From the category archives:

Mortgages

Who to Call for a refinance?

For many homeowners, their monthly mortgage statement for their mortgage includes a sales pitch to call in to refinance.  Too many people do this to their own harm.  Right now, if you are paying over 6%, does your current lender really want you to refinance?  Short answer: No, but if you are going to they [...]

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Life insurance and your home loan

Many home owners in Charlotte are conditioned to hate whole life insurance, however, I think it deserves a second look in terms of your home ownership and mortgage strategy. As a rule of thumb, consider a whole life policy equal to your mortgage balance. Here’s why: 1. You mortgage will always be protected. 2. You [...]

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A Better Strategy

Since the Great Depression, conventional wisdom said you should buy a house for both shelter and investment and pay off your mortgage as fast as you can.  No wonder many Americans store a large portion of their wealth within the walls of their homes. Unfortunately, many of those people have seen their wealth disappear. It’s [...]

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Should prospective home buyers wait any longer?

Thanks to Rick Melville, a Sr. Mortgage Planner at Fairway Independent Mortgage in Charlotte for this guest blog post: Winston Churchill once said that “a pessimist sees the difficulties associated with every opportunity and that an optimist sees the opportunities associated with every difficulty.” Just for fun I decided to do a little math problem [...]

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Understanding Amortization

Thumbnail image for Understanding Amortization

Last month, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac all but ended Interest Only Mortgage loans, so the only loans left are Amortizing Mortgages.  (Some borrowers can still get an Interest-Only style mortgage, but they are very restricted now). If you have ever closed on a mortgage, you probably remember the large stack of paperwork you needed [...]

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