What the Presidents new mortgage refinance plan for underwater homeowners could mean for you is the opportunity to refinance your home into today’s low interest rates even if you owe more than what your home is worth. Today’s interest rates can be found for your situation on our home page and are around 3.75% 30 year fixed www.mortgagecalculator-rates.com

So far these programs are only available to homeowners whose loans are owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (you can check easily if your loan is owned by either by visiting www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/ and www.freddiemac.com/mymortgage/ ) Even if you receive mortgage statements from another bank like Bank of America, Chase, GMAC, etc.…. Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac could still own your loan and you be eligible for the program. The only way to check is to visit the sites and enter your information.

Under the new programs all other qualifications to refinance stay the same. You still need to prove income, credit score, reserves, etc.… Talk to one of our experts about your situation and learn how to get your home refinanced by your local bank, a national bank, or a broker depending on your situation.

If your home is not owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac do not lose hope just yet. Congress is looking into expanding this program to include all mortgagers in the U.S. Stay tuned as this would mean drastic changes to the way home loans are qualified. It would essentially alleviate the loan to value in the equation of qualifying for a home loan.

Interest rates are at the lowest point we have seen in well over 50 years, and they are going to stay there for the foreseeable future. In an election year with the economy the main focus and the housing market still struggling the White House and the Fed have both pledged to keep interest rates low.

Further lowering interest rates are the recent down grade of 5 European countries debt ratings in the last couple of week. This has caused investors to once again migrate to the safety of US treasury bonds. With the world economy going through unprecedented upheaval there is no lack of foreign investment in US bonds as well.

Interest rates on Feb 1st, 2012 are as low as 3.875% on a 30 year fixed mortgage, but with these record breaking interest rates come much tighter lending standards and an increase of borrower’s looking to take advantage.

When banks and brokers have more files than they can handle it is the consumer that ends up suffering. You need to have a solid education in order to get the best loan and make sure that it goes through. Your home mortgage is your one single biggest investment most of us make in our lives, make sure you know as much as you can when dealing with the banks.

How do banks get paid on your home loan?

Of course the simple and seemingly strait forward answer would be the interest you pay them for the money borrowed. What most people don’t know is that is not where the money is made on your loan, it is in the fees. Interest rates on home loans are very close to interest rates in the bond market, whereas the bond market is a totally secured place to put your money and make interest. Your actual home loan can be bought and sold many times between different banks, even bundled up itself with other loans and sold as securities.

This is where a lot of the problems have come from in the recent past with banks not being in compliance selling off and bundling their loans, but that is a different article.

Where the real money is made on your loan is at the beginning.

There are only 2 ways that Banks / Brokers make money on your loan:

Fees

Interest Rate

If you don’t know what you are doing when dealing with them they are almost certainly making money off you both ways!

When you hear an advertisement say there are no fees on this loan there are 3 tricks that they are using with words that make you feel all warm and fuzzy about using them for your home loan.

Here are the tricks and what you can do to make sure you are not being taken “to the bank”

Trick:You will not have to pay anything to get the loan done hence no fees.

You:Check what your current loan balance is, if the loan balance of your new loan is several thousand dollars more, what is happening is all the fees are being paid through your new loan. The bank is still charging you fees, only you are paying them by raising the balance of your new loan.

Trick:Raising your interest rate and receiving an undisclosed kick back for “selling” you a higher interest rate than what you qualify for.

You:Look up today’s “par” rate on any financial website, Yahoo finance, MSN finance, Google finance. You will see what the interest rate is that you would get without your bank getting any kick backs for “selling” you on taking a higher rate.

Trick:Not locking in your loan to the agreed upon interest rate, or not locking it for a long enough period of time to fund the loan. Banks have to pay to lock your loan in at a specific rate, if they do not you can find yourself at closing with a much higher interest rate than what you were told.

You:Tell your bank you want to lock your loan on the agreed upon terms and fees in your disclosures. You need at least a 30day lock in order to fund your loan. DO NOT LET THEM LOCK YOUR LOAN FOR 15 DAYS. It takes longer than that to close your loan now days and you will end up paying more money in the end, not the bank.

Remember you are in control of what loan you get, not the bank. There are still hundreds of banks competing over your home loan, and the more you know the more you save.

To find out what you could save by refinancing today and get quotes from the top competing lenders in the country or even just to calculatore your monthly mortgage payments simply clicking below.

Call us toll free at 888-878-5395 to speak live with a mortgage professional for FREE. They will answer all of your questions and tell you the industry secrets on how banks make money off you. This is a free service to help homeowners like you turn the tables on the banks, and recieve the best possible mortgage!!!

Ever felt you wanted to know what happens behind the scene of the mortgage industry and how you can beat the mortgage providers and find yourself the best deal on the market. Then welcome to our world, we will be bringing the trade secrets of the mortgage industry right to you.

So Stay Tuned.

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