11
May
By support
Home Mortgage Tips

How to Smartly Leverage Your Home Equity

How to Smartly Leverage Your Home EquitySo you’ve been a homeowner for some time. You’ve been faithfully paying off your mortgage for years, and you have a fair bit of equity built up in your home – and that makes you proud. But now, you’re wondering what good equity is if you’re not using it.

How do you actually use home equity? And how do you leverage it to get a high return for low risk? Here are just a few options you may want to consider if you’re looking for something to do with your equity.

Use A Home Equity Loan Or HELOC To Pay Off High-Interest Debt

If you have a certain amount of money invested in your home, you can borrow against that investment by taking out a home equity loan or a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC). A home equity loan is ideal for borrowing a large amount of money for a specific purpose, whereas a HELOC works much the same way a credit card does – you can use credit as needed, then pay back what you owe. And if you have a lot of high-interest debt, one of these vehicles could be a great way to pay off your creditors – while it may seem like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, you actually save thousands of dollars in interest rates by paying off high-interest debt using a lower-interest HELOC or home equity loan.

Buy An Investment Property With A Home Equity Loan

If you’ve been looking to enter the real estate investment market but haven’t had the liquid funds for a deposit, leveraging your home equity in the form of a loan can get you into the landlord game quickly and easily. This is a smart move because while you are taking on more debt, you’re doing so in order to create a new income stream. Ideally, you’ll want to buy a duplex or a home with a granny suite so that you can maximize your investment by renting out more than one dwelling space.

Downsize To A Smaller House And Invest The Difference

Perhaps you’re living in a large house that has seen its value appreciate in recent years, and you’re looking to move in the near future. Selling your large home and moving into a smaller, less expensive home is a great way to simply turn your home’s equity into cash – cash that you can invest.

Leveraging your home equity can be a smart move if it’s done with a larger goal and a solid strategy in mind. But when done irresponsibly, taking equity out of your home can have severe consequences. Talk to your local mortgage professional today to learn more about smart options for leveraging home equity.

06
May
By support
Around The Home

A Quick and Easy Guide to Hiring the Best Contractor for Your Pre-Sale Home Renovations

A Quick and Easy Guide to Hiring the Best Contractor for Your Pre-sale Home RenosIf you’re planning to complete some renovations on your home before putting it on the market, you may be unsure of the best way to go about finding the right contractor for the job. While there are probably many contractors available who can do your renovations right, here’s how you can get to the bottom of who will work the best for you.

Make A Few Phone Calls

Once you’ve done some research and determined a short list of prospective contractors, you’ll want to call each contractor to determine that they can complete your project in good time and are the right candidate for the work required. If they’re not available or are cagey about your question, this can be an easy way to whittle down the list.

Arrange A Meeting In Person

While a phone interview should provide you with some good insights right off the bat, you’ll also want to meet your potential contractors face to face before making any final decisions. If you get along well with the contractor and they are able to answer the questions you ask with confidence, it’s a good sign that they may be the right pick for your project.

Check In On The References

Once you’ve decided between a few candidates, make sure you contact their former clients to determine how happy they were with the work and the contractor. Since you may have a date in mind for when you want to put your home on the market, it will be important to know if the job was completed in good time, as well as if any final issues were left hanging in the air unfinished.

Consider The Estimated Costs

Last but not least, you’ll want to have each contractor break down the project and provide a projected cost for labor and materials. You should be able to get a good sense of exactly what it’s going to cost and which bid is the most realistic. While it may be tempting to go for the lowest bid since you’ll probably be moving soon, you’ll want to strongly consider which contractor and which price will turn out the best in the end.

It can seem complicated to hire a contractor for your home renovations, but by conducting simple interviews and checking references you should be able to determine who the best person for the job is. If you’re curious about home renovations and would like to know more about financing options, contact your trusted mortgage professional for more insights.

04
May
By support
Home Mortgage Tips

When is Refinancing Not a Good Idea?

When is Refinancing Not a Good Idea?Refinancing your home can be a great way to reduce monthly mortgage payments or interest rates – or even pay off your debt faster. And while it is a useful tool in budgeting for millions of homeowners, a home refinance may not necessarily be useful in every situation – in fact, there are some situations where refinancing can cost you a great deal of money.

So when should you skip the refinance and simply keep with the original plan? Here’s what you need to know.

If You’ve Already Paid Off Much Of Your Mortgage

When you first start paying a mortgage, most of your monthly payment goes toward the loan’s interest rather than its principal amount. But as you start paying down your mortgage, more and more of your payments are applied directly to the principal. And if you only have 10 years left on your mortgage, the vast majority of your payments are being applied to the principal.

Refinancing a mortgage essentially restarts the loan over from scratch – so if your mortgage is mostly paid off, a refinance will put you back where you started and cause you to owe much more money in interest payments.

If You’re Not Prepared To Pay More Closing Fees

Refinancing can be a great way to lower your interest rate, extend your loan, or get better terms, but it also comes at a cost. Since refinancing essentially starts a new home loan, you’ll need to pay all of the closing costs associated with a new mortgage – and on average, closing costs can total up to 5% of your home’s value. If you don’t have enough cash on hand to pay for your closing costs for a second time, refinancing your mortgage will harm you more than it will help you.

If You’re Giving Up An FRM For An ARM

If you have a fixed-rate mortgage, you have a great guarantee that your mortgage rate will stay the same. And if you already have a low interest rate, trying to get a lower interest rate will make it difficult for you to break even on your closing costs – unless you go with an adjustable-rate mortgage, which typically has lower closing costs.

But opting for an adjustable-rate mortgage is a poor idea right now. Today’s interest rates are at historical lows, which means they have nowhere to go but up. If you refinance with an adjustable-rate mortgage, you’ll end up paying more money than if you simply kept your existing fixed-rate mortgage.

Refinancing is often a useful tool, but it’s not always helpful in every situation. A qualified mortgage advisor can tell you whether refinancing is right for you. Contact your trusted local mortgage professional to learn more.