize your loan is sold because, quite likely, you will still make your loan payments to the same lender, which has now become your servicer.</p>
<h2>Direct Lenders</h2>
<p>Lenders are considered to be direct lenders if they fund their own loans. A direct lender can range anywhere from the biggest lender to a very tiny one. Banks and savings &amp; loans obviously have deposits with which they can fund loans, but they usually use warehouse lines of credit for drawing the money to fund the loans. Smaller institutions also have warehouse lines of credit from which they draw money to fund loans.</p>
<p>Direct lenders usually fit into the category of mortgage bankers or portfolio lenders, but not always.</p>
<h2>Correspondents</h2>
<p>Correspondent is usually a term that refers to a company that originates and closes home loans in their own name, then sells them individually to a larger lender, called a sponsor. The sponsor acts as the mortgage banker, re-selling the loan to Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac as part of a pool. The correspondent may fund the loans themselves or funding may take place from the larger company. Either way, the sponsor usually underwrites the loan.</p>
<p>It is almost like being a mortgage broker, except that there is usually a very strong relationship between the correspondent and their sponsor.</p>
<h2>Mortgage Brokers</h2>
<p>Mortgage Brokers are companies that originate loans with the intention of brokering them to lending institutions. A broker has established relationships with these companies. Underwriting and funding takes place at the larger institutions. Many mortgage brokers are also correspondents.</p>
<p>Mortgage brokers deal with lending institutions that have a wholesale loan department.</p>
<h2>Wholesale Lenders</h2>
<p>Most mortgage bankers and portfolio lenders also act as wholesale lenders, catering to mortgage brokers for loan origination. Some wholesale lenders do not even have their own retail branches, relying solely on mortgage brokers for their loans. These wholesale divisions offer loans to mortgage brokers at a lower cost than their retail branches offer them to the general public. The mortgage broker then adds on his fee. The result for the borrower is that the loan costs about the same as if he obtained a loan directly from a retail branch of the wholesale lender.</p>
<p><strong>Banks and savings &amp; loans&nbsp;</strong>usually operate as portfolio lenders, mortgage bankers, or some combination of both.</p>
<p><strong>Credit Unions</strong>&nbsp;usually seem to operate as correspondents, although a large one could act as a portfolio lender or a mortgage banker.</p>

Types of Mortgage Lenders

<p>There really is no such thing as a no-cost mortgage loan. There are always costs, such as appraisal fees, escrow fees, title insurance fees, document fees, processing fees, flood certification fees, recording fees, notary fees, tax service fees, wire fees, and so on, depending on whether the loan is a purchase or a refinance. The term &ldquo;no-cost&rdquo; actually means that your lender is paying the costs of the loan. All a no-cost loan means is that there is no cost to you, the borrower.</p>
<p>Except that you pay a higher interest rate.</p>
<h2>Understand How Loans Are Priced</h2>
<p>A variation of the no-cost loan is the &ldquo;no points&rdquo; loan, or even the &ldquo;no points, no lender fees&rdquo; loan. On these loans you pay all the costs associated with buying a house or refinancing, but you do not have to pay the lender associated fees or points. However, since lenders and loan officers do not do anything for free, the profit has to come from somewhere.</p>
<p>So where does it come from?</p>
<p>First, you have to understand how loans are priced and how mortgage lenders and loan officers earn income. Each morning mortgage companies create rate sheets for loan officers. The rates usually change slightly from day to day. In volatile markets they change several times a day. On the rate sheet, there are many different programs, including the thirty year fixed rate.</p>
<p>There will be one column that lists several different interest rates and another column that lists the cost for that particular rate. For example:</p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Rate</th>
<th>Cost (points)</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6.250%</td>
<td>2.000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6.375%</td>
<td>1.500</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6.500%</td>
<td>1.000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6.625%</td>
<td>0.500</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6.750%</td>
<td>0.000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6.875%</td>
<td>(0.500)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7.000%</td>
<td>(1.000)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7.125%</td>
<td>(1.500)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7.250%</td>
<td>(2.000)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>In the above example, 6.75% has a &ldquo;par&rdquo; price, which means it has a zero cost. The lower in rate you go, the higher the cost, or points. A point is equal to one percent of the loan amount. The parentheses in the cost column for the higher interest rates indicate a negative number. For example, (1.500) equals -1.500, which means instead of having a cost associated with the loan, the lender is willing to pay out money for those interest rates. This is called premium or rebate pricing.</p>
<h2>Zero Cost Loans</h2>
<h3>How Mortgage Companies and Loan Officers Make Money</h3>
<p>The above rate sheet is not a rate sheet designed for public review. In fact, most lenders have a policy that the public cannot see their internal rate sheet. This rate sheet is designed for loan officers and the cost column is the loan officer&rsquo;s cost, not the cost to the borrower. When the loan officer gives you an interest rate quote, he will add on a certain amount, usually one to one and a half points. Most companies leave it up to the loan officer&rsquo;s discretion how much to add on to the base cost. However, they usually require at least a minimum add-on, which is usually one point.</p>
<p>The loan officer&rsquo;s commission depends on his split with the company, which varies. He receives a portion of the add-on and the rest goes to the company.</p>
<p>If we assume the loan officer is adding on one point, and you were willing to pay one point for your loan, then your rate would be (according to this rate sheet) 6.75%. You would pay one percentage point and receive an interest rate of six and three-quarters. If you wanted a lower rate and were willing to pay two points, you could get 6.5%. If you wanted a &ldquo;no points&rdquo; loan, then your rate would be 7%. The loan officer and the mortgage company would split the one point rebate, listed as (1.000) on the rate sheet.</p>
<p>See how it works?</p>
<p>In addition to the cost noted on the rate sheet above, lenders have certain other fees they collect, too. These can include document fees, processing fees, underwriting fees, warehouse fees, flood certification fees, wire transfer fees, tax service fees, and so on. Usually, you will not be charged all of these fees, it is just that different lenders call them different things. Some of them are legitimate costs to the lender and some of them are simply fees designed to generate additional income to the mortgage company. They are customary in today&rsquo;s mortgage market and can vary from around $600 to $1,300. In addition, there will usually be an appraisal fee and a credit report fee. Appraisals and credit reports are usually contracted out to independent companies even though these are considered to be lender fees.</p>
<p>Note that it is common for companies who charge higher fees to have a slightly lower interest rate and companies that charge lower fees will usually have a slightly higher interest rate. So if you shop entirely based on fees, you may actually spend more money in the long run because your interest rate may be higher.</p>
<p>The point is that if you want a &ldquo;no points - no lender fees&rdquo; loan, then on our rate sheet above, you may get an interest rate of 7.125%. That is because the loan officer has to bump the interest rate even further than on a &ldquo;no points&rdquo; loan in order to cover his own company&rsquo;s fees.</p>
<p>If you want a &ldquo;no cost&rdquo; loan, then the loan officer has to bump your interest rate even further. That is because all of the costs on your purchase or refinance do not come from the lender. The escrow or settlement company involved in your transaction will charge a fee that must be paid. The lender will require title insurance and the title insurance company charges a fee for providing this insurance. If your new lender requires information from your homeowner&rsquo;s association (if you have one) then the homeowner&rsquo;s association will most likely charge a fee for providing those documents. If you are refinancing, your current lender will usually charge at least two fees: a demand fee, and a reconveyance fee. The demand fee is charged simply for providing payoff information. The reconveyance fee is charged because your current lender prepares a document that releases your property as collateral for their outstanding loan. This document is called a reconveyance.</p>
<p>These charges will add about one additional point to how much the loan officer must collect in premium pricing in order to cover the costs associated with your refinance or purchase. For a zero cost loan, he will normally need to collect somewhere in the neighborhood of two and a half points. Because points are a percentage of your loan amount and most of the costs are fixed, it takes fewer points to provide zero costs on higher loan amounts. On smaller loan amounts it takes more. One percent of $200,000 is $2,000 and one percent of $100,000 is only $1,000, so you can see how it is easier to cover costs on larger loans.</p>
<h3>Does it make sense to do a zero cost loan?</h3>
<p>On a $200,000 thirty year fixed rate loan, the difference in monthly mortgage payments will be about $87, using the example rate sheet on the first page. Over thirty years, it works out that you will pay more than $30,000 extra for getting a zero cost loan. So if you intend to remain in the home for a long period of time it just doesn&rsquo;t make sense.</p>
<p>Suppose you intend to stay for only five years. On a purchase, using the $200,000 example, if you stayed longer than fifty-five months, it would make more sense to pay your own costs and get the lower interest rate. If you kept the loan for a shorter time, then it makes more sense to pay zero costs and get a higher interest rate.</p>
<p>Except for one thing.</p>
<p>If you knew you were only going to be staying in the home for five years you would probably not want a thirty-year fixed rate, anyway. You would get a loan that has a fixed payment for the first five years, then convert to an adjustable rate or whatever fixed rates are five years from now. These loans have an interest rate almost a half percent lower than thirty year fixed rate loans. Since it is practically impossible to do a zero cost loan on this type of loan, you would have to compare a zero cost thirty year fixed rate loan to paying points on a loan with a fixed payment for five years.</p>
<p>The difference in payments would be about $150. The two and a half point rebate equals $5,000. Working out the math, if you stayed in the home longer than thirty-three months, it would make more sense to pay the points and get the loan with the five-year fixed rate.</p>
<p>Finally, carry the discussion one step further. Suppose you know you are going to be in the new loan for less than three years? Doesn&rsquo;t it make sense to get a &ldquo;zero cost&rdquo; loan then?</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>Then you get an adjustable rate loan. As long as the start rate is two percent lower than the current fixed rate, you cannot lose. The first year you will save a lot of money. The second year you will probably break even. The third year, you will probably give up some of the savings from the first year, but not all of it.</p>
<p>Zero cost loans just don&rsquo;t make sense for most homebuyers.</p>
<p>But they sound really good in an advertisement!</p>
<h3>Exceptions:</h3>
<ul>
<li>On a FHA Streamline Refinance Without an Appraisal (not a purchase - which is what the article talks about), it makes sense to do a zero cost loan. This is mostly because the new loan has to be exactly the same amount as the existing balance of the current loan.</li>
<li>If the homebuyer only has enough money for a down payment and none to cover closing costs, PLUS no arrangement can be made for the seller to pay closing costs, then zero cost may make sense. (However, I would still recommend negotiating terms with the seller - be willing to pay a higher price in exchange for the seller paying your costs.)</li>
</ul>

The No-Cost Thirty Year Fixed Rate Mortgage

<p>Have you received an advertisement offering to save you thousands of dollars on your thirty-year mortgage and cut years off your payments? With email spam becoming more pervasive as everyone tries to get rich quick on the Internet, these ads are popping up with troublesome regularity.</p>
<p>The ads promote a Biweekly Mortgage and for the most part, do not come from a mortgage lender. Exclamation points punctuate practically every claim:</p>
<ul>
<li>No closing costs!</li>
<li>No refinancing!</li>
<li>No points!</li>
<li>No credit check!</li>
<li>No appraisal!</li>
<li>Save thousands!</li>
<li>Cut years off your mortgage!</li>
</ul>
<p>To achieve these wonderful savings all you have to do is allow half of your mortgage payment to be deducted from your checking account every two weeks. It&rsquo;s easy. Of course, there is a small set-up fee and usually a transaction fee with every automatic deduction.</p>
<p>Essentially, the ads are truthful in almost every respect.</p>
<p>They just want to charge you money for something you can do on your own for free.</p>
<h2>The Basics:</h2>
<p>Normally, you make twelve mortgage payments a year. Since there are fifty-two weeks in a year, a biweekly mortgage equals 26 half-payments a year. The equivalent would be making thirteen mortgage payments a year instead of twelve. By applying that extra payment directly to the loan balance as a principal reduction, your loan amortizes more quickly, requiring fewer payments.</p>
<p>You save money. The ads are true.</p>
<h2>How it Actually Works:</h2>
<p>You cannot simply mail in half a payment every two weeks to your mortgage lender. Since they do not accept partial payments for legal and accounting reasons, the mortgage company would just mail your half-payment back to you.</p>
<p>Instead, the biweekly mortgage company is an intermediary between you and your mortgage lender. They automatically debit your checking account every two weeks for half of your mortgage payment then place your funds into a trust account. Basically, this is just a holding account for your money. In another two weeks, there is another automatic deduction from your checking account, and so on. When your mortgage payment is due, your funds are withdrawn from the trust account and forwarded to your mortgage lender.</p>
<p>Since you are placing funds into the trust account faster than your mortgage payments are due, you eventually accumulate enough money to make an extra payment. The way the cycle works, this occurs once a year. he extra payment is applied directly to your principal balance, which causes your loan to amortize faster, pay off more quickly and save you thousands of dollars.</p>
<h2>Potential Problems with the Trust Account</h2>
<p>Because your funds are held in the trust account until your mortgage payment is due, there are potential dangers. Not only are your funds held in this account, but so are the funds of everyone else enrolled in the biweekly program. That is a lot of money.</p>
<p>Most likely, there will be no problems.</p>
<p>However, if there are accounting errors, mismanagement, or even fraud, your mortgage payment might not get made. The first hint of a problem will probably be a phone call or letter from your mortgage lender, but not until after your payment is already late. Since responsibility for making the payment rests with you and not the biweekly payment company, you may find yourself digging into your personal savings to make the payment directly -- even though the biweekly payment company has already collected your funds.</p>
<p>Later you can work out the trust account problem with your biweekly payment company.</p>
<h2>The Cost of the Biweekly Mortgage</h2>
<p>There is usually a set-up fee that runs between $195 and $350, depending on how much sales commission is paid to the individual or company setting up the account for you. You also pay a transaction fee each time there is an automatic deduction from your checking account and sometimes also when the payment is made to your mortgage lender. There may also be a periodic maintenance fee.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, whoever controls the trust account is earning interest on your money.</p>
<h2>Savings of the Biweekly Mortgage</h2>
<p>By making principal reductions using the biweekly mortgage program, your mortgage will amortize more quickly, saving you money. How quickly your loan pays off depends on your interest rate and when you begin making the biweekly payments.</p>
<p>On a $100,000 loan at an interest rate of eight percent, your first principal reduction would probably be a year from now. Assuming the principal reduction is equal to one monthly payment ($733.76), you would save $43,852 over the life of the loan and pay it off almost seven years early.</p>
<p>However, you have to deduct from those savings any amounts you paid in set-up, transaction, and maintenance fees.</p>
<h2>No-Cost Alternatives to the Biweekly Mortgage</h2>
<p>Instead of hiring a company to manage your biweekly payment, you could accomplish essentially the same thing on your own for free. Just take your monthly payment, divide it by twelve, and add that amount to your monthly mortgage payment. Be sure to earmark it as a principal reduction.</p>
<p>The first way you save is that you do not have to pay any fees to anyone. It&rsquo;s free.</p>
<p>In addition to not paying fees -- using the same example as above -- your total savings on the mortgage would be $45,904. Plus the loan would be paid off three months quicker than with the biweekly mortgage. The reason you save more is because you are making a principal reduction each month, instead of waiting for funds to accumulate so that you can make one principal reduction a year.</p>
<h2>Self-Discipline?</h2>
<p>The biweekly mortgage companies claim that homeowners are not disciplined enough to follow through with principal reduction plans on their own. They suggest the reason for setting up the biweekly mortgage enforces discipline upon you, and by doing so, they save you money.</p>
<p>However, in this technologically advanced age, banking online and automatic deductions are readily available. You can set up your own automatic deductions including the additional principal reduction and have it go directly to your mortgage lender. Since the deduction occurs automatically, just like with the biweekly mortgages, self-discipline is not a problem. Once again, you don&rsquo;t have to pay anyone to do it for you and you save even more money.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>The biweekly mortgage plans do not really do anything except move your money around and charge you for it. Plus, even though the danger is negligible, you must trust someone else to hold your money for you. If you can do the very same thing for free, plus save yourself even more money by doing it on your own, why pay someone else?</p>
<p>The biweekly mortgage plan - who needs it?</p>
<p>If your goal is principal reduction and saving money, then it is a good plan. If you do it on your own instead of paying someone else to do it for you, then it is a great plan.</p>

The Biweekly Mortgage - Who Needs It?

<p>How would you like a mortgage loan where you did not have to make the whole payment if you did not want to? Or would you like a loan with an interest rate about 1% below a thirty-year fixed rate mortgage and pay zero points? Or a loan where you did not have to document your income, savings history, or source of down payment? How would you like a mortgage payment of only 1.95%? You can have all that with the 11th District Cost of Funds (COFI) Adjustable Rate Mortgage.</p>
<p>Sound too good to be true? Sound like a bunch of hype?</p>
<p>Each statement above is true. However, it is also only part of the story and loan officers do not always tell you the whole story when promoting this loan. Other loan officers may try to scare you away from adjustable rate mortgages. However, once you become aware of all the details of the loan, it is an excellent way to buy the house of your dreams, especially when fixed rates begin to go up.</p>
<h2>ARMs in General</h2>
<p>Adjustable rate mortgages all have certain similar features. They have an adjustment period, an index, a margin, and a rate cap. The adjustment period is simply how often the rate changes. Some change monthly, some change every six months, and some only adjust once a year. Indexes are simply an easily monitored interest rate that moves up and down over time. Adjustable rate mortgages have different indexes. The margin is the difference between your interest rate and the index. The margin does not change during the term of the loan.</p>
<p>So if you have an adjustable rate mortgage and you wanted to calculate your interest rate on your own, all you have to do is look up the index in the paper or on the internet, add the margin, and you have your rate.</p>
<h2>Indexes and the 11th District</h2>
<p>The &ldquo;Prime Rate&rdquo; you hear about in the news is one interest rate index, although it is very rare that mortgages are tied to this index. It is more common to find adjustable rate mortgages tied to different treasury bill indexes, the average interest rate paid on certificates of deposit, the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR), or the 11th District Cost of Funds.</p>
<h2>COFI ARM Index</h2>
<p>The 11th District Cost of Funds (COFI) is the weighted average of interest rates paid out on savings deposits by banking institutions in the 11th district of the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB), which is located in San Francisco. The 11th District includes the states of California, Nevada, and Arizona.</p>
<p>The COFI index moves slower than the other indexes, making it more stable. It also lags behind actual changes in the interest rate market. For example, when rates begin to go up, the COFI index may continue to decline for a couple of months before it also begins to rise.</p>
<h2>The Margin and Interest Rates</h2>
<p>The margin on the COFI ARM typically ranges between 2.25-3%.</p>
<h2>Monthly Adjustments Sound Scary, but...</h2>
<p>Although you can get a COFI ARM with an adjustable period of six months, you can get a lower margin if you go for the monthly adjustment period. Since the margin plus the index equals your interest rate, the lower margin is an advantage and most people choose the monthly adjustment.</p>
<p>Monthly adjustments sound scary to the uninitiated, but keep in mind that this is a slow moving index. Most other ARMS have an annual cap of 2% a year. Since 1981, when the FHLB began tracking the index, the most it has moved during any calendar year is 1.6%. So why get a higher margin just to get a rate cap that you probably will not use anyway?</p>
<p>The&ldquo;life-of-loan&rdquo; cap for the COFI ARM is usually 11.95%. The most recent year that this cap could have been reached was 1985. Plus, most experts do not expect a return to the interest rates of the early 1980&rsquo;s when interest rates were pushed up artificially to combat the inflation of the 1970&rsquo;s.</p>
<h2>Make Only Part of Your Payment?</h2>
<p>This is the really interesting feature of the loan. You do not have to make the whole payment. Each month you get a bill that has at least three payment options. One choice is the full payment at the current interest rate. A second choice allows you to pay only the interest that is due on the loan that particular month, but does not pay anything towards the principal. Finally, the third option gives you the choice to pay even less than that and is called the &ldquo;minimum payment.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The minimum payment when you start your loan can be calculated as low as 1.95%. Keep in mind that this is not the note rate on your loan, but just a way to calculate your minimum payment.</p>
<h2>Deferred Interest and Amortization</h2>
<p>Of course, if you only make the minimum payment each month, you are not paying all of the interest that is currently due that month. You are deferring some of the interest that is currently due on the loan so you will have to pay it later. The lender keeps track of this deferred interest by adding it to the loan and the loan balance gets larger. Neither you nor the lender wants this to continue forever, so your minimum payment increases a bit each year.</p>
<p>The payment cap on the loan is 7.5%, which also has nothing to do with the interest rate. All it means is the most your minimum payment can increase from one year to the next is seven and a half percent. For example, if your minimum payment is $1000 this year, next year the most it could be is $1075. This continues each year until your payment is approximately equal to the payment at the full note rate.</p>
<p>Just in case, there are fail-safes built into the loan. If you continue making only the minimum payment and your current balance ever reaches 110% of the beginning balance, the loan is re-amortized to make sure you pay it off in thirty years (or forty years, whichever option you chose). Every five years the loan is re-amortized to make sure it pays off within the term of the loan.</p>
<h2>Stated Income and Other Features</h2>
<p>Many COFI lenders allow Homebuyers with good credit to apply without documenting their income, assets, or source of down payment. Of course, you have to make a twenty or twenty-five percent down payment on your home purchase. This is helpful for self-employed borrowers or those who have jobs where it is difficult to document their income. Plus, some people just do not like the bother of supplying W2 forms, tax returns and pay-stubs. Anyway, it makes for a quick and easy loan approval.</p>
<h2>Sub-Prime COFI ARMs</h2>
<p>Some people have less than perfect credit and they are used to being charged outrageous rates for past problems. Some COFI lenders offer this same loan but have a slightly higher starting payment and a higher margin. The end result is that your interest rate would be about one percent higher.</p>
<h2>Who Should Get This Loan?</h2>
<p>Most people who get the COFI ARM are purchasing a home between $300,000 and $650,000, but it is not limited to that. It is a real favorite of those working in the financial industry and those with higher incomes. One reason these groups like this particular loan is because they consider any deferred interest to be an extended loan at a very attractive rate. By making the minimum payment, they can do other things with the money.</p>
<p>Homebuyers whose income has peaks and valleys, such as self-employed or commissioned salespeople also like the loan, because it provides flexibility in the monthly payment. During a slow month they can make the minimum payment if they choose.</p>
<p>Another reason borrowers like the loan is because it allows for tax planning. The borrower can defer interest payments and at the end of the year, analyze their tax situation. If it serves their tax interests, they can make a lump sum payment toward any interest that has been deferred and deduct it for tax purposes.</p>
<h2>Skipping the Starter Home or Move-Up Home</h2>
<p>If you&rsquo;re buying a home with the intention of living in it for only a few years before you move up to a bigger home, the COFI ARM makes sense, too. With this loan and its low start payment you can often qualify for a larger home than you can when applying for a fixed rate loan. This allows you to skip the intermediate purchase and move up immediately to the home you really want, which makes more sense and saves you money.</p>
<p>If you buy a home then sell it to move up to a bigger home, you are going to have to pay a REALTOR&rsquo;S&reg; commissions and closing costs. On a $300,000 house, this would be around $25,000. If you skip buying that home and buy the home you really want, you save that money. Plus, you save money in another way. Say you live in your intermediate purchase for five years, then move up and buy another home with another thirty-year mortgage. That is thirty-five years of home loans. If you buy your ideal home now, you save five years of mortgage payments. Depending on your loan amount, that can be a lot of cash.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>So, when rates start going up this is an attractive alternative to a fixed rate mortgage. It even makes sense for some borrowers when rates are low. Something we also did not mention is that most COFI lenders also give you a fourth option on your monthly mortgage statement, which allows you to pay it off quicker.</p>

Which ARM is the Best Alternative?

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