Now may be the time to refinance. If you have a great credit score, you will have the ability to obtain the best and lowest refinance rates out there, but you may need equity in your home to refinance. Q: I purchased a house in March and got a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage 4.85 percent. I put [...]
Loan Modification Hell starts with the signing of the trial loan modification papers with a lender. Q: I just began a loan modification trial period in September for a period of 4 months with a major bank. I am a rule follower, a teacher, and a single mom. I have never been late on a [...]
You need money for your closing and the closing costs and you usually have to send that money to the closing via a bank wire transfer. Q: I am buying my first home and I’m wondering how I actually pay my down payment at the closing. The real estate agent asked me for a small [...]
Finding a good mortgage lender can be time consuming, but it shouldn't be too difficult. Q: I heard your radio show this past weekend on refinancing. It sounds like you got a really good interest rate. My problem is that I don’t know how to find a good mortgage lender. There are so many ads [...]
When I was touring South Africa as a recent high school graduate in the summer of 1996, a strange pattern caught me by surprise. In more than a few instances, when I informed a stranger that I hailed from the city of Chicago, Illinois, their first question was: "Are there still gangsters?" The [...]
Occupy Wall Street: What Consumers Are Angry About. Ilyce discussed this topic along with other questions from callers, providing personal finance advice, real estate advice and consumer advice on the Ilyce Glink Show October 16, 2011 on WSB Radio. As the Occupy Wall Street movement marks its sixth official week, many who have not followed [...]
I was in New York this past week attending the mid-year Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) conference at CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism building (which happens to be next door to Parson's School of Design and the gorgeous New York Times building). A big topic of conversation at the conference was the [...]
I recently joined the advisory board for a new company called eCredable. This company reports credit accounts under the same federal and state guidelines as the national credit bureaus, but the consumer is the one that is in charge of the report. The consumer is the one that selects the accounts that will go into the report [...]
This head-turning image does not represent a really unique and expensive child's playhouse. While the striking structure looks like two playful eyes rising out of a hill, the property is actually someone's dwelling - a grass dome home. And it can be yours for $1.2 million. The grass dome home was constructed in Atlantic Beach, [...]
What would be better, the withdrawal of 401k funds or to obtain an home equity loan to pay for wedding expenses? Q: I am 57 and my husband is 62. We would like to borrow $25,000 to help pay for a wedding for our daughter. We purchased a townhome in 2004 for $230,000 at an [...]
