Personal Finance Archives - Shoreline Mortgage

11 06, 2014

4 Tips To Lower Homeowners Insurance For Your Home

4 Tips To Lower Homeowners Insurance For Your Home With the prices for everything skyrocketing these days, every penny counts. This includes your homeowner’s insurance costs. If you’re thinking of buying a home and need homeowner’s insurance, here are a few tips on getting quality insurance for a fair price:

Tip #1: Shop Around

Ask family and friends about their homeowner’s insurance. Check the Yellow Pages, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and the state insurance department.

Other places to shop for insurance include consumer guides, insurance agents and online insurance quote services. Don’t just look for lower prices, however. You need a fair price for the services you need.

Tip #2: Raise Your Deductible

The deductible is how much you have to pay before the insurance company starts to pay a claim on your home. The higher the deductible, the lower the premiums. If you live in a disaster-prone area, your policy may have a separate deductible for specific types of damages.

Make sure, when reading the policy, you carefully go over damage-specific information.

Tip #3: Use The Same Insurer

Some companies will take five to fifteen percent off your premium if you buy more than one policy from them. If the insurer offers homeowner’s, auto and liability coverage, you stand a chance of having a lower premium than if they only offer one or the other.

The key is to make sure that the combined price is lower than if you bought them separately.

Tip #4: Improve Home Security

By installing a sophisticated fire sprinkler system and a fire/burglar alarm that rings the monitoring stations, some companies will cut your premium as much as fifteen or twenty percent.

For a smoke detector, burglar alarm or deadbolt locks, you can usually get at least a five percent discount. Check with your insurer to make sure that the system you’re installing will lower your premiums, though; the systems aren’t cheap and not all of them qualify for a discount.

Read everything carefully before you sign, to make sure the policy covers your insurance needs without adding on hidden fees. Even a little money saved can go a long way toward making it easier to live within your budget.

Ready to buy a home? Let me help you find the perfect home and get it at the best terms and price. Call or email your trusted real estate professional.

22 04, 2014

Invest In Real Estate Like A Pro With These Quick Tips

Invest In Real Estate Like A Pro With These Quick Tips Real estate investments are still going strong and will probably continue to be a popular method of financial gain into the future.

Real estate is solid. It is a tangible product that is attractive to both beginning investors and experienced pros. The most important part of getting started in real estate investing is knowing what you’re getting into and what to watch out for.

Here are 4 top tips from real estate investment professionals:

Understand The Realities

Real estate investment, like any form of investment, is risky. Do not use money you cannot afford to lose. Careful study, understanding the market, and practice help alleviate a lot of the risks but things happen in the best of situations so don’t play with what you can’t afford to lose.

Research Is A Constant

Research in real estate investment isn’t something you do once. Research is constant. It is a daily part of your efforts and should always be at the forefront of your mind. From changing banking methods to market changes, researching and learning must be ongoing to be a successful real estate investor.

Know The Property

Research isn’t limited to financing and the real estate market. You need to thoroughly investigate each property before you buy. Fill out an investment worksheet to see if all the costs associated with the purchase will allow a satisfying profit.

Learn About Personal Protection

Taking risks with the money you have set aside for investment is one thing. Taking risks with your family’s savings, property, and other assets is another. Consider starting an LLC. You can choose from a single LLC to cover all of your real estate holdings, or having a separate LLC for each property purchased.

12 11, 2013

5 Reasons You Might Need To Consider Non-Traditional Financing

5 Reasons You Might Need To Consider Non-Traditional Financing Private Money financing refers to loans collateralized by real estate, where the source of the funds used to close Real Estate transactions come from private investors.

The decision by the investors to make a loan is based primarily upon plenty of equity in the real property securing the loan thus reducing the risk of loss.

The ability to repay, and the borrower’s character is also considered along with how the borrower will pay the investor back in time.

Private Money loans are needed when a borrower or a property falls outside the standard underwriting rules of conventional lending sources like banks or other lending institutions.

The Primary Decision For Private Money Is Typically Based On The Simple Three–Four C‘s Of Private Money Lending:

Capacity to repay the loan back
Credit/Character of the borrower
Collateral or property type

With risk of loss lessened, a loan may be a sensible deal from the Private Money Lender’s point of view, but it remains discarded to institutional lenders. To meet the continuing financing needs of these borrowers, an ongoing demand for private money has been created.

Mortgage brokers and bankers solicit and process these types of loans but the private investors are the ones that underwrite and close these private money loans.

After a loan request is processed and underwritten, the loan is funded by a loan investment product arranged by a Private Money Specialist. Private investments may come from individuals, entities, or pension funds. Your private money investor or a private servicing company will service each loan until it is paid off or the property is sold.

The Reason Why People Need Private Money:

1. Loss of bank loans, including denial due to:

• Use of cash out

• Not perfect credit

• Needing stabilized income

• No reserves

• Not operating with a bank account

• Debt ratios to high

• Property type or condition

• Borrower type (i.e. trusts)

2. Borrower’s election to avoid the excessive loan conditions of an institutional loan saving time

3. Private Money Lenders ability to arrange loans secured by property types unacceptable to Institutional lenders

4. Borrower’s circumstances make it difficult to obtain institutional loans

5. Property’s characteristics make it difficult to obtain an institutional loan

If any of these scenarios sound familiar to you or you need more information about Private Money Loans contact me directly and I will help answer questions about Private Money loans.

7 11, 2013

Factors To Consider When Applying For A Home Mortgage

Factors To Consider When Applying For A Home Mortgage Owning a home can be a sign of independence and success. It allows you to build up equity and the mortgage interest and property taxes are tax-deductible. What can you do to make a home affordable for you?

Reputable lenders look at a list of criteria to decide how much they’ll loan you.

This List Includes:

Credit score
Existing assets including cash
Car leases or loans
Credit card balances
Debt consolidation loans
Home equity loans
Installment loans
Student loans
Other monthly debts
Size/source of your down payment

If you’d like to get an idea of what you can afford before talking to a lender, here are a few tools you can use to decide whether a home is within your budget.

Here Are Some Guidelines:

As a rule of thumb, your house hunting budget shouldn’t be more than 2.5 times your pre-tax annual income. If you earn $50,000 a year, your budget for house hunting should be around $125,000.

Your Housing Expense Ratio, which is principal, interest, taxes and insurance shouldn’t be more than 25% to 28% of your pre-tax monthly income.

Your Debt-to-Income Ratio should be no more than 36% of your pre-tax monthly income. This is the ratio between how much you owe and how much you earn.

Use an online calculator to figure how much home you can afford.

“Qualifying for” and “can afford” are two different things. Shopping for a home within your budget will save you a lot of heartache now and in the future.

If you’d like help determining how much mortgage you can really afford, call your trusted mortgage professional today.

5 11, 2013

When Should You Shred Your Financial Documents?

When Should You Shred Your Financial Documents? How do you know what happens to your documents when you put a piece of paper in the trash? It can be difficult to know who is seeing it and what they are doing with it. It isn’t very common to burn trash anymore; therefore you can be sure that your paper garbage or recycling is likely to pass through several hands on its way to a landfill or recycling center.

Step–By–Step, Your Documents Can Get Pilfered

Every step that occurs once the trash leaves your control has risk that someone will find personal information they can use to cause you harm. One way to safeguard personal information is to shred it before it goes into the trash.

Shredding devices are available at most office supply stores. Cross-cut shredders provide more security than strip-cut shredders. You may want to consider one depending on your level of concern. Shredding services or shredding events are often offered by financial institutions or community organizations.

Properly destroying sensitive personal information is a key step in helping to keep your identity secure. You really should shred any documents containing personal information, but be cautious not to shred financial documents that you may still need.

To Shred Or Not To Shred, That Is The Question…Or Maybe It‘s When To Shred

The Better Business Bureau offers these guidelines on when to shred:

Deposit, ATM, credit, and debit card receipts can be shredded once the transaction appears on your statement
Canceled checks, credit card statements, and bank statements with no long-term significance can go through the shredder after one year; if used to support tax returns, keep them for seven years
Monthly bill statements can be shredded one year after receiving, to allow for year-to-year bill comparisons (another good way to monitor your budget!)
Credit card contracts and loan agreements should be saved for as long as the account is active
Pay stubs can be shredded yearly after reconciling with your W-2 or other tax forms
Documentation of investment purchases or sales should be kept for as long as you own the investment and then seven years after that; shred monthly investment account statements annually after reconciling with a year-end statement
Always shred documents with Social Security numbers, birth dates, PIN numbers or passwords, financial information, contracts or letters with signatures, pre-approved credit card applications, medical and dental bills, travel itineraries, and used airline tickets.

21 02, 2013

3 Common Myths About Real Estate Short Sales

3 Common Short Sale Myths There is a lot of misleading and incorrect information about real estate short sales.

Many people don’t have a clear understanding of the purpose of short sales or how they actually work.

Essentially, a short sale is when one sells their home for less than the balance remaining on the mortgage attached to the property.

The proceeds from the sale are used to repay a pre-negotiated portion of the balance to settle the debt.

A short sale can be a solution for homeowners who really need to sell their home but owe more on the mortgage than the home is worth.

Understanding the short sale process can help make the most out of a real estate sale.

Here are some common myths and why they are false:

A short sale damages one’s credit record as much as foreclosure

In many cases a short sale is less damaging to your credit record than a foreclosure. Some lenders may think that the short seller acted in a more responsible manner than simply walking away from the property.

Although the amount paid may have been less than the mortgage balance outstanding, the loan was settled with the lender. Opting for foreclosure is often seen as a lack of responsibility.

To qualify for a short sale one must be behind on payments

This might have been true in the past, but it’s not anymore.

You just need to be able to prove that you are in financial hardship, which could be due to death in the family, divorce, job loss, mortgage rate hike or even loss of property value.

After a short sale you can’t buy again for five to seven years

This may be true in some cases, but not all. In certain situations the waiting period can be reduced as low as two or three years before you are allowed to purchase another home.

It would be wise to speak with licensed real estate professional or home financing specialist to get the most current options in the marketplace.

Pass it on

These are just a few examples of commonly believed short sale myths. A clear understanding of the short sale and the benefits it can provide is important for financially strapped homeowners.

Feel free to pass this important information on to someone that you feel would benefit from it.