Upside Down Mortgage

Posts Tagged ‘insurance’

Subprime Insurance

Question: Career suggestions for a veteran mortgage guy?

I have been a loan officer, sales manager and Wholesale rep at various times over 31 yrs. I never wrote subprime loans. With the mortgage crash, I am looking for another career. I am not really interested in insurance, financial planning or being a stockbroker. I do have a college degree.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Answer: Find a nice place, Long Island may be, and start your own company. It's full with rich people that are ready to spend a lot of money for landscaping. Hire two guys and in the mean time you can go surfing,have fun! Good luck!

5. Insurance: The Archetypal Risk Management Institution

Mortgage Relief Law Center

Loan modification companies without any experience other than the ability to market to distressed homeowners are coming out of the wood work in masses. Taking illegal upfront fees and offering money back guarantees that don’t exist. Times are tough for ex- mortgage companies as well and they will say or do almost anything to get your money. They seek out troubled homeowners at the same time they are trying to find someone to process the loan mod file cheap. They offer money back guarantees (minus $1,000 or so for processing) and typically offer the client no more than a sad story after 90 days and the loss of your home to foreclosure. Calling themselves Loan Modification Experts or Specialists, they are like Cockroaches chasing down their next meal and they are hard to keep up with and even more hard to get rid of. The Attorney General office in most states is aware of the problem but is understaffed and has a difficulties being proactive in their efforts to stop these scam artists. Don’t get me wrong, not all of them are thieves. Some mean well, they just need to make money and can’t collect unemployment benefits. We get calls all the time from mortgage companies that are or are going to start doing loan modifications and want someone to process their files for cheap. They want to make representations to homeowners of low interest rates, principal reductions, and unreasonable settlements based of findings in forensic loan audits and then pass the buck to a loan mod processing company that will take your information, say a prayer and mail it off to the bank. Sad, but true. They have absolutely no clue what they are doing all they know is they can’t do loans anymore and loan mod clients are sitting ducks. These guys come up with cute names, websites, radio commercials, mailers etc…..  Even cold calling off title data as a government sponsored foreclosure relief agency!

Should you decide a loan modification is a viable option for you then hire an Attorney that can offer legal representation and has the required experience to negotiate with your lender. Do not fall victim to an “attorney backed” or a “attorney based” loan modification company. This is very important as they only offer smoke and mirrors. The attorney is not your attorney and only gets a very small fee so the company can say they have an attorney. If you see a company that mentions Law, Legal, Attorney or anything of this nature in their name this is highly illegal unless they are a Law Office with real Attorneys that actually represent you. You should never pay more than $5,000 to get your loan modified or stop a foreclosure sale. Attorneys are not supposed to be cheap, they are supposed to protect and defend you, and a good Attorney in this situation is priceless. The Feldman Law center in Mission Viejo, California has a proven track record helping homeowners save their homes from foreclosure. They offer in house forensic loan audits to support predatory lending and mortgage fraud cases when required as well. In cases of hardships they have the ability to drastically reduce interest rates, principal balances and completely change the terms of a mortgage. There is a team of 50 full time Attorneys, paralegals, negotiators and legal assistants that work directly under Mr. Feldman, Esq. saving homes with real loan modifications. When you retain their services you are kept up to date on a weekly basis. There are other Attorneys around the country as well, but know one with the type of operation Mr. Feldman has. His Law Firm is filled with consumer advocates that share Mr. Feldman’s vision of providing struggling homeowner’s real solutions and giving them their moneys worth or giving it back. You can find Mr. Feldman at www.feldmanlawcenter.com or in the office Monday – Friday 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM PST.

About the Author:

The Feldman Law Center is owned and operated by Steven C. Feldman, attorney at law. Mr. Feldman has been a member of the California State Bar since 1983 and is well versed in federal
loan modification
law.

Source – Loan Modification – Loan Modification Companies- What You Need To Know!

loan modificaiton testimonial feldman law center

My parents have a reverse mortgage and they need to be in assisted living. The house is not worth much more than the mortgage because they have lived longer than they thought they would! (87) In fact, I think the house may be upside down since I have not checked the value of the home for a while. I know that home values have dropped so their home may have gone down in value too. This seems to be a common problem nowadays with many people who own homes.

This is my question: Can they leave the house to go into assisted living and simply let the mortgage company have the house? What would happen? Also, the taxes and insurance have increased to the point that they can no longer pay them.

Mortgage Relief Center

Mortgage interest and real estate taxes are tax deductible and any one with a mortgage can enjoy this tax benefit.

Taxes can be complicated, and it is recommended that you learn about the benefits, the drawbacks and how to file your taxes properly. To enjoy the tax benefits, you can either wait for a big payout after you file your income-tax return, or adjust what is withheld from your paycheck each month.

During the early years of the home mortgage, most of your monthly repayments go towards your interest, with little payment towards the capital. Tax benefits are therefore very useful for first-time home buyers, especially during the early years of acquiring the mortgage.

As you pay more on the amortized home mortgage over a longer time frame, more of each monthly payment goes towards paying the principle, and less towards interest. This means that with time, you lose some of your interest write-off as your equity in the property increases.

It is important for you to note that you can take these tax deductions if you change from standard deduction, which all tax payers are entitled to, to itemized deductions. In the case where your itemize deductions, including home mortgage interest and property taxes, do not exceed the standard deduction amount, it is better for you to take standard deduction.

The following three components of your home mortgage are tax deductible:

1. Interest on your home mortgage

2. Property taxes

3. Loan points for a purchase mortgage fully deductible in the year that they are paid. It is noteworthy that in refinance, the points are written off in increments over the term of a home mortgage.

What five components of your home mortgage or home ownership related costs are not tax deductible?

1. Expenses relating to home improvement

2. Insurance

3. Loan application fees, home inspections

4. Real estate commission paid to real estate or mortgage loan brokers

5. Homeowner and co-op dues and costs relating to home inspections and appraisals, and home loan application fees

Some penalties on a home mortgage can be incurred from IRAs. You are not able to use a conventional IRA account or 401-K plan for a down payment without paying high penalties and taxes on the gains that accrued while the money was in your saving plan. Nonetheless, if you are saving to become a first-time home buyer, it is recommended that you consider a Roth IRA. Roth IRA was created by The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 and it allows penalty-free withdrawals for first-time home buyers. It is recommended that you know all the fine details of Roth IRA before you use it for a home mortgage down payment.

What are the two key factors to consider with deductions?

1. It is important that you convert your existing IRA cautiously. Under the tax law, if your adjusted gross income is les than $100,000, then you can convert your existing individual retirement account into a Roth IRA if your. One must wait 5 years to qualify for a Roth IRA, and a distribution must be made five taxable years after the first contribution to the account was made.

2. Contributions to a Roth IRA are not deductible, but no taxes are paid on qualified distributions. So one can deduct income but not contributions. A limit on the contribution of up to $4,000 a year can be contributed to an account, but only by single tax-filers with adjusted gross income of less than $95,000 and joint-filers with a combined income of less than $150,000.

A home mortgage has several tax benefits which you can enjoy if you get a mortgage and own a home.

About the Author:

Dean Shainin is a consultant specializing in home loans. To see a list of recommended loan companies, tools, resources, and free quotes, visit:
http://www.homemortgageloantips.com/Articles/Home_Mortgage.php>Home
Mortgage website.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Home Mortgage – What Are The Tax Advantages Of Buying A Home?

Center for Health and Homeland Security (CHHS) Director on WUSA TV – 4/8/09

Loss Mitigation Insurance

Question: What does the requirement of mitigation mean in an insurance policy?

Does it mean taking action to prevent the same kind of loss from occurring again? Or does it just mean cleaning up and fixing up?

Answer: Mitigation means doing what you can to control or limit the amount of damage you suffer from a covered loss. For instance, if you have a fire start in your kitchen, they want you to try to put it out if you can do so safely so that the insurance would have to replace the kitchen area but not a whole 3 story house. Another example: if you get a broken pipe and water is gushing into your house, turn off the water and rent a wet vac to try to limit how much damage will be caused. The insurance company will reimburse for your expense, but they don't want you to close up the house and leave the water running while you go on vacation and then come back 2 wks later and demand a new house. Hope that helps.

2x4 and the Wall