Mortgage Problems? Check this out!
To combat the issue of rising foreclosure, Congress recently enacted HOPE for Homeowners. This program is designed to help homeowners who are at least three payments behind on their mortgage but have not filed for bankruptcy.
If you qualify, the program extends the terms of the loan, meaning you will be paying a lot more interest over the term of the loan but will have lower monthly payments. This plan helps the taxpayer by keeping the monthly payments lower so that hopefully the taxpayer will be able to continue to make the payments and avoid foreclosure. Also, the extended term of the loan does increase the interest payments, however, that interest can be deducted from the taxpayer’s federal income tax.
As long as the taxpayer isn’t trying to move anytime soon this sounds like a great alternative. However, for taxpayers who might be moving in the next few years, this option means that you will likely be trying to sell your house for less than your mortgage. Because the program extends the term of the loan, taxpayers are paying less each month on the balance of the loan and instead a large chunk goes to interest. Thus, due to the lower housing values if you try to sell in the next few years, your mortgage will be more than the value of your house.
It is great that Congress is coming up with programs to help prevent foreclose, but this plan won’t fit everyone’s needs and you need to be aware of the limitations when considering whether it is right for you.
Going, Going, Gone. House sold for $10,000!
Pinch me, I must be dreaming. A 4 bedroom 2.5 bath home with over 2,000 square feet built in 2006 is going on auction starting at $10,000. This isn’t just a rare deal, there are plenty of others available as well.
In this current market life is pretty tough if you don’t have any savings to fall back on. For those that do have a little cash lying around though, there are plenty of opportunities to invest for retirement. One of the best options that I have seen is the Florida housing market. Yes, house values are falling like crazy in Florida and getting a mortgage is incredibly difficult, however, rental rates have not fallen and people who have been foreclosed on still need a place to live.
The Cape Coral/Fort Myers area has 58 houses and 44 lots going up for auction this month. Many of these homes have never been lived in and the auctions are starting at $10,000 or $25,000 for houses and $1,000 for a lot. With so many homes being auctioned at once and the market already saturated, it is very possible that people will be walking away next weekend with a house for only $10,000 plus closing costs!
A quick check on Craigslist shows that houses in the area are renting for $950 a month for a house or $500 a month for a two bedroom condo. Even if you rent the house out for $500 a month, the potential for future earnings is enormous.
Florida isn’t the only area in the country with some great auctions going on. Check out the following website for more info.
http://www.williamsauction.com/Search/SearchResultsState.aspx?statusid=1&CategoryID=1&p=1.2
Resort to get an extra cash
Payday loans are also popular with other names. These are cash advance, check advance loans, short term loans, pay day advances, cash loans, fast cash, etc. Payday loans are especially a kind of instant short term loans. Whenever you run short of money, you feel an instant requirement of extra cash. At that time you will feel yourself under sudden expenses stress, especially when you are challenging unforeseen expenses. Payday loans are a real way to get cash within few minutes to face your emergency cash needs.
Payday loan is a most useful when you get a high bill to pay it. That time, you may not have enough money and payday loan can be your resort to save yourself from further confusion.
No matter if you have bad or poor credit history. Nowadays most of the Payday Loan companies do not consider credit histories. Instead, payday loans are an unsecured loan, you need not to provide any security to gain a loan amount. All you required is to fill in and complete an online application form. Go to at Google and type payday loans, you will find many payday loans providers.
Payday Advances
A payday advance is when you go to a cash checking business and they lend you money from a couple hundred to a couple thousand and you usually pay them back when you get your paycheck.
However many get trapped when they can’t pay on time and then they are stuck with fees so high that they are in a bigger hole than what they started with. Try getting the help of family and friends, ask your boss for a cash advance on your paycheck or even try a church or government facility. I would suggest you go to a cash advance as your last option or avoid them altogether.
Home Ownership Downside
Owning a home is financially beneficial only if you have enough income to both use the tax deductions and pay for the utilities, taxes, insurances, and maintenance. A large risk associated with property ownership is that it will decrease in value. Yes, I said de-crease. It happens. It happens all the time somewhere. During my married life we managed to purchase and lose money on three homes — two of them in Florida! All of the losses were related to one of us chasing jobs. We owned the first home too short a period of time to overcome the upkeep expenses and closing costs when we had to sell it. Ditto the second and add a slow housing market that year. The third home took us four years to get rid of and yielded a substantial loss due to it being in a rural area that had not recovered from a 20% drop in property values when the major employer folded its tents and crept out of town, along with the breadwinner’s job. Before you buy a house, think about all the events that could happen. How will you pay all the expenses (and the mortgage) if you lose your job? What will you do when the house needs a new roof, plumbing, slides off its foundation, cracks appear in the walls, termites invade, the paint peels, the furnace gives out? Who pays for all those now, where you rent?
Fixing my finances - the value of a personal loan to help get out of debt
For a number of years my finances felt like they were on a roller coaster — often near the bottom of the track, sometimes climbing a little higher, but then rapidly going back down when unexpected expenses would crop up. Like the time our 1986 BMW 528e cooling hoses all decided to break, spilling coolant all over the highway and ultimately requiring a $4k engine replacement. UUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!
I’ve had a pretty good job but was laid off for a while. Building out my own business ended up requiring using credit cards. I ended up with just under $20k in debt owed to the credit cards. One of them ended up at somewhere around 17%. I was paying over $250/month in INTEREST alone. It totally sucked, because, while I was paying down principle each month it was basically like I was giving $250 dollars each month to people who didn’t care about me except as a line item on their annual profit sheet.
How did I escape the credit card monsters? Through debt consolidation? A new home loan? Services? Not in my case. I was fortunate enough to know someone (my mom and stepdad) who were willing to help me out. They were in a position where they had enough cash on hand to extend to me a personal loan. We agreed on a simple 9% annual rate on the loan and the terms were generous — payoff expected in a number of years. This loan allowed me to pay off the high-interest credit cards immediately and begin paying my parents back.
Because it was a personal loan, we felt a large incentive to pay the debt as quickly as possible. We paid extra each month and we were actually able to finish paying off the loan by the end of the year. (Like I said, we were doing pretty ok on our cash income, this was really a means to escape the credit card companies). We were so grateful to my parents for helping us out, and it helped them too a little bit (the interest payments on the loan).
So the lesson I would like to share is this: Don’t be too proud to ask for help from those who can help if you have that option. You may be surprised at how willing your relatives and friends may be to help you fix your finances if you treat the situation in a businesslike and friendly way. Escaping the credit card companies made us so happy, it is a wonderful feeling.
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