| 121. | Your Low-Interest ARM Ends…So What Now?
If you got a low-interest adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) a few years ago that is about to adjust, prepare yourself for a shock -- an unpleasant one. Your monthly mortgage payment is about to go up...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, October 31, 2005 |
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| 122. | Shop Around Before Settling for Subprime Mortgage
Just because one lender says you “need” a subprime loan to get a home (or to refinance the one you own) doesn't mean you really do. Some experts say that as many as one third of people who wind up paying the higher interest rates and other costs for subprime loans could have gotten a regular loan at a lower rate if they had done some basic comparison shopping...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, October 24, 2005 |
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| 123. | Take Vacation from Taxes on a Second Home
Summer and summer vacations are definitely over, which makes this a good time to think about spending part of next summer in your own vacation home. With gas and transportation costs climbing, more people are choosing destination vacations rather than facing the hassle and expense of two-weeks-on-the-road holidays...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, October 17, 2005 |
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| 124. | Home Equity or HELOC: Which Loan Is Best for You?
Say you own your home and it's worth more now than it was when you bought it. Let's also say you need money now for a new roof or will need it when the twins go to college in a couple of years...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, October 10, 2005 |
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| 125. | Jumpstart Your Mortgage IQ and Save Money on Your Home Loan
You wouldn't jumpstart a car battery or deep-fry a turkey without having a pretty good understanding what each job requires. Do it wrong, and it could blow up in your face...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, October 03, 2005 |
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| 126. | Loss Mitigation Programs Can Help You Avoid Foreclosure
With more Americans losing their homes in foreclosures, more homeowners could benefit from loss mitigation programs that help them keep their homes when times are tough and money won't stretch. Even when losing your home is inevitable, these programs offer ways to do it outside of a formal foreclosure and avoid the black mark that repossession leaves on your credit report for the next seven to 10 years...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, September 26, 2005 |
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| 127. | Buying with a Friend Is One Way to Afford Today's High-Priced Housing
With housing prices at record highs across much of the nation, one of your best home-buying tools just might be a friend or relative with a good income or ready cash. You should make sure, however, that the friend or relative is also someone with whom you could live...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, September 19, 2005 |
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| 128. | Time Is The Key Factor In Choosing A Zero-Down Loan
Zero-down mortgages are tempting. In some cases, you can even finance all or part of the closing costs as part of the loan...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Tuesday, September 13, 2005 |
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| 129. | Insurance Policies that May Be Required to Get a Mortgage Loan
When consumers apply for a mortgage loan, many discover there are several types of insurance they also need to buy. Here are the answers to some of the more common questions that borrowers ask about insurance policies...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Wednesday, September 07, 2005 |
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| 130. | Reverse Mortgages Can Supply Needed Cash to Seniors
The nation's hot housing market has created an alternate source of wealth that can help many senior citizens stop struggling each month to make ends meet. Reverse mortgages, when executed correctly, can unlock hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity that seniors can use to live better, without taking out another loan they must repay or worrying about losing their homes...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, August 29, 2005 |
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| 131. | Manufactured Housing: Different Type of Home, Different Type of Mortgage
If you are thinking about buying what the trailer and pre-fabricated housing industries call manufactured housing (MH), you are looking at more than just a different type of home. You also are looking at a different type of home loan...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, August 22, 2005 |
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| 132. | Is Buying Down the Mortgage Interest Rate the Right Choice for You?
The first thing most of us look at when we go mortgage shopping is the interest rate. We all want the lowest one possible, right? Not necessarily...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, August 15, 2005 |
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| 133. | HUD Disaster Loans Rebuild Homes and Turn Renters into Homeowners
Alaska snowstorms. Kansas tornadoes...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, August 08, 2005 |
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| 134. | Down Payment Assistance Programs Help Thousands Get Mortgages, Buy Homes
Scraping together the down payment for a house is one of the biggest challenges facing would-be home owners, especially first-time buyers. Some young buyers still turn to the Bank of First Resort -- Mom and Dad...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Tuesday, August 02, 2005 |
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| 135. | Option ARMs: They Should Come with a Warning Label
When daredevils are about to perform a hair-raising stunt, they often will admonish viewers: "Don't try this at home." Maybe a similar warning should accompany one of the newer twists in mortgage financing: option adjustable-rate mortgages or option ARMs...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, July 25, 2005 |
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| 136. | Take the Confusion Out of Your Mortgage Closing Costs
When it comes to buying a house, it's often the final expense involved -- mortgage closing costs -- that confuse and frustrate homebuyers most, even those accustomed to paying super-sized jumbo loans.Although closing costs can represent between 2 percent and 4 percent of the total price of the home, many buyers don't understand what closing costs entail...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, July 18, 2005 |
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| 137. | Picking the Right Mortgage: So Many Choices
Mortgages used to be like ties or scarves -- one size was supposed to fit all. Today, you can choose a custom-fitted home loan from a panoply of products including 30- or 15- year conventional loans; adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) with low introductory rates; 40-year mortgages; interest-only loans, and even ARMs with variable payment options...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, July 11, 2005 |
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| 138. | Answers to Questions Regarding Home Financing
Here are answers to common questions asked by prospective homebuyers considering a mortgage loan to finance their home purchase.Q...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Tuesday, July 05, 2005 |
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| 139. | Clean Up Your Credit Before You Shop for a Mortgage
Most people clean a house before they move into it. In that same vein, you should clean up your credit history before you shop for a mortgage loan...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, June 27, 2005 |
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| 140. | Will You Ever Be Too Old To Get A Mortgage?
Federal law states that a mortgage lender cannot care or even notice how old you are when you apply for a mortgage. But if your retirement age will be catching up with you long before the mortgage is paid for, you should care -- and plan accordingly...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, June 20, 2005 |
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| 141. | Interest-Only Mortgages: A Popular But Risky Way To Buy A Home
Some people will do almost anything to buy a house, even when they can’t afford to make conventional mortgage payments on it. So, instead of getting a mortgage that requires them to pay both interest and principal, they get one that allows them to pay only the interest…for the first five years...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, June 13, 2005 |
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| 142. | Fannie Mae Move Means More Lenders Will Offer 40-Year Mortgages
Long an oddity in the lending industry, the 40-year mortgage finally has joined the mainstream of home loans. Fannie Mae, which buys roughly one out of every four conventional U.S. mortgages, started buying the longer-term loan on June 1, putting it on an equal footing with the more-familiar 30- and 15-year fixed-rate, interest-only, and adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs)...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Tuesday, June 07, 2005 |
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| 143. | A Pointed Look at Points, Points and More Points
When you are shopping for a mortgage, the single most important thing to remember about 'points' is that there is more than one kind. There are three different mortgage-related meanings for the term 'point,' and you must understand exactly which type of point your lender is talking about when discussing your loan...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Tuesday, May 31, 2005 |
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| 144. | Biweekly Mortgages Shorten Loans, Save Money on Interest Payments
If you are like most homeowners, your mortgage payments are due on a certain date every month for however long you hold the loan. For a typical 30-year mortgage, you make 12 monthly payments every year, or as many as 360 payments total over the life of the loan...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, May 23, 2005 |
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| 145. | Want a Renter to Pay Your Mortgage? Consider Becoming a Landlord
Many of us dream of becoming a landlord whose investment property pays for itself. You lease a house to renters whose monthly checks cover the mortgage payment plus maintenance costs...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, May 16, 2005 |
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| 146. | Your Home Equity and Your Mortgage: How They Should Work for You
If you have equity in your home and need cash to pay off high-interest credit cards or cover an emergency, then refinancing or getting a second mortgage to tap that equity might seem like a cheap, safe way out of debt. After all, you'll pay less interest on a mortgage or equity loan than on other types of loans, and that interest probably will be tax deductible...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, May 09, 2005 |
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| 147. | Sweat Equity Seems Sweet When It Raises Your Stake in Your Home
First you buy a house, and if you live there long enough you might end up owning it…100 percent of it. In the meantime, you accumulate equity in your home -- that is, the portion of the house that you actually own increases as you whittle down the amount the lender owns...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, May 02, 2005 |
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| 148. | Lease/Purchase: It's Somewhere Between Paying Rent and Having a Mortgage
You either own your home, or you rent. Right? Wrong...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, April 25, 2005 |
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| 149. | FICO's Got Your Number… And So Do The Mortgage Companies
Some numbers, such as for your cell phone or the nearest automated teller machine, you use practically every day. But other numbers, including your credit or FICO score, probably only grab your attention when you are making major financial moves like buying a home...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, April 18, 2005 |
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| 150. | Compared to Closing, Finding a Home and a Mortgage Is Easy
If you polled people and asked them what they thought was the most confusing and frustrating part of buying a home, the home-closing or escrow process probably would rank near the top of the list. Whether you live in a state that uses an escrow company or one that requires real estate lawyers to handle the settlement, the procedure remains the same...
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| Article XML Feed | | - Monday, April 11, 2005 |
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