Learn tips for investing in real estate. Is it the right time to buy a rental property? Can you get rich off of real estate? Learn the real facts from an experienced mortgage broker.

Rising foreclosure rates are making headlines across the country. In this article, learn how foreclosures work, what role subprime lenders are playing and what it means for the mortgage industry.

To what degree was the current credit crisis and subprime mortgage mess caused by a lack of awareness? Awareness in the mortgage industry or awareness with borrowers?

The subprime mortgage business has boomed over the last few years. But is it sustainable? In this article, we explore how the suprime industry has grown and what has happened to some of its biggest players.

Credit.com's resident mortgage expert shares his insight on how a good mortgage broker could help save you thousands on your mortgage loan. An experienced mortgage broker will know things that can help you, things that a bank's employee doesn't know - you just have to find a good one.

There is a potential train wreck on the financial horizon, one that's not on many people's radar. It's the date when homeowners who have ARM's, Adjustable Rate Mortgages of one kind or another, are going to face payment shock. Learn what could happen and what you can do.

Credit.com's resident mortgage broker shares his opinions about finding good real estate professionals and developing an effective business relationship.

Mortgage foreclosure rates are on the rise. What does this mean for the lending industry, the real estate market and individual borrowers? This article shows you the truth about foreclosure from the perspective of a mortgage broker.

In this two part series, our mortgage expert explains why waiting for real estate prices to hit the bottom may cause you to miss out on some of the greatest buying opportunities in years.

In the conclusion of this two part series, our mortgage guru takes a look at why trying to judge interest rates is risky business. With interest rates at historical lows, now would be the best time to lock in your rate.

Low-cost real estate programs and for-sale-by-owner services promise dramatic savings over working with a professional. But is it really worth it to go it alone? Our mortgage expert explains why getting real estate help can be valuable.

How much do you know about real estate and mortgages? Not being educated could end up costing you thousands. Credit.com's mortgage expert, Randy Johnson, is here to help you learn about the mortgage business.

A few months ago, I wrote in an article entitled "Expanding Homeownership: What Went Wrong." Going forward, we need to look not at only what went wrong, but how to improve homeownership opportunities. How does the marginally qualified borrower get a mortgage? The keys are simple and have been well-known for generations.

If there has been a common theme across the political landscape during the past thirty years, it is that of expanding homeownership. You hear it at Congressional committee meetings; it has been mentioned as an objective in the annual reports of virtually every agency in the federal government agency connected with housing; and it has been incorporated in specific language in virtually every law that has anything to do with housing.

How is the current mortgage crisis causing havoc for mortgage lenders? Our expert mortgage broker talks about how fear, greed, commercialization and finger pointing are changing the real estate lending landscape.

Mortgage underwriting has gone through big similar transformations. In the olden days, a human underwriter would look at a credit report and if there were derogatory items, the borrower would have also submitted a letter of explanation. The underwriter could evaluate the letter to help ascertain if the borrower was a flake or not. The human underwriter has been replaced by a computer, and software programs called Automated Underwriting were developed and implemented by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Find out how these changes affect you as a potential or future homebuyer.

Tips for selling your home in a slow real estate market. A licensed mortgage broker explains how and when to use owner financing, down payment grants and discount points.

Working with a trusted real estate agent is a key part of the homebuying process. A good realtor can help you find the home of your dreams.

Mortgage experts have been warning homebuyers of Option ARMs for several years now, yet they continue to be very popular. Maybe it's like warning people about the unhealthy food. Learn more about the forbidden fruit of the real estate world.

Stop shopping for a mortgage as if it were a thing. Start shopping for someone who can provide a service. The service is to HELP you get the best mortgage for your family.

There is a difference between the way the political folks in Congress think the world works and what really happens where the rubber meets the road. In this case, I am talking about programs instituted under various plans designed to help the housing market recover.

What does "home equity" really mean? How can you build it in your home and how can you make the most of it? Our mortgage guru, Randy Johnson, has the answers to all your home equity questions.

Fannie Mae has just announced a new rule that is important to anyone who owns a condominium, townhome, or a unit in a Planned Unit Development (PUD). In the case of a single family detached residence, your basic insurance policy covers everything, but that's not true in the case of a condos and similar properties.

We have gotten used to the idea of a FICO scoring system in credit evaluation. It is the standard model that is widely used throughout the industry. But it is 100% directed to the evaluation of the individual consumer?s credit. How about a scoring system that borrowers could use in evaluating potential lenders?

We have gotten used to the idea of a FICO scoring system in credit evaluation. It is the standard model that is widely used throughout the industry. But it is 100% directed to the evaluation of the individual consumer?s credit. How about a scoring system that borrowers could use in evaluating potential lenders?

If you are worried about being able to keep up on your house payments and close to foreclosure, you must act quickly. The longer you wait, the greater the chances are that you could lose your home, and the more expensive your options become. In this article, our real estate expert shows you how to save your home.

The entire credit system of the country is founded upon the basic principal that people are honorable, and that they will pay their debts. However, too often creditworthy folks, who actually have the capacity to make their payments, are walking away from their promise.

Home prices have fallen and it's an excellent time to buy a home. But before you take that first step, our mortgage expert suggests that you consider these important factors.

Randy Johnson has over 25 years of experience in the mortgage business. He has literally written the book on buying a home and he's ready to share his expertise with you!

APR? FRM? Balloon-loan? It's easy to get overwhelmed by jargon while shopping for a loan. Credit.com explains the most commonly used terms and how they apply to you.

Making Home Affordable is a key program in President Obama's effort to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. There are two programs offered: the Making Home Affordable Refinancing Program helps homeowners refinance into fixed rate loans, while the Home Affordable Modification Program encourages lenders to modify mortgages so homeowners will have lower monthly payments based on their incomes.

A generation ago, home equity loans were often made by shady characters to the financially distressed. Today, second mortgages are a legitimate financial tool that can be of benefit to homeowners. Learn home equity do's and don'ts.

Most people take advantage of a drop in interest rates to refinance, but it is also an opportunity to build more equity. Refinancing is the powerful right that you (the borrower) have to terminate the loan contract by repaying the loan whenever you wish. Learn more about refinancing from our mortgage industry insider.

We now know that many people and many companies in the mortgage industry have engaged in deceptive practices that defrauded millions of customers. How are consumers burned by these scams responding?

It's not surprising that most people think that financing a home is both a business decision and the assumption of a moral obligation. Indeed, the entire credit market is based upon the assumption that borrowers will repay their obligations.Yet some people argue that it's not immoral to walk away from an under water home.

Potential homebuyers could be charged increased fees for credit reports ordered during the mortgage underwriting process. Read more about how this "secondary-use" of credit scores could impact your next visit to the loan desk.

Mortgage fraud is more common than you would think. From borrowers lying on their applications to the behavior of unscrupulous lenders, learn more about what common types of mortgage fraud exist and how you protect yourself.

Many commonly accepted beliefs about mortgages are actually myths. In this article, a mortgage expert uncovers the truth and shows you how to get the best deal on a home loan.

The objective of refinancing your home mortgage is to reduce your monthly payments, right? Wrong! In this article, our mortgage expert shows you how to get refinancing right.

Pre-payment penalties make it expensive for consumers to refinance their mortgages and make lenders millions. This article reveals the prevalence of pre-payment penalties and shows you how to avoid them.

Like it or not, we have a mortgage market that is controlled by the federal government. FHA and VA are both government programs. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are controlled by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and owned by you and me. These entities control about 90 percent of mortgages being offered today.

Refinancing your existing home mortgage can save you a lot of money if done correctly. This worksheet from our loan experts will help you figure out if now is the right time to refinance your loan.

Credit.com's mortgage expert dissects the current problems with the mortgage industry. Learn about the credit crunch and what it might mean for you.

The conclusion to our mortgage expert's analysis of the mortgage and credit industry crisis. Will our current mortgage problems lead to a pandemic of financial issues for America?

The savings rate in the United States has had a terrible history for the last ten or twenty years. Read on for some alternative savings plans that may help you in the New Year.

The savings rate in the United States has had a terrible history for the last ten or twenty years. Read on for some alternative savings plans that may help you in the New Year.

I don't know if "outsourcee" is a legitimate word or not. What I am trying to describe is the fact that someone else has outsourced a service to me. In this case, back in the 1980s the savings and loan (S&L) associations that dominated the mortgage marketplace found it expensive to add bricks and mortar offices and loan officers when business grew. They also found that it was difficult to cut back when the inevitable downturn came along.

California was once dubbed the land of "hot tubs and alfalfa spouts." In real estate, California owns most of the records for high appreciation rates and lack of affordability. California's state income is high, but the cost of the housing is even higher.

The rules and amount vary widely from state to state, but everyone pays property taxes. In fact, this is usually the main source of local government funding and is generally based upon the home's value. How these taxes get paid is often a source of confusion to homeowners, particularly first-time homebuyers.

Recently there have been sweeping changes at the heart of the mortgage lending process. The first is the Good Faith Estimate of Closing Costs (GFE) that is supposed to be given to borrowers within three days of their applying for a mortgage loan. The second form is the HUD-1Closing statement that is given to borrowers to borrowers twice, an estimated HUD-1 just before and/or while they are signing their loan documents and a Final HUD-1 after the transaction closed. Read on for details about these changes.

If you have read the newspapers for the last two years, you have probably concluded that the mortgage industry needed much more regulation. After all, it was the mortgage industry and all the toxic loans it spawned that were the proximate causes of the great financial mess we are in right now. The industry has had several more layers of regulation laid on it recently, and a bunch more is in the pipeline depending on what Congress does with the bill that is now circulating.

Consumers may be at risk for voluntarily destroying their credit histories in order to qualify for the Bush administration's new APR freeze program. Under the plan, consumers must have a credit score under 660 to receive a 5 year freeze of their mortgage rates. However, damaging your score to qualify can lead to some unexpected consequences.

If you are struggling to sell your home, should you consider turning it into a rental property instead? Our mortgage industry insider shows you the pros and cons of becoming a landlord. Read about selling and renting.

Predatory mortgage loans and refinances cost American homeowners over $9.1 billion a year. Learn how to spot the signs of abusive lending and how to protect yourself from scams in this important article.

Where were the regulators during the recent subprime mortgage boom? Deciphering what has happened to the subprime lending industry and what warning signs were missed.

It used to be that the requirements for being a homeowner were that you had to have a job, good credit, and a down payment. First-time homebuyers concentrated on these three aspects of the process because it took a long time. Just because it is easier today, however, doesn't mean that you shouldn't devote energy to preparation.

The Federal Housing Administration was created in the dark years of the Great Depression to help bring financial stability to a battered housing market. Remember that the unemployment rate was 25 percent back then. So what is the future of FHA today?

For over a year now, the Federal Reserve system has been buying mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This has almost certainly been a factor in keeping mortgage rates low and keeping the housing market on the road to recovery. The Fed has always had a deadline of stopping those purchases at the end of the current quarter, on March 31st. The big question is whether the private sector is going to step up to the plate and start providing the funding. If they do, the question is, "At what rate?" Let's see what the economists have to say.

Months ago, Congress authorized FannieMae and FreddieMac to offer home loans larger than the normal loan limit of $417,000. There have been big changes to big mortgage loans lately. Get the details from our mortgage expert.

It seems as if the government cannot do anything simple. It tries, like the euphemistically named "Paperwork Reduction Act." The latest entry in paperwork reduction is the new Good Faith Estimate that borrowers get when applying for a mortgage. The new 3-page form replaces the 1-page form that has been used for decades. Read on for some of the good things in store for consumers in this regard.

Is your mortgage broker lying about rates and fees? Find out how to get an honest answer from mortgage professionals and what to expect when shopping for rates.

If you think dismantling bombs for an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) group is a scary profession, I found one that's even more dangerous: Predicting the future. The difference is that with EOD you aren't allowed any mistakes. When predicting the future, almost no one ever gets it right.

Before you apply for a mortgage, there are three key things you can do to lower your rates and get a better deal. Reducing your mortgage rate by just one percent can save you thousands!

Unless you have to have been on sabbatical in Mongolia, you know that mortgage loan underwriting has been tightened since the great financial debacle a year ago. The government has placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a conservatorship and no one knows how or if ever those two entities will ever return to being public companies again.

Have you heard the terms "default" and "foreclosure" in the news recently? These are two more words along with "bubble" and "soft landings" that are going to get a lot of press over the next few years. It might be helpful to understand more about them because they represent both pain and opportunity. Read more about what mortgage defaults mean to you.

An equity line, or HELOC as it is commonly known, is a line of credit secured by a lien on your home. As with commercial lines of credit, you are allowed to draw on your line at any time just by writing a check. Learn about using HELOCs and what dangers to avoid.

Predicting real estate market trends might seem simple given that every day you we see articles in the paper about what is happening to housing values. Unfortunately, there's no easy answer to this question. In this article we show you what real estate numbers really mean.

If you read the financial section of the newspaper you will see a reference to "yield curve" all the time. What does that mean to you? Is it important? How does it affect your decision-making? These are actually important issues for homeowners and you should know more about this. Read more about yield curve today.

The most dangerous profession in the world is trying to predict the future. Experts don't seem to be able to do it, yet ordinary people sometimes think they can forecast interest rates. In this series of articles, our mortgage guru talks about the impact of fed rate changes on mortgage rates.

In this section, we'll look at the connection between bond yields and the Federal Discount Rate and how this connection impacts mortgage rates.

If mortgage rates are NOT correlated with the Discount Rate that is set by the Fed, what does cause them to change? In this final section, we're going to look at what mortgage rates are really tied to.

The objective of all mortgage shoppers is to get the best deal they can get, regardless of what shopping method they use. The question is: "What method results in the lowest overall costs for borrowers over the long term?"