Q: I am shopping for a new mortgage (I will refinance about $160,000 remaining on a condo worth about $300,000) and discovered my mortgage holder wants about $2,200 in closing costs. I just financed with this bank three years ago and have stellar credit. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to keep a good customer. Any insight?

A: I am not a defender of banks, but just because they did a title search and a refinance three years ago does not mean that there are no clouds (impediments) on your title now. The bank must have clear title in order to make you a loan. Accordingly, they have to do a title search. Also, there are administrative costs to be paid because the lender will have to look at your financial situation again.

There will also be closing costs to the settlement attorney or title company.

My suggestion is to shop around. Get some quotes from other lenders and then go back to your bank. Tell them you would like to work with them, but their costs are high, and you want them to give you a discount. If that works, go with your current lender.

If not, you have the right to refinance with any lender.

Found here.

Imagine, for a moment, that you’ve made some long overdue improvements to your house. Your neighbor suggests that to protect the value of your investment you should consider additional home insurance. Good idea, you think.

Your neighbor says, “You might want to increase your insurance coverage from $150,000 to $200,000.” You dial up your insurance agent for a price quote because you know that buying more insurance is going to cost more money. More coverage equals a higher premium and in the end you decide that more insurance is not worth the price. But your neighbor insists that you should not have to pay more for additional coverage. “Any premium increases are due to the business decisions of insurance providers …”

Knowing what you know about your insurance policies, do you believe him?

Yet that is what Assembly Majority Leader Rep. Tom Nelson and his Democrat cohorts in the state assembly want you to believe. In fact that is exactly Nelson’s comment regarding legislature’s edict in the state budget that increased the mandatory minimum amounts of liability coverage, increased the mandatory minimum amounts of uninsured-driver coverage and mandated coverage for underinsured drivers.

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New regulations kill home sales, industry groups say

Federal actions intended to stabilize inflated real estate prices that led to last year’s financial meltdown are instead depressing prices and killing some sales in an already weak market.

At issue is the Home Valuation Code of Conduct for mortgages securitized or held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which deal with about 70 percent of U.S. mortgages.

The new rules, which took effect May 1, were intended to prevent cozy relationships between appraisers, agents and brokers that could lead to bias, fraud and inflated home values.

But a chorus of industry groups representing builders and real estate agents say the new rules have damaging, unintended consequences: Some appraisers, they say, are unfamiliar with communities and neighborhoods, so they undervalue property. And that can kill a deal when the agreed-to sales price was significantly higher than the appraisal.

The National Association of Realtors says 20 percent of its members report losing more than one deal because an appraisal came in well below the purchase price agreed to by the buyer and seller. The National Association of Home Builders contends the code is impeding new construction as well. More than half of the 500 builders who responded to a recent survey said at least one of their new homes was appraised at less than the cost of construction.

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In a blow to businesses that contact drivers after car wrecks, Texas law enforcement and transportation agencies have agreed to drop telephone numbers from crash reports.

The Texas Transportation Commission is scheduled to consider the new reporting form at a Thursday meeting in Fort Worth. Several transportation commissioners have expressed privacy concerns about including phone numbers on the reports.

“The need for and uses of the phone number do not outweigh the privacy concerns that the collection, storage and release of the phone number creates,” Texas Department of Transportation staff said in its recommendation to the commission. The commission oversees TxDOT.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which also has a say on the forms, agreed to drop the numbers in 2008 after concerns about insurance fraud were raised.

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Yasmin Denner remembers the tough questions when she bought her first house in Toronto in the 1990s.

“I had 15% down but that wasn’t enough. They wanted to know where I’d gotten the money from,” said the self-employed IT specialist with a laugh as she recalled Canada’s borrowing environment.

Flash forward 15 years. She and her husband Trevor moved to the United States, settling in the suburbs outside of Washington D.C. where they bought a relatively spacious 3,000 square foot home for their future family of three.

As the U.S. house market roared, and credit was easy to come by, Ms. Denner said she saw more than a few neighbours pull up stakes and buy twice as much house only to find themselves in trouble a few years later when the market went sour.

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Q: I heard that the FHA is about to change its Streamline Refinance program, and I am nervous that I will not be able to refinance now. Do you know if this is true, and if it is, when is it happening? Susan

A: Effective Nov. 17th, the FHA Streamline Refinance program is changing. Previously no appraisals were required; however with the new rules, appraisals will be “advised.” Also, in the past there was no maximum loan-to-value ratio, but the new rules dictate a maximum of 97.75 loan-to-value. Income and assets will now be verified, and closings are estimated to take longer than in the past.

Found here.

A British man who staged car crashes for money, helping frauds claim £1.6 million ($A2.83 million) from insurance companies, has been jailed for 4½ years.

Mohammed Patel, 24, charged £500 to set up crashes to enable clients to claim an average of £17,000, a court heard.

He staged at least 93 accidents with clients’ cars by slamming on his brakes so cars behind would plough into him. He would then take details to enable his clients to claim on their insurance.

Richard Davies of the Insurance Fraud Bureau said 28 similar suspected operations around Britain were being investigated.

Found here.

As the economy makes the long, slow climb to recovery, the lagging commercial real estate market will tug against progress each step of the way.

Job losses, store closings and corporate cost-cutting have put office buildings, shopping centers, hotels and apartments in a bind.

This slump won’t have as dramatic an effect as the housing collapse, which contributed to a near-breakdown of the nation’s financial system. But the nation’s $6.5 trillion commercial real estate market certainly won’t be much of a contributor to economic growth during the next few years, analysts say.

New construction has narrowed to a trickle, with major projects like the $270 million redevelopment of the east bank of the Flats in Cleveland relying on public loans for life support. Widespread development is not likely for several years, and the commercial real estate industry largely has turned its attention to existing properties.

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Reverse mortgage was introduced in 2007 here. The concept is aimed at senior citizens who can generate income from their homes in their retirement years.

How it works

If a senior citizen owns a house, he can avail a loan from a bank by mortgaging his house. In a conventional home loan, the borrower receives a lump sum at the beginning of the loan tenure. He has to repay the loan through monthly EMIs where a portion goes towards the interest component and the remaining towards principal repayment . The house is pledged with the lender during the debt tenure.

In the case of reverse mortgage, a senior citizen pledges a property he owns for which the lender gives a series of cash flows for a fixed tenure.

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Study needed to see whether coverage is being denied to abused women

Advocates and state legislators have it right.

A recent report by the National Women’s Law Center points out South Dakota’s lack of a law banning insurance companies from denying coverage to domestic violence survivors.

Most states, though, have laws denying the practice.

It’s often tempting to jump onto a bandwagon and push for laws to keep an array of unwanted business activities from happening.

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