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Applying for a Secured Loan 101
If youve made the decision to apply for a secured loan, youre likely to have done a bit of homework in regards of current interest rates, traditional fees for preparing the necessary documents, and of course, the fee your lender will charge you for your secured loan. If you have yet to accomplish the above tasks, you should at least begin the process before you begin to contact potential secured lenders. So heres a bit of basic info for you (and if youre already familiar with it, lets just consider it a refresher course, shall we?).
The most common type of secured loan is a mortgage; one of the largest bills that you will ever have in your life. There are a wide variety of fees in all shapes, sizes and colors for you to decipher through, so be sure to pack your x-ray goggles!
First things first, we have the APR its the amount that you will be paying each year for your loan. Also known as the Annual Percentage Rate, it will include the interest rate, fees, and certain other charges calculated on a yearly basis to come up with one complete percentage. Its usually a bit higher than the interest rate that youre quoted, as it includes the other fees.
Be sure that you know the terms for fees as many of them can be hidden or covered up as something else. Points are one of the more popular fees, and can range in purpose to get you a lower interest rate to an honest loan officer telling you thats how hell fill his paypacket. When in doubt, ask questions! If youre not happy with the answers you received, ask someone else. Ask all the way up to the president of the company, as this is your money were talking about here. And dont sign anything that youre not 100% sure about.
And last but not least, be sure to shop around- dont put all of your eggs into one proverbial basket, so to speak. There are, unfortunately quite a few bad loan originators (often referred to in the industry as predators) in the secured loan industry that are completing the old Bait and Switch routine on you- promising the moon and stars to you, their special client, but all the while they have no such program waiting for you (and you are now in a difficult position: either choose the horrid loan program that you got switched into, or no loan at all). By shopping around, and informing the competing lenders that they are not alone, you are setting yourself up for an ideal, winning secured loan situation.
When the application process commences, its very important to remember that you can change your mind at any time without penalty or fine. Sometimes our gut instinct tells us something that we just cant avoid, and its often best to listen to our gut
You're In Control With A New Home Mortgage
If you have looked for your new home and cannot find it, perhaps building a new home is a consideration. You will get all the amenities you want and locate it in just the right spot for your needs. But how do you go about a new home mortgage if there is nothing there to begin with?
Time to dream
One of the advantages of building a new home is that you can shoot for the stars and then scale back from there. Find an architect and use some out-of-pocket money to get started. When you go for your new home mortgage, you can simply build that cost back into the loan. What you are trying to do here is have a fairly realistic idea of what the new home mortgage will likely be.
As you go about the design process, think a bit about what is going into the home so you can use those features as selling points for the new home mortgage. Will the new home take advantage of tax credits, will it use “off the grid” technologies like solar or are all the mechanicals the most efficient. Each of these ideas will boost the innate value of the home meaning it may resell more easily. Remember, the bank wants it to sell when you are ready, so its money comes back easily.
The big little things
If this is the first time you have built a house with a new home mortgage, be sure to think about some of the things that you have never had to think about before. The sewer connection needs to be built. The electric may need to be brought in quite a distance. If the home is to be off the beaten path, this may start to add up in cost making your new home mortgage a bit larger than you may have thought. This is why “off the grid” is such an important concept for not only you but the lender.
Use your equity
As you go about the process of figuring out what you want to go into the house, think about how you are using your built up equity. How do you want to use the equity as it applies to your new home mortgage? Should you roll it all into the down payment on the new home mortgage or should you hold back a portion just in case an extra feature was forgotten in the house.
Are you in control?
In todays lending market, you will really have to have your ducks in a row if you want to follow the new home mortgage route. A lender may be apt to say that there are so many homes available that they would rather a traditional existing home mortgage then a new home mortgage. It is up to you to demonstrate that you have the capacity to support this mortgage plan with your history.