Many fees are involved in paying off a mortgage. To pay off a mortgage, a homeowner needs to contact his or her lender and request a payoff letter, for which lenders often charge a processing fee. In addition to this processing fee mortgage lenders also charge a fee to fax the payoff letter to you.
When you're a real estate investor you may decide you want to create a limited liability company to hold your real estate assets and to protect you. When you use an LLC to hold your properties, you're limited in what kind of mortgage lender you can work with to get a mortgage. Mortgage lenders have to specialize in either residential or commercial real estate loans.
A couple asks if they should tear down their ranch house while they still have a mortgage. They say many of their neighbors tear down their houses so their street has many new brick homes. They think they can rebuild and increase their home value by several hundred thousand. To determine is it's worth rebuilding, they need to estimate all those costs associated with rebuilding, including construction and alternative living arrangements.
A homeowner owns her home with a friend who wants to move on and take the equity in the home, but the other isn't ready to leave. If the friend wants to buy her interest in the home, she could take out a home equity loan. A real estate attorney can help the two friends work out a deal that could work for them both.
