Ilyce

The Obama administration has in place at least two plans to help homeowners. One plan helps homeowners refinance their homes even if their homes have decreased in value. The other plan helps homeowners obtain loan modifications from their lenders particularly if they have a financial hardship. Can either of these plans help you. The Home Affordable Refinance Program is there to help you refinance a loan. The Home Affordable Modification Program is there to help you modify the existing terms of your loan.

Back in the booming real estate market days, lenders might not have required much documentation from borrowers. But with the change in the real estate market and dropping real estate values, lenders will look at every piece of paper. A loan application will seem like it takes forever and the lender with require more and more documentation. Some people are complaining that the loan application process is taking too long and that lenders have gone way to far in reviewing files. But in this market and from the real estate market we came from, is that bad? One important piece of documentation the lender will require will be copies of filed tax returns for the last two years. In addition, the lender will require you to sign a tax form allowing the lender to actually get a transcript of your tax return from the IRS.

With an Option ARM, you could have an adjustable rate loan, get a low interest rate and even pick your own payment amount. If you picked a low payment, you would be increasing the amount you owed the lender. The low payment would not have been enough to actually paid what was owed on the loan. After several years of making a low payment, the payment resets to a much higher amount. But with an increased balance on the loan, the option ARM becomes a real problem for the homeowner and the bank. With dropping home prices, the borrower can't refinance and is probably underwater in his or her loan. When the loan comes due or in some cases before that, the borrower might walk away from the property. With thousands of option ARMs coming due the next several years, the banks have real problems in the horizon.

Ilyce Glink Show Notes: February 14, 2010 - Last Weekend for Investing Event Discount and Tax Show. Happy Valentines Day. This is our last weekend for the 50 percent discount on our How to Invest Your Money in 2010 event, at the Gwinnett Center, in Duluth, GA. The price for tickets goes up on Tuesday at midnight, so be sure to sign up now. Today, we're talking about the economy, the stock market and the increasing number of delinquent mortgages. In the second hour of the show we will answer your tax questions. CPAs Sheldon Donner and Kathie Gottlieb will be by to answer your tax questions. Taylor Bean and Whitaker Mortgage company update. Visit Ilyce's blog fore more show notes

Ilyce Glink Show Notes: February 14, 2010 - Last Weekend for Investing Event Discount and Tax Show. Happy Valentines Day. This is our last weekend for the 50 percent discount on our How to Invest Your Money in 2010 event, at the Gwinnett Center, in Duluth, GA. The price for tickets goes up on Tuesday at midnight, so be sure to sign up now. Today, we're talking about the economy, the stock market and the increasing number of delinquent mortgages. In the second hour of the show we will answer your tax questions. CPAs Sheldon Donner and Kathie Gottlieb will be by to answer your tax questions. Taylor Bean and Whitaker Mortgage company update.

Buy, Close, Move In.
This is Ilyce Glink's latest book. It will be available beginning April, 2010. The book looks at the way real estate used to be, and how the credit crisis, housing crisis and pervasive mortgage fraud have created a brave new world of real estate. In her latest book, she gives her real estate advice as to how to deal with the current real estate market.

If you are buying a home to live in or if you are buying investment real estate, this book walks you through what you need to know now in order to safely and profitably navigate the new world of real estate.

The book is available for purchase from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders and all major bookstores and book websites. Ilyce is the author of more than a dozen books including the best seller "100 Questions Every First Time Home Buyer Should Ask."

If you are planning on buying a home in foreclosure, you may need to work a bit harder than if you were buying any other home. While some real estate owned properties (REO) -- those properties that have already been foreclosed and are owned by a bank -- hit the real estate market with a real estate broker, some REO properties by be sold through companies that specialize in bank owned properties. Many of these homes, if not most, will be listed in a real estate multiple listing service. But before the property gets to the listing service, a savvy home buyer might be able to talk to the bank and buy the property before it's listed.

We always say that you should make sure that you obtain a title insurance policy when you purchase a home. That protection is usually quite valuable. However, if you do not use a real estate attorney and think you are buying one thing when you actually are buying another, you may be out of luck. When you are purchasing the most expensive thing in your life, you should probably hire a real estate attorney. And if you are not going to hire a real estate attorney, you should make sure you have a pretty good understanding of what you are buying before signing on the dotted line.

Buying a home is hard enough. Owning a home is even tougher. But sharing your ownership interest in your home and adding the name of a friend to the title to the home should be done only after careful consideration. You must consider whether you are just friends, will be married, possible breakups and other life changing issues. Once you have thought about these issues, you can proceed to decide how you should hold title to your real estate and whether to include a friend or not.

2010 is finally here and the repeal of the estate tax has come.

But will it go away?

Ten years ago, the slow process of repealing the estate tax started. Due to budget issues, Congress decided to only pass a law that would last ten years. The last of those ten years would eliminate the estate tax completely. Now people are trying to plan their estates and they don't know what Congress will do now.