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Mortgage Meaning. What Is A Mortgage

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We hear the word all over. A couple of years ago, they were being signed like they were going out of fashion; a large mortgage was akin to a large salary at the end of month. But the times have changed and in Dave Ramsey’s words, the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.

But, what does exactly mean? The word ‘mortgage’ comes from the Old French and Latin. In Latin, mori (turned into the mort- part in ‘mortgage’ in Old French) means ‘death’ and -gage means ‘pledge’. Thus the words: ‘death pledge’.

The word mortgage comes from the Old French and Latin. In Latin, mori (turned into the mort- part in mortgage in Old French) means death and -gage means pledge. Thus the words: death pledge.

I can see how, hundreds of years ago, taking on a 30 year mortgage was comparable to signing yourself into bondage for life. As Earl Wilson correctly put it, if you think nobody cares about you try missing a couple of mortgage payments. Thats the ultimate Litmus test for love.

Funny words aside, etymologically, mortgage means that the pledge dies either when the obligation is fulfilled or when payment fails and the property is repossessed.

Interestingly, the French use mutated back into hypothque, derived from the classic Greek and meaning to put something under something else.

In some countries, like France and Spain where they have a civil-law system, a mortgage is closely or even solely related to a loan against real estate or property whereas in common-law, it represents any device in which a debtor (mortgagor) conveys an interest in property to a creditor (mortgagee) as security for the payment of a money debt. The Anglo-American definition has a broader meaning than its civil-law cousin, the hypothec.

Identifying And Avoiding Mortgage Fraud

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Recent financial industry distress publicly attributed to widespread mortgage loan defaults has generated mounting pressure on federal prosecutors to increase investigations into incidents of mortgage fraud across the nation. On February 6, 2004, CNN reported that the FBI warned that mortgage fraud was becoming so rampant that the resulting epidemic of fraud could trigger a massive financial crisis. Mortgage fraud has now become so prevalent that the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been forced to create an entirely new category for tracking these cases. According to a CBS news report, the number of FBI agents assigned to mortgage related crimes increased by 50 percent from 2007 to 2008. Prosecutors and investigators on both the state and local levels are also feverishly organizing task forces and creating real estate fraud departments to counter this burgeoning wave of crime.

CRIME & PUNISHMENT

The primary focus of these investigations appears to be on borrowers, investors, mortgage brokers, appraisers and real estate agents. Some of the charges levied against these perpetrators have included making false statements on loan applications, bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to launder funds and a number of applicable state laws. However, the primary legal vehicle implemented by federal prosecutors has been section 1014 of Title 18 of the United States Code which declares mortgage fraud as a federal crime encompassing anyone who willfully overvalues any land or property, or knowingly makes any false statement, for the purpose of influencing a financial institution upon a loan application, purchase agreement or other related documents. A violation of the federal mortgage fraud law (18 U.S.C. 1014) alone is punishable by up to thirty years imprisonment and a one million dollar fine.

MORTGAGE FRAUD SCHEMES

The most effective way to avoid prosecution for mortgage fraud is to identify mortgage fraud schemes prior to any actual involvement. Most mortgage fraud offenses fall into one of two general categories: fraud for housing and fraud for profit. Fraud for housing often involves fraudulent acts committed by a borrower, often coached by his or her mortgage broker or real estate agent, to obtain a loan for the ultimate goal of acquiring a home. These fraudulent facts generally pertain to the falsification of facts and documents during the loan application process to enable the borrower to obtain financing that he or she would otherwise not be qualified to receive. Conversely, fraud for profit typically involves a more concerted plan to abuse the entire real estate transactional process for pecuniary gain.

FRAUD FOR HOUSING

Income Fraud

This occurs when a borrower inflates his or her amount of income to qualify for a loan or a larger loan amount. Although recent reductions in the use of stated income or no-doc liar loans has somewhat curbed income fraud, daring borrowers are increasingly generating more fraudulent documents to falsify income. Information technology and photocopy equipment have become so advanced that very convincing documentation, such as income statements, savings accounts and tax returns, can be produced on demand.

Employment Fraud

In order to justify overstated income in a loan application, borrowers will claim self-employment in a non-existent company or represent having a higher position in a company than the borrower actually holds.

Failure to Disclose Liabilities

The debt-to-income ratio is an important part of the loan underwriting criteria used to determine a borrowers eligibility for mortgage loans. Consequently, borrowers will conceal financial obligations like newly acquired credit card debt, other mortgages, and private loans to artificially reduce their debt-to-income ratios.

Occupancy Fraud

Generally occurs when a borrower states on a loan application that he or she intends to occupy a property as a primary residence to secure a lower interest rate when the borrower actually intends to obtain the loan to acquire an investment property.

FRAUD FOR PROFIT

Equity Skimming and Cash-Back Schemes

A straw buyer is typically implemented as the buyer of the property due to his or her creditworthiness and resulting ability to obtain favorable financing. Unknowing straw buyers can be manipulated by mortgage brokers and real estate agents to purchase a property as a primary residence with the broker or agent later serving as a property manager to collect anticipated rental income. After the escrow closes and the mortgage and real estate brokers collect their commissions, they proceed to collect rental income and fail to make the mortgage payments.

Complex schemes can involve a knowing straw buyer, an appraiser who intentionally overstates the propertys value, a dishonest seller that intentionally inflates the selling price, and a dishonest settlement officer that makes undisclosed disbursements from the loan proceeds. All of these conspirators collaborate to collect portions of the proceeds of an inappropriately large loan before eventually letting it go into default.

Appraisal Fraud or Price Inflation

This fraud occurs when a dishonest appraiser intentionally overstates the value of a property or when an existing appraisal is altered to reflect a higher value. When a home is overvalued, more money can be obtained by the seller in a purchase transaction or by the borrower in a cash-out refinance.

The New Appraisal Fraud: Price Deflation

When done legitimately, a short sale occurs when a borrower that owes more than his or her property is worth sells the property below market value and the lender agrees to accept the lower repayment amount and forgive the difference. A new hybrid of fraud has emerged where an appraiser or a real estate agent drastically devalues the property in an appraisal or brokers price opinion (BPO) so that the home will sell with ease at a price well below market value. Of course the new buyer is in collaboration with the seller, agent and appraiser, so all of the conspirators proceed to sell the home at a higher price for a big profit.

Identity Theft

Identity theft fraud occurs when a victims identity is assumed by another to obtain a mortgage without ever intending to make any payments on the loan. The perpetrators often abscond with a portion of the loan proceeds and sometimes are daring enough to lease the property and collect some deposits and rental income before disappearing.

The Buy and Bail

This completely new scheme is perpetrated by a home owner who cannot sell the home because more is owed on the property than its worth. Because no lender will provide the owner a loan for a second primary residence, the owner tells the lender that he or she plans to rent out the current home despite having no intention of doing so. Sometimes a falsified rental agreement is used to further support the falsehood. Once the second home is purchased, the owner bails on the original home and fails to make any further mortgage payments.

AVOIDING & PREVENTING FRAUD

Mortgage fraud frequently emanates from groups that complete an abnormal amount of similar transactions or churn out many offers to purchase at once. These outfits may appear disorganized or unprofessional due to the large amount of transactions they are attempting to manage. It is also no coincidence that mortgage fraud has significantly increased as housing values have decreased since most fraud schemes involve a financially distressed or otherwise vulnerable seller. It is equally important to remember that agents owe a very strict fiduciary duty to act in their clients best interests. So before reporting a client to your local authorities, speak with legal counsel or your state real estate licensing department to ensure that your proposed actions dont constitute a breach of your fiduciary duty to your client.

Real estate agents are in a unique position that enables them to identify and even prevent the occurrence of fraud by recognizing the red flags, asking appropriate questions, and giving the principals in their transactions the full picture of what consequences are associated with participating in mortgage fraud. While a lot of damage has been done in the real estate market, we can prevent more of the same from occurring in the future.

C A Reverse Mortgage Calculator – Clarifying Your Retirement Finance Picture

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If you are thinking of a CA reverse mortgage on your home as a means of assisting fund your golden years, you can remove some of the mystery about how much you can agreeably expect in the way of a reverse mortgage loan by making use of a reverse mortgage calculator. You can go for a reverse mortgage calculator from one of the dozens websites that are made accessible to you online. They all require you to input some data affecting your home’s judged worth, but are approximately easy to utilize and will be the speedy way you have of deciding if taking a reverse mortgage on your home will be a financially sensible and an effective move.

The AARP Reverse Mortgage Calculator :

The AARP — American Association of Retired Persons – It has an extremely Customer-friendly reverse mortgage calculator; it has a capacity to give rise to more traffic than any other type. The AARP reverse mortgage calculator needs that you supply facts on your age, the age of your spouse, your zip code, and the judged worth of your home. By inputting all these information into the reverse mortgage calculator, you will be taking the first steps to decide if you want to initiate the reverse mortgage process. The preciseness of the estimate you get will actually depend on the accuracy of the facts you give to the mortgage reverse calculator. CA reverse mortgages are a form of financing completely different from accustomed mortgages, and while the AARP reverse mortgage calculator gives an assessment which is based on the initial worth of your home, other calculators will confront for both the current worth of your home and the remaining balance on any existing mortgage you have. A cultured CA reverse mortgage calculator will be capable to determine in information like the total amount of money you would like from a reverse mortgage and the manner in which you would love to receive it–in cash, as regular monthly payments, as a line of credit, or as all three. After you have catered the requested facts and details, the calculator will necessarily run the figures and come up with a adequate good picture of what you can reasonably expect by taking out a reverse mortgage.

Limitations of CA reverse mortgage calculator that you need to understand A reverse mortgage calculator, no matter how complicated provides almost accurate amount of mortgage assessments for national reverse mortgage schemes and cannot determine in cost variables in your local area. Local mortgage lenders can add application, commencing, closing, termination amount to your reverse mortgage and some of them even will be accumulating for the time period of the loan. The amount of funds you actually get will be affected by such fees.

Today mortgages are common in the real estates and home owning procedures CA Reverse Mortgage

When Should You Refinance A Mortgage

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Do you want to refinance a mortgage? How do you decide when to refinance? Needless to say, there has been a lot of debate on it for several years. Sometimes, refinancing a mortgage at lower interest rate is not always the right decision. Doing multiple times refinancing a mortgage can minimize your overall financial benefit and eat up savings. So, it is good to put some thoughts behind the timing of the decision you take.

Goal behind Refinancing
Have you ever thought of your goal behind refinance a mortgage? If not, then lets us tell you. Generally, it has two main goals, first reducing the interest expense and second is debt consolidation. You must think what you want to accomplish, and remember one thing is that refinancing a mortgage doesnt pay off the debt.

When to Refinance
After expounding your reasons for refinancing a mortgage, you will need to consider whether the circumstances and timing create the right time to avail a new loan. Normally, you have to plan to be the home for a while for refinancing to make sense. Look at the savings relative to costs, and then consider- how long you are going to be in your property? If you are unable to take right decision, you can consult mortgage brokers who are well experienced in this area. In case of willing to know further details, mortgage marketing guru at MortgageMarketingCoach can assist you.

Refinancing Tips
Before giving you refinancing tips, you need to know who mortgage brokers are. Mortgage Brokers or mortgage broker marketing Experts are who serve as middleman between homebuyers and lenders.

Tip 1
Refinance once on your current mortgage. While no other can tell you with certainly where interest rates are going, our loan officer marketing secrets will teach you the fastest way to achieve your goals. It will also tell you how to invest your time for maximum profit.

Tip 2
Know where you stand with your current mortgage before you refinance including terms and interest rates as well as relevant factors such as whether or not the loan has a prepayment penalty. Savings always come from a lower interest expense, not lower monthly mortgage payments.

Tip 3
Consider a mortgage broker is a prudent decision. Sometimes, in order to get approved for the loan, you have to sell your story to the lender.

Tip 4
Getting the credit score in the best possible shape can help you get a better mortgage rate. You must review your credit reports, and keep copies of credit scores.

While a refinance will assist you harvest more money, it is vital to look at out for prices that eat into those savings. First, acknowledge that there is no such issue as a free lunch, and there is no such issue as a “no closing cost” mortgage. The originating lender can get paid for its efforts; it’s simply a matter of how they get paid. Closing prices may be paid in origination points, a better interest rate or a better loan amount.

Keep in mind that avoiding junk fees will keep down your closing costs and improve the return when refinancing a mortgage.

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Get Home Mortgage Loan To Buy Your New Home

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Most people find it difficult to buy their home as they are not in a financial condition to afford it. If you are looking for a new home and if you dont have enough money to make your purchase then you can apply for a home mortgage loan with which you could buy your dream home.

Home mortgages are a typical kind of home loan in which you are required to keep your home as collateral against your home mortgage loan amount. All home mortgage loans are secured kind of loan and they require security against the loan amount. Other than putting your home on mortgage, some financial lenders may also require you to provide some down payment in order to get approval for your home mortgage loan. The amount of your home mortgage loan finance is also determined by the current equity value of your home and also the amount that you provide as down payment.

Moreover, your credit history plays a vital role in determining the interest rate and the terms and conditions of your home mortgage loan. However, because of your collateral and your down payment, you will receive a larger home loan amount with a favorable interest rate.

Home mortgages may be again divided into fixed rate home mortgage loans and adjustable rate home mortgage loans. If you take a fixed rate home mortgage loan then you will have to make a fixed monthly installment until the end of your repayment. A large number of homeowners prefer this kind of mortgage loan as they get the knowledge of the amount that they are required to pay throughout the entire loan period. Moreover, it relieves them from surprises like a sudden rise in monthly installment. On the other hand, an adjustable rate home mortgage loan allows the borrower to adjust their monthly repayment according to their repaying ability. The interest rate of an adjustable rate mortgage loan keep on changing with the market trends.

Normally, an adjustable rate mortgage loan allows you to start your repayment with easy monthly installment as you can adjust the interest rate according to your convenience. However, the principal mortgage loan amount and the interest rate usually become much bigger with the completion of the loan period. This is the main reason for the rapid increase of foreclosures over the past few years.

Another type of home mortgages that you can apply is the bad credit home mortgage loans. Even if you have a poor credit record, you can still get a bad credit home mortgage loan if you own the clear title of your present home. Like other home mortgage loans, you are required to put your home as security against your bad credit home mortgage loan amount. Your bad credit mortgage loan amount depends up on the market value of your home and your repaying capacity. Before applying any of the home mortgage loans, you should fist figure out the type of home mortgage loan that will suit for financial condition. Moreover, you should consider various factors like the amount of your down payment and the means of financing the closing payments of your mortgage loan amount. You should also feel comfortable with the monthly repayment that you are going to make in order to avoid defaults on your home mortgage loan.