Cory Thompson

Mid America Mortgage, Inc.

9 Strategies to Handle Home Maintenance Costs

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9 Strategies to Handle Home Maintenance CostsMaintenance is an important part of home ownership. Improper care compromises the safety of your property and can result in big repair bills. Include these strategies in your maintenance plan to reduce your out-of-pocket costs.

Educate Yourself

It’s usually cheaper to do most home maintenance jobs yourself. Teach yourself some basic skills to save yourself from professional fees.

  • Take some classes. Community colleges and hardware stores often host community courses that help you plan projects, get familiar with new tools, or gain more value from property assessments.
  • Invest in beginner books on carpentry, electrical work, and plumbing. These will be invaluable references throughout your home ownership journey. Online versions allow searchable access to necessary information.
  • Experience is the best teacher. Start with small, decorative projects to hone your hand skills. As confidence increases, you can try more difficult builds and repairs.

The right combination of knowledge and skills means you realize minimal maintenance costs.

Make Maintenance A Routine

Preventive maintenance catches small problems before they become big, expensive ones. Schedule essential tasks to ensure all the important parts of your property are monitored consistently.

  • Perform a perimeter check when the seasons change. Walk around the outside of your home. Examine the grounds and exterior for signs of wear-and-tear or degradation. Take pictures and make a plan to address the damage.
  • Have your HVAC system professionally serviced once a year. For those with allergies or other adverse respiratory conditions, have your ducts, vents, and filters cleaned every six months.
  • Practice good property hygiene. Keep your landscaping, exterior, and storage spaces clean and uncluttered. If a problem does occur, an unkempt environment can complicate repair efforts.

Incorporate maintenance into your regular routine to circumvent emergencies.

Prepare Financially

Make sure you’ll always have enough money to fix your home with these tips.

  • Decrease the deductible on your home insurance policy. You pay slightly higher premiums. However, the extra funds could come in handy if a big claim occurs.
  • Start a home repair fund. Aim for an amount equal to 10% of the value of your property.
  • Establish a relationship with a local contractor. Your friendly relationship and loyal patronage could earn you some valuable discounts in times of need.

The cost of maintaining your home doesn’t have to be a mystery. With these tips, you can keep a safe and healthy home without draining your bank account.

If your home maintenance or improvements require a bigger budget, it may be time to inquire with your mortgage professional about financing options, like a refinance or a home equity line of credit.

Loan Servicing Companies

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Loan Servicing CompaniesWhat happens when you suddenly get a notice to pay your mortgage to a company you may have never heard of? How do you determine if this is a legitimate request or a scam?

A borrower may get a written notice or an email that their mortgage sold to another entity or that a new loan servicing company will now be collecting the mortgage payments. The borrower needs to exercise extreme caution before just sending in a payment to the new company. It is prudent to double check to see if the communication is legitimate because many people get scammed by this type of notice.

Borrowers must receive a letter in the mail from the original lender notifying them of the change before getting any communication from a new company. If there was not a letter from the original lender, it is probably a scam.

How To Verify A Legitimate Request With The Original Lender

It is important to be 100% certain that communications are with the lender. DO NOT respond to any notice received by email by clicking on any link in the email, even if the email looks legitimate.

Fraudsters on the Internet use a technique called “phishing” to trick people into thinking they are getting a request from a legitimate company when the email comes from a criminal. These emails are very convincing. They look exactly like the real company; however, they are fake.

Borrowers who want to communicate with their lender online, should type in their lender’s website address and make contact through the company’s official website. 

Better yet, call the customer service number listed on the company’s official website and talk directly to a customer service person to verify that the request is legitimate. They will ask you for identification information and then be able to tell you your loan status.

What Is Loan Servicing? Can A Lender Sell My Loan?

Companies may choose to have the collection of the loan payment done by a third-party vendor. Usually, in any loan, there is a provision that allows the lender to sell it to another party or to change loan servicing companies. These legal rights are normally in the part of the loan document called the “Mortgage Servicing Disclosure.”

This legal right is usually held only by the lender and the borrower has no option but to comply with a legitimate request. Since almost all lenders sell off their loans to other companies or investors, so that they can get more money to loan out, the chance of a new mortgage loan selling is extremely high.

Troubles With Loan Servicing

Many make a smooth transition from one loan servicing provider to a new one by simply following the instructions. Others have troubles. Besides actual fraud by fake companies, there may be problems with real companies if the information in the records is not accurate. The date of a loan transfer may cause an overpayment or a late payment.

Any time there is confusion with regard to a mortgage loan servicing transfer, it is best to be proactive and stay in touch with the original lender for guidance in connecting with the new loan servicer.

Conclusion

Lenders sell their loans all the time. Loan servicing companies change frequently as well. These can be a simple legitimate transfer of the business process from one company to another. However, this is an area that is ripe for scammers to trick people and for bad companies to take advantage of their customers through loan servicing fraud techniques. Be aware of this problem and take care to avoid any negative consequences of loan servicing fraud.

If you have any questions or concerns about your home financing, be sure to contact your trusted home mortgage professional.

5 Ways To Find Properties For Sale That Are Not Listed Yet

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5 Ways To Find Properties For Sale That Are Not Listed YetReal estate agents, who are successful, know that getting listings is the life energy of their business. It is boring to sit around waiting for a new client to call. It is expensive to spend extraordinary amounts of money on general advertising to get listings. Clever real estate people learn how to find properties for sale before they are listed.

Value Of Unlisted Properties

Real estate agents and investors have a competitive advantage when they find properties for sale that are not listed. These off-market properties may be available at a better price. There may have little or no other competition from other potential buyers making an offer. Real estate agents can motivate buyers to move quickly to close a deal on an unlisted property before it goes on the market.

Finding Off-Market Properties

Here are five ways to find properties before they are listed:

1. Check Tax Records

Sometimes it is as simple as looking up the current owner in the tax records, making a contact, and giving an offer. That direct approach may work well as long as enough contacts are made to improve the odds of finding a motivated seller.

2. Maintain Contact With Past Buyers

Real estate agents should always stay in contact with past buyers of a property that they sold. On the anniversary of the sale date, send a nice postcard with a handwritten note that says something like “I remembered this was the date you bought your home (or building). If you ever want to sell it, give me a call.”

3. Networking

Another technique is in-person networking with people. Join professional associations, mingle with people, and learn what neighborhood they live in. Tell them someone is thinking of moving there and ask them if they might be considering selling their home or if they know someone who is.

4. Friendly Neighborhood Scouting

Become known in a neighborhood as a buyer. When an investor likes a neighborhood, a terrific strategy is to wander around, knock on doors, and hand out business cards.

People hate someone knocking on the door who is trying to sell them something. However, they usually have a very positive reaction when someone wants to buy the home. There is no need to be shy. Walk around a neighborhood, get to know it better, and the people who live there.

5. Title Companies And Real Estate Departments Of Banks

Make friends with the staff at title companies. Get to know the people working at banks in the real estate department that handles the short sales and foreclosures. These two groups are very strong sources for off-market deals.

The staff of title companies knows when a sale fails at the last moment due to loan funding issues. Bank staff knows when new foreclosures come in before they list for resale. By moving fast, an investor takes advantage of the short gaps between the time these properties are available for sale and when they get listed.

Summary

Learning how to find off-market properties creates many benefits. Investment opportunities expand for real estate investors and real estate agents create more listings for themselves with these proactive strategies. Think of this as a treasure hunt and it actually can be a lot of fun.

One of the best ways to be prepared to purchase a new property is to have your pre-approval in place. Be sure to meet with your trusted mortgage professional to discuss your financing options.

What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – May 20th, 2019

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What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – May 20th, 2019Last week’s economic reports included readings from the National Association of Home Builders on housing market conditions, housing starts and building permits issued. Consumer sentiment was reported along with weekly readings on mortgage rates and new jobless claims.

NAHB: Builder Confidence Rises in May, Housing Starts Increase in April

The National Association of Home Builders Housing Market Index posted its highest reading in seven months in May as headwinds facing home construction waned. Lower mortgage rates were a positive sign. May’s reading rose three points to 66; component readings also rose.

The index of builder confidence in current housing market conditions rose three points to an index reading of 72; the reading for builder confidence in housing market conditions in the next six months rose one point to 72 and the confidence reading for buyer traffic in new housing developments rose two points to 49. The reading for buyer traffic seldom exceeds 50. A reading of 50 or above indicates positive builder sentiment.

Commerce Department reports for April showed higher readings for housing starts and building permits issued. 1.235 million housing starts were reported at a seasonally-adjusted annual pace. Analysts expected 1.209 million starts based on March reading of 1.16 million starts. Housing starts were six percent higher as compared to March, but remained lower year-over-year. Building permits reported in April rose from 1.288 million permits issued on a seasonally-adjusted annual basis in March to 1.296 million permits in April. 

Mortgage Rates, Mixed New Jobless Claims Fall

Freddie Mac reported lower fixed mortgage rates were lower last week, but the average rate for 5/1 adjustable mortgages rose. Rates for 30-year fixed rate mortgages averaged 4.07 percent and were three basis points lower. Rates for a 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.53 percent and were four basis points lower.

The average rate for 5/1 adjustable rate mortgages rose three basis points to 3.66 percent. Discount points averaged 0.50 percent for 30-year fixed rate mortgages and 0.40 percent for 15-year fixed rate mortgages and 5/1 adjustable rate mortgages.

First-time jobless claims were lower last week with 212,000 claims filed as compared to expectations of 217,000 new claims filed and the prior week’s reading of 228,000 initial claims filed. Analysts said that the drop in first-time claims was a sign of economic strength and job markets.

Consumer sentiment hit a 15-year high according to the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment

Index. reported an index reading of 102.40 in May; analysts expected a reading of 97.10 based on April’s reading of 97.20. Low unemployment fueled consumer sentiment, but analysts emphasized that consumers were surveyed before higher tariffs on China were announced; the costs of tariffs will be passed on to consumers, which is expected to dampen consumer sentiment.

What‘s Ahead

This week’s scheduled economic news includes readings on sales of new and pre-owned homes and minutes of the Fed’s FOMC Committee meeting. Weekly readings on mortgage rates and new jobless claims will also be released.

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