New rules impacting home appraisals have resulted in some homeowners feeling they are not receiving fair valuations of their homes. To assist appraisers who may not be familiar with the neighborhood, homeowners may wish to provide a typed list of the home’s and neighborhood’s best attributes. Key items to note on the list include: Recent upgrades or improvements to the house, such as custom woodwork or new windows; perks of the property, like striking mountain views or mature landscaping; and the benefits of living near public transportation or access to top schools.
Homeowners not wanting to refinance into a new 30-year loan, and intending to pay off their mortgage loan early, should consider making biweekly payments rather than monthly mortgage payments. Sending in half the monthly payment every two weeks instead of once a month will cancel out years of mortgage payments later on because it speeds up paying off the principal. A homeowner who makes biweekly payments on a $500,000, 30-year, fixed-rate loan with a 6.5 percent interest rate would shorten the loan by five years and pay $150,000 less in interest over the life of the loan.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, anyone who deliberately makes any misrepresentation or omission during the mortgage-lending process with the intent of influencing that process will be guilty of mortgage fraud under California law. A violation of this law is a crime punishable by one-year imprisonment. Under existing federal law, loan fraud against a federally-insured lender is a crime punishable by a $1 million fine, plus one-year imprisonment.
When discussing appraisals and how consumers are viewing them as unfair i am assuming that you are talking about HVCC. And how that legislation has given a huge amount of power of the appraisal process to banks. In fact since the implementation of HVCC here in Houston we have seen a huge jump in the price charged to home buyers for having an appraisal. If the new way of doing things was better and the higher fee encourage better appraisers to take part in the market I would not have a complaint, but this is surely not the case as we now have appraisers that do not know the market they are providing a report for. Add to this we have more less experienced appraisers doing these appraisals because of the reduced money that the appraiser is receiving for completing an appraisal. The difference between the higher fee and the reduced amount appraisers are getting for their work is being pocketed by the banks. This is a terrible disservice to the consumer. I for one am not OK with the program in the way it is now being operated.
This tips are good. Thanks for sharing! very informative. keep it up!