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Be Prepared With Your Home Equity Loan Checklist


A home equity loan can be an excellent way to obtain money in order to pay off high interest bills or consolidate your current debt into one monthly payment. A home equity line of credit is a form of revolving credit in which your home serves as collateral. Because the home is likely to be a consumer's largest asset, many homeowners use their credit lines only for major items such as education, home improvements, or medical bills and not for day-to-day expenses. Additional benefits include a nice tax advantage and the possibility of an overall lower monthly payment. However before you decide that a home equity loan is right for you make sure you do your homework.

Not all online lenders of home equity loans are the same which means there are ample opportunities to save a few more of your hard earned dollars.

The biggest obstacle to overcome is deciding on the appropriate online loan lender. Make the wrong choice here and it could come back to haunt you in the form of higher payments. I have compiled a small list of items to check for when searching for the best online loan lender. One item to be on the look out for is the annual percentage rate or (APR) as it's commonly known. This is the cost of credit on a yearly basis expressed as a percentage. This cost is based on the interest rate alone and will not take into effect other fees and charges such as closing costs.

Most home equity loans or lines of credit revolve around variable interest rates. In many cases lenders entice consumers with an offer to temporarily discount interest rate for home equity lines. This rate is unusually low and may last for only an introductory period, such as 6 months.

Typical information that a loan officer will ask you to provide include a checklist for "Full Document" loan approvals, 1 month of pay stubs from your employer, the previous 2 years worth of W2 forms, a mortgage coupon or copy of your monthly mortgage statement, your homeowners insurance policy information, the mortgage note on your current mortgage, your drivers license and social security card. Having these items handy will help speed up the loan approval process.

Remember those pesky closing costs when you first bought your house? Well there back in force when you apply for a home equity loan. They include but are not limited to the following: Up-front charges, such as one or more points (one point equals 1 percent of the credit limit), application fees, appraisal fees and closing costs, including fees for attorneys, title search, and mortgage preparation and filing; property and title insurance; and taxes.

Once recommendation before applying for a loan would be to have a plan in place describing how you intend to pay the loan back. Some plans set minimum payments that cover a portion of the principal plus accrued interest. Other plans may allow payment of interest alone during the life of the plan, which means that you pay nothing toward the principal. If you borrow $10,000, you will owe that amount when the plan ends. You'll need to be aware of the possibility of a balloon payment. This means whatever your payment arrangements during the life of the plan--whether you pay some, a little, or none of the principal amount of the loan--when the plan ends you may have to pay the entire balance owed, all at once. Failure to complete the loan arrangement by making the balloon payment could result in the forfeiture of your house.

Finally the federal Truth in Lending Act requires lenders to disclose the important terms and costs of their home equity plans, including the APR, miscellaneous charges, the payment terms, and information about any variable-rate feature. You usually get these disclosures when you receive an application form, and you will get additional disclosures before the plan is opened.

These simple guidelines were meant to provide you some additional information with the hopes of making you more comfortable and aware of the issues involved when applying for a home equity loan.

Timothy Gorman is a successful webmaster and publisher of Military-Loans-Online.com. He provides more free loan information that you can research in your pajamas and money saving loan quotes on all of your loan needs to include home equity loan information.

Other websites operated by Tim

Cellular-Phone-Solutions.com - Free information and resources regarding cell phones and cell phone plans.

Best-Free-Insurance-Quotes.com. - Provides free insurance information and offers discount home, life and auto insurance.


MORE RESOURCES:

Housing Wire

Obama pressures Congress on mortgage refinance program
Fox News
WASHINGTON – President Obama is rallying support for his plan to expand government assistance to homeowners, pressuring Congress to help lower lending rates for millions of strapped homeowners. Obama, in his radio and Internet address Saturday, ...
President Obama's Mortgage Refinance Plan Just a Bid for VotesYahoo! Contributors Network
Obama Unveils Mortgage Refinance EndeavorsMortgageorb
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MonitorBankRates.com

Mortgage Refinance Rates: 15 Year Refinance Mortgage Rates at 3.29%
MonitorBankRates.com
Mortgage refinance rates on 30 year conforming home loans are averaging 3.98%, unchanged from yesterday's average 30 year mortgage refinance rate. Mortgage refinance rates today on 15 year home mortgage loans are averaging 3.29%, down from yesterday's ...

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Fox News

Obama Proposes Mortgage-Refinance Plan
Wall Street Journal
By NICK TIMIRAOS President Barack Obama called on Congress during Tuesday's State of the Union address to approve new legislation that would give all homeowners who are current on their mortgages the opportunity to refinance at record low mortgage ...
Obama proposes mortgage refinance programPolitico (blog)
Will Obama's Mortgage Refinance Plan Be D.O.A.?U.S. News & World Report
Obama proposes new mortgage refinance programHousing Wire
Daily Caller
all 314 news articles »


International Business Times

FOX 11 News Discussion: State of the Union
MyFox Los Angeles
And he aimed a pitch at homeowners, announcing a new mortgage refinance program with "historically low interest rates" that "gives every responsible homeowner the chance to save about $3000 a year on their mortgage." He added, "A small fee on the ...
Winning Words, But Not a WinnerU.S. News & World Report
Obama State of the Union 2012: Mortgage Refinance Changes Face ObstaclesInternational Business Times

all 12,250 news articles »


CBS Local

Six Questions on Obama's Mortgage Refinance Proposal
Wall Street Journal (blog)
By Nick Timiraos President Barack Obama said Tuesday night in his State of the Union address that he would send a plan to Congress to allow all homeowners who are current on their mortgages to refinance. Here's a quick look at the proposal: How is this ...
Obama plan could help refinance Bay Area mortgagesSan Francisco Chronicle

all 19 news articles »


KOMO News

Living large? Get the best rate on your jumbo mortgage refinance
NASDAQ
If you buy apparel from "big and tall" clothing stores, you're used to paying more and having less to choose from. "Regular guys," on the other hand, benefit from a wider selection of products and more competition between retailers.
Mortgage Interest Rates Move Higher: 15 Year Mortgage Interest Rates at 3.34%MonitorBankRates.com

all 113 news articles »


AgedLeadStore.com to Add 1100000 Aged Mortgage Refinance Leads
Middle East North Africa Financial Network
COM, January 26, 2012 ) Baltimore, MD AgedLeadStore.com is increasing its value for its customers by adding 1.1 million aged Mortgage Refinance Leads in February. This is important as many people depend upon their ability to refinance to make progress ...



High Volume Stock Movers: Bank of America, Sprint, Cisco, Annaly, Sirius Feb. 8th
Wall St. Cheat Sheet
By Derek Hoffman Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC): The US's Home Affordable Refinance Program has increased mortgage refinance applications and strained capacity at Bank of America, leading the bank to ask some customers to wait 60 to 90 days, ...



New HARP Could Help Up to 6.7 Million
NASDAQ
Other changes to the program were designed to make it easier for homeowners with private mortgage insurance (PMI) to refinance or to obtain a HARP mortgage refinance with a lender other than their current mortgage servicer. In addition, new limits were ...

and more »


Boehner On Refi Plan: Bad Idea, Obama!
Mortgageorb
by MortgageOrb.com on Thursday 02 February 2012 Any hope for bipartisan support of President Obama's mortgage refinance proposal was squashed by House Speaker John Boehner, who dismissed the new initiative as a continuation of failed policies.

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