Down Home Articles

Are you in desperate need of a home? Where can you find a mortgage with bad credit? Since 2008 it has been harder for borrowers to find lenders that will offer them a fair mortgage. This is due to the big real estate fallout that cost banks millions of dollars and resulted in thousands of foreclosures and short-sale properties all around the United States.

First-time homebuyer incentive programs are attracting many new borrowers to the real estate market, especially since the real estate industry has dropped significantly. It’s a great time to take advantage of the falling real estate prices, especially if you can qualify for cash-back programs that you can use to pay off other debts.

Bad credit mortgage refinance lenders are going to offer the lowest interest rates and best possible loans out there. To make sure you are working with a good lender, find out what their credit score cut-off limit is, what their interest rates are at, the loan terms, along with any pre-payment penalties that may arise. Since you have bad credit, lenders will try to take advantage of you by penalizing you for your bad credit past. Do not sign an agreement where you will pay the pre-payment penalty because it may end up causing you to struggle financially for a longer duration that you’d hoped.

If you qualify for a bad credit mortgage, your best option is to work hard with the loan to prove that you are not a risk so you can get your interest rate lower in a few years when you refinance your mortgage. Here are some things you can do to improve your mortgage rate and your credit:

1. Always pay your monthly payment on time. Sign up for automatic withdrawal so you don’t have to worry about a late or missed payment.
2. Pay more than the required amount. Even putting a few extra dollars to your monthly mortgage will help to reduce the principal balance, making it easier to refinance in the future.
3. Reduce your total debt. Lenders like to see that you have large cash reserves available, but they don’t like it when you are using too much money from those cash reserves. Pay off your credit cards as soon as possible to improve your credit score.

Many people believe that if you are making bi-weekly mortgage payments and are paying down the principal at a faster rate than if you were making monthly payments, then you will save on interest. If you were to calculate the amount saved at the end of the loan through this method of payment and calculating, the total is actually a significant number and would make a huge difference, if that was how mortgages actually worked. However, mortgages don’t work that way because even if you pay your lender faster, they only calculate the payments once a month, so it makes no difference at all if you pay at a faster rate because it is only credited monthly. This means that even if you sent in a payment on the second week, the next payment your still paying for the interest on the principal prior to the last payment. Drop by First Portland Mortgage for tips on mortgage rates and types.

photo credit: patriotweb

Mortgage rates have been rising the last few weeks.  Anyone in the process of trying to get a new home mortgage who didn’t lock in their rate a couple of weeks ago is certainly painfully aware of this.  Especially in the past few days, we’ve only gotten worse.  However, there is some near term hope for a bit of improvement.

When the Jobs Report comes out tomorrow, there is a good chance it won’t be good.  While the expectation is for 520,000 job losses, don’t be surprised to see that number actually come in at something closer to 550,000.  At the same time, last month’s numbers will probably be revised upward.  With all these big unemployment numbers, the unemployment rate will probably tick up from last month’s 8.9% to around 9.2%.  There is very little doubt that the media will start jabbering on about 10% unemployment which is, unfortunately, a real possibility.

The thing is, the stock market is not going to like this kind of talk and we may see money flow out of it and into bonds, giving mortgage bonds a bit of relief after getting battered the past number of days.