Ropa de Moda

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to determine if it’s better to buy or rent is to sit down and calculate the financial advantages of owning versus renting. This is commonly done online with a ‘‘rent versus buy’’ calculator found on the Web.

These calculators compare your current or probable rent situation with a projected home ownership number. They’re easy to find. I ran a Google search for the term ‘‘mortgage and calculator’’ and retrieved 6,100,000 websites that had those two terms in combination.

But the kicker is that these calculators rarely will tell you, ‘‘No, it’s not a good idea to buy.’’ That’s because of the tax benefits of home ownership. The interest and property taxes associated with a mortgage are generally tax deductible. You can deduct them from your gross income when you file your taxes. With rent, you can’t. Yeah, I know. When you’re a renter you don’t pay property taxes or mortgage payments. Instead you give money to someone else for the privilege of living there. But you can’t write off your rent. It’s just that. Rent.

When might a ‘‘rent versus buy’’ calculator suggest it’s better to rent? When you intend to own your next home for only a year or so. Buying a home incurs other expenses, such as money for the down payment, property taxes, and hazard insurance (which is much higher than a renter’s policy). Many apartment complexes pay your electric bills along with water and other utilities. When you own, you pay all these expenses. Owning a home with all its tax benefits doesn’t outweigh the acquisition costs to buy the home if you’re only going to own it for a short period. Short term, rent. Longer term, buy. Are your rent payments the same or less than what a mortgage payment would be? Depending upon where you live, they may be the same. Especially if interest rates are relatively low.

Let’s say you’re renting a nice 3,000 square foot, three bedroom home close to schools in a friendly neighborhood. You might be paying $1,800 each month in rent. A similar three bedroom home might cost $150,000. If you put 5 percent down to buy the home, your monthly house payment, including taxes and insurance, would be close to $1,200 using a 30-year fixed rate at 7.00 percent.

If rent payments in the area in which you want to buy are near what a mortgage payment would be, it makes sense to buy. If you can save $600 per month and you also get to write off the mortgage interest and property taxes, then it’s truly a no-brainer.

Another reason buying is generally better than renting is simply a matter of appreciation and equity. When you rent and property values increase, your landlord will probably raise your rent again. And, of course, each time you make a rent payment you’re not increasing your equity in anything; you’re just helping your landlord increase his stake in your house or apartment. I’ll give you an example. Your rent is currently $1,000 per month, and you’re thinking about buying a $150,000 home. If you put 20 percent down and borrow $120,000 at 7.00 percent on a 30-year fixed rate, your principal and interest payment are about $800 a month. Let’s also assume that property values are increasing in your area by about 5 percent per year. What’s the situation after two years?

If you rented, you paid someone else $24,000. But if you owned and itemized your federal income taxes, you likely deducted over $16,600 in mortgage interest on your income taxes. You also paid your loan down by over $2,500 while at the same time increasing your equity position in the house by nearly $18,000.

Now you see why those calculators always tell you to buy a home. Through all of these calculations, remember the real reason for buying: You buy a home because you want to. Because you like the place. It’s your home. A home is one of the largest single financial commitments someone can make. And while I agree with that statement, let’s not go overboard here. Buy a house because you want to, not because some calculator told you so.

Fuente: guidewhois.com

One way you own the roof over your head, and the other way, you don’t. If you’ve always rented or otherwise never owned a home, one of the things you’ll discover is that when things go wrong with your house there’s no landlord to yell at. There’s no superintendent to come fix your leaky faucet. If your hot-water heater is busted, you’re the one who has to make the trip to your appliance store to shell out another thousand bucks or so just so you can take a hot shower in the morning.

When you rent, you can pretty much walk away as long as your lease agreement has been fulfilled. Want a change of scenery? Pack up and move across town. Want a swimming pool and fitness center without the hassles of owning either? Rent. Want new carpet or drapes every year? Rent. Want your utility bills paid? Rent. Free cable? Ditto. You get the point. Renting has its perks. Much less responsibility and no hassles of ownership.

Fuente: guidewhois.com

That’s easy. Start doing some research on your own on the Internet, even before contacting a real estate agent. If the Internet was invented for any particular industry it has to have been for real estate. Before the World Wide Web was born, one could typically locate houses only in the newspaper on the weekend. If you saw a house that you liked, you’d contact the agent selling the home. Then came the endless cycle of driving around in a real estate agent’s car looking at houses until finally, finally you found a home you wanted to buy.

The Internet has helped agents become more productive by letting consumers do a little shopping first before they get serious enough to use an agent. An agent who advertises a house is called the ‘‘listing’’ agent, because he puts the house for sale on the multiple listing service, or MLS.

The agent will show you the home and ask if you are using another agent. If you aren’t, the agent will ask if you would like to see other homes for sale. You of course say ‘‘yes,’’ and the agent then becomes a ‘‘buyer’s’’ agent as well, helping you find a home to buy and not just listing a house for sale. You give your agent your requirements for your dream home, such as four bedrooms on a culde sac with a swimming pool. Your agent would then scour the MLS to search for such homes. After the search, you’d both get in the agent’s car and go see the homes.

But viewing homes on the Web gives both you and your agent a head start. You only look at homes you’re interested in, and the agent’s not dragging you all over town to look at homes you’d never buy. Your agent spends more time selling or listing homes and less time driving all over the place.

You can start with www.realtor.com. At this official site of the National Association of REALTORS, you can search for homes anywhere in the country or across town using home listings from your local newspaper to your local or even national real estate brokerage. It’s really cool. You simply log onto the site, choose where you want to live, and select your preferences, like four bedrooms in this zip code in this price range with a pool or without, and so on. Next thing you know, there are your potential dream homes right on your computer screen. Some sites even have ‘‘virtual’’ tours showing different views of the house. This way you can see what homes are selling for and what’s generally available.

Fuente: guidewhois.com

When things called ‘‘loan conditions’’ are tagged onto your approval, they mean that your loan is approved ‘‘conditionally.’’ For example: ‘‘Your loan is approved with these two conditions: Bring your most recent paycheck to closing and provide me with your complete divorce decree to show that you don’t pay any child support each month,’’ or ‘‘Provide evidence of insurance coverage for the new property.’’

If you meet the conditions, then your loan is approved and your loan papers are drawn. In all my years of doing loans, I can recall only a few loans going to underwriting without some sort of condition attached. It’s almost as if underwriters have to put a condition on a loan just to prove that they actually looked at the file. But this process can really add to the tension of the mortgage approval process. I know that you got prequalified with your loan officer and she kept nodding her head and smiling at you, saying, ‘‘Don’t worry, you’ll be fine,’’ but until you hear that final word, ‘‘Congratulations,’’ you’re still waiting. And waiting.
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Fuente: guidewhois.com

The ‘‘pre’’ stuff verifies two critical elements in credit approval: your ability and willingness to repay a mortgage. Ability and willingness go hand in hand. While you can make enough money to be able to afford to pay back a loan, if you don’t have the willingness to do so, then it won’t work. And, of course, there are certainly a lot of people out there who may have the willingness to pay someone back, but they just don’t have enough money to do so.

By verifying income and the available assets to close on a house, and then reviewing the credit report, these two initial hurdles are overcome. It’s no big deal, but documenting your prequalification really is your very first step. Let’s examine the process a little more in detail.

First, here’s what doesn’t happen: Loan applications aren’t sent to some loan committee for review. Loan committees went out with leisure suits. Once upon a time, yes, that’s how it happened. Potential borrowers would apply for a mortgage and extol their financial virtues; a loan committee, usually meeting once per week, would later discuss the positives and negatives of the applications. A host of old men in black suits, smoking cigars and saying things like ‘‘harrumph,’’ would eventually approve or disapprove the loan request.

Today, your loan application is approved or not approved at the very beginning of the process before it ever gets to an underwriter (the person who physically approves your loan). This process is now mostly automated and everything is approved first, before anything is ever verified. It’s different from the old days. It used to be document and verify absolutely everything before any approval whatsoever. You could go three to four weeks without really knowing if you were approved. Today, your loan is approved first, then verified later. Those of you who have applied for a home loan more than five years ago will recognize this next drill.

First, you gathered all your documentation bank statements, tax returns, and paycheck stubs whatever you could think of. Then you trotted down to your local mortgage company, bank, or savings and loan and met with a loan officer. You completed the loan application with the loan officer, who then detailed the types of documentation needed. Your credit report was also pulled and reviewed. Your debt ratios were calculated to make certain you weren’t borrowing more than you in the lender’s eyes could handle.

If there were any credit problems say, a late payment on a car last year the loan officer would ask for an ‘‘explanation letter.’’ The credit report would show whether the problem was a pattern or an isolated instance. The explanation letter was a secondary requirement that had to be in the file. Many times the letter simply said, ‘‘I forget why it was late,’’ and it would still be okay. The explanation didn’t have to convince anyone or be necessarily plausible, it just had to be there.

You’d also have to address any other discrepancies, such as length of time at your current job or a gap of employment. Didn’t work because you broke your leg? Provide some medical bills to prove it. Sudden deposits of money in the account? Prove where you got the funds. You needed to show that you didn’t borrow the money from somewhere else and make sure it wasn’t affecting your debt ratios or perhaps hiding a prior lien on the property.

And that was just from your standpoint. At the same time, an appraisal of the home you were considering buying would be ordered, along with some initial title work. Then a bevy of folks would start mailing stuff to you, explaining this and declaring that, and using words you’ve never heard of. Then about three weeks later, after all of the required documentation had been gathered, and only then, your complete application would be sent to a loan underwriter for approval. By then it’d been nearly a month and the mortgage company still hadn’t looked at your complete application. This process simply means: Verify first, approve last.
WHEN IS A GOOD TIME TO BUY A HOME
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING PREQUALIFIED AND PREAPPROVED

Fuente: guidewhois.com

The value of Mortgage Adviser Courses

If you are looking to start a career in Financial Services as a mortgage advisor but are finding it hard to get your foot in the door, let a dedicated team of industry-experienced CeMAP training professionals lead the way. People travel to mortgage adviser courses from all parts of the country including England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We all strive for success by studying for university degrees, attend courses and continuously look for a spark for direction in life and it’s not until we see a professional person in front of us that we realise that it’s a job that we would like to do. It seems easy watching that individual working at the height of their career without realising what price they have had to pay to achieve success.

Being in the Financial Services Industry for over 20 years, many people have asked me what it takes to become a successful mortgage broker. As the Marketing Director of Money Marketing Limited, a company that trains hundreds of budding UK mortgage advisers per month, I feel that I am well qualified to answer that question.

” It takes dedication, focus, hard work and the ability to strive for success, and a little help from mortgage adviser courses.”

So what criteria should you use when deciding on your future career direction? Well, try asking yourself a few of the following questions:

· Do you think that you would enjoy helping people with their finances?

· Would you prefer to be an employee?

· Would you like to be self-employed?

· Are you determined to become a high earner?

· Are you intent on being successful?

· Would you like to be in charge of your own destiny?

A ’yes’ answer to most of these could mean that you should consider investigating how to become a mortgage broker but before you do, let’s look a little further. The start to becoming a mortgage advisor means is passing a mortgage advice qualification and in my opinion the most recognised one in the UK is the Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice (CeMAP)

Do you need to have a degree to pass the exams? You will not need academic qualifications to be able to pass the Cemap exams but one thing you will need is a strong desire to succeed in a highly competitive industry.

Mortgage adviser courses successfully help individuals to pass their mortgage advice qualifications in literally days of intensive, fast track cemap training. Having said that, it can be easy for the gifted people who are just natural at passing academic exams.

I recently spent a week with a group of 10 delegates on a CEMAP 2 & 3 training course in London and the range of abilities on the course was extremely diverse. The challenge here for the cemap trainer was to get them all to the same standard by the end of a five day week and prepare them for their exams, the following week. Nine out of the ten passed their relevant exams.

The challenges of the CeMAP exams are that you need to learn the qualification content and pass the exams at 70% but that is not all. Many people coming into the mortgage industry have not sat exams for years and in some cases not since they left school. Our CeMAP training courses were built for individuals who are new to the mortgage industry and as a consequence, we teach the course content and mock examine you on a daily basis.

The advantage to this system is obvious, not only are you learning the course content but the exam techniques as well. With strengths and weaknesses identified on a daily basis, it is easy to identify the areas that require extra tuition during the week. This proven system allows trainers to help hundreds of people get through their Certificate in Mortgage Advice & Practice (CeMAP) exams per month.

Do take care, as the route to becoming a mortgage adviser could be fraught with dangers for the unprepared and under researched person, as the journey could be a long and arduous one. Care should be taken when choosing the company for the initial CeMAP training as many organisations are strictly in the business of offering either a two-day revision course or a self-study CeMAP examination course that in our opinion is not enough.

Furthermore, there are unscrupulous organisations that may try to lure individuals into offering cheap CeMAP training courses and then taking £5,000, £6,000 or even £9,000 off them in an attempt to recruit them into their mortgage business as mortgage advisers or offering expensive and in my opinion, unnecessary mortgage franchises.

Mortgage Adviser Courses – A fly on the wall account

Have you ever wanted to know before hand how a CeMAP training course might run on a daily basis? Here is a fly on the wall account of a recent CeMAP 2 & 3 combined training course that I attended in London run by Money Marketing Limited for 10 budding mortgage advisers.

Monday 9.00 am

We all reported to the conference centre of the Premier Travel Inn at Enfield, where the trainer greeted 10 very apprehensive and nervous delegates all looking for our allocated seats and nodding to each other in greetings. The most pleasing thing was the friendly atmosphere that was created by the welcoming trainer and quickly putting us at ease and introducing the week ahead. The most surprising thing was two large folders in front of each delegate, one labelled Course Notes and the other Course Exams.

Well away we go covering the first part of the course and hey, what’s this? Are we being tested so early? Yep, sure thing, mock multiple-choice exam questions at the end of each covered section. Not used to this, not done any exams since my school days. Still, must attempt them and see how it goes.

The first day flew by. What? Homework? Not much chance for socialising in the bar tonight then. Still, I had better get my head down and focus.

Tuesday 9.30 am

Later start today, needed that extra half hour to pull myself together. Marked the homework first thing and got 72% not bad. Off we go following the course notes, delegates asking questions to the trainer who shows a high degree of knowledge. Quite liked being able to ask questions and clarify things, certainly couldn’t do that on a self-study course. I’m getting into this multi choice exams system now, usually there are two definitely wrong answers and that only leaves two left to think about.

Some of these questions are rather difficult and I haven’t done formulas and maths for ages. Hey, the trainer said that all us that are struggling with our maths could stay behind for some extra tuition. I like the trainer! Goes out of his way to help. Good sense of humour too. Homework again? Looks like it’s going to be a daily thing.

Two days gone, had five mock exams already and done ok so far.

Wednesday 9.30 am

Here we go mid week and I’m starting to get the hang of this course and really enjoying it at last. Although it’s not easy, people on the course are starting to make friends, forming groups and socialising. Enjoying today even more as it’s about mortgage products and that what the job’s all about anyway.

Stayed behind last night with a few of the others to get to grips with the formulas. It’s ok for some of the young people on the course as it’s not long since that they left school but me, I haven’t done any serious maths for twenty odd years.

More mock exams today and I think that I am coming to terms with the style of questions and the time allocated. Some of my mock examination marks are starting to improve, including the homework. Missing the family though, not long to go now!

Thursday 9.30 am

This trainer is incredible, cracking jokes and light conversation about some of the homework answers has certainly clarified one or two things that I was a bit shy to ask about, just in case I showed myself up in front of everyone. It’s as though the trainer knows how we think and act in front of other people.

Starting to feel tired today as it is starting to catch up on me. Although the exam technique is now ok, the course content is getting a bit much but we are all in the same boat and it’s full mock exams all day tomorrow. Last day to learn about mortgages and things but I must admit that all the insurances are rather confusing.

What with Full Endowments, Low cost, Unit linked, Decreasing term, Level term, it’s all a but confusing at the moment. Must stay behind tonight to go through these different policies to better understand them. More homework for tonight, last chance to get the preparation right for tomorrow. Must get a good night sleep tonight, no Stella Artois.

Friday 9.30 am

I don’t believe it, the week has gone so fast, yet I feel so tired. Full mock exams today on both CeMAP 2 and 3 papers. Hope that I do well but it should be a good test today to see if I’m ready or not to sit the proper exam next week. We are all tense and ready for the mocks but don’t know what to expect.

Here we go, start. Hey this is ok, some of the questions are easy and I don’t know what I was worried about. Whoops! There goes that low cost endowment question again. Don’t really understand why they ask questions about endowments as they are not arranged anymore. 85% in the CeMAP 2 mock exam that only took me 1.5 hours of a two-hour question makes me feel good this morning and I’m dying to discuss some of the questions with the others. Not looking forward to the CeMAP 3 exams this afternoon.

Just got through the CeMAP 3 mock exam with a score of 71%. Not good enough as it’s borderline and I need to do more work for next week before I take the proper exam. The good news is that I can take my Course Notes and Course Exams booklets home with me and test myself on a further three mock exams before I sit the actual exams.

This was a fly on the wall interpretation by Joe Kocsis the Marketing Director of Money Marketing Limited who attended a recent CeMAP 2 & 3 combined training course.

Fuente: guidewhois.com