How To Use Equity to Your Advantage

Once you have purchased a home and are making monthly payments, you are in the process of building equity. The opportunity to use the equity you have built up in your home is one of the benefits of homeownership.

The equity you have built up can be used for many purposes on your advantage. Many people will use this equity to draw out cash by refinancing their house; the cash may be use to finance other major purchases such as second mortgage, making major improvement to your property or to fund their children educational expenses.

If you are in bad debt situation, your equity can be the hero in saving you from bankruptcy. You can pledge your equity to apply for a home equity loan which will allow you to borrow a relatively large amount of money to consolidate your debts. As compare to other personal or unsecured loan, a home equity loan is easier to get approve even you are in a bad debts situation; lenders may be more liberal because they view home equity loan as relatively safe. You can't disappear with your house or hide it if you default on your loan, so the lender has a good chance of collecting the collateral.

Besides using your equity for bad debt consolidation, you may use it for other high-interest rates debt consolidation. One of the advantages of home equity loans are they typically have lower interest. And you could you this advantage to consolidate all your high-interest monthly payments into a single loan which had a considerably lower interest rate.

Typically you are allowed to refinance up to 75%, (sometimes 80%), of the value of the property on conforming loans whereas on jumbo loans you are limited to 70% of the property's value. For example, if your home is now valued at $150,000 and your loan balance is $70,000, you might be able to get a new $150,000 x 75% = 112,500 mortgage. That would allow you to repay the existing $70,000 balance and use the $42,500 for your financial needs.

Another possibility to use the equity to your advantage is home equity lines. Many lenders offers home equity lines for homeowners and allow them to draw cash advances with their credit card or write checks up to certain credit limit.

Before using a home equity loan or home equity credit line for any purpose, you should be aware of the pitfalls of these loans. The main thing is that you can lose your home if you fail to meet the payment schedule required by the loan. Therefore you need to consider it carefully before do a cash-out with your equity.

By: Cornie Herring

How to Quickly Sell Real Estate without Denting Your Pockets

People sell homes for lots of reason: Sometimes homeowners are concerned about the rates in their neighborhood; sometimes they find a better home for sale somewhere else, and sometimes work-related transfers force people out of their houses. In most and usual cases, people ask the help of a real estate agent to sell homes the fast and effective way.

Having a real estate agent though has disadvantages. When you sell homes through real estate agents, they're inclined to take a commission out of your sale. This in and of itself can be very irritating if your home is not that large or expensive to begin with.

However, more and more people are discovering that they can sell homes on their own, without the need of a commission-charging real estate agent and this is through private sales in the Internet. Through free real estate listings, home sellers and homebuyers can transact between themselves and get more value for their money that otherwise would have gone to a real estate agent. With so many free real estate listings on the Internet, it's no wonder homes for sale is on a healthy boom.

Also, some real estate agents do very little beyond putting a sign on your lawn to advertise your home for sale. For that, you could have just sold it yourself. Of course, there are additional reasons why selling your home yourself may just be the right move for you and your family. Here are the top 5 reasons to sell your home yourself:

When you sell home on your own, without the help of a real estate agent, you won't have to pay commissions.

Selling your home on your own gives you more control over the process. You are not forced to deal with many of the overhead hassles that agents may put you through.

Control: you get to decide how much to sell your home for and when to close a deal.

Costs. When you sell home, you are going to have to pay a certain amount of money in getting things rolling, such as transfer costs, mortgage payments, home construction, etc. You will save on doing much of these on your own, as opposed to relying on a real estate agent, since there will always be extra fees when for their services.

Convenience. Selling your home on your own is a great deal more convenient because you are in charge of what happens at all times. From your open house to your home improvements, nothing will get done without your say-so. For homeowners who like feeling in control of situations, private home for sale without the meddling of a real estate agent is a no-brainer.

By: b. thorp

Real Estate Tax Breaks for Your Home

It is always beneficial during tax season to own real estate, which gives you many annual deductions. If you purchased residential real estate during this year, however, you can look forward to even more generous savings at tax time.

Mortgage Interest
Though there are several real estate deductions you will be able to take this tax year, the largest is the interest you paid on your mortgage. According to Kiplinger’s (August 31, 2006), you may write off up to $1 million in mortgage interest for your primary or secondary home (does not apply to third home real estate, unless it is a business or rental property). This can be an enormous tax savings, especially within the first years of ownership with most of your monthly payments going to interest.

Property Taxes
Each year, you may deduct the property taxes you paid. If you recently purchased your home real estate, you also may deduct any taxes the seller paid in advance that were applied to your property tax debt. This applies even if you did not reimburse the seller for these real estate taxes.

Points Paid for Mortgage
Even if the seller paid your points, you may deduct them on your tax return within the year of purchase of the real estate. Each point is worth one percent of the real estate mortgage. For a loan principal of $250,000, you may deduct $2,500 for each point. For a loan face value of $500,000, you may deduct $5,000 per point.

If you refinanced your real estate, you also may deduct these points paid. However, the deduction must be spread over the life of the loan. If you sell the real estate or pay off the loan early, then the remaining deduction may be taken within the year of sale or loan payoff.

Home Equity Debt
You are allowed to deduct up to $100,000 of home equity debt each year, regardless for what you used the money. This makes home equity loans low-interest alternatives for purchasing cars, paying student tuition, underwriting your dream vacation, and so on.

Home Business Use Deductions
If you run a business out of your home or use the real estate for business purposes, such as rental property, you have many deductions for the use of this space. For home offices, the percentage of space you actually use may incur the same percentage in deductions for mortgage payments, utilities and home insurance. Improvements made to accommodate the business, such as bringing the real estate up to standard as rental property or installing a private bathroom when renting out a room, may qualify for a deduction against your profits.

Property Damage
If you incurred uninsured real estate damage due to a qualifying disaster (especially within a presidential declared disaster area), you may qualify for a tax deduction. There are limitations, however, and the deduction generally must be taken within the year the disaster occurred.

What You Cannot Deduct
If you recently purchased or sold real estate, you incurred many costs but not all may be deducted from your taxes. Examples of nondeductible expenses are closing costs, major home improvements to attain a higher sales price, title insurance, appraisal and inspection fees, or attorney fees.

Don’t forget, deductions that lower your federal tax debt also decrease your state tax obligation! As with all financial advice, always check with a qualified accounting professional.

By: John Harris