Home Equity Lines of Credit
Alright, you've been a homeowner for some 10 years now, and
you've decided it's time for improvement and expansion. What is
the best way to obtain the funding for home improvement
projects? A home equity line of credit is often the most
feasible and profitable way to access extra cash for home
improvement. How do you obtain home equity credit? What lenders
provide home-equity credit? And who qualifies for home-equity
created? All these questions will be answered in the following
paragraphs, and hopefully from the information below, you'll be
at a more educated consumer.
All the equity lines of credit are obtained based on the amount
of equity you have built into your column. If you had your
mortgage for over 10 years you have established a considerable
amount of equity and should be able to draw on that equity to
improve and make repairs on your home. Fixed rate mortgages or
adjustable rate mortgages provide a consumer with the greatest
opportunity for building equity in their home while paying for
their home interest-only loans, 125 loans, and balloon notes do
not help the consumer build equity over a very short time.
Quite often as we shop for mortgage products we don't stop to
think about the "down the road" needs we might experience as a
homeowner. That's why today's market of interest-only loans and
125 loans do not seem to operate in the consumer's favor. As you
make your mortgage payment each month a portion of the payment
is diverted to the interest, and the remaining amount is applied
to principal; it is through this process that we build "equity"
in our home.
Over the course of the life of the home, say 10 years from now,
we manage to outgrow our homes, we manage to overuse our homes
and we manage to create a situation that is in need of repair.
If you have a fixed rate mortgage or an adjustable rate mortgage
you have managed to build the equity in your home and you high
on the opportunity to open a home-equity line of credit,
provided you have also taken care to protect your credit rating.
The amount of equity of establishing your home and your credit
rating will determine the credit limit you receive on a
home-equity line of credit. Your lending institution, your local
bank, or for whom ever holds your mortgage will be the entity
you approach for a home-equity line of credit. So long as your
payments are up-to-date, your credit is good, and you have a
substantial amount of equity in your home you will qualify for a
home-equity loan that is comparable to an open line of credit.
You withdraw from your line of credit as necessary. If your loan
limit is say $10,000, and you need $4000 for plumbing repairs,
you simply write a check drawn on your line of credit account to
cover the expense and you would begin to pay interest on the
loan amount of $4000. Seems to be a very simple way to operate
wouldn't you say?
Many of the leading institutions think so thus they created a
home-equity line of credit; it's a benefit for the consumer and
it's a benefit for the lending institution. The consumer has a
quick way to draw on the equity in their home, and the late
institution has a great way to make a profit. So what would be
the downside of a home-equity line of credit? There doesn't seem
to be one.
The only downside we've been able to find, with that of the
consent of the purchases the interest only loan, the 125 loan,
or any of the many variations from these bases that does not
allow for the building of equity as the mortgage is paid. Quite
often the consumer does not realize the potential danger when
purchasing interest-only and 125s. But the mortgage lender does,
or should. It was for this very reason during the 1920s at the
interest only loan was shelved and taken from the market. We
seem to have forgotten the lessons learned. For the consumer a
home without equity, is a home without protection. A home
without equity is not a benefit for the consumer.