If you’re interested in getting a mortgage that you can feel good about, you may want to consider what HARP has to offer. A HARP mortgage is designed to help buyers who purchased their homes at the height of the market and then saw financial and property value devastation when the housing bubble burst. For some people, it destroyed their credit and they lost their houses. For others, they are getting by but it’s not easy, and they need a realistic refinance program that can stop foreclosure and help keep them in their home. That’s what HARP is designed to do, but it can also save you a lot of money along with helping you save your home. That’s well worth focusing on, because it’s an important part of the value of the HARP program. It’s truly about making your home affordable again through refinancing, and the cost savings can be significant.
1) Can you get a lower interest rate?
One of the things HARP may help with is your interest rate. These rates are much, much lower than they were before, and if you purchased your home when the rates were high than you’re very likely looking for a way to reduce that rate of interest. Depending on the size of your mortgage, that could potentially drop your payment by hundreds of dollars each month. For more modestly priced homes, the drastic change in interest rate may not amount to hundreds, but it will still be quite significant. By working through the HARP program to get a better rate of interest. you can have an opportunity to see your home become affordable to you, and have a payment and a mortgage amount that more closely matches with the current value of that home. You can save tens of thousands of dollars over the life of your loan by reducing your interest rate.
2) How much will your mortgage payment change?
When you’re getting a mortgage, the most important part is often how much your payment will be. You want to make sure you can make your payment each month without hardship. Unfortunately, the payments that many people had with their original loans were nearly beyond their means in the first place, and then there were so many job losses and other problems on top of that, people ended up not knowing what they could do. They got behind on their payments. With the HARP mortgage, your payment will be lower. That can save you a lot of money each month, along with saving you even more over time. You’ll be caught up, and will have a payment going forward that you can make realistically based on your budget and the current value of your home.
3) Will the amount you owe be reduced?
In some cases, there’s a change to more than just the interest rate. Some homeowners see the actual balance of their loan adjusted, so they don’t owe as much on their house as they used to. There may be tax implications for forgiven debt, but this can be different when completed as a refinance. If you have concerns about that aspect of HARP you should talk to a tax advisor and make sure you get your questions answered. For most people, though, getting their balance reduced makes a significant difference in how they feel about their house, their mortgage, and their entire financial situation. Talking to your lender about a HARP refinance and a reduce loan amount can be the first step toward getting the help that you need to keep your home and have a reasonable mortgage.
4) Does a lower payment make paying other bills easier?
While you’re saving money on your mortgage, you can pay other bills more easily. That will save you money because you won’t have as many late fees and other problems. Anytime you pay a bill late and have to pay extra because of that, you end up with additional charges that cost you money. After a while it can become overwhelming and hard to keep up with, which is something you really want to avoid. When you have a lower mortgage payment, you’ll be able to cover your other bills more easily, so you can get caught up on your late fees and avoid them in the future. Then you won’t be spending that extra money every month, either.
5) Will you see a reduction in fees and other charges?
A HARP mortgage can mean a lower rate of interest and a mortgage payment that you can make without hardship. It can also mean that late fees and other charges that have built up on your mortgage may be forgiven. Be sure to ask about that, because getting rid of those extra fees can give you essentially a clean slate to work with. That’s a great way to get a fresh start, and get back to enjoying the home you love. Being able to pay for it properly will take a lot of the burden away, giving you the opportunity to begin moving forward.
2 Point Highlight
If you’re interested in getting a mortgage that you can feel good about, you may want to consider what HARP has to offer.
A HARP mortgage can mean a lower rate of interest and a mortgage payment that you can make without hardship.
