We’ll discover what the fixed rate mortgage is, and its benefits. Then prepare to be amazed at the savings made with a mortgage overpayment calculator. You get security from the fixed rate mortgage & you may get a nice surprise from the overpayment calculator.

A fixed rate mortgage is one of the various types available. You get a fixed interest period for several years. Your interest rate, and therefore your payments are fixed.

Do fixed rate mortgages have any plus points? Your payment is fixed because your particular interest rate is fixed. You can estimate your outgoings easier knowing your monthly payment is fixed.

It doesn’t matter how much interest rates rise, your payments are fixed. In our recent history there have been some frightening short term interest rate rises. If the rates rose drastically over a short term those on variable mortgages could struggle to meet payments.

There is a situation when maybe you should think twice about a fixed rate mortgage. You may decide you need to move house, or even have an unexpected child and simply need more room. Either of these events will cause you to trigger an unwanted redemption penalty.

Most fixed rate mortgages come tied to a nasty redemption penalty. When you can least afford it you could have a charge slapped on you. Think hard before you take a fixed rate mortgage as these charges can really disrupt your plans.

You might like to think about paying a small extra overpayment each month as you go through the length of your mortgage. You are not tied to make the same payments for the duration of the mortgage, usually 25 years. It’s not often, if at all, that a lender will tell you it’s possible to pay more than your normal minimum monthly payment.

What are the best reasons to paying a bit extra every month? If you consistently pay extra in the early years of your agreement you can knock several years off the length. By paying a bit extra now, the savings mount up substantially later on.

How do you use a mortgage overpayment calculator? You input various figures relating to your mortgage. You can then play around by changing the figure you can afford to overpay.

The calculator will then tell you how many years you might reduce your mortgage by. It will tell you what sort of cash lump sum you can expect to save as well. Both the years and cash saved obviously increase if you put in a higher overpayment figure.

Some of the savings can be staggering. If you had a 25 year mortgage and borrowed 100 grand at 5% interest. By paying an extra fifty each month could save you over 3 years and 12 thousand.

Now an example of 100 extra instead of 50 extra. The same mortgage example but paying 100 extra every month. This saves you more than 20,000 and knocks a respectable 6 years off the term.

An extra advantage is you won’t have any payments to make during the last few years of the mortgage. You could be free of the shackles of your mortgage early by paying a little more now. You won’t hear this info from any lenders though. You need to discover info like this for yourself.

If we go back to the extra 100 each month where we managed to shave six years off. A six year saving translates into about a forty grand saving in cash. You can do what you like with this extra as it never needs to be paid to your lender.

In conclusion we listed a few benefits of a fixed rate mortgage. Every month you pay the same so you get to sleep easy at night knowing this. We also looked into the future and saw some big savings if you can make a little overpayment now.

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Buy Notes – Do You Know Your Borrower?

A friend of mine who is a note broker, set up a call for me with the Senior Vice President of a CA bank. He was in charge of the banks note sales.

The bank had 3 defaulted mortgages which were commercial loans based in the Los Angeles area.

A Buy Notes Lesson about Golf Clubs and why to Communicate with Your Borrower

Stay with me here…

The bank told me that one of the loans was in foreclosure and had a sale scheduled in a couple of weeks.

And also mentioned that the bank had had no contact with the borrower, or builder/developer in this case.

So I asked her if she had any concerns about the loans and also asked if she thought the bank would run into any problems foreclosing on the properties.

She answered: “No, because we feel the value of the properties is sufficient to pay off our loan.”

My Concerns With This Buying Notes Situation

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this note buying business, managing the relationship with your borrower is key in 60% of all cases.

And if you don’t work with your borrower, then you’re really hurting your chances of getting out of a note deal.

Let me explain…

There are essentially 5 Buying Notes Exit Strategies for all Loans:

foreclosure, refinance, short sale or deed-in-lieu, note sale, and reperformance.

Foreclosure and note sale are the only 2 exits that you can do with no communciation to your borrower.

But the risk that the foreclosure runs – and foreclosure is the path that the banker is taking in this example – is that the borrower may file for bankruptcy and postpone the time when you recover the property.

My Advice on Buying Notes

When buying notes, you can earn terrific returns without having the either sell the note or foreclose on the property.

And if this is true, then not maintaining contact with your borrower will jeopordize 60% of your note buying exits. (3 of the 5)

Would any professional golf player get only a course with 5 out of their 12 clubs?

Would that be somewhat limiting to their game?

Probably.

It sure would be entertaining watching him hit a putt with a 9-iron.

I know it can be painful, but working with your borrower is essential in the note buying business.

This is the same advice that I shared with the LA bank today.

Will they take my advice? I am going to be tracking her discounted notes to see if any of them end up in bankruptcy court.

If those notes do end up in bankruptcy, it’s for certain that she will be wishing that she kept communication with her borrowers.

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The idea of obtaining a license to sell real estate and real estate has considerable appeal. Because many real estate agents can set their own hours, staff may choose to sell real estate full time or use the committee that generated the sale of homes to supplement their income. Selling real estate is an excellent opportunity to make money while responding to many people.

If you think the treatment of the sale of real estate is the perfect job for you, you should start thinking about obtaining a license in real estate.

All fifty states require that you have a real estate license before you can legally sell real estate. While the idea of trying to get a real estate license sounds a little daunting, you really shouldnt get too stressed. In most states, getting a real estate license isnt any more complicated than getting your drivers license was.

Prerequisites

The first step is to check with their real estate agent and state commission to discover the conditions for a real estate license. Most states require that you are at least nineteen years old and have at least a high school diploma. Once you’ve determined that they meet all the requirements, you can start working in real estate of his license.

Real Estate School

The first step towards getting your real estate license is to enroll yourself in a real estate school. There are lists of real estate schools online. Several community colleges provide real estate training. Another way to track down real estate schools is to talk to licensed real estate agents that are already working in your area.

When you register in a school of real estate that you must have an idea of how long it takes for your brain to absorb information. If you are a person who takes the material you can look at schools that offer programs that provide a wealth of information over a short period of time. If you take the time to absorb the information you need to find a program that extends their classes over a long period of time. The average person has about a year to learn everything you need to know about property management.

Testing

When you have completed the course you will have to take the state standardized test. Once you past this test you will be a fully licensed real estate agent and can start gathering your clients.

Having dismissed most of the property you require States to continue your studies.

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If you’re planning to borrow for a debt consolidation in order to get your finances under control, then you really need to concentrate on tracking your spending. If you think that you are able to do this, then I might be a good idea to apply for a home equity debt consolidation loan.

Refinance Your House Payment

If you are buying a home and having equity in it, you can refinance your home and use that equity to pay off your outstanding debts. Refinancing your home to get the cash to pay off your debts is usually the option with the lowest interest rate.

If you decide to refinance, you will want to consider doing a restructure of the loan terms to try and work out a lower interest rate. If you do this you could end up cutting years off your mortgage term, and save thousands of dollars in interest for a minimal fee.

Second Mortgages

A second mortgage is another option for you to use in order to consolidate your debt. You might be able to get this done if you’re not able to refinance, and it can still allow you to pay off your debts. This isn’t the best way to go about it though because you have to pay closing costs that are about the same that you had to fork over when you originally closed your loan.

Home-Equity Loans

Home equity loans are different than a second mortgage, and in fact they work more like an open account kind of like a credit card. On most home-equity loans you are going to have to pay a higher rate of interest than you would on a second mortgage, this is mostly for the convenience of being able to draw the cash out as you like. The interest rates for these loans still isn’t that high. This is a really good way to consolidate your debts and get your outstanding balances is paid off.You need to be careful when you get a home-equity loan, so that you don’t use it to build more debt, but instead use it to pay down the debt that you do have so you can breathe a little easier.

All of these are truly great ways to get rid of the high interest burden from credit cards off of your back. If you’re struggling to make your payments on time, and you have equity in your home, then you don’t have anything to lose from applying for a home-equity loan today.

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As a trader, the market action these days are amazingly good. Buy when it goes down, sell when it goes high. Rinse and repeat. As an investor though, the moves must be driving you nuts. The Dow has been stuck in this range for about a month now, and it’s hard to say whether the bulls or the bears will win this tug of war.

On the bull’s side, it’s still the same arguments that recovery is well under way. That it’s never as bad as everyone thought it will be and there are tremendous amounts of cash on the sidelines waiting to be invested.

The bears argue that while the downturn is slowing its pace and shows signs of stabilizing, we are far from a recovery that the rally suggests. They believe that the foreclosure wave is still yet to come and when the fed runs out of gas with all the stimulus, the economy, and thus the stock market, will tumble.

Articles for the Weekend

• For more evidence on the bear case, note that the Case Shiller index fell at a record pace.
• Of course, if you are an oblivious investor, you can just ignore the noise. However, you still need to be honest with your expectations of the long term market returns.
• Or if you can get a 49,250% return, you probably don’t need to worry about how the market does as a whole.
• Now that GMAC’s banking division changed name, Bank Savings Review did a review of the new offerings, Ally Bank.
• Lastly, whatever you do, you should always save money on your wedding. Here’s how.

Carnival

• Carnival of Cash Flow
• Money Hacks Carnival
• OneMint Carnival
• Wealth, Money, Life Carnival
• Personal Finance News Carnival

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Related Articles at Investing School:

• Weekend Investment Reading – Happy Holidays Edition
• WIR – What a Week in the Stock Market
• Weekend Investing Reading (WIR)
• Weekend Investment Reading – Wow
• Weekend Investment Reading – Ignoring the Volatility

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