Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Taking Home Mortgage Loans

By John Bear

If you are looking to refinance your current mortgage, there are several options available for you. Homeowners refinance their mortgage for many reasons and these include eliminating private mortgage insurance, receiving cash out at closing, obtaining a fixed rate, and so forth.

Taking a new mortgage is somehow involved in home loan refinancing so you have to have the important documents to present the mortgage company. But there are also ways for you to obtain a loan with minimal documents if you want to protect your privacy.

The best way to have some privacy is getting a no doc refinance loan. However, not all lenders are the same as some are okay with granting a refinance with no documentations, there are also others that are not willing to take any chances. In getting a no doc loan, the process is quite easy; the homeowner will just have to give out their social security number and loan amount on the loan applications. Now, it is entirely up to the lender to give loan approval that is based on the credit scores. In simple terms, to have a no doc loan, your credit score should be very high.

So as not to be confused, low document home mortgage loans are different from the no document loans in several ways. First, you need to state your income and employment history in low document loans. You are also asked to submit recent paycheck stubs or income tax returns for the past two years. Second, low document loans are beneficial to contract and self-employed employees and to those who receive cash payments.

On the other hand, individuals who prefer to keep their privacy, and of course, who have good credit scores, can opt for a no document refinance loan. These individuals would not want to give out detailed information regarding their finances, income, and employment.

Traditionally, lenders do not just approve loans with little or no documentation but just by looking at a very good credit report, they reason that an applicant wouldn't just do anything bad to tarnish their perfect credit report. So they approve a no doc loan to this type of applicant.

While no doc and low doc home mortgage loans involve a speedier process, be ready to pay a higher interest rate on your home loan. If privacy and speed are main factors, a higher rate may not be a major drawback.

But if the applicant would want to refinance his home mortgage loans just to get a lower interest rate then probably, this no doc loan would not be a good option. The individual should always get a quote from a lender and have the refinance rate of the no doc loan compared with his current interest rate. - 16492