Understanding the Closing Process

April 23, 2008

After you’ve gone through the grueling mortgage process, you’ll eventually reach that day everyone involved has been waiting for - the day you close. The closing process basically involves all of the parties signing the final documents and officially transferring ownership of the property to you. Closing fees are typically collected here and the transaction is essentially complete. Here’s an idea of what you’ll need on the day of closing and what to expect.

What You Should Bring

Contract
Home appraisal and inspection reports
Good faith estimate
Flood certification
Homeowner’s insurance and mortgage insurance if required

Main Purpose of Closing

Sign legal documents: There are several important documents you’ll have to sign here, such as the transfer of ownership of the property and your mortgage terms from you lender. Read all of the documents carefully and make sure they are in line with what you had previously agreed upon. Remember that you can delay closing if necessary.

Pay closing costs and escrow: Now will be the time to pay the fees associated with closing your mortgage. The fees may already be included in your mortgage, you might have a separate loan for them, or they could be paid out of pocket.

Who’ll be there?

You, and your spouse if they’re involved with the transaction
Your attorney (not always necessary, but can help you through the process)
The lender
The title company’s representative
Real estate agent, if one was used
Closing agent

After you’ve completed the closing process, you’ll officially have ownership of the home and the mortgage process will be complete!

Mortgage, mortgage basics, mortgage closing, mortgage closing process, mortgage questions, mortgages, understanding the closing process

FAP757: Free coffee, free food, Free Stuff Friday

March 14, 2008

FAP757: Free coffee, free food, Free Stuff Friday

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: Congress cut subsidies to private lenders while tightening rules on how they operate. More than a dozen lenders have already announced that they are leaving or scaling back their participation in the federally guaranteed loan program, and many more could follow.
+ Congress’s changes, though, may prove responsible for only a fraction of the turmoil facing private lenders. The tightening of credit has prevented many lenders from raising needed capital and, combined with subsidy cuts, has led some lenders to conclude that the federally guaranteed program is no longer a worthwhile enterprise.
+ Most interesting tidbit from the article was a comment that the Department of Education Direct Loan program will have newer, easier to use systems that will allow colleges to offer both FFEL and Direct lending programs together
+ Believe it or not, that’s a good thing - it puts Direct Lending on an equal footing as any other federal student loan program and opens up the remaining 19% of colleges that are Direct-only to FFEL lenders
+ Inside Higher Ed also reports that the vast majority of students don’t go hog wild on Spring Break, instead opting for school sponsored trips or just going home.

Scholarship Update
+ Detroit Queen of the Highlands scholarship
+ Perfect example of a small local scholarship
+ $1,000 award
+ June 2 deadline
+ Must be of Scottish descent
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff Friday
+ BlueLock for Windows
+ Hulu is now open
+ Mark march 21st on your calendar - Dunkin’ Donuts is giving away a free iced coffee.
+ Dunkin’ Donuts free ground coffee sample
+ Limited Too has buy one get one free Webkinz.
+ Free Hamburger Helper samples
+ Hat tip to Connie Bensen - Cool Text has 1,200 free fonts
+ Hat tip to Chris Johnston - 8 page ebook on how to get good recommendations for college admissions
+ Environmental tip: get a clothes drying rack and/or clothesline. You will save money on quarters, energy, and extend the life of your clothing, not to mention reduce your environmental footprint
+ Financial tip: if a company goes into bankruptcy and you have a gift card for it, it’s now worthless - sorry. Chapter 11 treats gift cards as debts, not as cash.

Free Song of the Week
+ Adrina Thorpe, Midnight

Did you enjoy today’s show? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you. Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day.
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Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3

Reminders
+
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ Free scholarship search secrets eBook at StudentScholarshipSearch.com/ebook
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Grad student? Get graduate financial aid information at the GradLoans.com blog!
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208.

Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast

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Some More Smart Home Selling Moves

March 12, 2008

If you have bought a house before, you know that you are always looking for the best deal possible. Now the shoe is on the other foot. You have become the seller and you do not want to sell this house for anything below market value. How do you keep the ball in your court when you know the buyer will do anything to gain the upper hand? This is your house and you should not be bullied.

Selling Tips You Need

Fix your home if it needs to be fixed up. You should fix up the house, because most house buyers are not looking for something they can buy and have to fix up at the same time. You should never resort to selling your house the way it currently is. The little fixes you can make will go a long way towards getting that house sold and the price you seek.

Use the internet to your advantage. Your house should be posted on all relevant housing sites, and it should include all the details possible. People are surfing the Web more and more now days in order to find properties, and you should not be left out in the cold.

Simplify your house. You want to bring out the potential in the house. If the rooms are large, then make them large. Do not clutter up the house with useless junk. You want people to see the potential of each room, and make them dream about what they can do inside this house. People do not really care much to see what you have done with inside the place. They only want to see what they can do.

Know the market value. This does not only go for the house, but for the entire area. Know what the houses are selling for in your neighborhood, and surrounding neighborhoods. Then know what the houses in the entire city are going for. This will help you compare with your house in order to come up with the best number possible. This should be a number that is competitive but still gets you the money you require for this property.

Make Them Want the House

It should be your goal to note the positives of the house whenever possible. After all, it should be them who wants the house, not you who wants to sell. You have done a lot of hard work to ensure that this house stays in top shape; therefore you must not give it away for anything less then it commands. You are the seller and you should not be pushed around by any buyer.

Additional Resources:

fix up, Mortgage, sell home, sell house, selling home, selling house

FAP753: 6 ideas to pay for college

March 10, 2008

FAP753: 6 ideas to pay for college

Listen now:

Student Financial Aid News
+ Boston Globe: Nearly 30 percent of undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will not pay tuition next academic year under a far-reaching financial aid initiative announced today, the latest in a host of expanded need-based programs at elite colleges and universities.
+ In addition, MIT will no longer consider home equity in asset calculations for families earning less than $100,000, which will reduce the average family payment by $1,600. MIT will provide a comparable deduction to parents who rent homes.
+ Inside Higher Ed: Another sign of loan industry woes: The Associated Press reported that Brazos Higher Education Service Corporation, the administrative arm of a Texas lender called the Brazos Group, announced plans Friday to eliminate the jobs of 163 employees, or 60 percent of its workforce.
+ The good news in all this is that if you’re in the top 1% of academically qualified students, college is cheaper than ever
+ The bad news in all this is that if you’re in the other 99%, it’s time to start getting creative in financing
+ As always, get student loans at StudentLoanNetwork.com

Scholarship Update
+ Student Loan Network 10K Part 2
+ Scholarship Points program changes

News You Can Use
+ How to get creative with college funding
+ Obvious paths - scholarships and grants
+ More often than not, it’s not that you don’t know how, it’s just that you don’t
+ David Maister calls this the paradox of the fat smoker - why we don’t do what we know to be the obvious choices
+ Time tested: the 2 - 4 shuffle. Know which college you want to graduate from, then find community colleges that allow full transfer of credit into that school.
+ Time tested: get into a free college - Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford, Berea
+ Get creative beyond that - there are tons of services out there that allow for collection of money
+ Idea: hold an end of semester party and sell tickets via Eventbrite and Google Checkout, then solicit donations - tickets are used to pay for that semester
+ Idea: solicit corporate sponsorships of your schooling, and put together a media package of what the company is getting for its sponsorship. If you have a blog, podcast, etc., or other outlets, leverage those
+ Grab a copy of a Business Journals list for the city either you live in or in the city
+ Idea: Host a benefit concert online - find an independent musician with a following and sell tickets, split the proceeds. Think it can’t happen? Take a second look at live music online via sites like UStream.tv and Second Life
+ Idea: If you and friends have talents in creating material goods - CDs, magazines, shirts, etc., create a video telethon on a popular site like UStream
+ The key is Purple Cow stuff - something unique, powerful, and different that has never been done before
+ Whatever your idea, publicize the heck out of it - send out press releases, hit up local reporters, etc.

Did you enjoy today’s show? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you. Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day.
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Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3

Reminders
+ Student Loan Network Fall $10,000 Scholarship
+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ Free scholarship search secrets eBook at StudentScholarshipSearch.com/ebook
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Grad student? Get graduate financial aid information at the GradLoans.com blog!
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208.

Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast

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How the Federal Reserve can fix student lending/student loans

March 10, 2008

The Federal Reserve does have the capacity to help fix student loans, if there was sufficient pressure to do so. Here’s how. Right now, the Federal Reserve has a new liquidity facility created last year to deal with the subprime mortgage mess, called the Term Auction Facility. How it works is simple.

The Federal Reserve puts up a fixed amount of money that it wants to get into circulation.
Banks bid on how much they want to borrow from the Federal Reserve at the discount rate for a given term.
Banks pledge collateral equivalent to the amount they borrow, minus fees and the “haircut” procedure.
Banks receive the money, with which they can then lend.

The TAF allows the Federal Reserve to do two things - first, get more cash into the economy, and second, allows it to work with collateral that may be substantially lower in quality than it would normally otherwise work with, like toxic subprime mortgages.

The reason the Federal Reserve doesn’t get left holding the bag on those mortgages is that there are fixed short terms under which banks can borrow - 28 days, 35 days, all depending on how long the Federal Reserve wants to lend or accept risk. At the end of the term, the cash comes back to the Federal Reserve, and it returns the collateral.
Currently, the Federal Reserve does not allow consumer loans or securities composed of consumer loans to be pledged as collateral under discount window rules. This, of course, includes student loans.

How the Federal Reserve could help student loan availability would be to temporarily alter the discount window collateral to include, at a minimum, federal student loans in the Term Auction Facility for a duration of 90 - 180 days; this would ensure enough funding was available for the fall semester, and at reasonable, if not optimal, interest rates for banks. Private student loans could be a different issue, or just be left out, but at least allowing federal student loans as collateral in the TAF could do a lot to help provide liquidity to student lenders.

While Congress and the Department of Education try to figure out a longer term solution to student loan availability and college affordability, I’d encourage you to contact both your Congressional representatives and the Federal Reserve and petition them to permit student loans as collateral in the TAF as outlined above.

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