Mortgage - Free Calculators

Existing Home Sales Were Down 2.6 Percent In April

On Thursday the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released figures for new home sales in April that showed a big increase in sales and a drop in both median and average home sale prices. Media coverage has speculated that the both outcomes were a result of price cuts by builders in an attempt to get product moving and inventories reduced.

On Friday the National Association of Realtors� released its report on the April sales of existing homes. The data showed a...

Real estate guru to speak

Renowned investment strategist and real estate expert Glenn Mueller of the University of Denver will be visiting Toledo May 31.

For part of his visit, he will advise city businesses how to improve themselves and the community through investment strategies.

The purpose of Mueller’s visit is primarily to meet with a potential corporate client, however he has agreed to speak to a group of local business leaders in a luncheon organized by Mansour Wealth Management, senior managing director Rita Mansour said.

“If it were an athlete, it’d be like the Michael Jordan of basketball coming to Toledo,” Mansour said. “GE (General Electric) waits for his economic commentary before they choose to invest.”

In addition to Mueller identifying markets with the largest growth, local business leaders can expect to hear him speak on the status of the economy and use his information to incorporate the best practices for helping the community, she said.

“My visit is to help the people of Toledo do a better job at investing their money,” Mueller said.Mueller is the real estate investment strategist for the Dividend Capital Group and serves as a professor of real estate at the University of Denver. He is also a visiting professor at Harvard University.
   

Mueller has received numerous awards for his work, including a Graaskamp Award from the American Real Estate Society. He also serves as co-editor of the Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management. He has 31 years of real estate industry experience, including work on the national and international level with macro- and micro-economic analysis. 

Mueller is scheduled to speak at a private luncheon May 31 at The Inverness Club. 

3 major disadvantages of owning a bad credit card

Having a bad credit and getting good simply doesn’t happen. Credit card companies secure their interests and rip a bad credit person with quite unreasonable charges. When a person with bad credit goes out to get a credit card he finds the situation very uncomfortable. The credit card companies greet him with the following: 

Very high APR 

Bad credit usually attracts high APR on credit cards. The APR’s can be lowered if a good collateral or bank account is linked to the credit card to make it ’secure’. Poor credit with an inability to provide sufficient collateral makes the credit card an ‘unsecured’ one and this results in high APRs and low credit limits. 

Huge Annual Fees 

It is rare to find a bad credit credit card with 0 Annual fees. The bad credit credit cards, are quite risky investments for credit card companies. On the contrary people with bad credit are pretty much desperate to find a credit card, which can help them improve their credit history. Call it taking advantage of this situation or whatever, credit card companies slap heavy annual fees to provide a bad credit credit card. This fees can start from 70$ and can climb into hundreds of dollars per annum, depending on how worse the credit situation is of an applicant. 

Unreasonable Advance Fees 

Yes, there are few credit card companies who want to exploit a bad credit people to the maximum. They want fees just to look at your application, and it has to be paid in advance. Some, don’t guarantee a bad credit credit card even if you pay them this unreasonable amount. Whether you have to pay in advance, or the credit card company charges it after issuing the credit card a bad credit has to shell out this money either ways. 

There is a very little choice for those with poor credit, when it comes to getting a credit card. These fees and high interest rates are an inevitable reality, and must be endured. However, a good comparison of all the bad credit offers out there and shopping around, contacting various credit card agents can really help a bad credit person from being slaughtered.

Bad Credit Debt Consolidation-Do you really need it?

A lot has been said about why one should think of a bad credit debt consolidation loan. However, there can be some loopholes. Is this bad debt loan really as helpful as one is made to believe?

Here some points you need to ponder on before you commit yourself:

The Interest Rates - Pay special attention to the interest rates or the EMI that you’ll have to pay after you take this bad credit debt consolidation loan. It could be higher than you can actually afford!

The Grace Period - Enquire whether you’ll have any relaxation time after you have cleared your debts using the bad credit debt consolidation loan. This will give you some time to save and gain control over your finances.

The Installments- Keep an eye out for the installment payments. Are they monthly, quarterly or do you have to repay the entire amount with the interest in one go after the relaxation period?

The Early Payment Conditions- Will they fine you for repaying the bad debt loan before time?

There can always be a situation, where you have more money now than you will have tomorrow and you would like to get the loan off your head sooner!

Non-Payment Charges - However, there can be a situation where you are unable to pay one installment due to a financial emergency. Enquire about non-payment charges- some companies may charge exorbitantly in such cases.

The Loan Tenure- Remember the longer you drag your bad credit debt consolidation loan, the more you’ll be paying to the debt consolidation company that felt was the best debt consolidation company for you just some months ago. Do not take a bad credit debt consolidation loan that runs longer than your productive years. You need to save for your retirement too!

Think 5 years In Advance- You are single now, or a young and energetic couple without any liabilities? Well, keep in mind the increased expenses if the situation changes tomorrow.

Your Property- Do you really have to mortgage your house or jewelry for this bad debt loan? If yes, make sure all your papers and those given by the company are free of loopholes. You don’t want to lose your valued possessions because you missed out on some point!

Online Debt Consolidation- You have opted for an online debt consolidation loan. Clarify whether the payments need to be done online or you have to deposit a draft or cash personally at regular intervals. Enquire about their stand on the issue of post dated checks too.

Take care to select the debt consolidation program with caution. Remember, the best debt consolidation program today may not be the right one for you after a few years.

Bad credit debt consolidation can help you consolidate debt and improve your credit score. When you deal with best debt consolidation company, you are sure you will get a good deal. Best-Debt-Consolidation-Program.Com offers more information and insight into the process of bad debt consolidation.

When Business Processes Fail: Credit Card (In)Security, Anyone? Everyone?

I read with fascination and horror a recent posting by Bennett Hasleton, a freelance programmer based in Seattle who also happens to maintain the Web site and mailing lists for a group called.That organization advocates for freedom of speech for and against censorship of younger people (who, perhaps coincidentally, are typically too young to vote). The organization has provided useful information for numerous anti-censorship campaigns and lawsuits, some of which have been successful. 

But that’s another story entirely. 

The recent posting by Mr. Hasleton’s that thrilled and chilled me appears at Slashdot.org, and is entitled It basically lays out how easy it is to find active, working credit card numbers online. The article also lays out how easy it would be for the credit card companies to curtail or eliminate the problem, via simple alterations of business processes and perhaps a Perl script or two. 

That’s not the chilling part, though. The chilling part is that when Mr. Hasleton tried to be the good Samaritan, and point out the problem to the credit card companies, most of what he got was “no comment.” And when he gave them actual cardholder information, only one, American Express, bothered to contact the cardholder and advise them to change their card numbers. 

I’m not finished being chilled, however, and neither should you be. According to comments posted by other readers of Mr. Hasleton’s article, merchants are at least as responsible for the fraud that results from credit card number theft as the credit card companies’ inability or unwillingness to address the issue. That’s largely because merchants are frequently too ignorant of regulations and/or technology and/or the scope of the problem – or too cheap – to take the data protection steps proscribed by already-existing standards. Those would be the Payment Card Industry – Data Security Standards, or PCI-DSS. Penalties for non-compliance can include huge fines, and the inability to process credit card payments, but non-compliance obviously still exists. 

Merchants suffer, too. Every time a fraudulent transaction succeeds, a consumer’s liability may be limited to $50, but the merchant can lose the merchandise and its full purchase price (plus transaction fees) to the credit card issuer. Merchants argue darkly that this is the real reason why the credit card companies do little to nothing of substance to curtail the problem of unprotected credit card information. 

(Clueless IT people share some of the blame here, too, at least according to some posting comments to Mr. Hasleton’s article. A strong precedent was set by the “cottage industry” that exploded around compliance with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). Nonetheless, despite the obvious money to be made consulting with businesses about PCI-DSS compliance, there seems to be little awareness of or interest in providing such help among IT people.) 

So there’s more than enough blame to go around, and enough worthy recipients of it, where credit card information exposure and resulting fraud are concerned. And there are obvious lessons here, for companies that accept and issue credit cards, and for companies and individuals that use them. 

1. Guard your credit card information (and/or that of your customers and/or business partners)as if it were cash. Lots of cash.
2. Demand documentation that your credit card information (and/or that of your customers and/or business partners) is being protected at every point in the value chain that involves you (or your customers and/or business partners).
3. Be aware of the regulations and industry guidelines intended to govern protection of sensitive information in your business and/or industry – and follow them. If you’re in IT, make sure the appropriate businesspeople are involved and aware. If you’re a businessperson, make sure IT is involved and aware.
4. Be transparent. It’s not enough to say you’re protecting sensitive information. You must be able to demonstrate that you are doing so effectively and consistently, to avoid the ire and suspicion of business partners, customers, prospects, regulators, and other stakeholders. Put shredders next to the desk of each credit card application or transaction processor if need be. 

Effective and enforced business processes at any of several places along the history of every ultimately fraudulent credit card transaction would have likely killed that transaction long before its completion. Bad BPM costs money, directly and in damage to corporate perception and reputation. And who knows how much that really costs? 

New Home Sales Jump In April

According to figures released on Thursday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau, new house sales in April showed the first improvement of the year, and a substantial one at that.

The National Association of Realtors� is expected to release figures for April sales of existing homes at the end of the week.

Mortgage Rates Move Up On Inflation Worries

According to Frank Nothaft, vice present and chief economist of Freddie Mac, "Mortgage rates inched up this week following the Federal Open Market Committee statement reiterating that the predominant concern remains the risk that inflation will fail to moderate as expected. However...

Virgin Acquires Majority Stake In Family-Centered Mortgage Company

Never underestimate Sir Richard Branson.

The mega-millionaire Brit has been an innovator from the beginning of his career and now it is hard to remember exactly when and where that started because his company, Virgin, is into so many industries and Sir. Richard himself seems to be everywhere. Now Virgin is officially in the mortgage business.

But it is a mortgage business with a real twist...

Indian govt hopes slow down of external debt to real estate

Government yesterday said it aims to slow down flow of foreign debt into the real estate sector through its recent curbs on External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs).

The finance ministry Friday had barred those setting up integrated townships from raising ECBs and made it difficult for small players to raise these borrowings by lowering ceiling on interest rates to be paid on such debts.

“Now the window has been narrowed down. We hope that flow of external debt to real estate sector will slow down,” Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters here.

He, however, declined to make any comment, when asked whether further curbs on overseas funds are in the offing.

Currently, real estate companies are already barred from mopping up ECBs, but integrated townships do not come under the definition of these companies hitherto for this purpose. Integrated townships are those which are built on at least 100 acres of land.

Sources said the government is apprehensive about excessive external funds raised by smaller players in real estate sector, where prices have almost doubled in past two years. Further, excessive flow of funds also impacts inflation, they said.

In fact, debt raised by the Indian companies through ECB is now estimated to have reached USD 24 billion during last fiscal, which is substantially higher than the internal cap of USD 22 billion put up by the government.

According to figures released by Reserve Bank, about 812 companies have raised about USD 20.24 billion through ECBs during the April 2006-February 2007 period. 

Building your own home?

Deciding to build your own home is exciting and creative because you can design exactly what you want. However, it will also be one of the most expensive investments you will ever make, so it’s important to get the right advice and best possible value for your money. 

Unforeseen costs 

Old Mutual Bank product manager Ben Stander says it’s essential to decide how much you can really afford before you start planning. You should also include reserves for contingencies and unforeseen costs because, apart from your monthly homeloan payments, you will also have to pay: 

• Life insurance premiums 

• Insurance for the building and contents 

• Rates, taxes, water and electricity 

• Maintenance and moving costs. 

Need a home loan? 

Unless you are lucky enough to pay cash, you will need to apply for a home loan. The general rule is that your monthly repayment should not be more than 30 percent of your gross monthly income. 

Banks now offer a variety of flexible homeloans and you should get advice on which loan best suits your needs and lifestyle. 

Getting a pre-approval certificate from your bank should give you more confidence and negotiating clout when you find a great site. This certificate states the homeloan amount that you qualify for and is valid for 90 days, which gives you time to make an offer on your stand. 

“Try to find out as much as you can about a residential area or suburb before signing on the dotted line,” advises Ben. 

“In addition, the position and type of stand can have a significant effect on the building cost of your home.” 

Things to consider include…  

• Convenience — distance to schools, shopping centres, work; 

• Exposure — to pollution, noise, traffic, flight paths, water courses and wind; 

• General condition — clean and well-maintained area, old or new, streets in good repair; 

• Security — reputation, proximity to vacant land, security patrols 

• Relaxation — parks, tennis courts, golf courses; 

• Potential development — schools, shopping centres, major roadworks or widening; 

• Area and shape of stand — look at this in relation to the design, size and positioning of the home you want; 

• Ground clearance — removing trees and rocks; 

• Slope of the land — a steep slope will need some cutting and filling or excavation. Draining and its impact on the design and planting of the garden also need to be considered; 

• Type and condition of the soil — clay and marshy soils will directly influence the foundations and structural engineering needed; 

• Land zoning — is it residential, commercial? 

• Limited rights — servitudes, water rights, restrictive development conditions; and 

• Availability of municipal services. 

“A lot of this information can be obtained from the seller, local authorities and title deeds,” says Ben. “And paying a professional, for example to analyse the soil properly, could be money well spent in the long run.” 

When you are ready to apply for finance, find out exactly what documents you will need and hand them in, together with your pre-approval certificate, at your bank branch. This should speed up processing while you finalise building plans. 

Choosing style, plan 

“Choosing a house style and plan takes time, but it is the key to making sure that you end up with what you first envisaged,” advises Ben. 

“You may want to get the advice of an architect, quantity surveyor or engineer. 

“It is also essential to be very specific about what you want when you reach the final specification stages. Changing your mind at the last minute is not only costly but can significantly delay building operations.” 

If you work in the building trade or have building experience, you may consider doing the building yourself with the help of subcontractors and other professionals. If you need more guidance it would be wise to work with an architect and builder, or a developer who offers a package deal. 

“Cost is an important factor when choosing a builder,” says Ben, “but your final decision must take into account the builder’s competence, reputation, professionalism and experience.” 

What to look for in a builder? 

• Reputation — look for an established builder with an extensive client list. Ask for references and take a look at work that has been done over a period of time; 

• Type of home — choose a builder with plenty of experience in building homes in your price range and in the general style you want; 

• Compatibility — building a home is highly personal and emotional. Choose a builder you feel comfortable with; 

• Quality — cost is not a direct measure of quality. Quality results from merging good design, appropriate products and materials, and superior workmanship. “Generally, costly finishes and fixtures won’t make up for poor installation,” says Ben; and 

• Financial stability and track record — make sure the builder’s financially sound. 

“Success in the building trade is earned by building a quality product at a fair price. Successful builders are in the best position to contract for the services of top subcontractors and suppliers who, in most cases, are the people actually supplying materials and building your home,” says Ben. 

Building can start once your homeloan has been registered and you have taken transfer of the site. Make sure that the builder has enough money to finish at least 30 percent of the building, as the bank will not authorise upfront payments from your loan. 

Also, make sure that you can cover any shortfall amount, which is the difference between the loan amount granted by the bank and the amount specified in the building contract. 

Progress payments 

The bank will pay the builder in stages provided it’s satisfied with the finished work. Usually there are three or four progress payments. The process goes as follows: 

• Your builder asks for payment: Examine the building work and if you are happy with the quality, sign a progress payment request form from your bank. “Never sign a blank form, as this could mean your builder might ask for a progress draw without your knowing about it,” advises Ben. 

• The request is sent off for processing. Hand in the completed, signed form at your bank branch. This can take several days to process, so let your builder know what’s happening. 

• Property assessment: The bank does a property assessment of the finished building work. The assessor issues a certificate of payment giving the amount that can be advanced to the builder, which you must agree to when signing the progress payment request form. 

• Calculation: The amount available to the builder depends on the amount of work finished at the time of the assessment. Enough funds will always be kept back to make sure the building can be completed. 

• Bank account: The bank will only pay the builder via an electronic transfer directly to a bank account. It’s essential that the builder’s bank details are recorded on the progress payment request form. 

• Payment: When you are completely satisfied that the building has been done to your specs, the final draw will be paid to the builder. The bank will ask you to sign a letter of satisfaction. 

“Keep in mind that you will have to pay interest on all amounts paid to the builder by the bank, as well as interest on money paid for the land,” says Ben. “If you don’t pay interim interest, it will be added to the loan, together with any costs, fees and premiums that you owe, before the final progress payment can be made.” 

Budget for interest and expenses  

“Budget for interest and expenses so that you are not caught short just when you are ready to move in,” says Ben. “This will ensure you can enjoy your dream home without any last-minute hassles. 

“Don’t be afraid to ask any questions because you need to ensure you are in a position to afford the home you have set your sights on. You’ve probably worked extremely hard to afford your own home, and choosing the right bank, builder and other professionals can make all the difference when making your dream home a reality.”